Eve Online

[Deef]

Hmm yes, artillery won't track well at all, so yeah, don't fly it like a Rifter.

Had some good fights tonight... should be asleep. Lost 2 Vigil frigates, both totally my fault, but I didn't lose my pretty ships. When I lost the first Vigil tonight it was such a fun fight that I literally warped, docked, and looked for anything in my hangar that was fast and ready to fly. Executioner it was then. Undock, warp back to the centre of the fight and start scrambling whoever. Soon one of the reds picked me out and I was getting hit hard. This is partly why it was a good fight; our ships and strategy meant it was hard for the enemy fleet to pick a primary (until a Drake came along in our team and soaked up massive damage anyway), so when I was getting attacked I was merely getting attacked, not killed. Light up the MWD and at about 40% armour the damage stops. Whatever the Merlin's shooting just can't catch me. Plus I'm out of his scramble range so I get to warp out my bleeding ship, stop, turn, then straight back in again hehe. It's just cool zipping around in a ship you really don't want to lose, taking heavy damage but making it out alive.

The 2nd Vigil was just me completely not paying attention. Due to a narrow escape from before where 3 shots took more than half my life, I knew that this particular player who had appeared on grid was going to snipe, hard. And my brain just went back to Vigil escape mode. Fly away, fast. I had completely forgotten that I was on top of a stargate and could have just jumped. Just left my mind completely, so, pop.

I got given another Thrasher tonight, and two Vigils. One particular guy is great fun when he's FC. For one, he steered the night away from another Red HQ camp (which is just lame docking games endlessly) and onto a fun gate camp. I got the first point (warp disruptor) on a rather nice kill. "Point on the Rupture," bam, whole fleet jumps through and pull him to pieces. For two, he's all like "Hey guys lets all get these crappy ships and do this!" Then he basically gives everyone that ship and we all dock up, fit them to the same plan while swapping parts between each other in station, then go out and smite red until red gets whiny and upships. Tonight's strategy was along the lines of being a hoard of insects that swarm in, do damage, then scatter when danger presents itself. Not a common fleet tactic at all, but we were all totally amused with the chaos we created.

And a lowsec roam with a fleet of about 25 ships last night. We ran into one big standoff on both sides of a gate, plus ended up in a fight that brought 3 completely different fleets/corps/etc. into it somehow. A few favourite moments tonight, one standout being when we all jumped through a gate and Oh Snap, this is where reds are hiding. So we've all jumped and landed cloaked, surrounded by reds. They can't see us until one of us moves and the FC just had to laugh at the fight that was about to happen, that we were secretly sitting right in the middle of.

And this is all just practise for the more srs bzns PvP later on.


Still can't decide about rerolling heh.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Do not reroll.

I'm training up on medium turrets atm. Bought some, about to log on and pick them up / install for a big upcoming combat mission. So how I fly the destroyer now is set a course straight for an enemy group, target as many as possible front on, blow them up. Then afterburn out the back, get some distance, recharge if necessary, then slow down. As those remaining catch up, my target system locks on and, yes, I blow them up. It works well so far and is entertaining. My investment in more powerful, longer range turrets is further to this strategy.

The Dust 514 announcement is interesting. I'm flummoxed there will be no opportunity for PC only gamers, of which there would be many among the Eve subscriber base, to play this game. That large number of pissed off fans are now joined by XBox 360 owning Eve fans. Thus far the Dust 514 strategy by my reckoning pisses off more many more fans than it impresses. That said the trailer looks nice. It's novel to see Eve universe components applied to a FPS action game. Trailer below.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Wow these Eve players don't mind throwing a dramatic video together. These crop up often.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Annnd medium turrets have power requirements applicable to cruiser class ships and above. Live and learn.

Also reading the forums during downtime re: Dust, it seems Sony + PSN allow CCP more freedom on the MMO side of things compared to MS's more in-house regulated approach.

[Deef]

Is it that the medium mods are too intense for the destroyer, power/CPU-wise? Or that they simply aren't allowed on ships below cruisers?

Honestly I'd reroll if I could think of another name I really like. I stumbled onto a way to get a 4-word name as well last night. This indecisiveness is really bumming me out.

I am mildly hyped for Dust, purely because of how strong the signs are that it really will be interacting with the Eve universe. I don't really care about it as an FPS; to me it's basically another expansion, albeit a really good one. I really dug how that video actually slowed down to carry on about fittings and, surprisingly, ISK. I like that, it's still all about the ISK. And then to not only show some pretty ships in space, but to continue out to the Eve map and a representation of the alliance territories... nice. A bit strange though that some of those things were costing about ten times as much as a Vigil, which is a decent frigate. Hmm should I buy the really good weaponry... or a spaceship?

The visuals didn't stand out but the Eve style looked good. The HUD effects looked the best really, it'd be nice to see more of them in game (both games). Nice touch on the shield/armour life bar and icons. However, the part where the ships are above the planet in space... that was a bullshot. Ships can't get that close to a planet in Eve; not so that it spans across the background like that. Looked good though, and it could well be possible but I doubt we'd see that.

Patching the patch yet again heh, what a mess. Someone on the forums pointed out that when it game to threads about patch issues, it went something like:
· Incarna patch 1.1 - 5 pages
· Incarna patch 1.2 - 5 pages
· Incarna patch 1.3 - 17 pages
· Incarna patch 1.4 - 5 pages
· Incarna patch 1.5 - 5 pages
· Incarna patch 1.6 - 43 pages and counting, and now a 1.6.1 issues thread.

I think the reason you haven't noticed the bugs is because you don't know what they are lol. The sticky locking and ghosting overview have been a real pain. I was less than half a second away from unleashing arties and missiles upon a red's pod - something we don't do in RvB - because the game had accidentally locked him. That would not have gone down well at all with both corps. After this patch there are still a few issues it seems... The sticky lock... ... um, it was sticky 5 minutes ago, now I can't reproduce it, but on the mouse it always sticks still. Oh man I bought a mouse! I've never had one for my laptop lol... boyyyy what a difference in everything. Having 5 mouse buttons is going to be so helpful too.

I am bummed to have realised that engine trails are gone. I never noticed until just recently, but yes, in my past trials of Eve you always had these very funky streams of colour flying out behind your ship if you were coming out of warp or just plain moving really, really fast. If you Youtube around a bit, some other nice effects have been sadly nerfed as well; cloaking is another one I remember being different, and you can find some really bubbly versions of the warp tunnel (although I don't mind the current style). I'm just a bit sad about the engine trails. And Aura! Numerous little changes, all towards the bland side.


While you seem to be going for bigger is better, I am very interested in sticking to frigates... the advanced ones. The Wolf is a very good PvP Rifter, but it's the versions of the Executioner that I'm interested in. They're Interceptors - ie, very, very fast. The Malediction, while not the fastest, looks sick as and I want it heh. Annoying Amarr with the best looking ships. 6000m/s is maybe possible, with Navigation 5, overheating, and an Interceptor.

The Slicer is another Executioner-based faction frig that people like. I can already fly one actually, and it would be a good Rifter substitute. I just won't use it for PvP... too expensive.

There's also another Rifter version I didn't know existed, the Freki, which looks like basically the best tackler ever. The coolest appearance of the Rifter-types too. It awards 30% per level (of Minmitar frigs) to webifier range and that is just a show stopper right there. No other frig is going to beat something that can web you from 25km out and target you from 40. The hardest part about using long points (warp disruptors are long points, warp scramblers are short points) is that at that range you can't web and thus it's very difficult to control the fight and keep your target in the disruptor's range. But if you get him webbed at 20km, he is just not going to escape that point (warp disruptor), meanwhile the Freki uses 75% less cap with the MWD and AB even though the ship has 40% more cap already. You simply would never have to turn off your MWD methinks. AND it adds 50% to the range of all your turrets, AND with Minmitar frigs level 5 it adds another 62.5% damage. It's a god-mobile. It even has a 50% faster warp drive, so you come out of warp miles before everyone else, trap one or two guys while burning around with the MWD stuck on, then booyah, your fleet arrives.

And there isn't 1 for sale in my whole region heh.

Actually, reckon you can do a search in your space Pepp? I'm in Everyshore. Just interested in what the price is.

[Deef]

I discovered a new way to zoom the camera really far, and I pressed Ctrl-F9 to look at stars, literally. I was doing this for like 10 minutes. Completely slipped my mind that I was on-grid, very very far but on-grid nonetheless, outside red HQ. Looking at stars with the HUD gone and wtf, something's attacking me. Dammit. Panic, press buttons, press ALL the buttons. Dead. So I lost my pretty Executioner. No huge loss but I've realised that one thing you have to do is get attached to ships. It makes things better. Now I've lost 25 Rifters... and an Executioner. Yet another ship loss that was completely my fault. This has to be the dumbest one yet.

Btw, you can zoom the camera with the usual methods (wheel, page up/down) and also by pressing mouse 1+2 and moving the mouse around. But ALSO you can hold mouse 2, move the camera a little while still holding and then press and hold mouse 1. Now you're in super zoom mode and really, try zooming in on the plain old background. That impressed me. Enough to not notice I was about to get killed.


While we were waiting for reds to get their act together, we had a blue T1 frigs FFA. This time I had a plan and it flipping almost worked. Before the fight started there was mention of no unfair kiting the fight until everyone else is dead, and my tactiwas very similar but deemed fair. No-one expected it either, I don't know why. I just got a Merlin and stuck long range guns on it, MWD, cap booster and TWO shield boosters - disruptors not required. All I had to do in the fight was keep EVERYONE away from me. This actually worked but unfortunately the guy left standing had an armour tank that was better than the damage I could do. I was annoyed at myself for freaking out too much at the start when I should have put more damage into him and possibly could have won while there were others around to kill him.

So it came down to a stalemate. He couldn't possibly catch me and I couldn't possibly out-damage his armour repair. I apologised for the boring fight (but they said fair tactic) and we split the prize. A Slicer. So I didn't win a Slicer but instead 10 mill to buy half of one.

But then one guy in fleet said "Guess a number between 1 and 10. If you get it you get a Slicer."
"6"
"... Oh man, really."

I totally won a Slicer after all heh.

However, still only 2 mid slots. Dammit. Dunno if I'll even use it, haven't checked it's attribs yet. But it's the ugliest Executioner type, and with only 2 mids still rather meh for PvP. Well, it would be instant primary anyway, so no fleet PvP in it.

Speaking of, I found out the Freki was a tourney prize. Very rare, 20 billion a pop and basically you can't use one because if you get one, every guy and his dog will be trying to blow it up as soon as you undock.


Nice fights later. First we fell apart but on regrouping we wiped the floor with them. Here's me stressing after the first fight:

Image 045.png

I had warped out alive, 60% hull remaining. But for 1 minute I wasn't allowed to dock because I'd attacked someone and this was me waiting, hoping no reds arrived on grid while my ship is bleeding for all to see.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Is it that the medium mods are too intense for the destroyer, power/CPU-wise?

Yes. I can fit them but they are immediately offline + message advising how impossible it is for me to power them.

While you seem to be going for bigger is better, I am very interested in sticking to frigates... the advanced ones. The Wolf is a very good PvP Rifter, but it's the versions of the Executioner that I'm interested in. They're Interceptors - ie, very, very fast. The Malediction, while not the fastest, looks sick as and I want it heh. Annoying Amarr with the best looking ships. 6000m/s is maybe possible, with Navigation 5, overheating, and an Interceptor.

I actually much prefer the Rifter so far. During missions I'm trying what I can however when it comes to PvP, barring something unforseen, I'll default to my preferred play style. In WoW I was a rogue and I see that translating to Eve. I'm just not a slow, tank kind of girl.

Off to the gym now so will report on Freki availability later tonight. I'm still in Arnon.

[Deef]

Well there is cloaking but it generally isn't used on a ship that will fight. The main drawback is that when you uncloak you can't target for quite some time. As your cloaking skill improves that time is reduced, but the skill itself already takes a slab of time just to get level 1. It's also expensive, the cloaking module alone costing about 4 times as much as a Rifter.

You should check out the Vigil. It's basically weaker but smarter than the Rifter. Faster, longer range, 1 less hi-slot. I can't remember if its powergrid is better or worse, but yeah, it's fast and I believe it can target from 40km. I'm actually getting a bit Riftered out; they've become disposable in my eyes. I've lost so many that I care little for one I'd be flying in a given moment, and yes, when it comes to fleet PvP there is no frigate bonus greater than Don't-use-a-Rifter. Since I stopped bringing them to fights I have died about 10 times less. One guy joined blue last night, defecting from red for language reasons, and he had lost 17 Rifters in his first 24 hours of RvB.

I'm definitely liking the Merlin because of its 4 mid slots. That means more toys than the other frigs. I was looking forward to taking damage in that FFA last night, just to show off the ridiculous dual shield booster fit I had. Meanwhile in a fleet battle fit, I was able to announce on comms "I gotta point on both of them." Everyone must have been like o_O· "Two separate points?" I use terrible fits according to the status quo I think, but that's what I like to do. No-one was expecting a fast-fit Merlin last night. I love capacitor boosters too; you should check them out if you haven't see them. It's like taking a pill every minute in a fight and you're all good again. I'm yet to see another other player have a fit with capacitor boosters, but I love them. They just waste money and take up all your cargo space; unlike ammo running out of pills is quite possible.

I'm definitely going to re-roll. That red defector is Spanish and that's it, I don't want a Spanish person in game affirming how dumb my name is heh. I'm just waiting for some inspiration to come to me for the name. Man, the game needs a cooling off period for a once-only name change.

[Peppermint Lounge]

At least get the new guy's opinion before you actually do it. As I said even when read literally it just reads like fractured spanish which is neither here nor there I would've thought.

The visuals didn't stand out but the Eve style looked good. The HUD effects looked the best really, it'd be nice to see more of them in game (both games). Nice touch on the shield/armour life bar and icons. However, the part where the ships are above the planet in space... that was a bullshot. Ships can't get that close to a planet in Eve; not so that it spans across the background like that. Looked good though, and it could well be possible but I doubt we'd see that.

Yes I agree the HUD is a stand-out. I agree the game doesn't have class leading visuals but they do look good and it does have a strong Eve sense to it. As it should but still good to see.

[Peppermint Lounge]

No Freki in any of the 3 systems I travelled to tonight FYI.

[Deef]

But you're doing a search through the region, right? Check which option is selected.

And yeah, that guy basically asserted my concerns. Gonna remake now. I shouldn't lose too much time. I can ditch a lot of skills I learnt for now - probes, cloaking, hacking, even salvaging. They're good but not needed to get back to the point I was at with the RvB stuff. And a lot of my SP were extended skill levels, like Engineering V, and not actual gatekeeper kind of things (apart from those mentioned above that I'll skip for now). I mean heck all I was doing was flying around in frigates still heh. The MWD was probably the most difficult thing I was using. Although I might be denied using the Slicer for a few days.

.. if only I could think of a name.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Yes searching regions.

I had a great time with a big epic arc mission last night. 30 enemies all up including frigates and cruisers. I've got a good approach strategy now and finished the mission without having to warp out.

Queued up my first level 5 skill. Minmatar Frigate 5. 1 week, 2 days, 10 hours to complete haha. Yes I want a Wolf. Also a Cheetah.

Make sure your new character looks me up. RIP Dan E Amigo. Will you delete him or keep him as an alt?

[Deef]

Well no point deleting him. I'm still torn. I spent hours perfecting my new character (looked very similar heh) but in the end STILL hadn't thought of a name, so had to close it. Yes. That was annoying because I was happy with the new guy and the photo I'd created. I love how when it comes to the pose, there a 5 things to edit on each eye alone heh. In any other character creation you might have trouble creating a wry smile, but in Eve it's "How wry do want?"

Damn, a week for frigs V. I didn't know it was that long. I've got Engineering V and Navigation V already. But that's cool that you'll be in T2 ships soon. Seriously, look at the Malediction hehe. In case you haven't noticed I'm all about the looks. If you're flying that around before me I'll be well jealous hehe. I'll catch up though... dammit I'm wasting days already with this indecision. >_< But at least I know that there are a lot of skills I can just skip. I won't even train afterburners if I don't have to, I'm a MWD addict now.

Oh, your attributes!! Have you remapped yet? Do you know how they work yet? Look into that, you might be able to take a day off that waiting period. You get 1 remap per year, plus 1 extra to start with for new characters.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I have no idea how attributes tie in as yet. Currently...

Charisma - 20 + 1
Memory - 20
Intelligence - 20
Perception - 21 + 1

The '+ 1' are implants.

Even after training Frigs 5 I'll still have a wad of training to get the gear to justify the hull. Fair enough, I'd be disappointed if the game handed new players top tier gear within the first 30 days.

I mentioned a Wolf but hey a Jaguar would be at least as sweet if not more so. Jag has more CPU, more speed, less armament. I just want a Wolf because it features in the awesome Butterfly Effect trailer that pumped me up for the game.

[Deef]

Ah hehe...

Ok, you should look at remapping your attribs then. It's one of those things you don't want to stuff up, but at least it won't be as bad as a wrong character name heh. Basically, avoid Charisma (implants don't matter, you get what you can) but I don't want to advise you more because you need to check it out for yourself. All your attributes do is affect how long skills take to train. Nothing more.

The Wolf and all the tier 2 frigs are kind of bottom of the top tier. Better analogy, the first step out of the scum. It's like when you finally move from a stock standard calibur in PSO to an actual Dragon Slayer or Flowen's Sword something. Well maybe not that bad.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Finished a rather large story arc of missions last night. Thanks to Deef for flying with me for the last couple. It's the first time I've played with another live player in the game and it was pretty awesome. My last couple of bosses hit hard while depleting my capacitor to further thwart noob players and while I was taking that agro it was hilarious to look back and see Deef in his hot Amarr frigate buzzing around and smashing it with laser fire.

So now I'm looking at remapping my attributes and I have a tonne of training to do to use the gear I want. Previously I'd been training to fly advanced frigates but have since put that to one side because on closer investigation, something I have time to do after completing the story arc, I see I have a lot to train in order to use the systems that do justice to those types of ships.

Deef do you have Evemon? I've heard it mentioned quite a bit online. Seems a standard tool so I've grabbed it.

[Deef]

I don't have it no, mainly because I prefer "window shopping" for skills instead of planning them out and thinking "Right, there goes the next 2 weeks of skill training." A lot of vets say specialise in something early, because all the little expansions you can do to your skill set do add up and before you know it that Tech 2 frigate took 4 weeks instead of 2.

Having said all that, when I remake (----____----) I'll probably be doing exactly that. I'll go Gallente but then dive straight into the Amarr frigs I believe. On that note, after all my mooching around in PvP, I've found Gallente to actually be the least interesting to me. Strange. I even trained drones but just haven't bothered with them.

And yes without all the complementary skills your ship will probably be more like a really good Rifter, instead of a Rifter-killer.
Take Science to level 5 to get Thermodynamics (ie overheating). There are several skills you can use to improve your damage output (namely rate of fire, damage, and tracking boosts) plus you need to invest time into which particular tank you're going to use. One thing about Minmitar ships, they are versatile at tanking but that means your skill set has to be versatile too. Caldari are pretty much all about shield tanking; Amarr, armour. Minmitar ships often options for both, but then you must be trained in both to make use of it. You also want to get the rigging skills going.

I'm probably gonna forego all this advice myself though too. Malediction first; learn to fly it second. -_-


I went into 0.2 space with my Slicer. Yes it is bloody nerve racking, you just can't stop being careful and one eyeball is always on your overview. I had a few flashy reds warp in on me at different times, and there is simply no meaning for that other than they have come to kill you. When someone deliberately warps in on you in the middle of nowhere, you know that they had to scan you down, and thus by time you see them for the first time they have already spent about 3 minutes thinking of killing you. And your 20 million ISK prettyboat. Once I got in range of a long point and I was in that heart-pumping moment, finger on the button ready to switch from flight into fight, turn the ship around, MWD on, barrel towards him while locking on and letting the guns go and then praying to live... because if that disruptor hit me it would be my only option. But he only had a scrambler, the short range warp scrambler. I don't know why but thank god because that particular enemy was in a Tengu, a big-ass mofo; much bigger than a cruiser. I think it's a battleship or battlecruiser. I've seen one before in a mission and I could not put a dent in it with my Rifter back then. Not a scratch... leagues beyond that Dagan ship last night.

Another threat was a Rifter. Just a tech 1 Rifter. It made me go "hmmm", but no, I played it smart and safe. He was already a flashy red which meant he had a lot of experience in low sec kills, so there was more to him that met the eye. Probably a lot of tech 2 stuff on that ship to rival my lasers, as pimpin' as they were, or just as likely, his mates waiting off-grid. Besides, I had no tackle on my ship at all so it would have been pointless for me.

Apart from those flashy reds, I had a few not-flashies warp in on me. They are still likely to go for you because that's what lowsec is all about; heck, that's why I first started going to lowsec and I'm not a flashy red (yet). And one guy (another flashy red) tried to jump me at a gate too, but I was probably safe because he would have been hammered by the gate sentries. Hmmm no wait, that was the Tengu. Maybe that's one of the ships that can tank sentries, in which case I was indeed lucky to get out alive. One guy seemed friendly, but you just don't know hehe. Normally in an MMO when you make a friend it's a pretty peaceful affair. In EVE lowsec, you just can't tell if they're going to stab you in the face first opportunity.

Two other things of note; I took on 4 NPC cruisers at once in my Slicer. To be fair, they sucked at hitting me. Oh and later on the NPC ships started to warp out on me! Ha. The other thing is that those cruisers were dropping loads of minerals, as in 75,000 units of one thing, then the next one 0.25M. Took me a moment to register... oh, 250,000 units. My ship could carry maybe 40000 heh. But basically I had made about 1.3million ISK in about 5 minutes... if I had only been able to carry that stuff out of there. And all for the lowly price of risking my ship to every guy and his dog trying to gank me.

[Deef]

Er here's a video to make this wordy post look better. Less fancy scenes this time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyjBwWcF ... re=related[/youtube]

______________________________

Damn.
Amarr frigs V = 9 days.
Evasive maneuvering V = 8 days.
Just to get the Malediction.

I think skills I to IV for both plus a couple of other prereqs will add about 4 days to that. Gweh.

You realise the Wolf needs Mechanic V and Engineering V as well right? Oh snap.

______________________________


I think the Wolf is a better frig than the Jag but is doesn't matter since they have the same prereqs. But better is up to your prefences. Look at the slots...
Wolf - 5 high, 2 mid, 4 low
Jag - 4 high, 4 mid, 3 low

From what I've seen so far, high slots mean guns (obviously) and low slots mean mods to buff those guns. Mid slots are basically about tricks you can pull. Speed, web, scram, jamming, sensors, etc.
(Also mid slots = shield tanking, low slots = armour tanking.)

Basically, the Wolf is a monster but 2 mid slots means zero tactics for controlling the fight.

I say the Wolf is better because it reminds me of my Slicer except with 5 guns not 2, and I enjoy my Slicer cutting things up. Lol pun not even intended. Actually 5 is a f***load for a frigate; even with tech 1 a Wolf could maybe out-gun your Thrasher. Five highslots to fit guns, more low slots to buff those guns = damage whore. That's basically what looks fun about a Wolf after seeing my pimpin' Slicer at work. It pops NPC frigates like you've probably seen NPC drones go down, and a Wolf starts with double the guns.

However, also like the Slicer, having only 2 mid slots is a serious problem for 1vs1 PvP. You will fit a propulsion mod and a warp scramble mod; there's no other option. Crossing the 10km mark will probably decide most battles. You won't have a web so if your opponent does and you go inside 10km, that's it. You can't "dual prop" either, which means fitting a MWD and an AB to survive your MWD being scrambled - again inside 10km. Best case scenario inside 10km is a "good fight"; without anyone webbing anyone you'll trade blows instead of dominate. Speed tanking is not an option for the Wolf against other frigs or destroyers.

So it's best in PvE, or PvP fleet support (but surviving fleet PvP is defined by the other ships mostly). Solo PvP will restrict the Wolf to long range, or short range only when you have intel.

The Jag is significantly weaker but it doesn't have these problems. Instead, the 4 mids give it a whole lot of other tactics you can play around with. Great tactical fleet support, dual prop safety if you want it, room for a big shield buffer if you want (I've actually got a big fat medium shield extender on my Slicer - it's choice bro), or pure tackle with still another space - dual web to really mess up an enemy frig, capacitor boosting always fun if you like to leave everything turned on, target jamming....

Here's the best intro to tackling I've seen:

Having written all this I just like both frigs more heh. I enjoy my Slicer for PvE and the Wolf would be twice as mean, but having a strong frig with 4 mids is really potent for PvP. I have seen a few Wolves flying around (RvB and flashy reds in lowsec) but never a Jag, so there's probably something significant I'm missing.

Slots-wise, the Freki is a pumped-up Jag. And it costs about one thousand times as much. :/

Assuming equal tech levels of mods, if a Slicer went up against a Wolf, the Wolf would have a strong advantage and there is probably a fit that a Slicer simply could not beat. If they both armour tanked, it would probably be a long and boring fight that the Wolf would still win.

Unprofessional opinions here.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I don't have it no, mainly because I prefer "window shopping" for skills instead of planning them out and thinking "Right, there goes the next 2 weeks of skill training." A lot of vets say specialise in something early, because all the little expansions you can do to your skill set do add up and before you know it that Tech 2 frigate took 4 weeks instead of 2.

Evemon will be good in determining what training is required to fly a ship eg: Wolf. That's all I plan to use it for. Business as usual otherwise ie: scrolling through options in the game and learning as I go which I'm finding fun. My Stabber load-out for example is providing me with PvE fun but I'm sure it's an abomination. 2 x 650mm artillery cannons, 2 x 280mm Howitzers, 2 x heavy missile launchers. The 650mm guns when firing sound like something from Blackbeard's ship in 1602. Overdrive, damage control and gyrostabiliser in the lows, capacitor battery, large shield extender, 10mn afterburner in the mids. The big guns look like antlers. As mentioned it is fun though. Was fighting some PvE frigates and after spamming the gun buttons I'm wondering why they stopped firing. Just as I finish the thought I see it's because they've popped after one shot.

[Deef]

Heh cool. I can't really offer much help on its fit because I haven't used cruisers at all. I might suggest simply dropping the 280mm guns altogether, because they're pretty much frigate-level stuff and I don't think they'll be doing significant damage compared to your other guns. If you fit them deliberately for tracking smaller enemies, you want to go smaller still; basically you'd need autocannons. But if you're just chasing dps, I'd take them off and use the spare powergrid for something else. What else, I have no idea. I just don't know cruiser tactics so regard this whole paragraph as a bit of the blind leading the blind.

I'm not sure what you mean about Evemon telling you what training it required.... the game tells you what training is required already. Confused.

You've got heavy missile launchers on that?


Your problem is you need someone to practise on heh. You know my Slicer might be able to take down your Stabber.... but I'm not totally sure heh.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I'm not sure what you mean about Evemon telling you what training it required.... the game tells you what training is required already. Confused.

The application allows you to import training schedules from a file. You can browse load-outs at Battleclinic and export the files from there. The imported file schedules your required training. That's what I glean anyway as I haven't done it yet. That's where I think it may come in handy given my initially lop sided approach to training for a Wolf.

You've got heavy missile launchers on that?

Yes. As mentioned, an abomination. Have not used them yet because while I'm qualified to fit the launcher I've only just now become qualified to load heavy missiles into it. Look forward to seeing what range I get with them.

Oh I meant to mention this in my last post. It was a long weekend here in Melbourne so I was amongst it Sunday night. You know you're into a game when in the middle of a crowded dancefloor very late into the night you get your phone out to see how your skills training is progressing.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Rats. I found my first lot. Not sure what made me scan an area I'd just cleared for a mission but sure enough a basic scan gave me a 100% hit on something with a prominent name. Warp to it and there's a bunch of frigs circling a floating brothel. I knew it was a brothel by the flashing sign that said 'brothel'. A fun battle comprising waves of gradually tougher rats + lookout towers and turrets. Explosions in Eve look great, btw.

[Deef]

Wow I'm kinda impressed by the heavy missiles. Ok in that case my Slicer probably couldn't stand up to it. It used to be much more possible to outrun missiles but now not really, and I've already seen my inability to get in on a cruiser that was using them. Can't speed tank. In case you aren't aware, missile damage is connected to signature radius, and so is the MWD. What this means is that having your MWD on makes it harder for missiles to hit you (but this isn't really as true anymore), but when they hit you they hit harder. Annoying use of English there I know. It's harder for them to hit but they hit harder.

I am still very curious to try. My Slicer does have a whopping big shield and can armour rep (also a bit of an abomination probably hehe). I wonder if I kept the MWD off, perhaps the damage received wouldn't be too high and the armour rep plus passive shield rep could handle it. Probably not.... in fact I'd probably be dead before I caught you. Plus I'd still have no warp scrambler so you'd never really be in danger.


That battle sounds good. I need to think of a new name already god dammit.


Watched a stupidly simple scam in action the other night. Like incredibly stupidly simple. It worked, he made abotu 230 million ISK before moving to another system. I might try it some time if I can be bothered. The fact that he could easily pay for the month doing that in 1 night makes it quite enticing.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I asked if it was possible for friends to trade some blows to test weapons and tactics in highsec and people replied that it was. I'm up for that.

Was good to do some non-mission exploring last night. The brothel encounter was pretty involved for something I lucked into finding. I also warped to a few asteroid belts, planets, moons, mining outposts and buzzed around taking in the sights. Provided for an excellent sense of 'wtf this game is huge'. Then I wondered what it looks like to visit a star. Warped over and sure enough, a burning, glowing star which looked pretty damn good. While at the star I observed a couple of cans on my scanner about 30kms away. I approached and there were two floating cans I was able to interact with and open, or attempt to open. I saw they belonged to players and had images of them poised to pounce as soon as someone springs their trap. I recall hearing if a player loots one of your cans you're free to attack them. I ended up leaving them alone.

It was the first session I'd spent time exploring with no goal in mind and i was pleased to find it immersive and fun.

[pilonv1]

You bastards are going to make me get this. I'm already wishing I got it for $5 when it was on sale