"Griefing", "trolling", "grinding", and "zerging" all seem to be defined differently to different people, but according to our kill boards, killing industrial vessels = "griefing".
Last night I snagged another.
I would rather call them Opportunistic kills since I'm not trying to torment players; I just want to capitalize on their mistakes.
I was heading to Empire space to buy a few skill books when I noticed this Retriever on scan. I take a moment to find him at the only asteroid belt around a planet. He evades my first warp in, but there is a cargo can by a cluster of 'roids--the guy is obviously can mining. I bookmark the can's location for later.
Meanwhile he's reshipped into a Tengu to scare me off. I was already going to leave system to make him come back out in the mining barge, but if he thinks he's shooed me away, then all the better.
I jump into TXW to wait at a location I have 300 km from the gate. Rote Kapelle has returned from their "vacation", and there are about 10 pilots in system. My presence stirs them into action: first a Cynabal appears, then a Legion, and then a Damnation. I'm in a Thrasher; I'm certainly not going to fight any of that.
The Cynabal warps to the gate, and we have a staring contest for a few minutes. I'm spamming scan to make sure I don't get probed out. The pirate cruiser eventually leaves, and I decide it is time to catch that Retriever.
I warp back to the gate, jump through, and immediately initiate warp to the cargo can I bookmarked earlier. My scanner displays the Retriever, and I come out of warp right on top of the guy. He isn't aligned, and thus is unable to warp off before I lock and point him. A couple volleys and he explodes. I try to get the pod for a ransom, but he gets his egg away.
Too bad it wasn't a Hulk.
Rote then jumps into the system with the Cynabal and a Vexor. I dock up for a bit to do some chores while they taunt me to come out. They eventually leave, and I finish my trek to get the skillbooks.
On my way home, there is a Drake sitting on a gate. I warp to an on-grid location just to monitor him while I make a little report in our intel channel. He warps away, and I continue homeward. Once docked, I slip into something a little more comfortable: a Stabber Fleet Issue. I head back out with the intention of killing the Caldari battlecruiser.
He is no longer in the system I originally reported, so I pick an adjacent system and head to the gate. Oh, he is here. Along with 8 of his friends. A lovely little gate camp. Good thing I didn't find him alone--he is likely tanked like a brick to ensure his cronies would arrive in time to save him.
I pulse my MWD and re-approach the gate; half the fleet aggresses, and my capacitor is gone by the time I jump through. I initiate warp toward another gate as three of them follow me. I'm not worried about getting away since my SFI is quite nimble. I report the gate camp and just head home.
When I think back now, I may have been able to string them out by warping around. Maybe even jump into another system to isolate them further. Perhaps I could have fought one alone.
Showing posts with label lowsec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lowsec. Show all posts
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
A Lovely Deimos
An Iteron IV jaunts through 5-F with seemingly reckless abandon. It piques the pirate in me and another corpmate, so we deviate from our minor PvE tasks and give chase. The Industrial is heading back to low sec.
I hesitate briefly on the gate while my comrade catches up--I am in a Thrasher destroyer; he, in a Manticore stealth bomber. Our pause puts enough distance between the hauler and us, and we don't catch it during the two short jumps.
We pass a motionless Deimos acting as a sentry on the regional gate; I suspect he is scouting for the Iteron. When we fail to keep up with the Industrial vessel, we turn our attention to the Heavy Assault Cruiser.
A Deimos can be an awesome ship, easily dispatching a destroyer and stealth bomber. So we decide to ship up. The plan is quite simple: I will grab my brawling armor Hurricane battlecruiser and jump through the regional gate, waiting on the other side for the Deimos. My partner will use a Tengu to scare the Deimos, force him through the gate, and into my waiting arms. My long point and dual webs should keep the cruiser tackled while the Tengu bounces back to the gate and jumps through to assist further.
I jump past the Deimos and get in position near the center of the gate. Regional gates are very large, and thus the jump spawn location can be far from other spawn locations; I want have the highest likelihood of being in point range.
After a few minutes, the Tengu is reconfigured and heading back toward the Deimos. He lands about 40 km from the gate and begins launching missiles at the HAC. If the Deimos engages on the Tengu side, I will jump back through and assist. But he behaves exactly as predicted and actives the jump gate toward low sec.
He holds cloak as he knows he's been had. He spawns about 24 km from me, and fails to burn away. I point him and eventually toss two stasis webifiers on him, slowing him to about 10% of his regular speed. With the webs, my AutoCannons are tearing away his armor.
His pod is ejected from the burning wreckage before our Tengu can even get through the gate. I warp off to evade gate gun fire.
"Is he.. is he hull tanked...?" I ask over comms. A curious fit--it appears to have a single Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II. Oh well.
The Tengu isn't on the killmail because when the Deimos used the gate, his session data was cleared along with all reported damage he had received and their sources.
I hesitate briefly on the gate while my comrade catches up--I am in a Thrasher destroyer; he, in a Manticore stealth bomber. Our pause puts enough distance between the hauler and us, and we don't catch it during the two short jumps.
We pass a motionless Deimos acting as a sentry on the regional gate; I suspect he is scouting for the Iteron. When we fail to keep up with the Industrial vessel, we turn our attention to the Heavy Assault Cruiser.
A Deimos can be an awesome ship, easily dispatching a destroyer and stealth bomber. So we decide to ship up. The plan is quite simple: I will grab my brawling armor Hurricane battlecruiser and jump through the regional gate, waiting on the other side for the Deimos. My partner will use a Tengu to scare the Deimos, force him through the gate, and into my waiting arms. My long point and dual webs should keep the cruiser tackled while the Tengu bounces back to the gate and jumps through to assist further.
I jump past the Deimos and get in position near the center of the gate. Regional gates are very large, and thus the jump spawn location can be far from other spawn locations; I want have the highest likelihood of being in point range.
After a few minutes, the Tengu is reconfigured and heading back toward the Deimos. He lands about 40 km from the gate and begins launching missiles at the HAC. If the Deimos engages on the Tengu side, I will jump back through and assist. But he behaves exactly as predicted and actives the jump gate toward low sec.
He holds cloak as he knows he's been had. He spawns about 24 km from me, and fails to burn away. I point him and eventually toss two stasis webifiers on him, slowing him to about 10% of his regular speed. With the webs, my AutoCannons are tearing away his armor.
His pod is ejected from the burning wreckage before our Tengu can even get through the gate. I warp off to evade gate gun fire.
"Is he.. is he hull tanked...?" I ask over comms. A curious fit--it appears to have a single Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II. Oh well.
The Tengu isn't on the killmail because when the Deimos used the gate, his session data was cleared along with all reported damage he had received and their sources.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Tonight We Dine in Wormholes
Even though we're living in Syndicate now, we occasionally will run through our old low sec systems in Placid just to see if we can get a fight.
A corpmate spots a couple Drakes running a mission or exploration complex in a low security system a few jumps from our station in 5-FGQI. No one has scan probes fitted to a combat ship, so I am asked to bring along my Probe since I seem to have a knack for flash scanning. I can't fly Tech2 Covert Ops or Recon ships, so I'm stuck with the Tech1 frigate which has the unfortunate attribute of being unable to warp while cloaked.
Our fleet comprises of a Tengu T3 cruiser, a Brutix battlecruiser, a Harbinger cattlebruiser, a Scorpion battleship, and me in the mighty Probe frigate. We position ourselves in Aunsou on the gate to their system (Cumemare), and I'm asked to jump in to see if I can scan them down. Our Tengu, who originally spotted them, reports that they're gone now--we missed them.
Our Tengu jumps out of Cumemare. I stay here cloaked, monitoring the system and the gate for any activity. A Vagabond heavy assault cruiser shows up on my directional scanner and lands on the Aunsou gate. He holds for a moment while a Wolf assault frigate lands right behind him. They linger for a moment before warping off.
Now a Zealot heavy assault cruiser arrives on the gate. He jumps through into the waiting arms of our fleet. He foolishly attacked one of our fleet members, so he is unable to use the gate for 60 seconds. He blows up and gets his pod away.
The Vagabond and Wolf are back on the gate. Vaga is piloting away and seems to be making bookmarks. Our Tengu jumps through to see if he can bait the Vaga. He doesn't bite, but somewhere in here we catch sight of a cloaky Pilgrim Recon cruiser who is in the same corporation as the Vagabond. We have the numbers on them, so we aren't too worried, but more intel is always good.
Vaga is just flying around the gate, doesn't seem too keen on jumping through. He eventually warps off, with his Pilgrim friend to follow. They leave system.
My fleet gets caught up trying to catch some other people in Aunsou, but I'm still scouting around Cumemare, to see if anyone comes out to play. I see a Wolf and Retribution, both Assault Frigates, on my directional scanner and try to locate them. They are in the middle of space somewhere, not at any cosmic anomaly that I've picked up. So I warp away, launch my scan probes out of their range, and try to get a reading.
First scan only gets about 30% on both ships. Second scan misses them. They seem to have left system. I investigate further, and they were right on top of an Unstable Wormhole! I resolve the signature 100% and bookmark the location. The fleet is excited about fighting some unknown wormhole dwellers, so they all warp to the hole.
I'm the unlucky scout, so they decide to make me enter and see what's on the other side. I jump in, and to my surprise there is a Vagabond, Pilgrim, Wolf, and Retribution all on the hole. Ha! I prime the fleet for the eventual jump in, shed my jump cloak, and activate the wormhole to jump back into known-space.
They all follow.
We tackle and primary the Vagabond while jamming one of the Pilgrims. We are beating them pretty good, but our ignorance of wormhole mechanics is our disadvantage. Unlike jumpgates, wormholes do not have a 60 second aggression lock-out: players can jump through the wormhole whenever they want (but not more than twice in 4 minutes). So they all jump back into their hole, and we are cautious to go in after them--we don't know if any more are waiting for us.
So they send me back in. Once inside, I move away and immediately cloak. No one that I can see is on grid with me, but soon that Vagabond lands on the hole, launches drones, and tries to comb me out. If an object comes within 2500 meters of a cloaked ship, the cloak will deactivate. It is likely that the Pilgrim, hiding with a cloak of his own, saw me jump through and alerted his friends.
A bunch more arrive, and they all orbit the hole, trying to bump me out of cloak. Vaga, Pilgrim, Wolf, Retribution, and now a Firetail frigate. The Firetail comes within 3000 meters, but changes his vector and orbits away.
After a few minutes of trying to find me, they give up and decide to have another go at a brawl. I warn my fleet that they are jumping through. No problem for our guys, and the wormholers leave once again with their tails between their legs. Still no losses for either side.
We are fed up with this game, so we decide to head home. I inform them that there is now a Tengu waiting at the hole with the rest of them, and that seals the deal. Everyone warps off, and a couple of us dock up since it's getting late.
But I'm still in the wormhole.
The enemy fleet jumps in to Cumemare to find us gone, and returns home, warping away to whatever base they have set up (they appeared to be warping to the middle of nowhere, so it is possible that they came through a 2nd wormhole). The Vagabond is still on the portal; I think he can smell me.
I drop cloak and warp to a planet to bounce back to the wormhole. As I am warping, I see a Mobile Warp Disruption Field on my scanner--they are trying to catch me in a bubble! Luckily I warped before the bubble was anchored, so I land right at my destination and hop through, wishing the void "gf".
The Vagabond follows, but he is too slow to lock my tiny frigate, and home I go.
It turns out that the Zealot we killed earlier belonged to this same group of pilots, and he likely forgot about the 60 second aggression rule on gates. Had he not shot at anyone, he would have jumped back through and lived.
It was fun to be cloaked up and watching all this transpire. I might have to look into Covert Ops and Recons soon.
 |
| Low-sec systems in Placid |
Our Tengu jumps out of Cumemare. I stay here cloaked, monitoring the system and the gate for any activity. A Vagabond heavy assault cruiser shows up on my directional scanner and lands on the Aunsou gate. He holds for a moment while a Wolf assault frigate lands right behind him. They linger for a moment before warping off.
Now a Zealot heavy assault cruiser arrives on the gate. He jumps through into the waiting arms of our fleet. He foolishly attacked one of our fleet members, so he is unable to use the gate for 60 seconds. He blows up and gets his pod away.
 |
| Zealot HAC |
Vaga is just flying around the gate, doesn't seem too keen on jumping through. He eventually warps off, with his Pilgrim friend to follow. They leave system.
My fleet gets caught up trying to catch some other people in Aunsou, but I'm still scouting around Cumemare, to see if anyone comes out to play. I see a Wolf and Retribution, both Assault Frigates, on my directional scanner and try to locate them. They are in the middle of space somewhere, not at any cosmic anomaly that I've picked up. So I warp away, launch my scan probes out of their range, and try to get a reading.
 |
| Wormhole leading to unknown space |
I'm the unlucky scout, so they decide to make me enter and see what's on the other side. I jump in, and to my surprise there is a Vagabond, Pilgrim, Wolf, and Retribution all on the hole. Ha! I prime the fleet for the eventual jump in, shed my jump cloak, and activate the wormhole to jump back into known-space.
They all follow.
We tackle and primary the Vagabond while jamming one of the Pilgrims. We are beating them pretty good, but our ignorance of wormhole mechanics is our disadvantage. Unlike jumpgates, wormholes do not have a 60 second aggression lock-out: players can jump through the wormhole whenever they want (but not more than twice in 4 minutes). So they all jump back into their hole, and we are cautious to go in after them--we don't know if any more are waiting for us.
So they send me back in. Once inside, I move away and immediately cloak. No one that I can see is on grid with me, but soon that Vagabond lands on the hole, launches drones, and tries to comb me out. If an object comes within 2500 meters of a cloaked ship, the cloak will deactivate. It is likely that the Pilgrim, hiding with a cloak of his own, saw me jump through and alerted his friends.
A bunch more arrive, and they all orbit the hole, trying to bump me out of cloak. Vaga, Pilgrim, Wolf, Retribution, and now a Firetail frigate. The Firetail comes within 3000 meters, but changes his vector and orbits away.
After a few minutes of trying to find me, they give up and decide to have another go at a brawl. I warn my fleet that they are jumping through. No problem for our guys, and the wormholers leave once again with their tails between their legs. Still no losses for either side.
We are fed up with this game, so we decide to head home. I inform them that there is now a Tengu waiting at the hole with the rest of them, and that seals the deal. Everyone warps off, and a couple of us dock up since it's getting late.
But I'm still in the wormhole.
The enemy fleet jumps in to Cumemare to find us gone, and returns home, warping away to whatever base they have set up (they appeared to be warping to the middle of nowhere, so it is possible that they came through a 2nd wormhole). The Vagabond is still on the portal; I think he can smell me.
I drop cloak and warp to a planet to bounce back to the wormhole. As I am warping, I see a Mobile Warp Disruption Field on my scanner--they are trying to catch me in a bubble! Luckily I warped before the bubble was anchored, so I land right at my destination and hop through, wishing the void "gf".
The Vagabond follows, but he is too slow to lock my tiny frigate, and home I go.
It turns out that the Zealot we killed earlier belonged to this same group of pilots, and he likely forgot about the 60 second aggression rule on gates. Had he not shot at anyone, he would have jumped back through and lived.
It was fun to be cloaked up and watching all this transpire. I might have to look into Covert Ops and Recons soon.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thorax in a Mission
Thorax isn't a terrible ship, but it is a Tech 1 cruiser, which are pretty much the red-headed step-children of EVE. Faction cruisers (like my Stabber Fleet Issue) are better, but no where near the capabilities of Battlecruisers, pirate cruisers, and Tech 3 Strategic cruisers.
I found the Thorax in an empty system with a bunch of wrecks in the middle of nowhere. I went back to Gare to pick up my scanning ship, stayed near the gate uncloaked while landing a 100% reading on my first analysis. Recalled probes, warped home, and sat in my Stabber. The seat was still warm.
I warped to the bookmark I made of the Thorax's signature, and landed near an Acceleration gate. These gates are one-way entrances into little pockets of space called Deadspace. Players can only get there using the gates, but they can leave at any time by warping out the conventional way. Each pocket of space is called a "room". The first room of this mission was clear of anything hostile, so I approached the next Acceleration gate to enter the second room.
I land about 20 km from the cruiser, who is casually shooting the rats for his mission. My microwarp drive closes the distance very quickly, and even if he were paying attention to his overview, I doubt he had enough time to align and warp.
I launch my drones to add some firepower, but it's overkill. The SFI moves too fast for his long-range railguns to track. At least he saves his pod.
He could have seen my probes when I was scanning him. He could have been watching directional scanner with short range to indicate when I entered his mission deadspace. He could have been pre-aligned and ready to warp at the first sign of danger.
I have a video because I actually remembered to start the recording, but it isn't all that impressive.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Clean Kill
Myrmidon bouncing around Gare. He's in the middle of space, 8 AU from the gate toward a planet cluster. Swap to a scan ship. 100% on first scan. Tell corpmate the location; he warps in and snags him. I arrive to offer some bullets and get the killmail.
So clean. So professional.
This is why "safe" spots aren't really safe ;D
So clean. So professional.
This is why "safe" spots aren't really safe ;D
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Bad Habits
Grinding Security Status is painfully slow. The gains are awarded based on the highest bounty NPC killed in a system every 15 minutes. But each system has its own 15 minute counter. If a player wants to be efficient about it, they typically fit a Stealth Bomber, plot a loop through null/low sec, and pop a single battleship NPC in each system.
Gare is along a nice loop through Placid and Syndicate: we see a decent amount of traffic.
Every now and again we find evidence of Stealth Bombers killing battleship rats. Some of them make a habit out of it, continuously warping to the same asteroid belt over and over, killing the respawned battleship over and over.
When you become predictable, you die.
The amazing part of this story is that we passed each other at a belt. I had intel that he was frequenting a particular location, so when I saw him in system, I immediately warped there. The pack of mobs had either been killed or despawned, so there was no battleship for this Hound to kill. He entered warp to another belt when I landed--he definitely saw me. And yet he still decided it was safe to fight rats.
I land a few km from him. He's locked by the rats, preventing his cloak. Fight is over. I scram him no problem and make quick work of the fragile frigate.
Too predictable; ignored danger.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
A Fool's Errand
Not everyone in EVE is a hardened, soulless griefer. Many people don't play all that intelligently, and their mistakes can be exploited.
Several nights ago, I'm idling in station in our home system, just monitoring traffic. If I notice someone hanging around a bit longer than they should, I pop my head outside and see if they are at an asteroid belt or cosmic signature.
I have some scouting bookmarks in the system which let me quickly scan popular destinations with minimal warping. I pick up an Iteron Mark IV industrial ship on my directional scanner, pin-pointing him at a collection of stations and planets. A few seconds later he disappears from my eye, so I widen the angle back out to 360 degrees. He's still in range, and I infer that he is warping to the jump gate which is in my periphery.
I immediately warp to the gate and jump through, hoping to snag him when he jumps into the system.
When you enter a system through a jump gate, your ship appears at a location 15 km away from a random point on the gate model. If you imagine a sphere enveloping the gate (it's really closer to an ellipsoid), ships spawn on some random point on the surface. For small gates, the diameter is usually close to 30 km. For larger gates (gates between regions), the diameter can be higher.
I move to shed the jump cloak, pre-overheat my warp scrambler, and turn on my damage control. Gate flashes, and he appears 28 km from me. I approach with a MicroWarp Drive propulsion module, and begin locking him. I need to get about 10 km away to be in range of my overheated scrambler. I can't burn the distance in time, and he warps off.
Oh well. I go back to my system and dock up.
Thirty minutes later he is back. I undock, spot him on scan: Iteron Mark IV. I don't believe it.
I jump through the gate, this time getting in a better position right near the center of the gate. Flash. He's only about 12 km from me, and by the time I lock, I'm in range of my scram.
Your security status has been lowered.
I make quick work of the Iteron in my Stabber Fleet Issue, and I'm tanking the gate guns with my armor repairers. I immediately begin targeting the escape pod, acquiring a lock before he warps. A quick ping with my guns, and he wakes up in a cloning vat.
I inspect the wreck: nothing of value. I leave it there and warp to a spot in the middle of nowhere to wait out my Criminal Countdown and inspect the kill mails. Worthless 1.7 mil Iteron, but what do we have here: a 300 mil clone. Not a bad way to pad my efficiency stats, ha!
A few minutes later I get a conversation request from him. I accept.
He says nothing. I send a "hello". This is his reply:
But forget the tears, this guy made some major mistakes. Ignore that he was transporting things in a hauler without a cloak. He:
Several nights ago, I'm idling in station in our home system, just monitoring traffic. If I notice someone hanging around a bit longer than they should, I pop my head outside and see if they are at an asteroid belt or cosmic signature.
I have some scouting bookmarks in the system which let me quickly scan popular destinations with minimal warping. I pick up an Iteron Mark IV industrial ship on my directional scanner, pin-pointing him at a collection of stations and planets. A few seconds later he disappears from my eye, so I widen the angle back out to 360 degrees. He's still in range, and I infer that he is warping to the jump gate which is in my periphery.
I immediately warp to the gate and jump through, hoping to snag him when he jumps into the system.
When you enter a system through a jump gate, your ship appears at a location 15 km away from a random point on the gate model. If you imagine a sphere enveloping the gate (it's really closer to an ellipsoid), ships spawn on some random point on the surface. For small gates, the diameter is usually close to 30 km. For larger gates (gates between regions), the diameter can be higher.
Oh well. I go back to my system and dock up.
Thirty minutes later he is back. I undock, spot him on scan: Iteron Mark IV. I don't believe it.
I jump through the gate, this time getting in a better position right near the center of the gate. Flash. He's only about 12 km from me, and by the time I lock, I'm in range of my scram.
Your security status has been lowered.
I make quick work of the Iteron in my Stabber Fleet Issue, and I'm tanking the gate guns with my armor repairers. I immediately begin targeting the escape pod, acquiring a lock before he warps. A quick ping with my guns, and he wakes up in a cloning vat.
I inspect the wreck: nothing of value. I leave it there and warp to a spot in the middle of nowhere to wait out my Criminal Countdown and inspect the kill mails. Worthless 1.7 mil Iteron, but what do we have here: a 300 mil clone. Not a bad way to pad my efficiency stats, ha!
A few minutes later I get a conversation request from him. I accept.
He says nothing. I send a "hello". This is his reply:
Jamie TaoLei > yes gee thanks you kiled me haluling Pl mats you destroyed my +5 implants im at odds with my own corp im in ty you gave me a reason to quit spending 15$ a monthRight after that, he asks to add me as a friend contact. Seems a bit crazy to me, but I don't care what he does. We talk for the next hour, and he tells me how awful his life is, how he is "giving up on EVE", and all sorts of depressing nonsense. The character is from 2007, yet I managed to "destroy all his wealth". I'm pretty sure he was trying to scam me into sending him ISK, which I certainly did not do.
But forget the tears, this guy made some major mistakes. Ignore that he was transporting things in a hauler without a cloak. He:
- Saw me try to catch him 30 minutes ago.
- Didn't fit Warp Core Stabilizers.
- Didn't warp his pod off when he had plenty of time to do so (I lock a pod in 7.5 seconds, but they align and warp near-instantly).
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Misinformation
A fun part of EVE is when patience and improvisation pay off.
A stealth bomber had been frequenting our system, popping NPC battleships in asteroid belts and moving on. He was doing this to raise his security status, and we've become aware of his patterns.
A friend and I fleet up and pass the time by running some sites (dynamic spawns of NPCs that need to be scanned down by probes), when we notice another visitor: a Thorax cruiser. He isn't just passing by; I pinpoint him to a belt with growing wrecks.
I'm in an armor Hurricane battlecruiser, which isn't the speediest of boats. I enter warp and land about 60 km from him. My overheated point (warp disruptor) reaches 28 km, and he definitely has time to warp away--but he stays. I get close enough to disrupt his warp drive, but he is a bit faster than I. He launches some drones and begins kiting me at about 30 km. I have some drones of my own and send them toward him.
He either just realizes that he can warp, or he doesn't like his chances, but he warps with only his shields missing, leaving his poor drones behind. During this time, our stealth bombing interloper enters the system, and my friend has him located at a belt. I race over to assist, but the tiny frigate pops before I arrive.
This is local chat:
No need to alert the Thorax that we are together, my friend pretends that he was actually hunting me. Gotta love misinformation.
I sit in space idly waiting for my criminal flag to wear off, when our Thorax reappears on the directional scanner. And he's at a belt! He either bought our story or has some of the biggest cahones around.
My cloaky friend snags him no problem, and I arrive just in time to sneak in a shot or two on the killmail. His pod whisks away, but we stick to our story:
Maybe we'll see the Thorax again.
A stealth bomber had been frequenting our system, popping NPC battleships in asteroid belts and moving on. He was doing this to raise his security status, and we've become aware of his patterns.
I'm in an armor Hurricane battlecruiser, which isn't the speediest of boats. I enter warp and land about 60 km from him. My overheated point (warp disruptor) reaches 28 km, and he definitely has time to warp away--but he stays. I get close enough to disrupt his warp drive, but he is a bit faster than I. He launches some drones and begins kiting me at about 30 km. I have some drones of my own and send them toward him.
He either just realizes that he can warp, or he doesn't like his chances, but he warps with only his shields missing, leaving his poor drones behind. During this time, our stealth bombing interloper enters the system, and my friend has him located at a belt. I race over to assist, but the tiny frigate pops before I arrive.
This is local chat:
StealthBomber > took you long enough
StealthBomber > gf
Friend > took close
StealthBomber > ?
Friend > was hunting the cane
StealthBomber > ah
StealthBomber > got my sec up tho... all that matters ... was a good ship ... did its job
Friend > think [he's] with the thorax
ThoraxCruiser > the cane and I just crossed paths in one of the belts
Friend > did not think I would catch you
No need to alert the Thorax that we are together, my friend pretends that he was actually hunting me. Gotta love misinformation.
I sit in space idly waiting for my criminal flag to wear off, when our Thorax reappears on the directional scanner. And he's at a belt! He either bought our story or has some of the biggest cahones around.
My cloaky friend snags him no problem, and I arrive just in time to sneak in a shot or two on the killmail. His pod whisks away, but we stick to our story:
Friend > luck cane
Friend > lucky cane... should have gunned you held the thorax
Hasugo Numani > skin of my teeth :)
Hasugo Numani > 10% structure
Friend > could nt over burn much more lol
Maybe we'll see the Thorax again.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Phantastic
A lot of the events in EVE that I found to be remarkable and intriguing (e.g. being chased, acting as bait, any combat) are becoming quite ordinary and part of my usual play sessions. I will however tell a humorous but tragic tale of a Phantasm.
I had been killing some NPC pirate mobs (ratting) to pass the time in our home system and was sitting outside a station to repair my armor when a friend of ours logs in and undocks from the same station. He is in a Phantasm cruiser and drifts well past the undock point, and I think nothing of it. All of a sudden he opens fire and blows away my shields and armor in two volleys. I dock just in time to change my pants.
I pipe up in local, "whoa, I thought we were friends :(" He apologizes and explains that he's under the influence of some substance. So naturally we fleet up. A third pirate in a Loki joins our squad, and we set out for some PvP.
I in my Rupture cruiser and the lit pilot in his Phantasm are sitting on a gate, waiting to jump into the next system to bounce on whatever poor soul the Loki catches. A new pilot enters local and the gate flashes, indicating that someone has jumped into our little ambush. It's a Caracal cruiser that decides to take its chances by returning to the gate it just came from (When you use a gate, you spawn at some point on the other side approximately 15 kilometers from it, but must be 2500 meters away in order to activate it.)
We open fire, a clear criminal act, and evaporate the Caldari cruiser's shields in the few seconds it takes the hull to approach the gate. But alas, he jumps back through, no doubt shaken. We can no longer sit on the gate as the gate guns are shooting at us for our actions, and we warp to a point 200 km away (outside of the 150 km gun range).
The Loki can't find anyone actively ratting, so he asks me to come and bait. I jump into the system, warp to a belt, and begin killing rats. The Loki is covertly configured and sits cloaked like a guardian angel.
A minute or two passes and the Phantasm pilot, left unsupervised in the adjacent solar system, cries out on voice chat. He has tried to shoot someone at the gate again, but the gate guns are tearing him apart. His 150 mil+ pirate faction cruiser explodes, "well that was embarrassing."
Out of combat ships nearby, the Phantasm says good-bye and leaves fleet. Poor guy.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Whoops
I was misinformed on the range of station guns. They have 150 kilometer range, in fact. 150. One-hundred, fifty. Yep.
And then like a moron, I lost my pod.
There isn't much of a story to tell other than playing cat and mouse with this guy. He lands at 100 km from the station, burns out to 130k. I come out to greet him and aggress since I thought the sentry gun range was 100 km (NB: It is 150 km). I die very quickly to what I originally thought was this Thrasher, grab the first thing I can find to warp away (the station that is at 130 km), spam the warp button, and lose my expensive egg as I am just sitting there (a warp target needs to be at least 150 km away).
Not my proudest nor cheapest nights of EVE.
And then like a moron, I lost my pod.
There isn't much of a story to tell other than playing cat and mouse with this guy. He lands at 100 km from the station, burns out to 130k. I come out to greet him and aggress since I thought the sentry gun range was 100 km (NB: It is 150 km). I die very quickly to what I originally thought was this Thrasher, grab the first thing I can find to warp away (the station that is at 130 km), spam the warp button, and lose my expensive egg as I am just sitting there (a warp target needs to be at least 150 km away).
Not my proudest nor cheapest nights of EVE.
Monday, December 26, 2011
A Moment Alone with a Rokh
I had docked in a high-sec station last night since I needed to pick up some rockets. Today I decided to make my way back to our home system of Gare in order to claim my holiday gift. I had chosen the Thrasher pack with all the small projectile ammo, and I could use some more Rep Fleet Phased Plasma.
The first jump into low-sec is into a gate camp. A single Rokh Battleship piloted by an outlaw is orbiting the gate. I know of Rokhs that bomb the piss out of frigates, and I'm pretty worried at this point.
I'm holding gate cloak, thinking about what to do. The Rokh is orbiting toward me, and he's a mere 10 km away. Some people pack quite a few bombs, so I could be vaporized in a blink of an eye. I figure my best bet would be to warp out.
I set my destination to a tactical bookmark near my out-gate, and I begin accelerating, revealing myself. My ship enters warp and sails into the void. Perhaps I was worried over nothing.
The gate is clear, so I warp to 0 and issue a jump. I catch sight of the Rokh appearing on my overview right as I disappear. He's chasing me.
I immediately thrust onto my next gate, and tell the corporation that potentially there is a Rokh on my tail. I dock up in Gare, and provide details of the outlaw's location. I'm asked to grab a Hurricane battlecruiser in order to try blowing up my pursuer. Unfortunately I haven't taken the time to move my larger hulls to Gare yet, and I only have my Wolf. We forget about the Rokh.
Time to get more firepower.
I'm holding gate cloak, thinking about what to do. The Rokh is orbiting toward me, and he's a mere 10 km away. Some people pack quite a few bombs, so I could be vaporized in a blink of an eye. I figure my best bet would be to warp out.
I set my destination to a tactical bookmark near my out-gate, and I begin accelerating, revealing myself. My ship enters warp and sails into the void. Perhaps I was worried over nothing.
The gate is clear, so I warp to 0 and issue a jump. I catch sight of the Rokh appearing on my overview right as I disappear. He's chasing me.
I immediately thrust onto my next gate, and tell the corporation that potentially there is a Rokh on my tail. I dock up in Gare, and provide details of the outlaw's location. I'm asked to grab a Hurricane battlecruiser in order to try blowing up my pursuer. Unfortunately I haven't taken the time to move my larger hulls to Gare yet, and I only have my Wolf. We forget about the Rokh.
Time to get more firepower.
Friday, December 23, 2011
So a Wolf and Armageddon walk into an asteroid belt
I resolve to warp in at 100 km just to see what he's doing. He's engaged with a few rats, and I decide to fly toward him. I'm within my optimal range, so I get a lock on the ship and start filling him with bullets.
Shields drop pretty quick on Amarr vessels, and I start chipping away at his armor. Perhaps the pirates are helping, but his health is dropping faster than I was expecting. He finally targets me and launches some Ogre II drones, which I dispatch with ease.
I see a third pilot enter the local system. My directional scanner shows him commanding a Hurricane Battlecruiser and closing in on our position. I align and warp off as soon as the 'Cane lands on grid.
We have some friendly banter:
[02:51:08] Hasugo Numani > :)After waiting out my criminal timer, I leave the system, wishing them a good night. And they return the salute:
[02:51:21] GIftedPlacebo > ha
[02:52:02] Hasugo Numani > and here i thought i'd get a free bs kill :P
[02:52:06] GIftedPlacebo > lol
[02:52:09] GIftedPlacebo > not today
[02:52:35] Reaperxvii > :P
o/Oh, and I caught it on film :)
That was perhaps the most thrilling and intense moment thus far of my EVE career. Imagine how I'll feel when I actually kill something!
Some things to think about as I review the video:
- I clearly caught the guy off guard, and I wonder how I would fair if he started blasting me from 30k out.
- I need to change the angle of d-scan once I land on grid.
- I need to carry more rockets.
- I didn't overheat, but I wonder if it could have been enough to get him to structure.
- The Hurricane landed 100 km away. Once I saw him on dscan, I figured I needed to GTFO (had he been in fleet and landed right on top of us). If he had AutoCannons and not Artillery, could I have killed the BS with overheating before the cane reached us?
- I wasn't pointed.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Relocating to Placid
As previously mentioned, Rage decided to take their ball and go home only after a week in Curse. The alliance leader apologized and offered to pay for everyone's move back to lowsec. He then scammed people out of their stuff and disbanded the alliance. No one I knew lost anything, but I didn't know many people.
Our corp, Deep Void Industrial Group, was in limbo for awhile since the CEO was busy with his move halfway across the world to China. We stayed in touch via EVE mail, and he's moved the corp down to Gare in the Placid region. This is a fairly quiet lowsec area, most traffic is going to/from Syndicate (NPC nullsec) right next door; most of the time the systems are empty.
The current plan is to grow our numbers while poking around and shooting things. There are belt rats here with 500k bounties, and there are some seemingly active mission systems several jumps away (they are low sec systems, which I hope to prowl >:) ).
Our corp, Deep Void Industrial Group, was in limbo for awhile since the CEO was busy with his move halfway across the world to China. We stayed in touch via EVE mail, and he's moved the corp down to Gare in the Placid region. This is a fairly quiet lowsec area, most traffic is going to/from Syndicate (NPC nullsec) right next door; most of the time the systems are empty.
The current plan is to grow our numbers while poking around and shooting things. There are belt rats here with 500k bounties, and there are some seemingly active mission systems several jumps away (they are low sec systems, which I hope to prowl >:) ).
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Journey to Null
The nice thing about EVE is that something as trivial as travel can be noteworthy.
My new Alliance and her friends are moving to Curse to (eventually) take a piece of the Russian pie. I had hoped to pod jump there with a medical clone, but the CEO has been away and hasn't set up an office. I decide to make the trek.
I fit a Vigil with some speed mods, a prototype cloaking device, and some salvagers, and I plot the 31-jump route, 11 of which are through null sec.
I am fairly comfortable with low-sec, using the Star Map for activity statistics and celestials for gate observation. As I traverse the systems, I create tactical bookmarks with my speedy Vigil in case I'm ever here again.
A friend of mine in the alliance, Squrriel, wants to come scout for me. I assure him the route is pretty quiet and that I'm in a cheap ship with a fresh clone--no need to risk his Stealth Bomber. He insists, and by the time I've made my last low-sec bookmark on the gate to null, he catches up.
We avoid jumping from gate to gate to evade any drag bubbles. While in an empty system, he warps to the out-gate, and warns me that there are NPCs camping. "No worry," I tell him. "I'm not concerned with rats." I warp to 100 km since I'm making bookmarks at 200, and I'm startled as the NPC cruiser begins to lock me. Impressed with its range, but ultimately dismissive, I turn on my MWD, and do a 180.
In a blink of an eye my shields are gone. Frozen in disbelief, I watch 2 more shots destroy my tiny frigate.
Shocked, my pod lingers as my friend frantically searches for a station. "Forget it. Let's just run it," I demand. He jumps through the gate as I bounce off a planet and back. The path is clear, and within another two jumps, I dock in a station and grab a rookie ship to at least buffer one blow, should the situation arise.
We land in a system with 11 in local, the most we've seen since low-sec. He cloaks his Anathema and warps to the out-gate, 70 AU away. Not wanting to be on the gate when my jump cloak wears, I warp to a planet.
"F*ck, a bubble!" He's pulled out of warp, but we both know he is cloaked. Unfortunately the little spider littered cargo cans all over his web, and Squrriel is bumped out of warp. "I'm dead. Pod and all." He wakes up back in high-sec. After consoling him, I resolve to make the final 6 jumps alone, and I warp off to the gate.
I land in a bubble 90 km from the gate! Surprised that I'm not a horrible ball of fire, I make my way to the edge, noticing that there are two bubble traps in front of this gate. I'm not sure if there were only one guy manning both bubbles, if he took pity on my rookie ship, or if he went AFK after eating a juicy Stealth Bomber, but by some miracle I escape to a planet.
I open the System map to take a look at the layout, and my out-gate is well above the ecliptic plane. The system itself is pretty small, and most celestials are bunched up. The two bubbles are angled well enough to catch not only people coming from the in-gate, but also smarter pilots who bounce to a planet first.
I warp to a moon as far away from the other gate as possible, hoping to squeeze past the trap. I align and enter what is possibly the longest warp I've ever experienced. I land at 0 on the gate with a giant grin, jump through, and exhale.
The remaining six systems are empty, and just as cresting a mountain to gaze upon a bountiful valley, I enter my destination system to see local filled with blues.
There is a bit of confusion as to where the cloning vats are, and it would be hilarious to die while searching for them, but I eventually dock up and install a medical clone.
Now to fit a ship.
My new Alliance and her friends are moving to Curse to (eventually) take a piece of the Russian pie. I had hoped to pod jump there with a medical clone, but the CEO has been away and hasn't set up an office. I decide to make the trek.
I fit a Vigil with some speed mods, a prototype cloaking device, and some salvagers, and I plot the 31-jump route, 11 of which are through null sec.
I am fairly comfortable with low-sec, using the Star Map for activity statistics and celestials for gate observation. As I traverse the systems, I create tactical bookmarks with my speedy Vigil in case I'm ever here again.
A friend of mine in the alliance, Squrriel, wants to come scout for me. I assure him the route is pretty quiet and that I'm in a cheap ship with a fresh clone--no need to risk his Stealth Bomber. He insists, and by the time I've made my last low-sec bookmark on the gate to null, he catches up.
We avoid jumping from gate to gate to evade any drag bubbles. While in an empty system, he warps to the out-gate, and warns me that there are NPCs camping. "No worry," I tell him. "I'm not concerned with rats." I warp to 100 km since I'm making bookmarks at 200, and I'm startled as the NPC cruiser begins to lock me. Impressed with its range, but ultimately dismissive, I turn on my MWD, and do a 180.
In a blink of an eye my shields are gone. Frozen in disbelief, I watch 2 more shots destroy my tiny frigate.
Shocked, my pod lingers as my friend frantically searches for a station. "Forget it. Let's just run it," I demand. He jumps through the gate as I bounce off a planet and back. The path is clear, and within another two jumps, I dock in a station and grab a rookie ship to at least buffer one blow, should the situation arise.
We land in a system with 11 in local, the most we've seen since low-sec. He cloaks his Anathema and warps to the out-gate, 70 AU away. Not wanting to be on the gate when my jump cloak wears, I warp to a planet.
"F*ck, a bubble!" He's pulled out of warp, but we both know he is cloaked. Unfortunately the little spider littered cargo cans all over his web, and Squrriel is bumped out of warp. "I'm dead. Pod and all." He wakes up back in high-sec. After consoling him, I resolve to make the final 6 jumps alone, and I warp off to the gate.
I land in a bubble 90 km from the gate! Surprised that I'm not a horrible ball of fire, I make my way to the edge, noticing that there are two bubble traps in front of this gate. I'm not sure if there were only one guy manning both bubbles, if he took pity on my rookie ship, or if he went AFK after eating a juicy Stealth Bomber, but by some miracle I escape to a planet.
I open the System map to take a look at the layout, and my out-gate is well above the ecliptic plane. The system itself is pretty small, and most celestials are bunched up. The two bubbles are angled well enough to catch not only people coming from the in-gate, but also smarter pilots who bounce to a planet first.
I warp to a moon as far away from the other gate as possible, hoping to squeeze past the trap. I align and enter what is possibly the longest warp I've ever experienced. I land at 0 on the gate with a giant grin, jump through, and exhale.
The remaining six systems are empty, and just as cresting a mountain to gaze upon a bountiful valley, I enter my destination system to see local filled with blues.
There is a bit of confusion as to where the cloning vats are, and it would be hilarious to die while searching for them, but I eventually dock up and install a medical clone.
Now to fit a ship.
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