Thoughts from Carebearing: Income and Ransoming.

I've been taking a few days off piracy to get high sec wealth generation back on track. I think I've done every level 4 mission the agents of the Federation Navy have to offer me at least 50 times now, so to preserve my sanity some new way to fund my piracy has to be found.

Mining for a few days hasn't really impressed me: isk income is fairly low by comparison to missions and fellow pirates have a habit of interupting... so that was quickly discarded as a main source of income.

I don't think I have the patience to make trading work, and with so many people out there who do, I think that's out of the question for me.

So I settled on production, one of my 'associates' is churning out battleship after battleship, which I'm afraid to say are, destined to be blow up for their insurance value (Hooray for exploiting being an outlaw, police do all the blowing up for me). I hear rumblings from the forums and SiSi that changes to insurance are likely to be made, so the idea is to step production up as fast as possible whilst I can make money quickly via fraud. This should allow me to have a larger base when I have to build for sale.

My exploits with the Hulk and the time I got given a megathron to leave a POS alone (whilst in an ishkur solo, so not a bad result I feel) have lead to some debate in my corp about ransoming, with terms like "common roadside robber" being thrown around. Personally, I don't see ransoms as a matter of honour but as a matter of business: less than the value of the fitted ship; more than I'd get through looting the wreck. It makes sense for me to honour a ransom therefore, as a disgruntled target is never going to pay again and will likely advise others not to. Dishonouring ransoms is bad for business, both for me and for others.

Also, this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvUbbYX9BMs

So, to close: if anyone else* wants to go AFK in a belt in low sec on a tuesday night, you'd better respond to ranson requests!

* Killboard link coming when Battleclinic's back up.

(Almost) The easiest 50m I ever made

So, out roaming through Amarr lowsec, I reach the end of a chain of systems. Noticing two others in local I bring out my scanner and have to contain my excitement as I see a pirate's wet dream: a hulk and an orca!

Quickly, I narrow them down to one of two belts and jump to one.

Of course, that's the wrong belt.

So I jump to the other one, praying that I'll catch them. Which seems to pay off, as they're still aligning. Reckoning I've got more chance of taking down the hulk before any backup arrives, I quickly put my point on the hulk (the orca sadly escapes :().

Hulk doesn't even deploy drones, he ejects and makes it away in his pod. So, I've got this hulk, in the top belt of a low sec system and I flip the pilot into my ransom channel. Fifty million is agreed, probably low for a hulk but its more then I'd get from loot and I've got no support nearby, but he appears to be confused: "which belt was it?" he asks me.

Then, two more signatures appear on local and on scan. Two experienced pilots. One in a arbitrator, the other in a hurricane (possibly my least favourite ship to fight against). Alarm bells start ringing, so I pop the hulk.

Just as my wallet flashes indicating the transfer of the ransom. Had to have a bit of prodding from corp CEO Giennah, but the full amount was returned. Then had a hilarious 60 seconds of out running the 'cane before I could escape out of the system.

Might return there later, see if I can catch that orca. :D

Bloodied, beaten but undeterred!

So, I'm having a run of bad luck: 8 ishkurs lost in the past 3 days, with only a rifter and a jaguar to show for it. Last night I, rather drunkenly, told one of my corp ceos that I was going to take a few weeks off piracy.

This was before I spent a few hours with my carebearing alt missioning.

So, back to piracy I go. Might move on to different hunting grounds, Lisbaetanne's only offering me noobs and traps. Also considering cheaper ships (rifter and thrasher come to mind).

Corp roam tomorrow night, should be a good laugh!

Yarr! I mean.. urrm.. Hello!

Hi, I'm von Diel. About a month ago, I was stuck in a blank jump clone after a epic journey home from 0.0 (They popped my noob ship with a station camp :( podding 25ish jumps was interesting). So, being bored I ventured out into low sec and quickly got the drop on a rifter. Then a brutix later that day. Hands still shaking, I moved my stuff to a low sec system, and haven't looked back.

Anyhoo, been on a run of bad luck recently. Lost 5 ishkurs in the past two days: 2 to sentries, 1 to police, 1 to station campers and the last to a rather well sprung trap by the Tuskers. Did finally manage to bring one of them down though. Always like fighting against Tuskers, as usually its a good fight with pleasantries exchanged afterwards (or in this case a reimbursement of lost dancers: hope you're enjoying them Kirith Darkblade!).

Managed to pull down a jaguar with the help of alliance mate Netheral. I'm starting to like the idea of frigate based roaming gangs for corp and alliance ops, mixture of assault ship, ewar frigs and bombers. Will post updates as to success.

Ooh, for those wondering about the title of this blog: my corp is called "killer carebears" and only a few of us partake in piracy or pvp. I also plan to confess all, from lucky wins to stupid losses.

Fly safe!