A roll through towards Eifer and INFERNO, oh yes.

Empty space
Ever since Kane Rizzel announced that he had reset M34N corporation, I have rarely seen this low-sec pirate institution around Metropolis / Heimatar. Feels a bit odd wandering into the Eifer/Gusandall region of space and not see them. However, nature abhors a vacuum and I have seen a number of corporations and alliances seemingly step into the gap left by M34N.

I might have some targets for you to whack...

We had a call from an acquaintance that there were targets to be had in Eifer so I duly led out a fleet of four drakes and one hurricane towards the area. With the new missile updates, I was highly distracted following (almost mesmerised) the exhaust of trails of torpedoes, rockets and missiles as they vomited forth from their launchers. Yes, the Inferno upgrade has made me highly jealous now of my missile-oriented companions as all my focus and skill was towards projectiles and auto canons I think a refocus is needed. However, being distracted isn't ideal when you have a small fleet with you.

Anyway, the short journey was led by Marco Drack who jumped into Eifer and immediately tackled another drake. Obvious bait, as local shot up and we jumped into the inevitable fire. Still we opened up on the drake and the sentry guns spoke back. Being in the hurricane, I was the primary. Knowing this I had already pushed my micro warp drive and attempted to get some distance from the gate....yet, I was not moving. No scramblers or webs on me either. I was moving (according to the read out) around 1350 m/s yet was still only 500m from the in-gate. Rather perturbed I tried to pulse the drive but to no avail. I seemed to be stuck. So, the fighting started as soon as the last ship in our fleet opened fire, the enemy fleet landed and I discovered the engaging fleet was from The Obsidian Front.

The Bastards/Chupas
Drake
Drake
Drake
Drake
Hurricane

The Obsidian Front and Friends
Drake
Drake
Legion
Zealot
Loki
Legion
Rupture
Minmatar Sentry Gun (sorry had to put this one in!)

Unfortunately for me, they primaried my arse. I went down pretty quick: unable to take advantage of the hurricane's speed and maneuverability as I was still apparently, 500m from the gate and still going at 1350 m/s. Got volleyed down to hull and then into scrap soon thereafter. Marco took over but he had already bailed and was on his way back as the Obsidian chaps got to work on us. The butcher's bill was too high as we lost all our ships, destroying one of their drakes, one of their zealot and their rupture. Sometimes, engagements just don't work out the way you hope it would be.

Flash's hurricane down again!

As we raced back to re-ship I definitely noticed that there were more people in most of the 'usual' systems; preparation for the new Faction Warfare revamp perhaps? Am looking at all this quite keenly to see where we, as pirates can mostly benefit. Heck, we may even consider joining in, somehow. Getting paid for PvP, surely not?!

The rest of the night was full of near misses which was frustrating but this is New Eden, what do you expect - victims to come marching to you?

Inferno

My thoughts on Inferno is that it adds some lovely little features in the form of missiles. They are now soooo cooool that I am tempted to do my piracy in a stealth bomber! I need time to get used to the inventory window however. Can be a bit confusing for a human pilot but I read with some interest that it has also affected the botters and their automated programs. Quite funny, I wonder if CCP had this planned? Doubt it but a useful spin-off result nonetheless.

What else? Of course, the new Stealth bombers are lush. I love all of them and will be flying them more  next time I log on. I also thank Rixx Javix for an excellent series of posts on using Stealth Bombers in Low Sec. Everyone even remotely interested in using SBs in low sec should head over to Mr Javixx's excellent site.

Oh, here's the teaser trailer for inferno.

Now, there's a lot more that I want to explore: Merc contract place and the being able to assist in war declaration. Wonderful! Just head over to the notes here and get more information.

More stuff
Things are very busy for me in real life, New Eden is a harsh and demanding mistress and there's no 'casual' mode that satisfies. One needs to manage but there's no adrenaline rush akin to the instant before  combat ensues. I love it and it makes it worthwhile; however I am sneakily playing Mass Effect 2 when I can (or dual boxing on my laptop) and if only Incarna becomes something similar to Mass Effect? If Dust514 is successful, then one can only hope?

Thanks for the comments on the last post about the Kill of the Month awards; I did also state that low-sec piracy was Eve in hard mode (I point to Kane Rizzel) but I got a lot of interesting responses.