Why do Amarr ships have to look so awesome?

I want an Ark.

You gotta pay to touch it

Why?

Mianly because it'd be useful for moving stuff to Seraph out in LowSec...

Okay I'm lying, it's just because it's sexy. And it can use a jump drive. Stupid Amarrian ships, looking hawt and tempting me with their golden curves.

So where's my problem?

Skill wise, it's not too bad, most of the skills I need I'll be picking up for my Archon anyway, like Jump Drive Calibration and the like. And getting Jump Freighter IV won't take long at all (about a week), plus the skillbook is fairly cheap.

So the skills aren't a problem. Actually, as of right now I could sit in an Ark within nine days. Nine. No, the real problem is the cost for the hull. All six billion of it.

Jesus.

I have no idea how I'd pay for that. Like ever. The only things I can think of are wormholes, FW spamming or NullSec sanctums. And maybe Incursions if I felt insane.

Or selling one of my characters. I'd never sell Seraph or Zendrak, but I've got a missioning alt I barely use. He's got around 24mil SP, maxed gunnery supports and is about a month from flying a Paladin. I wonder how much I'd get for him. Maybe it's worth looking in to.

Anyway, good luck out there guys.

Developing an obsession... And I don't care

Over the past week or so, I've been getting steadily more and more excited about jumping into my carrier. So much so, that the normally boring grind of moving modules for ships around has become fun when it's for my Archon.

I think I've got something wrong with me.

But anyway, when Odyssey hits, I won't be far from flying it at all. Under current skill training, I'm 38days away, the majority of that being Amarr Battleship IV and V. I can't tell you how glad I am I won't have to train that!

After the changed skill requirements, I'll just need to finish off Jump Drive Operation V (which is training at the moment with just over 9 days left), then quickly train Jump Drive Calibration IV (only III is needed but IV is better in my eyes) and get Capital Ships IV and Amarr Carrier I before I'm able to sit in it. Of course, a major problem here is the cost of those skillbooks (400 and 500mil respectively), but I'm getting back into trading again, and Seraph can easily earn a billion or two with some hard plexing over the course of a week. Basically, I could be in an Archon within a month.

I'm almost buzzing with excitement at the thought of it, since the Archon is my first "real" capital ship. While the Providence freighter I own, The People's Republic, is technically a capital ship it doesn't have a jump drive. In my eyes freighters are more pseudocapital ships than real capitals, as I define a capital ship as a ship with a jump drive that is larger than a battleship. I honestly can't wait to start training for triage modules and all that jazz. I'll probably have to join a NullSec Alliance at some point if I want to use it as anything more than a glorified bus though.

And I'm planning on videoing/screenshotting my first "jump" with it, so I can look back with fondness. Or if I die straightaway, you guys can get some cheap laughs from it. It's a win-win! Except for me, since I potentially get to lose a carrier D:

But since I've turned into such a rabid fan of carriers, I've spent alot of time over the last week or so scouring for every possible nugget of information or video on carriers, triage and logistics. I get a little obsessed sometimes if you hadn't guessed. But if you love carriers as much as me, here's a list of the stuff I've found and liked in my search.

Maybe you'll enjoy reading and watching it too!

EVE-Co Pilot Videos (Youtube)
SlowCat Carrier Prep
SlowCats in action supporting Titans
Carrier/SuperCarrier structure bashing
More SlowCat footage
Archon Triage footage
More Triage stuff
Jump drive tutorial inc. Carriers

Rooks and Kings Videos (Youtube)
Clarion Call I - Triage Carriers
Clarion Call II - Pantheon Carriers
"Anatomy of a Fight" Video - Short focus on Triage Carriers (7:35 - 13:30)
Triage footage, Part 1 and Part 2

Other stuff
Azual Skoll's guide on moving Capital ships
Archon fitting on Battleclinic (ew) with a good discussion on fitting options (yay)
Carriers 101: Training - The Mittani.Com
Carriers 102: Drones - The Mittani.Com
Carriers 103: Implants and Cynos - The Mittani.Com
Dotlan Jump Planner (yes I am that sad)


So that's all I've got, if I find anything else that's cool/interesting I'll add it on later. I hope somebody out there gets something out of this list, because it's made me realise quite how much time I've spent looking at carriers this week. It's a little worrying, not going to lie.

I'm going to go out and have a real life now o.O

Good luck out there guys :)

Guardian Incursion Guide - Fitting and Flying (Part 2)

Part one is here

So here's part two of my Logisitics Incursion guide for Guardian pilots. This part will mainly focus on the ship itself, i.e fitting it and some implants you might want to ease fitting. So let's get started!

The Guardian - Overview

The Guardian is a versatile logistics ship, and my personal favourite. It can run 4/2 or 5/1 equally effectively, has a utility mid for sensor links/tracking links and boasts extremely high resists (racial resists to exp/kin makes for a tough armour tank).  However 5/1 setups are usually for blitz fleets with two Logistics V Guardian pilots and nine DPS boats, the standard 4/2 fit with three Logistics ships is much more common. The 4/2 fit also allows the Guardian to supply other fleet members with cap if their partner is Logistics V, as they only need one transfer to keep everything running, which is great for those cap hungry Amarr battleships or MWD fleets.

There are some downsides to the Guardian also. They are heavily reliant on a cap chain, a Guardian without a cap chain is effectively useless. Also, fitting a Guardian with T2 reps along with a good tank is next to impossible without Genolutions, T2 fitting rigs and 5% fitting implants, which is verging on insane levels of investment for a comparatively small return. Therefore Guardians are almost always fit with Meta 4 reps, which means that Oneiroses (commonly fit with T2 reps) will frequently outrep Guardians. Make no mistake though; the Guardian is just as effective an Incursion Logi as an Oneiros.

Guardian fits

This first fit is aimed at the new Guardian pilot, aiming to maximise cost effectiveness without sacrificing tank or repping ability. Basically, it’s cheap, but it still works well.

Guardian - Basic New Bro Fit

Highs

4 x Large ‘Solace’ Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

2 x Large ‘Regard Power Projector

Mids

1 x 10mn Afterburner II

1 x Remote Sensor Booster II/Tracking Link II/Sensor Booster II

Lows

1 x Damage Control II

1 x Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

1 x 1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plate I

1 x Imperial Navy Armour EM Hardener

1 x Imperial Navy Armour Thermic Hardener

Rigs

2 x Medium Ancillary Current Router II                      

Drones

Either 5 x Light Armour Maintenance Bot Is or 5 x Light drones of your choice

All of this fits with no implants.

Now this looks rather pricey at first glance when you look at the lows/rigs, but everything there is for a reason. The faction armour hardeners are for CPU issues, they don’t actually provide anything better than the bog-standard T2 versions other than that. Plus, they only cost between 10 - 20mil each, so they’re hardly going to bankrupt you. The rigs are another matter. If I remember correctly, T2 Ancillaries are going to set you back around 80mil each, and that’s obviously going to sting if you need to replace it.

If you’re not of a fan of dual T2 rigs, the first option you have is to replace on with a T1 rig and buy yourself an “Inherent Implants ‘Squire’ Engineering EG-603” Implant (3%) to fix your powergrid if you've got the slot spare. This implant only costs about 20mil, so it’s a good alternative if you've got room in your head. It’s also possible to cut down to two T1 rigs, but you’ll need both Genolution Implants (the CA-1 and the CA-2) and the 3% Engineering Implant to make it fit. However, the overall cost is usually lower than two T2 rigs. Once again, if you've got the headspace, I’d recommend this option. Losing your pod is much less likely than losing your ship.

Here's a little sum up for those who like things simplified. Remember these options assume perfect fitting skills!

Option 1: Two T2 Ancillary Current Routers

Option 2: One T1 and a T2 Ancillary Current Router plus a 3% Engineering Implant

Option 3: Two T1 Ancillary Current Routers plus both Genolution Implants plus a 3% Engineering Implant.

Personally I use Option 3, though all of them are viable. Choose whatever's best for you. Option 3 was the cheapest when I fit my Guardian, but prices can move around, so make sure to check before buying! 

Now to explain the fit a little. Highs are the common 4/2 variety, meaning four reps and two cap transfers. Mids are also fairly obvious, AB to help speed tank, and free mid is for whatever you most need. ReSebos are great for BS heavy fleets, while tracking links are helpful for both cruiser and BS hulls. You can also fit a personal sensor booster for HQ sites in order to lock and apply reps faster and keep people alive. The lowslots are purely dedicated to tank, the DCU and resist mods bringing you to 70% + on all resists, which is the baseline for an incursion ship. However, your lowest resist is 75%, which is hardly “low”, so you’ve got a strong tank. This is backed up nicely by the 1600mm plate, which provides your buffer for other logis to catch you before you explode. Also, the 1600mm plate is a requirement not an option. An 800mm simply does not provide enough armour HP despite the fact it makes fitting T2 reps easier.  As one of my FCs so artfully put it; “Get a 1600mm plate or GTFO of my fleet”.

So that’s the basic fit. What if you’ve got loads of liquid ISK sitting around and want to invest in survivability?

Guardian - Pimp Logi Fit

Highs

4 x Large ‘Solace’ Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

2 x Large ‘Regard Power Projector

Mids

1 x Republic Fleet 10mn Afterburner

1 x Remote Sensor Booster II/Tracking Link II/Sensor Booster II

Lows

2 x Centii A-Type Adaptive Nano Plating

1 x Centus C-Type Armour EM Hardener

1 x Centus C-Type Armour Thermic Hardener

1 x 1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plate I

Rigs

Same as before

Drones

Same as before

Once again you’ve got the T2 rigs vs Implants + T1 rigs option here.

Anyway, this pimpage is designed to increase your tank substantially, allowing you to survive both Vanguard and Assault sites with ease. This fit is capable of running mothership sites and surviving, while I would not recommend using the cheaper fit in a mothership site unless you're with experienced logis and you've got some experience yourself. You may also have to overheat your hardeners to pull through. Seriously, mothership sites are tough.

The loss of the DCU looks bad, but this fit emphasises resists on the armour, since you should never enter hull in an incursion site anyway. This change adds about 4k EHP and between 2 - 4% higher resists to each damage type. This doesn't sound like a big increase, but trust me it is, the way resistances work means that a small increase leads to a massive decrease in damage taken. Furthermore, the Republic Fleet AB adds about 30m/s to your speed compared to the T2, which helps your tank further by making you harder to hit. Of course, make no mistake these upgrades are costly, and the basic fit works perfectly well in both Vanguards and Assaults. It’s just an option to make your boat more survivable if everything goes to hell/you start running mothership sites frequently. Also note that pimping your logi boat beyond this is just a pointless waste of ISK. It’s possible to argue that even this fit is verging on the “not worth the investment” side, but anything above this is seriously a waste. Instead, invest it into a shiny T3 to run Incursions with when your fleet has lots of spare logi but is desperate for DPS boats. 

If you've got a DPS Legion on hand aswell as a nicely fit Guardian (and maybe an Oneiros as well if you can face Gallente Cruiser V so shortly after Amarr Cruiser V and Logistics V), you'll be able to fill pretty much any open slot a fleet has available. Plus if you're running sites and a Logi/DPS has to drop and you've got no replacements for the person leaving, you can offer to switch roles. FCs will love you if you can do this, since it keeps the fleet running and the ISK flowing. You can move both of your ships around in an Orca if you decide to run with two incursion boats, it doesn't take long to train for, plus it can store loads of ammo, spare fittings, plus things like Lyavite (which you need for some incursion sites) and nanite paste.

So that's my opinions on how you should fit your Guardian, and some options for upgrading. Next we'll look at implants you can utilise to help your ship be more effective, tougher and better overall in Part 3 - Filling your head with crazy things.

Good luck out there guys :)

Lots of Luck + Limited skill = Double kill

So I thought I’d share a little engagement I had a week or so back with you guys, mainly because it’s one of the first times in a long time that I’ve actually had such a good fight.

Armour Breachers go!

I was roaming around FW space in my trusty armour Breacher “Cyno”, looking for some targets to murder. In the last week or so, the Amarr Militia has led a massive counter-attack against the Minmatar, and we’re doing pretty damn well. I think in terms of systems, we’ve got the upper hand at the moment, and we’re beginning to assault the Amamake area as of writing this.




We’re also currently sitting on Tier 3 for LP rewards, which gives us a 50% LP bonus to everything, including plexing. That’s made making money for frigates much easier, if you capture two novice plexes while out solo roaming, you’ve easily covered your little T1 frigate with some left over.

But anyway, I end up in Oyonata, only one jump from Sahtogas and notice a Wolf on D-Scan at the Sun. Despite the fact he was technically better ship than my Breacher, I felt confident about engaging. I’ve flown Wolves before, and I know that despite their massive DPS and excellent falloff, they have poor range dictation due to only possessing two mids. I was pretty sure I would be able to abuse the extended range of my rockets, so I warped in at 50km from the Sun.

I landed at the Sun with the Wolf about 60km from me. We both sat there for a few seconds, and I wondered what I should do. I began to move towards him without my AB on, just to see how he'd react. After a couple of seconds, he turned towards me and lit a MWD. This made me much more confident about controlling range in this engagement, since my AB/Web/Scram would give me excellent control compared to his MWD and scram. I turned away from slightly, at a 45 degree angle to prevent him crashing into me and melting my ship before I could start holding range.

When he hit 28km, he pointed me. A long point instead of a scram? “Shit” I thought “It’s an arty-Wolf”.

Sure enough the artillery fire smashed into my shields a few seconds later. I realised I had to scram this guy down before he pulled range and blew me apart. Turning back towards him, I overheated my AB and tackle.  He was still on approach under MWD, so I quickly had him within 9km, scrammed and webbed. A serious mistake on the part of the Wolf pilot to be sure, but I wasn't out of the woods yet.

My first instinct was to go through with my original plan, i.e hold at about 6km while tracking disrupting him and burn him down, so I went with that. No dice, he was still getting massive volleys off at me, and I was going to enter hull soon with only 30% armour left. I orbited in closer, changing my optimal disruption script for tracking speed and hoped I’d survive. The guns stopped hitting me once I got in a tight orbit, and the Wolf was taking a serious pounding from my Nova rockets. When he had about 50% armour left, my spider senses tingled, and I hit my D-Scan on short range, having the sneaking suspicion someone would come running in to save the Wolf from such an ignoble death. Sure enough, there was an Incursus on scan, no doubt from the same corp as the Wolf.

I overheated my rockets, knowing I couldn’t fight both of them at the same time. Luckily the Wolf wasn’t tanked, and he was in deep hull by the time the Incursus landed around 11km away from me. I still had time! Switching to a manual orbit, I tried to move myself behind the Wolf, so it was between me and the Incursus. This was purely to give me a tiny bit more time, but it would be cool if I could have used him as a bullet shield...

Decent drop for once :D

So, the Wolf exploded gloriously as the Incursus closed range. By this point, I was in around 40-50% hull due to the Incursus’ drone and some lucky long range hits. I quickly established a 6km orbit around the Incursus like I’d originally planned for the Wolf, turned on my TD, and started plinking away at him, my two drones tearing his single Hobgoblin to shreds in a few seconds. I kept an eye on D-Scan for more reinforcements, but it seemed they had nobody else in system. His tank started to collapse under my overheated rockets, and after around twenty seconds or so, he gave up the ghost and exploded.

Amarr Victor! \o/

Offering a “gf gf” in Local, I went for the loot in both ships before marvelling at the flames venting from my humble Breacher, along with my heavily burnt weapons. Returning to Sahtogas, smug as fuck, I showed off my success in Militia chat because I’m an asshole like that.

Deep hull outside Sahtogas station. Was pretty intense!

They all seemed pretty impressed, and asked about my Breacher fit. I told them I didn’t want to give it out, but I’d lost them before if they felt like picking through my lossmails, so it was hardly a big secret. Besides, I’m going to do a little fitting post on it in a few days anyway, explaining my tactics and fit. I haven’t loved a ship this much since my old Taranises. It’s pretty tanky and if you fly it right it’s an absolute bitch to counter.

Anyway, here’s the battle report because it made me feel all warm and tingly inside:

Link

And good luck out there guys ;D

Incursion Guide Intro - Becoming a Guardian Pilot (Part 1)

In trying to recover my ISK last week, I spent a lot of time running Incursions as a Guardian Armour Logi. And in that time I noticed a lot of hopeful Guardian pilots not getting into fleets for what I thought were obvious reasons, namely their fit. So I started to have the idea of a fitting guide for Guardian pilots in Incursions. But there’s already lots of fits out there on the internet that people can find and use, so to make my guide helpful beyond the whole “fit this you derp”, I thought I’d go into some more detail about what logis have to do in fleets beyond simply repping things, little tips I’ve found that make things easier and in general, a more fleshed out guide than a simple “fitting guide”.

So I’m going to split this guide into several parts, both for ease of reading (for you guys) and ease of writing for me. This first part will mainly focus on why you should fly a Guardian (or any logi ship in incursions) and outline the skills you’ll need/want for a decent fit. I’m aiming to keep it concise but fairly detailed. Furthermore, this will mostly be based on armour Vanguard/Assault sites, as I’ve only ever run two HQ sites and don’t want to offer advice on them incase I get it seriously wrong. I don’t want my bad advice getting you guys killed after all!

On with the mini guide!

Part 1 of Seraph's Guardian Guide - Why and how

Ew, why logistics?

So why should you logi? I can think of three main reasons:

Sexayyyyy!

      Training time

Honestly, training for a logistics ship isn’t actually that skill intensive at all when you look at what you absolutely require. Time spent skilling for a Logi ship is much shorter than a comparable DPS or Sniper-fit battleship. However additional skills that are useful for fitting, or just make your life easier can add a few months to your plans.

     There is a relative lack of Logistics pilots

Logi pilots are often in high demand when it comes to Incursion fleets. DPS and snipers are a dime a dozen, but a decently fit and flown logi ship is always in demand. This makes it much easier for you (and much more likely) to get into fleets and start making dat cash.

      Logistics ships are relatively cheap

Your average Incursion fit Armour Mach is going to cost between 1.3  - 1.8bil if not more, depending on level of pimpage/implants etc. An Incursion Bhaalgorn can break 2bil if you splash out on X-Type Nosferatus, and people often do. By comparison, even a “pimp-fit” Logi boat is going to cost you around half a billion on the high end. This makes them much easier on the wallet to lose, and much more cost effective.

So logistics are cheap, quick to train for and in high demand. Why aren't there more of them?

It’s probably because a logi ship can’t really be applied to many other situations. With a blingy Mach lying around, you can fit it to do other things, like missions or ratting to make money. A logi ship can only be used for PvP, or Incursions, and neither of these activities you can do solo in that ship.

Also, while the skill training isn't that long compared to T2 guns on battleships and such, it still requires racial cruiser V, which is over two weeks of training. That alone probably puts most people off. I can tell you from experience (after doing it on three characters) it’s not that bad. Plus, it opens up other T2 cruisers, and the T3 strategic cruiser for your race. Which rock.

Since we’re already talking about skill training, this is probably a good time to talk about the skills you need to fly a Logistics ship.

Skills for flying a Logistic ship

Main skills

As I've already mentioned, you’ll need racial cruiser V (So Amarr Cruiser V for the Guardian) and obviously the Logistics skillbook along with its pre-requisites. Now some of you are probably looking at the Logistics V training time (almost a month) and wincing. Yeah it’s bad. It’s also worth it, and you can still fly in fleets with Logistics IV, you’re just sort of a second class citizen in the Logi world. Logistics IV is bearable in fleets, but honestly, Logistics V makes everyone’s lives easier. Especially your’s. Train it as soon as you can, but it’s not absolutely required. Also I’d like to point out that anything less than Logistics IV will not get you into fleets. There simply won’t be enough cap transfers to keep you stable. Logistics IV is the absolute minimum. Don't be lazy.

You’ll also need the skills for a T2 Tank of your racial type. So Caldari/Minmatar will require T2 shield skills, while the Guardian and Oneiros will need T2 armour skills e.g, Hull Upgrades V. For your reppers, you’ll want the same remote skill as your tanking type, i.e Remote Armour Repair Systems for a Guardian, or Shield Emission Systems for a Basilisk. Training these to IV is enough, although I’ve got them to V because I’m training for a Carrier. :Smug:

You’ll also need Energy Emissions Systems to IV in order to operate Cap transfers for the cap chain. Of course, this is only required if you’re flying a Basilisk or Guardian, since Scimitars and Oneiroses don’t use cap chains. Even so, it’s still a useful skill to train up for PvP, since it also affects energy neuts.

Secondary skills (but still important)

You’ll want some decent Navigation skills, i.e the ability to fit T2 Afterburners and supports to IV. This sounds boring, but it’s important for your tank. Logis survive on the basis of high speed and tiny sig combined with massive resists, so these skills will save your bacon! You might also want to look into the Armour Compensation skills, as these help raise your resists if you’re using passive hardeners (which some fits use). I’d only train these to III personally, IV is a little long train for what you get at almost a day and half long train, and V is only worth it for supercapital pilots in my opinion. Of course, if you’ve got the training time spare, then getting them to IV is great, but frankly there are other skills you could train in that time that would increase your effective tank more (like the aforementioned navigation skills).

Advanced Target Management III is also a very helpful skill, as it lets you lock ten targets, which is your entire fleet in a Vanguard site. This is extremely helpful because it means people don’t have to broadcast, since you can monitor who’s taking damage pretty easily. As a result people don’t tend to broadcast in Vanguard sites unless they’re new, or think you’ve missed the fact they’re getting hammered. Getting "ATM" higher than III is a waste of time, since Logistics ships can’t lock more than 10 targets on their base stats anyway.

Another useful skill is Sensor Linking IV, since it allows you to fit both T2 Tracking Links and T2 Remote Sensor Boosters. On Guardians and Oneiroses, these are frequently fitted in the midslots to allow their fleet to apply DPS more effectively and decrease run times, which means faster ISK. Fitting these is obviously in your best interests if possible!

Other good skills are obviously the two main capacitor skills, Capacitor Systems Operation and Capacitor Management, since capacitor is life for logis. I recommend these at V and IV respectively, though V for both is obviously preferable. Also, you can train for logistics drones, but frankly they’re not as useful as you might first think. Plus, every extra flight of light drones is a bonus in terms of the fleet’s overall DPS, so in the vast majority of situations, a flight of Hobgoblin IIs or Warrior IIs is a better choice. That’s not to say that a flight of light rep drones won’t make a difference on a fast falling ship of course, but in my opinion, you’ll be better off with damage drones in 90% of cases. And finally, an excellent skill to have is Thermodynamics, incase you need to overheat your reps for a few cycles to pull someone through a rough patch. And make sure you keep some nanite paste in your cargo to repair damaged reppers so you don't have to hold up the fleet while you dock and repair.

Anyway, now you've got your skills, you're going to need a ship, and some things to fit it with. We'll look at that in Part 2 - Fitting and Flying.

Good luck out there guys ;D

There are girls in EVE?

This is going to be a short but odd post. Mainly because I’m not sure exactly how to explain this, but I thought that perhaps talking about it and making people more aware of what they're saying would help somewhat.

So I was flying in an Incursion fleet a few days ago, as a Logi. Completely typical fleet, everyone’s chatting quietly, FC is taking us through sites well, and we’re making ISK. We’re not blitzing but we’re hardly going slowly. New pilot joins fleet after x’ing up in TDF Channel. Not long after that I get the Teamspeak notification “User has joined your channel”. It quietens down for a few seconds in Teamspeak, as we wait for the new guy to say hi, like always.

“Hi guys” he says.

Except it’s not a guy. It’s a woman.

I shit you not, TS3 lit up like freaking Christmas with guys making smart-ass comments.

“I hear estrogen!”

“Oh my god a girl?”

“Girls on the internet are always men”

“Oh good, I was getting hungry. Make me a sandwich?”

“ Shouldn't you be in the kitchen?”

Now personally I was semi-shocked and embarrassed for my fleet at this point. I have absolutely no problem with a girl being in my fleet, and I doubt many of those in my fleet would say they have a problem either, but seriously, those comments were verging on ridiculous. And of course when the FC told them to quieten down (which I was thankful for) they all claimed they were” joking”, or just “messing around”.

Yeah you might find it funny, but what if she gets this every time she joins a fleet and hears those jokes? It’d get old so fast you’d probably get sick of it. And the comments didn't truly stop after the FC intervened either. Dick jokes, kitchen jokes, sly sexual comments were all slipped into fleet comms and I just felt steadily more awkward to be in a fleet with these guys.

It can hardly be laughed off as a joke every time either. If that had been a guy joining fleet, we would have said hi back and gone back to chatting about new movies, or whatever it was before they joined. But no, it was a woman, and by the holy sign that is a vagina, the majority of my fleetmates felt the uncontrollable urge to make sexist comments. And some of them were seriously offensive from my point of view.

I don’t know if I’m really putting my point across here, but I just have this idea that all this sexist bullshit when a woman comes on comms is going to drive them away in the end. Why should they play EVE when they get a load of crap from the male player base? It doesn't surprise me that they've started their own private channels for women-only, I’d probably do the same in their position.

Maybe you guys think I’m overreacting, maybe you agree with me. Either way, I’m not comfortable with this sort of thing in a game I love to play. EVE should be a game for everyone to escape their troubles and enjoy themselves. Not get told to “go back to the kitchen”.

Good luck out there o7

P.S Also I would like to point out that my whole fleet wasn't at fault here, just a fair few.

Well look who came crawling back...

I'm tempted to buy one of those posters from the EVE store

I’ve returned to Faction Warfare.

Yes, I know, I only left it a month or so ago, and I’m already back. I wasn't really expecting it either, but there you go. Shit happens!

Although this time I've joined the Amarr rather than rejoining the Gallente. Since my last attempt at FW, the Amarr/Minmatar warzone has equalised somewhat. The Amarr are still on the back foot, but we’re gaining ground despite being outnumbered more than 2:1 It’s like many of my fellow militia have said, “quality over quantity” ;) 

Still, I joined the Amarr because my character, Seraph, is Amarrian, and the roleplayer hiding within me almost squealed with excitement at the thought of fighting for my faction in the battlegrounds of LowSec. Plus we get to spam Local Chat with “AMARR VICTOR” when we kill things, which is pretty fun. Currently I’m based out of Sahtogas, which was our last staging system as of a few weeks ago, when we were down to only two systems left. However the fight back has gone well, and we’ve retaken Kamela which many pilots seem to be relocating to. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll follow them, I’m quite cosy in Sahtogas.

The good news is that the fights are frequent, both solo and small gang, and I’m enjoying myself immensely. I’ve had several fun engagements already, including flying a destroyer through a pack of enemy frigates and murdering them as I blazed past, flying as an insta-lock Condor during a small cruiser skirmish while pointing expensive shit, and later chasing a neutral Tornado 1500km (yes, one thousand five hundred) off an acceleration gate with several other fast tackle frigates, where we steadily pecked him to death. Our FC was almost crying with laughter at that point.

Solo is also going well, with Minnies often throwing themselves at me while I’m sitting on my own in a plex, and there was one memorable fight where I was capping medium plex, a Caracal warped in, and an enemy plex runner in a Thrasher decloaked not 20km from me. He’d apparently been sitting there unwilling to try and escape while I innocently tried to capture the plex. The good news was, I murdered them both, and got revenge on the Caracal pilot since he’d killed me earlier.

I’ve also made a serious attempt to cut down on expensive losses, so as far as I can remember, I’ve been flying T1 frigates, destroyers and cruisers during my time in the Amarr Militia. This has the added benefit of being cheaper for me too, so much so that recently I only spent 300-400mil on about 30 new ships. That’s about 10mil per ship, which is nice when you think they’re all T2 and meta fit.

Plus my hangar is steadily filling up with loot despite the fact I often pick through it to fit my own ships. EVE estimate puts it at almost 90mil in only a few days of on/off PvPing, which is pretty nice. It’d be more, but I swear all my fleetmates have Loot Grabbing V trained, along with Wreck Approach Specialisation V when we’re on roams. I honestly was next to one SFI when it exploded due to a pilot error on my part, and was only saved from been tackled by it thanks to the guns of my fleetmates. In the time it took me to move about 500m (I was 3000m from it), the loot was taken by about four other people. By the time I tried to open the damn thing, somebody in a Condor was already salvaging it.

I wish I was joking.

Even so, I’m having a great time out here, and long may it continue! I’m also hoping to make some decent ISK from our LP too when we get back to Tier 2, since we’re stuck at Tier 1 at the moment which gives half the usual LP rewards for plexes. The general rule of thumb seems to be that 1k LP is about 1mil ISK, and the medium plexes are worth 30k LP at Tier 2. Do the maths ;)

Anyway, good luck out there guys

AMARR VICTOR!