Don't Return to the Site Of a Close Call

Wormhole space appears to be more dangerous than any other area we've been in.  I've come to this conclusion because I'm an idiot and managed to get blown up in my salvager - and podded - by a Tengu pilot.

This took place about 9 hours after http://errantcapsuleers.blogspot.ca/2013/05/someone-is-hererun-away.html.  I logged in and finished up an anomaly that was left unfinished by the hole's previous invaders.  I returned in a destroyer to salvage the wrecks, and after a few cycles of my salvager a Tengu appeared about 30 kilometers away (I don't think he meant to uncloak so far beyond point range, and suspect he mistakenly uncloaked on a wreck).

I managed to escape to my POS and chatted with my neighbour and Tesla for a bit while I brought the buzzard out and launched combat probes to see if I could scan down the cloaky strategic cruiser (more evidence of my stupidity).

I saw no more evidence of the Tengu, and figured I'd return to the anomaly and finish up the salvage left on field.  I had about 20 million isk in my hold as I approached the last wreck.  Suddenly, Tengu! I was webbed and scrammed before I could even align out.  I happened to have a warp scrambler equipped, as my destroyer does double duty as a pvp fit when it can.  In the hopes of scaring the mighty Tengu with an unexpected move, I locked and scrammed the Tengu, hoping that he might fear back-up was on the way.

Yeah, that didn't work at all.  I did jettison all my salvage materials before blowing up, because someone should get it and my complete lack of skill demonstrated I certainly didn't deserve to keep it.

http://zkillboard.com/detail/30623135/

And pod

http://zkillboard.com/detail/30623146/

I'm not sure what happened with the pod.  I practiced podsaving an aweful lot in Faction Warfare and was pretty surprised that I got caught.  Oh well, it wasn't a huge loss.

And with that, I made fun of myself, and signed off for the night.  

Travelling to the Present...With Bullet Points!

I'm finding this diary a little tiresome at this point, mainly because I'm so far behind my current experience, which is what I actually want to share in this blog.  This has been the main reason behind the huge gap I've had in posting.  Sorry to all 5 of my regular readers!

So, to bring us closer to the present, here's what we did in the past few months:

- Left nullsec after realizing that we didn't have the skills to make any active isk.  Also, our corp alliance was pretty indy-oriented, which Tesla and I are not.  We did get into a few small fleet engagments, which were a blast, even if we performed terribly.  This led us to move into...

- Faction Warfare.  This is a blast.  Anyone looking to learn to PVP, seriously consider joining FW for a great way to learn the basics and earn some iskies at the same time.  Just don't join the Caldari faction, as they are largely disorganized.  I will give shout-outs to the Liandri Alliance, the only group I saw that led an open fleet, which went incredibly well: http://zkillboard.com/related/30045346/201304240200/

- Grew bored with Caldari FW.  Wandered aimlessly again for about a week.  I mainly did exploration.  I think Tesla did some mining.  We decided to see what daytripping in wormholes would be like.

- Tesla scanned down a Class-1 wormhole he thought was unoccupied.  We moved our omni-tanked battlecruisers in and made over 100 million isk in about 1.5 hours.   We put all that isk towards purchasing a small tower and tower modules, which we promptly installed in the hole.  We are now wormhole-dwellers.

- A bit of exploration of our hole brought upon the realization that the hole was not, in fact, unoccupied.  Research and discussion of what to look for in a wormhole to figure if there are active pilots took place.  I didn't say we are really good wormhole-dwellers.

- Diplomatic discussions with our hole's other occupant took place.  We reached a peaceful agreement to share the space.

- Our POS was reinforced and destroyed by a band of nomadic wormhole trolls. I couldn't get online at the time of destruction, but Tesla was present during the destruction of our first POS and regaled the trolls with a variation of a Chruchill speech from World War II.  Eventually the trolls responded.  Tesla has stated that all of them were Bros, except for one pilot (I have a log of this event and will share it in the near future).

-We joined the corp of our neighbour and moved into his POS.  He has been sharing his wisdom with us and we have been working together to build our wallets.  PI in wormholes makes a ludicrous amount of isk, by the way.  Also, melted nanoribbons.  Sweet, sweet melted nanoribbons.  Nom nom nom.

With that, I think we're pretty much caught up to the present.  I have a few stories that I'll jump back to soon.  The intention going forward is to blog as events occur (giving me a way to wind down after long sessions).

Right now I'm itching for some PVP again.  I think I'll purchase some frigates and wander into nullsec.

The source of the DDoS attack on Eve servers

Eve is under attack.  Today, CCP has announced they are mobilizing internal and external staff to sort through their shit and get Tranquility and the Dust server up and running again.  So far, no comment has been made about the source of the attacks.  I know who is behind this.

I have pondered the question of who stood to gain the most from the collapse of CCP's servers.  At first I was stuck on the idea that it was orchestrated by a competitor in the Space MMO industry.  But then I realized there is no competition for Eve.

Then the answer struck me like I was being bumped off a gate!  The people who stand the most to gain from the failure of CCP's severs are: our significant others!

That's right, your wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends have been meeting clandestinely in a google+ hangout while you have been flying through New Eden.  Maybe these meetings started as an ersatz support group for those in a relationship with a capsuleer. Soon the evil side of our loved ones took over, and they have succesfully coordinated a Distributed Denial of Service against our mistress/second home/harmless passtime.

The time for revenge is upon us comrades!  Hide the keys to the spare car.  Boycott the list of chores. Refuse to spend any time with your significant other until the attack on Eve's servers cease.

:P

Delivery Men in Nullsec

There were a few false starts (curse you HED-GP), but Tesla and I were able to make it to nullsec and settle in.  I remember when I made the move out to our home system, I was pretty drunk.  In my supreme wisdom, I decided to buy a GTC and sell a PLEX to support my initial move.  I woke up the next morning and logged in to see if I had in fact done what I thought I had - activated a PLEX in nullsec.  Yes, I did do that.  I felt like I was recovering from being roofied.

After committing a massive facepalm, I sold the PLEX at a discounted rate and shipped out some hulls and command centers so I could set up some colonies to get a bit of an income stream.  The production possible in nullsec colonies is ridiculous when compared to highsec and lowsec.  If you are going to do Planetary Interaction, and you can set up in nullsec, don't hesitate.  Just do it.

It took a couple of weeks to settle in.  Tesla and I participated in a couple of mining ops (yawn).  The ops were almost always cut short by a wandering neut in local.  With our general lack of skills, Tesla and I teamed up with another corp member in an effort to scan down all the Alliance's systems and collect site data.  We used a browser-based spreadsheet set up by our corpie to track all the signatures in our systems.  While doing this, I indulged in my fascination with wormholes, diving into every wormhole I found and trying to navigate through to the end of the chain.

It was at this time that I discovered through our CEO that there was an opportunity for corp members to earn isk by transporting high value, low volume items from highsec through wormhole space.  I jumped all over the opportunity, and was incredibly lucky my first few runs - I made it through the chains without even seeing another capsuleer.  I even made a decent amount of supplemental isk from the endeavour (more than I had ever made in one shot in highsec, anyways).   I also managed to sell an unoccupied class 5 wormhole during my travels - this was a huge windfall for me and was made possible by the awesome http://www.wormholesales.com/.

I somehow managed to convince Tesla that running through w-space was a viable career in nullsec, at least until we were able to fly the hulls we needed to make some isk from the local anomalies.  Tesla's first attempt at traveling through w-space ended in disaster.  While transporting approximately 200 million isk of loot, his newly launched probes vanished from space (he only had the 7 that were in space).  He then had this conversation:

*******> o/
Tesla Uitra> WELL SHIT
Tesla Uitra> Didn't know that was a thing
Tesla Uitra> you learn something everyday
Tesla Uitra> Well I guess we are going to be getting to know one another
Tesla Uitra> So what do you guys do for fun round here?

* At this point he checks static mapper and sees lots of faction kills in the recent history of the system. *

Tesla Uitra> I see you rat quite a bit
Tesla Uitra> not so much today, but good job yesterday!
*******> where are you and what are you doing here?
Tesla Uitra> lol, I'm trying to find a way into nullsec
Tesla Uitra> I'm carrying skill books, my corp just moved because of the IRC collapse there
*******> There's only one wormhole
Tesla Uitra> I'm a noob.  See, my buddy says: Transport skill books into deep null via WH for 10% profits, its fun.  Now I've been lost for 5 hours!

* Tesla was conversing with me while this was happening, and was under the impression that somehow someone had stolen his probes. *

Tesla Uitra> And now someone nixed my probes, which I didn't even know could be done.

* Tesla receives a fleet invite from the talkative w-space resident. *

Tesla Uitra> I'm a little reluctant to join a fleet with you
Tesla Uitra> no offense
Tesla Uitra> you seem nice
*******> JOB-755 - single wormhole

* It is my opinion the wormhole resident just wanted Tesla out of the hole so he could have some peace and quiet. *

Tesla Uitra> So how do you steal deployed probes anyway?
Tesla Uitra> That was a neat trick
*******> Scan it
Tesla Uitra> I was stunned.  Combat probes?
*******> I do not quite understand, bad English :(
Tesla Uitra> I was surpised!
Tesla Uitra> Next time I will bring spare probes
*******> why?
Tesla Uitra> I am not sure what to do now lol
Tesla Uitra> I can't scan my way home
*******> I can give you probes
Tesla Uitra> How?
Tesla Uitra> I've only been on for 3 months, still a noob
*******> you can scan?
Tesla Uitra> I have no probes now
Tesla Uitra> I used to be able to scan lol

* Tesla receives another fleet invite. *

Tesla Uitra> I am afraid you will blow me up if I join your fleet.  Nothing personal
*******> join and warp at 100km
*******> I promise not to kill
Tesla Uitra> lol, that's the best I am going to get I suppose
*******> if you have no probes - you can not get out without help
Tesla Uitra> lol I know
Tesla Uitra> okay

* Tesla takes the plunge due to lack of other options.  Keep in mind that he had the entirety of his wallet tied up in product he was shipping to nullsec. *

Tesla Uitra> Seems you are already near me somehow
Tesla Uitra> I can't warp to you.

* A cargo container is dropped by the resident, containing 20 sisters core probes. *

*******> probes in cargo container
*******> if you see
Tesla Uitra> Yes I do
Tesla Uitra> Thank you.  Sorry to intrude
*******> take it and go in E175, perhaps there you will find the way out
Tesla Uitra> Thank you!!!!
*******> :)

The conversation carries on a bit further, mostly just Tesla expressing his unending gratitude.  In a game that is pitched as a haven for people to explore their darkest side and generally act like dicks, this story is a nice relief.  Needless to say, this was the only time that Tesla acted as a delivery man in w-space.

The end to my career came a little later, when I was caught on a hole by a Daredevil in my Buzzard with the majority of my isk invested into blueprints to be sold to my CEO:

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16447874

After that loss, I took a couple of days off from Eve.  When I returned, Tesla and I re-evaluated our isk-making strategy.  The first rule was any idea that I came up with should be regarded with suspicion.