Eve Online Log

[ThetaOrionis01]

Tell me about it, I trained it on 2 characters ^^

[samroski]

I actually took part (briefly) in a WH mining op

http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.06.18.34.01.jpg

 

My Retriever is the one wandering around

http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.05.17.19.49.jpg

 

And we found the monolith at a Radar site:

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.10.18.49.25.jpg

 

http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.10.18.33.35.jpg

 

Edit: trying to get the images to work :)

[samroski]

http://i43.tinypic.com/2cpanvm.jpg

 

We have moved to a C4 wormhole. A Wolf Rayet binary system. The move happened while I had gone out of our previous system to get my nighthawk in with >90% shield resists. But I am screwed.

 

This new system has -27% shield resist penalty and +27% armor resists. Looked far and wide for a Caldari ship that could be armor tanked- and finally fit a scorpion with ECM and RR. Think it will pop in a few minutes when it sees action. I may train Amarr Cruiser V and get some decent armor tanked ships that can fire missiles.

 

In the meantime I am at a loss what to fly. Wolf Rayet systems are not for Caldari pilots.

 

Have become pretty good at scanning thanks to this prolonged stay in w-space. Am enjoying the buzzard like never before.

 

http://i40.tinypic.com/16kxlx4.jpg

[hoshi23]

beautifull shots!

[samroski]

March 25, 20010. 22:45

 

Impressions of the Alpha Duchy of Zion

 

Thought I would pen down my thoughts on the old Duchy.

 

I must first apologize to all for mis-stating many of the facts below. This is due to my failing memory. Think of these as random thoughts and observations. Please feel free to correct me, and add any details.

 

The Duchy of Zion was located in class 2 w-space, with no effects on ship attributes.

 

Exits

The system connected to a low sec exit that lasted more than 24 hours.

 

The 2nd exit was always to a class 2 system. This adjacent system generally had a high sec exit and a 2nd exit to usually a higher class (4) system.

 

Base System

The above type of class 2 system with 2 exits: one to high sec and second to higher class w-space, may be feasible for initial base, before moving to a higher class.

 

Move in

I moved in on the 17th of February 2010 (I think). Will Gauss gave me a system name deep into low sec, I was bored and got into my covert ops (Buzzard) and made it to the Duchy.

 

Ships

Over the next couple of days I managed to bring in my Drake (BC), Catalyst (Destroyer: salvage), Retriever (Barge), and Zephyr. Will and Laura/Shu did the recon.

 

Catalyst (Destroyer for salvage)

4 Tractors, 4 Salvagers, 2 Salvage Tackle rigs, Afterburner/MWD and cap booster/recharger. No need for cargo expanders as sleeper loot generally does not take up room. Agility mods may be used instead e.g. Nanofibre internal structure.

 

Drake (BC)

I used my Drake for all the comabt and Radar sites we did in the system.

 

Used T2 heavy missiles and a passive tank.

 

Used more or less a standard fit with 3 purgers, and shield power relays in the lows. Two large shield extendaers in the mids with 2 invuln fields and a magnetic sacttering amplifier.

 

Most sites were do-able with 2 ballistic control systems in the low slots, instead of the shield power relays.

 

For Radar sites 1 BCU in the low - rest shield power relays, and this would free up one mid-slot for the Decoder/Analyzer.

 

Buzzard (Covert Ops)

Covert ops cloak and sisters expanded probe launcher with a MWD. 2 scanning rigs (gravity capacitor). Nanofibres in the lows. Fit is tight on powergrid. Lots of middle slots for additional modules like ECM, warp scramblers. Modules can be fitted and kept offline.

 

Ammo

With the kinetic damage bonus on the Drake (and many other Caldari ships) T2 scourge fury heavy missles should be used for all sleeper ships, except the frigates for which the T2 scourge precision heavy missiles are better.

 

Corp Change

I had problems in using the corp hanger and ship maint arrays. After a couple days of this, I decided to join WEEC. Subsequently the use of the arrays was painfree, except for the fact that the arrays were so positioned that you got caught in the POS while warping out :)

 

Linath's Loss

Linath was keen to move in, and I tried to help. We were connected to a low sec system full of pirates who came within 4 km of my cloaked ship, which ended my vigil and I recommened Linath not to attempt the run.

 

Later, after I had logged, Linath was waiting for recon to jump into low sec when one of the pirates suicide ganked him at the gate. Among other things lost were the 2 Zephyrs that I had contributed towards the Duchy.

 

POSx3

Linath moved in succeessfully a couple of days later (I may be off by a few days here and there). Will and Shu were busy in setting up the large WEEC POS.

 

I had initally dumped my stuff at the Hamster on Steriods small WEEC POS, which was later renamed Fireplaces. I contiued to use this small POS as my base throught the next month.

 

Prometheus also moved in with Sparroth (who may have been here all the time).

 

Possibly a week later Shu/Lora had set up a third POS for their corp PSP.

 

Exploration and Observations

I did a lot of exploration in my covert ops.

 

I noted combat ships, probers, covert ops from the adjacent C2 go into our system and exit within a minute or two. I believe that the sheer number of POS and associated structures was a deterrant.

 

Similar behaviour was observed at the low sec exit. There were few incursions. Though other Duchy members who logged in at different times may have had different experiences. I also do not have access to corp ship losses and thus not entirely up to date.

 

W-Space Occupancy

Majority of the C2 systems we connected to were occupied. During exploration it was difficult to find a system that was not occupied or abandoned (sites depleted). A lot of the C4s were occupied, with some C5s. I explored 4 or 5 C6s and none were occupied- though there were the occasional ships in there, mostly scanning.

 

Many other occupied w-space systems routinely have multiple ships floating in POS shields. On the Directional Scanner this may seem alarming. Possibly a good tactic if done well. No good when the ship is named after the owner :)

 

In one system I noted about 6-8 ships on the Directional and wapred to distant a moon to mark a safe spot. Managed to warp in right next to a POS with 5 ships in it. Thankfully none was manned. Subsequently I started warping to planets to mark my spots.

 

I was in the Duchy for one month, though I spent about 5 to 6 days in k-space.

 

Duchy Dry

It took 2 weeks to clear out all the combat sites (dry up the hole). Meanwhile Will tried mining in all types of ships and was as excited about gas clouds as he is now :)

 

Combat Sites

I did a number of comabat sites with Will in support- both in comabt and salvaging. The Catalyst came in very useful. Linath was also ever keen for battle. The 2 of us had similar log in times and we did a number of sites together. He was using a Minmitar BC - which is a cool looking ship.

 

These sites involve mindless killing of sleeprs that show up. Drone use is painful, as constant management is required due to sleepers switching targets.

 

Spawns

The first spawn has 4-8 sleeper frigates and cruisers. The second and third have one BS with 4-6 smaller ships. I do not recall sleepers warp scrambling me. Sleepers move FAST with frgiates under 10km range and BSs 40-80km gernerally. Occasionally 2 BSs spawn with 2 cruisers, and this may be tough for a BC to tank, though the Drake does fine.

 

Salvaging

I believe thos nanribbonthingies are what salvaging is about. The rest of the market has caollapsed I think. These should be sold to NPC orders.

 

Combat sites disappear within a few minutes of the last player ship leaving. Wrecks stay for some time- probably 2 hours.

 

Scanning

Even if one probe is used, Combat Sites show up on the system scanner as 100% signatures that can immediately be warped to. These sites are thus succesptible to attacks.

 

Gravimateric, Radar and Ladar Sites require 3-5 probes to scan and take a few minutes each.(mining- a few sleepers show up once. sites last 3 days.

 

Gravimetric Sites

These are mining sites. The system had ample ABC ores. A few sleepers show up at these sites and need to be cleared once. Sites last for 3 days.

 

I beleive Shu/Lora had a decent ship (hulk) to mine with, and Kingwitty, Linath's alt, joined us soon in a hulk and started on the Grav sites. I made a couple of feeble attempts at mining- though I was happier doing the combat sites in the Duchy and neighbouring C2s.

 

Radar Sites

Towards the end of our stay we did a couple of Radar sites. There were (5-8) containers that needed to be decoded while the sleepers put up stiff resistence. One of the sites contained the 2001 Space Odyssey Monolith. The sites may be soloed in a Drake. These were nicely coordianted events with possibly Prometheus, Linath, Tarasien, Will and myself in fleet.

 

Viaris Vist

Viaris came in one day with a friend via the low sec exit. I had just soloed the last combat site in our system and this may not have pleased the company:) There was an adjacent C2 with an (apparently) abandoned POS, but the WH was nearing the end of its life.

 

Nevertheless we went over and with Viaris' Nightmare in the fleet we cleared up combat sites in 5 mnutes or so. These sites generally take 20-25 minutes to solo in a Drake. It was difficult for the salvage party (including Prom) to keep up with us.

 

The Move

Interestingly, one day I got sick of the Drake and decided to bring in a Nighthawk (>90% shield resists) and went to Jita fit the ship. Unfotunately, overnight we moved to a C4 Wolf Rayet sytem with -27% shield penalty and armor bonuses.

 

I was screwed. At a loss what to fly. Posted in the forums and ended up fitting a Scorpion for ECM and RR and moved into the new Duchy (C4). I have a feeling that the Scorpion will pop as soon as it sees action. I need at least 2 months of training to be able to fly a decent armor tanked combat ship for C4s.

 

Critical Mass

I do not think that we reached that crictical mass of players in the alpha Duchy that was necessary to ensure that resources were well utilized. A move to a C3 system may have been an easier jump, as the team is still developing. Still, a case can always be made for throwing one in the deep end.

[samroski]

http://i43.tinypic.com/258qx3s.jpg

 

I tested my Scorpion at a combat site in the C4 system that we are in. Went in with 4 ECMs and left with 7% hull. Thought I was dead but somehow made it (managed to ECM the ship that was scrambling me). Amazingly I could not find any hull repairers at the POS (we have 3 POSs in the system and I searched the wrong 2), thus I refit 7 ECMs and went back in with 7% hull and jammed the hell out of the sleepers.

 

I can (nearly) perma-jam 2 sleeper ships with 7 ECMs. 7 ECMs work pretty well with 3 sleepers- with jamming them 70-90% of the time. Even working on 4 ships is pretty good- with at least 2 of them jammed at any one time. The scorp is an amazing ship is all I can say.

 

2 years ago I looked at Electronic Warfare IV in my skills sheet and wondered if I will ever use this skill :) Am working on the other ECM skills atm.

 

And yes!! I did a couple of level 5s while waiting for an entry back into w-space. This was an inspiring experience- especially with 70k LP per mission :)

 

I used a super-tanked drake as bait and a raven for gank. As a policy I warped out the raven whenever it got targeted and warped back in, by which time the drake had been targeted. This worked great. In future I am may use a rattlesnake and a CNR, which should get the missions done twice as fast.

[samroski]

The idea of using a Rattlesnake (RS) and a CNR for level 5 missions sounded good on paper. Having lost 2 RSs and a Drake (about 2 billion loss) in 8 missions, I am not sure this is the best set up.

 

I have a shield transporter on the CNR, but obviously this is not enough. Possibly need a dedicated RR ship, or maybe try T2 purger rigs on the RS. Fitting T2 rigs will take the cost of one RS up to near 2 billion. Wondering if there is a cheaper solution?

 

Fortunately my finances are such that I have sustained the loss of the 2 RSs. Still, this has inspired me to train one of my alts for 300 market orders, taking my total orders up to about 900. This should help me to continue my spendthrift ways :)

[Dark0ne]

Dedicated logistics are really a must for L5's.

[samroski]

I stayed away from level 5s for a couple of weeks- trained logistics, and T2 rigged a Tengu for passive tank, and am back doing L5s at the rate of about one a day. Tried a few L4s in the meantime, but they do not excite me any more.

 

Using a CNR for DPS, will probably shift to a tengu for DPS in a week. Used the Basilisk (logistics) a couple of times to support the CNR. My routine, though, is to go in with the tengu and the CNR. There is a shield transporter on the CNR, which is used rarely, and I swap this for a drone link augmenter in most missions.

 

The key is mission selection. You got to know the strengths of your ship (tank) and select appropriate missions. The tengu is great against thermal and kinetic damage- and the tank is not even tested in missions against gallente/guristas. Thinking of using a BCS in the lows for these missions.

 

LP are accumulating nicely. Thinking of what to do with it all :)

[samroski]

A couple of gates in level 5 missions

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/2diob44.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/2195boo.jpg

 

Edit: and my current desktop background:

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/33a9bm8.jpg