Friday 28 May 2010

Harvester Of Hearts

        A momentous occasion my fellow pod pilots; I am officially now on the all time killers list for the Tuskers!

        I've just made it on as of 5 minutes ago, a fight against a Merlin gave me what was needed to make it on. I must confess that I am ridiculously proud of this seemingly unimportant achievement as I could be just as easily knocked off by tomorrow surely? Whilst that is true, I am proud that in exactly 94 days of join the Tuskers I have contributed 277 kills. that breaks down into just under 3 kills a day, which I cannot complain with indeed. My skill points are finally getting to a point where my repertoire of potential ships is greater and I'm just about to begin working on the Dramiel and Cruisers. An exciting road ahead indeed!

        Here's to many more kills along the way, life is good.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Here We Are Juggernaut

         As some of you may already know, the Tuskers have had a declaration of war against our name. For most corporations and/or alliances I can imagine this would be a point of upset and worry. This is most definitely not the case for us Tuskers...

        Now I don't really need to explain game mechanics here to illustrate my point as I'm sure those who have just read the above paragraph will most likely have pegged what point it is I'm making; why declare war on a -10 piracy corp? I genuinely don't know. Regardless, they've honourably been putting up some fights against us, so kudos to their bravery and gung-ho attitude to the whole situation.

        If anyone actually followed my blog from it's conception (I believe Romeo was my first ever follower!) and have read it throughout, then you might remember the point in my life where I was drafted into my old anti-pirate corporation High House Of Shadows' training corporation Shadow Academy. The reason for this was in part through guilt from leaving them a little under a month before, but also because I wanted to help out the people whom taught me such a great deal about living in New Eden. My goal was to drive off a 4 year old player by the name of Duckeye. In hindsight I feel my friends at HHOS over-estimated my abilities in pvp, but they felt that having me fight beside them would improve their chances greatly. I of course obliged and fit up various ships to counter the cloaking Pilgrim that Duckeye chose to grief us with.

        I won't recap the outcome of this all, as all the posts remain if you happen to be interested in it. What I am trying to say, however, is how different it feels to be on the different spectrum of events this time around. To be the victors (so far) of the war and to be fighting confidently and without apprehension or fear of my opponent has humbled me, surprisingly. If nothing else it has reinforced how far I've come as a pilot, whilst driving home how different a person I've become from my upstart days as an anti-pirate. Part of me wishes I was the picturesque Rifter pirate who'd only just been given their pilot's license; striking out on their own, taking down anyone who tries to stop them. I of course was not this image, but I flew the ship with as much love and duty as any other, in a never ending attempt to get a kill. 

        New Eden presents a myriad of opportunities and challenges to those who wish to accept them and through constant endeavour we all somehow seem to find a home in the thousands of solar systems that form our community. Where was your old home? What did it mean to you?

        Fly safe.

Monday 24 May 2010

So Kirith Always Beats me To This

        ... But my fellow Tusker Romeo has posted another entry into his interview series, aimed at giving a bit of personality to the many pilots that collate to form the Tusker corporation everyone knows and (I hope) loves!

        This is a great interview and well worth a read; the pilots being interview is Leo Solunar.

Saturday 22 May 2010

My beloved...

        I lost him, my pretty Firetail...

        It was entirely my fault, but he is dead once more. I would hail you with tales of his descent into darkness, lighting up his path only with the flash of the autocannons, eventually succumbing to the overwhelming force that I faced... But I can't. He died trying to ninja salvage, against - not that I knew at the time - cloaky Pilgrims. May he rest in piece.

        To make matters worse I've now purchased two Imperial Navy Slicers as a bandage to the wound. I feel like I'm cheating on the little Minmatar gunboat. In an attempt to give myself a little pimp among the space lanes that are frequented by Dramiel after Dramiel, I gave my wallet a sleeping pill and went to town purchasing myself a nice new hangar of ships. When poor Mr. Wallet woke up he was a good 150 million down, without his wedding ring or one of his kidneys. Well, that's what he tells me at any rate.

        I've yet to actually fly either of the little Amarrian ships due to a) sheer fear of warping in a few kilometres too close and dying horribly and b) the many conversations which all give me different fits. Some suggest cap stability, others a damage control for extra tank and some a heat sink to push out extra dps. I'm still unsure myself but I'll undock one once a few more skills have been patched up in hope to plug weaknesses in the ship.

        I've been losing a serious amount of Rifters lately to my dismay. I'm getting more and more gutsy with the fabled hull and almost every time I come up short. Whether it's the limitations of the hull itself or a lack of skill on my behalf I can't be sure. Something definitely isn't right though and it's bothering me. I have, however, been getting some great small-scale frigate roams with a few pals of mine, both in the Tuskers and out. We've also been getting some good fights across the board in the Tuskers, with a particularly notable fight occurring last night.

        You've just been filled in via me on me and the life of me, I'll have some more interesting posts for you all soon.

        Till next time, fly smart.

Sunday 16 May 2010

The Old Republic

        I've finally picked up another Firetail after quite an extended period of time and I'm really enjoying flying it as I expected to. I'm unsure whether I just have wonderful luck in this ship or that there might be something special about it that lets me achieve what I do. I'm opting for the former.


        I'm now one kill away from the 300 landmark, I'm really looking forward to reaching that milestone and hopefully before I even finish this blog post I will reach that goal. We are stalking a Harbinger as I type...


EDIT: We attacked the Harbinger and ended up taking out two Brutix' on top of the Harbinger we attacked. A fantastic fight.


        In honesty though, the main reason why I am writing up this blog post is due to a rather exciting event that happened earlier today. The event in question is my most lucrative snippet of piracy to date. Yes, more lucrative than the Republic Fleet Warp Disruptor loot drop that made me giddily stare at the killmail for days on end. This time, I managed to secure a rather large ransom; a 200 million isk ransom to be exact. Myself, Novantco and a new friend of the Tuskers ItsmeHcK1 were out poking our noses in various systems not too far from home and after a victory over a Wolf which unfortunately never escalated as we wished it to, we were just about to leave Lisbaetanne in search of greener pastures. Itsme was sporting a Rifter and myself my trusty Firetail. Novantco was just docking up in Hevrice after putting his Megathron on the line in attempt to take on a Wolf, Drake and Broadsword that never grew to the fight it should have (as mentioned above). I was aligning back out to Aeschee and spotted a Raven on scan. I figured it wouldn't hurt to mention it to the gang over vent and did a quick directional scan round the celestials within my range. Strange, he isn't there. Things suddenly got a little more interesting.


       I began to search for the exact position of his ship in space; distance, direction, relation to the plane of the system. Itsme volunteered to probe him down for us and gave all the information I could that might have proved useful in the process of finding the target. We got the Raven's signature to 100% remarkably quick and proceeded to throw both myself and him into the fray. I landed at barely 5 kilometres away from him and established a web, scram and a nice orbit. I was most definitely in for the long haul. 'Drones are out, they are hitting me hard' I chimed into comms and the frigate duo that rocketed around the hulking Raven shot them down quickly and efficiently. At this point Novantco dropped into the site in his Deimos and started working on the Raven's tank. A few minutes later and both my Firetail's tank buckling under the weight of drone fire along with Novantco's Deimos' tank being punished by the Raven full rack of Tech 2 Cruiser missile launchers, the raven finally gave up the ghost and his tank failed


        We caught the pod by some grace of God and before I could even type something in our ransom channel that he was now at in, he asked 'how much?' I was somewhat stunned, but Novantco quickly told me to push for 200 million, which I had no qualms with doing. I asked and he immediately paid. The wallet flashed and I got a little richer. We released points and left the mission site, talking frantically in ventrilo about the fight just gone by and how awesome the ransom we got was. In hindsight he most likely had some far more expensive implants, but when pod ransoms can be such a gamble, I never try and overshoot my mouth in such situations. 


        Today has been both great fun and incredibly lucrative for me as a pirate, I only hope that the great times continue. At least today has most definitely paid for the purchase of my new Slicer which I look forward to flying very much!


        All the best fellow capsuleers, fly smart.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Am I Flying Yet?

        Sophocles once said "The Immortal Gods alone have neither age nor death! All other things almighty Time disquiets." and as I finally push past 10,000,000 skill points, a product of a long and arduous process; I finally am beginning to feel that my abilities are coming together. My support skills are forever on the rise, with all but a few now at minimum lv 4, the most important lv 5. This is good as I'm now able to afford more time to actually training skills that I want such as prerequisites for new ship classes and so forth. 


        This is a pie chart of my current layout of skills, with a hefty amount placed into gunnery (for obvious reasons) and spaceship command (mainly due to my foolish wish to want all four races of frigate skills at level 5).
I can now fly Minmatar, Caldari and Amarr ships all tech 2 fit including their tech 2 hulls. Gallente is having to be put on hold for a while, as the required drone skills are not going to be easily taught. The most exciting ship I now have access to is the Imperial Navy Slicer, a ship that I've always held interest in, but due to never bothering to train for tech 2 small lasers I have gone without it for some time. In little over 1 day, I will have a skill-set that I am comfortable enough with to fly one of these.

        The future for Kishin is still one of uncertainty, my main current goals are to continue working on my support skills, whilst finishing off the four race policy I have in place. By proxy, this will open up other ships like the Dramiel and Cruor to me (which is a very nice prospect indeed!) I am still slowly moving towards cruisers, it is just a matter of getting the medium laser/projectile skills to tech 2 allowable and I'm there. I will pursue that at a later date.

        As I look back on my time in New Eden, I smile and look forward to the future with even more excitement. With a new CSM being chosen soon and another expansion on the horizon, I am in hope that life in low-sec will get ever more interesting. I've definitely come a long way during my time in the Tuskers also, going from what was once a wallet that held little more than 10 million at a time and a killboard of 25-24 kills to losses respectively, to a much more healthy amount (I won't reveal details!) and a killboard that I am very proud of. Here's to the next 10 unlucky pilots that push me up to 300 kills.

        Fly smart.

Thursday 6 May 2010

If It's Not Baroque, Don't Fix It!

        I'm going to begin this blog with a singular word that can just about sum up my life in New Eden over the past week or so; amazing. Until recently I felt very stuck in a rut, not with any external issues of course, purely with my own ability as a pilot and my lack of luck in the game we call piracy. The kills had been between long droughts of roaming, the loot drops minimal and ransoms hard to nail down; recently such difficulties have changed in light of my more recent exploits. This is going to be a long one, so let's get the ball rolling.

        It might be common knowledge that the Tuskers and The Bastards have formed an alliance as a means to participate in the upcoming alliance tournaments held officially by CCP. Whilst it's a wonderful endeavour there are some pilots, myself included, whose current skill level (in a purely mechanical basis) are not up to scratch with what is necessary for the main 'team' so to speak. It's frustrating being so unable to help even when it comes to training sessions, skill points and usable ships still being the limiter here. Through this I began to really push what ships I knew I could fly, namely an assortments of Minmatar frigates, to their limits in hope to get some great fights and kills in the process. This began with myself and Kirith often talking about epic frigate roams and the prospect of killing ships miles above our weight class.

Warning; tangent incoming: Fortunately that became a realization today with him taking the helm of a scheduled frigate fleet, with a great write up available here!

        After many conversations on ventrilo I began once more stocking up on an excessive amount of Rifters and taking some chances. A fairly recent recruit to the corporation Valgore Meurte became invested in our conversations also and through that we began going on a series of increasingly successful ad-hoc roams. Not only have they been ridiculously good fun but also pretty profitable (at times) and a great learning experience for me as a fleet commander.

        Two main roams come to mind when I describe all of this. Firstly being the 9 hour long 'Rifter Roam of Epic Doom' that was set up a few nights ago and also a short but incredibly rewarding roam that occurred a few hours before Rob's scheduled roam that was in itself a hell of a lot of fun. Bear with me, I'm getting to the good stuff!

        So after a true Rifter roam with Valgore and Balsakian, which eventually escalated into a mixed culture roam; kills such as this and this, myself and Valgore decided to once more try our luck in no man's land. We kitted up, pulled together a rag tag crew of fellow pirates and promptly flew in whichever direction took our fancy. This just so happened to be the Heimatar region, which as all pilots in New Eden know, is a hot bed of non-consensual combat. Initially we all brought out fairly standard ships but after a well-fought fight with myself losing a Rifter we all somehow ended up in faction and tech 2 ships of all shapes and sizes.

        Two hours and a couple of kills later, we somehow ended up falling on top of an outlaw pirate sporting a Vagabond. Whether through luck, skill on my behalf or sheer foolishness on his, I actually managed to put a scrambler onto his ship in my afterburner brick-of-a-ship Wolf. Crazy, I know. We made fairly quick work of the vessel, only to proceed to freak out as a rather intimidating fleet of battleships, battlecruisers and HAC's decided to spoil our fun. Leo unfortunately lost an Ishkur after bravely taking down an Enyo in the midst of the fight, with Valgore doing some herioc loot thieving from the wrecks that lay strewn outside the station which hosted the brawl. End result: Republic Fleet Warp disruptor, which has been my single best loot drop to this very day. I was indeed a proud man.

        A trend of finding ridiculously big targets and Leo getting primaried every time continued through the night as we tore our way into the heart of low-sec Heimatar. In Siseide alone we claimed these absolutely wonderful kills; pow! bish!? Kablamo!! We eventually succumbed to the unavoidable fate that is downtime, but not before taking on a Rupture and Drake in our final stand against incredibly angry locals in Siseide. Oh, Kitsunes are awesome by the way, it saved our hides in that fight, over and over again. Way to go Lncog!

        With the roam coming to a close we all parted ways and I took the time to catch some sleep, who knew being a pirate would be so tiring. Later in the day I jumped back on, about 2 hours before Robert Mason's scheduled op and was for some odd reason immediately tagged as fleet commander and thrown out of the station to lead an impromptu roam. Fortunately luck was on my side as we caught a Ferox in a belt only 2 jumps from Hevrice, suffice to say he did not last long. The next fight that I managed to pull ourselves into was perhaps the best fight I've had in a while. Here is the after action report; fun times. It would be nearly impossible to describe quite what occurred during the fight as I can barely remember, the adrenaline that pummelled me into submission as I called out targets, kept tabs on our pilot's well-being and allocating points across the board. I was assured that i performed admirably though by a few of my fellow Tuskers, so I can take great solace in this, even if the Punisher did get away!

         Since these events I've been flying to decent success in both solo and group combat and I'm thanking the Tuskers (secretely) on a daily basis for allowing me to join their ranks when I did. Thanks to those that somehow don't mind me commanding them across the far reaches of space, especially when you consider that I, in my friend Arrhidaeus' words, am 'freaking hysterical but kind of all over the place at times'. Here's to more great fights in the months to come.