Second Hand Kill

While performing missions for the Amarr navy, I happened to notice a Hurricane flying under the control of it's ships auto-pilot. This is ordinarily a common enough practice, but the surprise was that he was piloting his ship into Gyerzen.

Gyerzen, my stomping ground, is outside of Concord's umbrella of protection. It's also a destination system, so the Hurricane's auto-pilot would turn off and leave him sitting right by the gate. If the pilot didn't return his attention to the controls, his vessel would be easy pickings.

I was in the Maller II. I could certainly destroy an essentially unpiloted Hurricane. Even with the gate guns striving to defend him I was confident that I could pull it off.

Should I? The pilot was in service to the Minmatar academy. I regard myself as the enemy of all Minmatar who have not joined the 24th crusade, so it was a tempting target. If he'd been a member of the Tribal Liberation force (our evil opposite number) I would have destroyed him without compunction. Alas, he was officially a neutral in the conflict. (Which is nonsense, anyone who is not on our side is our enemy in the conflict between good and evil).

If I engaged him, Concord would flag my actions, and hold them against me. Further, the very gate guns, loyal servants of the Amarr Empire though they were, would be compelled to fire upon me. As mentioned, I doubted they would accomplish much, but seen from another perspective it would be blasphemy to initiate a battle with the forces of God's Empire.

Ultimately I split the difference. I used the local channel to relay his coordinates to a few of Gyerzen's ever present outlaws, and he was detonated in short order. Concorde overlooked this action, and I've retained my blemishless (not a word but you get my meaning) standing. It lacks the satisfaction of a personal kill, but the end was accomplished.

Implants

I grabbed a full set of +3's to increase yet more the pace of my learning. I could easily afford this due to all of the level 2's I've been running.

I've also gained "jump clone" priviledges from the Amarr Navy. I'm not sure precisely what this entails, I think it's the ability to have a new, implant-less, body for militia work. That would be highly useful, I have to admit.

I feel a fool for not buying the +3's earlier. I allowed my fear of loss to overcome my rational understanding of what the expenditure would likely bring.

The only slot I don't have anything in is slot #8. Slots 1-5 are full of my attribute enchancing implants, while the remainder have slots from the Navy missions and LP store. Rigs...Implants...better ships. I feel like a true Capsuleer!

Learning...missioning...

There's no end to this, I swear. I'm half way through the basic learning skills, just 3 more to get to level 5. So tedious...and I can only manage level 2's solo until I'm done, so it also stifles my progression. Tempted to just skip out on the last learning skills once I finish the one I'm on, and learn piloting/gunnery till I can do level 3's.

Seems like a more profitable way to go, certainly. Something's got to give.

Learning continues...

I found a site which made it clear which order I ought to be learning my learning skills in. Fortunately I'd been doing it basically right. Just 3 more weeks to go till I'm done with this nonsense. I put a remap in to speed things up. Perks of my new capsuleer status, I have the freedom to have my very brain remapped to accomodate my learning approach.

In other news I've been doing level 2 missions. Woo. The Maller II remains the appropriate ship for such activities. I took the Slicer I through a few level I's, she handles like a dream.

Angel Extravaganza III

With Mardril's assistance (really mostly his work, he was flying an Eagle), I took down Angel Extravaganza III tonight. Took almost an hour. Good stuff. He could have done it solo, which means that it (and by extension most of the tougher level III missions) can be done in a Tier II Cruiser. Only question was whether he could have gotten the webifying drones on his own. that stuff is easier with 2 players.

I'm 2/5 of the way through the level 5 basic learning skills. After they are done (in about 3 more weeks, groan) I'll be doing naught but piloting and gunnery skills until I'm soloing level III missions. I want a steady money making scheme in place before I go back to Faction Warfare. Next time I return, I'm going all in.

Missioning Ship

So, in the time between now and when I finish my Learning skills (which is like 5 weeks), I have to be missioning. Gave me some thought as to what I want in a mission ship.

#1: Size appropriate. Enough doing level 2's with a frigate, or level 3's with a Cruiser. From now on I fly as advised.

#2: Turret boat. I don't have the SP to devote towards learning whole new paradigms of the game until I'm flying level 4's routinely, and participating in Faction Warfare.

Therefore, for level 3's I want to fly a Harbinger, and a Battleship for level 4's. Seems simple enough. Do level 2's till learning skills complete. Then finish training cruiser skills. Then get battlecruiser skills (also destroyer for salvaging, coercer is of course the only one for this), then move to Level 3's.

I expect I'll deviate from this plan eventually, but this is the current approahc

First taste of Faction Warfare!

I almost got a kill, even.

I wandered out to the militia zone, slipped through Kamela and into contested space. The lack of a probe launcher kept me from finding any plexes, and I soon fell in with a small gang. There were 2 Coercers, an Incursus and myself. We did some plexes, I learned the way of it. Good times.

A Hurricane jumped in on us, after much smack, and tried his hand at a 1 on 4. I didn't get back from the button to the warp in point in time to get on the kill mail. My own bad for having a point and a web in my mids.

Slicer I is scheduled

I got the blueprint from the Navy, for a cool 10 million isk and 30k LP. I've scheduled the job, looks like I should have it in about 2 days. I'm going to grab fittings for it, a dozen or so of my Punishers and maybe a Maller or two, then put them in a Bestower and ferry them down to the nearest High Security space to the war zone.

Can't wait!

Countdown to PVP

So, I'm planning on going out to militia land and finally going into battle with fellow capsuleers. Here are the steps that need to happen before then.

#1: Set up my overviews properly.
#2: Figure out the hotkeys on my interface
#3: Build ships for anti-capsuleer duty and move them to the war zone
#4: ...
#5: Profit!

Smooth and Easy

Doing level 2 missions in a cruiser is routine, obviously. I don't know what possessed me to keep the Punisher so long. The Maller II is a dream to mission in. My agent is at 8.9, so the work is lucrative.

Even in low sec, I'm rarely bothered by other capsuleers. My theory is that my ship is too cheap to be worth the trouble. The Maller makes a poor target anyway, it'd take quite a while to kill.

I've got her set up as follows:

5 Tech II pulse lasers
Afterburner, Stasis Webifier, Cap Recharger II (only one of the afterburner and webifier can be online at once)
2 EANM II's, One II membrane for explosive and one for Kinetic, Damage Control II

Then it's triple rigged for capacitor.

Definitely a good ship for Level II's. I keep thinking of the Arbitrator, but with my skill queue all full of learning skills for the forseeable it's a distant dream. For a while I'll be flying my Maller, and loving it. Low sec level II's on a 19 quality agent with 10.0 ought to turn a good profit, and I'm like 500 LP away from my Slicer, which should be loads of fun. I suspect that'll do almost as well as the Maller at level II's, but be much faster, not sure if I should use it in Low sec though.

Punisher VII, Avenged!

I built and fitted the Maller II today, reasoning that it wasn't any more likely that I could defeat the sansa blockade with the Punisher VIII than I could with the VII. I am happy to report that the cruiser's guns made all the difference, or rather it's more enduring hull.

The Maller II is a grand old ship, and one that I can see myself flying in level 2 missions for quite some time. I can't wait till I finish these learning skills so that I can improve my cruiser skills and medium laser skills. This ship isn't being driven as well as it could be, but I'm too impatient to stick with frigates until my learning skills are done.