Mannboð eða Gráðr

Belt Ratting in Null-Sec is not the best ISK/Hour activity but I enjoy it every once in awhile for a change of pace. Belt Ratting is kind of like playing the lottery you’re totally counting on ‘Lady Luck’ for that rare spawn. Since the introduction of NPC Capital Ships there are now four types of rare spawns that can be found in Asteroid Belts… “Hauler”, “Commander”, “NPC Capital” and “Officer” spawns.

I spent some time over the last couple of nights chain clearing the belts in our home system and on one night over the course of about four hours I got three separate NPC Carrier spawns but on the next night doing the same thing I got absolutely nothing.

There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to when or where a rare spawn will show up, it appears to be totally random.

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Leita Barsmið

“engageable/engageability”

These words are not in any dictionaries but they are words used quite often in New Eden. If you’re out roaming and looking for a fight the more ‘engageable’ your ship/ships look the more likely you’ll find those fights. There are a mass of variables that come into play with ‘engageability’ and these differ depending upon what type of space your flying through; Null-Sec vs. Low-Sec vs. High-Sec.

Now I’ll preface this with a loud disclaimer: I am most definitely not an elite PvP – Hell, I’m not even close to experienced enough to make any sort of claim of being a solidly competent PvP pilot, I fuck up way too often!!!

With that said… I’d think the meta for solo, small gang and bigger fleets in Low-Sec and what would be considered ‘engageable’ is likely somewhat similar to that in High-Sec but wholly different from the meta and views on ‘engageability’ used in Null-Sec. I’ve not flown in Low-Sec much (I’m scared of gate guns) and my PvP experience in High-Sec is limited to camping and baiting gankers so I can’t really offer any wisdom for those areas of space but I have spent some time flying through Null-Sec, mostly in small gang compositions and some solo stuff.

What’s considered ‘engageable’ in Null-Sec? Well honestly it’s far too hard to answer this question as every engagement is unique and there are so many variables to consider – are you solo, in a small fleet of 5-20, medium fleet of 25-50, a large fleet of 50+, what are you flying, what have you run into, if the enemy gang is not directly engageable with what you are flying is there an option and are you wanting to go for targets of opportunity? So many things to think about… :s

As for me when I’m flying solo I’m more apt to follow the “BANZAI!!!” philosophy and just go for it 🙂

Some other, much more helpful, ‘engageability’ resources for you to peruse:

• https://www.youtube.com/user/eveiseasy
• http://crossingzebras.com/engageability/

 

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Bragða Skrúð

Moving sucks!

I am super thankful for our JF pilots right now… even after moving a bunch of stuff via gate I still had a metric crap ton of assets to pull out of our old home and without the JF crew it would have been near impossible to get it all moved in a timely manner.

Kind of in a transition at the moment as I’m not sure where ‘home’ is yet but hopefully within the next week or so I can get settled and get back into some ISK making activities and get the Clusterfuck Roams rolling again.

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Sváss Drykkr IV

Things on the SOV front are rolling along, the latest iteration that was released with Galatea on August 25th made a few changes that seem to help the defender out some but I’m not sure it’s gone far enough yet – I’m still of the thought that taking/initializing an attack on someone’s SOV should take some effort – one lone pilot in a T1 Frigate should not be able to ‘Troll’ SOV. I’m still having some fun with our SOV stuff but all the timers sure do wear on you after-while – especially when they are being generated by lone pilots just screwing with stuff.

I’m not sure what the fix is but I’m sure that CCP are looking at how things are playing out and having discussions on what direction to take next – for now I’ll just continue to Fleet-up as necessary to defend our space and when we’re not doing that I’ll try to make some ISK and try to get some mates out for a Clusterfuck Roam or two…

 

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Veiðimaðr Sjá Fólcvíg

Any good roaming Fleet should be rolling with a Scout… Scouting, or “+1ing” for the types of roaming Skirmish Fleets that we fly is most definetley a learned art.

A good Scout has a hefty grasp on situational awareness and is seeing multiple things the moment he jumps into a system and he is relaying that infomation on to the FC in a calm, clear and succinct manner. In just a few seconds a good Scout has briefed the FC on how many neutrals are in local, what’s on grid, what’s on long range scan, is there is a station in system, are there Anoms close where the scanned neutrals could be, etc…

How does one learn to be a good Scout? The good old-fashioned way of course – through experience – over at Agony Unleashed there is a great guide/write up on scouting for a Skirmish Fleet and this paragraph sums it up nicely:

A skirmishing scout acts as the Fleet Commander’s extra set of eyes in the next system in addition to catching targets for the gang. Such scout should be proficient with use of the ship scanner and able to find and warp to the target within 30 to 45 seconds of entering the system. The only way to reach this level, is to practice, practice, and practice some more until skirmishing and scouting become second nature to you. Taking on scouting duty for the gang as often as you can is the only way of becoming a fast and effective scout and skirmisher.

In addition to getting myself some experience in the Fleet Commander roll I’m hoping to use the Clusterfuck Roams to get some Alliance mates some experience in the Scout role.

 

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Sváss Drykkr III

New Eden is just over a month into Aegis Sovereignty and so far we (The CORVOS) have managed to hold on to our Null-Sec home and a few neighboring systems. My experiences with the new Sov-Warfare mechanics have been… fun’ish.

If you want to have and hold SOV then you are going to have to use and defend that space and if you can get your indices up then the entosis trolls are much less likely to mess around with your space. But… if you’re a smaller Alliance with multiple systems then getting indices up across multiple systems is not that simple or easy and opens those lower level systems up to those damn entosis trolls.

We’ve had a few instances of SOV-trolling come up and while getting the Fleets together to defend/entosis our space back isn’t too difficult it is a grind and not a super fun one. In my opinion attacking someones SOV should be something that takes a commitment – you shouldn’t be able to do the drive-by entosis in a frigate (or any ship for that matter) and mess things all up – if you are going to attack an Alliances’ Sovereignty you should be held to that commitment and not be able to run off easily.

I’m sure CCP is looking at how Aegis SOV is affecting game-play and I’m sure there will be some tweaks made at some point so I’ll just sit back, fleet up when necessary and wait to see how things all play out.

 

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Kaupstefna Forvitni

I am by no means a ‘Trading Professional‘ but I have begun to dabble a little with it. My primary motive behind getting into trading is to supply our Alliance with some decently priced goods out in our Null-Sec home and make a little ISK in the process (definitely don’t want to gouge our crew but I do want to make a profit).

There are a few steps that go into trading for a living and I think one of the first steps would be to identify what is needed and for me the obvious go to is our doctrine ships and the modules and ammo to fit those ships. The next step is buying the goods low in a Trade Hub which is easy’ish but then it gets a little more complicated with the logistics of getting the goods transported… I’m not a JF pilot and don’t have an Alt that can pilot one so I am dependent on my Corp/Alliance mates to transport my goods for me and they are super about it – I get everything I want to get transported to a staging system, and make a non-rushed courier contract which includes some ISK to cover fuel costs and then wait for the stuff to arrive.

Once I get the goods to the destination I’ve been doing a little of both – selling goods on the Market and making Alliance Contracts for fully fit ships – and this is working well, I’m coming out ahead on the ISK front.

I don’t put a ton of time towards Trading so I’m not expecting to become a Tycoon any time soon but the little extra ISK is nice and it does feel good to contribute in some small way to keeping the Alliance supported.

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Dráp Smár Dýr

Ratting in Null-Sec is a wholly different experience than all the High-Sec Combat Site explore roams I’ve done… you need to be much more attentive to who and what is going on in the System. If a neutral jumps into the System then getting to a Safe should be tops on your priority list and then you either see if they are engage-able with the ship you’re in, wait it out and hope they leave, or call for help. My current ratting ship is not very PvP friendly so my normal SOP is to get to a safe and wait it out…

I didn’t have a ton of time last night but ran a few Anomalies to test out my fit. I ran one of each in this order; an Angel Rally Point, an Angel Port and an Angel Hub. I’m using a Vexor Navy Issue to run the sites and have modified my fit slightly to get it geared specifically for Angel Combat Sites and she is working very well. The Hub was actually the easiest to tank the incoming DPS but took the longest to clear because of all the Battleships.

[Vexor Navy Issue, Mint Julep]
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Damage Control II

100MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Explosive Deflection Field II

Drone Link Augmentor I
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Warrior II x5
Valkyrie II x5
Republic Fleet Berserker x5

I may look into swapping out one of the Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II’s for a fourth Drone Damage Amplifier II for some extra DPS but that will actualize a need for a CPU upgrade implant – will have to do the maths and see how much faster things go with the extra DPS before committing to the fit.

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Sváss Drykkr II

The period of Aegis Sovereignty is heading into it’s second week and we, The CORVOS, have managed to capture a small sliver of Null-Sec to call home… we’ll have to see how things go moving forward but here’s to hoping we can hold onto and defend our space well!

After some logistical help I’ve been able to get a few ships transported out to our new location, which I’m hesitant to call a MOB (Main Operating Base) but instead will refer to as our FOS (Forward Operating Site) until we get a solid foothold in the area.

It was late by the time I had everything in system but I dove headfirst into my first foray of Null-Sec ratting and ran a couple of Rally Points to test the waters of my Null-Sec ratting ship and help build our Military Index up a bit. Things went smoothly and I’ll likely get back into it tonight and maybe even jump into a Port or Hub if any are available.

Here’s to a place to call “Home”!

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam

Húð!

I’m not really hiding but with our latest Wardec – The Marmite Collective vs The CORVOS – I’m spending very little time in High-Sec. As a result my killboards are seeing some action and my Null-Sec Inty Explorer has been seeing some use.

Haven’t quite yet delved big into the Null-Sec ratting/missioning, will need to get a few more things set up before I see how that goes.

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Fjúka Hœttr!

Virðing,
Kalam