New Eden Withdrawal Symptoms

I've been in Afghan for two months now with another four to push. It's going fairly quickly but there are things in life that I miss; my fiancée, proper showers, decent food, and New Eden.

We have fairly good WiFi out there and in my downtime I've pretty much been scouring the Eve-O forums, Tusker forums and reading the usual blogs and whenever the router throws a fit I load up Pyfa and make all sorts of fits. Eve is the only MMO I play and apart from putting a few hours into the latest single-player RPG the only other game I play religiously is Battlefield 3 (soon to be 4 - roll on October!).

It was great to be able to keep up with fanfest and a lot of the content shown was awesome. I think I'm going to have a shock to the system when I get home in Autumn and find that the game has changed in many ways. Gate-fires look amazing, the new scanning system looks amazing and all of the other tweaks CCP are making look great. They really are focussing on Internet Space Ships which no one can find fault with.

Having spent a lot of time Pyfa-warrioring there are a lot of ships and fits I'm eager to try out when I finally undock in Hevrice again. I'm able to keep my skill queue going at the moment so Cable is going to have 6 months worth of unused skills at his disposal and a lot more ships opened up to him. I'm looking forward to getting back into my tried-and-tested Vengeance fit as it's a joy to fly and I've only ever really lost them to complete derps, like engaging Hawks under sentry guns or by getting blobbed.

My drone skills will have come a long way by the time I return so I plan on buying a few Myrm hulls to take out and do some solo pvp with. The dual-rep fit is well-known for being very hardy in PvP but there is a pretty solid 1100dps gank fit I'm eager to use.

I've also come up with an 105k EHP bait fit for the Gnosis which I hope to put to good use. With HG Slaves you get a whopping 150k EHP and seeing as everyone wants a Gnosis kill I think it could be used to get some good ganks.

I'm also looking at getting into Recons too. The Pilgrim looks like a fragile but very fun ship to fly. I remember warping into a FW plex a few months ago and having one uncloak on me. Fortunately another Tusker was in system and we succeeded in driving it away, though the kill would have been sweeter.

All in all, I'm looking forward to logging back in and getting my yarr on.

You Can Always Bet On Stupid

I've just submitted an anecdote of mine as a True Story for the competition that CCP are currently running. It goes back to August 2011, when I was still a kitten in the galaxy I've come to cherish.

Prior to becoming a Tusker but after my stint in RvB I was sort of at a loss of what to do. I knew I wanted to get into PvP in a big way but was still dipping my toes into the various aspects of Eve Online.

I would retell the tale here, and in fact I might do at some point as the True Stories format isn't really the way that I would go about setting the scene but I'll let you guys have a read about the storm I whipped up in a carebear corp before I settled down in lowsec for good.

You Can Always Bet On Stupid - A True Story by Cable Udan

Fly reckless o7

- Cable

Summer Sun!

"Immortals are never alien to one another."
- Homer, The Odyssey

I've found myself with a fair amount of free time recently and even though I can't actually play Eve I've been following the fanfest and reading the forums a lot in recent days. Doing so has lead to great withdrawal symptoms and I'm itching to get my yarr on. Unfortunately I won't be back in the UK until mid-September now which sucks a lot so I'll be whiling away my time making shit fits in Pyfa and perusing the forums.

I'm very much looking forward to the Odyssey, the summer expansion even though I'll be late to the party. The "new" scanner looks incredible, as do the revamped warp visuals; Eve is just getting more and more beautiful. On a side-note, if you haven't already done so post in this thread about CCP implementing high-res textures. They've allegedly said they'll do it if they garner enough want for it. And I do want!

Navy Battlecruisers seem pretty cool as well. My only bug bear is that the Fleet Issue Hurricane seems just like it's pre-nerf but with some more EHP. That sucks considering the additional price tag it will undoubtedly have. I just feel that the other Navy BCs have significant stat increases than the FI Cane, though that's probably down to my bias towards Winmatar.

The addition I'm looking forward to the most though is the Tags4Sec system. I think this will revitalize what many (and oft-time myself) think is a dying lowsec. No more will I have to trawl through FW plexes hoping that the Incursus inside isn't a stabbed farmer but instead can go back to belt pvp, best pvp! It'll be great to prey on carebears ratting to make moniez selling the tags and other pirates wanting the tags for themselves. I've been -10 or close enough for ages now and even though I don't feel restricted in my playstyle I'm very much looking forward to getting my sec up so I can antagonise carebears in highsec.

Odyssey is shaping up to be an excellent expansion.

As always, fly reckless o7

- Cable

Hiatus

First of all apologies that this post has come late. I had set it up so that it would be auto-posted at the end of March but it looks like it didn't happen. Cursed technology!

Anyway, my posts here have/will stop until sometime in October. I'm currently in Afghanistan playing in the sand and generally asshatting around. Due to this I don't have the time/energy/resources to actually play Eve though I'm still keeping up with the latest news and such (Odyssey looks awesome).

I'll be back home for a couple of weeks of R&R sometime in July so will be around yarring the space lanes so might have time for a few posts during my stint back in the UK but will cease again once I return to theatre.

I'm due back at some stage in October so normal service will resume then.

Fly reckless o7

The Tuskers Deathrace 2013!

Filling the post today is an advert for what is shaping up to be a terrific event! Rixx Javix, a fellow Tusker and all around  nice guy evil pirate has organised and is presenting the 2013 Tuskers Deathrace, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Starting tomorrow - Saturday 16th at 17:00 Eve time - the Deathrace consists of a no holds barred pursuit across the most lethal low and null security systems that makes Jason Statham look like he's at a junior school sports day. Racers will form up in Dantumi and then be given the first of four locations to race to. The only rule here is kill or be killed (well, sort of!)

There are literally billions of ISK worth of prizes in various categories and it's looking to be a pretty awesome event. I heartily encourage anyone to get involved and race. What's the worst that can happen?

For more detailed info on the Deathrace go to Rixx's blog where you'll find out everything you need to know to get in on the race!

The Little Ship That Could

In between going on roams and popping people I tend to get distracted and either park on a gate in a sebo'd Cane or sit ship spinning. Last night I was watching some TV and decided to go out as bait in the newest mining frigate, the cute little Venture.

Because I abhor mining there were no lasers in sight and I'd fit up as follows:

[Venture, Surprise Buttsex!]
Damage Control II
Medium Shield Extender II
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Warrior II x2

This little baby can pump out almost 97dps and has a pretty impressive EHP of almost 5k, which isn't bad considering it's a mining frigate. I've seen some people fit blasters but to get them on they sacrifice the neut which is something I decided I wanted to keep.

Anyway, I warped to the top belt in Hevrice after renaming the ship to impersonate a positive sec status neutral in system. And then nothing...

                                                             and nothing...

                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                              and nothing...

Other Tuskers were getting into frig fights all over Hevrice and just as I was about to warp to station and reship to something combat-worthy Rixx Javix announced on comms that he'd tackled an Ishkur on the sun but his Algos was going down quickly. Other Tuskers responded to the call and I asked if I could bring a Venture onto the killmail. There were laughs and everyone was happy so I warped to Rixx at 0.

Moments before landing though the mighty Tusker announced that he had been asploded and that the Gallente assault ship would probably get away. I was the first to land on grid with the Ishkur and Rixx's pod and immediately overheated my scram as the enemy pilot tried to get away. No such luck for Dischordant though as my hero Venture held point long enough for Kaal Redrum and Rob Mason to arrive and dish out some real damage.

I escaped the fight in 43% structure and there was much hooting about the Venture dealing out 11% of the overall damage.

Gf's were given in local and I then docked up, leaving my Venture bloodied but satisfied.

- Cable

                                                    

Because screw you, logic!

As I was warping around Hevrice this morning I saw a Thrasher on d-scan and quickly pinned him down to a medium FW plex. Due to the fact I was flying a Cane at the time I docked up and jumped into a Thrasher on my own and promptly made my way to the plex. Before activating the acceleration gate I briefly thought to myself that the chances were pretty high that the other pilot would be rocking autocannon fit and I'd find him sat on the beacon waiting to pop anything that entered. Which would be very bad for me as my Thrasher was bristling with artillery and a manly suitcase tank.

Not really caring, I warped into the plex anyway and sure enough there sat an AC Thrasher right on the beacon. I let out an audible 'le sigh' and aligned to the sun, all while overheating my guns, web and long pointing my would-be killer.

His first few shots took me straight into low shields due to the fact our hulls were bumping and grinding when I arrived on grid. My first volley took him to about 20% shields and I realised the fight was over when he took me into armour seconds later.

My second volley took him straight into deep armour but by this point I was already entering structure and spamming the warp button for when the inevitable happened. As the charming red bar that depicted my hull arced its way from right to left I noticed that my artillery wasn't far off unleashing another volley but I still hammered the warp button relentlessly.

Then there was a flash, followed by a bang and I was in warp. But what's this? I'm still in a Thrasher, albeit one ablaze with smoke and flame (and 35% hull!). Completely shocked at the result of this clash I announced in corp what had just happened and there was much laughing and joviality.

At first I couldn't believe that I'd brawled down an AC Thrasher with arties and Dian Lung and I scoffed at the situation.

Upon inspecting the killmail though I can see why the narrow victory fell in my favour; as soon as I realised my predicament when I landed, I immediately aligned to a celestial, ready to get my pod out. The other Thrasher was shield tanked and fitted with an MWD so when he scrammed me his prop mod shut off and he had no web, unlike myself. Being faster than him I was able to pull a bit of range whilst my artillery hammered him with almost no transversal due to me flying in a straight line and not orbiting.

It was definitely a good fight and one that I never expected to win. Maybe I'm not such a bad after all!

Fly reckless - it works for me o7

- Cable

Branching Out

When I first started pirating I was very much set on becoming a monster with projectile weapons. At the time the Rifter and it's two fearsome cousins were more than a match for the vast majority of combat ships out there so it was a logical choice to specialise in autocannons and artillery. Every other weapon system was put  to the side with a note to train up in the future.

About a year ago I realised I'd hamstrung myself by sticking only to projectile weapons. Sure, all my gunnery supports are at V and all of my projectile specs are at IV or V but I'd neglected to bother with hybrids, lasers and missiles. That soon changed when I set my sights on flying Slicers and before long I had small pulse spec to IV and was thoroughly enjoying the little Amarr ship.

Around this time I also faced up to the fact my missile skills were virtually non-existent and set about rectifying the problem. Now I can quite happily jump into a Vengeance (<3) or a Drake with confidence that my skills (or lack of) aren't hindering my performance in fights.

These days my small turret and missile skills are pretty much perfect, apart from the odd Specialisation skill which is at IV but now I'm finding I want to branch out to bigger stuff. I already have T2 medium autocannon  s and artillery for my love of the Hurricane and T2 heavies for the Drake but there are more ships I want to fly now that I'd be daft to jump into without more training.

For example, I really want to start haunting the space lanes in a Vexor but I don't have T2 medium blasters (or rails for that matter), and my drone skills suck. Like really suck. I skilled into them enough to be able to use Warrior IIs and that's it. I also want to start flying double-rep Myrms but again I need some pretty decent drone skills. I should probably get medium lasers as well for something. Right now I can't think of any big laser ships I want to fly but in twelve months time that might have changed.

So for now, drone skills!

Oh, and I need to get T2 large autocannons and arty so I can prat around in Tornados. So many skills, so little time!

Not Abandoned, just afk!

Just a quick post to let any budding readers know I haven't abandoned CtBF (again), I'm just away with work for the next week and scarcely have any downtime to post but when I get a chance I'll throw something up.

Fly reckless o7

The Chase Continues

February has been a busy month, my busiest yet in terms of kills.

In 19 days I've torn apart no less than 94 ships and capsules which is a personal best. Due to work commitments I won't be able to harass the space lanes until the beginning of March so this total will remain.

I've only conceded 13 losses as well, giving me a good ratio. Some of my losses were down to me either derping or going into fights I stood no chance of winning in the first place whereas others were me being outflown by my opponent. Still, I'll take 94/13 any day of the week!

Most of my kills have been solo, with a sprinkling of small gang work thrown in. Unfortunately I don't really get chance to take part in organised Tusker fleets due to my play times conflicting with the roam dates but I relish the chances to join an ad hoc gang and this month has seen a fair few.

The last time I did a "month in review" post was for December 2011, so it's been a while. In that time I like to think my solo PvP skills have come on in leaps and bounds. I'm a far more confident pilot, I've started branching into different ships and fighting styles and I'm a more well-rounded pirate.

Highlights from this month include this Loki kill. We'd been fighting some of his corp members in Hevrice for a while when the Loki appeared on scan. Once the other FW pilots had been popped and the local Tuskers were reshipping from T1 frigs the strategic cruiser jumped into Jov. At this point Kaal was calling out for some hero tackle and I traded him a dual-rep Incursus as he didn't have anything available. As the rest of our fleet waited tentatively in Hevrice, Kaal jumped into Jov to try and track this Loki down.

As is often the case in Eve, greed gets the better of people. The Loki engaged this Itty on the Jov -> Hev gate just as Kaal appeared on grid. He soon got point and the rest of us piled in and applied dee pee ess. Moments after the Loki popped one of his corpmates appeared on grid to rescue his unfortunate friend. As soon as he saw all the Tuskers he burnt away as fast as he could, but even the agile Atron cannot outrun heavy missiles.

Other highlights include the Sacrilige/Rapier/Thrasher multikill in Jov the other night. Various Tuskers spent about half an hour trying to pin a bunch of different ships down until we all pretty much settled on sitting at obvious celestials until something decided to have a go. Eventually the Sacrilige jumped Araziah at a planet which had the side-effect of all Tuskers in system piling in to help. Moments after I landed on grid the rapier appeared too so that got pointed too. Mid-fight a random Thrasher landed and laughed in local as he was asploded too.

I've also spent a bit of time this month solo gatecamping. Due to the fact I can't use T2 large guns (yet) my weapon of choice is a sebo'd arty Cane. I can still lock frigs up in less than two seconds which is usually enough. I only really tend to gatecamp when there's not much going on in the systems surrounding Hevrice and I don't have the energy/time to go for a solo roam. As I keep telling people on comms (who always laugh, I might add) that somewhere out there is an Itty V full of PLEX with my name written all over it. It might be tomorrow, it might be next year but one day it will appear on grid and I'll be ready to take my prize.

No such luck this month though but my best gatecamp kill goes to this chap who couldn't cloak in time to avoid my cannons. It seems the loot gods do no approve of gate camping either.

Until next time, fly reckless o7

The First Rule of Eve is...

... Trust no one.

This is a lesson that Nick Allreadydead learnt to his peril tonight.

I'll lay out the backstory; today I enrolled my alt into the Gallente Faction militia. Recently I've seen loads of cloaked and stabbed frigates running plexes (which is a bug bear of mine - wait out for that post!) and when questioned they say they're not in FW for the PvP but for the LP, which then gets turned into ISK.

Moving on though; my alt has been running plexes in my home system of Hevrice in relative safety. Due to the fact it's boring as hell watching a frigate orbit a button for 15 minutes I tend to alt+tab back onto Cable to do more interesting stuff. This lack of concentration has led to me losing a Rifter and a Merlin but they were essentially unfit anyway so it doesn't matter to me. Earlier on tonight Nick Allreadydead, a fellow Gallente militia pilot came into Hev and started running plexes. At first he came into the medium I was capping in a Thorax and like the nice guy I am I called him out on Tusker comms, as well as undocking Cable to get in on the kill.

When the three Tuskers landed on grid he immediately warped away. What followed next made me howl with laughter. My alt received a convo request from Nick who had warped to a safe. I accepted because I'm a rather polite chap and said hello. He asked if I spoke English, to which I confirmed. Then this jewel appeared on my screen:


[ 2013.02.15 21:14:52 ] Nick Allreadydead > Lets kill Cable Udan

I couldn't help giggling at this bizarre occurance and let my fellow Tuskers know what was going. Laughter erupted over comms and calls to get him back to the plex were issued. I asked Nick Allreadydead if we could kill him to which grimly replied "lets try". Now I'd left Cable at the medium plex just in case the Thorax came back of his own volition, and to give my alt some protection as local was getting a little busy. The Thorax soon appeared on my overview and he landed right on top of my Vengeance. I already had all my modules spinning up and ready to so I quickly targeted him and settled into orbit before calling out on comms for those interested to warp in.

My private convo tab then started flashing and I laughed as I read it aloud on comms.


[ 2013.02.15 21:16:01 ] Nick Allreadydead > cant undersatnd
[ 2013.02.15 21:16:32 ] Nick Allreadydead > shoot

Maybe I would have opened fire, if I could. My alt was born out of a need for a hauler, prober and station trader. She has limited combat skills and as such had no guns fitted. If she did though you can imagine at whom she'd be shooting at though.

At this point my fellow Tuskers had joined the fray and the Thorax was well and truely done for. We snagged his pod too but he had no implants. I imagine he was just another FW farmer created for the purpose of grinding LP to turn into ISK.

I might have felt bad about this pseudo-betrayal (I didn't actually agree to anything), but then I saw the cloak and warp stab and all sympathy vanished as quickly as Vitoc in a slave pen.

Remember the first rule of Eve, ladies and gentlemen. Never trust anyone you're not within driving distance of punching in the face.

- Cable

A Fresh Start

Having decided to start posting again I wanted some fresh artwork for the banner. The old one was a pretty bad effort drawn by my own hand. My new shiny banner comes courtesy of Rixx Javix, a fellow Tusker with a penchant for graphic design. He was patient with my requests and the various edits that I wanted doing and I heartily recommend him for all your banner needs.

I also want to reboot the blog itself. Going over previous posts I started out writing simple battle reports from my early days a a pirate and learning the ropes of Eve PvP, and if that's all I continue to do I think it'll get boring. Nobody wants to constantly read about how I popped a bunch of newbies in Hevrice or how I went to Black Rise and killed some Faction Warfare people so I'm going to try and mix it up a little. Unfortunately I don't possess the in-depth knowledge of Azual so you won't catch me writing Know Your Enemy-esque articles but I'll be sure to provide some opinion pieces, mostly surrounding the area of piracy and PvP as well as highlights from particularly note-worthy and hilarious battles or just plain gfs.

In short stay tuned for more posts about me being a bad, tear extraction and some bloody good fights!

- Cable

Oh yeah, I have a blog!

So ages ago I let this blog sort of die a cold. lonely death. That was bad of me and I should have posted saying that I wasn't going to bother anymore but I was lazy and didn't.

Anyway I'd like to say that I'm back! Over the past year or so I've had a couple of new pilots Eve mail me asking for advice on piracy and PvP because they've read my blog and think that such a life sounds fun and it's sort of been a bit of a kick up the arse to reboot this blog. At the time I did enjoy writing up my fights but my hectic RL life often made me choose between actually playing Eve or spending the time to write battle reports and posts up.

Things haven't really changed - I still have a hectic life but I have a renewed work ethic to keep this blog afloat, though I will say that at the end of March I'll be jetting off to the sunny land of Afghanistan to posting will cease for 6-7 months but will most definitely resume when I'm back in October.

Until then expect frequent updates about my (still bad) PvP exploits!

- Cable