Rum and Ransom: Journals of a Space Pirate

2010-11-22T22:17:00.005Z

RL-1 Blog-0

2010-09-24T15:08:00.002+01:00

Some sad news...

I've started my 3rd and final year of university and will therefore be putting the blog on hold for now. I have a dissertation to write which is going to make me rather unenthusiastic about any voluntary writing elsewhere.

I am pressing the pause button on this blog and will hope to be back sometimes in the future. There may even be the occaissonal short post, but regular posting is unfortunately probably not going to happen.

Thanks to all who have enjoyed reading.

o7

-Mr Kha

Feature pt. 2

2010-09-18T16:50:00.010+01:00

WARNING: THE NEXT FEW POSTS CONTAIN AN EMBARASSING AMMOUNT OF PROPAGANDA AND SNOBBERY. I AM CLEARLY USING THIS BLOG AS A VEHICLE TO SHAMELESSLY VOICE MY OWN OPINIONS IN NO SUBTLE MANNER.

So a brief reminder of the matter at hand: "What does Piracy mean to you?" Last post I talked a bit about the importance of Comradery (yes it's a word, look it up). Not entirely unique to Piracy but you can bet your life it's to be found in abundance compared to other proffessions in the game. This time round I want to delve a little more into the gameplay side of things...

2. PROFIT

Now let's get something straight from the get-go. Low-sec Piracy is hardly a stable or effective means of income. Ninja-ganking faction fit mission runners in high-sec or corp theft is where you want to be if you want to make good money whilst being naughty. This does not mean however that trying to make a profit where possible, is not an important aspect of the Pirate life as it's one of the things that seperates what we do from general PVP. Here are some extremely vague and obvious points on the subject:

+ Loot more, work less. I resent mission running, loath trade and wouldn't go near a mining laser if it put on a miniskirt. Scraping a few modules and ransoms here and there minimizes time spent doing the above.

+ Money saved is money earned. If you fly ships that you can afford to lose and try not to get blown up as best you can, then ISK is going to be less of an issue for you without having to spend extra effort elsewhere.

+ Adding insult to injury makes you feel fuzzy inside. Blowing somebody up and then extorting them for cash and stealing their possessions causes them extra inconvenience, which in turn makes you the coolest kid in school.

+ Recycling is good for the environment. Everybody knows that most of the time, Pirates are usually fighting other Pirates (or in our case, FW infestations). Ships fit for PVP will drop stuff that might not be worth a ton of cash but will probably be useful to either or you a corpmate.

That pretty much sums it up for me. I'm a rather lazy individual so now that I have successfully pointed out the obvious from a highly subjective angle, I'm going to bring this post to a close. Going back into my final year of University in a few days so will probably have even less time for writing this indulgent bollocks. Gf gf.

-Mr Kha

Noobships vs Vexor (video included)

2010-09-16T17:22:00.010+01:00

I didn't want to interupt my "feature series" of posts but something the other day happened that was too good to pass up. First some background on the evenings events...

I had spent most of the day roaming with our friends The Python Cartel and we had a lot of fun and killed rather a lot of Hurricane class Battlecruiser boats, amongst other things. One of the pilots flying with us was a less experienced RL friend of one of their guys. Turns out he was awaiting approval for his application into Python and as I was about to leave their comms channel, he asks me if I could get him into FLA5HY RED temporarily, so he wouldn't get ganked by both corps when not fleeted with us. I told him that recruitment was firmly closed, I mean we certainly wouldn't be taking anyone in to be used as some kind of sanctuary from pirates. He makes his dissapointment known and my parting words with him are "see you on the battlefield". I had no idea how soon that was to be, nor how much fun...

After the roam Python go back to their station and we go back to ours, when we discover that the aforementioned pilot is also with us. We decide to mess with him a little bit, camping him in and entertaining some rather funny threats regarding carriers. We soon get tired of station games and we all go off and do various afk activities. Some 20 minutes later however, one of our high-sec scouts urgently reports that he is in a Rokh approaching the gate to our system. I immediately undock in my Hurricane, to discover it was my nanofit one and not my trusty gate cane. I warp to the gate and burn towards the Rokh...

"POINT!"

The sentrys begin raping my shield buffer and the Rokh has chosen to engage whislt burning away from the gate. A few moments later, a corpie lands in an Abaddon and takes over point while I GTFO with low shields. I warp back in to see the Battleship explode, leaving the pilot apparantly rather upset. We give our customary "gf" in local but are met with some amount of hostility, which is being observed by his prospective employers over in Python. "He seemed an alright guy earlier" I thought, "whats with the sudden emo raging?" He opens a convo with me and seems a little more calm and apologetic...

Dragon Rider1 > haha i had a lil emo rage
Mr Kha > we'll let you off
Dragon Rider1 > now soon to be or not corp thinks im actin like an idiot
Dragon Rider1 > let me off?
Mr Kha > for having an emo rage
Mr Kha > no hard feelings
Dragon Rider1 > its fine i take critisism well
Dragon Rider1 > and once im not a nub anymore ill be back with another rokh yall wont fare soo well on

While this was going on however, it seemed Python had rejected his application on their forums for getting all verbal with us. He is back in high sec at this point and yet again our scout yells as he approaches our gate once again in a Blackbird. Again, he jumps and we pop him. This time he exchanges the "gf" with us, presumably in attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of the overlooking Python guys.

But it gets better, we challenge him to a fair fight: us in our noob ships vs him. He accepts and there is much excitement and comedic discussion of noobship fits and fleet bonuses. Hturt of Python Cartel wants in on the action so we throw him an invite and agree to meet him at Planet 10. I fielded a trusty Reaper with the following fit:

1x Micro Auxiliary Power Core
1x Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcject Thrusters
2x Tech II 125m Autocannons

We land and immediately begin popping the Vexor's Warrior II drones while a few of our guys are putting dps on the Vexor. I am having a great time at this point, whizzing round with a cap-stable MWD fit noobship popping drones, pretending I'm a heroic interceptor pilot like a little kid. It soon becomes apparant the Vexor has no alternative means of offense and his tank is dropping fast. Attention is duely taken away from the drones and put on the Vexor which much to our delight explodes, causing a mass of hysteria over comms. Seconds beforehand, he successfully manages to take me down with a dying breath. Here is the video, from the perspective of fellow FLA5H pilot, Death Fangs...

Gf sir :-)

-Mr Kha

Feature pt. 1

2010-09-13T15:27:00.009+01:00

WARNING: THE NEXT FEW POSTS CONTAIN AN EMBARASSING AMMOUNT OF PROPAGANDA AND SNOBBERY. I AM CLEARLY USING THIS BLOG AS A VEHICLE TO SHAMELESSLY VOICE MY OWN OPINIONS IN NO SUBTLE MANNER.

Ok so up until now pretty much every single post has been about me me me. "But Mr. Kha" I hear you say, "wouldn't it be nice if you did a feature post on something other than what you and your corp did the past week?" Well although the corp has been having a lot of fun the past few days and getting into some great fights, I thought it was time to do the very first "feature series" on my blog. The title of the feature is:

"What does Piracy mean to you?"

And by that, I do not mean some academic analysis of what is technically Piracy and what technically isn't with reference to game mechanics. Here is the first chapter in a short series on what Piracy means to me...

1. COMRADERY

Undisputedly THE most important aspect of any kind of teamwork -oriented game. Forget Dave and his uber skills, or John and his killboard stats, quality people are what make it possible to enjoy multiplayer games without making you want to castrate yourself with a blunt, inadequate object. I would rather be in a fleet of fun-loving, interesting and amicable pilots than a bunch of sterile, bitchy, elitist power-tripping RL idiots who happen to be ruthlessly efficient with internet spaceships. I have witnessed an entire Alliance almost completely disband, owed in large to the arrival of a person with about as much charisma as a dead cat. Personality fail. Incase you hadn't noticed, I am pretty adamant about this issue. Fortunately for us, FLA5HY RED has not yet been poisoned by antisocial elitist nonense and I believe that with the current leadership ethos, it will stay that way.

Personality > Skill
Quality > Quantity
Personality + Skill = Win

It is important to state now that player skill is important to any fleet and I am in no way trying to bash experienced PVPers at all. Who doesn't want to be part of an effective fighting force? By now the "point" of my childish little rant should be perfectly obvious. The pilots I fly with are trustworthy, reliable, intelligent, enthusiastic, good-humored and eager to learn and improve. Anything beyond this should be considered a welcome bonus.

"You can make a good pilot out of a good person but you can't make a good person out of a good pilot"

- Mr Kha 2010

So this concludes the first in a short series of posts that seek to define what is most important in enjoying internet spaceship antics. If my blog was a gig, I'd be performing to the bar staff and a couple of stray dogs, but if you happen to be reading this, then I wanna hear what YOU think. What does Piracy mean to YOU? Be as obnoxious and offensive as you like, I wanna hear it.

And finally before I go and do something more productive, a big shout out to Casey (a.k.a Brielle15) possibly our biggest fan and proud recruit of FLA5HY RED :) good to have you aboard o7

-Mr Kha

"plz i beg u"

2010-09-07T10:21:00.008+01:00

Another day, another roam...

Once again we teamed up with our friends and neighbours The Python Cartel and headed out into the stomping grounds. We head to one of the busier systems where we dispense of a suspicious Drake which was either a fail-tarp or he was genuinely alone in top belt at 0m with no backup (rofl). We warp off to our safe spots and then hilarity shortly ensued.

There is a 2 month-old player ASKING to join a fleet in local. This must be some sort of new, elaborate plan. Bearing in mind we are in a low-sec system notorious for gang PVP this seemed utterly absurd. Naturally, we jumped on the oppurtunity and within seconds his name pops up in the fleet window. Everyone in fleet immediately warps to him, ready to dish out some good old-fashioned violence.

He's at a station. Drats. No fireworks just yet, that is until our FC warps fleet to one of the empty belts in system. He thinks we're off on an adventure but we are already laughing hysterically on comms at what is inevitably about to happen. We land and he is immediately locked, pointed and webbed by the entire fleet. Moments later, he is subjected to a world of violence as the guns, launchers, drones and neuts are engaged. Here is the convo rofl...

[22:05:09] Mr NITREX > can i join a fleet?
[22:07:55] Mr NITREX > hey
[22:07:57] Mr NITREX > people
[22:07:59] Mr NITREX > stop
[22:08:11] Crimson Violet > yarrr
[22:08:13] Mr NITREX > plz
[22:08:19] Mr NITREX > i beg u <-----ROFL
[22:08:22] Mr NITREX > dont kill me
[22:08:22] Death Fangs > never accept fleet invite
[22:08:33] Mr NITREX > plz let me go

Unfortunately for him, any sense of remorse was totally eclipsed by the sheer joy of watching him die helplessly in a horrible fire. What is even more hilarious / disturbing is that this turned out to be the first of three, YES THREE successful fleet-invite kills, one of which happened later the same day and one the following.

Harsh? Absolutely. We of course are delighted that there are those actually still interested in low-sec space, but a swift and effective lesson in Piracy is never far away for the overconfident or careless pilot.

-Mr Kha

FLA5HY RED

2010-09-05T16:33:00.006+01:00

Formed by those of us who chose to break away from The Black Rabbits, [FLA5H] is a tight-knit group of old-school pirates who keep things simple and don't have time for politics or drama. An efficient and democratic leadership has been established and we have already begun making ourselves known in our new home.

Last night we headed out to the stomping grounds. For me it was new and unknown territory and for some of our senior members it was a welcome return to the place they had never stopped calling "home". We headed out and after some blob-dodging and sniffing about we found ourselves a very cool fight. We had a nice well-balanced fleet ranging from Assault Frigates up to Battlecruisers and our scout had found a Hurricane in a nearby belt. The rest of the fleet was holed up in a safe and poised for a warp-in when the magic word was called.

"Point!"

The Hurricane is doomed as the fleet begin tearing into him with guns and missiles when all of a sudden a Vagabond and a Zealot land simultaneously on top of us. My knowledge of ships is still a little shakey in places, especially with the more expensive non-Minmatar ships and I had confused the Zealot as the Amarr Tech 3 Cruiser. It began locking my little Wolf and expecting more ships to arrive at any moment I took the oppurtunity to bug out.

This was very thankfully followed by "I got 'em both jammed" and there appeared to be no sign of any other ships so I immediately warped back into the fray. I landed to see the pretty fireworks of the Hurricane and I immediately started burning toward the Vagabond. As im locking him, I hit the guns and scram to ensure he doesn't escape. The Zealot at this point had been chased virtually off-grid and had left his fellow HAC pilot to die, neither of which had been able to throw more than a couple of volleys. Just to ensure maximum financial damage, we popped the T2 wreck after looting it and we headed back to our safe spot.

On the way home we found something a little special and decided to bookmark it for later, but for now we felt we were on the road to making our presence known in the local area. I would like to give a big shout out to our friendly neighbours The Python Cartel and hope they continue to shoot us in the face whilst extending their friendship.

-Mr Kha

Saying Goodbye...

2010-09-03T15:51:00.012+01:00

I have left The Black Rabbits Academy.

Over the last few days, the majority of TGA has trickled out of Auner in freighters and shuttles owed to dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the alliance. There were certainly a few catalysts involved but for me personally, the guys I fly with and talk to everyday ARE the alliance and when I discovered that almost every single one of them was making a move, it made no sense to be left behind with unfamiliar faces.

There is going to be no finger-pointing or negativity in this post, instead I decided I would give closure to my departure with a summary of the fond memories that I have brought with me into our new venture. My time in the Academy was incredibly fun and crucial to shaping me into a more useful pilot and I have no doubt that it will restabilize and continue to be a great place to learn the trade.

So here, in no particular order are some of my best moments :)

Fond Memory #1: First Gate Camp

On paper this was a total disaster but piracy isn't always about winning. Battlecruiser III had just recently completed and I threw together a functional Hurricane for the sole purpose of joining in group camps. My friends were kind enough to partake in this momentous occaison and we set up a small camp in our home system. To cut it short, we didn't have a proper set of eyes on the other side and we got jumped by the Russians. All future camps were much more successful but I'll remember this one.

Fond Memory #2: First Day in Auner

I had finally arrived. There were some unfamiliar voices on teamspeak partaking in a gate camp but a lowly frigate pilot was not ready for such things. I flew around getting a feel for my new home and setting up various safe spots. The system was quiet but I'd managed to scan down a Breacher ratting in one of our belts. After a little game of cat and mouse I had him pointed. This was probably the most exciting solo fight I had. He decided to fight back but he was melting fast and I was able to repair the bulk of incoming damage. I'd only been here an hour and I'd just bagged a nice victory. "This is going to be good times" I said to myself.

Fond Memory #3: Freighter Ransom

Initiative, planning, patience and teamwork at its finest. We had a guy scouting his Providence in and out of our system with his alt but he was being extremely cautious. Bagpuss had his probes out looking for a Thrasher but turned his attention to the freighter and managed to score a 100% hit on it sitting in an insta-undock. We holed up in the station like hungry wolves and sent out some hi-sec scouts to track his movements. After nearly two hours he returned and the trap was set. He was caught and ransomed for a respectable 500m and let free, much to his joy. This was one of those "EVE moments" that everybody was thrilled to be a part of.

I would like to thank those I met in TGA for being instrumental in my enjoyment of the game and for those of us who haved moved on I wish the best of luck in our exciting new venture.

Roles

2010-08-28T16:34:00.003+01:00

One of the more recent benefits of being in TBRA or TBR is that members will have access to free skillbooks from the Rabbit Library. Originally pioneered by Jarek K, the library has already proven to be a valuable resource for many pilots. There was however something missing: A trustworthy and handsome individual was needed to tend to the various tomes and manuscripts...

Mr Kha is now proud to be the very first offical TGA Librarian! (despite being instantly ridiculed by Mail Lite :p ) This oppurtunity coincides nicely with the new wave of recruitment we have open for the Academy and as such I will be making a conscious effort to keep a healthy stock of books to help out our new recruits. The Library also contains a limited stock of advanced skillbooks for more experienced players and certain "elite" (ie. expensive) books may be available subject to certain member requirements (no I'm not talking about genitalia).

All alliance members are able to browse the Library's collection however, if you would like to have one of the books then you should ask either me or one of our directors and we will be happy to give them to you. Only one of each skillbook is going to be given to any individual toon and we hope that you are able to put them to good use out in the field o7.

-Mr Kha

Recruitment

2010-08-27T14:50:00.006+01:00

The Academy is once again open for recruitment. I have been informed that there are a total of 75 places open for players accross all time-zones. Take a look at the following before considering an application...

REQUIREMENTS:

•No Trial Accounts.

•Mature players only

•You must submit your LIMITED API to a Director for review

•Voice Communication software MUST be used (Team Speak 3)

•Willing to reach -10 security status

•No smack-talking or crying in local

•Ransoms and agreed 1v1 fights MUST be honoured

If you're cool with the above, then you need to go here and after registering, submit an application in the Academy recruitment channel. One of the stickies there will be a template for the application which you must use.

IT IS IMPORTANT YOU DO THIS BEFORE JOINING OUR IN-GAME RECRUITMENT CHANNEL

Which brings me to the next bit. Once you've posted an app on the forums, sit around in our recruitment channel for a couple of days and await your interview. Try and be patient, as the ratio of applicants to recruitment officers is naturally quite high.

As someone who has been with the Academy for the past 2 months I can say that TGA is a great alliance to be a part of with several established "characters" and good oppurtunites for the up and coming pilot. I look forward to recieving you into our enterprising and bloodthirsty organization.

-Mr Kha

Fleet Commander pt.2

2010-08-25T15:06:00.010+01:00

After a little station-spinning I'd decided it was time to brush the dust off my little rifter and go out on a good old fashioned solo roam. Before I head out I notice a corpmate is online (big shout to Caps!) who is usually ready for action. I ask if he wants to join and he responds with " yeh let's do it man!" While he is setting up, several alliance buddies log in and word catches on that there's a roam going and before I know it theres about 5 or 6 of us.

Certain corpies are often relied upon to take the bunnies out on their evening walks but I figured it might be interesting / courteous if I decided to step up for the role of FC instead. The last time I led a fleet we didn't manage to get any kills and we got a suprise visit from a Falcon while taking down a Thorax, losing a couple of our guys. This time however, it was going to be different...

Not too long ago, one of our corpmates (big shout out to Dark Avatar!) introduced to me the concept of "shotgun scanning" as an alternative way of moving an agile fleet. After some camp-dodging en route to our destination, we jump into a neighbouring system, and begin the new tactic. Pretty soon we're chasing a Rupture who doesn't want to play with us and shortly afterward he is cornered and helpless, thanks to the fact we had more JAM! than the NBA (yes 3 Blackbird pilots in a 7-man fleet is excessive). First kill as FC under my belt, I was a happy bunny. Things got even better on the way home.

Theres a Hurricane pilot in system apparantly interested in our Ishkur pilot. He takes the bait and a truly hero-tackle on behalf of Otto Jarvis nets us a warp-in for the fleet. Otto is forced back out of point range as he bleeds into structure but the nanocane is caught on an asteroid while I burn toward him with a handful o' web n' scram. Our Arby and Blackbird pilots are doing their job of negating the damage and the only problem we have now was the Warrior IIs. The drones are set upon me and quickly bring me into deep armor while the rest of the fleet is shooting them down. I GTFO and come back just in time to fire off some final shots and see the ship explode.

What a cool experience it was. I would reccommend giving the task of FC a chance to anybody who is willing to try it out. It's pretty challenging stuff but when a plan comes together it is really something to be a part of. GF to the Rupture and 'Cane pilots and job well done to our guys, we will be doing this again soon. Wolfpack pvp at its finest. o7

-Mr Kha

Public Enemy

2010-08-22T22:16:00.010+01:00

I haz been very naughty for the last couple of months...

It's official: Mr Kha has reached -10 security status!

Stand and Deliver!

2010-08-19T22:03:00.007+01:00

Not much worth mentioning as of late, however the last the few days have been quite prosperous relative to the expectations of Piracy. The Rabbits managed to secure 200m worth of ransoms in just over an hour during a rather profitable gate camp and later went on to follow up the success with a good old fashioned rabbit roam, netting a further 50m in ransoms and two very exciting engagements. I put my cut of the iskies into my little pink purse (which broke my fall) and headed home where I proceeded to wire the funds to my ninja/hauler/mission runner alt.

The next day the Rabbits were out and about through the stomping grounds when Mr. Otto Jarvis finds a juicy Drake, seemingly lost in an asteroid belt. After a brief game of cat and mouse he is ensnared and subjected to a slow and inevitable death. For some reason he decided to throw a single volley of faction missiles at my Rifter and then apparantly ceased fire while we finished him off. The upside-down yellow triangle was approached and looted immediately and it turned out our friend had been quite unfortunate. Five Arbalest launchers and several other pricey named mods had dropped and according to current market prices would yield us a cut of about 18m each, with the total loss for the Drake pilot nearing 117m isk. Fortunately I was not carrying the loot because on the way home, for the first time ever I made the facepalm-inducing mistake of jumping into the wrong system and losing my little Rifter to the Po-leece :-( fortunately they are ten-a-penny and the loss made a very minor dent in the week's profits.

Conclusion? Though far from being the most profitable proffesion in the Universe, Piracy can still have its moments in providing some respectable income. In addition to the epic Freighter ransom, the past week or so has been a rather good case for why the "shoot first, ask questions later" approach isn't always the best option. In addition the weeks events also help to prove the benefits of honouring your ransoms and the reputation and trust that it brings, both for you and for Pirates everywhere.

-Mr Kha

Gate Camp Fail

2010-08-10T14:43:00.008+01:00

Recently Mr Kha has been training some necessary skills to fly a Hurricane and although I'm far from fitting one properly, I managed to throw one together with a T2 tank and enough EHP to take part in group camps.

"Would someone like to come and hold my little hand while I do my first Gate Camp?"

Otto Jarvis is quick to appear in his Drake and an aptly-named 'boredom fleet' is initiated by Cebit, which brings one or two more Battlecruisers to the fleet. Nothing is happening and the Gate Camp becomes quite a casual affair, with people coming and going and a lack of eyes on the other side *facepalm*.

I'm the only one left on the gate, determined not give up on my first ever camp. Minutes later, a Drake jumps in. I lock him up and call for back up over comms to which there were several replies so I confidently point and engage the Drake. The sentry guns start going apeshit and I'm not faring too well on my own. Backup arrives and the future looks brighter for Mr Kha, that is until the rest of the Drake's fleet jump in...

Falcon, Falcon, Tengu, Nighthawk, Zealot, Hurricane and God knows what else (not quite managing to think clearly at this point). The Hurricane is shooting me along with the Drake and the Sentry guns. I'd already aligned and started trying to burn away but this was no nippy little frigate, taking forever to turn around and doing a pitiful 700m/s with the microwarp on. I continue to spam the warp button but to no avail.

I'm the first to go down, shortly followed by my companions. The pod makes it out alive but the damage is done so I dock up at the station. The Hurricane lasted less than an hour and my first gate camp had ended in disaster. Otto takes pitty on me and finances a replacement Hurricane which was extremely generous of him and we decide a change of pace is required and put together a roaming fleet while our GCC is cooling off. I was looking for some action and I got it. Better luck next time me hopes!

-Mr Kha

Epic Freighter Ransom of Win

2010-08-09T00:55:00.013+01:00

Well...

If there was any case example for the rewards of patience, careful planning, initiative (and a stroke of genius/fortune on behalf of Bagpuss) then this was it. Definately one of the highlights of my pirating career so far (it's up there with first solo kill).

It had been an uneventful sunday for me. There was some excitement in our neighbouring system trying to get hold of a Maelstrom but sadly that did not come to fruition. Some time later we were trying to probe down a thrasher in our home system when suddenly a freighter appears on D-scan. Intel was gathered and shared and it appeared that we had a guy who was dual boxing with an alt who was acting as a scout in a Rapier. There was an attempt to pin him down away from the station but it didn't quite materialise. However Bagpuss took the initiative and ran a scan of his probes around the station, shortly after the ship is reported to have undocked and warped. 100% scan strength on one Providence frieghter, bookmarked and being warped to. Bagpuss arrives just as the freighter is heading out. It's an insta-undock safe for the station. That will come in handy. For what seems like a missed oppurtinity, our corpmate appears optimistic.

"Doesn't matter. We'll get him later."

Almost 2 hours later to be precised. One of our rabbits was doing some shopping in a local high sec system where he spotted the freighter pilot in local. At this point there was an official lock-in at our station. Nobody was to be floating around in system as not to spook off the freighter, who's Rapier alt was still in system serving as a scout. Our contact in high-sec reports that he is headed back towards our direction. After what seemed like an age, the silence is broken...

"Providence on scan."

Comms goes silent. Everyone is equally co-operative in making sure we nail this guy. Soon enough the pilot is now with us in the station and inevitably headed out again at any moment. The big question on everyone's mind at this point is 'Is he going to use that same insta-undock?' He's left the station and he's still in local. Everybody is crossing their fingers and preparing to undock on the word go.

"Warp to Bagpuss. I'm right on top of him"

This was met with a rush of excitement from the men....

"EVERYBODY UNDOCK!" "IN WARP!" "WARPING!!"

Local was clogged with an eruption of YAARRRRR. This was it. I finally land and sure enough there she was. I spammed ctrl-click on the boat like my life depended on it and followed up the scrambler with the Wolf's guns. The fat, immobile freighter sat there like a beached whale while me and the crew tore into it with everything available.

"Don't stop firing. We're gonna take him to half structure and then ransom"

(actual screenshot)

The ship crashed into structure and from there it was a steady decline to 50% hull. I hurridly tuned in to our ransom channel to witness the dialogue. The freighter pilot is suprisingly calm and co-operative whilst being given the terms and conditions. Our FC asks firmly but politely for the goods: Five hundred million isk. Again there was silence, but only briefly.

"Points off! He's paid!"

"Anyone with a web, help him out"

The freighter pilot wastes no time getting into a warp to a nearby gate. There was much cheering and laughing and exchanges of congratulations followed by a rather sizable isk deposit in my account. The money was obviously nice but it for me personally, it was merely an added bonus to the satisfaction of seeing a plan come together and being part of a celebratory moment with my new corp.

Perhaps one of the greatest outcomes of the event was that the freighter pilot left pleasantly suprised with having his ransom honored and thus gained our trust and respect. We were congratulated on our victory and were even extended the offer of future business relations by the grateful pilot. Hats off to the ransomed pilot for being a good sport and a special "nice one mate" for Bagpuss who orchestrated almost all of the planning and leading.

-Mr Kha

Fleet Commander

2010-08-05T05:05:00.004+01:00

It's even harder than I thought, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy giving it a go. I've been going on fleet roams almost since day 1 of EVE but last week I found myself in the position of emergency FC trying to lead an 8-man fleet through our stomping grounds.

Having taken over from the previous FC (big shout out to Otto Jarvis, renouned target-magnet and master of all things E-War), I found myself immediately overwhelmed with tasks. Where are all of our scouts? Where is the rest of our fleet? How do I get that window thingy to come up where I can see who is flying what? Why are 4 people relaying information to me at once? Who is "me" and where is "here"? Gahhh!

The goal was to get our merry crew home safely while looking for potential customers. I decided that the rest of the roam would be doomed to an epic fail of disorganised confusion unless I started slowly from the ground up. I'd have to keep things simple as not to puzzle myself and to keep a hold on things. Once the fleet was fully assembled in a safe spot I sent out a pair of scouts to stay ahead of us and report their findings. The rest of fleet was with me.

Our scouts had begun relaying information on the next system over comms. I drew upon my experience of previous roams to aid my duty...

"Fleet warp to the gate, jump on contact and hold cloak"

Was that right? I'm sure that's what I'm supposed to say. After a while one of our scouts reported a flashyred Cynabal hovering on the gate on the otherside of our system. All I knew was that cynabals were expensive, looked cool and put out silly DPS. Our Blackbird pilot was confident he could jam him up while we pecked away at him in our frigates. We wouldn't incur a GCC and if things went badly we could just GTFO. At this point in the night we'd had no action and the general consensus was that we would give it a shot.

The gate read clear on D-scan and thus I signaled the fleet to warp. We landed on the gate and began orbiting it, waiting for the word from our man on the other side. Suddenly the overview is an endless list of expensive-sounding space boats. Panic stations!

"Everybody jump now!"

Literally as I gave the order, our scout on the other side checks in on comms.

"Erm you guys..."

He didn't have time to explain what had happened. There was an even larger camp on the otherside, the overview at this point being an endless list of doom and impending fail. You know things are bad when you are having to use the scroll-down button. Zealot, Myrmidon, Hurricane, Hurricane, Drake, Drake, Drake, Thorax, Harbinger and our good friend Mr. Bait Cynabal. We Were were trapped in what I like to call a "Gate Sandwich".

"Everybody warp to something you are best aligned to. Every man for himself!"
(rofl every man for himself, what a great leader I am)

There is silence over comms as each pilot prays to get into warp. The frigates managed to escape but our faithful and heroic Blackbird pilot (shout out to Caps!) just did not have the agility or the acceleration of the prodominantly rifter-piloted fleet. He was toast. Either we were the victims of some very bad timing or more-likely, we had been the victims of a very well executed trap. With our prized E-War boat blown to smitherenes, we decided to burn for home but for one reason or another the stars had aligned and we were treated to another gate-related fiasco on the way. We jumped into one of the remaining systems en route home and were duly greeted with another overview-rape-fest.

"Don't panic, everybody remain calm!"

I hurridly scanned the overview looking for anything that might have a fast lock time. Oh dear I thought to myself, theres a few ships here I've never even heard of before. Burn back to the gate? I didn't fancy the chances in our paper-thin fleet of T1 frigates and I wasn't about to dock up and log off in a rifter. We've got to warp and we've gotta do it fast and in unison. I fleet warp us to a safe and cross my fingers.

"Is anyone getting locked?"

There was no reply. Inundated with an overview full of flashy red pirates, the gatecampers failed to get a lock on our nifty little frigates and we had successfully made it through the camp with no casualties. Phew! From here on the path home was relatively safe. We docked up in our home system and called it a night. Despite not blowing up any spaceships, we'd only lost one pilot and I managed to get some valuable experience in the field of Fleet Command. I have been nominated as emergency FC again since the events of this post but unfortuneately it didn't go as smoothly, being victims of some serious bait (no officer I swear I do NOT have a cloaked Falcon sitting 10km from me).

Conclusion? FC'ing is just like anything else in EVE and requires practice. It is certainly very knowledge-based in the sense that you need the knowledge and experience from which to base your decisions; common sense will only get you so far. At it's core, fleet commanding relies on the ability to multi-task, make decisions and maintain good communication with the rest of the fleet. Will I be trying it again? Definately.

-Mr Kha

Updated: Pirate School

2010-08-04T00:08:00.002+01:00

The 'Pirate School' section of the blog has been improved with pretty videos and pictures and a welcoming introduction by Mr Tim Curry! Additional information and links have been added including overview settings and some other stuff to help expand it.

The page is also an on-going project and I will hopefully be sharing some of my own advice for brand new pirates as part of the tutorial pack. I will be posting news of future updates in the blog section also.

-Mr Kha

Announcement

2010-08-01T22:19:00.005+01:00

On behalf of our CEO I would like to announce that recruitment for TBRA is now officially CLOSED

Recruitment for TBR and TWR is currently still OPEN

I like to imagine theres a legion of wannabe pirates out there reading my blog but this is probably about as accurate as a drunken stream of piss. Nonetheless in the interests of Guristas Asociates Personnel Department it is my duty to make this known.

-Mr Kha

PLEX

2010-07-25T17:49:00.002+01:00

I said to myself a few months ago that I'd never do it. I would never succumb to handing over REAL legal tender to see a few extra zeros in a virtual in-game bank account, but the relenetless fun I've been having with PVP got me feeling nauseous about returning to Dodixie and scavanging off mission runners. Don't get me wrong, ninja looting / salvaging is good fun and reasonably profitable but it doesnt touch the adrenaline rush of PVP. I'm sticking to my original plan of using most of the ISK from the PLEX to set up my alt with a Maelstrom for level 4 mission running. The idea is that from there on I will be totally self-sufficient, occaissonally running the odd mission and forwarding the proceeds to Mr Kha to fund his PVP habit.

But of course, there was much ISK leftover and I suddenly felt like I had more money than sense, storming the market with buy orders. Throwing the T2 modules into my shopping cart whimsically, I even splashed out a Jaguar, a Wolf and and two Stilettos, only being two thirds of the way through the necessary skills to pilot them properly. "Uh oh" I muttered aloud.

Conclusion? I think I actually prefer living on the edge just a little when it comes to ISK. When you have less it becomes more precious and in EVE that directly relates to the infamous adrenaline rush of PVP. Before I sound like some deluded space-peasant I would like to clarify that this does not involve me going out exclusively solo in T1 fit frigates or being too stingy to buy faction ammo. I simply mean to say that having a proffession in EVE with which you can fund PVP increases your appreciation for the value of things, which is ultimately one of the factors that makes EVE what it is. On the flip side, having the wealth to stockpile some well-fitted disposable ships is a great way to learn PVP and It's about striking the balance. You don't want to be throwing faction-fit Navy Issue vessels into the wind like its your job, but you certainly don't want to be duct-taping together a laughable T1 frigate and guarding it as your most prized possession.

-Mr Kha

Learning (the hard way)

2010-07-23T18:23:00.004+01:00

Since joining the rabbits with my first pirate toon I have been pleasantly suprised by how active a pirates life can be. I sometimes find myself going on 2 or even 3 roams in a single day accross the timezones. I'd managed to make a respectable job of staying alive for a new pilot during this time, evading gate camps, warping out of bad situations and keeping my losses to a minimum. I've never been one who cared much for the Kill / Death ratios when playing any game, but I'd somehow gotten to 16:1. Not quite as ridiculous as the invincible Bagpuss but I'd certainly suprised myself. "This isn't going to last long" and indeed I'm already starting to get my share of the bad luck. Or is it bad?

A couple of months ago on my first toon I decided to go into low sec on my own to see what I could find. I ended up playing a game of cat and mouse with a Jaguar and decided to use the oppurtunity to hone my GTFO skills. I'd practice warping to celestials at varying ranges, aligning and wapring out when I saw the flashy red Jag appear. The Jaguar pilot lost interest and I decided to warp to a safe spot. Foolishy, I sat there not aligned to anything and not moving. "Who is going to bother probing down a lone rifter?" I thought. "Is probing frigate-sized vessels even possible?" I thought. Wrong. My next mistake was to begin chatting away to my Jaguar friend in local and her corpmates. After about 5 minutes of chit chat whilst eating my dinner I noticed 3 flashy reds suddenly appear in the overview. "I KNEW IT!" I shouted, as I was set apon by the sharpened claws of the Hellcat pirates. But of course, I didn't know it or else I would have avoided it. At the time, I left with my tail between my legs, annoyed at myself for being so careless.

Since then, I jump from safe to safe or at the very least stay aligned to a celestial while checking D-scan for probes and my overall navigation of low security space has improved dramatically. The point obviously being that you learn from your mistakes, however this is a phrase that is thrown around a lot but is only fully appreciated through personal experience.

Recently I found myself thinking back to this. I'd gone out solo in my thrasher and I saw a caracal on scan. I swapped out my ammo for republic fleet EMP and narrowed him down to several times only to find he'd warped out because the belt was empty of rats. I finally found him in one of the belts but the warp in was no good, he was about 40km off and already aligning out. It seemed he was combing through the belts and there werent many of them so I decided to go and sit in one in hope that he would warp in on me by mistake. Sure enough he comes in but to my suprise he instantly aggresses me and jams me up, unleashing a barrage of missiles. I'm getting hit hard and already I was wondering if I'd bit off more than I could chew. Perhaps the hunter had become the hunted? The EVE pvp adrenaline starts pumping and I engage him with everything I've got. I overload my guns and begin laughing as I watch his shield tank being ripped to shreds. About 10 seconds later the guns stop firing. In a panic I clumsily fumbled for the hotkey to turn them back on (not realising at this point they had burnt out) I must have shut off the warp scrambler accidentally and the caracal pilot warps almost instantly to whatever he had been aligned to. "FUCK!" I was bitterly dissapointed. This incident led to me learning a lot more about the intricate mechanics of overheating and inspired me to include Thermodynamics V as part of my skill plan.

So it seems throwing caution to the wind and "getting out there" is a win / win situation for the learning pilot. No matter the outcome, you're guaranteed to learn something useful. This is quite obviously not a highly original conclusion regarding pvp in EVE but what I've come to realise is you dont fully appreciate it until you experience it first hand. In terms of kills and losses the last few days have been a bit wreckless but my faith is immediately restored when I realise something valuable was learned in the process. And as Four2 would agree, it's better to get blown to smitherenes than be sat in the station spinning your ship.

-Mr Kha

Bacon

2010-07-21T16:35:00.003+01:00

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS NONSENSE

Much controversy emerged last night when several pilots engaged in a heated dispute regarding the intricacies of the different play styles used with the different types of bacon. An erruption of hunger inflicted the involved parties and it was unanimously agreed that the presence of bacon would improve morale considerably amongst the fleet.

British bacon has a superior ketchup tank and overall better effective hitpoints but certainly does less dps against the oil hole in the arteries resists. General consenus was that American style bacon is most effective when fitted with faction maple syrup and can work well in a breakfast fleet alongside T2 pancakes. British bacon is also prefered by many pilots owed to it's versatility. It can be fielded during sandwich assaults, dinner engagements or even as part of the infamous "full english" breakfast strategy. Canadian bacon remains somewhat of a mystery and shall not be discussed further, though many see it as a useful ingredient for running lvl 4 pizza deliveries.

-Mr Kha

Diplomacy Fail

2010-07-20T14:57:00.003+01:00

Being harrassed in our home system and the occurance of station games is not uncommon for the rabbits. This time however things got a little heated and a good fight ensued. Being a mere frigate and destroyer pilot, I was confined to the station hangar where I was picturing the engagement to the information being relayed over comms.

Things werent looking too good for the harrassors, being forced to dock or burn away several times. Being the enterprising pirate he is, our CEO invites one of our visitors into our ransom channel for a brief chat:

Jarek Kalensa > Good evening
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > :)
Jarek Kalensa > I hope you are enjoying the facilities
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > loving it
Jarek Kalensa > We at the Guristas would be happy to escort you from system for a fee of, say 50 million isk
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > LOL
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > downers
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > o/

After refining the art of docking and undocking a little further he was again approached by our CEO:

Jarek Kalensa > Shall we try that again?
Jarek Kalensa > 50m and you can leave
Jarek Kalensa > as we all have fresh packs of beer and a whole evening to kill
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > ll
DeaDiLy ReVeNgE > you cunts are a joke

This time he undocks and burns away from the station "POINT!" is yelled over comms and whoever is still online at this point fields what they can to join the fray. Local begins to spike a little bit and sure enough, the typhoon pilot is accompanied by two Hurricanes, a Drake and a Myrmidon. A raging BC / BS fight ensues with losses on both sides, but the invaders are eventually reppelled or destroyed. Our friend 'DeaDiLy ReVeNgE' has his Typhoon redecorated and leaves in his POD along with the two 'Cane and one Myrm pilot.

Barkarus > Should have paid ...

Bottom Line? You aren't the coolest kid in school after picking a fight with pirates in their home system, calling them cunts and then fleeing the battle in your capsule.

-Mr Kha

Flashy Red

2010-07-19T02:19:00.003+01:00

Hooray!

As of about 2 hours ago Mr Kha is officially considered an outlaw in the EVE Universe having broken the -5.0 barrier. All I need now is a bounty :)

-Mr Kha

POS Theft

2010-07-19T01:34:00.004+01:00

So after the tournament we head out on a 13-man roam fielding a nice variety of stuff including a cynabal, falcon, vagabond and a gang of assualt ships and frigates. After podding a thrasher pilot in Hadozeko we get a call over TS from our scout informing us he's pointed and engaged an industrial ship and not only that but he is in the process of anchoring an unarmed control tower in the middle of low-sec space all on his own.

We head through the gate and warp to the engagement and proceed to blast the pilot out of the sky. "POINT ON POD!" is said with great excitement over comms and we offer him a ransom. He declines the offer and swiftly recieves the appropriate treatment. His wreck is filled with various POS fuels and parts and the POS itself proves to be worth up to 350m market value.

The POS has another 40 minutes left on its anchor timer so the party divides with one half staying to guard the POS and the other half to continue the roam while we wait. With around 10 minutes or so to go, the Indy pilot shows up again and strikes up conversation with one of our guys.

Garrick Konquero > Greetings.
Jarek Kalensa > o/
Jarek Kalensa > Would you like to buy a pos?
Garrick Konquero > Hah!
Garrick Konquero > How much?
Jarek Kalensa > 350m
Jarek Kalensa > you have 9 minutes to decide
Garrick Konquero > We can buy one for 280 million.
Jarek Kalensa > that's true.
Jarek Kalensa > but this one already has a cool name :)
Garrick Konquero > Hah. Thanks. But we were taking it down. How about 180 million?
Jarek Kalensa > nah, we'll just sell it.
Jarek Kalensa > good try tho
Jarek Kalensa > you have been pirated by The Black Rabbits. Please tell your friends that we ALWAYS honour ransoms. :)
Garrick Konquero > OK, CEO says 250 million so you don't have to haul it?
Jarek Kalensa > Ah, but you're not valuing the huge morale boost that my pilots will get from the theft

Huge morale boost indeed. Not to mention our share of the loot which in theory is about 18m each. Probably the best haul for me in my beginning Pirate career so I was chuffed to bits. The guy seemed like a good sport so unfortunately no tears this time. Arrangements were quickly made for a hauler to come and scoop up the POS and the loot and head straight out to the safety of high-sec.

-Mr Kha

Frig Tournament

2010-07-18T22:31:00.008+01:00

So today was the 2nd Black Rabbits frigate tournament. Folks showed up with everything from kiting kestrels to shield tanked rifters and even some tactical (yet predictably dull) E-War usage.

The winner of this todays tournament (and infact the previous tournament) is Otto Jarvis so hats off to him. He was duly treated to the pleasure of having his ship blown to smitherenes by a blob of rookie ships as seems to be rabbit tradition.

Several fights were very close and tactical, making interesting viewing and the betting on the side definately got people cheering and shouting. Next time I will definately be entering me and my rifter to see what happens.

-Mr Kha

Blog Launch

2010-07-18T04:40:00.002+01:00

So it looks like I've followed the trend. Writing a blog is a first for me so I have no idea where this will go but hopefully it will prove to be a worthwhile experience. EVE has proved to be an incredible experience for me so far and I have found myself comfortably integrated into the EVE Universe.

Many things have happened for me in EVE so far and as to not let such stories go to waste, the majority of the next few posts will be somewhat dated by several weeks. From thereon however, I intend to be posting semi-regularly as and when things happen.

Big shout out to my fellow bunnies and stay tuned for the first few 'real' posts.

Mr Kha