Wolf & I

"You are the wolf
And I am the moon
And in the endless sky we are but one.
We are alive
Wolf & I."
                                                               -- (Wolf & I, Oh Land)




        So as my previous post stated the 2nd Quarterly Report dropped a week or so ago to a positive response so thanks for all who've read and taken part in the discussion of the blog. In lieu of my efforts other pirates have taken it upon themselves to view piracy in a similar fashion to how I do; fellow Tusker and rather e-famous blogger Taurean being the most notable.

What I did throw up on the Q2 Report however was a poll to ask you all what you'd like to see be made into a special 'investigation' report that can span any aspect of PvP (that is available to me to do, of course). Whilst it's still early days I'm noticing a strong trend that people want to see some kiting v close range analysis; we are currently in a proto-nano age right now so it's understandable that people want to take a look at profitability of such fitting styles.

My problem lies in how to approach this - very few ships can fit both a kiting role and close combat role to a similar degree. I may have to look at taking extreme approaches with the way this goes whilst making sure that the isk investment into each hull is on par. Right now the first two ships that explode into my mind are the Wolf and the Slicer. I seemingly do very well with both ships (the last Wolf I had was alive for quite some time before valiantly dying to the faceless blob), so it would make sense that pitting these hulls against each other might prove an interesting experiment. It just so happens that the majority of their targets even align fairly well and as such it should help to validate what data I might find.

It could be a smarter idea to look at the same vessel and just alter fittings (ships like the railranis, railcomet and raildevil against the blasterranis, blastercomet and blasterdevil come to mind for polarized fits). This could be beneficial as the 'core' of the ship remains - it's just the bells and whistles that change. This could also highlight (providing there is significant correlating data to suggest such things) the importance of fitting your ships - how drastically a hull can be changed through the way you fit it up. Interesting notions indeed.

I'm not committing to a finalized idea yet as anything couuld happen with the time left on the poll; if you have an opinion then go ahead and vote up on there or comment on the report should there be an option not already available. Any ideas behind how I can make this a 'fair' and worthwhile experiment would also be very much appreciated!

        In other news; things have been carrying along smoothly in my world of piracy. I'm still yet to really find fights that get my blood boiling, probably down to a desensitisation of the game itself, so I have began to stray from direct combat reports in these posts. I've broken the top 500 on Battleclinic which is rather cool, despite being a completely asinine statistic (I just love stats). I have a new blog header as you can see thanks to  Bonni3 which I hope reflects the multi-faceted nature of this blog through my musical connections.

Keep flying guys - someone's got to make the miners lives meaningful right?

Who You Gonna Run To?

"Baby, i've been wrong
And maybe i've been livin a little headstrong
But i know it isn't right 
Startin' a war by avoiding a fight
It hurts, don't lie..."
                                                                            (Who You Gonna Run To?; Solid Gold)




        After a fair amount of time the Second Quarterly Report over at Journals of a Baroque Pilot is complete! Please take the time to go have a look and also drop a comment if you enjoyed this instalment. 


For those who follow this blog but are not aware about my secondary blog Journals, it is a blog dedicated specifically challenging the concept of piracy not being a viable profession within the game; I track my profits (and losses) as I go about my piracy career with the Tuskers. The ultimate goal is to show potential pirates and pvpers that you can make a living purely off piracy alone. Also keep in mind that I do all this on a single character - no alt prober or booster for me. 


Hope you guys enjoy this report and look forward to the next report that will land in October after data from Q3 is in.

Oh That I Had

"This is not new to me 
As I sit in this boat 
But I'm so cold my bones will freeze
And there's nought through the haze
I've been waiting so long
But my hour has gone away"

                                                                 -- (Oh That I Had; Mt. Eden & Ruby Frost)

It's Sunday July 10th today. The time could be anywhere between 9pm Saturday or 9pm Sunday evening. For me it's currently 3am. Eve tells me it's 7am and back home in the UK it's 8am. Time is something I've become estranged with and with the Tuskers operating in such a static manner (not implied in a negative sense) sometimes it can feel like New Eden passes us by. 

In an effort to innovate myself I've looked at sizing up a little, my favorite ship potentially being the Vagabond now. Whilst I've had a good chance to test this ship out, along with some more traditional Vagabondry (and even more hilarious antics involved; he was logged off without his DCU active... Poor fellow) I haven't done anything that I felt was outside of my grasps in, say, a Hurricane or some other nano-cruiser/battlecruiser. I love the added falloff that the Vagabond has, in my opinion it's true redeeming feature even over it's innate speed. It has just about everything I need in a sleek little package, very cool. 

It wasn't until myself and Ronan lazily took a Vaga tag team out (lazily = without scouts) and perused the local area. We came into a Hurricane in Lisbaetanne and engaged. Quickly, however, we realized that this cane was both artillery fit and with backup - another 2 Hurricanes to be exact. We bugged out and regrouped to assess the situation. I threw out the rather crazy plan to drop in the center of them and burn through them whilst their tracking couldn't hit us up close, yet we both looked at the reality of the situation and decided it might be best not to. Leaving Lisbaetanne we found the gate to be camped and whilst they unfortunately caught Ronan, their guns couldn't track and he safely made it back to the gate. 

Now, having seen the true effect of their artillery up close, we got a little more confident and set ourselves up 200km from the gate. By now, one of their pilots had re-fit to a Rapier and we thought... Why not, we're in Vagabonds! We let the Rapier probe us down and he landed right on top of us. We quite literally went in guns blazing with Rep Fleet Plasma and overheated at close to point blank range. The Hurricanes warped in at... 0km? Yup, they decided that the webs would hold us down and neuts would keep us from running... A miscalculation on their behalf. We managed to duck out from under the guns, only realizing they had T3 links active when 40km was reached and they still held onto us. Ronan escaped, just barely, and we went back to Hevrice where we called it a night. 

Strangely, the Vagabond didn't feel new to me (see lyrics?). I keep killing and killing, my online soul must be nothing more than a dead weight. Is there something new through the haze of time? I suppose we'll have to see. 

Hey CCP

"Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
And that ain't cool." 
                                        -- (Jimi Hendrix; Hey Joe)




As my time in the USA has been phenomenal things have definitely been quiet around here (incase nobody noticed) and whilst that will be rectified I don't have the time to truly keep things pushing. That being said, it's also pretty hard to motivate myself right now due to Zulu's and elephants in rooms. 


Now let's look at the lyrics which I'd like to use to explain the situation from my eyes. We establish that a relationship has ran sour through an unfaithful partner and as such she is to be executed. May I also bring in both the Dev blog Zulu posted up not long ago that (in many's opinion) was a great big 'we're not listening' to the community out here. Thirdly and finally, take into account the email that was sent by Hilmar that I'm sure most will have read (I would provide a link but they continually get deleted off forums too quickly; you'll find it if you go take a look). 


With all this in mind when regarding the lyrics we could perceive that CCP has been unfaithful to us, the playerbase, and as such we are taking power and acting in a manner deemed appropriate. They lied to us, did they not, with the state of micro-transactions? Yet, on the other hand, what of CCP's side of the story? They seem to be incredibly steadfast in regards to these issues so far. Could it be that we have been unfaithful? Unable to 'HTFU' and run with whatever they are attempting to create (or sell) and for that we are being hurt? 


Frankly I couldn't give a damn about micro-transactions in EvE as they are; some dude wants a monocle? More power to him. I actually like the potential held within Incarna and hope that CCP survive this ordeal long enough to actually give us something with utility and flare. 


But honestly, the part of all this that sunk home to me has been two-fold. Firstly in the sadness I hear from some of my fellow corp-mates voices as they discuss the issues surrounding this event; hearing the lack of faith they now have in CCP. Secondly in the forums of my corp; here I can be sure that there's no trolling etc. Obviously no names are given for respect of my friends. Take a look at these...


"Yeah, no way I'm giving CCP another bloody penny with their responses to the ongoing ragenaught about microtransactions. My main account lapses in September; I'll aim to get as much use out of the time I've paid for as I can, then I'm out.

It's been a blast, guys."


"As I'd imagine others are feeling, I feel very strongly about the issues of MT in EVE. I've been reading through the threadnaughts and I'm really angry at CCP for their responses. So, unless anything changes, I'm voting with my wallet and leaving EVE.


Its been great guys, I've loved flying with you. I really hope they pull this around."


On top of this, I've seen 2 other Tuskers cancel their sub and another saying that he's gone the second MT becomes game-changing (which I think goes for a lot of us right now). All of this in the space of 12 hours from Zulu's blogpost... This isn't right. 


Maybe I'm being overly sentimental and soppy about this but to me the main draw of Eve is my friends and the community that I'm a part of. This blog is a means to interact on a wider scale beyond my shooting people in spaceships and Incarna could be another avenue to experience the community that Eve holds. I choke up whenever a Tusker decides to part ways because they're all great people - when 4 go in 12 hours, well as Hendrix told us, that ain't cool. 


Sort this out CCP, please. 

Help I'm Alive

Help I'm Alive by JadePuget

It's been one hell of a crazy month over in my world (which is the same as yours but filled with rainbows... Or so I'm told). I'm about to be jetting off to the USA for 3 months to spend some much needed R&R with my favourite person in the world Bonni3 (who's art is phenomenal by the way, check out her galleries) and the English Literature degree I've pursued for the past few years is finally coming to a close. As such I've lost my head a little with Eve and the times I do log on I'm usually itching to shoot stuff; ultimately I have been dying in a lot of fires lately.

Journals is still on the go and although I'm quite terrified of the results of April and May (due to my recurring derp) I will do so in the name of science and take the flak from it as it comes. I'm ashamed to be building a blog based around survival through piracy only to show a seriously isk sink (I evaluate somewhere around 1 billion overall... I'm so serious), though it will hopefully get me to put my piracy head back on straight for when I come back to playing properly again.

With the Tuskers recruitment closed again some aspects of the corporation are beginning to smooth out, though the Molden Heath campaign has admittedly gotten to us in my opinion; too few people based in each system has led to a lack of allies and in this day of Eve generally only the most diligent of pilots can sniff out the horrific blobs (something I especially have trouble with due to my lack of alt-ness). I'll be looking forward to having all of us back in Hevrice together so things can truly get back to normal in the Tusker camp.

Beyond that, there's been little to report. Hopefully I'll find the inspiration to get some more lengthy and in-depth blog posts. Until then o7

Siren Song

"Are you my family?
Can I stay with you a while?"

                                                         -- (Siren Song, Bat For Lashes) 

        It appears that the Tusker name and image is ensnaring more and more to wish to fly under our banner. Through our exploits as a corporation, the proto-celebrity status I am in the belief we contain within New Eden, we've become a siren's song to many existing pirates, pilots looking to delve into piracy and all manner of other characters. 

        More members is generally a great thing in my eyes; more pilots means a stronger core which gives us more active players and spreads the Tusker influence further out across New Eden. It's obvious that something is special within the corporation as we have so many member that all have stayed well over a year, some two. Our public channel (usually) is quite a good place to meet new potential applicants and get to know them better, sometimes even setting up some ad-hoc roams with them providing they are in the area. I like to engage with a lot of the new applicants personally as I know that they'll likely become a co-pilot and friend down the line; it's always good to cultivate that early on as to create a comfortable atmosphere for new members. 

        I was just reading up on Taurean Eltanin's latest blog post as I enjoy his journalistic method to his piracy career and decided to explore a little further back, only to find that he has his mind set on joining the Tuskers. In full, I'm here to plug this great blog and wish Taurean the best in getting those 5 solo kills. If you are reading this Tau (as that'll totally be your vent nickname) drop by Hevrice sometime if you feel like heading out on a roam soon. 

P.S. In other news, the second instalment of the Journals should hit in the first week of May. This will be the first monthly report and should be an interesting one! You only have to look at my killboard stats to figure that out. 

Don't Change

        So today marks a new era in the world of the Baroque Pilot; I'm out of style, my music taste is stuck back in the 60's and I live the way most abhor; I swear to God I'm never going to change. Piracy is so much fun and despite my occasional sulk I generally have an absolute blast living in New Eden as I do. Due to this I've decided to put together something to back up the statements made.

        The Journals of a Baroque Pilot sister-blog to Journeys is now officially open for business... Or reading pleasure, whichever takes your fancy. This is going to be the place where I document everything that happens to me during my piracy lifestyle as it is seen in financial terms. You get a completely honest and un-edited representation of how much isk I make from actions of piracy; loot splits and ransoms. This will currently stand as a monthly installment (as to not bog myself or my partner Bonni3 down too much, she does the awesome graphs and banners!) in which each installment will address my performance for the month. I would run through it all but there is a handy little page on Journals itself to give the inaugural speech to you. Technology right? It's like a mixtape or something.

        I hope you all really enjoy the new blog and keep in mind that journeys is still running strong! You will still be bombarded with music you probably don't like, whilst being told adventures of random piracy; Journals compliments Journeys with the hard data. I'm aware there are some statistical limitations (such as lack of salvage involved in the isk amount) and I'm open to criticism/suggestion on how you feel Journals would be improved; what data would you be most interested in? Any aesthetically alterations? Keep me posted with comments over there and I'll see what I can do.

        Also in commemoration of the new age of the Baroque Pilot, Bonni3 made me a new SUPER AWESOME banner for my blogs. I like to think it gets across the notion of ransoms personally, I am a pirate after all!

Here's to Eve and to being true to yourself. Don't change.