Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed tocrazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who’ve been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has your gaming style evolved through the years or months since you’ve started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance – say manufacturing. Let’s hear your story!

Getting near to my third year in EVE — I started in August 2007 — and I still haven’t seen it all, though I’ve certainly been around. Being a carrier pilot is something that will get ticked off this year, after which I need a new list. And while I never say never, 0.0 sov and all it entails is something I hold no real interest in, which is the only area I’ve not really poked my nose into.

A short summary of my carreer could be described as carebear gone pirate but remaining true to that carebear side. And then there is the constant of roleplaying all through the years. The specifics? Well, keep reading.

Alts

• Same account: Valnurana, my trader, newbie hauler and alliance executor resides on the same account as Myrhial, as for a long time I was very stubborn about getting a second account and did not have the income to pay one with PLEX. She’s mostly retired now. Also have the placeholder CEO for Ghost Festival sitting in the third slot.
• Different account: Faber Demaunier is my miner and has taken over the role of hauler from Valnurana. She will eventually take over the role of trader too. Will probably go down the path of research and manufacturing in the future, or mission running, or even both.

Carebear

• Exploration: A constant throughout my career, with which I share a love / hate relationship. Have gotten a rare few good catches, an overall steady income when focusing on radar plexes, but also a great many sites that just were a waste of ammo. Primarily focussed on these in lowsec.
• Research: I have personally researched all blueprints in my possession and aided PRELI with researching blueprints which were payment for the POS tower they received in exchange.
• Manufacturing: Mainly making my own ammo when running missions, or produce rigs for my own use to save some ISK on fitting ships. A few months back I finished Production Efficiency V and started buying up cheap salvage to create rigs and sell them at profit. Not a bad income for the slight effort it takes.
• Mission runner: My earliest source of income. Have done both combat missions and couriers in highsec, lowsec and nulsec, and have worked for the Caldari, Amarr, Thukker and Angel Cartel.
• R&D: I’ve got five agents working for me and once every few months I blitz through highsec to collect my earnings. A nice wallet booster but not as good as it used to be back in the days.
• Mining: I once mined in a Procuror — lol terrible ship — in lowsec just for the sheer lulz. I still get poked fun at for that. When I was a wee lil’ pirate I mined a few lowsec gneiss plexes in an Osprey, but other than that I leave this to Faber.
• Wormholes: Potato RR fleets make quick work of Sleepers, and getting near 100 mil a person for a few hours work is great. While quite dull in itself — point drones at broadcasted target and sit back — the vent chatter does get me through it.
• Trade: Mostly marging trading and probably where I’ve gotten most of my ISK. I’ve also invested in shares and IPO’s, all but one payed off, the one that didn’t was due to the player vanishing into thin air. Not sure if that was an intended scam or not. Have also done some resale for people, and selling goods on their behalf with getting a cut of the profits.
• Planetary interaction: Running a nanite repair paste chain spread over two accounts, with Myrhial working on five planets and Faber taking care of the sixth.

Pirate

• Ships of all sizes: I have flown T1 / T2 frigates (with the exception of ewar frigates), destroyers, T1 / T2 cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships into pvp combat, mostly fit for pvp but the few occasional encounters in pve setups have been there as well. I fly mostly in fleets but have also tried my hand at solo combat.
• Faction war: Busting plexes or simply clashing with a militia group, picking off stragglers from large fleets and even opening plexes to bait targets inside, faction war offers a variety of strategies and was where I really learned to pvp. Operation Bold Harvest will always hold a dear spot in my heart.
• Mission busting: This has got to be the most profitable kill till date. Delicious faction loot. Not all are like that though, and it is usually newer players you catch because they aren’t watching the scanner or even unaware of probes. The bulk of targets in Operation Longshot were of that kind.
• Ransoms: A rare occurrence, not because of a lack of trying but because a situation has to lend itself to it and then there is still the willingness of the target to pay up.

Roleplay

• RP corp / alliance: All corporations / alliances I have been part of have had roleplay as part of their activities. My character has undergone quite the transformation, from State loyalist to Cartel loyalist. While this has had a certain impact on her personality as well as her cultural thinking she’s still very Caldari in her ways.
• Channel RP: From bars to political discussions, I’ve been in a fair number of channels. Favorite hangouts are The Skyhook and The Last Gate. I’m one of those eternal lurkers in The Summit as well.
• In character blogging: Been slacking on this a little — and blogging as a whole — since I’ve stepped down as CEO, but for the two years I’ve been blogging I’m at around at least two posts a month.

Leadership

• Corporate: Have been a director and later on a CEO, now serving as shadow CEO while I take out some more time for myself. Don’t worry though, Naraka will be back, no matter what people are saying or assuming. I’ve already got so much ideas on where I want to take the corporation and being in Veto has been a very enlightening experience so far. Someday I hope to chronicle my experiences in a guide for beginning CEO’s and directors.
• Fleets: PVE and PVP, I’ve been FC, backup FC, backup backup FC and logistics coordinator. Having invested in learning leadership skills I’m also serving as fleet booster when needed.

Participants:

1. CrazyKinux’s Musing: The Heroes with a Thousand Faces
2. StarFleet Comms: Life. Evolved.
3. A Carebear’s Journeu: This Carebear Thinks He Is Developing Teeth
4. The Elitist: Our ventures in EVE
5. A Mule in EVE: From a guppy predator
6. Travels of the Ronin: Evolution and Adaptation
7. The Ralpha Dogs: The Past Through Tomorrow
8. Where the frack is my ship: A journey, not a destination
9. I am Keith Neilson: 7 Year Itch?
10. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah: Evolution Me
11. EVE Opportunist: A long history of a short time
12. Roc’s Ramblings: Things Change
13. Guns Ablaze: Onwards and Upwards
14. EVE On Real Life: Haven’t you grown up yet?
15. The Fang: The path of the ninja
16. EVEOGANDA: Whoops Apocalypse!
17. EVE SOB: Learning to swim
18. The Life of a Dead Jester: My Time with EVE
19. Personal Files, Ciarente Roth: Personal Diary 18.6.112
20. Learning to Fly: Change is Good
21. Depths Unknown: Falling With Style
22. Morphisat’s Blog: Jack of all trades
23. Sarnelbinora’s Blog: Thoughts of EVE
24. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: It’s the yellow box, stupid…
25. Adventures in Mission Running: My path amongst the stars
26. When 11 Ninjas isn’t enough: First days in the North (continued)
27. Lost in New Eden: My EVE Life So Far
28. Life in my Hole: How My EVE Experience Has Evolved
29. The Lathspell of Mithrandir: EVE-olution
30. Chocolate Heaven: Recurring Themes
31. More as they get published…

[Delicious Tag: eveblogbanter18]

Rixx Javix, author of Eveoganda, asked in one of his posts “What is in your hangar?”. Here is my list:

• Apotheosis “Apotheosis”: Never got around naming it, but proud to be the owner of one. If only we could have more Jove ships!
• Minmatar Shuttle “Duct Tape”: For blitzing into highsec and picking up skill books, or whenever that extra layer around your pod isn’t such a bad idea. Name should be rather obvious.
• Zephyr “Soar”: Another collectible, which I did get around naming.
• Punisher “Sparrowhawk”: Got several of these actually, for when I go out by myself, or there are frigate roams. Great fun to terrorize FW with. When thinking of a name for this one, I looked outside and saw said bird sitting in a nearby tree.
• Griffin “Ugly Duckling”: Support for frigate gangs, also known as pocket ECM. Can jam destroyers and even cruisers. Named after its looks.
• Rifter “Sandstorm”: For an upcoming themed op. Never flown this before, and as it seems this will be a suicide op it is decked out in tech I. Have the skills for a full tech II fit, so might be flying this more in the future if I like it. Ah, the joys of cross-training! Name was the first word that popped into my head when thinking of the high dps and speed it is known for, and the lovely rusty brown color.
• Cormorant “Crossfire”: Destroyer ops, another fun thing to fly into FW plexes. Inspired by this piraty track.
• Harpy “Facepuncher”: Blaster fit, name seemed fitting. For when something heavier than a regular frigate is required.
• Crow “Flatline”: Refers to the heartbeat signal of a dead person, because the sensor booster heightens the chance of catching pods and cracking them open.
• Anathema “Big brother”: It is watching you… Sees use in both exploration, finding players and small courier jobs.
• Manticore “Avalance”: DPS support for cloaky gangs. Named after the sudden impact of a lot of damage (when firing at the intended target).
• Purifier “Purgatory”: Once upon a time I had this great idea of ninja-ratting Sansha. Never got around it, and trading successes don’t make it needed right now either. Keeping the pair I have for when the Manticore would perish. Or when I do feel the need to purge some space zombies.
• Arbitrator “Mercutio”: T1 cruiser solo or gang roams. Got named after a ship from the Warhammer 40k novel Faith & Fire. Also have the “Mercutio Redux” exploration variant.
• Blackbird “Medusa”: ECM support for T1 cruiser roams. Its gaze will paralyze you on the spot!
• Pilgrim “Rabisu”: One of my favorite ships. Saw some work in the recent Operation Longshot as a mission prober. Just like the Arbitrator it can work with a variety of setups and be fitted according to taste. Kept the name Sahaquiel Faust had given to it before he gave it to Vincent who then together with the rest of the corp chipped in to present it fully fitted to me as a one year corp anniversary gift. The name comes from an Akkadian demon.
• Sacrilege “Sacrosanct”: Hasn’t seen much use so far, mainly because T2 cruisers cost an arm and a leg these days. Shame, because the sturdy tank and HAM launchers are something I really like. Name is a bit of a pun.
• Guardian “Medic”: Has seen all kinds of uses, from pvp to wormhole ops. Tends to keep people alive, if I am not too busy killmail whoring with the warrior II’s! *pilots screaming Medic are heard in the background”
• Onyx “Lodestone”: Bought this from Aria when she left us, and kept the name she had given to it.
• Badger “Corp Mascot”: Hangar decoration and a reminder of good times. Gets undocked once in a blue moon when lots of loot needs to be scooped up or for comedy relief.
• Drake “Valliant”: My other favorite ship at this moment. HAM setup, deals a nasty bit of damage, and has the advantage of not getting primaried all that often. Or had, after this post. Time to refit to classic bait drake stupid!
• Raven “Majesty”: POS bashing or home defense, depending on how I fit it. Have a level 4 mission variant floating around in Curse as well. Once upon a time the king piece of my hangar.
• Dominix “Aesuga”: Trained with the sole purpose of WH ops in mind. Spider-tanks Sleepers while melting them with Sentries. Kinda like a flying ISK machine. Named after a legendary weapon from another game.
• Machariel “Mont’ka”: Another ship with a story, in reality a gift from Verone from my 1th year in corp birthday, and kept its original name. Still in the process of fitting it and training for it. Until then it is the most sexy station-spinning ship ever!
• Archon “Raziel’s Paragon”: Given to me when Vaden Khale quit EVE. Kept the original name, all his ships followed the same naming scheme of D&D deities and spells / abilities.
• Revelation “Cyric’s Immolation”: Another gift from Vaden Khale. Coined the phrase “Revelation Driveby” and inspiration for the medal “Born in East-Side New Eden” which is awarded upon the opportunity to bring their capital weaponry to bear on frigate sized target and destroy them. Ah, good times!

Phew, long list, and there’s a few things missing, like a Falcon I’d like to get again, maybe a Curse at some point, and some armor-tanking BC / BS wouldn’t be bad to have either. Also promised Vaden Khale an in character blog post about his capital ships, which I plan to write either soon, or when I finish training for them.

Great success is what I would call last night. What was planned to be an evening of agent work resulted in not only getting a decent bunch of agent work done but also the destruction of about one billion ISK! Under the guidance of our Chief of Astropolitics, Gustovness, we formed up a fleet of assault frigates to make quick work of several missions around our home system. Things went well for a while until Brotherhood of Starbridge took notice of what we were up to and decided for a change it was their turn to probe us out. This was immediately noticed and our fleet commander, Sho Tu’a, issued the order to retreat to Hasateem for the time being and take a small break.

Arriving there we noticed another mission runner taking advantage of our absence. We immediately adapted our plans and had Aria probe out the Raven. His location was quickly obtained while we had our pods and crews transferred into ships more suited to this job. Warping into the deadspace pocket I immediately pinned him down while the rest of the fleet arrived. The Raven pilot declined our ransom offer so we opened fire. A little short on firepower Aria offered assistance in her own Raven. As she returned to bring out the battleship a Myrmidon belonging to the same corporation as the pilot we were engaging showed up at the deadspace pocket. I pinned this one down as well while the others kept the Raven in place and with the firepower of Aria’s ship we destroyed the Raven as well as the pod of it’s pilot, and moved on to the second ship. We offered him a chance to pay a ransom and leave unharmed but as he said he would only be able the pay half of it we decided to destroy his ship instead as well. His pod escaped our grasp by a tiny fraction.

Not that we minded when Sho announced the booty obtained from the Raven. It seems he had heavily invested in Caldari Navy modules and a good deal of them had survived the ordeal. The party was complete when we learned this would mean all pilots present could count on a payout of about 100m ISK. That beats the total ransom we demanded and had us all pretty puzzled about why he chose to sacrifice his ship while he could have saved such a heavy investment. Makes me a tad curious as well if he had matching expensive implants in his head.

After we returned to station with the booty and salvage we finished up our agent work and rounded up the operation, to enjoy well-deserved drinks at The Skyhook. Even when AFC arrived there in full force to bemoan our unwillingness to fight “fair” our spirits soared. We won in every way this day. Renown with the Thukker, a 100m ISK in our wallets, and Ammatar vexed at the fact we remain an untouchable torn in their sides doing damage they would so very much like to see gone…it doesn’t get much better than this. I am proud of the way in which every pilot present showed great discipline and teamwork. We may be small but we are leaving our mark. The irony of being chased out to run heads on into opportunity only made it all the more sweeter.

In my last entry I commented on the poor attendance at the Apex meeting. However it turns out that my assumptions were wrong. Vendrin has left Ghost Festival and it seems Apex is getting back in business as an independant corporation. I’ve had no contact with him since the meeting but I hope things will work out well for him. He has my best wishes and support.

Two entries ago I briefly mentioned the plans to move to another region. They have been finalized after the needed diplomacy and logistical preparation took place. I am glad that I had already done a throughout hangar and asset inspection, so the only work left was pack everything up and squeeze it (quite literally) into a freight container. In the coming days I plan on doing background research about our new home and it’s inhabitants. It’ll sure be a change after spending the last months with the Thukkers.

Now that I am becoming quite experienced at flying the Raven class battleship I’m seriously considering exploring a new path. I’m thinking of learning how to fly Amarr heavy assault cruisers and recon ships. Their performance simply seems superior for our line of work not to mention those golden hulls have always struck me with awe. And there should be plenty of opportunity to use them in our new home.