Destroyers, Star Trek and Bombs

It was with some trepidation that I walked down to my ship hangar and looked at my destroyer, a thrasher class vessel packing eight 200mm auto canons and gyrostabilisers to ensure maximum damage. I was going to run a two hour roam, just to get to reacquaint with my pilots (old and new) and to stretch my wings so to speak. The theme was naming our ships after Star Trek vessels but Gorgoleon insisted on naming his after some Star Wars vessel. There was an encouragement to start using the more infamous quotes from the films including: 'Beam me up Scotty' (not actually said in any film), 'Klingons on the starboard bow' (from a song!), 'Set phasers to stun', 'make it so', etc.

Like all Bastards roams, we didn't go far - Zach had scanned down a myrmidon and the fleet, already assembled raced across to kill it and then a 15 minute cool off period as our globals counted down. Of course, we were further delayed when someone spied a dominix and off we went, yelling, hooting and hollering. The dominix was dropped in short order and the pilot pulled into 'yarrsom' for the negotiation of his ransom.

"Two hundred million isk please and you and your pretty little implants can leave un-molested." I said, a most reasonable request in my view.

"Five million." Shot back the reply. I chuckled and grinning I repeated my demand.

"Two hundred million isk please. You have ten seconds." There was a pause as the pilot was thinking about the offer. Meanwhile, the pirates were grabbing dropped loot and salvaging the wreck with wild abandon. We do have a second motto as well here at The Bastards and it is 'Leave no wreck or loot, behind!'.

"Nah, I have only +3 installed. I don't have any more." Decision made. I gave the order.

"Pop the pod." Even before I finished the sentence, the pod was smashed open and the corpse of the capsuleer flash froze in the vacuum of space. This too, was scooped up.

A few pilots linked in, thinking they were late asked where the fleet was. They were delighted to find out that thirty minutes into the operation, we had not even left our own system. Mynxee was along for the roam and she said,

"The roam started thirty minutes ago, we just haven't jumped out yet!"

Local was filling up and we finally left and zipped into Geminate via EOA-ZC; the system was empty with a lonely warp disruptor bubble sitting 20km of the gate, no doubt set up to catch those trying to fly back into low-sec. My two scouts, Zach and Jmarr went in two different directions. Zach had hostile contact and he vectored the fleet towards him. We arrived at the gate just as Jmarr yelled out that he was also tackled and webbed. He was too far from us but he kept his head long enough for us to get a picture of the ships that caught him. Mainly frigates and assault frigates.

Not being able to assist with Jmarr we attempted to assist with Zach but he had disengaged when we arrived.

Switching around to racing towards Jmarr's last position yielded nothing too. Disappointed we left this rump part of low-sec and went towards Oijanen and the infamous, BWF-ZZ system.

Finding nothing we went round this time with Happy San as out scout. We giggled when we entered 4-CUM5 but targets were elusive and we didn't have a prober with us; an ommission that I realised but hoped would not be detect.

It was only when we were almost back that we encountered a fleet of stealth bombers and assault frigates. With a whoop and cry we engaged some of them and then the stealth bombers released their bombs. Never knew much about them and from what I have been told, they were expensive and difficult to use. Well, after a few changes and upgrades, they proved to be devastatingly effective and popped half of our destroyer fleet before we could get one of them! Much alarmed, we all whipped our pods out and then raced back towards the relative safety of Evati wit a cloud of hostile ships chasing us!

A successful evening due to the fun we had, AstPlatinum got the award for using the best Star Trek quotes during the roam but I HappySan and Jmarr got honourable mentions for using the most in the evening. However, one can't hide the fact that our destroyers got themselves, destroyed.

Later on, HappySan, n00bish and I tried to unsucessfully tackle a missioning hurricane and yet later on, another fleet tackled two mission drakes and popped them. We got the pods and ransomed them but they weren't too keen to pay us ransoms. Instead they smacked endlessly in local. We then had another roam into null-sec hunting for a complex-running Ishtar - we missed it and ended up losing a cerberus and an expensively fitted rapier to a -AAA- HAC gang roaming through.

Finally a bunch of Bastards went hunting through a worm hole and ended up destroying a POS, stealing a T2 fitted drake, T2-fitted cheetah, mods and killed a ratting raven for lols. Netting a cool 290 million isk. All in inties. Even better that we had some potential recruits in our gangs, no better way to see whether we fit their expectations then flying with us.

Without HappySan's permission, I include his corp account for your fun and enjoyment. Please note that HappySan will have a spiffing new blog out soon. Now to his summarised account:

1. Raelyf finds a wormhole in *****.
2. Raelyf finds wormhole within wormhole - leading to WFC-MY in Catch! (AAA space)
3. Interceptor fleet formed for fun roam
4. Drake & Raven sighted in system next door by scout, at a POS
5. We start heading through the system, planning to roam - Raelyf is more awake than the rest of us and notes that the POS has no Force Field!
6. We warp to POS just in time to see the Raven log off
7. Drake is stolen! DJ sacrifices his Incursus to the cause, which we then pop and collect loot from. Drake turns out to be T2 fit with purger rigs!
8. Corporate Hangar Arrays are destroyed, yielding ~60M3 trit, loads of crappy t1 mods and come simple reaction stuff from the POS. Nothing of great value
9. Ship Maintenance Bay destroyed, dropping Raven, Cheetah, Thrasher and Iteron V! Pilots called in to help move these ships, as none of us really want to abandon our Interceptors.
Raven is T2 fit with rigs, yay!
Cheetah is T2 fit with rigs, covert ops cloak and dark blood armor rep (lol?)
Thrasher is salvager, we destroy it
Iteron V is useful, fitted with 5 Cargo expander IIs (No rigs ) - we use this to grab a load of the stuff which dropped from the hangars and haul it back!
10. Ships are taken away to **** via wormhole, and we continue our roam!
A few jumps away in Y-PNRL, just one jump away from AAA's outpost in FAT-6P, our expert scout Ravenesa finds and locks down a Raven ratting in a belt! (A fitting tackler, I'm sure you'll agree)
11. A quick kill later and we fly away with some nice shiny T2 loot, and decide to head back before our luck turns for the worse.

Yay!

Involved parties and special thanks:
Raelyf (Thanks for exploring and getting a roam started!)
Happy San (I'm awesome)
DJ Akula (Sacrificed his own ship to ferry the Drake, and also flew our stolen Raven back!)
Tallitar
Kai
Ravenesa (Yay for Raven tackling a Raven!)
me0de (Kicked that Raven's ass)
Inko (Stole a Cheetah for us!)

Yay for piracy!

It's great to be back.

Oh, we've also signed up for the Alliance Tourney but we're in the random pick list so imshallah that we get in!

Back!!!

Yes, I am back. After two months away due to my mother's illness - she's recovering and now out of hospital and it means that I can slowly return to New Eden, The Bastards and The Hellcats and piratical mayhem.

A lot has happened, not least that our venerable CEO, RoninData has had to step down as CEO due to a change in his own real life situation. He hasn't left the corp let alone New Eden but had to cut back on his time. I was then voted in by the rest of the board and I was actually reluctant to take the role on. Due, in part to my own absence. I felt that I didn't have enough contact time with the other pirates in the group and I was personally lobbying for another director to take over. However, after a few late night sessions - we hammered out a deal and I took on the role of CEO over the weekend of the 11th/12th July. My motto will be 'more of the same, but with better organisation!'

Anyway, I was initially reluctant to accept; as I have been away for two months due to my own personal circumstances and was supporting the nominations for two other candidates. Still, this position as CEO is for a sixth-month term with caveats. This is at my insistence and a vote will occur between the directors when my time is up. This keeps things fair and fresh. Hell, I might be sick of the role so it gives me an exit strategy!

I have no desire to make major changes but some change is necessary. One was for me to push for one of our newer recruits, Gorgoleon to be promoted as our Euro Time Zone recruiter and speaking of recruits, we've been swamped once again. Oddly, 90% are from the US/CAN time zone so I can see that our American pirate-mates will get some new faces soon.

Updating The Bastards and The Hellcats via a newsletter took me a good part of the weekend but am satisfied with the results. So what does this mean for me, I think initially, I will be spending a fair bit of my time running the corporation and not actually doing much ingame. It is almost a full time role. However, I have already started to delegate tasks to the other directors and I am keen to build up a small cadre of dedicated FCs. Made up of pirates who have no desire to move into corporation management but still wants to accept roles of responsibility within the corp. To be honest, the FC is probably the most important role, they lead the pilots into space and it's to them to find the victories and to bring them all back in one piece. A tough challenging role indeed and I am encouraging my fellow Bastards and Hellcats to put themselves forward as FCs.

Anyway, am very excited about the direction of the corp and the goals we have ahead of us. Will post more on the goals and strategies we will be adopting over the next few days. Too much to put down in one post.

Plenty more to come but I am back. Yes, indeed - I am back.

Almost back

It was with some cheer that I found out that my mother can finally come out of hospital. Have been out of action in New Eden two months this saturday and I have missed the thrills. Been trying to keep up with what's been happening via blogs and web sites but am aware that my pirate blog speedlinking needs re-visiting; the months of May & June are missing though I have read far and wide.

Anyway, just a shout out to friends and enemies alike. My ships are being made ready and I have started to contact associates and colleagues alike. I can't wait.

F

The Hellcats and The Bastards in the news.

The Girls are in the news!
Our sister corps, the all-female pirate corp, The Hellcats have been featured in an ISD News report. A nice write-up and yes, they are real-life females. As part of the interview, there's a ventrilo interview and all ops require voice comms. No chance of an account sharing boyfriend jumping in now is there?

Also, The Bastards recruitment is open once more. Click on this link to get the low-down on how to apply and see if you are suitable. We have a FAQ available as well though I apologise for the poor formatting....

Actually, sod it. Here it is below, the current The Bastards FAQ.

Recruitment FAQ

Q) Why do I have to submit my Limited API Key?
A) This is so we can check on your skills, and see how to integrate you into the corp the best.

Q) Is the API Key mandatory?
A) Yes, you will not even be considered unless it is provided. No screen shots.

Q) Why do I have to participate in a corp operation before I can get into the corp?
A) This is to allow the corp to test you and also to see if you like the corp. If you do not want to participate during the trial application period, why bother?

Q) What do you guys do?
A) We are a low sec pirate corp. We kill everything. Mission runners, mining operations, belt ratters, haulers... if it's flying, it will soon be dying (or singing as part of a ransom).

Q) What are the corp rules?
A) Other than common sense rules, e.g. do not kill corp or fleet members, honour ransoms and do not start smack in local. We are professionals after all. We have a corp policy document that all pilots must read and sign up to.

Q) Do you accept trial accounts?
A) No.

Q) Is there an age limit?
A) We require members to be over the age of 18. Some waivers may be given on a case by case basis but this is very rare.

Q) Is there an SP limit?
A) We currently have 6.5mil SP limit. This is still generally regarded as quite low and assumes that the 6.5M SP is focused towards PvP.

Q) I want to be an uber pirate killing everyone! I want to make ships explode starting day one!
A) Okay not really a question, but... you can be useful day one on your account while pirating, but you wont be soloing Battleships in your tiny frigate. However, working as part of a team, you can help us take down these ships.

Q) I'm new to the game, but really really want to be a pirate. I'm brand new to pvp will you teach me?
A) We have specialists covering every field of the game but we are NOT a training academy. If you want to learn piracy, we can assist but we regret that we will not be taking your application any further.

Q) What kind of ships do you all fly?
A) We fly everything, from Interceptors to Battleships. It all depends on what and how we are hunting for that day. You can have fun in anything but fly only what you can afford to lose.

Q) Is Pod Killing ok?
A) We are pirates, of course it's okay! However, we tend to ransom the pod at all opportunities.

Q) How long do I have to wait after submitting my application to know if I have been successful?
A) Normally, two weeks but if you have been rejected in anyway - you will be informed IMMEDIATELY. A decision is usually made within two-weeks.

Q) Am going on leave in real life. Is it worth me applying?
A) No. The two week process is a critical time for all applications and it's your time to impress. If you're not around, how can we assess whether you are suitable and vice versa?

Q) I am a member of a corp that is RED to you! Will I be shot at?
A) You are not BLUE until 1) You have been invited into a fleet and 2) joined our semi-public chat channel and subjected to active assessment. Both conditions will usually be completed together, but until they are met, beware.

Q) Do I have to drop down to -10 security status?
A) If you want to pod people and tackle them at gates, then your security status will drop. Enjoy your flashy status. Wear it as a badge of honour.

Q) Do you have access to 0.0 space?
A) We are free to roam anywhere and we do make frequent forays into 0.0 space, where the carebear is usually fatter but the space less populated. We mainly operate in low-sec.

Q) How about logistics - do you have a way to replace ships and ammo?
A) We do but only available to fully-fledged corporation members.

Q) How do you make isk?
A) Nearly all of us make all our isk from piracy. Whether through ransoms or loot drops. We have even scanned down empty ships and acquired them or forced a pilot to eject from their ship during a ransom. All loot sales are equally split up between all combatants involved. We have a unique and innovative automated system of loot inventory and sales. Check out: http://i-pirate.blogspot.com/search/label/loot

Q) Can I carebear when things are quiet?
A) Up to you but don't make it a habit. Much prefer for you to go out and make some noise.

Q) I have a main but want to pirate on an alt - can I?
A) No. Full-time pirates only please. Inactive corp members will first get their hangar access rights suspended then they get booted unless they have given prior notice to their AFKness.

Q) Can I do solo piracy?
A) Of course you can, just don't turn down too many fleet ops. Otherwise, why bother joining up?

Q) Do you have many blues?
A) Nope: only 2 corps are blue to us. One is our sister corp, The Hellcats. The only all-female pirate corp in New Eden. If you don't behave, they will discipline you.

Q) Do you have a forum?
A) Yes, very active and very informative. Access to corp members on successful application.

Q) You have a killboard?
A) http://www.the-bastards.com/kb

Q) Do you use teamspeak or mumble?
A) No, we use ventrilo and (rarely) EVE-Voice.

Q) You have a KB awards system? Cool!
A) Indeed - check out medals and ribbons here: http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=corp_detail&crp_id=8275&view=rank_ribbons and we also have kill of the month with prizes.

Q) What about ranks? I need a rank right?
A) Of course, all that killing has to be recognised somewhere if only to boss others around, so yes - we have a ranking system too: http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=corp_detail&crp_id=8275&view=pilot_ranks&page=1

Q) All of this sounds awesome, how do I get into the corp?
A) Step 1: Fill out the application which is located in the forums and you will be contacted in game. Watch your spelling please.

Just an update from Flashfresh.

Just wanted to give a shout out to all those readers who have emailed/evemailed me - I am fine and doing well. I have been with my mother most of this and last month: she's still in hospital and it's been a slow process for her. Another two weeks at least before she can be discharged but she's already got a secondary infection (bloody NHS!)

One never ever assumes that sickness and injury will be visited onto one's own family and when it does happen; your world tilts on it's axis and it can be difficult to find balance.

Naturally, my online time has been nil - though there's been many an occasion where I wanted to log in, jump onto vent and link it up my pirate brother and sisters and find plunder and ransoms. When I finally had time to check the forums after a long hiatus, it was with some sadness to see three of our pirate brothers leave the group - one entirely from New Eden while the other two went to other pastures anew. Our CEO was unavailable due to his own crisis and most of the board of directors were unavailable as well. However, the vitality of any corporation is from the injection of new blood and ideas and the newer members have largely stepped up and continued the looting and killing in our finest traditions. Check this tasty triple combo meal: a thanny, hulk and orca. Well done to Gorgoleon for (I think) organising it. He's turning out to be a right nasty Bastard. In the finest sense of course and younger pilots can learn a lot from him. He is an acknowledged expert in most things Minmatar, so seek him out if you want to find out about fitting a typhoon or maelstrom or cyclone. He's your man.

Happy San and Kamoonga and Persephone too. I love them all. Oh, just wanted to give a shout out to Happy San... he's been working hard on our ransom board and has a stylish blog to boot. Kamoonga is a killer of the highest order and Persephone has been fitting her size nines wonderfully in The Bastards.

So yes, pilot churn is inevitable in New Eden: no-one actually gets paid to log in daily and one's interest can wane quite quickly especially when the corp has too loose a structure with no organisation and active leadership. Luckily, The Bastards are not like that, we have, though it is far from perfect, organisation, structure and RoninData's distinctive style of leadership. An active forum and killboard and free corp resources as well. I can say the same for our sister corporation, The Hellcats though it is an interesting contest over who cracks the whip harder: Mynxee or RoninData. Both are excellent leaders with vision and so long as they're leading, others will follow.

A new cycle of recruitment will be starting very soon; we still have a few holdovers from previous cycles but each has a special case for retention. I hope to be involved in the next recruitment cycle, we've had to up the skill point limit to 6M now and would prefer more. There were some discussions to keep the skill point limit to 4M as a deference to The Bastards roots as a bunch of sweaty, inexperienced but enthusiastic pirates but pragmatism won the day.

This should be a the ideal way for me to keep involved in The Bastards considering my reduced time. I have been told that our new and improved FAQ will be made available and visible on our website so that most of our enquiries can be answered without the need for a personal reply.

Other news: The Bastards alliance is reforming and we've dropped all our war declarations - it's a tad expensive for an alliance to war dec it would seem and since we're poor pirates, our income being solo from piracy, it was, again, the wise and pragmatic decision. In this alliance we bring in The Hellcats as before. Makes the synchronisation of standings so much easier now! Finally, Flashfresh is on Twitter, join in and er, tweet away.

I hope to be back very soon and will start to get involved in the new recruitment and then build up my flight time until I get my pilot's license back....

Some RL issues

Hi chaps, need to curtail my EVE time due to a real life family emergency - I need to concentrate on family rather than New Eden for the time. Will be back soon.

F

Star Trekking, across the universe.......

Due to a real-life emergency (involving A&E 15 minutes before the kick off time) the much anticipated 'Star Trek' roam was postponed to a later date. It was to be a destroyer-based roam with each ship named after a 'famous' vessel from any of the Star Trek movies and series. To add more atmosphere; one had to try and use a signature quote from the film during an appropriate time during the roam.

Examples: 'Klingons on the starboard bow!' (enemy spotted) or 'She cannae take it Jim!' (overloading my guns is bad m'kay?).

You get the idea and I will re-organise this once I clear my time-table. I plan on FC'ing and doing roams at set times; just to give people some structure and the ability to plan. Star Trek Roam will go ahead.

Anyway, been quite focusing my efforts on recruitment; the current batch is being cleared down now and we're getting ready for the new batch, after the exhausted recruiters have had their break. Recently, there's been an update that has affected the agility of all ships. We decided to check out the rumours that frigates could now get caught quite easily without bubbles. We laughed that it wasn't possible. However, me and Snake Boy were proved to be in gross, error tonight and both were instantly caught by a camp and cut to pieces. However, every cloud has a silver lining and this means that we can now catch other ships just as easily! Bonus.

We chased a smaller fleet around around 21:00 but all who docked and logged off as soon as AntonioBanderas appeared in local! We were amazed to be honest. Earlier in the night, we were in frigates and were roaming around looking for kills and loot and I was lucky enough to have a drake land next to me at a gate and open up (illegally) at a neutral hauler. Not quite believing my luck, I pointed and webbed the drake and called in the backup. Who promptly and gleefully killed the foolish pilot.

So, a fun night - not being on for a few days; it was good to catch up with some of the pilots and find out what things are going on. The Bastards and Hellcats are a family and we care deeply for each other. Our forums are active and bursting with great content and threads. Examples include Bandies foodie thread - he can cook and very well it seems, Ronin's Music threads (this guy knows his sounds!) and the cool picture thread of us pirates in real life. Yes, some of us have decided to post our 'real' pictures up there and it is of great interest to me to see how they look in real life when compared to their vicious avatar persona.

Things are great at the moment; we as an organisation are getting stronger each day and we have ambitious but achievable goals in the near future. However, just wanted to end this post with a big thank you to all at The Bastards, The Hellcats and my readers.

So, to help with our Star Trek Destroyer roam, I would like to have a collection of ST quotes that I can either use or give to other fleet pilots to use. Pop your entries into the comments box........

.....and watch the current Star Trek movie, I loved it - like to hear your views dear reader.

testing intense debate comment (again)

testing intense debate comment (again)