Docking to Rep (up my wallet)

Firstly, hi! Its been a while since I've blogged. Mainly 'cus I've not really done anything on my own that was worth mentioning.

Sometimes its fun to meet an old enemy, even better when its in an old home. You might remember my old corp NER's dislike of the Scum. Alliance. Well, it seems like what's left of them have set up shop in my old home of Lisbaetanne. Old Renegade/Hound and flier of the mighty griffin (and other assorted ships) mitch3190 kept being aggressed by them on an undock. In response to this, a Tusker recon and arty gang landed and blew the offending armageddon to pieces.

Its been a good first month or two in the Tuskers. Shortly after joining, we headed off to Black Rise for a month to experience new territory and exciting new crime. Unfortunately, I never seemed to find targets during my active hours.

I did however take part (and die horribly) in a string of corp ops based around arty canes and tempests. I've leave it to our FC Suleimon Shouaa to describe these in detail in his next few posts, but suffice to say I had a good time.

We'll be heading out on another campaign soon, so in order to keep more gangs running at home and abroad there's a recruitment drive on. If you're interested in joining quite possibly the best low-sec pirate corp out there check out the requirements and post an application here.

As for me: I've managed to bankrupt myself. Luckily, certain *ahem* associates of mine are active in highsec so in a couple of weeks I'll be out joining gangs again. Its not a matter of making isk, its more making enough to invest in something (some kind of industry knowing me) so that I can spend less time bearing and more time yarring.

Hope to be back to losing ridiculous numbers of ishkurs soon!

o/

New Year: New Face, New Corp. (same Ishkurs)

OK, so as with the trend for posting this, here is a comparison between von's old and new face. I couldn't get quite the same expression of confusion on his face, and he looks naked without the visor, but I'm getting used to it.

Secondly, as detailed here NER has been closed down. I'm sad to see it end, but it was a great challenge to try a build a pirate corp and I had good fun (for the most part) in doing so.

This left me needing a corp. I wanted to stick with piracy and have cool people to fly with. Only one real choice presented itself, so I'm now proudly a Tusker.

I actually don't have anything else really to add. Urrmm.. yeah...

LOOK OVER THERE ITS STUFF!

*runs away*

AFK Christmas

So yeah, urrm short post here. Back to my parent's house... no EVE until 9th January :( Oh well, time to perfect von's gunnery skills.

Hopefully, come January I'll still have a corp to come back to... should do. I think.

Ah well, come what may there's always Ishkurs.

o/

On film making, Indy corps and Stupid Miners

Ok, so its an idea I've been toying with since my first few above class kills and 1vs2's etc: a video showcasing the fun I have playing EVE. Recently, fellow Renegade Lex Fasces released a video of his solo work in and around Amamake (insert link here when I'm slightly more awake and thus able to locate it), and that triggered me to go and try to make something of my own :D

The first opportunity I came across for footage came when a request came out for backup to tackle a nighthawk and myrm belonging to an industrial corp, who were trying to move into our home system. What followed was arguably me flying tackle at some of my best: eliminating drones and holding the targets down as Renegades warped out and then back in again. Myrm went down, followed closely by the Nighthawk. However, in my haste to keep the enemy pinned down I'd forgotten to turn fraps on... yeah.

Filming continued as badly, on a solo roam around the Molden Heath circuit, two hulks appeared on d-scan towards a belt. "Brilliant! This will make an excellent intro!" I thought as I burnt 20km into point range of the first Hulk and began to tear him to pieces. Rather hilariously, both pilots launched mining drones in a futile attempt to drive my ishkur away. No too long after, the first hulk made a satisfying explosion (to many curses over teamspeak from my fellow Renegades at my sudden luck).

However, you may note that I posted two kill mails and therefore killed two hulks. You may therefore be wondering how I caught the 2nd hulk: was it a daring string of bumps? Maybe cloak and dagger work with a covert ops scout? Nope. He just didn't warp out.

Naturally, I forgot to turn FRAPS on to record.

So yeah, hopefully I'll find some nice fights/ransoms to record and produce for your amusement. The title for my video is provisionally taken from the corp motto (which hey, came from my sarcastic comments on vent when hero-tackling).

Watch this space for "This Can Only End well!"

o/

WHO RULE AMAMAKETOWN?

Whoever it is, it certainly isn't me.

However, the past few days there have been a lot of fun. I've got to relive the joys of the incursus, piss off an amarrian militiaman in a badass way (He MAD), gank the local gankers and scored my first ever faction battleship kill (because missioning in a lowsec hotspot is pro amirite?). Finding a fight is relatively easy, compared to going twenty jumps through low sec. Its all about the fast paced, pulse raising frigate fights.

"So von" I hear you cry "Does this mean you're moving to amamake and this is the end of your low sec roaming?"

In short, no. In long, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

In serious, no because what I do in Amamake isn't piracy; its straight out pvp. Its consensual on both sides, as opposed to hunting down carebears for their sweet loot and sweeter tears.

So, its a vacation. Cyber's put a stack of corp rifters down here, at 500m of his own isk (because he is crazy and Dutch), so I'm likely to leave a jump clone down here when my vacation comes to a close.

In addition, my internet appears to have returned to a fairly stable state, occasional disconnect notwithstanding. Ragequit avoided \o/

To those who inspire me (or sleep is overrated)

Ok, as my corpmates know: I'm taking a short break from EVE. My terrible internet has finally pushed me over the edge and frankly I'm sick of losing ships (and even pods) because my shitty router/connection (not sure which) decided to cut out. Losing ships rarely bothers me, lets give an example I was laughing and mock-abusing Cyber as that thing went down. Why? Because I chose to fly my shiny ashimmu into an obvious trap. Losing ships when I disconnect makes me rage because I wasn't there when they went down. I'm not there to make a daring attempt to escape, or even to warp my pod out.

All this means I have to spend less time on the piracy I enjoy and more time shooting NPCs and other monotonous carebearing.

So yeah, on a break until I can get my internet working again.

Anyhoo, rage over and onto the topic of this post. Today children, at the expense of a nice sleep I'd like to talk to you about the pilots that I feel have shaped and influenced the pirate that I am today. This will take the form of a list and is in no particular order.

1. xxxrichierichnz

Richie was the ceo of my first corp and thusly taught me a lot about eve. Admittedly, most of it was to do with missions and mining but he did two things for me: Impart his love of ishkurs (which is enough to put him on this list by itself) but also that ships are only pixels.

Ok, so he taught me the second one by getting me blown up by the pleasure hub in damsel in distress... twice. But it was a valuable lesson in EVE and one that's lead me to taking some reckless actions, 'cus hey sometimes it works.

2. Wensley

The famous 'Rifter Drifter'. I'm aware that other people have made eve videos, and that other people are as good if not better at flying a rifter. However, I'm yet to see the two combined like he did in 'Rifter Drifter' and 'Inconceivable'. Seriously, stop reading and go watch them.

...

Ok, done?

For me, the best parts are when he tries things that shouldn't work. A cepter, as a t2 ship, should wipe the floor with a t1 frig. A myrm, as a drone boat should mince a frigate. And yet, he took them on and win or lose posted them in a video. Solo piracy at its finest.

I also have a quote by Wensley in my bio. Squealed like a little girl. Seriously.

3. Ga'len

My first encounter with Ga'len was what lead to me joining Hellhounds, my first pirate corp. As well as having a wealth of knowledge about ship fittings and tactics, I and other hounds spent hours listening to him tell tales of times past: the taking of Unity station and some of his past 0.0 escapades spring to mind as highlights.

Also, he got me into blogging. So yeah, blame Ga'len for your having to read this crap.

4. Kaal Redrum

I met Kaal as part of his application to join Hellhounds, I've watched him go from flying 'junk rifters' (his own words) to being one of the best pilots I know.

Now, you may be looking at his stats and thinking "But von, there's nothing really special there." however what makes Kaal special is that unlike your average Noob, he thinks things through. I've fought countless 1vs1s against him, testing out new fits and ideas. Many of the old Hellhounds will remember the 'drake debate' between him and Ulyster over webs on a drake. Turns out he was wrong, but what got me was that he not only asked questions, but did work to back them up. Its not "This is cookie cutter, therefore I will use it", its not even "Would this work guys?" its "I've worked out that fit X is superior to fit Y because of Z".

Kaal often says that I've inspired the way he flies, and maybe I have, but when we're both back actively flying again I feel that the student may have become the master.

5. Venom Orchid

Venom taught me the value of discipline in fleet and rather a lot about scouting and scanning. I actually flew with her only a couple of times, but one of those sticks in my mind as one of the most fun fights of my career.

6. Kishin Hattori

Kishin inspires me because he's an experimenter with fits and doesn't fly anything bigger than a destroyer. Like me he likes to do crazy shit in a frigate, however unlike me he's actually successful at it fairly often.

Anyhoo, I'm meant to be in a lecture in 6 hours time so I'll leave it there. Hope to be back flying in a week or so, until then o/

The fall of Jimmy Mcmillan

As previously stated, my stats are terrible. On average, my I manage to score three kills in a ship before it dies in a blaze of fail. So when I score 19 with one in just under a week, you may see why that ship claims a place in my heart. Presenting: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Mcmillan, my Omen navy issue.

Her career started out rather blandly, sure scorch proved to be pretty damn cool but the ONI just hadn't pulled anything special out of the bag yet, unlike his sister ship my fleet stabber. It was tempting just to sell her back on, however then I remembered watching Tusker Suleiman Shouaa tear apart a Russian gang with his and decided to give her another try. Within five minutes of leaving home station, a gate camp had taken me to structure, something that would happen to me a good five times in this ship before she finally went down. I scored a few more kills last week, but again nothing that made me stand up and go 'wow': a couple of confused noobs and a solo gate camper who made the mistake of taking gcc on one of my corp mates.

Monday proved to be short on kills but high on 'lulz', as following that a large gang started chasing me around system. At one point, they caught me: arazu had me scrammed and webbed, falcon had me jammed and various bcs were applying dps. I was melting fast and spamming the mwd button in the vague hope that somehow it would defy CCP and activate. To my confusion, it did \o/ and I burnt to safety.

Yesterday turned out to be the ONI's finest few hours in my possession, killing a badly fitted harbinger (although those beams could hit me quite well at range), a tremendously fail Raptor (he had a claymore and taranis in system, and I dced after tackling him. Was majorly surprised to not only log into a ship, but also to then be able to repoint him) before a rather hilarious encounter with a Scum. frigate gang. We would've got more, however I'd capped out by this point (had to keep the mwd running to keep the main gang at range, three ishkurs would've hurt); I'd given Cyber an excellent warp in (right in the middle of the scramming frigs \o/) and Delisa had gone afk. Still, props to Scum. for trying something different instead of their usual recon heavy blob.

Jimmy's career finished off with my first EVAR t3 kill \o/ a missioning battleship who was gracious enough to grant us a "good fight" in local and finally a confused noob in a reaper who aggressed me on a gate?

So, the ONI completed two of my EVE goals in her short life: Kill a t3 and get to 600 kills before 200 losses (a tall order given my track record, as I was 589 for 199). However, like her namesake it didn't end well last night and I finally lost my dear ONI to a competent gate camp. So the ship endeared itself to me. So I'm going to buy another one, right?

WRONG!

For two reasons actually, firstly because on Monday I will be able to fly Vagabonds (Ga'len would be so proud!) and secondly, somer.blink has stolen all my isk by being so damn addictive. Seriously, every time I think of quitting I place a random bet and win big. Thing is, while the stats here are actually quite good and I've technically won money, its in the form of two ships that I don't even need.

Watch this space for an Ashimmu loss mail

o/