Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 in Review

The year is just about over and I thought I'd write a little bit on what I've done this past year, people that have helped throughout and a little about what I'm hoping for the year to come.

A little less than a year ago I reinstalled EvE looking for a game that I could make my own destiny. After a 2 year sabbatical do to work and real life commitments I was hopeful EvE would let me venture back with what little time I could afford and with the help of CrazyKinux bloggings and a few other resources I was able to to step back in to the world of internet spaceships and as we all know flying internet spaceships is serious business

My first order of business was to find a corporation where I could relearn what little knowledge I had of EvE and gather more information. In my searches through the Forums and The Drone Bay Podcast I came across EVE University where they teach everything and I’ve been there ever since. I’ve grown as a pilot and have actually set goals from what I’ve learned from the members, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

There are a few people I’d like to thank for making this past year a little bit more fun.

First and foremost my wife and two precocious sons for enduring my fascination with EvE and the occasional calls of primary and secondary targets over teamspeak in the wee hours of the morning.


CrazyKinux
, SiliconBuddha, Roc Wieler, kirith kodachi, Mynxee and the rest of the Blog Pack Crew for their encouragement and without it you wouldn’t be reading this.

Finally my Corp Mates: Morning Maniac, Dierdra Vaal, Silentbrick, Dee Carson, Melissa Dawn,Kelduum Revaan and yes even Sabre A. Over the past months you have brought me up to speed with your teachings all the while laughing my ass off.

That brings us to next year. I’m still on course to becoming a carrier pilot and my eventual travels into 0.0 space, but not before having all the logistical support for that venture and after taking another look at EVEmon I’ll be talking about this in 2010. But hey who knows.

Have Fun, Stay Focused and fly like your ass is on fire.

JamesS

Ninja Edit: This is still a work in progress give me a break :-)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

26 Noobs + 30 days of WarDec’s = One Dead Broadsword

Cazzah one of the guys in EVE Uni came up with a great idea of us taking out a bunch of fellow students and either going up against some of our current war targets ( The Darwin Award Foundation ) or having a little fun down in lowsec with NOOBSHIPS. It was decided that we’d pay a visit to the Atomic Battle Penguins in Urlen.

So 26 of us got into our trusty noobships, all ship races were present and we headed to Urlen were we thought we’d meet certain doom. When we arrived, there were 2 WT’s docked up so we waited for about 10 minutes outside of Urlen while our scouts went poking around. All of a sudden a scout calls out that a war target has undocked right in next to him so we all jump through the gate and warp to the scout. Within a few seconds we had him scrammed, webbed, and jammed. What happened next was something like having a pillow fight against a rhino as guns, missiles, drones and snowballs came flying at the Megathron with great effect to its shield but doing nothing whatsoever to the armor. This went on for about 5 minutes with us loosing an ibis or 4 and me having reloaded my snowball launcher 2 or 3 times, when he must have gotten bored and unleashed his drone and we figured it was time to get the hell out of dodge. So back to HQ we went but not before GF’s and WTF were that, were sent back and forth in local.

Surprised that we hadn’t all gotten popped we decided to press our luck with a trip to Rancer. I not wanting to lose my Christmas gift from CCP stowed my snowball launcher and rejoined the fleet and off we went to Rancer. Our scouts were ahead of us when they called that they spotted a gate camp in Oijanen. There were a few ships on the gate including a Drake and a Broadsword sharing tanking the guns on the gate. When the Broadsword started tanking the gun is when we jumped into system.
We locked both ships and command called for the HICtor to be primary and the drake to be jammed and have drones sent after it. The drake wasn’t having any of it so it bugged out leaving the HICtor to feel the full fury of the Noobship fleet of death and about half way through its shields the pilot set his ship to self-destruct knowing that we had him beat. The next thing we knew there was a flash and the pod was in warp. Cries of Yaaarrrr, Woot and GF’s were sent in local, funny thing we didn’t get any well wishes back???

Well to make an even longer story a little bit shorter we regrouped and continued down to Rancer were upon jumping in and escaping one gate camp and thinking we’d be able to take down another were promptly killed by a Disco wielding Battleship bent on stopping our trip into lowsec. I’m really glad I stowed my snowball launcher. 
And what did I learn for this outing of ours.

1. There isn’t an end all be all ship in EVE.
2. A group of noobs can do a lot of damage even in noobships.
3. The snowball launcher is a good thing.
4. Trust your FC and he just might get you an unsuspected kill
5. EVE University Noobship fleet of death was a good idea
6. There is no 6

Oh and there is a post script to this. There's a saying I like, pictures or it didn't happen. Here is the killmail to prove it Noobship fleet of Death vs The Broadsword

Friday, December 19, 2008

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Hello and welcome to The JamesS Journal. This is where I'll try and write about EvE Online and it's many facets.

The Good: I fly with EvE University. For those that don't know EvE University ( EvE Uni ) teaches new players the ropes of the game. We teach everything from basic fleet movement and basic fleet command tactics to more advanced areas of study. I'm hoping that one day I may teach what I've learned from my mentors to others that are just getting into the EvE Universe.

The Bad: EvE Uni isn't going to be my last stops in EvE. I hope to one day make my living in a Mercenary Corp, but that won't be for awhile down the . It's going to be just about a year before I can fly a carrier to the skill level I'd be happy with

The Ugly: Because EvE University is the home to a great deal of new players we have a tendency to get a LOT of War Declarations on our Corporation and it makes for some excellent reading

You can either contact me here, ingame or by twitter