Roaming fleets - I love them and WTF is a COCKROACH?

The Low Sec Roam
We undocked into our local space and the Sansha incursion was still there - hanging around gates became a very bad idea as these chaps could hit HARD. Local was at an usual high of 60+ and a check scan revealed a fleet from the Volition Cult in their huginns and scimitars. SniggWaffe came in and chased them off while we were still getting ready. Snigg then got bored and also left the scene; meanwhile a sizeable Sicarius fleet went into Hagilur no doubt to do battle with a smaller fleet made up with pilots from the 'Something Posing as meat' alliance. Then there was the presence of Eve-University in Hagilur too. Yes, quite a typical night in this neck of Metropolis.

All in all, I knew something would kick off somewhere. We lept in to impose ourselves onto the local scene but we couldn't get anything useful. Man, I do miss Max and his stiletto in these times. We were too slow to cross the distance and the fight had petered out by the time we arrived. It wasn't all bad luck, z0de managed to kill a caracal in his paper thing brutix and we also snagged a Celestis; both with Eve-Uni. This then kicked off a some sort of hunt where Eve-Uni, The Fendalian Collective and Sicarius (shame on them, all flashy and criminal) joined up to camp the gates blocking our exit route back to Evati. Sicarius should be fighting Eve-Uni and The Fendalian collective since I thought they are pirates! There was chatter that leaked out into local from the Fenders:

"HOLD FIRE!"

Then followed by:

"Sorry, your flashiness scared us."

Yes, that is what happens when you have criminals in your midst. The overview can be distracting, just invite them into fleet. Anyway, we moved deeper into the Hagilur pocket looking for more targets. If people wanted us, they will have to find us. Camping gates is one of the most boring activities around and I was sure that people would just get bored - thereby offering us an opening. Eve-Uni for most of this time stayed docked up, poking their heads out only occasionally before ducking back in. We rolled around Ansen, Arwa etc before we decided it was time to leave. I checked with my scouts and sure enough, the exit gate was now cleared, the carebear camp lasted no more than 15 minutes. We moved through. Just as we emerged into the familiar Evati star filled sky, another one of my scouts informed me that a pirate fleet had come in through Thelan and had jumped into another camp!

So we raced back and only managed to get a few scraps. However, a man has to eat so we were grateful for the meagre morsels. We the moved around again into the outskirts of The Forge when we spied a megathron and friends, we jumped in and killed them only for a third fleet come piling in. We killed their stealth bomber and made a hasty withdrawal. All the while enduring some silly smack from the newcomers. They were awfully confused mistaking us as members of yet another fleet of pirates next door and calling us out for running away.

Anyway, no worries from us as we were quite chill with kills and loot aplenty. We docked up and rested, some pirates leaving their ship hangars to deal with other business while new pirates, fresh from resting came on board. The Bastards' are more active now (though with the occasional quiet day) and this can only be good for us as an organisation.

The remaining week had us messing about with bubbles in null-sec, some gate camping and more roaming fleets. As pirates, we tend to fly with whatever and whoever so plenty of solo and duo-fleets head out from Evati. Not for us where no-one undocks unless there's a fleet of 50+ with logistical support! Hell no, we're pirates and we have to eat so we go with what we have!

It just so happened that BracerKirk and Tibbs on one of these roams spotted and killed something....amazing. I don't even know what it is or why it was sitting where it was at but am going to give them each a medal.

Please look at the kill of a CCP 'Cockroach' and the 'enigma' loot.


++UPDATE++

The Kill has been API Verified now. It is genuine so please, refrain from accusing The Bastards of faking killmails.

http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=23244

Well done gents, well done!

Walking around in station and RANSOMANIA2 and RAGE

Walking around and around and around

Incarna and CQ

So Incarna has hit tranquillity and like many a pod pilot, I have decided to have a walk around outside of my pod. My first impressions is that I do like it and it adds a little bit extra to the immersion. It  looks pretty but there's not much content yet available. I can't get coffee or tea nor can I leave the room but at least I can see my ship hangar and my glorious hurricane class battle cruiser 'Arbalast VII'.  A bar where other Captains can mingle would be quite fun. Am sure that is coming too. I do not like how my video cards are struggling however and if you need to turn the quality down just to ease the stutter, one might as well turn the damn thing off; and my rig isn't too shabby either.

Of course, I would be more happier if we had fixes for existing issues as well as enhancements to low-sec. In fact, after the first ten minutes of wandering around - I hit 'esc' and de-selected the 'load station environment'. I then undocked and realised that Eve Online is about space ships and explosions. My quarters can wait. In fact, after racing around after a mission running stabber; I completely forgot about my experience.

Ransomania2

Tibbs with added Quafe

TFS Tibbs is one of The Bastards unsung heroes: reliable and deadly efficient. He is also a mean Chess Player who is doing superbly well in Eve's first official chess tournament. Click the link and follow Tibbs or if you are chess fan - challenge Tibbs. Am confident that Tibbs will be able to beat all comers. Yes, I am that confident (sorry Tibbs!) and will give 100M isk to the first pilot to beat Tibbs, fair and square. 


So what is RANSOMANIA 2 ("divitias estate")?

During the event contestants (i.e. pirates of The Bastards alliance) vie with each other to see who can ransom the most ships and capsules within a given timespan.
Who: Bastard Alliance members only
When: Event will run for the whole month of July
Where: Everywhere
Why: Ransoms are cool

RULES
Ransom everything that moves for one month
Results will be taken from the Bastards Ransom Board
Haikus – valued at estimated price of ship + fittings – or estimated implant value based on character age for capsules
All ransom attempts must use the Yarrsom Channel if possible
All prizes will be awarded after the event has finished

PRIZES
Bounties
You get a 2m isk bounty fee for every successful ransom you are involved in

Pilot involved in the most ransoms
First - 300m + shiny winners medal (we love medals)
Second - 150m
Third - Faction Frigate of choice

Highest earning pilots
First – 200m
Second - 100m
Third - Faction Frigate of choice

Most ship ejections - 100m
Most solo ransoms - 100m
Most Haikus - 100m

Most ships lost during successful ransom attempts
First – 3 ships replaced
Second – 2 ships replaced
Third – 1 Ship replaced

Additional prize
1st person to solo-ransom a ship 2 hull classes above their own
Classes: Frigate>>Cruiser>BC>BS>Cap
Winner gets a pirate cruiser of their choice.
Conditions:
1. destroyers count as frigate-class.
2. ransom has to be for isk / ship ejection, not a haiku
3. value needs to be reasonable, I'll decide if its reasonable.

Nashh's birthday bash

One of many birthday cake for Nashh!

Here's the link. From the killboard, it looks like that it was a lot of fun with wrecks absolutely everywhere. One of our recruits, Zocawi was called primary every time he undocked while Marco managed to kill Nashh's ship during the evening. There was also a few B A N E kills on the board around the same time, did they join in as well? No matter. Happy birthday Nashh!


And what else?
The corp and alliance is going strong - so much done, not enough time to tell. Am currently tapping out a new news-letter for the alliance and it has taken a lot more of my time. Had time to go out and kill stuff too. Watched AT IX and was seriously disappointed by the results though the written coverage this time round was very good and informative.  


The Rage of MT (micro- or is it macro-transactions?)

Well, I haven't been living under a rock and I have been quietly observing the fire storm that is engulfing parts of New Eden. Not going to go into an in-depth report of it, there have been 100s of blogs, reports, websites all reporting the same thing.There has been tonnes of words written about a number of issues all floating around micro- (macro-)transactions coming hot on the heels of Incarna. 


Micro-transactions for vanity items (even if they become stupidly expensive) doesn't worry about me at all. Feel free to spend your $ / isk / Aurum on a monocle or something. I don't mind. However, if MT starts to extend to say, T2 ammunition or new ships being only available via the NEX Store - then I have a problem. The access to New Eden is already through a monthly subscription - surely that should be enough? If additional functions and non-vanity items are only available via the NEX store for more money; then I have a big problem. I don't think it matters what is available via MT abilities. As long as  MT is not the only form to acquire the non-vanity item, then I see no issue.

Yes, I is dumb for paying $60
for this.....

Let me put it this way: the people with too much money will always derive immediate and short term benefit from things like this more than those with no money (like me at about 200m isk to my name)...Those with real life money to spend will continually pump in isk for faction battleships and other toys. Bring it, real life money doesn't always bring success in New Eden. At least not yet and for pirates like me, will try our hardest to separate you from your isk. We like the tears and smack and if your loss actually results in even more real life money, then all power to you! 


Already in place we have the facility where pilot 'A' can buy a pile of GTC's, sell them for isk then go jump in a new faction ship or titan, possibly having to buy a titan-skilled avatar first. For me, not spending any additional money of my own - I will have to train for oh, five months before I am even skilled and even longer before I can afford the ship! If I did, I would be in a dreadnought and firing my big guns. 


At the moment, there is no magical 'Win' button for real life money. Not yet. Ask the NC; they had pots of cash and it didn't save them. I doubt the Nex store would have made a difference. I doubt MT would have saved them unless it conferred on them invisibility and doomsday abilities or access to Jovian ships; now that's a thought.  


The things I do not agree with is the rather condescending communication from CCP. There was zero respect for the player base, nor was there any consultation with the CSM and the responses from CCP so far has been weak and unfocused, fanning the fire even more. They've done real damage to themselves. 


Banning Helcity Boson? Come on. Ridiculous and stupid. 


The 'Fearless' article about what, golf clubs? Mind boggling and patronising. 


Breaking the trust of the community? Damn near fatal. 


I also think, World Of Darkness is probably sucking up too much money. CCP may have had a look at their revenue forecasts for the next couple of years and the drag from WoD and Dust514 doesn't look as rosy as they had hoped. Eve-Online gives them a good revenue stream - so maximising it is makes sense.   


(edit: just saw this thread on Eve-O)


One step at a time

Baby steps, walking slowly ahead

What does the future hold for me? Not going to quit. Nope. Am going to continue leading and dying with The Bastards. I love them all too much (that's for Dil'e by the way..) and have spent too much of my time to quit. Let's see what pans out and cooler heads on both sides start to engage. CCP isn't intending to kill off New Eden deliberately - they could do it through stupidity mind and I hope they heed the community's voice. Not informing the CSM isn't a good sign however but the protests this time round can be heard all over New Eden. They're not deaf. 


Additionally, exciting plans abound for The Bastards - we're expanding and still looking for more pilots to join us for the low-sec life of ransom and yarr. I am planning on a tweetfleet+drunken roam (yes, combining both into one crazy roam) and also deciding whether I should be looking at the Nagalfar dreadnaught. It looks cool, I mean....it is vertical! Problem is, I can't afford one ingame but then , I could always spend some money on GTCs.