The crisp, clean air . . . that I'm not breathing

     I never really felt I was in any kind of danger from the crew that war dec'd us, because they hung out mostly in Jita and Amarr, didn't seem to like low sec, and didn't really go too far astray from their stomping grounds or stations.  Mostly stations.  Still, it was always necessary to keep local pulled out and peel an eye in that direction, just to be on the safe side.  A number of far less attentive indy-types paid for their ambivalence with trips to the store to buy new boats.  Once the war dec was lifted, I could breath easy and go about my daily business of Incursions, missions, Incursions and mining.  Plus, I got to get back to Incursions :)  Once the dec lifted, it felt a little easier to breathe.  I was reminded of Neo.  It wasn't really that big of a deal, but I guess keeping an eye on Dscan and local is a way of life for WHS, low and null sec denizens.  I'm not really interested in that style of play yet, obviously.

     As the war timed out, I moved my main to where I had my shiny new Bhaalgorn, undocked, and headed about a dozen jumps to the Incursion system.  I had it double webbed with faction pulse, and hoped that would get some decently fast invites.  Instead of getting a completely new set of hardware, I took some of the gear from my sniper AF Apoc.  I had a short and long range set of guns for the Apoc so I took 4 of the pulses for the Bhaalgorn, and 4 of the beams - just in case.  The Bhaalgorn doesn't have the long range snap of the Apoc, but it's easier than trying to drag both ships around.  I quickly got in a VG fleet, and we proceeded to start clearing sites.  It certainly wasn't at the much whined about pace of 100 million/hr like the anti-high sec Incursion whiners like to carp about, but it was still up in the 70 million range.  The Bhaalgorn is a great boat to fly in incursions, and a lot of fun.  Lots more cap to start with, plus being able to cap transfer with any other boat, means I never had to worry about cap at all.  Being able to lay 2 faction webs on a rat really made them pop fast too.  It all went rather well even though I was a little rusty on Incursions after a week, especially if I wanted to stay on top of dropping the webs when the rats got in range.  The up-side is that I got Minmitar BS trained to 4 during the war, so I had a 25km range on the webs.  Got in a few good fleets over the couple days, and made some healthy isk to help offset buying 2 PLEX in the psycho PLEX market of late.



MOM fleet forming up.



     Monday, the merry pre-patch day, I had some extra time to run incursions and got an invite to a VG fleet after the first fit was dropped in chat.  Hooked up with a great fleet with a couple Bhaalgorns, some Vindis and some great SEBO and links, and we shredded a lot of sites.  About an hour in, the SF fleet popped the MOM site, so we moved our wagons about 27 jumps to the AF fleet's Incursion, and carried on there.  Good FC, fleet stayed pretty strong, and then later on in the evening, my time, talk started up about running the MOM site before patch day.  I guess the idea is to pop the Incursion before patch because a new one will spawn after, plus, apparently some players worry that the patch might screw up the current Incursions.  Not sure if there is a precedence for that, but what the hell, I'm in for a MOM site.  Form-up took about 35 minutes and we ended up going in with about 15 boats short, and a few ALTs to help boost the isk income for the ship replacement fund.  With the reduced DPS, the site was taking longer than before, but that was to be expected.  problem with that was that the longer it takes, the more bomber spawns we have to deal with, and the more chances you have for the bombers to notice you and decide to send some torpedo love your way.  As luck would have it, I was one such lucky individual, and the drill was that anyone less than 150K EHP should warp out if primaried by all the bombers.  I only have about 120K, so when I was primaried, I announced it in broadcast and Eve voice, and warped to the sun while the logis repped my ass off and the rest of the fleet started melting the bombers.  I made it out and came right back, but man, those bombers can really lay the smack down, but never got me into structure - very close with the crazy see-sawing armour indicator, but the logis kept me up.  Maybe if I had stuck around I would have been smoke.  Don't know.  Two or three others had to warp out too.  In the end, I got back in plenty of time, popped the Kundalini, saw the loot drop, and started hopping my BS back towards Amarr.  The Bhaalgorn is a very nice, and flexible boat to fly.  I have a large collection of mods that I carry around with me, in order to change the fits based on what is needed, but I think I'll see about a way to bundle up the Apoc and have a sniper and a DPS boat for armor fleets.  I'm also toying with the idea of putting 1400s on the Apoc.  Would certainly solve any cap issues.  Will have to see what EFit says.

The Point?  I'm happy that I now can do, actual better things to do, than play station games.

Incursions: All aboard!

     As mentioned previously, there's lots of apparently badass and opinionated "experts" on running Incursion Vanguards, or fleets in general, but mainly, ONLY from the security of a position of minimal effort and minimal risk.  Not being interested in sitting around waiting to be invited to a fleet, I've run enough, and read enough about the sites, that I decided fairly early maybe, to form my own fleets.

     So anyway, one fleet I'm FCing, we're running VGs, and have done 7 or 8 sites.  Decent fleet, people seem to have a clue, and we were running along at a little over 70 million/hr.  I'm happy, but it's rather intensive as I'm FCing and tagging.  No one else wanted to, or claimed to be able to, tag.  No problem.

     So we hit this one Override Transfer Array.  Our logi pilots were good but one had to leave.  I started looking for another logi, but the fleet members started talking about being able to run sites with just two logis.  I didn't know, so I asked eveyone in fleet, confirmed with the logis that they thought they could do it, everyone said go for it, so we went in with 8 DPS and 2 Scimitars.  I was running a safer shooting order this time.  On good, smart, strong DPS fleets, and if the spawns work as intended, you can kill the first two Augas, leave the Deltole, kill the next two Deltoles, ignore the Augas, do the first Deltole, and boom the site is done and chicks want to go halfers on a "memory" with you.  Problem with this method is that a fairly lethal number of ships can build up and if the logis can't keep up, you're screwed.  I elected to run a little safer, that takes a couple minutes more, and kill the Augas, then the Deltole, rinse and repeat twice more.  While waiting for the next "AAD" spawn, we were shooting Tamas to reduce the incoming DPS.

R.I.P. buddy . . QQ

     Two of the DPS "experts" started a discussion, which turned into an argument, about the shooting order.  I told them to be quiet and just shoot the tags.  The dick that one was, he said FU and bailed in the room, leaving us one DPS short.  I didn't realize this at first as I was making sure DPS, tagging and spawns were being sorted out.  In the short time that it took me to realize this, a new spawn appeared seconds later, and before I could formulate a plan, the one Scimitar got primaried, was popped as the other scimi was trying to rep the first, and then we were down to one logi.  Now supposedly memory is enhanced during traumatic events, but I have no idea about the name of that fucker.  No one else seemed to remember him either.  Too bad.  At any rate, people were starting to freak out, understandably so, the last logi is saying GET OUT!!  I'm ALL OVER that "suggestion", and I'm trying to wing warp the fleet to the sun, which was nearly dead ahead, and lots of stuff is popping, and unfortunately not all of it is rats.  Some got out, some did not, mostly not, but in suitable fashion, I think, I went down with the ship . . so to speak.  I watched as some purples popped and thankfully, as a couple got out.  I was the last boat in the pocket, watching as I was webbed, scrammed, neuted, tarred, feathered and anything else they could throw at me.  I overheated the hardeners and DCM, like THAT was going to save me, and was hoping that the Deltole I was shooting at was third, because at this point now, if it WASN'T the third one, and/or I DIDN'T pop it, I was going to be a whole lot of space debris . . . like some of my fleet mates.

     Point of fact, I really never had a chance, and ended up warping my pod to station to figure out what to do next.  I was sort of overwhelmed.  First, never in a million years would I have guessed that ass would have done what he did.  2nd, I really didn't understand the kind of shit kicking the rats could lay down once things start to go south in a site, mainly because the fleets I've been in have been strong - no problems.  And C, because of points 1 and 2, I never really had a plan on what to do as a contingency.  I thought/think I was managing the tagging and FCing duties well enough, as we had had no problems with the previous sites, even 2 other OTAs, but once the shit started to hit the fan, I think was was pretty much overwhelmed with information.  If I had realized earlier that the ass bailed, I could have tried to warp the fleet immediately.  It may or may not have saved more boats, but I run through mental what-ifs, every time I'm in a site now.  NOW, I always have a contingency ready to GTFO at the least sign of trouble.  Losing a site is nothing.  Losing a boat sucks.

     The rest of the fleet, at least the ones that stayed around or spoke, were pretty cool about it.  I really didn't care about the shiny N Geddon I lost, I felt bad that I had been at the helm when other players lost their boats.  Along with mine, 2 Scimitars, a Nightmare, a Vindicator and a Macharielisk by about 750,000, but the upside is two fold . . . three fold.  If a logi drops, there should be enough DPS to chew up the rats and everyone is safe.  If a DPS drops, we still have 7 DPS and 3 logi - everyone is safe.  If no one drops, 8 DPS and 3 logi should enable the fleet to run the rooms quicker, which compensates for the initial loss of 750K per site.

The Point?  Be prepared for the unexpected and don't underestimate the power of the dark side, or the rats - they're bad monkeys!  You can't know certain things about players unless/until you fleet with them, so make sure there's "head room" to manage emergencies, and I'll be handing off tagging duties to someone else next time I FC - it's really not that hard.

Incursions, Excursions & Diversions

     Well, Incursions are definitely a whole 'nother world in Eve, and yet again a fairly unique game play experience from the meta level.  After my second exposure to Incursions, I went back for more, like the little crack Incursion addict I am apparently becoming.  It's a different world for sure, and slowly opening up new aspects, and I haven't even "done it all" yet, as far as Incursions go.

Ghostly Geddon "shield" on a Harby

     On a demographics level, I am sort of thinking that there are more people jumping on the Incursion isky train, then there are people getting off the other, burnt out, end of the train.  At low ebb times, you'll find maybe 50 to 90 players in system, if you're lucky, and anywhere up to something like 400 during peak times.  I know!  Crazy, right?  Judging by population stats, Amarr seems to be the most popular area lately - not sure why.  There are a few troublemakers and dicks, but most are noted and excluded.  Apparently griefers and shit disturbers are a big problem in Minmitar space.  Over the weekend, after doing my first MOM in the Amarr Incursion, a handful of us from the fleet slow boated over to the Minmitar (~26 jumps) to school theyselves on how to lay the smack down on an Incursion, yo!  ;)  There were very few people around in Minnie space, and while usually fleeting up is a problem because of a lack of FCs, in Minnie space, there was a lack of pilots too.  Where the hell was everyone?  Anyway, after about 20 minutes, we got a fleet together and managed half a dozen or so Vanguards before a big armor fleet showed up and took down the MOM.  An interesting glitch happened with my N Geddon during the process though, and it turned into a ghost Geddon with a small, squishy Harbinger at it's core.  Funky!  Not sure what was going on, but it solved itself on client restart.

     An observation point on Vanguards.  Everyone and their dog tries to/wants to run VGs.  The vast, vast majority of players in Incursions show up in shield fits, and park in the VG systems spamming their boat fit in Incursion channel, sometimes for hours before getting into a fleet, if they even DO get into a fleet.  WTF?  How does that make efficient use of time, unless of course they are otherwise engaged in some chat channel, or vent, or watch Youboob videos at the same time.  I'm a little more aggressive with the fleet action thing, so I'll sit and post the fit a few times, and while I'm doing it, I'll watch the kind of boats that are being posted.  If I see enough logis and shiny ships in there, I'll say screw it and start my own fleet.  Yes Virginia, as an Incursion n00b, I FC them now too :)  So anyway, even after some of these people have flown in hundreds of VG fleets, they'll still sit there, spamming fits, talking shit about other people's boats, and not a one of them will man-up and FC a fleet themselves.  Of course, once they're in a fleet, NOW all of a sudden they are an expert on how to run a fleet, what sites to run and what order to tag and shoot the rats in.  Their prime motivation is maximum isk, minimum effort, and even less responsibility.  I can totally understand a logi pilot not interested in FC duties 'cuz they can be kinda busy at times, but no excuse for a DPS.  It's laughable.  They're like hyenas, and even in the short couple weeks I've been "Incursed", I've seen the populations rise and the quality and level of boats, players and gear, drop.  That's not to say that there aren't good quality people running the incursions, because there are.  It's just that the noise to signal ratio is rising.

     On the point of FCs, yes, I've FC'd a few shield fleets running Vanguard sites already.  Not tough really.  Lots of good FC help info on the intarpipes, plus, after you've done 40 or 50 of them, the small number of select ships you actually have to shoot, is not very tough to remember.  Plus, worst case scenario, there's still the old classical paper and pen to jot down a couple names and numbers.  The onyl problematic thing with the VG FC duties, is Eve voice.  It's a piece of shit for me.  My mic is crystal clear with Mumble, Vent, and Teamspeak, but on Eve voice, I sound like a drunk robot in a washing machine running on spin cycle.  It's fuckin' brutal.  I've gone through all the settings in Eve and on my computard, and I have no idea what the glitch is.  So, when I make fleet, I enable voice, and people like that, but some people have a problem with an FC that uses the tags, broadcasts and simple, short typed commands in chat.  Apparently, they are so stupid, so lazy, or both, that they aren't interested in a fleet where they have to do anything but listen and look at tags.  Some even get pissed if they aren't fleet, wing or squad warped ALL THE TIME!  Wow.  Talk about losers.  People have a very simplistic and naive understanding of what an FC is required to do in a VG.  All they really have to do is give commands and make sure the sheep are following the 1-2-3s.  I've been in fleets where the FC was a squad member and all they did was broadcast the new site to go to.  It worked fine.

isk hunters is going to band together into bigger fleets and head toward Assaults.  The idea is that the VGs are better isk per hour than any other site, but when your fleet is either 2nd, or 3rd or 4th to a site, or it's a weaker fleet and you lose contests, you're likely better trying to duo or solo the easy Incursion sites.  There was an Incursion site on a high sec island in Gallente space.  Very low population in the systems all weekend.  That's quite likely why the Amarr Incursion was so heavily populated.  More and more people will keep filtering into Incursions because once you get going, and if the population is low enough, the isk is prety sweet.

The Point?  Incursions are filled with all kinds of "followers" who are looking for someone else to help them put isk in their account.  If you aren't afraid to read an Incursion guide website and tag a few rats, you can help yourself make isk too by grabbing a handful of them and making your own fleet.