Lost my Slicer

Well, I was plexing in a contested Amarr system when an enemy entered the system. I was flying my slicer, cruising along in a minor fortress.

He rolled up in a fleet firetail, jumped into my area and hesitated for a long time. Then his friend entered the system. I jumped out to a random planet.

I decided to return, however, reasoning that I could take him out before his friend got here.

I jumped in right on top of him, locked him, pointed him and opened fire. I was winning, put a web in and I had him pretty good. Then his buddy jumped in, also in a fleet firetail, and he kited off. His buddy and he dogpiled me, pointed and destroyed me. He was in armor, nearly in structure, when I ran out of cap and went down.

From his post battle derision I could probably have won that if I'd been any better at piloting. It's a humbling experience, and a costly one, as my insurance had expired.

Fortunately, I've got the cash and LP saved up for the Slicer II...but I think I'll mission a bit more before bringing it back out for battle.

The guy who killed me's nom de guerre was duc tayp. Charming, these Minmatar slime.

Fail Night

I tried to do some plexing, went to three contested systems, but couldn't scan out any plexes in any of them. Maybe I need some more scanning skills? I think I'm doing this right, just jump to each planet and scan for cosmic anomalies...I guess I ought to look up a tutorial and make sure I know what's up.

I hung around in Kamela the rest of the night with the other actives in the Amarr militia. Basically an ad-hoc camp that isn't actually a fleet. Whenever someone sees an enemy (or, indeed, any non militia) in system we jump on them. Didn't work tonight, but I'm hopeful that eventually this gets me on a kill.

Back to Faction Warfare

So, to relieve the tedium of the endless missions, I've gone back to Kamela with my beloved Slicer I, and I'm plexing.

Last night I went up to Langorn (or something like that), and secured an enemy minor plex, with active opposition from a pair of enemy craft (though they got distracted midway through, just tired of my jumping around).

Then I went back down to Arra (or Auga? It's 2 jumps from Kamela, one jump from Sosala). And secured a friendly major stronghold.

All told this got me about half way to my next promotion. It was much more exciting and tense than mission running. I think I'll try to finish plexing to a promotion, then X up for a fleet and try and get on a kill for once. That'd be so cool.

Flying the Slicer I, after a whole bunch of time flying the Binger I, is awesome. Fast, deadly...much love for my little slicer. And I've got the money/isk to replace it if and when the minmatar get lucky and take this one down.

Oh

So, I figured out what's going on with the range thing. He's using the equivalent of beam lasers for his faction, and just has t2 ammo and better skills, thereby coming pretty close to my damage. I feel kind of silly about that, I spent a good bit of time racking my brains to find a way to get multifreq damage at radio range. Not happening with the old pulse's.

On another note I've rigged my Harbinger, three cap rechargers. I can run my AB, my web, my DCU II, fire all my lasers and run my armor repair forever. What a load off! On the other hand I'm probably the single least dangerous Harbinger in the galaxy, with only 6 guns online and no heat sinks, but I'm going to fix that, soon as BC V is done training, should be in a couple days.

Something is missing...

So, I was missioning with Mardril, and I just can't account for the lack of range in my ship. I'm using T2 lasers, I've got a battlecruiser, he's doing similarly, though he's actually using a T2 ship, but he has far more range than I, without any noticeable decline in power. What's going on?

He mentioned something about ammo, perhaps there's a crystal that lets mission ships shoot further? Must be. I'm going to poke around and look at fellow Capsuleer's logs. See what I find.

Drone Discrepancy!

It has come to my attention, via the commentary of my fellow pilots, that Amarrian Drones are inferior to the other Empire's versions. This is deeply distressing to me, as my philosophy is to use only local products. I'm uncertain as to how the skill setup is worked out, but this might be a problem for me long term.

It's unthinkable to compromise my patriotism and use another culture's drones, but I need effective drones to defeat the frigates which bedevil my missions. While they don't typically put my Binger in danger the frigates and interceptors of my mission targets severely increase the amount of time it takes to complete my missions, which affects both my bottom line and the amount of good that I can do for the Empire. Distressing stuff indeed.

Killing time...and rats!

So, I'm still chaining level III missions in Ebtesham. Still using the Binger I. All basically goes well. It's a bit tedious, but I remain resolute. Once I finish my BC V (about 2/3 of a month left), then there's just Destroyers left to learn and I'll be set as regards ships for missioning, then I can go back and work on my long neglected basics.

These basics are what's really keeping me out of PVP. The drones, the MWD, the probes and the warp disruptors, basically everything required to engage fellow capsuleers, as opposed to the humans who crew the ships my missions require that I destroy. It's all about the basics, turns out. Once I've got them down, and the isk that I'm making now will let me put them to good use, it's time to finally get deep into faction warfare. For now, and for the forseeable, however, it's missions all the way down.

Ain't gonna lie...

The Binger is a whole lot of sweetness. You might think, twice the firepower of a Maller, half the HP, and that's a certain point, but it's so much more than that. Because I'm not just going from 3 lasers to 7, but from 3 lasers to 7 Tech II lasers! Huge increase in firepower.

Now, the fragility is something to think about. I never came close to dying in level II's with the Maller II, but these level III's occasionally test the Binger I to it's breaking point. Need drones badly, as soon as the 'Month' (no joke, a whole month) for BC V is up I'm definitely getting drone skills. Then, back to the basics. I'm currently heavily specced in gunnery with the exception of my piloting skills and learning skills. I can only run a level 1 armor repairer, afterburner (not microwarp) etc.

I'm going to use the certificates to guide my learning of the fundamentals, I understand that's what they are there for.

Last thought, rapid fire level III's are lucrative. Fo realz.

Need Drones...

So, interceptors are an issue. I could always manage them with the Maller by, essentially, webbing them and warping in and out a lot. In the Binger, even if they are webbed, and even if they don't web me, I can't hit them once they are close.

Now, part of the problem may be that I can't run the afterburners and web at the same time. If I could, I could get less transversal and light them up. So rigs could fix that, likely. But the ultimate solution to this problem, per my understanding, is to get my drone skills up.

Just one problem, that'll take a while. Sigh...

Binger 1!

You know it, I'm finally flying the battlecruiser of my dreams.

I've loaded out a Harbinger with a tank, an afterburner, a stasis webifier and 7 tech II medium pulse lasers. Thing of beauty! Level III missions, here I come!

I'm a bit miffed though, I thought that BC's got bonuses for your cruiser skill as well as your BC skill, but it appears that I was wrong. Ah well.

Narrow Escape!

I was just flying out of my mission hub when an enemy attacked me. Zidan777. I was in such a state of shock that I docked right back up, without even seeing what kind of vessel he had. It was probably pretty tough, since it could tank sentry guns while chewing threw a Maller's armor. I made it back to the dock though, so lucky me.

Psychic Powers

I've fallen prey to a delusion, the belief that I can predict the missions that my agent will assign to me. I think what's actually happening is that I've seen them so many times that I have memories of anticipating all of them, but it certainly feels like some manner of ESP. I went so far as to graph my predictions out, and I'm no more accurate than I should be, but it's an uncanny feeling.

Finally finished primary shooting skill

Now I just need to finish up the pre-requisites. I can almost fly my Maller with T2 guns. That's something I've been training towards for quite a while now.

I may receive some reward from the Empire for my diligence at these level II's. I've done every mission the Empire has to offer, over and over. I dream of a few of them. Seriously, I'm ready for level III's. Soon as I upgun my Maller I'm going to try them in it. The Binger is way up in the pipe, once I get my Battlecruisers up, but I can't bear to do these Level II's any longer!

Why?!

So very many skills required to gain Tech II medium sized guns. After medium energy weapons five completes I'll need medium pulse spec, for which I'll need to raise my light pulse spec from 3 to 4, and get another level in one of the gunnery subskills, forget which one.

All the missioning continues to raise the bank account at least! I've been missioning for a while rather than trying at Faction Warfare. Rather make isk than lose it, I guess. The reverse will probably be true soon, at which point I'll switch back over.

Skill Considerations

I've finally finished Amarr Cruisers V, and Medium Energy Turret is close to completion. After that's done I'm going to go into BattleCruisers, looking for that Harbinger and the promised land of Level III's.

After that I think I need to go back for a while, get up my core competency's, so I'm going to be looking into filling out my lowest level certificates for a while. Get my navigation, fitting, etc. skills up. Maybe even advanced learning. All the while missioning at level III.

Finally, once I'm satisfied about that I'm going to swap over to the lower level pvp skills to do more than plex in faction warfare.

Punished!

I was going around in the Punisher VIII, following the lead of a more senior pilot in the crusade. There was a fleet battle at a gate between Amarr and Minmatar.

Filled with zeal I fired on a Minmatar warrior vessel, blasting away it's shields. Unfortunately at this time the battle turned against us, and the remaining Amarr ships left. I was pointed and the Punisher VIII was quickly destroyed by enemy fire. Punisher IX shall have better luck.

Many thanks to Radon, if it wasn't for his advice I'd have been flying the Slicer I, the loss of which would have hurt far more.

Punishing...

I've gotten my clone skills up, gotten my clone and gone to work for the 24th IC full time. I've been flying a Punisher, plexing level 1's.

This is necessary, but not terribly glamorous work. In particular, I've been unable to defeat an enemy capsuleer. My candy taunts me.

I'll perservere, however, and I'm considering getting a Maller or two (my funds are currently stable after a bit of panhandling) and working on the larger plexes. Maybe someone will want to fight then?

In general, the enemy seem better organized than we. It's disturbing. Once I'm more experienced at this I think I shall try and take on something of a leadership role.

At long last

Alright, I've got my 8.1 standing with the Navy, finally.

I'm going to be unable to pilot for the weekend, but when I return I'll train up Xenomorph psych and hop into the militia battle full time. I'll be plexing in a punisher until Cruisers V finishes.

Maybe I'll finally get some candy! Celery sticks may cultivate one's faith, but they also bore one to tears.

Xenot's Standings...

I swear, each point of standing takes two to three times the effort of the one before it.

I'm right on the verge of getting 8.0 with the navy, in fact I'd scheduled that I'd get it last Thursday. Sadly, I'm still at 7.8. Unreal. It's such slow going...

I want my jump clones!

In addition, I'm at 9.9 with my agent. That's far less relevant, as getting to level 10.0 with a level 2 agent would be as much a badge of shame (watch me grind suboptimally!) as anything else, but seeing 9.9 just sit there is vexing. The 10.0 feels like the A+ grade, which is never given but held out to tantalize doctoral candidates to do better work. Gah!

I'm 1/3 of the way through Amarr Cruisers V. Should be about 18 more days. Then I'll grab medium turrets (Tech 1 guns are an embarassment), then Battlecruisers, and I'll finally be on to Level 3 missions. I'll have to get out of low sec to run those, can't afford to lose my level 3 mission running ship initially, but I'll be back soon enough, and I'll have my jump cloned punisher plexing jaunts to keep the excitement up.

Fitness via EVE

I'm not as fit as I could be, and the reason isn't hard to understand.

I'm active, and my meals are of ordinary size and duration. So why would I be fat? The answer is simple, I've a sweet tooth. On any given day I consume one or two candy bars. Obviously, this destroys my diet.

Thus, I've made the following vow. I shall not consume another candy bar until, and unless, I destroy an enemy capsuleers vessel. My craving shall grow and grow as I mission and mine, until ultimately, in service to the Empire, I destroy our vile enemy's. Then, and only then, shall chocolate and peanut butter pass my lips once more.