Another of those flashy stories coming out of EVE Online that makes gamers and gaming pundits take notice. When a conflict in a virtual world escalates to these proportions – 11 TRILLION ISK in losses ($300,000 USD), people want to know WTF? When players go at each other with assets that cost multiple billions in ISK + months, if not years to amass, the story is worth the telling and reading. And so far as I’m aware, a player driven conflict of this magnitude and scale, can only exist in New Eden.
I won’t try to paraphrase the events or information. I’m too new to life outside of high security to do it justice. I’ve linked a few articles on what happened. In particular, I appreciated Jester’s version done in layman’s terms and the post by CCP Dolan. Fox News carried the story and here's a video of events. There are many posts and videos to choose from if you search YouTube or Google.
In what other game can an oversight in payment escalate to 75 Titans being destroyed, 6K players colliding in a region for armed battle across 21 hours, smart bombs exploding like July 4th fireworks while 12K people watch in real-time via streaming?
This bloodbath goes down as gaming’s most destructive battle of all time. Only in EVE Online. Talk about shock-n-awe. Wow.
Today marks my first full week in Aideron Robotics and Faction Warfare. There’s likely a few days lag between my writing this and publishing it but its close enough. All in all, I’m pleased with the decision and outcome. I still haven’t had my first kill. Grrr – circumstances are conspiring against me. *Smile*
Across the whole time, there have been a half dozen encounters. Of those, three resulted in Aideron kills. In two of them, I arrived just as the only successful kill was completed and the tide was turning against us. Basically, I landed as we started getting boomed and got boomed with the rest. The only one where I was actually there at the start, I’m not sure what happened. I couldn’t get a lock on the target – was in range and spamming lock but it wouldn’t take. Suddenly my ship started melting out from under me and I had to warp out to safety.
I am NOT discouraged. I feel more comfortable every day. I’m learning the differences in style and delivery between our two primary Fleet Commanders which helps. I’m no longer stricken with terror if I’m sent to scout a location alone. I’ve lost several more ships since being podded but haven’t gotten popped again. I learned a lesson from that unfortunate event. Less than 25% of my Atron’s armor left, no logistic ships and comrades saying “I’m down” left right and center, means start pounding the warp button. It’s only seconds before my ship is going to explode and I need to get my pod moving.
The Fog Clears
EVE has been around for more than a decade. There’s no shortage of content on “how to” do just about anything you want to know. I keep reading up on topics as situations arise. One article in particular, lifted the veil of mystery for me and the fog instantly dissipated. It’s almost a duh moment. However, it’s clearly not obvious to new PVP players so someone felt the need to address it on Reddit.
As our small fleet warped to Heydieles, I was feeling much better about my ability to perform. I wasn’t going to be a rock star but I should be able to keep up. Earlier in the evening, I’d taken the Atron out to do a few missions. The agents available to me weren’t great and it’s not really what the corporation advises – doing missions flagged as a Faction Warfare target. However, I needed combat practice that wasn’t sitting back as a drone boat, which is what I’m used to as a PVE Gallente pilot.
Cat Meet Mouse
Faction Warfare thus far has been a cat-and-mouse affair. We scurry around the system looking for targets and I assume the enemy is doing the same. We encounter a single ship here and there, as they’re warping through. A warning blip on the screen for a nanosecond. We land near a pilot mid task. He detects us and warps off like a comet. We send Inceptors forth on recon. They relay intell of any possible encounters. Often times, by the time we arrive the opportunity is gone. As a result, I haven't seen many multiple ship encounters.
I was fine as we roamed low sec. I felt on top of things and aware. I was occasionally sent off to check gates and returned without incident. As luck would have it, we had just missed a scuffle in Tama. When we arrived the participants were still talking shit to each other in local chat. Damn! We’d been roaming for a while and had come up empty handed. Oh well, we continued looking for a fight. I was sent to check for targets at another outpost and zipped off.
Too many icons for games I have no intention of playing again. I don't see any point in keeping them installed. Games I liked but declined interest or needed a break from remain. I only un-installed games I have zero intention of playing again.
Games that got the axe:
Star Wars: The Old Republic - tried it until level 25 and that was enough. Loved the class quests and instance content the rest was uninspired
Defiance - what the hell was I thinking? I don't FPS and nothing tied into the show as far as I could see.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - amazing graphics, great instanced content, fun crafting but the rest was a grind.
Rift - too little, too late sirs. If it takes too long for new levels and zones to come out, I'm likely on to the next thing. I might have come back but by then GW2 was out and I wouldn't have left that for Rift and still wouldn't now.
Dragon's Prophet - all round meh experience.
World of Tanks - what was I thinking part deux!?!
The Secret World - knew it wasn't my cup of tea and it wasn't.
Asheron's Call 2 - answered the age old question, can you ever really go home? NO. At least I couldn't.
Pirate 101 - I wanted W101 in a new theme, classes and enemies but with the same deck building mechanic. This was not it.
I don’t have much experience with contracts in EVE. A few years ago I a submitted a contract for my first cruiser, the Vexor. I wanted it cheaper than what was on the Market Place at that time and delivered to my home station. Shortly after outfitting my blockade runner, the Viator, I did two small courier contracts. However, the inherent danger of being setup for a kill or ransom was more risk than I wanted in my life at the time, so I promptly exited the courier trade.
In the past, when I’ve received a new ship from a corporation, I’ve taken them from the corporate hanger bare. It’s just the ship – not modules. Color me surprised when I received my first allotment of ships from Aideron Robotics via a contract.
I was busying looking for our standard Atron setup on the forums when a notification popped up about a contract. I opened the contracts interface; saw multiple ships and all of the fittings needed. Wow, that’s great that they send you the modules you’re expected to use. EVEN BETTER is that the ships are pre-fitted!
My complete kerfuffle on deciding which corporation to join aside, the one thing I validated was the corporation’s stance on taking PVP noobs. If their bio didn’t state clearly they were ‘PVP Noob Friendly’, it was closed without further consideration.
I have an ‘old’ EVE account if you go by the birth of my character. However, I’ve never played more than a few months consecutively and 99.9% of that has been in high security space, running missions and salvaging. Transitioning to an aware, proactive and proficient PVP pilot isn’t going to happen overnight. And certainly won’t come about because I clicked the ‘join’ button for a PVP corp.
Sucking from a Fire Hose
The day after I officially joined Aideron Robotics, I participated in my first FW fleet. It was my first FW fleet - EVER. It was only my second formal fleet in the entirety of my EVE gaming career. To say it was like sucking from a fire hose would not be an exaggeration. It was organized but in my opinion, could have done a better job at accounting for the presence of noob PVP pilots.
There are things I know about EVE from reading other bloggers and having played the game. Things I know in theory but not in practice. I knew that I should have an overview specifically customized for PVP. I found a recommended package on the corporate forums and installed it. I knew that I should be aware of the benefits and disadvantages of the ship I was given to fly as a new inductee, so I did some reading on the Atron. I knew where we tended to launch PVP fleets from so I looked at a local map. I did the things I knew to do, to avoid being a complete liability. Unfortunately, none of my preparation helped very much.
Our corp members only fleets, use a standard setup/team composition, where the Atron is pretty much the forerunner to combat. We advance into combat to tackle and scramble targets. In normal speak, that means slow a ship down and prevent its ability to warp away. Other participants will be our heavier DPS ships and logistical support, such as remote repairing (healing). I’m sure this works very well when the pilots flying the Atron have a clue. We did not.
75% through with moving to my assets to Caldari space from Hek, I get an email from Aideron Robotics. Their webiste was still having issues processing my API Key, which is what was preventing the completion of my application. We worked back and forth via IM to get it resolved. No matter what we tried and the fact the key worked in othe apps, the AR application wasn't having it. In the end, it had to be added programmatically by the site admin who then sent me a link with the key already embeded in it to conclude the process.
Really?? Crap I was mostly settled into Caldari space BUT would much rather do Gallente side FW given that I am Gallente. When I explained my delimma and all the assets I'd just hauled out there, it was suggested that I liquidate my assets to give me more PVP funds. Aidoron runs very specific fleet roles/fits and I'd need the cash to replace ships after I ran through my initial corp funded allotment. Did I really want to change my mind again?
I thought it over for a few hours before deciding it made more sense for me to do Gallente FW. This way if things didn't work out, I could uninlist and continue with my mission running within my faction, while I decided what to do next, such as possibly joining a straight-up PVP corp.
The morning after I’d made my decision to join Project Kairos Corporation, I received two recommendations for corps to join. The first was from Stabbed, a courteous and helpful reader of this blog and blogger in his own right recommended Aideron Robotics. The other came via email from an ex EVE Player / ex-blogger who suggested Chaotic Tranquility Corporation. Damn it to hell, both suggestions were for Gallente based outfits. Both of them know more about the game than I do, so I went about applying to each. Mind you, I’m half way through shuttling my shit across the galaxy.
EVE partially thwarted my attempt at soliciting membership in the suggested corps. There’s a new bug related to new or edited API Keys preventing programs from accessing the information. I recently edited mine to make the key not expire. On top of which, the prime candidate’s website, public chat and corporation bio all link to defunct locations for applying. I get “no access” or “file not found” messages. Grrr!
With the decision to wade into the deep end of New Eden made, it was time to find a corporation to call home. To find a good match, I needed to know what I wanted out of the experience and what would be expected in return. For my part, small gang and medium size fleet activity were at the top of my list. Having read good things about the changes to Faction Warfare I want to test those waters and have some time to continue my pursuit to unlock Level 3 Missions.
My goals in mind, I grab something to drink and join the Recruitment channel. Trying to make heads-or-tails of the chat is an eye-watering experience. One-line messages visible for a nanosecond, are gobbled up by the constantly scrolling text chatter. Neatly formatted multi-line adverts warp by. I focus on the larger adverts – the ones taking the time to tell me something about what they offer as a corporation.
I read the corporation bios. I check to see if they have a presence in low and null security sectors. Do they mention that they are PVP noob friendly? If so, that scores more points. It also doesn’t hurt to see that they have mission running and help with gaining reputation. The right side of my screen is cluttered with the corporation bios I’ve set aside for further consideration.
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