Fate and Fear, Entropy and Responsibility

So one of my friends asked me to write a bit about “Fate” and how it (doesn’t) control us.  I’m not going to get into the theological part of it, I’m going to talk about it as it touches EvE.

In EvE we play the part of immortals.  We assume the mantle of responsibility for our actions in a way no other MMO really lets us.  Our successes and failures are directly related to our own choices.  What we choose to learn, to do, who we choose to fly with and against.  All of these factors control our success in EvE.  Nothing is really “fated” or “Inevitable” in this game save entropy.  Things will fall apart, but it’s not fate, it’s just the natural order of EvE.  The coalitions of today will fall apart, and new ones, probably stronger ones, will take their place, only to fall in turn.

Fate simply doesn’t work in EvE.  It might be inevitable that you lose a ship, but that’s because EvE is a chaotic game that encourages and is driven by destruction, that is, the invisible hand of fate doesn’t exist.  The invisible fist of Darwin is our weapon of choice.  The difference is fate doesn’t care, fate acts without a guiding hand upon it, the fist of Darwin knows, it researches, it plans, it clenches and it strikes.

Fate is usually used in some sense to absolve people of responsibility.  That is:  if something was fated then there’s no point taking precautions to avoid it.  If X is fated to happen, why worry about it.  If X should be taken care of by others, why should I try to prevent it.  I’ve advocated against this stance a lot, and sadly I’ve seen CCP bend its knee to the believers rather more often than I’m comfortable with.  For example miners, rather than protecting themselves, simply whined a whole lot and got the meta changed, so that the assumption was that non-combat ships dedicated to mining should have battlecruiser-class defenses inherent to them.

What makes this game amazing, what makes it different, and what makes it worth playing even with all the pain and heartache is that we can EXPERIENCE these things, we can have the soaring joy, the crushing despair, the victories snatched from defeat because we create the content, because we are responsible, not because a wizard handed us a better sword.  WE won those victories, WE lost them, the huge explosions are connected to OUR ships, not some random NPC, and they are caused or prevented by our actions.  Fate is a stupid excuse.  It reduces your enjoyment of the game, it makes your life harder.  Don’t cave in to “Fate.”  Take charge, you are potentially awesome, don’t whine, win.

I’m using it every time I can

Roamin’ Rusty’ Roamin’

So The Fancy Hats is in business again.  That’s always good for some fun.  We went on a little roam from Ami to Goniditsa looking for a fight, a gank, or just some fun.

There was so much rust on our fleet that we should have flown straight Minmatar to hide it.  Jaysus it was ugly.  It actually looked like it would be relatively smooth at first!  We got to Amdonen, met up, aligned, warped, I jump, fleet holds.  No hostiles, move on.  Then the misalignments starts, but really what’s the worst that could happen with a blackbird being left behind.  We moved on, bouncing gate to gate, then we catch an Itty V jumped behind me into the fleet.  Of course we only have 2 points in the 4 ships due to some fittings issues, and the one guy with a point where the itty jumped to is on the wrong side of the gate and has a green gumball.  Well crap.  So on we go, with a weird semi-cloaky Loki giving us an interesting chase for a couple systems, unfortunately we couldn’t catch him and of course taking sentry guns, even briefly, in a T1 cruiser is a bit of a strain.

We end up in Gonditsa with no targets.  We also remembered that Gondi was probably not the best place to go for a fight because the warp to the gate was something like 149 AU.  Also about the distance that a Stabber can go without QUITE losing all its cap.  We landed, chased an Algos through and logged.

We were rusty, our ship fits were good, but not polished, our tactics were fine, but our execution and adjustments to the current game mechanics were downright poor.  Clearly my time in null has ground the edge from my instincts, and my friends time away from the game has blunted them as well.  Fortunately I have a solution.

MOAR PEW PEW!  YARRRRR!

I’m using it every time I can

Intelligently Gathering Intelligence

So some of my friends are getting ready to toss out a highsec wardec.  Fun times.  They talked to me for some ideas and we went through the intel gathering process.  This used to be an absolutely arcane process that required time, patience, knowledge, and a lot of luck.  First:  A disclaimer.  This is for highsec wardecs.  Outside of highsec, wardecs make no sense.

The process used to be trolling around their stomping grounds with the corp set red and picking up names, searching battleclinic (and eve-kill) and the forums, to attempt to get names, then checking them in-game.  Dealing with the older battleclinic setup, with it’s far more limited information-gathering tools, to attempt to come up with fittings they use, and devising tactics to use against them.

Now you drop the name into EvEwho and start rolling.  Battleclinic and eve-kill are in far wider use, and offer fantastic tools to gather information, as well as the new zkillboard.  Information can be rapidly assembled and prepared, which leads us to the crux of the matter.  Finally you can see how they react to wards by checking out war reports, as well as seeing what kind of allies they can bring with them.  Now you can get all the information.  Now you can get it all together in an eminently usable form for highsec wardecs.  What do you do with it?

There’s several levels you can go to.  Bare minimum – Figure out who uses what ships.  Plan ships to bring when you see those people on to counter them, preferably something totally debilitating.  This involves basically going through each pilots solo killboard and looking at losses and kills and seeing what they used and how it was fitted if they lost it.  Simple stuff.

Next there’s allies.  Checking to see who usually yarrs in on wars declared on them, and seeing what will be the likely end result of a wardec.  This can involve any and all of the surrounding steps, but should at least involve the previous one.

The next level is to go around their stomping grounds, checking moons for POS Towers, or, as I call them, ISK Pinatas.  The goal is to identify assets that you can force them to fight over, and to figure out just how clever their leadership is, as they should take an interest in highsec POS towers as they are a total pain in the ass to replace, and tend to be rather lucrative.

The next level is a bit more onerous, it usually involves your underemployed people, or your drunken australian friends.  First you find their active times on their killboards, see when they killed with what, then you get your friends to stay on, pay attention and see roughly when people log in and out.  This lets you plan when to be active to take advantage of the enemies’ work/rest cycle and to get them into the fights YOU want them in.

The ideal goal of this process is to go into a battle with the people you want on your side, in the right ships, fighting the right enemies, with confidence in both the hostiles numbers and equipment.  The idea is to not fight a fair fight, it’s to make the fight look fair enough to get it and then smash them in as lopsided a fashion as possible.

I’m using it every time I can

Nooblets Guide: 21 Days to Glory

So, one of the things that tends to hurt new players is they can be made to feel really helpless really fast.  I’m assuming that most new players who find their way to this blog will find their way here because they have a friend who plays the game.  I’m also going to assume that their main goal will be to find fun things to do, and while PvE can be a lot of fun, new players who can contribute in PvP tend to do a lot better.

So our goal today is to find a fit that will put the player in the opportunity to fly a real PvP ship, in a fleet towards the end of their trial.  I’m going with the armor version because I’m still working towards a couple of fits that will go well with a shield version.  Here we go:

Finish the Tutorials on day 1, with all the skills you need for that, NEXT:
Racial Frigate to level 4
Small (Hybrid, Projectile, Laser, whatever) to 4
Drones to 4, with scout drone operation to 2
Electronics to 4
Engineering to 4
Gunnery 3
Afterburner 3
High speed maneuvering 3
Racial Cruiser 3
Hull Upgrades 4
Medium guns 3 (again, the one for your race)
Propulsion Jamming 3
Weapon Upgrades 4
Drones to 5
Energy Systems Operation 1

This will get you into something like this:

[Maller, t1]

5x Focused Anode Pulse Particle Stream I (Multifrequency M)

Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor I

2x Adaptive Nano Plating II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
2x Heat Sink I

3x Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

3x Warrior I

If you can find someone to rig it, and while the DPS is, frankly, anemic, clocking in at under 150, it’s a ship that will get a new player into a fight, other alternatives include the more aggressive, but more fragile Thorax:

[Thorax, Cruiser 4 T1 Guns]

5x Anode Electron Particle Cannon I (Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M)

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I (Navy Cap Booster 200)
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
2x Prototype Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
Magnetic Field Stabilizer I
Damage Control II

3x Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

5x Hammerhead I

or the Rupture, giving a bit more speed, less tank, than the Maller, but more damage:

[Rupture, Cruiser 4 T1 Guns]

4x 220mm Medium Prototype Automatic Cannon (Republic Fleet Fusion M)

Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I (Navy Cap Booster 200)
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II

800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
2x Prototype Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
Gyrostabilizer I

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
2x Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

4x Warrior I
1x Hammerhead I

These aren’t perfect, refined fits, these are solid “Blue Collar” fits.  They can be handled by a nooblet, and can get them into a fight where they can have fun and see ships explode, including, quite probably, their own.  My next guide will talk about how to get into all modes of PvE in a more controlled, sustainable fashion, building from some of the skills trained here, and some new ones more focused on PvE.

Some notes:

THESE AREN’T POLISHED FITS AND SKILLPLANS I ENCOURAGE AND HOPE THAT YOU CAN AND WILL GIVE ME YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK.  Constructive feedback means “You can do this with the lasers and this with the plate to get this and this in the maller” not “take a shower you fungal faced wookie dung”

These ships are meant to be used in fleets.  Logistics and ewar support can come from more experienced people.

Yes I want nooblets out pew pewing sooner, this will be sort of a “welcome to week three, grab your diploma, your lasers, and start killing shit” culmination of the free trial period.

I’m using it every time I can

A Mind for the Game

So EvE requires a different sort of mindset than many other MMOs.  The fact that you can and will lose something at some point in this game is thoroughly unavoidable.  I’m helping some friends from LotRO in their efforts to establish a foothold in EvE and received a bit of pushback, one quote in particular stands out:

If our newest members get into Eve then They should try not to die for the fact of losing points, gear ships, etc. I know Corelin is supplying the ships, but just be careful. My son has played Eve quite a few years and knows the cost of losing ships , property and other assorted items.

This is, frankly, completely at odds with my own playstyle and mindset.  To me, a PVP ship is dead the minute it’s fit.  Everything it does after is a bonus.  Even undocking.  That doesn’t mean that I want to lose it frivolously, but if it dies in a fire it’s part of the game.  Ships in harbor and all that.  I undock it because I plan on getting in a fight, and with T1 cruisers and frigs being what they are and where they are now, there’s no reason not to go look for a fight, and fight until the bitter, bitter end.

There’s several kinds of ships in EvE, I’m going to focus on three.  PvE ships, PvP ships, and Asset ships.

PvE ships shouldn’t get blown up a whole lot.  To me, every PvE ship that dies; dies because the owner did something really, really dumb.  These ships can be protected very easily, with planning and a modicum of situational awareness.  As long as you aren’t stupid you won’t meet the raging fist of Darwin.

PvP ships are everything from practically disposable rifters up to battleships, T1 and even most T2 ships.  These ships are not meant to be thrown away, but tend to get blown up anyway as the cost of doing business.  In a theme-park they are your repair bills and your consumables every bit as much as ammo, scripts, and cap charges.

Asset ships are ships that are meant for PvP but are only committed when there’s a lot going on, and a lot on the line.  Faction battleships, T3s, Capital and Super-Capital ships.  These ships go out expecting to come back.  Losing one is often a blow to even the most jaded pilots as these ships often have meaning to them beyond their cost.

The overarching mindset for all of these is the same, that’s why it’s overarching.  Ships are lost in EvE.  There’s circumstances where any and all of these ships can be lost.  Pick a ship you can lose, and go.  Don’t count on the ship coming back, or your pod.  Don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose because you will lose it and find out just how well you can afford it.  At the same time, do yourself a favor.  FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE.  If your CEO/Officers/Good buddy is handing out ships to go shoot things in, you can afford to lose it!  That’s why he’s giving it out, to help you with costs and broaden your gameplay.

If you want to try something, try it.  Find a way to try it smart, find people to help you try it smart, but don’t let your worries keep you from trying.

I’m using it every time I can

Ertoo III Moon 14

So Aridia keeps showing up in TheMittani.com these days.  I’m pretty sure even readers of this site aren’t too firm on where Aridia is, why it matters and whether or not they should give a shit.  Short, Short version:  It’s the crossroads of Delve, Solitude, Khanid, Genesis, and Fountain.  It’s a lot like Des Moines, Iowa.  There’s not a lot IN Des Moines, but it’s an easy drive to Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Omaha, and a slightly less easy drive to St. Louis.  Interstates all the way.  If you want to push it you can make Nashville, Cleveland, or Pittsburgh, in a day.  It has an R64 moon in a cul-de-sac.

Long version:  The big deal with Aridia, historically, is as a crossroads.  It is within jump range of nearly half of EvE.  When I lived there we had a guy in the alliance who had known bridge titans in range of us on his watchlist.  He constantly had names logging in or out.  To live in Aridia is to live with the threat of a bridge or a hotdrop as a fact of life.  For a long time Rooks and Kings kept people fairly honest, as they were pretty active in the area, living in nearby Syndicate.  Now they don’t seem to be as interested in the little playground.  Others have moved in and made their mark.  Drunk and Disorderly seems to have made a particular mark on the area.

R64 moons have long been in the back seat behind the Mighty Tech Monster.  This is going to apparently change with Odyssey.  Really it is.  We mean it this time.  If CCP finally delivers, and I think they will, then we will see the R64 moons become real hotspots for fights.  Oh yeah, there’s a Dyspro moon in Ertoo.  I know it pretty well since I managed to whelp a fleet at it once upon a time.  It isn’t the last fleet torn to shreds around that moon and pretty soon I suspect the amount of scrap metal around the moon to grow large enough to build a Ragnarok for every TEST member.  It’s just too tempting.  It’s right there, in bridge range of… everywhere.  Most alliances are smart enough to hold off, but now that Dyspro is going up in price, expect that to change.  That moon is a diamond mine, and Christmas is coming.  I expect battles there, big ones.  If I was running a major news site I’d have a toon logged in ready to start frapsing 24/7 as soon as things start heating up.

Finally, it’s a major crossroads, there’s so many places to drop a gatecamp in Aridia that you will see multiple fleets sometimes camping different gates in the same system.  For a smaller scale alliance it’s a smorgasbord of options.  Genesis isn’t the hotbed it was in the days of [NAWTI] but it certainly has it’s ways, Udianoor is lucrative… the list goes on.   Aridia has a lot of little things, one big thing, and it combines to create the sort of backstabbing morass of villainy that has made EvE famous.  Watch this space people, it might be quiet, but I doubt it will be dull.

I’m using it every time I can

 

 

King Alpha

Alpha is an interesting concept in MMOs.  It is simple enough in principle.  Do as much damage as possible, and do it all at once.  Sounds pretty simple, and it usually is, however there’s usually trade offs.  Weapons capable of high alpha often do terrible damage per second (DPS) For example in EvE the 1400mm cannons so beloved of every nullsec fleet do absolutely anemic damage.  The more DPS centric blasters do good damage, but also fire incredibly fast resulting in far higher damage per second.

What makes alpha the king of many fights is the “window of opportunity” for using it.  That is, making the most of the time you get.  Whether it’s killing a target before reps can land in EvE, or hitting a fast-moving ‘mech as it scampers between buildings in MWO, in PvP you rarely get to just lay on the triggers and apply a steady stream of hits.  You have to hit hard when you can, and be ready for the next strike.  What works against alpha is that the weapons that tend to be best for it tend to be BIG.  They mean flying a slower ship, one that usually can’t keep up, or running in a larger, slower ‘mech, that is more vulnerable to the fast ankle-biters.

Delivering damage well also requires a certain level of skill, whether it’s ensuring a whole fleet fires its salvos at once (shut up it is a skill I’ve seen fleets that couldn’t alpha a T1 battlecruiser when they had tons of damage on the field) or popping out from cover in MWO to hammer a persistent enemy, people have to know what they are doing, these are usually pretty basic, simple skills.  You would be amazed at the number of people who never bother to develop these basic, simple skills.

Things that trump alpha tend to be tough, fast moving enemies that can move through the fire zone, mitigate the damage in some way, and tear apart the alpha boats taking advantage of the fact that they can’t be fast, AND tough, AND deliver a ton of damage.  They have to fail on one of these points and a good brawler can get in close, and take advantage of his higher DPS to score the kill, or kite the enemy from beyond range of effective alpha and peck away at him.

Coordinated alpha strikes, involving multiple platforms can be devastating.  We’ve all seen the ships in EvE simply evaporate under 1400s, often before half the fleet can fire, or seen a ‘mech torn limb from limb by heavy alpha strikes from the dreaded dual AC-20 builds.  In EvE you can’t rep wrecks and in MWO you can’t fight back if you are dead.  That’s why a lot of groups build for alpha right now, it plays into their strengths.  That’s one of the reasons EvE fleets tend towards alpha-centric weapons (lag is also a big factor.)

So if you aren’t building for alpha, you better have a plan to deal with it.  Fly dangerous.  Score kills.

I’m using it every time I can

Techfleet + Fuckyoufleet = nofightfleet

A good doctrine wins fights.  A great doctrine doesn’t have to fight them (an AWSOME doctrine gets fights that you will win anyway!) Tonight I was on the good end of a great doctrine.  The Goonswarm Techfleet + Fuckyoufleet doctrine is kind of a goulash of shit you don’t want to face.  I’m sure there’s a few counters that could totally ruin it, and a couple counters for PART of the fleet come to mind, but there’s just so much of so many things FC’s hate to deal with so much that it’s kinda hard to get a fight with it.  I’ve gone out with it twice and our biggest enemy has been boredom.  But enough of that, who wants to see the fleet comp that could buy a titan?

Waiting to jump

 

More Waiting

Giving up on the fight and just posing sexy!

 

Was it fun?  Sure!  Did we do a whole lot?  No.  We won a fight because our enemy refused.  There’s a timer involved and you can bet your behind we will come again and see if our opponents managed to come up with a good counter.

This isn’t a “fair” doctrine, this isn’t a fleet you bring in the hope of getting a “goodfite” this is a fleet you bring to show domination of the field, and to force your will on an opponent.  Between the buffers, the reps, and the crippling effects of a Fuckyoufleet, this isn’t a fleet you expect to see getting whelped too much.  Will it happen?  Sure, because:  Goons.  But they can afford to whelp it.  It’s not called “Techfleet” for nothing.

I enjoyed this fleet.  Formup was surprisingly quick and efficient, it was clear that things were being handled well, including partitioning off sensitive communications areas.  There’s spais everywhere, keeping information segregated according to “Need-to-know” makes sense and works well for a command team like goons.  We moved out fairly quickly, but not without some problems, and arrived at our rally point read to move.  Sadly our opponents wanted no part of this fleet and simply waited out to see if there were any opportunities we’d grant them by making a mistake.  It didn’t happen so we figured for the timer, announced the next fleet and flew home.

I’m using it every time I can

Oh Look, the Miners are Pissed

Color me a stunning shade of not-surprised-at-all.  It’s kind of a very noncommittal grey.

Let’s review the last little while for miners.

• Their products weren’t worth diddly squat because there were a dozen other sources for them.    CCP nerfed the other sources, removing all T1 drops from missions.  Prices haven’t skyrocketed but they have gone up gradually since then.
• They were getting ganked constantly by dirt-cheap destroyers, cleaving through their naturally low hit point buffers like a chainsaw through lard.  Rather than say HTFU and “Tank Your Ship” CCP buffs the hell out of mining barges.  Which the miners hilariously still fail to tank all too often.

So now they are getting bumped, and ganked again.  BIG surprise.  CCP has even said bumping is not a petition able action.  So far anyway.  The mountain has come to Mohammed before and I suspect it will again.  The big difference between the two groups continues to be not one of playstyle, but one of outlook.  One side sees challenges, finds ways to have fun within the system, and when their sacred cows are smashed they find a new one.  The other side treats their sacred cow as an irreplaceable object and regards interference with it as heresy.  When the gankers/bumpers/jerks are made to change things, they find a way to adjust their playstyle to continue having their fun.  The other side lets their public face be completely dominated by rubes who simply do not want to be playing a multiplayer game (except for the part where someone else pays them for their efforts) while displaying a very unwholesome disregard for their own responsibilities with regards to things like safety.

Now I’m not saying all carebears are like this.  Fancy Hats slid by many a target during Hulkageddon that was well tanked, that was well prepared, and we whiffed on a few that managed to surprise us as well.  In addition there’s people like Mabrick show a very different face for the bearish folk of EvE.  The problem is the forum warriors are, well, caricature-ish and the drek they spew in local when folks like James 315 start bashing on them makes me cringe.  The issue with these folks isn’t that they aren’t being pandered to, because they have been, the issue is they want to have their cake, eat it, be able to sell it to someone else, and STILL have and eat it.  Eventually they will run into EvE and they will A) Grow or B) Leave and EvE will be better for it.

I don’t mind people leaving EvE because they aren’t compatible with the game.  It reminds me of the old Winston Churchill Quote

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Winston Churchill

if you aren’t offending anyone, you probably aren’t driving anyone wild with delight.  I’ll take the days I squeal with joy in return for the days I bash my head against the keyboard, throw my headset across the room or crush the power button and start drinking heavily immediately, without bothering to try to get my pod out.  Yes I’ve done all those things.  I learned.  I grew.  I do them less now.  They are the price of admission for the awesomeness I get to experience some days.

I’m using it every time I can

 

They Held the War. Everyone Came

So a couple days ago I said that they would hold a war because people came.  My GOD did they ever.  I’ll assume that by the time you’ve made it to my blog you’ve heard that CFC managed to whelp some supercaps and an entire cap flotilla in lowsec, and that PL and company played the part of the “Fist of Darwin” in this case.  What you may NOT know is how the numbers played out.  According to THIS battle report:  HERE

Blue team (CFC & friends) had 821.  Red Team, consisting of PL, TEST, other HBC members and N3 or whatever I’m supposed to call them brought 1587.  That leaves 872 in the middle.  Not affiliated with anyone.  Also more people than CFC brought.  Nowhere NEAR as much firepower as CFC brought of course, but people were so intrigued by the chance to hop into this fight that the kitchen sink probably did include some day old toon flying a velator with the mining laser still strapped on.

This shows a couple things:  First, never jump Titans into lowsec, especially 10 jumps or less from Jitamart.  No I won’t even pretend I thought of that before this fight but if you want to claim to be a strategic genius you might want to take that kind of geography into consideration.  The Titans were nothing but targets and were rapidly moved out or crushed.  Hordes of people came in.  The node held up somehow, although I bet the language among the DUST folks was rather educational.  Second people like to jump on goons.  This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, what with the Ice interdiction, sponsoring Hulkageddon, Jitageddon, Jihadswarm, and of course the litany of scams and wars that have made goons into Goons.  What was amazing was the gleeful enthusiasm with which everybody, his brother, his niece, her little dog Toto and some kid they ran in to on the way over came with them.  This wasn’t everybody, this was ERR-BODY.  I was racing down in a shield stabber to… well… KM whore.  I got 4 jumps out and Tidi started to kick in, and I was having issues with session changes that nearly cost me a ship.  Let me tell you losing a Shield Stabber might not be bad, losing the LG slave pod I was in because of stupid Jump Clone timers while FLYING a shield stabber would have been…. embarrassing.

My alliance, Get Off My Lawn is certainly looking expectantly towards VFK to see which way the wind will blow.  I certainly bet HBC + PL, N3 and possibly some other factions are looking to their leadership to see what and how things will change now.

One quote that has come out from this does bear commenting on.

I feel this fight epitomizes the position the Mister Vee (of GSF) and myself advocated few days ago, and thus we feel vindicated now that it was once again clearly demonstrated that you do NOT need to invade anyone, shoot any structures or engage in a soul-destroying 0.0 SOV war in order to kickoff epic fights in EVE. Some people in EVE needed a lesson that big fights almost always happen by accident‚ and the lіkеlyhood for them occurring iѕ exponentially bigger when there ISN’T a space empire at stake. Best fights are those where both sides go “f*** it, bring EVERYTHING” just because they can and have a good brawl.

Someone call Shadoo and remind him that the whole fight started over a tower.  That’s what put ships on the field for DBRB to Bridge loljump his Titan into.  Every powderkeg needs a fuse.  Unlike Spinal Tap Drummers, spaceships do not spontaneously combust.  Battles start over something.  For null to have a war both sides need to know a fight is in the mix or there won’t be a fight, just a bunch of disappointed bastards on one side and sleeping/eating/porn watching bastards on the other.  This fight happened over a moon, sure it belonged to neither side (that mattered) in this fight, but this wasn’t a fight for the sake of a fight.  DnD was stalking a moon, and being stalked by CFC, CFC was stalking DnD and being stalked by PL (and everyone else in EvE apparently) it didn’t happen in a vacuum, it didn’t generate itself.  This battle had a beginning, a spark, that lit the fuse that caused the big badda boom.

Fly Dangerous.  Score Kills.

I’m using it every time I can