Old news, cool videos

Yes I know this is old news but these video's deserve a little attention, this is the reason I want to play eve, the trailers are just so godamn sexy! Just one thing CCP; y u no like dust on pc?

My first pvp video

So I had intended to do this for a while but have lost a lot of recordings and had to work with poor programs to make this one, anyway I dont think its awfull. Obviously I am keen to take suggestions on improving the viewers pleasure, leave me a comment!



Watch the full screen version here.

CDM #23; Entity, Lord of the Items

Celebrity Death Match #23; Entity, Lord of the Items

-=o0o=-

The Celeb

If there were to be an -A-list for the way Celebrity Death Match ranks its celebs, this man would be somewhere at the top of the list. ‘The Lord of the Items’ has been playing EVE since 2003, and is best known for that title and what it stands for.

There are various alliances that wield great power through combined isk values; however this man alone, as a single individual is the wealthiest man in our Universe. His power is not used to fund vast armies or to conquer space; he uses his wealth to fund a very noble hobby, collecting and preserving EVE’s history.

I had heard and read about this man over 2 years ago, as a mission runner, drooling over Navy Issue Ravens, and then looking into a State Raven. Why were they never available on the market or contracts? Looking into rare ships history a bit further it became clear how rare some of these ships actually are. EVEWiki is a great tool to look up basic information on guides or items. Every time I looked at a rare ship’s history; the name ‘Entity’ could be found in the text somewhere…

Entity holds the single largest collection of items in EVE. This includes one hell of a lot Faction, Commander and complex gear most of us could not afford to buy a single piece of. Other than that there are items in Entity’s collection that do not even exist anymore; prototype drones, artefacts. Then there are the items most pilots only dream of having; the rare ships, and boy, does he have a nice collection.

I feel extremely honoured to have been given some time to speak to Mr Entity, he made time for me, joked with me and spoke openly about his history and pretty much anything I asked of him. His involvement with CCP, his banning and un-banning from the game, his isk income… you name it.

One of the reasons I started this project was to be able to meet Pilots of the ‘celebrity’ persuasion, see what they are about, and find out what makes their EVE-day tick. Entity has been one of the most interesting EVEbrities to have met so far, a unique individual with a great history and noble existence in our Universe.

-=o0o=-

Preparations

Entity had not heard of my blog prior to me contacting him, many celebs not in the blogging community haven’t. Its nerve-wracking trying to explain what I do and why I would like to meet up with a potential participant for CDM. Not knowing of CDM, people must think I am nuts. The Lord of the Items was as suspicious as I suspected, but took the time to hear me out and read over previous CDM’s before agreeing to participate.

Interceptors it was to be, another CDM first. Jokes were exchanged about there not being any ‘rare’ interceptors… even if there was, he wouldn’t have undocked in one. I am glad he wouldn’t have; he is preserving items that pilots like me would have foolishly undocked in, then lost, forever.

Faction items were allowed as was Faction ammo, no ECM or ECM drones, other than that everything goes.

As soon as the fight was confirmed I contacted the only man I know that gives me ‘no-bullshit-advice’ on ships, ship-fittings, tactics, my hair and anything else I need help with. Lady Shaniqua answered the call and we got to work…

Yes Entity can be found on Battleclinic but with hardly any history; kills or losses no concrete info is available. He has an army of alts that do his Industry work for him so there is no need for him to have his skills trained in that direction. With well over 100 million skill-points he must be able to fly all races, and be able to fit them as he pleases and well.

Our best guess would be that he would come in a close range, high DPS fit ship and therefore he must be coming in an AB fit Taranis. Within minutes LS ruffled up and old Rail-Ranis fit, some modifications were made, tactics discussed and that was that. The tactics were simply to ‘kite’ at the edge of scram- and web-range peppering the pain. If Entity would for some reason bring a kiting MWD fit himself, manual flight would have to trick him into scram range and victory would be assured. Discussions went on about ‘orbit’ and ‘keep-at-range’ but for the most part I was confident that with this ship I stood a chance, however so slim...


-=o0o=-

The Fight

With Entity not having undocked other than to collect rare items for several years, stood in my favour for sure, I PvP as often as I can. However with a near unlimited budget and with a significant skill-point advantage this fight was sure to swing in his favour. I had already accepted the loss before undocking.

The agreed system was a mere few jumps from my home system and the journey there was without hassle, evading a small camp on the way. I docked up in the agreed system to find a missing module. For some reason the Stasis Web was missing from my setup however a replacement was quickly found.

I baptised my Taranis ‘Entity Destiny’ and undocked into the blackness… and certain doom.

The Carrier that had previously sat at the undock, had gone, and the system was fairly quiet.

‘mm a Ranis?’ Entity quizzed in our fleet chat.

Quickly pinging the scanner revealed no ships in space within 14.5 AU, he must have seen me come in, perhaps the Carrier was his alt, or maybe he was watching me, cloaked.

Silence on deck, as usual, silence before the storm.

With nothing left but the fight, we wished each-other good luck and I initiated the Warp-drive.

Instructions to the Ranis navigation systems were clear, I intended to land at 10k from my foe and remain at roughly that distance.

The long warp didn’t settle my nerves, hitting the D-scanner again as soon as I was within range showed up a single Claw. A Claw? Is that good or bad? I am not familiar with the Claw and don’t know anyone that flies it, in fact I don’t think I have seen one for some time. Should I change tactics? Should I try a tight orbit?

The warp-tunnel collapsed, spewing out my frigate sized vessel, my time to think was up, time for action.

Entity had manoeuvred himself away from the warp-in-point, creating a distance of about 25 kilometres. This was not good; if he was range fit he could easily outrun me, and my anti-blaster-Ranis fit would be useless.

Drones are often overlooked on ships that can only field a few of them, with this in mind I immediately ejected two Hobgoblins and on resolving lock both sped towards the enemy Interceptor. As expected both were ignored as the gap between us rapidly closed. The drones initially overshot but on the return-loop they opened fire and steadily began eating away at the Claw’s defences.

Our speeding vessels nearly collided, both clearly determent to keep each-other close enough to keep within the optimal range of our weapons. Entity’s Auto-cannons ripped large chunks of shield away from my spacecraft, demolishing it in merely a few volleys.

Red and blue lightning snaked from Entity’s Claw to my Ranis; diminishing my capacitor every 4 seconds. A quick check of his speed showed he was AB fit and I turned of my scram, saving every last bit of capacitor for my overheated Rail-guns, Afterburner and Web.

Desperately I tried to create a little distance as my Armour buckles and tears as easily as the shield had done. Flames erupt from my Ranis, this fight was nearing its end, my end.

The superheated rounds of Caldari Navy Antimatter propelled from red-hot-Rail-guns combined with the power of two high-damage drones slowly took their toll on the armour-tanking claw. Too slow however and closing down my HUD I prepared to capture the moment I would valiantly explode in my efforts to take down the Lord of the Items.

I selected his vessel as the focal point, with myself in the background for maximum cinematic effect.

The camera jolted heavily and a burning Taranis appeared in my overview. I… what? The confusion took a few seconds to settle down until I realized what this meant. Opening the HUD showed my vessel had a solid 15% hull remaining and all three mid-slots burned out. Unbelievable! I made it!

-=o0o=-

Aftermath

It took about a minute to make my way back to Entity’s wreck and raid its contents. I returned all dropped goods to its original owner, as I always do. It did drop one unusual item, estimated at about 80 million isk and the Claw sported T2 rigs.

His fit was more expensive than mine; his skills are nearly three times that of my own, why did I win? The answer is not that simple, yes I did manage to get myself to a range where his guns did less damage, whilst mine still did full damage. The truth is; Entity didn’t overheat his modules or weapons.

Mynxee introduced me to overheating, a skill-book I immediately purchased and use every fight I get myself into. It is often the first thing I do, even before a fight starts, it is second nature to me.

I explained to Entity that most modules had burned out and laughed, he went silent for a moment but then stuttered; ‘Crap, I forgot to overheat’. PVP skills go rusty if you don’t use them regularly, it’s not like riding a bike, it’s a spaceship.

This simple equation shows the result if Entity would have overheated;

WINNER =\lim_{z\rightarrow z_0} f(z)=f(z_0)ax^2 >(hothothot)+ bx + c = 0 (Mad skillz) ax2 + x bx + c = 0> = Entity

Pretty obvious indeed, perhaps next time Mr Entity…

-=o0o=-

The video

After my second meeting with Mr Entity, where we spend maybe 2 hours talking about life, love, EVE and other related stuff, I decided to include a video with this CDM. This is not an easy decision as I already knew how much time it takes to make a video, to a standard that pleases me enough.

I had prepared the basic intro to the video in the weeks before our fight, I did some basic editing of the video and Lady Shaniqua helped me get some extra footage to make the video into a spectacular one. I posted a very basic version of it on youtube for LS and Sassy B to give me some feedback on. We agreed it was too long and LS wanted to see some kittens?!

A further 30 hours had been spent on the video; editing, clipping, adding effects, adding music, overlays, you name it.

And then my laptop crashed, and no, I didn’t back anything up. A years’ worth of fraps, programs, fittings, blog-posts, artwork and the Entity video gone forever.

So for your viewing pleasure I present the very first upload of the video, pre-editing;

Celebrity Death Match #20; Arrhidaeus

CDM #20 Arrhidaeus

Arrhidaeus requested a CDM with me about 7 months ago. I put him on hold at the time as this is not how CDM works, Celebrities are not self appointed. What his request did do however is draw attention to his blog, and what a blog it is indeed.

I started reading his stuff and immediately fell in love with his writing style, it was clever, witty, informative and of superior quality than my own for sure. Ever since I started reading his stuff he never ceases to amaze me with the quality of what he puts up for the world to see. Perhaps not as regular as some other bloggers but with Arrhi it is quality, not quantity. I personally started lobbying for his Blog to be added to the Blog Pack and still do (You reading this CK? Don’t make me post more sad panda pictures!)

As a fellow Bastard I get to follow his progression in-game as well and his heroics still amaze me every day. We are on different time-zones but due to my RL work I generally play the same time he would do. His playtime is about half of what I generally log-in for in any given week and we score about the same kills on average. This obviously means that if Arrhi would play as much as I do, he would kill twice as much as I do.

With a penchant for Navy Slicers Arrhidaeus rips up foes left right and centre, scoring epic solo kills wherever he roams. It is he himself I blame for my own addiction to Faction flavoured Frigates; my kill/loss ratio isn’t as good as his however…

Perhaps it is clear enough from the above but let me be very clear that I hold this man in the highest esteem and have a little bit of a man-crush on him…

Time for that CDM then I guess.


Preparation and stuffz…
Some ideas floated around about what to fight in, Faction Frigs had been mentioned, fitting restrictions were briefly discussed but Arrhi could not decide what to do. As time passed we flew occasionally together on little roams. On one particular evening we ended up Vitreaze and engaged 3 Tusker pilots in a Rifter, Firetail and a Jaguar, we preceded to melt them but lost Arrhi’s Slicer, leaving me to face three experienced pilots. By sheer luck all three Tuskers fell to my Ishkur, surviving with just a sliver of hull. Read Arrhi’s story here.

Arhhi was impressed, and of course I basked in the glory of the moment. It was utter luck not skill however that made me survive that fight. Perhaps I am wrong but I think that moment defined the choice of ships Arrhi eventually decided to fight me in…

Assault Frigates, another CDM first, brilliant! For days before the fight I tried to imagine what to bring, I can fly 3 different Races worth of AF’s and thus had the choice of 6 different ships. It was hard to imagine what my opponent would turn up in as he rarely flies Assault Frigs. No research was required to what he can and can’t do; I already follow his moves and progressions on the kill-board closely.

The fight played over and over again in my head; on the way to work, on the bus, when I made breakfast, you name it. This CDM I wanted to win more than any other. I wanted to show him who is boss and dominate…

After long deliberation I decided to use a kiting flavour of my Ishkur. A crazy fit perhaps but in all the possible scenarios that I played over and over in my head I saw this to be the fit that would work. Microwarpdrive-loving-Arhhi wouldn’t be able to run away from me or kite me if I fit a MWD myself. With a semi decent tank I would be able to tank whatever he throws at me if he is long range fit, and if he does fit an Afterburner instead I shall pummel him from range…

The fight
Arrhidaeus safed up in our home system Evati and the moment of truth had come. The Kaalikiota owned station released the sleek hull of ‘Mégas Aléxandros’ into the cold blackness. Named after Alexander the Great, the Ishkur class Assault Frigate aligned gently to a blank point in space. Its smooth surfaces reflected the lights beaming from the stations undock point.

‘Good luck’ I mumbled as the Warpdrive engaged. I lied, I didn’t wish him any luck, I wanted him to die. The room went silent, no music, no distractions, final equipment check…

Scanning ahead had already revealed the ship type I would be fighting, as the warp tunnel closed behind me I landed 30 clicks from my rival’s Ishkur.

Tactics had already been prepared for fighting this particular encounter as I set to work. I fired up the Microwarpdrive and selected a comfortable 20k orbit. Superheated rounds of Caldari Navy Thorium propelled towards the much slower target, doing minimal damage and missing various salvos.

The 10 Warrior II Light Scout Drones stayed in their bay until Arrhidaeus committed his own drones to travel the 20 kilometres into my direction. His drones finally deployed sped towards me…

Knowing the Ishkur well I proceeded to take out the majority of his DPS output by deploying my own drones and targeting his. Fighting at this range meant his drones had a long way to travel back every time he recalled them, giving my drones more time to destroy and maim.

Trying to keep count of how many drones he had left became harder as the fight went on but at best four to my estimation and set my drones to attack his spacecraft.

With Arrhi now suffering from heavy Armour damage I felt victorious and closed down all items on my Head Up Display to get a nice shot of his ship erupting into fragments.

But I waited, and waited a little longer, without the satisfying blue flash filling my overview. Quickly bringing my HUD back online it became clear that my drones were no more. Luckily I still had all my spares and deployed a fresh batch.

This fight had gone on for some time now and I started to wonder why my guns didn’t put out enough damage to finish off those last little slivers of hull. Checking logs revealed that nearly all shots fired missed their target. Thinking that my high speed didn’t help the tracking of my guns I slowed down, switching to manual flight.

My opponents shields slowly recharged as I desperately tried to approach and fly away to reduce our transversal and get a straight shot at him. Harder work than it may sound, as my weapons only have a 23k range and getting to close meant his Ion Blasters and NOS became an issue. So much of an issue that at one stage I took such heavy damage my hull peered through. Barely had I managed to escape and gained enough range to repair the damage done.

Concentrating so much on getting my guns to score some hits I forgot about my remaining drones until it was to late. A little grey cloud appeared were my final drone was last seen.

This couldn’t be a draw, I didn’t want it to end like this, I panicked as I loaded up the last scraps of ammo. The duration of the fight had been the cause for burnt out modules for the both of us, however Arrhi burned out the one reason my guns where useless, a Tracking Disruptor.

With his EWAR now out of the equation my guns finally did some damage. With my MWD burned out I selected approach and crossed my fingers as overheated-nearly-burned-out-Railguns fired hot lead.

I had won, I had actually won! This is the first CDM in 6 encounters I won! I surveyed the damage to my ship and realised the repair bill would be rather substantial. The fight started of with my hold crammed full of ammo and cap-charges. All that was left in my hold now were cigarettes, spirits, and a test-dummy.

Twenty-six minutes, a whopping 996 Faction Thorium charges and 40 cap-charges were spent trying to destroy Arrhidaeus, leaving just 4 rounds of ammo in my smoking Railguns...


Just for you Arrhi
My apologies for the late posting of this CDM but I didn’t want to post it until the video was completed to my satisfaction. Many thanks to our brother-in-arms TheHermit for helping me put this video together (watch it in HD, much better yeah). Perhaps only followers of both our blogs will understand, Arhhi, this is for you;




The ‘theme’ as you may have guessed is ‘Mortal Combat’, I intended to make this straight after this post made by Mr Arrhidaeus some time ago. Again I want to thank all involved in making this video possible, and yes I will deffo make more in the future.

Selling out
You may have noticed that CDM, or me as its representative is selling out. I have spend a lot of isk and time on CDM and it has finally come to a stage where I feel comfortable asking for sponsorship.

Some time ago a chap paid me 50 mil isk and I named my ship used in the next CDM in his honor, now however the isk goals are higher and I have been very lucky to find 2 sponsors for this video.

Many thanks to Selene D’Celeste from EOH POKER and the ever brilliant T’amber from ShipsOfEve for the contributions to this project. I hope to work together again in the future! (wink wink)

Another video is scheduled for my CDM with Entity some time soon, if you want to support the project or sponsor the video please contact me in-game or email me at nshhkdvr@gmail.com.


Watch this space!