A trip out to meet the NC

So it's been a while...not alots happened for me game wise atleast. Not managed any fights out and about solo and not been around for the R1FTA roams either. :(

After spending most the week packaging most my ships and parts and shifting my main base over to Molden so i can be near the majority of the other R1FTA pilots i decided to have some random fun...but what to do? Well the question was answered for me midway through sunday whilst listening to EVE Radio.

It seems DJ FunkyBacon was running DroneSwarm V that evening. Only 1 condition had to be met for joining the open public fleet for the event. Which was that the ship must be able to fly atleast 1 drone. Which lead to issue with what to take. Rifters out...cant use Hybrids...Gal frigs only at 3 atm...dont want to take the Cane since most are probs in BC's and BS's. Then it hit me i'd won a comp awhile back with one of my alts and had a nice Dram sat there untouched(May aswell use it before the Nerf Bat lands).  Quick log saw that it wasnt fitted which lead to about a hour looking through fits hear and there trying to pick on that did it justice but didnt cost the earth. Fitted her up and joined the fleet with moments to spare.

130+ random pilots in completly random fitted ships formed up and headed out towards Null. Many pilots were been trained over comms on the first few jumps through High. "Well this is sure going to be fun atleast" All form up on the final gate from Empire to Null and in we go. Within seconds hostiles start landing on Gate and bubbles go up. The NC had brought a mainly T3 fleet with logi and Huginn support to come and play. Seems we were using their teamspeak server for the op :P Needless to say not alot died on their side and none with me on the KM. But a surprising amount of the DroneSwarm fleet made it out either burning back and through to high or the sun. After afew mins gf's were exchanged and they removed the bubbles giving those in system a free pass back out. Yes we knew it was coming but afew random kills and jumps in might of been better for entertainments sake.

Back to Jita the remaining  fleet went along with masses in pods to reship and go off again. Only this time in Frigs/Destroyers and ignoring the drone rule. After what seemed like forever we formed up and went out towards null yet again. Only this time we headed towards Goon space to avoid the NC fleets. All went well and we had afew games of cat and mouse on the way. And then we started a fight with 2 Flashy red Canes. Right after the fight started NC landed yet again. Seems they actually called in a favour and Titan Bridged into Goons space just to  come play some more. Been light and nimble meant the vast majority of the fleet got away with alot of laughs had by all.

At this point i'd run out of time and left the fleet while they decided to play in lowsec to save them the hastle of bubbles for the many new PvP players. I'm defo seeing why people have such hatred or love for drams after this. I;m defo more on the love side after that outing as it faired well and kept me alive in quite afew tight spots during the large engagements.

All i need now is some KILLS hell even some fights would be a start rather than having to avoid the BS ganky wartargets and insta campers

Ninja salvaging in the current climate

So while taking a break from moving things about and starting a lowsec base i decided to have another go at Ninja Salvaging. Something i've not done since starting my first character acouple of years back.

First task was to find a nice system to hit. The new agent finder made this rather easier than it used to be. So after trying afew areas with lvl 4's i finally found a nice area with lvl 4's in system and surrounding system which sent people to me aswell.

While i've seen various moans about the changes to scanning i never found it to be a problem as i used 7 probes in the typical 5 grid formation with the extras above and below. This said typically things moved fairly fast as masses of players now control multi accounts making things progress faster. Meaning i'd miss quite afew.

Even when getting into missions and starting to salvage i got zero smack and was only left alone vs the rats once.

The main issues i've found were the massivly lowerd market prices for salvage parts making it far less cost efficient and the hoards and hoards of people bringing a noctis in meaning often i couldnt get any wrecks.

Conclusion IT SUX ATM

Moving and preping for something

While i wait for afew skills to finish so that i can see how much been a Ninja has changed since the days i used a random low skilled toon to do. I decided it was time to setup a lowsec base in an area where the rebels havent been massivly active as yet. The idea been i'll setup during next few weeks and become active in low abit more after summer when things hot up again.

So began the fun of trying to get a massive haul of hulls and parts to the system, using the down time player drop i managed to get a freighter through to 1 jump away. However the base system was too busy with faction warfare people to risk the final hop. So all the ships were dropped 1 system short and the freighter returned the few jumps back to high.

So began the long boring task of moving all the hulls 1 at a time unfitted across to the next system. So far i've avoided numerous FW gate camps and managed to get most of the hulls to system even tho its taken days now and i've still got to get the fittings out of the hubs they're sat in.

Heres how its looking so far now just to mix in afew other hull types and fit them up. And no your not going to find out what other delights i want to play around with.

Quick update

Just figured i'd better let you know i'm still here and still playing (well somewhat). During the latest rounds of war decs i found myself hunting masses of BC's that sat on station and played ever tedious games or hid and never apeared for me atleast.

Just as i was starting to find the areas where the active and daring ones were i managed to get ill and spent rather afew days in bed and found myself not really with it enough to do more than skill swap.

Well i'm back now and tho theres no decs and i'm still in high i've decided to spend summer playing around with afew things i've wanted to try and never have done much of. More on that later

in other news heres another lol fest

Modding the rifters sound box

I've always had a thing for modding my rifters so they can recieve the specialist signals gomming from the audio networks. This allows my to fly with the sounds vibrating the ship. Its nearly almost always tuned to :-

Now after somewhat heated talks over drinks with afew of the other Rebel Rifter Club pilots the decision was also made to update the systems abit more by adding a 8-track.
Upon loading in the first 8-track which i'd had to get salvaged from a old ship wreak i found it was already loaded and was also a vid tape not just audio. Upon watching the contents i was somewhet disturbed and curious. Maybe theres a pilot that can shed some like as to what a d6 is and what this lot are doing?

I'm sure you'll be amussed

Not every War Target hides

It had been a long day roaming around Essence region for war targets. Its not that I couldnt find any but more that I couldnt get any to come out and play. After getting frustrated with things when a "spacial annomolie" hit me on undock while I was chasing a target out of station. I docked up and went for a much needed bio break.

Returning sometime later there were calls for more pilots to rough up afew War Targets all the way over in Poinen. So I loaded up the NavComm and took a look. Oh great 19 jumps this wont be a rapid responce then. After afew jumps reports came back of smack talk been used against us for once along with reports of a rifter loss vs a BattleCruiser. The choice was made for those that could to up ship and bring some pain back the other way. As luck would have it my newly bought Cane was sitting in a staging point still waiting to be moved. So after a 2 jump detour I was undocking the Cane and heading towards its first ever sight of combat. While creating a safe point close to the Poinen Jumpgate a War Target entered system in what on dscan showed to either be a Loki or Prophecy. Worried I'd been busted and that our build up was now know i warned the others but no movement had been seen other that this 1 Target.


One of our fearless Nutcase killjunkies decided he was coming in to try and see what it was and catch it if possible. They passed at the gate meaning a quick turn around was needed. Afew seconds passed tho if felt like hours then the call of Phrophecy Tackled came over the comms and we all sprang into action. With the Cane already been aligned getting to warp was quick and without delay. Upon jumping in I found I'd been placed opposite side of the gate and needed to cover some distance. Pulsing the Microwarpdrive I was soon in place and adding my point as the others all started arriving on grid. A Ferox which had been responcible for the earlier kill came to the pilots aid along with a raven which warped in at about 50 from us. The Ferox seemed to start ripping into me while the Prophecy was trying to get Zodiac off him. So the guns were switched accross to the Ferox while I kept the point on the Prophecy. It was around this pont that Zodiac went down and thee Prophecy turn on me aswell. Determind to out last them I started overheating longer and on far more units. At this point it all got abit blurry with micro managing all the systems but one of them poped  as I started into structure. Afew seconds later and I'd managed to overheat my guns and was warping out with about 20% structure left. Whilst warping to station a Drake was reported on grid. A quick repair later and I was heading back into the field however while I warp others started withdrawing aswell. Landing back on field showed just a Harbinger on the field about 20km away. As I closed the gap on him my Shileds melted fast as hell and without back upIi withdrew.  Shortly after the field was clear and we cleared the loot.

A little while later the Prophecy pilot came out started off yet another fight after been caught near the gate. All landing right on top we started ripping into him and POP. Just before he went down 2 ravens landed 50km away and the long burn to them began. As we closed 1 started to align way before the closer one could manage to get out he was scrammed and taking fire. The Harbinger then returned along with the other Raven. First raven went down we then moved onto the second. He went down just as well then it was the Harbingers turn. Unlike my last encounter it was him that suffered and down he went aswell.

GF's were exchanged in local and i must say i was good to see what most would call carebears bringing a decent fight and not been in any LOLfits. Now if only all the WarTargets would do the same.

Heres the fight board for those that want it!

Also it seems the Cane really is as good as the hype alot of people give it(atleast first time out) I'll just have to test it abit ore before I'll truely back what one firend said mind. "Its the Rifter but Bigger"

Current plans

Skill training needed

Currently i find Ark is unable to fit a rifter to match her gameplay mainly through lacking afew supporting gunnery skills including the all important weapon upgrades skills while her tanking is good but not all lvl V as yet. Some of these can easily be fixed and in a fairly short time others a couple of weeks or more. Also the need to up ship vs various hostiles mean she's somewhat lacking in that area tho able to fit a basic cane that is good enough for now.

Priorities :-

1 - Weapon upgrades V - Advanced weapon upgrades IV
2 - Gunnery support skills to atleast IV (possibly missiles too)
3 - Make a t2 fit for the Cane possible
4 - Assault ships - covert ops and interceptors to IV
5 - Start cross training frigate skills and the other small weapon types

That should keep me busy for agood while atleast. Will check back in a couple of months to see how well i've stuck to it. I just know i'll find soemething silly to train instead.

Also as skills improve i'll play around with a mix of fits till i narrow down to 2 different styles i like using.

Combat arena - high or low

For now i intend to stay in high sec areas while i finish atleast point 2 of the above list. During this time i'll have to make do with chasing the War Targets Miura Bull finds us. Tho i also intend to use this time to learn Ninja salvaging and get better at can flipping as so far i'm not had much luck in either area.

As for where to base from i've narrowed down to a couple of systems which are no more that 2 jumps from low sec, no more than 5 from a good trade hub, close to areas where alot of my fellow Black Jackets fly for those moments help maybe needed, access to good areas for griefing and not too far from a faily well populated lvl 4 area.

Once selected afew ships will be moved in while leaving most in a central zone awaiting distribution as needed. This is mainly cos The Black Jackets are supposed to be on tour and as such will probably need to establish afew other tempory bases as we go. I dont fancy having issues with moving masses of stuff every time.

First post/introduction

The Theme
This blog will be based around a MMO i play called EVE online. This is the first time i've ever blogged or written about anything for along long time so please dont expect very much flare. I'll be writing things mainly for myself and very much in my own style if you happen to like it then great.

My basic play history
I've been playing roughly a couple of years now but playing mainly as a very casual "carebear" miner/low level industrialist. But after getting very bored with this i decided it was time for a change. well atleast now and then.
So enter my first foray into pvp by creating a basicly skilled "lemming" frigate pilot and joining the Eve Radio low sec roam known as the lemmings leap. Which put me into some rather interesting fights and alot of deaths, mainly mine. After doing this afew times over the months i decided the time had come to see just what kinds of trouble i can get myself into. So the training on the industrialist stopped and a very low skilled character i'd made for something to do during Hulkageddon II was awakend. For those that dont know Hulkageddon is a ingame event run by a player/blogger which centers around killing minning ships over a 10 day period with prizes going to those with most kills etc.

Enter the Blogs main character

Meet ArkReaper
She is a Brutor Slave Child that caused much trouble in her early life. Some where her actions broughter her to the attention of the Minmatar Capsuleer program. After going through the program and successfully becomeing a capsuleer she found her memories had been lost during the final stages of becoming eternally imortal. With the loss of memory the lost of her identity a long spell of wanting to find herslef set in. Spending almost a year doing very little but exploring space removing the threat of various npc pirates from the area and doing the occasional mission for agents when needed. Until one day she happened across a hostile capsuleer who  had somehow managed to get the right to shoot her in high security space. The fight lasted only afew minutes but seemed to last much longer. Just about to loose her rifter to the thrasher pilot her luck turned as corp mate that had been running a higher level mission in system arrived in the area and the hostile fled. However close the loss of the fight was the thrill of the fight had awakened something long lost in ArkReaper and after setting her local affairs in order she set out to find more fights.

New Corp needs
After roaming about for awhile and stuggleing to find any sort of combat other than the unchallenging system rats and the new found urge to learn combat skills aswell as get into more fights a new corp was needed. After scanning through all the recruitment channels and finding nothing for days she happened across a conversation between a couple of other capsuleers in the local systems communication window. It seemed one had been trying to get a fight out of the other but to no avail. Checking the pilots corperate info showed him to be in some sort of pirate gang whose name looked familiar from somewhere. Not having a combat ship in system prevented Ark from going and seeing just what the other pilot had but instead she booted up Aura's search functions and looked into the pilots corperation while heading to the bar.
Afew hours later and she was logging into "the autocannon". Which happened to be the public communication channel for The Black Rebel Rifter Club. After a brief talk with the ceo Miura Bull (whose tales had been followed via his Blog) Ark donned the black jacket and entered the private rooms of The Black Rebel Rifter Club. She now flys the spacelanes in her trusty and rusty rifter with the tag [R1FTA] proudly shown after her name.