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

What a Return - The October Review

Greets,

Since coming back from my work trip I've had an excellent time yarring. To start with, there has only been one bad event: I foolishly lost a Rifter by warping to a gate with GCC. No more 100% efficiency this month but that is my only loss!

I think the most exciting bit of news that's come from this month is my first solo ransom to the tune of 100mil! I'll set the scene:

I was undocking from Hev V in my trusty Jaguar when a couple of guys called out in comms that a Retriever had appeared on d-scan. As luck would have it the foolish mining vessel was undocking from the Tuskers home station at the very same time as I was. Not daft enough to engage it on station I patiently watched to where the pilot would direct his ship...

...To the closest asteroid belt.

I couldn't believe my luck! Spamming warp to the belt I arrived just after the mining hull and promptly locked and scrammed it. Seconds later the miner vented atmosphere and I pointed the pod.

Inviting my hapless victim to the Tuskers ransom channel I set about getting some Isk off him. At first the pilot was unsure about parting with his money in case I popped his capsule anyway. Tawa and I convinced him that we always honoured ransoms by directing him to our untarnished ransom board. As the guy was a 2006 player I started at 100mil, thinking he probably wouldn't take it. However when my wallet flashed and I saw all the zeros I was elated and promptly let my satisfied customer go.

I had a flurry of kills last night while roaming in Adirain. I quite like Adi as I've had some good kills there and there's usually a good mix of carebears missioning or mining as it's next to Arnon and pirates preying on the aforementioned.

Last night I was looking for a fight when I noticed Taurean on the sun in one of his Maledictions fighting a Merlin. Asking on comms if he needed a helping hand (I was in my Jag again - love this ship), he said he was still a couple of hundred km's from the Caldari frig and if I wanted to have a go I was more than welcome.

Warping to the sun I found myself 170km away from both Taurean and the Merlin. I warped to a planet that was in line with my potential next victim and bounced back, 100km off the sun. I was still too far away though!

As I was burning towards the pair (who were now engaging each other), a Rifter landed just out of overheated scram range and then warped to his friend - the Merlin. The fight was on as Taurean announced he couldn't take on both of the frigates in his lightly-tanked inty. I bid him to join fleet and the moment he turned purple I initiated warp, landing within point range of both aggressors.

Suffice to say a half-damaged Merlin and a Rifter were no match at all for my assault ship and they crumbled. I got point on the Rifters pod and offered the princely sum of 5mil for his life. He was only a 10day old pilot and I thought he'd have no more than that. It turns out that the pilot is up to his eyeballs in PLEX's and could have afforded a hell of a lot more. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say!

A few minutes later, as Taurean was salvaging the wrecks that were littered about the sun (a couple of T2 hulls had caught his eye), and Yarr Beard was back in another Merlin. Taurean announced his ship was in no state to fight and when he called point I warped back in and relinquished another Merlin hull from Yarr.

Splitting the ransom and buying out his share of the loot, Taurean and I went our seperate ways after a successful few minutes blitzing. There was gfgf all around!

In summary this month has been pretty damn good. I may have only scored a total of 23 kills but I lost only the one ship, and a Rifter hull at that. My ISK efficiency has shot up to 98.12% which I'm happy with.

I've definitely made a profit this month with 102,500,000 in ransoms and the modules from the majority of my kills. Hopefully I'll manage even better in November!

Fly reckless o7

Settling In

Having recently joined the Tuskers I've got all of my stuff over to Hevrice, our home system. When my app was accepted I didn't have a great deal in the way of ships left and only 20k m^3 worth of modules in Aeschee. I took my scanning/missioning/station trading alt up to Jita and went on a massive shopping spree. A very condensed list would look like:

• 3 Hurricanes with Armour, Shield and nano fits.
• 3 Jaguars with shield fits
• A single Wolf, just to try them out
• 30 or so Rifters, with a myriad of fits ranging from cookie cutter 150+nos, 200+RL, to arty fits and the madman cap boosted, dual rep fit. 

I spent about 480mil in total and have loads of stuff in Hev. If I fly decently I shouldn't have to make another shopping trip for a while, though it did recently occur to me that I bought a bunch of MSE IIs, completely forgetting about LSE IIs for my Canes. I'll have to pop up to Jita in a Bastion for those! 

Since joining the Tuskers I've lost a handful of ships but more importantly got in on some good kills! Despite flying solo 90% of the time it feels really good to have backup at the other end of a mic just in case I come across a target too big for my current ship or if I bite off more than I can chew.

Looking at my most recent losses I know for a fact that some of them could have been avoidable. I lost a Jag to an cane on a gate in Onne. When he aggressed me I should have jumped through but instead decided to hold my ground and pew pew him. It didn't take long for his neuts to cap me out and I became a sitting duck and was gunned down. 

I then went on to lose another Jag to a bunch of pilots who don't have the balls for solo pvp. The Thrasher was talking smack in local after I declined a 1v1 (as per the Tusker Code). Despite declining a 1v1 I was actively scanning for him and soon found him at a planet. After getting him into armour his friends arrived - a 'ranis, Rupture and Dramiel and they took my ship apart but not before I gave the Thrasher the good news. After popping his ship the trash-talking destroyer pilot soon shut up and hastily left the system in his pod. I suppose I should have known it was a trap but I still went in.

I lost a couple of MANLY RIFTA!'s to foes I maybe shouldn't have engaged. For those who don't know, the MANLY RIFTA! comprises of 150's+nos, with a cap booster and dual armour reps and associated rigs. I think it's a good fit but I should probably have tested it out on other T1 frigs and not a Harpy and a Thrasher. I'll definitely be giving it another go though!

I then went on to get dropped by a B A N E gang for sitting 100km off a planet. I wasn't paying attention to d-scan as I was going through assets and chatting on comms to Tawa. My own fault really!

I've been part of some good kills though. Too many to list here and nothing out of the ordinary. Popped a 'ranis who thought he could handle the Big Cat, tackled a Drake whilst the Tuskers brought him down (went on to snag his pod too - go me!).

All in all it's been an excellent few days since joining the Tuskers. Despite some avoidable losses I've had a blast!

Fly reckless o7

I am a pirate, daring and cunning...

The past few days have been privy to several events; popped a 'ranis in my Jag, won a fight against a Tusker, destroyed a Rifter in my Rifter and burnt out my guns in a rematch (lolfail, I know!).

However the highlight of the past few days - nay - of my short Eve career has not been one of the above. On sunday afternoon I put in my application to join the Tuskers. I'd decided to use the Scythe kill I made days previous as one of my above class kills and at the end of the day it was a fair above class. I was in a frigate, he in a cruiser. I can't help that he had fit it for mining! My application was accepted this afternoon by Man Barthelme and upon joining I was greeted warmly. Online there were many faces I recognized and I felt genuinely welcomed into the corp.

Those of you who know the Tusker Code will recognize the title of this post as being the first few words of the first direction of the code. Since joining the Tuskers only this afternoon I've had to decline two 1v1s as to accept them would go against the grain of the code. A part of me wishes I could have gone head to head but the majority of me knows that as a pirate I don't spin up the barrels of my autocannons at the whim of some pilot; I spin them up when I want, where I want an against whoever I want!

The next few days will see me moving my stuff around lowsec from my home stations littered around Essence to Hevrice. Whilst doing so I'll do my best to engage in every fight I can. Another segment of PvP has been made more aware to me since becoming a Tusker; Ransoms.

Before now I've never really made that much of an effort to ransom a ship or a pod. I've been more than happy to explode both hull and capsule and move on to my next victim. I've seen a couple of my new corpmates make successful ransoms tonight and it looks rather easy. Obviously ransoming a pod is easier than a ship as your opponent might not turn off their guns or withdraw their drones when you initiate the conversation but catching a capsule is easier said than done. I'll be trying both out and you'll be the first to hear about how well I do!

Until next time, fly reckless!