I couldn't help myself....

The current war was retracted a few hours ago, which means I probably won't have any more fun like last night...

I was generally just casting about in my Falcon, running down contact reports. We have a medium sized fleet (50+) out but they were not having any luck either...

I'll let Silentbrick's after action report pick up from there:

AAR - 10/25/08 "Battle for Josameto Gate"
There was no fleet for this one. Basically Dee Carson (falcon) and Saphion (Crow) spotted a WT hanging around Josameto and New Caldari. I undocked and started up the pipe as the fleet was off in Amarr space, but when I got two jumps out they said he was gone. So back to station. I dock up, 2 minutes later, they say he's back so I undock and begin racing up the pipe ( I use the term 'race' loosely as Ravens do not exactly leave a dust cloud in their wake).

The target was hiding a bit, but as chance would have it, reappeared on the Josameto gate in New Caldari right as I landed on the other side. Saphion announced he was engaged, Dee uncloaked and jammed him as Saphion called a point and I hopped through the gate and uncloaked within 15km of him.

As I engaged with cruises and heavy neuts, the target tried to crawl to the gate and de-aggro to jump through, however his Ishtar was nano-tanked and nano tanks while sitting still tend to be eggshells. (I've never seen someone's armor vanish like that. It didn't go down, it was simply gone and he was 40% into structure. (Yay, Caldari Navy Devastators!) Poor Ishtar vanished under the hammering explosions of our missiles and then Saphion called a point on the pod and killed it just as my first cruise missile launched.

So, tally is 1 dead poly'd, nano'd Ishtar and his pod. And we lost some missiles.

Ship
Pod

Though why Dee jammed the pod....I dunno. Maybe to ensure he'd have 3 headed kids.

Excellent Teamwork, as any one of us couldn't have done it alone. Saphion and Dee couldn't have killed him and since he'd of run from me, I couldn't have killed him without their holding him down and jamming him. Fast response and good teamwork over solo flying any day!

Silentbrick

My response?

Multiple choice:

A. His left eyeball wasn't done yet.
B. It was a reflex action. See flashy, jam flashy.
C. I'm a killmail whore
D. All of the above

Dee

Scattershooting....

RL > EVE
We have a saying in the Uni... Real Life > EVE and that was the case for me this past week. My wife's 83 year old father cracked a rib working cattle on their farm in Central Texas, so I spent several days there playing ranch hand. He's mending well and most of my soreness is gone! Returning to my rural roots was interesting, and there is much to be said for that life style, but a fast internet connection is not one of those characteristics!

I did conclude that yearling bulls & Uni nOObs have a lot in common. In small groups, they are pretty cute, but if you put 50 or so of them together in a confined space, they can be a force to be wary of!

War, again...
Merc corp with no current contracts seeks "fun". Finds opportunity to inventory station lights when Uni fleet of 50+ makes 25 jump trip to camp them in station.

Silent, Saphion & I did have a fun kill last night that I'll share more about later. Rapid response, tactical flexibility and teamwork ftw!

Free Willie! AKA Orca Released!
The long rumored Orca has been released on Sisi. I'm flying one now and will publish a full report in a couple of days. I want to have some hands on with it before I publish anything substantial, but first impressions are that it will be a valuable addition to my mining fleet.

Eve Blog Pack Profiles

Members of the EVE Blog Pack are going to be coordinating and posting profiles of the members over the course of the coming weeks and months, as part of an effort to cross-polinate between our blogs!

Here is the first profile.

Name/Handle: Colonel Roc Wieler

Blog URL: Roc's Ramblings at http://everamblings.wordpress.com

Faction: Minmatar Republic

Started EVE: 2006

What brought me here:
My love for science fiction has been something inspired in me since I first Star Wars at the theatre as a kid. I loved the richness of the mythology, the vastness of the universe; the true sense of wonder. So naturally, I played Star Wars Galaxies the day it came out. Played dedicated for five years. The last two years though, I noticed the game was continually being dumbed down. I hate dumbed down. I enjoy depth. Someone mentioned EVE Online to me, and well, been here ever since. Even gave up Star Wars for it, my childhood love.

Playstyle:
I am a Fleet Commander for the Tribal Liberation Force, as well as recently promoted to Fleet Commander in my corp, Freeform Industries. I do missions every now and then, but my real passion is the market. Both my alts are out of the box traders, and I really enjoy the cutthroat nature of doing business. I've never mined, never even opened research or industry, and have never managed a corp. One step at a time.

What keeps me playing:
Ironically, there are two things. The first is that you don't need to be here 23/7 for fear of missing out on some huge event. That flexibility combined with real time skill training (as opposed to mindless grinding) makes it great for me. During the week, I'm a casual player, and that's just fine. The second reason I've already mentioned indirectly. Depth. Vastness. Mythology. EVE Online is so comprehensive that I am STILL catching up on my reading, just to absorb myself deeper into this universe we call home.

What I write:
My personal blog is all in character (with occasional exception). My approach to writing is a little different than most I am told. I tend to merge real life happenings with ingame happenings, with a bit of complete fantasy mixed in to throw you off. So far, it's been fun. I am also a columnist over athttp://www.eve-mag.com and hope to also get an article or two into EON Magazine. That would be something.

Other Interests:
I am also a co-developer for Capsuleer, the definitive iPhone application for EVE Online. I enjoy making 3D wallpapers as well, and have contributed some to the EVE Online galleries.

What you should know about EVE:
It's intimidating when you start; overwhelming actually. It's like learning a new Operating System and learning how to live in a completely new universe all at the same time. But stick with it, seriously. The rewards are worth it.

Co-Operative Mining Guide

One of the new students who was participating in a quick & dirty little mining op with me Thursday night has been reading through the mining information on our internal forums and asked why the Co-Operative Mining Guide that I authored for Eve University was not on my blog....

Erm... Well... MetaDog ate my only copy? I'm working on a Sanskrit translation? It was in my alt's cargo hold when she was ganked in BWF?

Not buying any of that, are you...

The simple reason is that I didn't think about it until asked.

So, here it is:

Eve University Co-Operative Mining Guide

This version is more than a year old and needs to be tweaked just a bit, but 99% of the information conveyed is still valid.

The purpose of the document is to show how to take all of the wonderful theory in Halada's Guide and put it into practice. More hands on & less numbers. As such, it is not intended to stand alone, but to be viewed in concert with the other more technical resources available.

I'll put updating this on my To Do list. If I can find the last page...

"Have a rest! Sit a spell!"

Growing up in the Panhandle of Texas and spending summers at my grandparents, I heard that phrase often uttered by Granny to friends, family and strangers who appeared at the door. It was an expression of welcome and hospitality designed to reassure the listener that their visit was a highpoint of the day and not an interruption.

So, to those of you who may find your way here today through the Eve Blog Pack mention in the Eve Online newsletter, "Have a rest! Sit a spell!"

The collection of blogs that CrazyKinux has assembled is a cross-section of Eve. Some of us wear 'white hats'. Some wear various shades of gray. Some only demonstrably black.

Some of us freely cross the line between talking about Eve as a player to looking at it from an external perspective. Others speak only in the voice of the character that lives inside the Eve Universe because, after all, interwebs spaceships are serious business!

Whatever your Eve profession, perspective or preference, I think you'll find at least one member of the Eve Blog Pack that provides information, entertainment or commentary that suits you. I know I have!

So, as Granny would say, "Don't be a stranger! Come see us soon!"

Haiduken War Video

I started playing around with Fraps before the war, aiming toward a new recruiting video.

Although I did get lots of footage, frapsing has not become second nature, as I missed lots of opportunities. I need to update my pre-combat check list to include loading Fraps and my firing point procedures to include F9 right after F1-F8!

In any event, here is my first effort:

http://eve-files.com/dl/175539 This version is much higher quality than the YouTube one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKWNsJoMknA

Music:

Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
The Bug - Mary Chapin-Carpenter
Fast as You - Dwight Yoakam
We'll Meet Again - Johnny Cash
Beer For My Horses - Toby Keith / Willie Nelson

Tools used:

Fraps
Video Studio 9
Free MP3 WMA converter
Paint Shop Pro

The Poster at the end is a prototype that I stole... erm.. borrowed from Melissa Dawn. It's obvious that Melissa is a professional and I am just a rank amateur.

For a first effort, I'm pretty pleased. Take a look & let me know what you think!

Haiduken War Ends

Our war ended as Haiduken withdrew the war dec a few days into the second week.

Lately, Uni wars had a very discernible pattern. Our opponents generally don't do any research before they engage us. As a result, when they discover that they will be outmanned 23/7 by large fleets of fearless students in cheap ships, they turn the war into a demonstration of their interceptor flying abilities, refusing to engage and turning local into a smack fest. No fun for Uni staff, no fun for the students and the students don't learn anything.

This war was totally different. Props to Broadcast & the Haiduken pilots. They continued to engage with ships of all sizes, our students had lots of fun, new FC's and new combat pilots emerged. Local smack was minimial and after almost every engagement, "GF" was exchanged in local.

And at the end, Haiduken joined us in a conga line outside a Poinen station. :)