Sunday, 13 November 2011
Back!
There has been a noticeable lack of reports lately due to the fact I haven't been piloting a ship. I had to relocate and now I'm starting to get set back up. The command center won't be up and running to full capacity for a few weeks still, but I'll be out and about looking for a fight. Along those lines I just refit my trusty Hawk with T2 launchers. Now I just need CCP to hurry up with the T2 MAC to free up a low slot.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
The Path Less Taken
Reading through the blogs linked on the left resulted in a huge release of information when the test server was uploaded with a data packet detailing future changes to ships, weapons, and modules. The best review I saw was from Azual at The Altruist. I'm not going to rehash all of the changes, but I did want to post about some of the things I'm looking forward to or concerned about.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Hawking My Wares (AAR)
Task: Practice and learn tackling procedures while solo
Conditions: Given a disruptor fit Hawk in the Auner system
Standards: Don't lose my pod
Summary:
I wanted to hang out in space tonight so I hopped in my Hawk and headed out to Auner again. I got on the Resbroko gate and waited to see what came through. Soon enough a red (no GCC) Wolf landed on top of me and I locked him up.
Conditions: Given a disruptor fit Hawk in the Auner system
Standards: Don't lose my pod
Summary:
I wanted to hang out in space tonight so I hopped in my Hawk and headed out to Auner again. I got on the Resbroko gate and waited to see what came through. Soon enough a red (no GCC) Wolf landed on top of me and I locked him up.
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Losing a Logi (AAR)
Task: Conduct anti-pirate roam in low sec area around the Arant system
Conditions: Given a shield tanked BC fleet and access to low sec systems while personally flying a Scimitar logistics ship
Standards: Have fun, fly smart
Summary:
The fleet was engaged in combat almost from the start on this roam. There was a small gang engagement and later on a fleet fight. In both fights I made a few mistakes but the fleet did well overall.
Conditions: Given a shield tanked BC fleet and access to low sec systems while personally flying a Scimitar logistics ship
Standards: Have fun, fly smart
Summary:
The fleet was engaged in combat almost from the start on this roam. There was a small gang engagement and later on a fleet fight. In both fights I made a few mistakes but the fleet did well overall.
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Circle in Space (AAR)
Task: Conduct solo patrol of Auner space for familiarization and experience.
Conditions: Using Hawk AF with long point move around the Auner area looking for possible engagements.
Standards: Have fun and ensure pod is removed from fight if at all possible.
Summary: This is a short note, I didn't engage in a fight but I did have a situation occur worth writing about. I was in my Hawk and orbiting a gate in the Auner system when a red security status Megathron jumped into system. My first instinct was to prepare for warp off in case he locked me so I aligned to a station. Nothing happened though and he left the area.
Personal Notes: I have no illusions that my Hawk could have broken the tank on the Mega before he could get back to the gate. Calling in friendlies was a possibility, but I wasn't expecting to engage anything that big so I hadn't arranged for support. I also wasn't sure if the gate guns would engage me for starting the fight but I found out later they wouldn't. The more I thought about the encounter the more I thought I could have done things differently.
At a minimum I should have locked him as soon as I saw he was low security status. Whether I wanted to engage or not the time wasted locking could have been critical, and it's a good habit to get into. Second instead of moving away from the BS I should have closed range to put him in a tight orbit by manually flying in an arc towards him. Finally picking a warp out point that was on the overview and doesn't require clicking on the screen would have made more sense.
Improves-
Locking pirates whenever I'm not cloaked is a good idea, no requirement to engage them
Plan some possible reactions for different size ships whenever I setup a patrol to help initial decisions occur faster
Practice aligning to smart warp outs instead of panic selecting where to go
Sustains-
Continue getting out into space
Finding answers to questions
Conditions: Using Hawk AF with long point move around the Auner area looking for possible engagements.
Standards: Have fun and ensure pod is removed from fight if at all possible.
Summary: This is a short note, I didn't engage in a fight but I did have a situation occur worth writing about. I was in my Hawk and orbiting a gate in the Auner system when a red security status Megathron jumped into system. My first instinct was to prepare for warp off in case he locked me so I aligned to a station. Nothing happened though and he left the area.
Personal Notes: I have no illusions that my Hawk could have broken the tank on the Mega before he could get back to the gate. Calling in friendlies was a possibility, but I wasn't expecting to engage anything that big so I hadn't arranged for support. I also wasn't sure if the gate guns would engage me for starting the fight but I found out later they wouldn't. The more I thought about the encounter the more I thought I could have done things differently.
At a minimum I should have locked him as soon as I saw he was low security status. Whether I wanted to engage or not the time wasted locking could have been critical, and it's a good habit to get into. Second instead of moving away from the BS I should have closed range to put him in a tight orbit by manually flying in an arc towards him. Finally picking a warp out point that was on the overview and doesn't require clicking on the screen would have made more sense.
Improves-
Locking pirates whenever I'm not cloaked is a good idea, no requirement to engage them
Plan some possible reactions for different size ships whenever I setup a patrol to help initial decisions occur faster
Practice aligning to smart warp outs instead of panic selecting where to go
Sustains-
Continue getting out into space
Finding answers to questions
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Because of Falcon (AAR)
Task- Conduct anti-pirate operations in Auner and surrounding systems.
Conditions- Given an operating environment consisting of small gang, a mix of BC and support ships, with voice coms in a two to three system operational area.
Standards- Engage and destroy ships with horrible security standing or that are GCC while maintaining maximum advantage and avoiding unfavorable pitched battle.
Conditions- Given an operating environment consisting of small gang, a mix of BC and support ships, with voice coms in a two to three system operational area.
Standards- Engage and destroy ships with horrible security standing or that are GCC while maintaining maximum advantage and avoiding unfavorable pitched battle.
Summary-
I recently moved to the Amo system and part of the motivation for the move was to conduct anti-pirate operations in the Auner system. I have little experience with small gang warfare as well as little experience with solo fighting. Last night there was a defense fleet up so I hopped in my Hawk and went join in the fun. When I found out our fleet composition was mainly BC in size I reshipped into my Falcon and joined the fleet on the gate. I established an orbit of 30km which provided optimal range for all jammers if/when the enemy came through the gate.Monday, 26 September 2011
Nulling it over (Change suggestions)
A recent comment from a new reader (up to three now) got me to thinking about how to make null sec more appealing to small alliances. Let me state up front that I have no experience in null sec although I'm interested in taking up residence one day. My opinion is from the segment of the population which CCP wants to get moved into null. You may not like the idea of changing null to be more appealing to bears with teeth, but perhaps the idea of having a chunk of high space dwellers (80% of the population) move into null to take up the fight is appealing.
That said I'll briefly break down the problems I see with null sec and the influences which have prompted me to stay away from the promised land.
1. Paying rent: I want to be a homeowner and if I'm going to spend money on a place to stay I want that money to be an investment and not just a monthly expenditure that hopefully keeps the landlord on friendly terms so I don't get evicted when his mistress has a midlife crisis and needs a place to recover from her plastic surgery.
2. Bringing a pen-knife to a gunfight: My hangar full of super awesome BCs and T2 cruisers won't last very long against cap and supercap blobs. Even my uber cool BS squadron is of little to no value when going up against the top of the null sec food chain.
3. Getting lost in the shuffle: I really enjoy the people in my alliance and I like the small town atmosphere of our chat channels. I don't want to join a thousand member strong group and become one more cricket chirping in the background.
4. Fire in the disco: Sudden and rapid seizure of all assets due to overwhelming force with little to no time with which to flee the area.
Those are the main things that put a negative spin on null sec for me. Today I thought of a few possible solutions and wanted to share. These new structures could only be implemented in a designated home system and when an alliance grows large enough to occupy multiple systems they lose the ability to designate a home system.
1. Capital/SuperCap ship inhibitors. This isn't the same thing as a cyno jammer. Instead this is an indestructible structure that prevents all capital or larger combat ships from entering a system. Additionally this could be tailored to just supercaps and allow the use of capitals.
2. Population density isolator. A structure that limits the total number of players in a system. Numbers allowed are based on sovereign alliance total membership. So an alliance with 50 members is allowed to have 75 total friendly (dark or light blue) in system while neutrals and below are limited to 50. The owning alliance can adjust the allowed numbers up or down as they grow or decrease, but there will be a maximum allowed based on membership.
I think those two changes would be enough to make null sec appeal to small alliances and see a large number of systems become occupied almost overnight. Larger groups can still take territory using siege tactics and attrition to wear down the defenders. Defenders would have a home fleet advantage with slightly higher population. Some jump lines would have to be adjusted to remove possible bottlenecks and there might need to be the ability to jump around a fully occupied system. As an alliance expands, whether in population or technology, they would have to reduce the safeguards and thus expose themselves to more dangerous situations.
That said I'll briefly break down the problems I see with null sec and the influences which have prompted me to stay away from the promised land.
1. Paying rent: I want to be a homeowner and if I'm going to spend money on a place to stay I want that money to be an investment and not just a monthly expenditure that hopefully keeps the landlord on friendly terms so I don't get evicted when his mistress has a midlife crisis and needs a place to recover from her plastic surgery.
2. Bringing a pen-knife to a gunfight: My hangar full of super awesome BCs and T2 cruisers won't last very long against cap and supercap blobs. Even my uber cool BS squadron is of little to no value when going up against the top of the null sec food chain.
3. Getting lost in the shuffle: I really enjoy the people in my alliance and I like the small town atmosphere of our chat channels. I don't want to join a thousand member strong group and become one more cricket chirping in the background.
4. Fire in the disco: Sudden and rapid seizure of all assets due to overwhelming force with little to no time with which to flee the area.
Those are the main things that put a negative spin on null sec for me. Today I thought of a few possible solutions and wanted to share. These new structures could only be implemented in a designated home system and when an alliance grows large enough to occupy multiple systems they lose the ability to designate a home system.
1. Capital/SuperCap ship inhibitors. This isn't the same thing as a cyno jammer. Instead this is an indestructible structure that prevents all capital or larger combat ships from entering a system. Additionally this could be tailored to just supercaps and allow the use of capitals.
2. Population density isolator. A structure that limits the total number of players in a system. Numbers allowed are based on sovereign alliance total membership. So an alliance with 50 members is allowed to have 75 total friendly (dark or light blue) in system while neutrals and below are limited to 50. The owning alliance can adjust the allowed numbers up or down as they grow or decrease, but there will be a maximum allowed based on membership.
I think those two changes would be enough to make null sec appeal to small alliances and see a large number of systems become occupied almost overnight. Larger groups can still take territory using siege tactics and attrition to wear down the defenders. Defenders would have a home fleet advantage with slightly higher population. Some jump lines would have to be adjusted to remove possible bottlenecks and there might need to be the ability to jump around a fully occupied system. As an alliance expands, whether in population or technology, they would have to reduce the safeguards and thus expose themselves to more dangerous situations.
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