Celebrity Death Match #19; Prometheus09

Celebrity Death Match #19; Prometheus09

The long awaited return of Celebrity Death Match has finally come. And what a return indeed; this would prove to be one of the most costly and fastest CDM’s to date…

Prometheus has been on my list for some time, as have others, but I simply haven’t been able to organize any CDM’s. Being busy in RL has limited the time I get online and the majority of my online time has been spent being a pirate. It takes a lot of time and dedication being a pirate you know…

A prolific blogger for some time, Prometheus of The Captains Log, went on my list after ‘Chribba Gate’. An incident in which his then corp ‘CONCORD preservation and recovery’ war-decked and attacked EVE’s best known carebear. The response to his actions where intense, made the CCP newsreel and caused an upset for lots of pilots. It made me chuckle.

Prom has been accepted into the NOIR Mercenary group a little while ago and looks to be having a good time. Being free from a contract at this current moment made it a good time to meet up and duel it out for the sake of CDM.

After initial contact was made I quickly refreshed Mr Prometheus with the rules; no warping off, fight to the death but no pod squishing, any other rule or limitation he may wish for.

‘Battleships it is then’ Prom responded quickly, filling me with dread. Previous large ship CDM’s have been fought with an alt of mine, not Nashh. ‘As you wish’ I reluctantly mumbled knowing that Nashh only ownes one BS and has the skill trained to 1.

Research time I
It took some time to find enough details on Prom to convince myself I actually stood a chance in this fight. Searching kill-boards from previous corps (Battleclinic was down) revealed Layzors as the BS weapon of choice. Excellent I figured, providing I can get within range, my standard Domi fit would wipe the floor with him. I say standard Domi fit as I cant field BS sized weaponry and thus sport Neuts across the entire highslots.

Second problem then becomes transporting said vessel to the fight location Amarr, or at least a low sec system close to there. This never was a real issue until now. Being a dedicated pirate at heart my sec status dropped quickly and has been a solid -10 for some time. This indeed means that the shorter high sec route to our agreed system is a big no no. The low sec route is 48 jumps, and although police free certainly not safe for my sexy flashy Dominix.

Mmm, I made the deal and I shall deliver on my promise, as I always do, I tried to pep talk myself. But what if..Maybe..wait a second..Bingo! NOIR known for their stealthy manoeuvres fly Stealth Bombers and thus so does Prom. This could be another CDM first; a T2 frigate fight!

I EVE-mailed my to-be-opponent and suggested a SB fight rather than BS fight. The response came quickly and it was in my favour, Prometheus agreed.

Research time II
It appears my adversary can fly Stealth Bombers of all races but I had already chosen my Damage type; EM. I had a look over his kill-board stats again and looked at the fits he is known to fly and what weapons he has used in the past.

Ok so he can use target painters and sensor-dampeners. No sign of T2 Torpedoes however and I think I have found my winning formula.

Picture of fit one;
Fit for the simple purpose of hitting a small target at range. Excellent, no need for cloak which leaves 2 turret slots…

Turret slots? A Stealth Bomber has turret slots? Mmm, what if…

OMFG I am so clever, he would never expect this one.

Picture of fit 2;

A volley of incoming torpedoes would wipe out my shields but they would quickly be repaired before a second volley hits. Combined with the fire-power of Frigate sized Weaponry against a Frigate with 1.7 K tank this fight was gonna last no more than 10 seconds.


Prom Night I
My main hangar in Evati had all the required modules and a stack of the Gallente Nemesis. Fitting didn’t take long and I set off. I fitted a cloak just to help me safely through the low sec systems on my 28 jump trip. I hadn’t expected any trouble running a Frigate hull through high-sec hence the shorter route option.

At various gate’s the coppers shot my shields off but by the time I landed at the outbound gate the shields where fully repped up. This filled me with even more confidence in my fitting choice.

Five jumps from my Target system (Ami) my luck turned. It turned and slapped a shovel in my face…

My Vessel of glory named Prom Night, fell to a highsec gate camper with I can only presume lots of sensor boosters. People actually sit in high sec, sensor boosted, waiting for flashy’s? I quickly spammed the warp button to at least save my pod but when the warp-drive wouldn’t activate all I could muster in local was;

Nashh Kadavr> O dear…

Karma had come for me. For all the pods I hadn’t requested a ransom for and simply shot, this was my payback. O do I wish he had offered to ransom me, 500 million in implants now floated in space somewhere, lost forever.

I would later discover that my killer Rico Felix is ranked 8th on Battleclinic and scored a whopping 143 kills versus 0 losses in the last 7 days! O and his favourite kill? Pods…

Prom Night II
My clone awoke in Evati. A little moment of rage came over me. Not just the loss of my ship & pod, but also the fact that I was going to arrive early for the arranged fight but now I was going to be late.

Viginti> Alcohol helps that

Yes it does. A quick smoke break and a Guinness later I fitted another Nemesis. I had to do this fight tonight, for the simple reason that if I would postpone, Prometheus would find the kill-mail and know my intended fit.

A few items short this time I figured I just race there the 48 jumps through low sec and get Prometheus to get me the last items from Amarr.

The trip this time was long, very long. I had to evade 3 gate camps but no further incidents. On arrival in Ami I expected to have Amarr-market access but I didn’t so I made my way there in my pod to purchase the missing items.

A touch of lag made me hover outside the Amarrian Station of choice and someone thought it would be funny to let of a smart bomb. Cold sweat broke out as the inside of a station filled my overview. ‘O shit’ I managed in our private chat. Quickly checking my location revealed I had survived the smart bomb.

I transferred my clone to this very station just in case I lost my pod again on the way back to Ami. The goods where purchased and a courier contract setup. I didn’t want to reveal my purchased items by trading to keep the surprise until later.

As my egg entered the void, alarm bells flared up, nearly giving me a heart attack. A warp tunnel enveloped around me and I was safe, with my pod a mere 13% from structure…

The Fight is on
Prometheus made a safe spot with his alt which would be used as a warp-in point. Nerves started to rattle now as my fitting choice required a close orbit around my target. What if he is 100 clicks away? Will my MWD blow my signature-radius to gigantic proportions, allowing him to deal full damage with his Torpedoes?

I signalled I was ready as did Prometheus. ‘Prom Night II’ slipped into the darkness and entered warp as I commanded it to ‘warp to 0’.

A tense few seconds later Prom’s Manticore entered my overview, 18837k, 1803k, 148k, 100k, shit,28k, yeah baby, 7k, 3k and the warp-tunnel closed behind me.

All weapons primed and pre-overloaded went to work; spewing hot ion charged rounds and T2 Rage Rockets. Ha! Take that! Super-confidence filled my head as I was convinced I had outsmarted my foe by fitting Frigate weapons instead of Torpedoes.

My shields smashed with that super-confidence. In a desperate attempt to save myself I overloaded the mid slots and activated the shield-repper and cap-booster.

A single cycle is all they managed as my inbox flashed even before the Nemesis exploded violently into space dust.

How was this possible? What just happened? I had expected to win in 10 maybe 15 seconds; instead I lost in less than 8.

Prometheus shared his fit and it became clear I had not outsmarted him, he had outsmarted me. The reason he warped to 0 was for the very same reason as I had done. That sneaky little bugger had fit Frigate guns!

We shared GF’s as I docked with my tail in between my legs. Tired and defeated, under heavy wife aggro I logged for the night.

Job well done to Prometheus, until we meet again…

Watch this space.

Calling All Capsuleers

Well, maybe not all but any capsuleers with an i-pod. For some reason my blog isnt appearing on my Capsuleer application. Mr Roc Wieler has kindly fixed the problem but I still cant see the best blog ever on the list.. =(

Does anyone have my blog on the Capsuleer blogpack list and thus is the problem on my end or wtf?

Please leave me a comment!

Pirates Ahoy! #2

Pirates Ahoy!

As a new dad I have 2 weeks off work. Yes I do all the laundry, housekeeping, nappy changing, cooking breakfast lunch and dinners and general juice-fetching for the wife and 2yr old. However there is plenty of time left to play EVE.

Within New Eden I have come to respect and admire solo pirates a lot as the skill, patience and determination required is immense. Kane Rizzel, Spectre, Wensley and Sage to name but a few of the pilots I have learned to respect outside of the Bastards.

Within the Bastards however we have some truly skilled pilots that I am proud to call my brothers in arms. Raelyf is at the top of my list as one of the greatest pilots in the game. Guts and glory for that man, solo’ing his way around EVE in any hull type. Other than that we have Arrhidaeus with a penchant for Amar Navy Slicers but again a very skilled pilot and a few others I have a lot to learn from.

Anyways enough of talking about other peeps, my point merely is that although I have a proven track record of solo kills I do not feel I am a skilled solo pirate. So time for change and experiments I figured. To soften the emotion of ship losses I have build up my main hangar with over 50 hulls and enough fitting packages (I’ll explain that later) for all of them. On top of that I have a second hangar in Old Man Star with 6 fully fitted & rigged ships and now a third hangar in Hevrice with 7 fully kitted out vessels.

I have grown an affinity for my sexy Vexor but still have to justify that love with some more kills and less losses of that bad boy. My other interests have been Ishkurs and lately my Faction Worm. Wich leads me to some piracy related stuff this week;

After an unsuccessful and boring night on Monday I prepared to log off for the night when some guys temporarily sharing our vent piped up and said the where gonna drop some carriers into Egghelende. Although tired I figured this was worth watching and signed up.

To be honest it was a bit of a fail op and I wish I had just gone to bed. On arriving in system in my Vexor (yeah I know) I warped to the Station where the action was at. A super shiny Bhaalgorn was taking some fire and was called primary. I checked the pilots name and hesitated for a moment… Kane Rizzel… I figured if Kane would have the opportunity to pew pew one of my shiny ships he wouldn’t hesitate and open fire and thus did I. Kane tanked a shit ton then docked, a great example I thought, and followed suit, logged and went to sleep. Read Kane’s Version of event here.

Tuesday saw another joined corp operation but I think that is confidential at the moment so ‘no comment’. I did get in on a few kills but also missed out on a lot as there where many in fleet with faster ships, faster lock time and I sported Heavy Missiles...

After the scheduled roam RoninData, another Bastard legend rallied a few of us to go to Amamake for some late night pewpew. Not a bad run as we managed to kill a Harbinger, Moa, Vexor, Drake, Stabber and a Crow.

I logged off in Auga that night and intended to fly my Vexor back to Evati the next day. I never made it back in my Vexor, In fact I only made it one jump. I managed to save my pod however.

All the above pushed me to go out solo and practise…

I took out an experimental Kiting Ishkur fit and made my way towards Egmar. My alt scanned out a Ranis, Caracal, and Vagabond out in a mission and figured I’d give it a shot…

Nashh jumped in, evading a small Cynabal blob and set course to where I thought my target was. On arrival at the acceleration gate D-scan revealed a lone Rifter? Wtf wher’s the Caracal, Ranis and Vaga? Activating the gate I flicked back to my alt and then realised I warped to a Minor Outpost not my alt. Silly me, o well. The Rifter and his pod popped as I aligned to meet up with the next target.

On landing at the correct gate this time it appeared my prey was still there. The warp gate slung me a short distance and on exiting warp I found the Caracal on his own 20 clicks from me. Primed and overheated point locked on and I settled into a comfortable orbit before I even launched my drones.

The Caracal warped off?!?! For some reason I managed to switch off my Warp Disruptor and kicked myself. The second warp gate within reach and the Ranis on D-scan I decided for the rage to enfold later and proceeded. The Ranis immediately felt the pain of my drones on landing as the Vaga started stripping my shield and half my armor. Time to run I figured as the Interceptor’s hull began to show. In my haste I warped to a belt not a safe, mid warp I had hoped for a round two with the Gallente Tech2 Frigate. On landing I aligned to my safe and initiated the warp drive as the Taranis landed behind me. Furious ‘cancel warp’ commands failed and the fight was over. The 3 pilots docked and that was that.

A little later I spotted the Rifter pilot back on D-scan and this time with a friend in a Hound. They were easily found but after some cat and mouse I only managed to kill the Covert Ops.

Whilst all this was going on a Griffin had been in a mission for about 30 minutes. I could not enter the mission as my MWD would be useless and it didn’t allow for T2 Frigates anyway. It seemed pointless to reship in Evati to come back but when 40 minutes hit I thought sod it and sped back to Evati in my pod. One of my trusty Worms undocked smoothly into blackness and evaded yet another camp on the way back to Egmar.

To my surprise and joy the Griffin was still on scan and after activating the second mission gate he appeared on my overview. It was clear the Caldari T1 was no match for my Faction beast.

On route back to Evati I crossed Lady Shaniqua and a duel was requested… I would have instantly agreed in my ‘up-close-and-personal’ variety Ishkur but I took a minute to decide if a scram fit, fast Tech 2 Minnie was the right opponent for my setup. What the hell, its been a good day…

Planet 1 was the meeting point and we wished each other good luck after agreeing not to squish pods. The fight lasted a few minutes but with my drones and ammo drained it appeared to be a stalemate as Shaniqua couldn’t get within shooting range.

With Arrhideaus just fitting up a new Slicer it appeared to be a good time to take off on a little roam, I invited Shaniqua along whom gladly accepted. I decided to come along in a Crow but after one jump into the roam had to jump into a Worm yet again to get access to another Minor Site.

Lucius Invictus in his fast Punisher either disconnected or logofski’d mid fight and his ship fell to the Worm’s power. I spotted Lucius in local about an hour later in his pod but he didn’t seem too happy to talk to me.

Arrhi had to log of for RL reasons which left me and Lady S to find targets. I found a Cynabal but didn’t dare to engage; I had made that mistake before and paid the price. Help was too far out thus it was time to move on.

Mr Knight was scanned down in Frerstorn but slipped the net for a good 30 minutes until Lady S got the prober out. Short work was made and the poor guy got his Drake ransomed for the handsome sum of 40 million isk. The price seemed right as he did pop 5 of my drones and the time it took to catch him. I say poor guy as Lady S has actually killed and ransomed this guy on 4 previous occasions. A friendly chat in local evolved with the pilot who seemed a nice enough guy, I wish him luck in his further adventures.

As the GCC timers ran out it was time to dock up and get some well deserved sleep. I thoroughly enjoyed flying with Lady Shaniqua and would not hesitate to do so again.

Until we meet again my friend, may it be against or alongside each other.

All in all not a bad week so far; as it stands at the moment I am top killer and top ransomer for the month. Let’s hope Raelyf and Kalius Prime take a few days off before the end of this month =)

Also for those interested I am now a recruiter for the Bastards. EVE-Mail me if you are interested in joining one of the best Pirate Corps in New Eden!


Watch this space…

Blog Banter #3 2010

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: “Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you’d like to share with the wider Eve community?”

Skill Training Plans.
Hind sight is a beautiful thing. Knowing what you want to skill for when you first start out EVE is impossible. Everything looks shiny and interesting and before you know it you are skilling a lot of different things without a true end-goal. Perhaps this is inevitable as a first-timer; however when one starts a second account, and one will, the plan will be more specific and better prepared.

Other players and you.
The harsh nature of New Eden was not designed for lone wolfs. It is imperative for a characters personal development to converse with other players. New player corps come across problems or issues and solve them together quicker than one could do on his own. As basics skills reach a level where one can move to a corp that can expand your skills further, do so.

Do not stagnate or stand still, keep developing and learning but most of all find a corp where you like to be and can enjoy yourself.

Overview settings.
EVE can be incredibly complex and one needs to make use of all help tools wherever possible. The overview is one of the most important tools in the game. It has taken me a long time to get the settings right for me and I am still playing with more options. Please check Manasi’s Blog for some suggestions on setups.

Free thinking.
Battleclinic can be a great resource for ship fitting suggestions. Also the EVE website itself can give you some classic cookie cutter fits. Although these are great suggestions for basic setups do not forget you can fit what you want and how you want, be bold, experiment. Some more ‘awkward’ fits can prove very successful in certain situations.

Pvp is fun.
Over the last 2.5 years I have done merely some of the aspects in the game however the most exciting has been the PVP aspect. I have mined for a long time, ran missions, manufactured, researched, lived in worm holes, participated in Faction Warfare, flown a carrier, build POS’s and finally 6 months ago became a pirate.

I don’t regret doing the PVE side of the game and I have not turned my back on it completely, however I see it as a long learning curve to where I am today. Blowing stuff up is where the funs at, besting people is the ultimate thrill.

Don’t burn out.
EVE is a game of statistics and that can sometimes become a burden. Checking kill/loss ratio’s, isk efficiency, can be depressing when you go through a bad week, and you will have bad weeks. Losses are inevitable, just make sure you have plenty of spares whenever you undock.

However much we care about our online friends and get sucked in to our EVE, remember it is merely a game and real life always comes first.

RL NEWSFLASH

At 6:30 am this morning the missus prodded me to say today, St Patrick's day 2010 was to be the day...

Rgr I mumbled, as the autopilot engaged. Stumbling to the fridge I regretted the wiskey the evening before. Get the wife some fruit, make toast and tea...run bath.

Timing contractions, getting closer...call midwife. Ding dong, heya yeah she's great, cuppa tea?

Hows it going girl? ay ay pain you say? righto squeeze my hand if you must...Aaargh! Jebus frickin christ...mental note; pregnant woman possess the strenght of ten men, each possesing the strenght of ten men.

Head?! this soon? your doing good gal, keep going...

A tear runs down my cheek, nail marks on my back, shoulders and arms...

9:38 am Wednesday 17th march 2010 a new terror entered the world. Welcome Johan;

Pirates Ahoy! #1

Pirates Ahoy!

Thursday had been a good day for pirating, worthy of a post at least so here’s a quick rundown of events;

Kronos Kill
A late afternoon 0.0 roam with fellow Bastards; K Starwind, DanMart, Beta and Jabajools turned out to be a winner. After several jumps through empty space we where about to press on through a system with too many peeps in local.

K Star in warp to a ransom belt mid flight sputtered something on vent. All I heard was something like; ‘Er…about to...jump in warp to me, belt something something…’ He sounded pretty excited so I prepared for the worst; Starwind is a great pilot and gets himself into fights I can’t handle just yet.

On landing I targeted the only ship that wasn’t ours and heard K Star demanding full DPS. I was concentrating on the job at hand, getting required modules on, launching drones, watching D-scan and getting in range to fire my guns.

I glanced over at the enemy Battleship icon at the top of my screen and started to smile, sweet a BS kill for sure, he’s going down. The bright blue flash on screen illuminated my dark room. And we didn’t even get blobbed! Result!

I quickly prepared a safe spot and waited until the excitement died down a bit. Only then did I realise it wasn’t just any BS, we just killed a faction fit, Tech 2 Battleship!

(Danmart unfortunately got shot to pieces about 10 jumps later, holding the faction loot)


Drake Ransom
After logging of deep into 0.0 I returned later to try and run to Evati, K Starwind logged back in himself not long after. Together we set of the 18 jump trip home.

With a mere 8 jumps left Starwind paused for a moment to inform me of a Drake in a belt. On investigation he reported this was indeed the case and tried to get a point.

It smelled fishy to me but what the hell. On landing all modules activated we started chewing away at the Drakes tough outer shell. Both of us overheating in short spells, desperate to break his tank. I stopped overheating with my guns a mere 80% intact when the dreaded news came from Starwind; he burned out 3 of his guns.

Now unable to break the Drakes tank we decided to bail. Hold one minute I said, lets ransom him! Quickly inviting the Pilot into our Yarsom channel I requested 60 million for his life. He laughed politely, explaining that 60 would be to much. Righto, 40 million then please and you are free to go…

To our amazement his next response was simply; ‘who do I pay?’. With the money in my wallet we quickly moved on, laughing our asses of…

Faction Frigate Fight
After roaming with some Bastards around the local area I decided to go out on my own for a bit rather than flying with the grumpy FC.

I passed a small military outpost of some sort with a Crusader clearly within it on scan. I quickly made my way back to Evati and jumped into my Worm, undocked and sped back to Todi.

On entering system a Dramiel showed up on scan but I ignored it, warping straight to the military beacon. I activated the jump gate and much to my dismay my intended target was 300 clicks away.

I paused and weighed up my options when the Dramiel I had seen on scan earlier landed not far behind me. Running was not an option any longer and cold sweat formed on my forehead when my warpdrive shut down.

Ok lets tussle I figured, engaging my afterburner. Faction rockets spewed from their launchers, Warrior drones screamed out of their holds. The much faster Dramiel flew past at incredible speeds and ripped big chunks out of my shield. I was sure to die, or wasn’t I? The Warriors started to take a beating now and gave my shields a breather. Unable to retrieve two of the Drones quick enough I was forced to launch the slightly slower and less effective Hobgoblins I also carried.

At that moment I realized that this fight had started to swing in my favour with my shields recharged to 70% and the Dramiel’s armor stripped from around its hull. In a desperate attempt to hold point on him long enough to claim my well deserved killmail I overheated all racks and approached the aggressor.

A small tear ran down my cheek as right at moment my guns had to reload and I remembered that I was only able to fit a best named Disruptor due to the low CPU and Powergrid left after fitting two medium shield extenders.

That missing 4km now proved my undoing as the Dramiel managed to run just outside of point range and warped off.

I spoke briefly with the Dramiel Pilot and we congratulated each other on an exciting fight, 46% structure is what he managed to get away with…


Loki Ransom
I remained on vent whilst typing up a Help Desk post and heard the call to arms; a Loki in a neighbouring system.

One of the Bastard directors, z0de, had managed to convince a Harpy and a Loki into a fight near a planet. Being the pilot that he is z0de toyed with the Harpy long enough to get within scram range of the Loki. With point on, the request came for backup to help break his tank.

I would have happily settled for a Loki killmail but the unlucky/lucky pilot was offered a ransom of 600 million which he quickly accepted and paid, securing his freedom and ship.

The 120 million as my share shall be spend on hookers and booze.

For more pirating adventures watch this space…

Help Desk #4: How to fit a Drake

Help Desk #4: How to fit a Drake

The Drake has been the thing to talk about this week so it appears. Most post actually have been rather negative so I figured it was time someone said something nice about this Caldari work horse.

I for one am a big fan of the Drake and it is the ship I have scored most of my kills in. Yes missiles suck because they take time to get to the target, but as with any weapon system there are drawbacks. Missiles make up for their travel-time with range, and as soon as the first shot has landed your true DPS starts. DPS may be slightly delayed by the first volleys travel time but with gun boats the range needs to be made up with the ship travelling closer to the target rather than the ammo.

Please commence infinite discussions about this, I don’t care, this post just has my two cents and two suggestions for fitting a Drake. Please note that I fully support anyone’s choice of fitting as long as it makes sense. These are mere suggestions; you don’t like it?; troll the many copies of the many similar/same Drake fits posted on Battle Clinic.

[Cookie Cutter]

Low Slots
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Mid Slots
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II

High Slots
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Salvager I

Rigs
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

DroneBay
Hobgoblin II x5

Statistics;
With all lvl 5, PG-4 implant, no overheating;
EHP: 81902
Shield Resists: 54.1/63.2/72.4/77
Armor Resists: 57.5/53.2/36.3/23.5
Capacitor: 3m34s
DPS: 513
Volley Damage: 2615
Weapon Range: 84.4km
Locking Range: 75km
Scan Resolution: 390mm
Speed: 1038m/s
Align Time: 11.7s
Estimated Cost: 47 million isk

Notes:
The salvager needs to be offline for this particular fit unless implants are used.
I personally recommend Faction ammo as the penalties using T2 ammo are not worth it.
The name suggest it, it’s a cookie cutter, decent ship for small or large gangs.
In a mixed fleet it’s generally the last ship to be targeted so it lasts a little longer, making it a good training ship.
If preferred the Launchers can be replaced with Heavy Assault Launchers to increase the DPS to 618 but drop the range to 20.3km

Please note this is all T2 so a little tight, change for best named where ever needed.

[Podla Drake]

Low Slots
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Mid Slots
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II

High Slots
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Salvager I

Rigs
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Drone Bay
Hobgoblin II x5

Statistics;
With all lvl 5, no implants, no overheating;
EHP: 47835
Shield Resists: 25/40/55/62.5
Armor Resists: 50/45/25/10
Capacitor: 3m49s
DPS: 467
Volley Damage: 2474
Weapon Range: 84.4km
Locking Range: 75km
Scan Resolution: 243.8mm
Speed: 1228m/s
Align Time: 8.5s
Estimated Cost: 45 million isk

Notes:
Named Podla Drake in honour of Naxias of Pod Liberation Authority, one of the best PVP’ers in the game. He has had enormous successes with this fit, both solo and in small gangs. As soon as a Podla Drake enters system people scatter or dock up as its hard to catch/kill and kills very well itself.
Again as with the previous fit range from the Heavy Launchers is chosen over the slight increase in DPS of using HAMS.
Please note this is all T2 fit so if its a bit tight swap for best named where required.

I don’t intend to convert Drake haters, I merely suggest it has its place in our universe and it can be a fun ship to fly. Missile skills are cheap and relatively quickly trained, the difference between lvl 5 and lvl 4 skilling is minimal for most of them so just chose wisely which ones to push all the way.


I’ll be back on Capsuleer soon!

Watch this space…

'A week in the life of...The Python Cartel'

‘A week in the life of…The Python Cartel’

Corp Name/Ticker; The Python Cartel (GROP3)
Current CEO; Spectre3353
Directors; Spectre3353 & Golden Helmet
Home System; Old Man Star
Description; A pirate corp set out to have fun and talk a lot about penis.
Alliance; The Jerk Cartel
Recruitment Status; Open
Recruitment Contact; Spectre3353, Golden Helmet, Lachesis VII, Lars Lodar
Additional Info; Spectre would say this is the best corp ever, they rule, are extremely good looking with huge phalluses and everyone else should sit in belts afk so they can kill their faces.

===

After making contact with Spectre we agreed my first day with the Pythons should be Thursday 25th February. This date was to have a scheduled op; part 2 in the ADF series. I read Spectres first post on the first ADF adventure and laughed my ass off. A good day to come along for a bit of work experience I figured…

After getting details of their vent server and logging in I was greeted with the following message; ‘Welcome to the Jerk Cartel, we love penis’. The Jerks love of penis has been rumoured about before, but I can assure you it’s true.

The first words in there communication channels usually start with ‘PENIS!’ Generally any conversation will involve or revolve around genitalia and all the fun chit chats makes it surprising how well organised these actually guys are.

Much to my liking the op started on time with Spectre calling for all ADF Officers to undock our ECM heavy fleet in Old Man Star. I had expected to see some cheap ECM cruisers at the undock point of the Quafe station but when a 10 man strong fleet filled my overview I had to do a quick retake; Scorpion?! Wowser, surely this is a one way trip? I was surprised to see someone putting a ship of reasonable value on the line. The fleet comprised of 1 Griffin, 1 Celestis, 1 Scorpion and 7 Blackbirds, later joined by a Federation Navy Comet (just because it looks like it’s got a flashy light on its roof).

(I shall not bore you with too many details of our little excursion as Spectre’s tale of events is pretty accurate)

Every system where acts of aggression were found would find the following stuff in local;
Spectre3353 > By order of the Amamake Defense Force, we request full compliance from all pilots in system
Spectre3353 > Halt! In conjunction with The Amamake Peace Accord of 58177 we, the Amamake Defense Force, demand that you cease your aggressions and retreat from the field of battle immediately!

Compliance was greeted with;
Spectre3353 > Thank you for your complience.
Golden Helmet > Thank you for your cooperation, citizen
Golden Helmet > If all citizens were like you, New Eden would be a much safer place for us all

Non compliance simply meant any aggressor got 40 ECM modules trained on him/her. In small numbers of aggressors this was extremely effective and the local chat response made it worth its weight in gold. Some pilots played along but most just spammed local with abuse.

At the Bastards we have a (fairly) strict ‘no chat in local’ policy so I was hesitant at first but joined in here or there.

After flying and ‘securing’ various systems in the region the final destination was set; ‘Tama’. I used to reside around these parts and god it’s a hell hole…

The fleet warped in to the top belt at range and waited. Some complete retards in local were amusing to toy with for a while. The Jerks have a great sense of humour and all the abuse flung at our fleet got laughed about and witty responses returned.

Before long a few would-be-aggressors got chased off until a sizable fleet warped in at various ranges. Warp-scrambled and my overview filling up so fast I could find the right target to jam I went down in flames.

The end of my career as an ADF officer and the end of my op. The difference in time zones forced me to log for the night as I parked up in a local station and get some sleep…

===

Day two and Spectre briefly logged on to give me access to the most used comm. Channel for the Pythons. Great as a roam was scheduled to leave not long after.

As the clock struck 1:30am the channel filled up nicely. The following is a brief and fairly standard chat with the Pythons;

IEATCRAYONS > morning
Golden Helmet > we have things up our arses, but they're often big, black, and ridged
Nashh Kadavr > nice my fave!
Golden Helmet > i apologize in advance for our two kaz's
Nashh Kadavr > circumferance?
Golden Helmet > we got complaints that we weren't equal opportunity employers, so we hired two retards to fill our quota
Nashh Kadavr > i see
Nashh Kadavr > any gays?
Golden Helmet > we also have a contingent of stoners, since High Times magazine complained about us all being sober
Golden Helmet > we're all homo. we need straight people so the non-gay magazines will stop complaining
Nashh Kadavr > righto
Nashh Kadavr > /emote makes notes...
Golden Helmet > and we have a large portion of alcoholics too
Apoctasy > then we beter start recruting straight people
IEATCRAYONS > penis
uwai223 > an stoners
kazz djinn > lol
IEATCRAYONS > the most said word by our corp would have to be "penis"
kazz djinn > hey gh can i tend to the rabbits now
Golden Helmet > so we're 1\3 gay stoner, 1\3 gay retard, 1\3 gay drunks, and 1\3 gay and bad at math
Nashh Kadavr > would you say there is a minimum iq requirement for this corp?
HAUL 5000 > 60.
Apoctasy > and 1/3 multiple categories
Fred Neiman > and i'm a miner!
Golden Helmet > if you can identify the difference between a shoe and the sky, your in
Golden Helmet > brb
Nashh Kadavr > whats a shoe?
HAUL 5000 > Apoctasy is in the catogory of gay and bad at math fyi

The scheduled op was to start at 2:00am and left on time yet again, very impressive. By now I had had a few beers and settled in on the sofa.

Golden Helmet was the fleet commander and did a brilliant job too, scoring the fleet some nice T2 cruiser kills. I was only able to participate on one of them as after my first kill I had to safe up due to an aggression timer. The Pythons are at war with some guys around here and are scoring some lucrative kills on them.

Mynxee showed up in local and it was nice to speak to her briefly before moving on again.

About 25 jumps around the local area got a few more kills under our belt but when a mission-ing Drake was probed out and promptly tackled a request for his ship was promptly answered with the pilot ejecting.

I finally logged of at 4:15am absolutely knackered and half asleep. It’s nice to be in a fleet that can bring decent numbers instead of running away all the time. I was also somewhat surprised to see the value of ships taken out on this roam; the majority of ships where Tech 2 Cruisers.

===

Day three saw another late night roam (for me) under Golden Helmets lead. Some great kills along the route. The fleet was fairly well organized and the ship types again mainly consisted of T2 cruisers.

I only mention it as the Bastard roams are a little more Frigate or Battle Cruiser orientated, some Stealth-Bombers roams perhaps but T2 cruisers are referred to as shiny’s and valued highly and rarely put on the line.

I spend the duration of the roam chatting to Trazis, a pilot that tapped me up some 5 months ago regarding a 1 vs 1. We had intended to catch up for a fight ever since but never got around to it. Along the route I suggested he joined the roam with GH’s permission and fight a little later.

Trazis joined the fleet around the Tama area and with my night coming to an end the time arrived for our duel. Still under GCC timers I docked to repair my overheating damage from a previous fight.

Undocking with GCC made station guns pewpew my shield and a touch of armor but I felt very confident. We agreed to have our fight in front of the Python fleet and GH would be our warp-in point. Bets were taken and it appeared my Vexor was to be the favorite, great, more pressure…

With my shields recharged I signaled I was ready and initiated warp. Trazis fielded a Maller, the same ship 00Sage00 killed me in some time ago.

Our shields vanished within mere seconds. Beer made my confidence grow in my new Vexor fit and I let rip my guns, overheating them before I even launched my drones. Beer made me miss-click my heavy damage drones. Instead I launched 3 Warriors and two Hammerheads.

I realized my mistake and pulled the Warriors and released two Ogre’s and a Hobgoblin. Our armor steadily decreased in equal measures and it dawned on me I should take out his drones rather than concentrate on his hull. Right, good idea, switch off guns, retarget drones, fire guns…fire guns? Wtf? Beer made me burn out my guns.

There was nothing left to do but watch our ships slowly drop armor, bit by bit, it sure was going to be a close one now… our hulls peered through as the last bit of armor escaped us both at the same time. Crossing my fingers I hoped for a wrecking blow to save my day...

Alas, it was not to be, my remaining structure expanded into the vacuum, vomiting out my pod in the process. Trazis got out with a mere 26% hull still protecting his fragile egg. Too many mistakes on my part but nevertheless a great win for Trazis.

Slightly ashamed to be pummeled in front of the Pythons I retired into the nearest station and called it a night…

===

Day four to six were mainly spent talking to some of the peeps in the Alliance Comm channel. I did spend some time in space with some the pilots but I kept it local as I couldn’t face another late op. Well I could but the RL repercussions (wife-aggro) made it difficult to justify.

LEE118, an ex Bastard recruit has been accepted into the Pythons for a trial period. It was nice to catch up with him and he appears to be having fun.

Another familiar face was Gorgoleon, an ex-Bastard of epic proportion. It’s nice to see he has found himself a good home and he has fitted right in with his banter.

00Sage00 has also taken up residency in Old Man Star recently and joined the Python ranks. He has spend some time with the Tuskers before making his move here and it was interesting to hear about the difference between the two.

One of the longer standing members of the corp Apoctasy explained that the old core of the corp was still there. He himself has left the game and come back, remaining with the Pythons. He explained that over time the corp had grown steadily in number, are more organized and have more roams on the go.

Spectre himself was logged in at a more Euro suitable time and was chasing some ships around OMS. I asked to join him and tried to keep up with him for the next 30 minutes. I say tried to keep up as I didn’t actually manage to do so, he scored some sweet frigate kills, with me exiting warp just after he squeezed out some tears.

I did participate in a Drake kill, rather brave of the participants as you can see on the killmail its Russian owned. We didn’t get blobbed even though it took a long time to take him down.

===

Closing statement;

I have really enjoyed my time at the Python Cartel, so much so I have left 3 fully equipped and rigged ships in Old Man Star may the opportunity arise to fly with them again.

The corp-chats are filled with penis related conversations, and smack talk in local is deemed absolutely fine. The guys are rude and crude but extremely witty and clearly intelligent. Their responses quick and calculated had me in stitches for the duration of my time here.

All this joking around would lead one to be believe these jokers are badly organized but to my surprise the arranged ops left on time and the fleets were well led. Although the fleets usually are not scheduled to leave until 2am Evetime.

Many high profile events are organized from within the Python Cartel, ADF and Hulkageddon to name but a few, doing their thing and leaving their mark.

The amount of shiny ships the pilots are willing to risk surprised me a little but have given me reason to pull out my T2 cruisers from under the dust sheets and actually fly them.

There are plenty of highly skilled pilots (some more reserved, some more balls out) within their ranks and they should be feared indeed.

Remember may you wish to apply contact Spectre3353, Golden Helmet, Lachesis VII or Lars Lodar in game.




(or if you want to join the really cool guys apply at the Bastards)

Contest entry

Below you find my entry to this contest. I am very keen on winning something in this although my story is short I tried to make up for that with the drawing. Please note I have trouble uploading images to blogspot atm for some strange reason and this image is uploaded via ImageShack and it does not sow the full image. Please right click to view the full image.

Please also check the other entries, especially this unexpected but brilliant post by Spectre. (And read the comments if you want to have a laugh).

The drawing is made with black felt tips, then scanned and edited with my first attempt of Photoshop. Not the best but I think it should put me in the running for a Faction cruiser at least.

Lakisha

The sour smell of sulphur was intense, but Lakisha’s nasal passages where caked with charcoal and dirt. It used to make her eyes water and convulsion was just one of the side effects of working long hours in the Minmatar ammo factory. The noise was deafening at times, the heavy clanging of metal sounded over the factory floors. New shells where pressed as fast as the machines could handle. Inadequate lighting occasionally resulted in injuries, some minor and some life changing.

Twelve hours a day with a thirty minute break for six days a week paid her the petty wage of 1638.50 isk a month. ‘Makes slavery look appealing!’ her co-worker Hanus joked sometimes. Lakisha would just smile, she should know…

= = =

For six years she had been a captive of the Amar. Although she had been taken forcefully and against her will she had never been treated badly. She worked and did menial tasks for a rich household for no pay but she wasn’t overworked. She was fed three times a day and had a warm bed every night. Over time she had actually grown rather fond of her captors.

‘True freedom can only be found in death’ her owner Khalid had muttered as his last words, the Amarrian ceremonial dagger still protruding from his chest. The riots in the Yakanda Prime moon 4 station had given Lakisha an opportunity for escape and flee back to her home planet. His blood dried black on her hands, a conscience guild ridden…

= = =

Reminiscing of those days made her wonder if perhaps slavery would be better than this hellhole.

Or perhaps Khalid’s true freedom…

‘Lakisha!’ Marcus shouted as he barged a large wheeled carriage into her. ‘Take these to level 4, ready for shipping these baby’s are!’ Marcus laughed. ‘Yes Marcus’ Lakisha sighed under her breath.

True freedom…

The rack of Explosive Artillery rounds was heavy. Lakisha picked up a wrench from a nearby worktop and jammed it in the carriage front wheel. The trolleys height made it top heavy and easy to push over.

Freedom…

Bio Funnies #7

I may not be perfect but parts of me are excellent.

Reluctant Blog Pack Drop Out

My inactivty due to RL stuff in December and January have killed my blog pack status. I am no longer part of the 20 most coveted blogs, in fact with the blog packs expansion to 50 it appears I'm no longer in the top 50 either...




The decision to drop me seems fair enough as I did not stick to the rules set out by our Blog-Father. I will be back...

Well done to all the new members, looking forward to reading all your stuff!!!

Ps; coming soon 'A week in the life of...The Python Cartel'

***NINJA EDIT*** Am Back in the Pack!