New Banner, new attitude, same crappy pilot

I have a brand new banner, and a slightly new look to my Blog!

Many thanks go to Rixx Javix of EVEOGANDA for the pretty pic above ♥♥♥

I've been having a lot of fun in Amamake again lately.  I've recovered from my emo-rage attitude lately (see previous post), and I've been hanging out with my old corpies from NQX Innovations (I blogged about them in this post). We bring into gang any other friends that happen to be nearby such as  Azishkra’elhykai Mizamel, CHED (my EVE white-knight) and others. I've also been helping/teaching  my old friend Ellpeegee about some of the finer points of pvp. He's just getting back into pvp after a long time, and I find it's always rewarding and refreshing to help less experienced players.

I died 5 times today, in the space of a few hours. I could go into details, but I'm terrible at battle reports, so I won't. Basically most of my Amamake fights (in make-shift gangs) go like this:

"Everyone align to top belt, be ready to warp to Laedy"

"Warp to Laedy, warp to Laedy!!!"

"Cmon guys where are you???"

"Need help here, hurry up"

"Overload, get points on everything, CALL IT"

"I'm going down, keep at it!"

"I'm dead, stay on him guys"

"Stay aligned guys, be ready to get out"

"You're all going down? Warp out, warp out!"

GF GF

and rinse and repeat

It's all so chaotic and hilarious.  If you ever come fly with me, you'll understand that I am extremely suicidal. I don't have much patience, I don't mind dieing over and over, as long as I get an equal or more amount of kills. We nearly had some really juicy kills too. We were very close to killing a vaga in a few thrashers, but then all 3 of us got permajammed by falcon :(
 
Amamake local chat is often pretty hilarious too. People whine and rage at being blobbed, falconed,  about "1v1's" being dishonoured etc...

My friend Malakai and I had a particularly hilarious fight last night, when we decided to engage a rifter in the top belt. I was flying a Merlin for the first time ever, and he was in his "LOL" Stiletto (I'm too scared to ask him how he fits it, literally the worst DPS ever). Well, it turns out the Merlin is a pretty crap ship. I had a rail and rockets fit, so it was meant for kiting at 7km.

Well, this Rifter lasted for a whole 8 minutes. It was either the most epic rifter I've ever seen, or we just had the most pathetic DPS ever:

http://bears.eve-kill.net/index.php?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7478104

Total Damage Taken: 8,759

I'd say that's pretty good for a rifter... LOL Chat logs here.

I've had a few Amamake residents recognize me lately. Some will be like,  "Laedy, you want a 1v1?" and then 1 minute later it's: "Oh wait, you're the same Laedy from that Garmonation 7 video aren't you? Never mind then." Like, seriously?

Recently I've also had people mention about my blog in local chat. It's kind of flattering to know I've got some readers, but then I realize that it's a lot of free intel right there for them. This one guy a couple of weeks ago was like: "Oh, no way I'm engaging your thrasher in my Ishkur. I've read what you wrote in your blog about killing AF's in that".

Oh and my favourite excuse that I've heard (after they've checked up on some info) for not wanting to fight me: "Oh, you're a girl irl? I can't fight a woman, sorry."

I do have my blog linked in my Bio though, so it's not surprising that people that are about to engage me will have a quick look in order to gain any intel. Any one else with a Blog come across this issue?


P.S. -  HERE'S SOME EXTRA INTEL FOR YOU SNOOPY AMAMAKEANS:

My ships are often named: "Hannah Montana" and "Myley Cyrus"

PEACE OUT YO

Crap week, but I'll live - Also, check out some sweet new blogs:

I thought about making a blog post reply to the "Blog Banter" about griefing this week (btw, my fave reply I've read so far is this, by Lady Shaniqua), but then I really couldn't be bothered. Although, I recently actually felt very griefed in EVE Online for one of the first times ever. 

As you may have read in my previous post, I was podded earlier this week and lost my very expensive HG slave set of implants. I spent all my savings and bought a new set soon after, worth 2.8 bil. Expecting this set to last me as long as the last one (1 year).

Well guess what? I got podded, again.
Long story short. I'm currently flashy at -5.05. As I've said before, I hate being flashy red so much. I was just about to dock up in Auga and clone jump to do some 0.0 sec ratting, when I jumped into a Minmatar FW gang and lost my thrasher. My laptop lagged, and I wasn't able to get my pod out. I was literally 1 minute away from jumping out of my slaves. I couldn't believe it.

I lost 5.6 bil isk worth of implants in 1 WEEK.

Massive emo-nerd-rage. My poor corp mates and other friends that were online witnessed it all. I swore I was quitting EVE right there and then etc... Not a pretty sight.

Well I'm not quitting EVE, but I'm not buying any more expensive implants again. Not for a long, long time anyway. I'm going to have to change my play style quite a bit. Those who use slaves/snakes/crystals will understand this: Having nice implants is very addictive. You become so used to having that extra advantage. Especially as a solo player, it's so handy to have because I'm almost always engaging people while outnumbered and outgunned.

It's ok, I'll move on, adapt and try new things. I might be carebearing for a while though, not too keen on getting out there to hardcore pvp again just yet.

In other news:

My friend Brianna Tempest has started blogging again!
Check out her cool blog at this link.

I met Azishkra’elhykai Mizamel (the first Aussie chick I've ever come across in EVE) irl for a coffee last week! It so happens we live in the same city, and we had a blast meeting up and chatting about all things EVE and non-EVE related. She also has a blog (click here), so check it out!

I'll be getting a new banner soon for my blog. The talented Rixx Javix (of EVEOGANDA) is in the process of designing it. I can't wait!

WGOE Inaugural Op!

For those of you not in the know, WGOE (Women Gamers of EVE) is an ingame channel/group started by Malindah many years ago. It comprises of strictly women gamers. No boys allowed! It's just a friendly channel where the ladies can chill at and talk about anything EVE or non-EVE related.

There is a process where you first join the public channel (WGOE=Public) and from there, you have to be voice interviewed in order to get in to the strictly female private channel. So, don't even try boys, we can tell a guy with a voice modulator a mile off :P

I've been in the channel for a couple of months now, and usually it's been pretty quiet in there. Recently though, we've been having an influx of new ladies joining, so I decided it would be a good idea to get an event together so we could get to know each other.

And so the monthly WGOE Op was born!

With just a couple of days notice, we managed to get 11 Yarr Ladies to come on the first frig roam tonight.

It was so much fun!

We had a mix of people of different backgrounds, from very skilled FC's to complete PVP beginners. Some well known EVE chick celebs came too, such as CSM rep Mynxee and Brianna Tempest (of AT8 fame)!

We started from Amamake. And not off to a good start.

In preparation, I had been carting some fitted frigs back and forth from Ossogur (high-sec) into Amamake. I had been going in my pod into Ossogur and back in the fitted ships. I did this so many times (I don't own a cloaky hauler), that one nasty F1nal Agony member must have seen me, and decided to go sit at the Ossogur gate in a Hyperion and smartbombed me as I was warping in to the gate. Talk about a griefer... He gained nothing from this, whereas it made me be 30 mins late to the op, as well as - and here is the really bad part - I lost my full set of High Grade Slaves (plus Akemon). All up worth close to 3 bil.

I was shocked. Normally in this situation I would be furious, but we had an Op to do, and I had to get back on the horse. I went and got myself a new slave set. All my savings are now gone but that's ok, it's well worth it. I had owned those implants for nearly a whole year and not lost them. I had gotten really good use out of it (hundreds and hundreds of kills) so I can't complain, it was bound to happen one day.

Anyways, tragedy aside.

The gang started off chaotically, as I had to get to know people's voices, and try and remember what ships they were flying (all T1 and T2 frigates). This was my first time FC'ing a proper gang and I was so nervous and all over the place. I'm so used to flying solo, this was a real challenge for me.

Thankfully, brave Tsumei Meyren stepped up and took the position of scout. I found out she has been playing the game for 5 years, and FC'ing on a regular basis, so we were in good hands.

The first engagement we came across was a Rupture. We all warp in, looks easy. Then Hurricane comes in, and then another Hurricane (he got out)!!! Definitely not the types of ships you want to encounter in a frig gang. We managed to kill them both, unfortunately losing Brianna and Ariartus.

And so we moved on towards Ardar Solar System. Things got a bit crazy, as some of us in gang were flashy red (below -5), while others weren't. So some ships would try and engage us at gates, and we were playing deagressing games with a drake and rapier (it was very annoying).

Moving on, we got another nice fight in Hadozeko, where we killed 2 Hurricanes (what's with all the minmatar anti-frig ships???). Poor Ariartus died in the rifter again (probably being primaried because she's flashy). Props goes to our dramiel and tackle pilots (namely Wicked Princess at the start) who were fantastic, and were burning to and getting warp in on things.

The roam got really really quiet from there on in. We couldn't find gangs that were of an engage-able size. Three of the girls managed to get a nice Comet kill while the rest of us waited, hoping for more. Nothing eventuated, and so we headed back to Amamake, ready to end the Op in a glorious last battle at the Top Belt, as we were sure we would find a fight there.

Surely enough, we got a fight in no time. We got a warp in on a Cynabal (another horrible ship to engage in frigs), and all went for it but not surprisingly, it managed to keep range and kill us one by one. To add to this misfourtune, the Cynabal was blue to me, and so I couldn't shoot him :(Within a minute a Hurricane and Tempest also landed and proceeded to slaughter the vast majority of us (including me in the Ishkur). To top it all off, the Cynabal got away to live another day.

Welcome to Amamake girls! It was a rather spectacular way to end the Op.

Below is a little memorabilia pic I made of all who came along:

Thanks to all the ladies that showed up. I'm sorry you had to put up with my woeful FC'ing, but I'm learning, and it was an honour to fly with you all.

We had so much fun chatting during the op and afterwards too. It's just a really nice change to hear all female voices on Ventrillo. Lots of pillow fights in pajamas and talks about unicorns and kittens :)

Next time it's T1 Cruisers baby! We should be able to engage a lot more targets this way, and be a bit more survivable.

We're going to make this a monthly thing from now on, so if any of you know any ladies that might be interested tell them to join the WGOE=Public channel and talk to me, Malindah or Arancia Detto.

See you there!

GRRL POWA

I went roaming with my new Hellcat friend, Eviwyn last night. Can I just say, this chick is impressive. She's only been playing EVE Online for about 9 months, and already she has over 1000 kills!

So we decided to go for a roam last night, Evi in a Jaguar, and me in an Ishkur. We started from Lisbaetanne on the way to Amamake, through low sec. Generally this is a pretty quiet route, with a few pockets of activity along the way. But man, was it dead (as most of EVE seems to be lately).

We were having no luck at all, until we jumped into Kurniainen Solar System. We see a Harbinger, Catalyst, Caracal and Bellicose on scan towards a belt! Excitedly (and rashly), we both warp simultaneously to the belt at zero. They are all there!

We decide we'll get a point on the Harb, but make the cat and bellicose primary. Next thing we know, only the Harb is pointed, and the rest warped out! We couldn't believe it.

So we keep DPS on the Harbinger (Acolyte I's drones doing not damage at all to us), and we hold him, hoping that his friends will come back.

As we hoped, the Harbinger pilot then starts talking in local, to get his friends back for help:

EVE System > Channel changed to Kurniainen Local Channel
lord exalted > im stuck
lord exalted > help
lord exalted > or run
lord exalted > crambled
lord exalted > mines up graded
lord exalted > ther almost through my armor
lord exalted > im in my pod
lord exalted > good luck
lord exalted > my pods alive too
lord exalted > the fun 0.1
eviwyn > gf
Laedy > good fight guys
lord exalted > im sorry you guys. i should have tjust told you to run
XxARROSxX > its fine dude
lord exalted > i though we could take them cause there just 2 frigates
XxARROSxX > rifters are fucking dangerous

We killed them all, easily. But seriously, how cute were those guys? They're all in the same corp, yet communicating in local, and they thought we were flying rifters! I love newbies like that in low-sec, willing to fight. I wish we could find players like that more often. 
 

http://bears.eve-kill.net/index.php?a=kill_related&kll_id=7353318  

Also, this was the first time I've flown an Ishkur in months and months! I was reminded of what an awesome ship it really is (I got my first solo kills in an ishkur), so I think I'll be flying it a lot more again.

Anyways, here's a shout out to my other EVE gal pals that I talk to and roam with from time to time. Ariartus, Brianna, Mynxee, Azishkra'elhykai, Eviwyn. You guys rock! ♥♥♥ Any other EVE chicks out there that want to come on a low-sec roam with us sometime, hit me up ingame!

Biomassing and Cancelling EVE - a how to (also, take my quiz!)

Earlier this week, a corp mate of mine, named Un'cas, sadly decided to leave the game.

Permanently.

The reasons he cited were not uncommon to many others I've seen lately:

"My decision has nothing to do with BiPo in general or any person/player in particular. It has everything to do with my growing disatisfaction with CCP and how they treat the players. The fact they have no regard for we, the paying customers and that there is realy nothing new for me to do in eve, made this decision inevitable months and months ago."

(Un'cas - Bi-po forums)

This is far from an uncommon occurrence in EVE Online, especially lately with all the public outrage shown towards CCP. Un'cas however, went that one step further while quitting the game. He not only cancelled his subscription, he also biomassed his 2005 Character!

For those who have not seen what happens when someone does that, this is the corp mail we receive as a notice:

The deceased then becomes a member of "Doomheim" Corp (Ticker [666]), and their name can no longer be found or linked in the character search ingame.

In Un'cas' memory, I've decided to create a quiz that will enable you to find out whether you or a loved one are showing signs of an oncoming emo rage quit. Hopefully by learning more about your true current feelings about EVE Online, you will be able to reflect and make an informed and level-headed decision about your future in the game.

(If you do decide to go on and quit, there are instructions further below on how to do so.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you in danger of rage-quitting EVE Onine? Find out - Take this Quiz!

EVE Online - Are you an emo rage quitter? » ProProfs Quizzes

edit - (Quiz is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, please don't take it too seriously or take offense)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is how you go about Biomassing your character:




You then have to wait a full 10 hours in the biomass processing queue (in the meanwhile hopefully you'll change your mind), before going ahead and turning your beloved character into space ashes. As a bonus, you also get to hear lovely screaming and burning sound effects when you actually press the final terminate button!


Cancelling your subscriptions to EVE:

Log into your EVE account management page and click on the circled item as shown below.



That's it! Hopefully you've made the right decision. All the best, and may you have a long and prosperous RL without internet spaceships!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Corp relationships - for better or for worse?

I've been thinking a lot lately about where I currently am in my "EVE Career", and where I would like to be. I'm probably having a mid-EVE-life crisis.

I know this might sound weird, but I believe your relationship with EVE Online Corporations is sort of like relationships with people in real life.

When meeting a new love, at first you may have this overwhelming feeling of passion. Everything is new and exciting. You want to spend as much time with them as possible and get to know everything about them. Your EVE life in general changes completely. You are willing to move to new places, fly new ships, go out of your way to please and help the corporation.

Then reality sets in. You start seeing flaws that you previously overlooked. The fresh passion and excitement is no longer there, and so you have to decide whether you love them enough to stay in the relationship and make it work, or whether to move on to something new.

So here is how I view some of these EVE Corp Relationships:


First love / Highschool sweethearts

These are the very first relationships you had. Everything was so new and exciting. You were so young, innocent, and wonderfully naive.

Even though it obviously didn't last, these are the relationships that you still look back on with nostalgia.

You might even still have in your Bio written something like, "Proud ex-member of so and so Corp/Alliance".

My first Eve-love was NQX Innovations. They introduced me to PVP, and I learnt so much from them and fell in love with the game more that I ever thought I could. Even though we've parted ways,  I still hang out in their chat channels and post in their forums. I've met a few of these guys in real life, and are friendships that will last.


Party Hard
 

This is the corp that took you to the most extreme in your EVE career. They pushed you beyond your limits, opened your eyes to new things, and corrupted your wide-eyed innocence.

The relationship to the corp was addictive and intoxicating, yet possibly destructive. EVE was never the same way again. You may have been: yelled at in Fleet Ops, ridiculed and bullied mercilessly on the killboards and forums for flying badly fitted ships, and may never have felt good enough to be a part of the group. It may have traumatized you, but in the end, you became a better pvp'er for it all.

To me such a corp was Genos Occidere. People often ask why I've left the corp (since it does have a bit of an "elite" reputation). My answer is pretty much this. Being an European Timezone corp, I found myself so addicted to the hard and fast pvp, that I was staying up all odd hours in order to go out on roams with them (thus not very healthy on my RL).  I learnt so much from them, and they are indeed amongst the very best players in the whole game, and it was a priviledge. But in the end, I needed a corp that was more down-to-earth and in which the pvp fitted around my schedule and preference (I wanted to be in Factional Warfare, not 0.0).

- Disclaimer - Any Genos people reading this please don't take offense. I love you all and still think you're the best. Please don't hunt me down or I'll get a restraining order (hire Noir. mercs) on you.


Flings 

These are the corps that you go to, in between finding more long-term commitments.

The rebound corps, summer flings, one night stands. You may have just come out of a difficult break-up, and all you want is to have fun, nothing serious. You want to try new things. To re-spark your love for EVE Online.

For me, this was Red vs Blue and the Federal Defense Union (Gallente Militia/npc corp).
They represent non-commitment. You can solo, do your own thing, no one cares. No mandatory ops, nothing serious.

If it does start to get too serious, or anything about them rubs you the wrong way, you just leave. Nice and easy, no one will even care or miss you. They can be lots of fun, or full of regret (maybe you'll lose a lot of isk with so much pvp), but mainly they are just there to take away the loneliness of being single (i.e. in an NPC corp). Soon enough hopefully you can move on and find someone you really care about and want to commit to.


Love and Commitment

Sooner or later, after being sick of being single or hopping from relationship to relationship, you may decide you want to settle down.

You have become wiser in choosing a mate, you have a checklist of requirements they must fulfill before you go ahead and let yourself fall head over heels for them.

And so you find a nice respectable corp, and decide you'll make the most of it. They may not perfect and there may not be passion and sparks all the time, but they treat you well and there is mutual love and respect.

To me, my current corp is like this. I came across Bi-Polar Bears at a time after I'd been roaming around alone in Factional Warfare, and they took me in and gave me a home. They're full of mature players, all with busy RL's (spouses, kids etc) and they can kick back and have a good time without too much srsbssns stuff. Well, at least not in my timezone (i.e. quiet AU/late U.S tz).

They pretty much let me be free and do whatever I want. Most of them are -10 pies, but they don't mind that I'm not. They also have a fascination with Zealots and RR gangs, whereas I pretty much only fly T1 ships and only own 1 RR Battleship (which I never use, but keep out of respect to the corp rules).  But they don't try to change me and just let me be who I am.

So far I'm happy with them. There's nothing to complain about, they're really nice guys and great pvp'ers. I'm just not sure if I'll get the seven-year itch one day... Maybe I should've signed a prenup?


True Love / Soul Mates 

Is there such a thing in EVE Online? Is it possible to find a corporation that fits your ideals so perfectly that you want to stay with them forever?

Sometimes I look at some people's Employment Histories, and see that they have been in the same corp all their EVE life. Some of these, since EVE first started in 2003!

I admire these corp relationships, it's like looking at old couples holding hands. You know that they are so committed to each other, and still very much in love. It's rare, but it does happen.

In many cases, when it comes to EVE Online though, the people that stay in those corps for years and years are often the very CEO's and founders of the corp. This makes total sense because if you really want a corp with people that:

- Plays in the same timezone as you
- Does the same activities as you
- Speak the same language
- Always live in the area of space as you want to live
- In all ways fulfills the same ideals that you have in EVE Online

Then you pretty much have to start your own Corp.

To the brave, stubborn, egotistical and persevering individuals out there that do this, may you live happily ever after in marital bliss!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question for my readers:

Tell me what kind of relationship you have with your corp! What do you look for, and what do you expect to give and get from the relationship? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not an outlaw and proud of it

Most of the people I know and fly with in EVE are -10, flashy pirates. To them, it's something to be proud of, each pod kill is a triumph. After all, being a perfect -10 is not always easy. All it takes is one gang member to kill 1 rat and ruin it for you. Being a -9.9 is not cool.

The first time I decided to go full pirate was 2 years ago. It felt so badass to have a [WANTED] sign stamped on my portrait. Everyone will fear me, I thought... how exciting!

For many many months I lived in Molden Heath and stayed a full -10, trying to living a true hard-core pirate life. To live off purely from the ransoms and loot of my victims. I didn't care about good fights. I wanted isk, carebear tears, emo rage-quits and to hear the sounds of pods squishing. They were good times. I was always poor, but happy with simply killing 1 or 2 low-sec mission runners or mining vexors per day.

Slowly my enthusiasm for this simple joy started to fade. I started wanting better quality fights, not just ganks. I started being interested more in soloing than gangs and gate camping. Being flashy became more and more of a hinderence.

My corp at the time was also feeling the same and decided to go and try high sec wardecs for a while. And so we all ratted up our security status.  From a full -10 to up and above -2.

For anyone that has ever done this, you will understand when I say that it can be one of the most painful things you will ever do in the game. Maybe for people that enjoy PVE this wouldn't be a problem, but for people that mainly get enjoyment out of PVP, it is one of the most mind-numbingly boring things you'll ever have to do.

If you do it solo, killing one Battleship rat in every system, and then moving on etc... it takes roughly 2 hours for every 1.0 sec increase. And that's in a stealthbomber, ratting undisturbed, not counting any time you get camped in hostile systems and so on. So, doing a couple of hours every night, you're looking at 2 weeks of work!

I've done this 3 times in my EVE life, and I've decided I've had enough.

I still enjoy pirating very much (mostly I engage militia targets though) but I mainly like to pirate while I'm solo, because then the target is likely to shoot you back, making the sec loss when you kill them FAR less. They also do not get kill rights on you that way (not that anyone ever uses kill rights). I also never ever touch pods, as the sec loss for podding is so extreme!

Not being flashy feels so freeing. I can choose my engagements, on my term. Having gate guns on my side is such a comforting luxury. I don't know if that makes me a coward, but I like it this way. I also like being able to go through high sec and concord space and not get shot at.

I do admire the real deal, -10 pirates. Not the gate-camping  blobbers, but the soloers out there, the guys that looks for good fights. Corps like The Tuskers, The Bastards, The Python Cartel etc... These guys go out and are willing to fight outnumbered and with sentries against them. Those guys are the real deal, they play EVE on hard mode. I'm sure they love it and wouldn't have it any other way.

In the meanwhile, I'm trying to be a good girl and keeping my sec up. I go GCC while killing a frig here or there, but then I immediately go to a belt and kill one Cruiser or BS rat to atone for my sins. You do the crime, you do the time hey?