Eris: King Of Orbitals

You may remember from my previous Interdictor blog that I mentioned the Eris could potentially be a great orbital bombardment ship if it gained some turret slots. It seems the idea of a split weapon ship that people will actually want to use was unlikely, so they have now changed it to 7 turret slots. The difference between 7 and 8 turret orbitals is minimal, so looking at the current ship options for supporting ground battles, the Eris is now King.

Doing some rough numbers leaves it with a strong tank (well over 13k ehp), a rack of 7 small rails, a micro warpdrive, along with a spare mid slot and high slot. I don't have access to a fitting tool with the updated stats yet, but I feel the following will be the cookie cutter Eris fit for small gun orbitals.

7x 75mm Gatling Rail II

1x <High>

1x Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive

1x <Mid>

1x Damage Contol II

2x Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

1x 400mm Reinforced Steel Plates II

1x Small Anti-Explosive Pump II

1x Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Sadly I remapped away from ship skill attributes today before these changes came out and have no skills in interdictors. I will be sure to have my friends who can fly them try this fit when the new faction warfare changes come in though.

Making Money From New Eden

So I got into a small argument on twitter earlier, but managed to stop myself after remembering that's a bad idea and I won't be responding through twitter about this. I should probably be doing other work, but I feel like few have voiced an opinion close to mine.

It's worth noting before I begin that I haven't followed all of this Adolf Somer Stalin drama as closely as some, but I have grasp on the basics. Somer Blink and others are giving rewards to those who use their referral link for buying PLEX. These are in the form of lottery credit or straight up ISK payments. Through this method, it's possible to exchange ISK for small amounts of real life money. Because of it's roundabout nature, this doesn't violate the rule against trading ISK and real world money.

A group of players have taken issue with this however. Since even though this is "technically" allowed, it's an obvious loophole to get around the rule that was supposed to prevent this. I've heard that this kind of behaviour breaks the sandbox, but so does PLEX and people seem fine with that. When it comes to PLEX, you might be buying ISK at a rate determined by the in-game market, but you're still buying ISK with money. Considering how high the turnover on PLEX is, it seems people have been fine with a broken sandbox for a long time.

The fact is that there are lots of legitimate ways to turn in game money into cash. themittani.com and evenews24.com both pay their staff in ISK while making ad profits on their websites. syndicatecl.com make advertisement revenue from their tournament streams while paying out prizes in ISK and more companies are looking to do the same (ESL are getting into Dust 514). That's not even mentioning all the streamers, bloggers and other content creators who make money from what they do as well.

In the interest of being honest about conflicts of interest, I run adverts on my blog and a number of my Youtube videos. I've had a lot of positive feedback about both of these and complaints are almost entirely about the content I've made. I don't think anyone has ever come to me and said I should be banned for doing what I do. Hell, Nintendo tried to prevent people on Youtube making money from their content and had to change their stance after it turned into a PR nightmare. We live in a world where people make money by creating content around the games that they play and that isn't likely to change.

There's a second problem people have with Somer though. CCP decided to give their staff a number of unique ships in EVE as a reward for their work. This is the more serious issue because it's straight up giving certain players an advantage over others. Allowing people to move ISK around in the sandbox because of purchasable items is one thing, but straight up handing people billions of ISK in assets is straight up ignoring that the sandbox even exists. This wasn't the first time either, they also gave out the same ships to SCL staff too.

If CCP wants to reward fans who work for third party websites, they should give out of game assets. Things like clothing, posters or board games would be appreciated and wouldn't upset the game.

The last point I'd like to go into is CCP promoting third parties. It's hard to criticize CCP for any kind of promotion of their fans. Mad Ani got a partnership on twitch.tv after a large amount of promotion by CCP. EVE radio (who make money via donations and premium services) will have CCP staff come on as guests and will see an increase in listeners when that happens. CCP have a program dedicated to promoting this and before this RMT drama, I never saw complaints about them promoting websites based around their game. It's weird to see quotes like this...

So to confirm, CCP give Somer huge advantages over their rivals such as prizes and promotion. They utilise an RMT loophole to make $$$. 

from someone who sells merchandise, has a history of interviewing CCP staff and has an article on CCP's website promoting his website.

I guess this entire situation is all a big mess though. CCP could close down this loophole, but other loopholes exist. Considering the amount of money involved here, it doesn't seem like the impact will be that much bigger compared to the sheer size of the PLEX system. Some players might cash out their hundreds of billions, but if that was all that was keeping them here, were they truly happy anyway?

For now though, the only people I see doing anything wrong here are CCP. Giving out unique rewards to groups of players outside of tournaments and events seems like a line they should avoid crossing. If the referral system starts to negatively impact the game, they can look into shutting that down too. For now, I'm going to go make some more videos though, before people come after those too.

Dust 514 News And What EVE Players Should Know

Edit: There was a small mistake with this post. Planetary Conquest won't involve Sov, you can go blame Lt Royal.

So over the last 48 hours, a large amount of new Dust 514 content has been announced. While no items, vehicles or game modes were mentioned, we've been given a rough roadmap of the upcoming Dust-EVE linked content. By now, most Dusters that care know about these changes, so here's the important parts that EVE players will want to know about.

New Orbitals

• Orbitals will be based on a king of the hill style system above planets. EVE pilots will have to run the timer down for their side to give Dust players the ability to call in orbitals for Faction Warfare and Planetary Conquest(?).
• Kills from orbitals will give kill mails.
• Faction Warfare pilots will gain loyal points from orbital bombardments.

Faction Warfare

• Dust players will receive loyalty points for participating in Faction Warfare. Dust players who fight more for a side will increase standings and receive more loyalty points as a result.
• Faction Warfare orbitals will be from EVE only, no more NPC strikes.
• CREST will give data on Faction Warfare districts. This will allow EVE players to see the status of the ground war on websites like Dotlan.
• It's still undecided if Dust players will ever be able to sign up to a single faction (like in EVE) and not just be mercenaries.
• Expected to be rolled out over the next 3 or so months.

Planetary Conquest 2.0

• All new PC system in the works. Will involve EVE players a lot more.
• New EVE ship being added, the 'War Barge'. Will be required to start certain kinds of Dust battles in PC 2.0. Can only be flown by EVE pilots. Will be vulnerable to EVE pilots while travelling and vulnerable to Dust mercs during ground battles.
• Will be involved with sovereignty mechanics in some way. (False info, sorry)
• EVE developers already at work on this, so could be as soon as the next summer expansion?

Other

• Dust 514 getting a new market system that will allow trading between players. Another step towards EVE and Dust trading?

You can find all this mentioned during their EVE Vegas talk (starts around 4h 15m) and on the Dust forums.  

A Merc's Thoughts On The Interdictor Changes

So while I'm at home with the family for a few days, I won't be able to play any Dust and very limited amounts of EVE. I still have time to write on my laptop though, so I'll be able to get a couple blogs done while I'm here.

Anyway, the new Interdictor changes coming in Rubicon were announced and since destroyers are still the primary means for planetary bombardment, the tech 2 variant is important to anyone looking to shoot up some districts.

Lets get the Flycatcher and the Heretic out of the way first. If either of these ships used turrets they would be the kings of small turret orbitals. The Flycatcher has the highest potential hp of it's hull size and would most likely have made an amazing rail boat. The Heretic has a great slot layout to support both a tank and a scram/web combo. Along with it's resist bonus and naturally great Amarr resist profile, a 6 or 7 laser Heretic could have been the best solo planet bomber in the game.

Both of those ships can still serve as good support vessels for any small bombing fleet though. The Flycatcher has a whopping 5 mid slots and the Heretic gets 2 utility mids as well. There's still a chance these ships might be changed before the expansion hits, but it's doubtful they will suddenly become turret ships in this balance pass.

The Eris is interesting to say the least. The potential from it's 4 low slots gives it a chance at running dual plates with a resist mod and a rack of small rails. It's problem comes in that it only gets 4 turret slots (and 4 launcher slots). A 4 turret orbital might be viable when the new mechanics come in, but for now it has to compete with the precision strike. Is a 4 turret hybrid strike worth it over a precision? Probably not and certainly not enough to justify risking a tech 2 destroyer over. With the new mechanics it could potential work as a solo kiter and being able to simultaneously fight people with missiles while bombing has it's merits, but there are better options.

There's a large amount of people against the split weapon system idea, so CCP may yet back down on it and go for a 6, 7 or even 8 turret version (a man can hope). If that becomes the case, the Eris will be the best planetary bomber in the game.

The future king of planetary bombardment is looking to be this next ship, the Sabre. With it's 4 mid slots and 7 turrets, it can fit 2 medium shield extenders and an adaptive hardner for an amazing tank (which also regens on it's own). The problem however, is that it uses projectile weapons. Tactical EMP S is often referred to as the "fluffy cloud orbital" because of it's complete lack of killing power (as well as looking like fluffy clouds). It could be used in clearing large areas of equipment or throwing down on a battle while armour based infantry and vehicles charge in. Sadly those are niche situations and have less application than the alternatives that can murder vehicles and clear swathes of infantry.

With this in mind, it's possible that a 75mm rail Sabre could be brought in since you mostly want it for the tank. Rails can hit out quite far with Spike, giving it a small amount of combat utility between bombings and being able to obliterate decent sized areas on the ground that it's aimed at. I guess the hardest part will be explaining the kill mail of a Sabre with 7 small rails, 3 tank mods in it's mids, a 1mn afterburner, a damage control and a magstab.

But hey, maybe they'll change their mind on the other 3 ships.

Amarr Hold The Ground and Push The Sky

So in a strange twist, the past couple of days have seen the Amarr take every ground district in the warzone. What was previously a Gallente/Minmatar domination of the ground has changed completely over the last 48 hours. I also saw a post on the EVE subreddit today called "Amarr FW is in tier 2!" It seems the guys up in the stars are flipping systems and pushing back against the Minnies as well. I guess this is one of the best examples of the "One Universe One War" tag line playing out the way CCP intended.

So why the sudden change on the ground? On Tuesday, a faction warfare event started offering rewards to mercs who participated and won a certain % of their matches for a single faction. The rewards are varied by which faction you fight for, so looking at the current meta on the ground, a large amount of players are fighting for the Amarr because they offer the "best" rewards. The Minmatar rewards are nice too and I've personally been fighting for them, but the evidence suggests heavily that people want those drop uplinks more than they want the repair tools.

The bizarre thing about all this though is that while the rewards are nice, they aren't that nice. You're talking somewhere in the region of 5 million ISK on the Dust side to just buy them off the market. I've seen people throwing tanks close to that value into matches in order to keep their win ratio up. It's bizarre, but with not much else to do, I guess it makes sense that people will be going all out to get their rewards.

The event lasts until the 15th, so whether or not the Amarr will continue to hold everything past then is still unknown. It's possible we might see podsicles and bunnies start talking to each other to set something up going forward. There are a large number of mercs looking for work and with orbitals being a bit more commonplace now, the possibility of joint operations for a common cause exist. There's also methods of paying mercs across the games if you're willing, although the exchange rate heavily favours Dust right now (8:1 EVE:Dust).

Funny how a small carrot on a stick can impact so many.

Moving Is Finished, Time To Work

Moving is done for the moment. Might need to take a couple days to sort things now and again, but I've likely got the rest of the year to work on current projects with little interruption. I've spent this morning clearing out my secondary hard-drive and getting my computer to a happier state. Before the end of today, I'll be able to record, edit, upload and stream anything I want to. So here's an overview of what I'll be doing the next couple of months.

Blogging

Most recently I've been doing a lot of meta blogging and haven't produced as much actual content as I would like. I'll be writing more now and it will contain content that I'll have spent more time on. This will also include more EVE Online content, as I will be playing more EVE. I'll be looking into doing more high quality Dust posts over the coming months too, likely including guides and some more opinion pieces. There's some cool stuff in store for when the orbital changes come too (hopefully in 1.5).

Boots On The Ground

I'll be recording weekly again and with my new upload speeds, should result in quicker delivery and overall higher quality. Interest in the show has dropped a bit, but I'm still committed to making it. If anyone wishes to be a guest on the show, details are in the blog on the sidebar.

CPM Live

With the success of the CPM Ask Me Anything that took place over a month ago, I've been wanting to push to do a live weekly show with the CPM members that are interested. According to Hans' latest blog, the development schedule requires a level of compressed feedback that the show should help facilitate. Format will likely be an hour long and involve answering questions posted in the Youtube comments system. I will play a pure moderator role and mostly just filter questions coming in. Time and day is still to be set, a blog will be posted when they are.

General Youtube

I've mostly just been putting low effort videos onto Youtube recently and it shows. The best videos I've made recently can't be shown to the public yet and I haven't had time for better content. After some feedback from various places, raw gameplay videos will probably stop after the Logi Bro games are up. I will be taking more time to actually edit and produce more enjoyable content. I will also be streaming EVE and Dust on the channel too, so those will be archived and used for videos.

In the end, I'll probably monetize streaming, guides and talk shows, with tournament stuff later on. This means my other videos will have no restrictions on things like music, so I can make some videos for the sake of making cool stuff.

The 4 Minute Update

This project came to a grinding halt when we realized it's problems early on. It's been in limbo until new artwork and a real intro can be made. The older interviews will likely need redone or require a rework. This is frustrating since people took the time to talk to us back in July, but hopefully we can work things out. Artwork is almost done now, so it'll be back shortly after that has been finalized.

Other Projects

In about 2 weeks, I'll disappear for a couple days to do some personal stuff and work on something with a couple real life friends. This is something outside of gaming, so I'll only mention it in the future when it impacts other stuff I'm working on.

Anyway, time to go get some of this done.

Could Daily Login Bonuses Be Beneficial To EVE?

With Uprising patch 1.4 only days away, one of the more interesting features being implemented is a daily skill point bonus. The basic premise of which is that offering a consecutively increasing amount of skill points for logging in every day, would drive up activity stats and avoid a "Dust Offline" situation once people have hit their weekly, active skill point caps.

This is all well and good. Similar ideas to this have worked and continue to work in other online games. The few exceptions I can think of would be games made by Valve, but those have other ways of keeping people playing.

The question is, could this be used to benefit EVE Online? Currently one of the big roadblocks to increasing the skill queue is it's a large incentive to actually log in and do things. Many people who subscribe to EVE barely log in, hence the popularity of the term "EVE Offline". But could something like a daily reward help with this? Could a simple couple hundred skill points a day motivate people to log on and play more?

If it does, it would certainly help the cause of longer skill queues.

EVE 514: Friends With Benefits Part 2

It's been 2 months since the last one of these, I've got a couple hours to kill and they didn't announce changes to 1.4 that fix exploits I've done videos for. So lets do this.

Today I'll be talking about something that hasn't really seen a huge amount, unified naming standards between the games. At the time of writing, the weapon names in Dust don't really follow a single particular standard, but rather follow multiple different standards. You've got your Assault Rifle, Laser Rifle, Sniper Rifle and such that use vague names similar to current modern weaponry. Then you've got your science fiction sounding names like Swarm Launcher, Mass Driver, Forge Gun and Plasma Cannon. There's the EVE style names like Blaster, Rail Rifle, Ion Pistol and Railgun that mirror their EVE counterparts.

There's also the Scrambler Pistol and Rifle!

There two issues I take with this. The first is that when you use standard current day names for weapons, people will naturally gravitate towards them because of the familiarity. This isn't helped by the fact that implementation of new weapons don't include militia variants, which combined with beginner suits only using standard weapons, leads to a lack of variety. With the Assault Rifle being a good all round weapon, the combination of name, militia variant and starter fits just begs new players to specialize into them.

Since the game's skill tree rewards specialization, you'll essentially be trapping those who want to bling out their weapon of choice into the first weapon they choose. Naming conventions could end up creating a weird situation where people end up with a weapon they may not have chosen otherwise.

The second is that it's a perfect opportunity to bridge the gap between the two games. If we take Railguns and Blasters as an example, an EVE player will better understand what Dust players are talking about if the rifles were named Blaster Rifles and Rail Rifles. If you reverse this, the Dust player could understand why his EVE side orbital support that uses pulse lasers, would struggle to stay near the beacon when a ship with beam lasers is attacking it from afar. Some ideas would include -

Assault Rifle -> Blaster Rifle
Scambler Rifle -> Pulse Rifle
Laser Rifle -> Beam Rifle
Scrambler Pistol -> Scorch Pistol
Combat Rifle -> Auto Rifle

This would create a consistency throughout all games set in New Eden (which is at 2 currently with a 3rd on the way), allowing for players to better understand each other. I've talked to some CPM members about this subject and it's not the first time this has come up. However it's been a while since it was last brought up, with Hans Jagerblitzen saying "if CCP has mentioned anything abut names it was way back in beta".

If anything like this came to pass, what would you want renamed?

No Boots On The Ground Until August

The tldr of this is I'm burnt out from Dust and I have pressing real life commitments. If you want more details, I've written some below.

Burnt Out From Dust

Playing a single game almost exclusively for about 6 months will burn anyone out. My expectations of how well the game would do were dampened by multiple issues with bugs, hardware limitations, mislabelled abilities, poor communication from devs (except logicloop, foxfour, nullarbor and that guy who helped fix mouse aiming), etc

I've actually started playing EVE again and the difference is startling. Crisp gameplay with relatively few bugs, game developers who come to the community for feedback weeks/months ahead of a release, being able to play with whoever I want, a community that doesn't yell racist bullshit over public comms, feeling like I'm making an impact on New Eden while still just being pick up and play.

I'm hoping 1.2 sees the game moving in that direction. The latest dev blog is already a good sign of things to come and by the time I'm back, hopefully we'll have some details on 1.3 to further that.

Real Life and Other Commitments

I've probably mentioned this more than enough times already, but I'm moving house in a couple months. This isn't just a simple pack up and move though, I have to get rid of about half of everything I own. This consists of going through old boxes of stuff I'd forgotten about and deciding what to do with them. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes you find an old letter from a deceased family member. Either way, it's time consuming and takes a lot of mental fortitude to get through.

Outside of this, I've also been working on another project with a friend called "The 3 Minute Update". After a ton of work, we finished up our first video and published it yesterday.

Why am I not dropping this over BOTG? Well for a start, this takes a lot less work to get set up and is relatively easy as far as the type of work goes. Uploading a video for it doesn't take up most of a day and it's fairly stress free as I'm only in charge of the video editing rather than hosting as well.

We've also publicly stated that there will be a new video every Thursday and since we're working with people who are much higher profile than us, it would be really bad if we couldn't manage that. There's some other stuff as well, like how videos aren't as time sensitive so I could queue several up to release automatically and how the money used from this will allow me to continue making more BOTG. Simply put, it isn't a project I can simply walk away from, nor do I want to.

Looking Forward

The only other thing I won't be doing is making the AT11 advert for EoN. It was silly and I might save it for some other propaganda in the future. In all likelihood, it would have been rejected by CCP anyway.

Other than that, I'll still be writing on here and putting up some videos on the channel. Just not as much as I am right now. Writing can be done in bursts, so I'll probably focus more on written content for now.

After I've moved, I'll have much faster internet. This means videos will go up in minutes instead of hours and I'll be able to live stream on Twitch. I'll likely be doing a lot of live streaming once I'm able, although probably not for content like BOTG. It's something I've done a fair amount of before and enjoy the hell out of too.

Anyway, it's only a month or so from now and I'll work on making the beginning of BOTG something memorable. How does a CCP member as a guest sound?

EVE 514: Friends With Benefits Part 1

Disclaimer: It should be noted that while this article isn't aimed at following the "Dust is doomed" bandwagon, it is true that the game has issues and those being fixed over the next 6 months will be key to Dust's future. Most of what I have written here has been from thoughts about the game over the past few months and would have been written despite the timing. It's also purely opinionated and merely for the sake of creating discussion. The Dust 514 roadmap devblog is also coming soon, but I'd like to put my 2 cents in regardless.

Anyway.

There's been a lot of discussion about the Dust/EVE link since the game came out of NDA. As of right now, the link between the games is barely noticeable. On the Dust side, we get slightly better orbital support given the right circumstances, but that is almost negligible. On the EVE side, we get POS bonuses that rely on Dust players picking certain ground structures and an advantage in taking systems in faction warfare that is hard to control on the Dust side. It's also worth noting that the rewards for these actions on the Dust side of things simply don't exist. A faction warfare battle gives no more than your average Skirmish match and the district structures that give bonuses give less income on the ground than the structure that doesn't.

Right now, the games don't really matter all that much to each other and Dust is getting the short end of the stick. This is supposedly getting improved with a new orbital system in the future, but having that edge still doesn't do much for the average Dust mercenary. The biggest idea that is being debated right now are ISK transfers between the games. This has issues with balance and could end up with situations where a trillionaire with a taste for FPS could run around in advanced tanks until the end of time. Even if the ISK transfers were heavily taxed, the potential disasters seem to be keeping it off the table currently. If either game failed with the other relying on such a system, it could very well hurt the other game.

But what if there was another way to link the games? If they need to work independently of each other, do they even need to be linked in such a direct manner?

Picture a faction warfare war-zone. The current mechanics on the EVE-side reward those that destroy enemies, work towards taking/defending systems and run PvE missions for their faction's militia. These rewards are increased by the amount of space you hold and upgrading the space you're in.

While this system isn't perfect, but Dust could also benefit from being a part of this. Right now planets affect faction warfare by altering the speed systems are taken. This is a nice benefit to EVE players, but provides nothing for Dust players that a simple public match doesn't (other than a sense of racial pride). Dust players could easily fit into the current system and even help fix one of it's flaws, but I'll get to that.

The first step is rewarding winners with loyalty points with a set amount. The base amount for a normal person winning a match will be named 'Tier 1' for now. For the sake of having a workable number, we'll put the reward at 50 LP for a victory.

The second step is giving mercs a choice if they want to sign up for a specific militia or stay as a strict third party. The benefits from joining up would be getting earlier access to faction warfare matches and victory rewards based on your chosen faction's tier. Higher tiers would mean potentially gaining 100/175/250/325 LP per victory. All of a sudden you now care about how well your faction is doing and your contribution to the war effort pays you back in kind. Third party mercs can still take part and will have the freedom to fight for who they want.

The third step is to allow mercs in a faction to donate LP to their faction's infrastructure hubs (thus increasing your faction's tier). There's an issue in faction warfare where those who benefit the most from the payout system are the ones who don't donate to iHubs. This could be alleviated somewhat by allowing mercs to also help donate. It isn't a perfect solution to the issue, but perhaps the increase in participants would allow for a more serious effort to maintain a higher tier. It also gives EVE and Dust players more incentive to work together.

The fourth step is adding more active battles. In EVE, there are always complexes (king of the hill hills) available all across the warzone. This allows space for those wanting to farm in remote corners while organized groups fight in the more important ones. With a way to show where the active systems are, organized groups could push those while rag tag groups fight over the less important systems.

The fifth step is to add faction rewards. The great things about these are that they can be used to experiment with variations of standard gear in a real environment. Maybe that sprint bonus from equipped armour plates wouldn't be great on a standard dropsuit, but if it's too good or too weak, you can tweak it without messing with the more commonly used standard gear.

Anyway, just some thoughts as I've spent the past week back in faction warfare on EVE. Faction warfare has some huge potential in Dust and is the perfect starting point to try new mechanics before putting them in the rest of the sandbox. If people are interested, I'll do a part 2 on some thoughts on linking the games outside of faction warfare.

A Week Back In Galmil

So with a lot of people burnt out from Dust right now, I've picked up EVE again as my primary game of choice. I came to love EVE PvP last year after spending about 6 months in the Gallente militia. So with Dust on the back burner and EVE side orbital support being pretty much worthless, I moved my main back to Galmil.

I started by going to cash out the LP I had when I left to join GIANT, which went poorly after flying a regular Megathron into a high sec gate camp. It really hit home how overconfident I was compared to when I had left. This probably came from leaving when Gallente owned every system and the Caldari had dropped players like flies. Since then, the warzone is much more eqaul. Drunk and Disorderly are now pirates, the Caldari have grown in numbers and some of Villore Accords have split off.

But no matter, I bought a couple of Brutix instead and with my new found ISK, went to go get some more ISK. At first, this was easy, Gallente are sitting at tier 2 and I have time in the morning to play. The burst-like gameplay of PvP plexing makes for a good way to get writing and some other work done between fights.

At first it went OK, but my cap stable AB Incursus ran into problems quickly. I wasn't able to get on top of anyone and began to get kited by Condors repeatedly. This resulted in calling for help on multiple occasions. The first time this happened, the Condor had me pointed for 20 minutes while we both waited for friends to arrive. I messaged those passing by for help but only finding a ship-less friendly who promised to send word for help. Minutes passed as myself and the Condor continued to fly from the plex warp in. At what must have been around 500km, a hostile finally showed up, but more pirates and Gallente did too. As wrecks started to appear on d-scan, the hostile left the Condor and I to our strange tug of war.

Eventually a pirate Slasher appeared and started to burn towards us. As I awaited my slow death however, a Maulus also appeared. I hadn't played too much after Retribution, so was unfamiliar with what a Maulus was capable of. As the Maulus burned after the Slasher at over 6km/s however, I soon realized I was saved. As the Maulus caught the Slasher, slowly devouring it with drones, the Condor pulled off and I was free. My friend had also arrived but to no matter, I was safe for now and more plexing awaited.

This respite was to be short lived though. As another Condor caught me on an acceleration gate, a repeat of the last half hour dawned on me. Luckily my friend was still nearby and we actually got a chance to catch him. Sadly my friend burned out his web and we let him escape, but it was a good fight while it lasted and my taste for PvP left me wanting. A few more plexes and another Brutix sale later, I decided to step up my game and fly a Harpy instead.

Now this is where my time playing Dust had come in handy. A long break from EVE meant I wasn't logging in much, so I had decided to queue long skills such as Assault Frigate V. A small amount of playing in EVE fitting tool later and I had a Harpy build I was happy with. For those interested in the exact build, here's the loss mail. The Harpy was good for plexing. It could take on most other gun based destroyers and frigates while also being able to kill missile frigates. It's main issue was ships being able to escape with webs, but as I was able to stay on the plex while my enemies fled, it didn't matter too much.

I think I made around 400 million ISK from this Harpy while actively PvP'ing. The issue was having to run from other missile based platforms, but it did it's job well while it was alive. I decided to switch things up with it's successor however. The rocket launcher wasn't doing as much as I'd hoped, so I switched in a small neutraliser. This allowed me to do well in cap wars against the wave of repairing ships I was encountering. Like it's predecessor, it earned me a large chunk of change and I only lost it through attacking into an obvious trap. I'll likely fly more Harpies in the future, it's a great ship and I've got more ideas for how I want to fly it.

After all this, I'd plexed my account and had a big chunk of money left over to play with. Feeling the need to have a frigate that used a web, I did what anyone with more money than sense would do: I spent a quarter of a billion ISK on a Daredevil. The thing was a really beauty; multiple A-type modules, a faction web, a tight fit with a logical purpose and around 300 damage per second. I went to sleep last night happy with my purchase and after some early more Dust, decided to take it for a spin.

After a quick novice plex done, I moved on to the next system to do another. With 3 minutes left on the timer, I noticed a Merlin and a Tristan on short scan. I decided to stand and fight, not knowing whether I would win or lose against such a force. I felt confident in my chances though and it wasn't completely unfounded. The Tristan landed first and fearing ECM drones, I quickly jumped on top of it and overheated my guns to bring him down quickly. He was tougher than expected, but I was basically touching him, so my little Ion Blasters powered through and brought him down.

I rejoiced for about half a second before realizing I had been heavily by the Merlin and was in half armour. In my tunnel visioned blood-lust, I had forgotten to target the Merlin. With barely any capacitor left, I tried to drain some cap and started repairing again. I panicked and wasn't sure what to do. At first I fought back, but realized I should have run. I could have escaped him if I had wanted to, but I was too used to standing my ground. I died with barely any capacitor left, desperately trying to repair when I should have been webbing him. I flew my pod to the sun and with a "gf" in local, left to go find a new (cheaper) ship to start earning my way back up again.

Fare thee well Daredevil.

At the end of the day though, I'm having a blast. Solo PvP is insanely enjoyable and I'll be sure to fly more expensive ships to their doom. I have no idea what the future holds for my Dust corp and I may well get dragged into fighting for another militia. What I will say is I missed you Galmil and I hope we get to spend more time together.

Boots On The Ground S01E13

Didn't talk much about a couple things last week because of time constraints and Hans being unavailable. We also talk a bit about E3 because that was a thing that happened this week.

Audio version on the sidebar ---->

Boots On The Ground S01E12

After some technical hiccups on the guests end, we decided to use Skype. This process cut us short by about 40 minutes, so we had to rush things along towards the end. I'll try to get Mavado on again in the future, as he couldn't get Skype to work properly either.





Audio version on the sidebar ---->

Upcoming Planetary Conquest Battles 2013-06-07

• Unlcaimed alliance losing ground in PC
• Cronos making changes to timers in Almur
• Imperfects trying to find out how many licks it takes to get to the centre of an Oddelulf III

Almur

.	Reinforce Timer	Planet	District	Corporation	Status
.	0:00:00	Sakulda VI	12	Red Star.	Under Attack
.	1:00:00	Altbrard VI	9	Ill Omens	Online
.	2:00:00	Altbrard VI	8	TeamPlayers	Online
.	2:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	8	G I A N T	Locked
.	4:00:00	Altbrard VI	3	SyNergy Gaming	Online
.	13:00:00	Altbrard VI	7	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	13:00:00	Altbrard VI	11	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	13:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	12	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	13:00:00	Sakulda VI	3	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	14:00:00	Sakulda V	1	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	14:00:00	Altbrard VI	2	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	15:00:00	Altbrard VI	4	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	15:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	7	What The French	Locked
.	15:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	11	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	15:00:00	Sakulda V	3	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	15:00:00	Sakulda VI	5	Maphia Clan Corporation	Online
.	15:00:00	Sakulda VI	8	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	15:00:00	Sakulda VI	9	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	15:00:00	Sakulda VI	10	BetaMax.	Online
.	15:00:00	Sakulda VII	1	What The French	Locked
.	15:00:00	Sakulda VII	2	What The French	Online
.	16:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	2	What The French	Locked
.	16:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	6	What The French	Locked
.	16:00:00	Sakulda VI	1	Academy Inferno	Online
.	16:00:00	Sakulda VI	6	Maphia Clan Corporation	Online
.	17:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	3	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	17:00:00	Altbrard VI	1	Seraphim Initiative.	Under Attack
.	17:00:00	Sakulda VI	4	Maphia Clan Corporation	Locked
.	17:00:00	Sakulda VI	7	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	17:00:00	Sakulda VI	11	BetaMax.	Online
.	17:00:00	Sakulda VII	4	What The French	Under Attack
.	18:00:00	Altbrard VI	10	Seraphim Initiative.	Under Attack
.	18:00:00	Altbrard VI	13	What The French	Under Attack
.	18:00:00	Sakulda V	4	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	18:00:00	Sakulda VI	13	BetaMax.	Online
.	18:00:00	Sakulda VII	6	What The French	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Altbrard VI	5	What The French	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Sakulda V	2	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	19:00:00	Sakulda V	10	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	19:00:00	Sakulda VII	3	What The French	Under Attack
.	20:00:00	Altbrard VI	6	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	20:00:00	Altbrard VI	14	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Under Attack
.	20:00:00	Sakulda V	6	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	20:00:00	Sakulda VI	2	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	20:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	1	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	21:00:00	Altbrard VI	12	SyNergy Gaming	Under Attack
.	21:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	10	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	21:00:00	Sakulda V	5	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	21:00:00	Sakulda V	7	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	21:00:00	Sakulda V	9	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	22:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	4	RestlessSpirits	Under Attack
.	22:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	9	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	22:00:00	Sakulda V	8	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	23:00:00	Hedaleolfarber III	5	Seraphim Initiative.	Under Attack
.	23:00:00	Sakulda VII	5	TeamPlayers	Locked

Besateoden

.	Reinforce Timer	Planet	District	Corporation	Status
.	1:00:00	Meildolf V	2	Imperfects	Online
.	1:00:00	Meildolf V	3	Imperfects	Locked
.	1:00:00	Meildolf V	8	187. '	Online
.	5:00:00	Meildolf V	6	Imperfects	Online
.	6:00:00	Meildolf V	4	Imperfects	Online
.	14:00:00	Meildolf V	9	Nyain San	Under Attack
.	16:00:00	Meildolf V	1	LUX AETERNA INT	Locked
.	17:00:00	Meildolf V	5	LUX AETERNA INT	Locked
.	17:00:00	Meildolf V	7	SVER True Blood	Under Attack
.	23:00:00	Meildolf V	10	Imperfects	Locked

Elfrard

.	Reinforce Timer	Planet	District	Corporation	Status
.	0:00:00	Klingt VIII	4	The Tritan Industries	Under Attack
.	1:00:00	Aeditide VI	5	The Tritan Industries	Online
.	1:00:00	Kadlina IV	3	Hellstorm Inc	Under Attack
.	1:00:00	Klingt VIII	2	Valor Coalition	Online
.	1:00:00	Klingt VIII	6	Pro Hic Immortalis	Online
.	2:00:00	Aeditide VI	1	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Aeditide VI	2	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Aeditide VI	3	United Pwnage Service	Online
.	2:00:00	Aeditide VI	6	Inf4m0us	Online
.	2:00:00	Aeditide VI	7	L.O.T.I.S.	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Aeditide VI	8	L.O.T.I.S.	Online
.	2:00:00	Egbinger VII	6	Hellstorm Inc	Locked
.	2:00:00	Kadlina IV	2	Hellstorm Inc	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Klingt VI	1	KILL-EM-QUICK	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt VI	2	KILL-EM-QUICK	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt VI	3	ZionTCD	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Klingt VI	4	D3ath D3alers	Locked
.	2:00:00	Klingt VI	6	D3ath D3alers	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Klingt VIII	8	Pro Hic Immortalis	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt VIII	9	Onslaught Inc	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	1	HavoK Core	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	2	Deadly Blue Dots	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	3	Deadly Blue Dots	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	4	L.O.T.I.S.	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	5	L.O.T.I.S.	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	6	L.O.T.I.S.	Online
.	2:00:00	Klingt X	7	Psygod9	Under Attack
.	3:00:00	Egbinger VII	5	Onslaught Inc	Online
.	3:00:00	Kadlina IV	1	Hellstorm Inc	Under Attack
.	3:00:00	Klingt VI	5	D3ath D3alers	Online
.	3:00:00	Klingt VIII	3	The Tritan Industries	Online
.	4:00:00	Egbinger VII	3	Onslaught Inc	Online
.	6:00:00	Aeditide V	6	The Southern Legion	Online
.	6:00:00	Aeditide V	9	The Southern Legion	Online
.	6:00:00	Egbinger VII	1	The Southern Legion	Online
.	6:00:00	Kadlina IV	5	The Southern Legion	Under Attack
.	7:00:00	Aeditide V	3	The Southern Legion	Online
.	7:00:00	Aeditide V	7	The Southern Legion	Online
.	7:00:00	Aeditide V	11	The Southern Legion	Online
.	8:00:00	Aeditide V	8	The Southern Legion	Online
.	8:00:00	Aeditide V	10	The Southern Legion	Online
.	8:00:00	Kadlina IV	7	The Southern Legion	Online
.	9:00:00	Aeditide V	2	The Southern Legion	Locked
.	9:00:00	Aeditide V	4	The Southern Legion	Online
.	9:00:00	Aeditide V	5	The Southern Legion	Online
.	9:00:00	Kadlina IV	6	The Southern Legion	Online
.	9:00:00	Klingt VIII	1	Valor Coalition	Online
.	12:00:00	Aeditide V	1	The Southern Legion	Online
.	12:00:00	Egbinger VII	4	The Southern Legion	Online
.	12:00:00	Kadlina IV	4	The Southern Legion	Online
.	14:00:00	Klingt VIII	7	Pro Hic Immortalis	Under Attack
.	15:00:00	Klingt VI	7	Nyain San	Online
.	16:00:00	Klingt VI	9	Nyain San	Online
.	17:00:00	Aeditide VI	10	Academy Inferno	Online
.	17:00:00	Aeditide VI	12	Academy Inferno	Online
.	18:00:00	Aeditide VI	11	Academy Inferno	Locked
.	18:00:00	Egbinger VII	2	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	18:00:00	Aeditide VI	3	United Pwnage Service	Locked
.	18:00:00	Klingt X	8	LUX AETERNA INT	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Aeditide VI	9	Academy Inferno	Online
.	19:00:00	Klingt VI	8	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Klingt VIII	10	Onslaught Inc	Locked
.	21:00:00	Aeditide VI	4	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	21:00:00	Egbinger VII	7	Ill Omens	Locked
.	22:00:00	Klingt VIII	5	The Tritan Industries	Online

Eoldulf

.	Reinforce Timer	Planet	District	Corporation	Status
.	0:00:00	Mimiror IX	3	ZoinTCD	Under Attack
.	0:00:00	Osveteur V	1	187. '	Under Attack
.	0:00:00	Osveteur V	3	0uter.Heaven	Under Attack
.	0:00:00	Skarkon II	2	SVER True Blood	Under Attack
.	1:00:00	Ennur VI	3	Psygod9	Under Attack
.	1:00:00	Mimiror IX	6	D3ath D3alers	Locked
.	1:00:00	Osveteur V	7	0uter.Heaven	Under Attack
.	1:00:00	Osveteur V	11	D3ath D3alers	Locked
.	1:00:00	Skarkon II	4	Murderz for hire	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Ennur VI	2	Murderz for hire	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Mimiror IX	2	Pro Hic Immortalis	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Osveteur V	12	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	2:00:00	Skarkon II	5	OSG Planetary Operations	Under Attack
.	3:00:00	Osveteur V	2	HavoK Core	Online
.	3:00:00	Osveteur V	6	0uter.Heaven	Under Attack
.	3:00:00	Osveteur V	9	KILL-EM-QUICK	Online
.	3:00:00	Skarkon II	3	OSG Planetary Operations	Under Attack
.	4:00:00	Ennur VI	6	Intrepidus XI	Online
.	7:00:00	Osveteur V	13	The Southern Legion	Under Attack
.	15:00:00	Mimiror IX	1	Pro Hic Immortalis	Online
.	17:00:00	Ennur VI	1	Ahrendee Mercenaries	Online
.	18:00:00	Mimiror IX	7	Vacuum Cleaner. LLC	Online
.	19:00:00	Ennur VI	4	Ahrendee Mercenaries	Online
.	19:00:00	Osveteur V	4	Red Star.	Under Attack
.	21:00:00	Ennur VI	5	Ahrendee Mercenaries	Online
.	21:00:00	Mimiror IX	5	ZionTCD	Under Attack
.	21:00:00	Mimiror IX	8	KILL-EM-QUICK	Under Attack
.	21:00:00	Osveteur V	14	D3ath D3alers	Under Attack
.	21:00:00	Skarkon II	1	Valor Coalition	Locked
.	22:00:00	Mimiror IX	4	KILL-EM-QUICK	Locked
.	22:00:00	Osveteur V	5	The Tritan Industries	Under Attack
.	22:00:00	Osveteur V	10	Pro Hic Immortalis	Locked
.	23:00:00	Osveteur V	8	0uter.Heaven	Under Attack

Fittakan

.	Reinforce Timer	Planet	District	Corporation	Status
.	0:00:00	Bosena IX	5	Hellstorm Inc	Online
.	1:00:00	Bosena IX	4	Molon Labe.	Online
.	1:00:00	Oddelulf III	14	Not Guilty	Online
.	2:00:00	Bosena IX	1	Hellstorm Inc	Locked
.	2:00:00	Bosena IX	6	Molon Labe.	Online
.	2:00:00	Bosena IX	7	Imperfects	Online
.	3:00:00	Bosena IX	13	Ill Omens	Online
.	3:00:00	Oddelulf III	22	Not Guilty	Locked
.	5:00:00	Bosena IX	8	WarRavens	Locked
.	5:00:00	Oddelulf III	15	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Under Attack
.	6:00:00	Oddelulf III	16	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Locked
.	12:00:00	Oddelulf III	19	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	13:00:00	Bosena IX	10	What The French	Online
.	13:00:00	Oddelulf III	24	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	14:00:00	Bosena IX	12	What The French	Online
.	14:00:00	Oddelulf III	8	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	14:00:00	Oddelulf III	9	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	14:00:00	Oddelulf III	18	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Online
.	15:00:00	Bosena IX	2	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	15:00:00	Bosena IX	11	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	16:00:00	Oddelulf III	1	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	16:00:00	Oddelulf III	2	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	16:00:00	Oddelulf III	10	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	16:00:00	Oddelulf III	11	BetaMax.	Under Attack
.	17:00:00	Oddelulf III	7	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	17:00:00	Oddelulf III	13	BetaMax.	Online
.	17:00:00	Oddelulf III	20	Seraphim Initiative.	Under Attack
.	17:00:00	Oddelulf III	23	BetaMax.	Online
.	17:00:00	Bosena IX	9	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	18:00:00	Oddelulf III	6	What The French	Under Attack
.	18:00:00	Oddelulf III	12	BetaMax.	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Oddelulf III	5	What The French	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Bosena IX	3	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	20:00:00	Oddelulf III	17	Grupo de Asalto Chacal	Under Attack
.	20:00:00	Oddelulf III	21	Seraphim Initiative.	Online
.	21:00:00	Oddelulf III	3	Imperfects	Under Attack
.	22:00:00	Oddelulf III	4	What The French	Under Attack

Tartatven

.	Reinforce Timer	Planet	District	Corporation	Status
.	0:00:00	Aedald II	1	The Generals	Online
.	0:00:00	Aedald II	6	Not Guilty	Online
.	0:00:00	Audesder III	4	Ill Omens	Online
.	0:00:00	Hrober V	1	Imperfects	Locked
.	0:00:00	Muttokon II	1	Ill Omens	Locked
.	0:00:00	Muttokon II	2	SyNergy Gaming	Online
.	1:00:00	Aedald II	3	TeamPlayers	Online
.	1:00:00	Audesder VII	1	Ill Omens	Locked
.	1:00:00	Muttokon II	4	SyNergy Gaming	Online
.	1:00:00	Muttokon II	8	Red Star.	Online
.	2:00:00	Aedald II	4	The Generals	Online
.	2:00:00	Audesder III	5	Ill Omens	Online
.	2:00:00	Audesder VII	5	Not Guilty	Online
.	2:00:00	Audesder VII	7	SyNergy Gaming	Online
.	2:00:00	Hrober VIII	3	Nyain San	Locked
.	2:00:00	Hrober VIII	6	S.eV.e.N	Locked
.	2:00:00	Hrober VIII	9	Cygnus Tactical Operations	Online
.	2:00:00	Muttokon II	5	TRUE TEA BAGGERS	Online
.	3:00:00	Aedald II	5	SyNergy Gaming	Online
.	3:00:00	Audesder III	3	Not Guilty	Locked
.	3:00:00	Audesder VII	9	ROGUE SPADES	Online
.	3:00:00	Hrober V	5	Imperfects	Online
.	3:00:00	Hrober VIII	5	S.eV.e.N	Online
.	3:00:00	Muttokon II	7	TeamPlayers	Online
.	4:00:00	Aedald II	7	Ill Omens	Locked
.	4:00:00	Audesder VII	2	G I A N T	Online
.	4:00:00	Audesder VII	3	DUST University	Locked
.	4:00:00	Hrober V	3	Internal Error.	Online
.	4:00:00	Hrober V	4	Nyain San	Online
.	4:00:00	Muttokon II	6	Ill Omens	Online
.	5:00:00	Audesder III	6	Ill Omens	Online
.	5:00:00	Audesder VII	6	ROGUE SPADES	Online
.	5:00:00	Hrober V	2	Imperfects	Online
.	5:00:00	Muttokon II	3	SyNergy Gaming	Online
.	6:00:00	Hrober VIII	8	New Eden's Most Wanted	Online
.	18:00:00	Audesder VII	4	Seraphim Initiative.	Under Attack
.	19:00:00	Hrober VIII	4	Forsaken Immortals	Locked
.	21:00:00	Aedald II	2	Red Star.	Online
.	21:00:00	Audesder III	1	Ill Omens	Locked
.	21:00:00	Hrober VIII	7	Goonfeet	Under Attack
.	22:00:00	Audesder III	2	Ill Omens	Locked
.	22:00:00	Hrober VIII	2	Imperfects	Online
.	22:00:00	Hrober VIII	10	Goonfeet	Locked
.	23:00:00	Audesder VII	8	SyNergy Gaming	Locked
.	23:00:00	Audesder VII	10	Ahrendee Mercenaries	Online
.	23:00:00	Hrober VIII	1	Goonfeet	Online