Category Archives: Nullsec
War, What is it Good For!
So the drums of war are beating. Sort of. In that “What the fuck are you smoking?” sort of manner.
Before I get into this I have a disclaimer: I am pretty much getting the CFC side of things. While I have friends in TEST, they aren’t really the “Core Personality” that people think of when they think of TEST. The forums, major channels, and the public information is what I can base this off of, so I am freely admitting that I might be wildly wrong.
Now I pretty much understand a couple things. First: TEST has a diplo that makes me look like a sophisticated, subtle driver. Thanks for that. Second: FA and TEST are having some serious pre-existing issues that probably need to be dealt with. Third: TEST’s inferiority complex is driving a lot of their “Core Personality” types. More on this in a moment. Fourth: The “Srs bizness” folks are shaking their heads, but playing along for the chance at some seriously awesome fleet battles. Fifth: Nothing will come of this.
I’m not going to talk too much about points one and two. TheMittani.com has more or less exhausted THAT possibility. Point three needs some explanation. I’m not saying TEST is an inferior alliance. They are most assuredly not. They have written themselves into the front page of the EvE Alliance list. They lead one of the biggest Coalitions to grace Null right now, and their leadership have worked damn hard and are rightfully proud of what they have achieved. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a perception, both inside and outside of TEST, that this success is “tainted” by the assistance rendered to them by Goons. Personally I don’t buy too much stock in that belief, but for people who seek excuses or seek to instigate hostilities, that perception is a HUGE button. Bright red. Labeled “DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON”

The Reason For the Next War
Like I said, I don’t regard TEST as an inferior Alliance. I don’t regard HBC as an inferior Coalition. They clearly have enough military might, enough strategic skill, and enough diplomatic skill to thrive in the current EvE Paradigm. Right now there are elements within them that need a fight, and the list of opponents who might fight them is thin. They have an excuse, they have a rallying cry, and they have a button to press that will cause “TEH RAEG” to drive things to a head.
Mittens and PL are both looking at this with a more jaded eye. Were their leaders the kind for pithy comments I’m sure the average comment would be one of “wut?” or “SMH” but their disdain for the ham-handed workings of the TEST “Diplomat” is clear, as is their dislike for the entire war.
Finally this won’t be a war for territory. Alliances will be hurt, and FA will likely suffer out of all proportion to any other alliance’s suffering. TEST might suffer a little. Goons might try different things to keep the war effort “fresh.” PL may or may not be involved. I think they will act to prevent things from getting too serious. Goons don’t want more territory. TEST doesn’t want more territory. PL only cares for moons. The pets are all content, and while many of them want a fight, they don’t want to be blueballed all the time, and as an ideological war this one is a bit of a dud since it’s Pot vs. Kettle.
All and all I wouldn’t mind the war. I doubt it will turn into North Vs. South. This won’t be a war for survival (except maybe for FA.) It won’t be a war of competing ideologies, or styles. It will just be a war if the participants show up and fight. It would be the exact opposite of the old saw “What if they held a war and nobody came.” It would be a war they held just because people came.
What I Did in EvE Today
Today was a fairly eventful day. I logged in, fiddled with my horrendously unsuccessful market alt for a bit. Looked around and finally bit the bullet. Jump Cloned Corelin down to empire, sold some stuff to keep liquid and bought an Archon BPO. Because I can. I then puttered about for a bit, realizing I don’t have a good place to research it at the moment. One of the corpies misinterpreted my plight to understand that I needed an Archon. He mentioned that he had one he couldn’t fly stuck near a station owned by some reds in NPC null. He’d bought it a while back and just never bothered to skill for it. He needed it, and the ships it was stored with, moved out and pronto. He was willing to pay. With the carrier. I want to make this point clear. I did not ask for the carrier. It was offered to me free and clear, I asked him if he was sure. No I didn’t ask very hard. The Archon was not located in friendly space. In fact it was decidedly unfriendly space so I hopped in Robert Capa, my extremely slippery Loki that was literally built for this sort of expedition, and moved out.
33 jumps later…
I bounce through a few systems filled with baddies. Was kicking myself for not checking the route more thoroughly and I was *REALLY* hoping that the carrier had little things like fuel, some fittings, and that the station had a generous undock. I land on the station and breathe a sigh of relief. FAT undock. Love it. It’d take multiple Mach bumps to get kicked away and I’m not that dumb. I rechecked the jump range, counted the people in station against in system, and realized that I could go straight to a cyno beacon, and that the only person undocked was someone I’d seen stooging around in an Ibis. Whelp. Load everything in the carrier, and I mean everything, Undock, ctrl-space, quick d-scan, right click on the capacitor and JUMP! It even had fuel. Of course the idiot that fit it in the first place had triple trimarked it so lumbering into warp took EVEN LONGER than it normally would. Finally I breathed a sigh of relief as the warp tunnel formed and my ship slid across space into the friendly confines of our local home. Trading back the ships and faction mods from the carrier I enjoyed myself spinning it for a little while.
We have recently imported practically an entire highsec carebear corp. Caldari ships and mining vessels abound for these guys and hardly a turret to be found in their whole arsenal. I spent a little while chatting with them about the “why” of turrets and armor, including such gems as “I’m fairly certain an Armor tanked Nidhoggur could run down a Rokh” and a pretty intelligent discussion of delayed DPS, and the more recent missile nerfs. Fortunately these guys have the right attitude. They know that explosions happen, and are willing to train into what they need to train into. Sadly they have a bit further to go than I’d like but we don’t all start with great armor tanking skills, or T2 turrets sadly. What they do have is not only the capability to generate raw materials, and basic ships, modules and munitions, but a driving NEED to do such things. They were drooling over the opportunities to make money with a completely unconstrained voracity. When the JFs arrived they eagerly tore into getting themselves sorted and making money just to “stake their claim” on space, and see what opportunities they had. Hopefully they can continue their enthusiasm and pick up an equal penchant for blowing up the fruits of others labor. All in all quite a fun and successful day.
Get Outta Your Head Rook
Implants. Now that I’m back in Nullsec I need to think about implants a LOT more. I have a grand total of 1 +3 clone, and several are filled with +4 learning and +3/+4% hardwirings. I even have a low-grade slave clone for my Archon. None of these are particularly suitable for nullsec though. Bubbles make it a lot harder to save a pod, and sometimes you end up so far from safe harbor that you need to pod yourself to get home safe.
My first thought is: I’m gonna need more clones. Sadly my medical clones are 30 million a piece right now. I’m pushing 100 million SP and it starts to hurt when you get blasted at that point. Adding +3s doubles the price of the clone with decent hardwirings, adding +4s can make you feel like a real asshat when you lose a 200 mill pod + clone. One suggestion that had me slapping my forehead was “Have a clone for the skills you are training. Just 2 +4s, and any hardwirings you feel like. Much more efficient than a head full of +3s. Finish your skill? Hop to a new clone! Be efficient and don’t have a bunch of implants you don’t need in (unless you are really good at avoiding pod death in which case go for it)
One of the best ways of making isk is not losing it stupidly. Extra implants are really stupid. When’s the last time you used Charisma? Even Intelligence or Memory is much rarer than Perception/Will at this point of the game for me. Planning and preparing for your losses will help you a lot in minimizing the isk you waste, and making the most of the isk you make. Which of course leaves you more money for lots of ships, guns, and skillbooks.
Fly Dangerous, Score Kills.
How to Move to Nullsec
Put out a call for some cynos in weird systems for about three weeks. Get ignored. Wait until payday and get some plex with a SOMER affiliate. Win all the hulls you need in about 20 minutes. Spend half the plex monies on my spiffy new advertiser whose banner I’ve just dropped over there ————–> set up a contract for the alliance logistics folks to move it out there. Play with your PI, jump clone out to null WITHOUT plugging in the new EWAR books…. buy them at a fair markup in null. Realize you have less than 24 hours left on Amarr Carrier V. Which is, of course, still sitting at the wrong end of empire. Go to bed, get up, play with PI, go to work, come home, work on a blog, realize your contract was delivered. Celebrate while assembling ships. Finish a blog.
Your mileage may vary. Still need to move a carrier loaded with logis that need minor refits for alliance standards. Looking forward to shooting ships in EvE.
Spear Carrier
So I’ve headed out to Nullsec carrying not my own flag, but someone else’s spear. The mantle of leadership has passed on and I can simply watch my lane, do my thing and be accountable for no one but myself. This isn’t my first time heading to nullsec fortunately. Last time it was with the gents in Sons of 0din. An entertaining bunch of misfits under the rather energizing leadership of Rico Minali. The first time I went to Null it was as a spear chukker as well. Back then my spears were humble and simple.
This time I am bringing a rather fancier set with me. MUCH fancier. Also: this time I come bearing the Interstellar Brotherhood of Gravediggers, which is a part of GET OFF MY LAWN alliance, which is a part of CFC. I’m planning on going on frequent roams as well as requested ops. Do need to move a lot of metal into the home region of course, which is always the hardest part of getting started. While the “newbros” are certainly a welcoming bunch, there has already been plenty of fodder for me to nitpick over as a feminist and generally abrasive asshole.
I’m ENJOYING the game again. Whether I’m fiddling with PI, assembling and shuttling ships around, or going on a random cruiser roam the game seems fresh and fun. This is not something I’ve said a lot lately. There’s a camaraderie here, a sense of purpose, and a sense of achievement in the folks. For all its’ faults, CFC sits at the pinnacle of EvE right now, and they didn’t get there by accident. There’s plenty who will decry what they are and what they do, but this isn’t the old NC, there are carebears, and the standings don’t allow for a lot of challengers, then again the best way to win a war is before it starts, and the Goonswarm leadership team certainly ascribes to that theory. I like a good fight as much as the next guy, but good battles are one thing, good wars should be more like “Steamroller, meet Dandelion. Dandelion, meet TWELVE TONS OF SMOKE BELCHING DEATH!!!!” Otherwise you have’t done your planning very well.
I am looking forward to the challenges in my future, integrating with the CFC Culture, working my playing schedule with that of a large alliance in an enormous faction, and learning when to constructively hold my tongue, and when to challenge the status quo socially. It should be fun, and it sure as hell will be interesting.