tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15019519886046127512024-03-13T19:51:31.080-07:00Emergent StructureSimple rules, unforeseen results: Emergent Structure.K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-47924864911469256532011-11-29T17:35:00.000-08:002011-11-29T17:35:26.143-08:00On Fuel BlocksFor once, I shall have a timely blog. On the patch. Specifically, on fuel blocks. For those not in the know, CCP has deemed it necessary to make it so that instead of placing a series of arbitrary quantities of goods that "have no real use" to the everyman (most of them are used in T2 production or for capital jumping), one merely has to place a certain number of fuel blocks in the fuel bay of a player owned starbase (POS), and these will be used instead, at a rate of 10/20/40 per hour for small/medium/large towers.<br />
<br />
Now, this in and of itself is good. But I'm not convinced it will be all that and a bag of chips. Why? Because CCP just took a tedious process, and made it so that in order to do the same process, there is an additional step inside of it. Now, I realize that most people don't think of it this way, because most people will likely just choose to buy the fuel blocks instead of buying the raw materials for one, but then there is a mysterious industrialist doing something in the middle of the process... and making money because of it.<br />
<br />
Anything that changes a good from one form to another that people are actually willing to spend time on it is known as a value adding process (VAP). These are good, because they allow more opportunities for money to change hands. But, they also increase the cost of goods. Why? Because people won't do them if they don't add value to the goods that they purchased. So while some people will be perfectly happy to collect all the materials for fuel blocks and make them for others, they will be charging some margin for this.<br />
<br />
So what does this mean for the average POS owner? This means that instead of spending (numbers fictional, margin reasonable) 100M to fuel your POS for a month, and needing to buy X Robotics, Y coolant, Z Oxygen, etc. etc., you'll only need to buy yourself 240*30 fuel blocks, and stick those in there. But it also means that those fuel blocks will likely run you 105-108M.<br />
<br />
Perhaps indsutrialists will take to this quick enough that the margin is cut down to near-nothing. Perhaps. If this happens, though, it could have a larger effect on EVE's economy. The materials used for these fuel blocks are used for a wide array of T2 production, so these prices could be holistically raised by the change in POS fueling mechanics.<br />
<br />
As it is, it seems like there are enough changes in the market that making such predictions might be premature, but I'll say one thing: if there ever was a time to be an industrialist or a trader, this might be it.<br />
<br />
-K'<br />
<br />
TL;DR: Because CCP is adding a value adding process to the middle of the POS fuel system, prices there will go up, and might have a larger effect on the market as a whole.K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-29849983226408541062011-11-12T19:03:00.000-08:002011-11-12T19:03:34.634-08:00E-UNI Class NotesI gave a lecture to EVE University this week.<br />
I promised I would post my notes on this lecture. They are found below.<br />
Points that I marked with "..." were points that I planned to elaborate on. These notes don't give near the experience of the full class, and these are my personal notes, so weren't changed much for readability (as I didn't desire to transcribe 3 hours of talking) but as I said I would post them, here they are.<br />
This class should show up in the E-UNI class library at some point.<br />
<br />
As a blog-note, I have about 4 posts that I've been working through in parallel, so some of these might show up in rapid succession.<br />
<br />
--------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
Let's talk about why you are here...<br />
<br />
When in doubt, quote people smarter than you. <br />
Sun Tzu is a pretty smart fellow:<br />
"The art of war is of vital importance to the State.<br />
What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations."<br />
<br />
Let's talk about me, ingame...<br />
Let's talk about me, IRL...<br />
Let's talk about you, and the assumptions that I have to make about you...<br />
<br />
Let's talk about how you should take this class:<br />
4 windows:<br />
Lecture<br />
KQ<br />
Market<br />
Mail<br />
Paper & Pencil, if you like.<br />
<br />
If I stop talking, if I completely DC...<br />
<br />
Disclaimers...<br />
<br />
Starting Question: call the primary:<br />
Hookbill, Drake x 3, Curse, Huginn x 2, Manticore x 3<br />
<br />
Trick question: If you don't know what your fleet has, then you can't call a primary.<br />
<br />
Sun Tzu:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."</span><br />
<br />
Useful Trick:<br />
Step 1: Run<br />
Step 2: Know what the enemy is all about<br />
<br />
<div>Now, you have:<br />
Vindicator, Proteus x 3, Onieros, Ishkur, Taranis, Daredevil x 3<br />
<br />
Expectations about the enemy fleet...<br />
The best way to use the fleet you have...<br />
What you might optimally bring to take care of this setup...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2oSl6XI-TU" target="_blank">AT IX Battle</a><br />
<br />
Sadly, I can't talk about "general" small PvP, because the lay of the land makes a huge difference.<br />
Sun Tzu:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime; font-family: inherit;">For this reason one who does not know the plans of feudal lords cannot forge preparatory alliances. One who does not know the topography of mountains and forests ... cannot maneuver the army. One who does not employ local guides will not secure advantages of terrain. </span></div><div><br />
</div><div>PvP in EVE almost always happens at focal points: gates, sites.</div><div>So, I'm going to talk about wormhole PvP specifically. Here is the quick lay of the land:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Major players know their way around, interlopers do not.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">No Local.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Bombs OK.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Bubbles OK.</span><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">The fight is joined within the first 5 minutes of battle.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Polarities...</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">No Timers.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">No gate guns.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Wormhole Effects.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Omni-tanked, omni-DPS rats.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
Now that we have laid the ground, let us begin properly.</div><div>PvP is fairly scalable, but there are certain "resonance points" that make a big difference. One to two pilots makes a very big difference. Two to three, not so much. You are now in small gang territory. This holds out until you start to reach the point where alpha-ing ships off the field is possible. Then you have reached large-scale warfare.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Small gang rocks. What is our goal in small gang?<br />
Answer: Win.</div><div>Great, how do we do this?</div><div><br />
</div><div>Winning:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.</span></div><div><br />
</div><div>So how do we do this preparation?</div><div>Create a balanced fleet. You'll learn what this means.</div><div>Scout, Scout, Scout.</div><div>- Composition</div><div>- View->Fittings</div><div>- How fast are they moving?</div><div>- Ship Synergy</div><div><br />
</div><div>Countering:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.</span><br />
<br />
EVE:</div><div>Doing damage:</div><div>You need damage dealers. You need damage dealers that can do damage to all size of targets...</div><div>Avoiding damage: </div><div>EWAR. Very important, in all forms...</div><div>Logistics</div><div><br />
</div><div>The capacitor war: win the capacitor war, win the battle.</div><div><br />
Strategy: The more you know, the better off you are. Build your strategy to attack the enemy's strategy. Hide your strategy.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.</span></div><div><br />
Jumping into the fight process itself,<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">--Pre-fight--</span><br />
The importance of intel...<br />
Ship selection...<br />
Module selection...<br />
The mixing of roles...<br />
Fleet structure...<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">--Mid-Fight--</span><br />
Voice comms bandwidth...<br />
Chat vs. voicecomms...<br />
Primaries...<br />
The importance of EWAR...<br />
The importance of cap warfare...<br />
Positioning...<br />
Meta-roles... <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: orange;">The Dscanner, The Mapper, The Scout, The Killboarder, The Corp Researcher, The EFT Warrior</span><br />
Escape techniques...<br />
Splitting the FC Task...<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">--Post-Fight--</span><br />
The killmails...<br />
The AAR...<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">--Out-of-Fight--</span><br />
How to improve these skills without directly practicing them...<br />
<br />
<br />
</div><div>Escalating:</div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.</span></div><div><br />
</div>Capitalizing:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Opportunities multiply as they are seized.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.</span><br />
<br />
Fleet Comms:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame.</span><br />
<br />
Leading:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.</span><br />
<br />
</div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-84271115128914432452011-09-30T23:20:00.000-07:002011-09-30T23:20:00.093-07:00Expected Value<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Sayings</span></u></b><br />
There's one saying that has always bothered me in EVE.<br />
"You've lost your ship as soon as you undock in it"<br />
<br />
There's another thing that bothers me in EVE.<br />
People claiming that they are making 100M ISK/hr. Not that I don't believe it's possible, it's more that I don't believe that they are actually doing the math to _really_ figure this out over the long run. We'll come back to this later.<br />
<br />
While strictly believing the first statement seems like it might be in line with my "usual" line of "assume the worst case", I feel like it doesn't fully consider all of the factors involved.<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Survivability: An Example</span></u></b><br />
Here's what I mean. You just undocked in Nullsec, and let's assume you have zero support. You get out into the system at large, and start travelling toward hisec. Now, consider this situation in two cases:<br />
<br />
- One, you're flying an armor-tanked Armageddon with a full flight of heavy drones (filling up your drone bay). Cost: ~110M<br />
- The other, you are flying a Rapier, with a covops cloak. Cost: ~170M<br />
<br />
I hope that you'd come to the conclusion that the first is a worse idea than the second. Why? Because it has significantly less survivability, if something bad were to happen, than the first. A single interceptor could make your day very, very bad by holding you down while he rallies support from his nearby allies.<br />
<br />
The rapier doesn't have this problem. There are some things that could potentially kill the Rapier that couldn't kill the Armageddon as easily (Battlecruiser class ships come to mind, as do certain HACs) in open combat, but the Rapier has an advantage that the Armageddon doesn't have: evasive cloakiness.<br />
<br />
So why should you consider both of those ships equally lost when you undock? My answer is that this is a very good question to ask, and that the "saying" doesn't cover the whole picture. By the logic of the saying, the Rapier is a worse idea to undock in, because it's more expensive, but this doesn't line up with the reality of the situation at all.<br />
Yes, you can lose your ship anytime you undock, but you can also have a reasonable expectation of survivability in a lot of situations, if you are flying smart. So, to this end, I go to some light math.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><b><u>The Math</u></b></span><br />
Let us assume that you have the option of buying two ships, and are interested in a money-making opportunity that requires one of those ships. Ratting, missioning, this doesn't matter. The figures are also fictionally low, just used here to illustrate.<br />
<br />
The first ship costs you 150M, and earns you 10M an hour, with a 5% chance of dying every given hour.<br />
The second ship costs you 200M, earns you 5M an hour, and has a 1% chance of dying every given hour.<br />
<br />
Over a large number of trials, ship 1 will earn you on average 50M profit per hull (200M gross - hull cost). Ship 2 will earn you 300M profit per hull (500M gross - hull cost)<br />
<br />
The first hull is expected to last 20 hours, while the second is expected to last 100 hours.<br />
Ship 1 then earns you approximately 2.5M per hour.<br />
Ship 2 then earns you approximately 3M per hour.<br />
<br />
So ship 2 is a better idea, given that all of these numbers are correct, even though you "earn twice as much while you are working" with the first ship, and even though the second ship represents a bigger possible loss. Those losses hurt, big time, and reducing the chance of them helps a lot. Survivability is key.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><u><b>"But I'm in Highsec!"</b></u></span><br />
Now, there are certain times where you might say that the chance of losing your ship is "zero" (highsec missioning, etc.), but this is never strictly true. If enough players get together and decide to gank you, no amount of tank will help. This, perhaps, is the reason behind the saying mentioned at the top, but in reality, this is just something to consider in the math above. Instead of 0 chance of loss, maybe that goes to .001% per hour.<br />
<br />
If you can figure out those three numbers, you can figure out the relative profit of any money-making opportunity you can come up with... so let me break it down.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Raw ISK/hr</span> = ISK/hr not considering ship death.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f6b26b;">Hull_and_fitting_cost</span> = how much lighter your wallet would be after fully replacing the ship you are using.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6fa8dc;">Chance of death</span> = a percentage, expressed between zero and one, of how likely it is that your ship will be destroyed during an average hour of whatever it is that you are doing for the Raw ISK/hr.<br />
<br />
Actual ISK/time = ( (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Raw ISK/hr</span>)/<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6fa8dc;">chance of death</span> - <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f6b26b;">Hull_and_fitting_cost</span> ) * <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6fa8dc;">chance of death</span><br />
<br />
If you don't know one of these numbers, guess! Estimations are better than nothing, as long as you are realistic about them. You might be surprised about how some of your favorite ISK-making activities might stack up here.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><u><b>Other Considerations</b></u></span><br />
It's worth noting that ISK isn't everything, and that constantly doing this math can make some activities that you like to do seem less fun, so don't forget to factor fun into the equation. If you are making marginally less ISK, but are having tons more fun, that's well worth it. EVE is a game, after all, even if it is ridiculously in-depth.<br />
<br />
Also, I use this as an example for PvE, but you can do similar calculations on PvP to figure out how many hours you can expect out of your favorite ships, to figure out which ones really are "budget" ships, and which ones are the expensive ones (losing a 5M T1 cruiser every day in PvP might be more expensive than flying a 100M T2 cruiser that is more survivable). Again, though, take this with a grain of salt.<br />
<br />
As one closing note, however, this works mostly for active combat-type activities; things that might be limited by "passive time", like industry, planetary interaction, or the like, get more complicated to look at, but for those in short: if you have a slot for something, figure out how to use it. More on this later.<br />
<br />
[Future Link to Industry for non-Industrials]<br />
<br />
TL;DR:<br />
Every ship that you undock in can be destroyed, but that doesn't mean it will be. Each ship has a chance to be destroyed in a given situation, and this differs from ship to ship or loadout to loadout.<br />
This chance of destruction affects how expensive flying that ship or loadout is over a long period of time, and these numbers might work out differently than you would think.K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-13275629618445540232011-09-15T15:48:00.000-07:002011-09-15T15:48:01.393-07:00Industry for Non-Industrials: T2 AmmoThe thing I hear a lot when I'm talking to people about my industry habits is "oh, but I don't like those spreadsheet thingies". And this shocks me. Not because they don't like the spreadsheets, because that's perfectly normal. But because they assume that the spreadsheets are entirely necessary for anything that you might do in an industrial setting, and this just isn't the case.<br />
And no, you don't need a POS, either. Not for what I'm about to suggest.<br />
<br />
There are possibilities out there for very stress-free moneymaking, if you're willing to take a little read over this. Before we start, though, I should address one question that gets asked a lot when I talk about this stuff-- "Why are you telling me this? Doesn't it cut into your profits?"<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The Why</span><br />
And the answer to that is very obvious. Whatever you choose to make becomes inherently cheaper (supply, demand, and all that), which makes my isk go further. And yes, if you choose to produce the same product as I, then I'll lose a bit of profit, sure. But I can always produce something else, or I can take the reduced value, if everything is cheaper.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The Skills</span><br />
So, how can you go from not using your industrial slots at all to putting them to very good use?<br />
Unfortunately, the first part involves training skills.<br />
Production Efficiency V is necessary in order for you to be able to compete with the bigger industrial types, and opens a lot of doors that would otherwise be shut. At PE III, you make it almost impossible to make any profit on most items. At PE IV, your margins are slim. At PE V, which you train once and have forever, then suddenly your production slots become an ISK-producing tree of awesomeness, which we all want in our backyard.<br />
<br />
The other part of the one good idea that I am going to give you here involves the science skills, which are a bit spendy (you also need the associated racial decryption methods skill, look at an ammo BPO to find out which one). Trust me, though, it will be worth it once you get your industrial machine rolling. Plus, they do double-time, as they also help you out with datacore farming, which is another way of saying free money.<br />
<br />
[Future Datacore-Farming link here]<br />
<br />
So, yes, in order to start this you have to straight up sacrifice 25M, and 20ish days of training time. Yeah, that sucks. But bear with me.<br />
In order to take _full_ advantage of this, you also need to train up Mass Production. I recommend training it to IV for starters, and later to Advanced Mass Production III or IV (which requires MP V, and another 20M ISK).<br />
Laboratory Operation, likewise, you could use LO IV, but ALO III or IV would be helpful to maximize your profitability. If you go to advanced with both of those skills, that's another 40M down the drain, I fully realize.<br />
<br />
However, this is where it gets good.<br />
Choose your favorite station near your home base, preferably in high sec, preferably close to a trade hub, and set up base there. Ideally you would have a laboratory and a factory in the same station, but this isn't strictly necessary. Buy a couple of BPOs for the Tech I versions of some kind of Tech II ammo that you think is cool for whatever reason. You can figure this out by sorting through the Tech I BPO's and looking at the invention tab. Once you have these, throw them into the copying lab (max runs, max number of them) with as many slots as you have. You'll want to build up a buffer at first. Later, then, you'll figure out how many slots to devote to copying, and how many to invention.<br />
<br />
Grab a hauler, and grab a load of two things:<br />
- The datacores you need to invent.<br />
- The materials for the T2 production of the product.<br />
Remember that you can get ganked in this kind of situation, so keep the sums small for now. Don't put more than about 100 million into a T1 hauler, and don't autopilot. Trust me, again, this will be all worth it.<br />
Grab as many datacores as you can afford, and enough materials to make 5 times the number of datacore-runs you've bought (if you bought 200 datacores of each type, and it takes 2 per run, you want enough material for 500 runs of finished product).<br />
<br />
Start inventing.<br />
<br />
As the T2 BPC's come available, throw them into the manufacturing cooker. They will take a _week_ to cook. This is where you can start to sit back a little bit. Your copying runs will take 10 days+ to run. Your production will take a week. When you're playing a lot, you can throw in lots of invention runs. When you aren't, you can throw in lots of copying runs.<br />
<br />
Once your T2 ammo starts coming hot off of the presses, haul it back to the trade hub of choice to sell whenever you are picking up more materials for invention or production. Then sell it, and profit!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The reasons this will work for you:</span><br />
It is low maintenance, so you really only have to actively "do" things every week, to change over jobs. The more isk you are willing to have sitting around in raw materials, the less often you have to haul. I now haul approximately once a month (disclaimer, I do have the ability to freighter things around, but then again, so do you via Red Frog for a fee).<br />
<br />
You can definitely do this on your main, even if you operate in Lowsec (or potentially Null, if you have access to a lab and a factory), as long as you take the proper scouting precautions (or just hop/jump clone to high sec to change your jobs every week...), but at the same point in time, you could pause training on your main for a month (*gasp*, I know...), and put the skills onto an alt. Yes, you'd be spending skill points on "not-your-main", but if those 2-3M of industry SP is easier to use on an alt, it's a better idea in the long run.<br />
<br />
The reason that this "always works" is that people always want to shoot tech II ammo, but the production of this ammo is limited by the amount of slots that are dedicated to producing it. The same can't be said for T2 ships or T2 modules, as the limiting factor there is more often than not the manufacturing time. The long production time in ammo makes it so that the supply is the bottleneck, and thus is "always" profitable. Of course there are cases where this might not hold, but I haven't seen them yet, and I've been running the numbers on a lot of ammo for quite a while. Another final disclaimer, if you choose a T2 ammo that no one wants to shoot, it won't sell. This is obvious, but worth pointing out.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">[math]</span><br />
So, what kind of returns can you expect on this sort of thing? Well, I'll tell you right now that it won't be a windfall, but it will be profitable for the effort you put into it. Let's say that you only want to put in 1 set of manufacturing jobs per week. Let's also do this "per slot" and then we can multiply from there. Now, let's take something that "everyone" shoots, like Barrage M. You make 50,000 units per week. These sell for ~500 a round, which makes that 25,000,000 a week in gross. Take away the cost for making 10 runs of it (11,905,200), call it 12M, and you're looking at 13M without considering the datacores. Now, the datacores, you need "about" 2 runs of them, at about 1M per run (2 datacores of each type, and they run ~300k and ~200k), which leaves you with about:<br />
<br />
11 Million ISK in profit, per slot, per week.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">[/math]</span><br />
<br />
Not too shabby. Risk, next to zero. Profit: Almost half. If the market were to tank to where Barrage M sold for 250 ISK apiece (about the breakeven point), then.... well, I hope you fly Minmatar, because you'll have a field day!<br />
<br />
Let's say that you have 10 manufacturing slots that you use, this makes it about 110M ISK/week for "ever", for 20 days of training time, and 1 day of hauling a week, which if you set up in the right spot is only a few jumps. You don't even have to deal with the sell orders, really, because you can probably fire-and-forget those sell orders, they'll sell eventually... or sell to buy orders, and give the traders something to do.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Expansion:</span><br />
Obviously this is expandable to different products (but you have to monkey with them more often) or selling to outlying mission hubs (but then you have to haul), but doing just the vanilla version of T2 ammo production is still way more wildly profitable than most people seem to think. And way less risky.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">But Industry is Hard!</span><br />
Those things you hear about it being hard, and needing decryptors, and needing one of the item you're turning into tech II, and needing a POS in lowsec to mine moon goo, or investing 3 billion ISK in and coming out with nothing, or any of the other things you hear for horror stories about Tech II... they just aren't that true. You can do minimalist invention to make some pretty sweet profits.<br />
I don't like spreadsheets for a game. I honestly don't. I can do a little math here and there, but I don't want to have to be constantly updating something just to verify that, yes, whatever I'm doing is going to be profitable. This is why I like T2 ammo production, because it almost always is.<br />
Tech II ammo production is a very safe and carefree way to get into an ISK-faucet, if you're looking for one. Think about it. You can spend a half hour a week running around with industry so that you can get a T2 cruiser blown up and not feel the impact. That's nice.<br />
<br />
If you are really an industry noob, then I'll just point you to the <a href="http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/EVE_University_Class_Library">EUNI class library</a>, and you can listen about production there. Also, google is your friend, as there has been more than one guide written about "how to". This isn't a how-to article. This is a why-to. And why you should is simply because it's free ISK that you're refusing right now.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">TL;DR:</span><br />
T2 ammo production is a lot less time intensive than any other T2 production. You have to handle less than 10 commodities to make it happen, and monkey with production jobs once a week. You can make padding for yourself (in the form of T2 BPC's to manufacture) when you play more, and use this padding when you are playing less. You can make ~110M ISK/week in profit, without trying very hard.<br />
<br />
-K'<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Next up:</span> I'm working on a few posts right now...<br />
- Skill training, and why support skills rock<br />
- Why I don't buy into "If you undock in it, it's already lost"<br />
- Trading styles, from station to region-wide<br />
- A look at the Ishtar<br />
<br />
And I'm always taking requests.K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-10884567937123775442011-07-31T22:33:00.000-07:002011-07-31T22:33:41.948-07:00K's Fleet Comms GuidelinesThe nice thing about being FC is that you get to set whatever rules you want, and as long as they get good results (and aren't unnecessarily antagonistic), you are more or less good to go.<br />
Knowing this, I've come up with a simple set of rules that I FC by. It's a bit of a wall-o-text, but trust me, it's well worth the read. These are the rules that I run every fleet that I FC by, but your FC may run things a bit differently. Hopefully, as a fleet member, this gives you an idea of the things your FC might like or not like, and even moreso, as a potential FC in the future, I hope it gives you an idea of what to tell your fleet as far as ground rules.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Just be sure to set them up front</span>; trying to change expectations in the middle of a fleet is insanely hard.<br />
<br />
This is based on a very simple principle: Murphy's Law - anything that can go wrong, will.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><u>LESSONS LEARNED IN TWISTED METAL</u></span><br />
Always have an FC.<br />
Always have a #2, as the FC will die.<br />
In any fleet that is split, either for camping reasons, DPS reasons, at least one person charged with a leadership role should be with each group.<br />
A person appointed a scout should act as their own FC, subject to orders by the FC.<br />
Never say "I", use your character's name instead.<br />
<br />
Requests made by the FC should be filled as quickly and efficiently as possible. When the FC asks for a volunteer, one should be present and selected within 5 seconds. If two people step up to volunteer, they should work out who will be the volunteer in a quick and orderly manner. A good way to do this is to actively step off of volunteering. (IE if K'endro and Jimmy both speak up to volunteer, K'endro would do well to say "Jimmy will do it")<br />
<br />
Information should be relayed in a quick, efficient manner, taking as little time as possible to relay the pertinent information. This becomes more important as more information needs to be delivered (IE things are happening faster, or an engagement is taking place).<br />
To relay information efficiently, say the following, in this order.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><Your name></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><Your Current System></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><Your Current Location in System></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><The intel you wanted to provide></span><br />
IE: "K'endro, Kor-Azor, Amarr Gate; we have 2 manticores on scan"<br />
If, after a reasonable period of waiting you have not received a response from your FC (5 seconds or so should do), and if your intel is sufficiently important, consider three courses of action: Repeat your intel, put it in fleet chat, or recommend a course of action. DO NOT issue a command or something that sounds like a command unless you are an FC or otherwise in the command structure.<br />
IE: "K'endro; FC, I recommend we bug out".<br />
In K-space, the intel that you should provide upon jumping into a new system should very likely go in this order:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Number of People in Local</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Ships on Grid</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Ships on Scan</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Other information</span><br />
<br />
To avoid confusion, certain words and lingo should be avoided, and others should be standardized.<br />
"Jump" is a protected word, to be used by the FC only.<br />
"Scramble" can either mean the fleet should scramble to planets, or that you have warp scrambled the enemy. Clarification is advised.<br />
Classifications of other pilots are as follows (color coded by their usual color on your overview).<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Corpie</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Neutral</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Neg-Sec</span> (0 or lower security standing)<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Outlaw</span> (-5 or lower security standing)<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">GCC'd</span> (Global Criminal Flagged)<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Neg-Ten</span>(Negative standing to the corp, denoted by the red "-" flag in the overview)<br />
<br />
The words "Red" and "Flashy" do not convey information that is standardized, as people have their overviews set up differently. Some people have war targets set up as red flashies, while some have them as a static teal. Some people have neutrals set up to flash, some don't. Be very specific.<br />
<br />
Three levels of voice-communication restrictions exist (at least):<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Casual Comms-</span> "Normal, casual conversation, light coordination, may be social in nature". Usually carried out in the Social channel, but might be carried out in the combat channel while gearing up. You, as the FC, should make it clear if this is allowed, or not.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Fleet Comms-</span> "Seriousness appreciated. Matters not pertaining to the current operation should be directed to text chat" Usual operational status.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Battle Comms-</span> "No speaking unless delivering intel or issuing orders" During combat, or near-combat situations.<br />
Which state the fleet is in should be clarified by the FC periodically.<br />
<br />
When calling targets, an FC should try to provide as much of the following as possible:<br />
Primary Target Full Name<br />
Primary Target Ship Type<br />
Primary Target First Three Letters<br />
Secondary Target Full Name, Shiptype<br />
EWAR targets, in general or specific (Call as a primary, or call "EWAR on Logistics")<br />
Point targets, in general or specific (Call as a primary, or call "Spread Points", or "Point Battleships").<br />
<br />
Other words that an FC might use to describe combat tactics:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Hydra -</span> Spread the action out to targets as the individual members of the fleet see fit. AKA "spread".<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Alphabetical -</span> Do the action to someone in the opposing fleet whose name begins with a letter like yours. IE K'endro would tackle Kryptonite as opposed to Saint George.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Closest -</span> Do the action to the closest target, or one suitably in range.<br />
<br />
An FC will typically be talking like an auctioneer over the course of an entire battle, relaying as much pertinent information as possible. Silence is death, especially to the pilots that have yet to land on grid.<br />
IE, an FC might call:<br />
"Saint George is Primary, in an Onyx. SAI. Secondary is Joseph Stragg, J. ECM: hostile Logistics, spread points. Hydra TD's. If the Onyx is out of range, damage closest.<br />
Saint George Primary, Onyx, SAI. Secondary Joseph Stragg. More ECM on those logistics. Call points on primary"<br />
(Fleet responds "Point!" "Point Saing!""Point SG!""Point!")<br />
FC Continues "Jimmy, maintain point on primary. Others, re-spread points. Broadcast for Reps. Saint George almost down, new primary Joseph Stragg -- scratch, new primary Snake Oil, in a buzzard, SNA. Secondary Kryptonite, Curse, KRY."<br />
&c. &c.<br />
HOPEFULLY from that type of communication, even though you have no idea what happened in this theoretical fleet battle that just happened in K'endro's mind, you know exactly what you would have to do if you are flying any particular kind of ship. Some things go unsaid, like "guardians, rep broadcasts", because these things are uniform across all engagements.<br />
<br />
The letter announcement is very important; Kryptonite can be KRY, CRY, CRI, KRI. Vowels can be even worse. Uystra, for example. UYS, OIS, EUS, and AUI are all reasonably valid things for your fleet to think you are trying to call, and every second they spend sorting through the enemy list to find it is a second they aren't DPSing the target. Remember that EVE is one of those games that you are likely to be fleeting with people that have different accents than you have, and different interpretations of names than you. Thus, letters are best. If you know your phoenetic alphabet, you can even use that, if you like, though it might be slower than letters.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Fleet comms are important to be kept clear.</span> During a combat situation, no one cares if you are taking damage, just went into structure, want to swear about something that happened, got blown up, were targeted by someone, looked at funny, or are otherwise concerned.<br />
<br />
It doesn't matter, as far as the engagement goes. You need to relay the information that other people need to know, and only that.<br />
<br />
This changes based on the size of the engagement, and based on the ship you are flying. Sometimes, who the single target is pointing is important. Other times, everyone is tackled by the opposing gang in a 15-a-side fight, so it just flat out doesn't matter if you are. If you are the sole logistics, it matters a lot more if you are jammed than if you are one of 20. Think first about whether the other people in the fleet need to hear what you are going to say, or if you are just saying it for your own personal gratification. If it is the latter, don't say it.<br />
<br />
Fleet comms are limited by time. This means that in situations where you are in combat, or comms need to happen quickly, you get the info that other people need to hear the most through in the shortest amount of time. This is very important. This will turn a close fight into a victory. Not doing this will turn ships into twisted metal very quickly.<br />
<br />
Engaging on gates in lowsec should be done very carefully, as the following concepts almost always apply.<br />
Gangs of reasonably comparable size will generally not engage on gates for full fleet/fleet combat. GCC/Gate guns hurt, putting one side at a distinct disadvantage.<br />
Gangs will take stragglers/single travelers, and point/pop them before scrambling to random safe locations. Thus, staying with the pack and moving as one creates safety.<br />
Once you GCC (take hostile action on a non-outlaw), any bystanders will engage you to get on the killmail. Even if fleet A engages only fleet B, fleet C standing by will probably also engage fleet A, as they are now likely criminally flagged.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><u>Game mechanics:</u></span><br />
When you agress a non-outlaw, or non-GCC'd other, you have GCC'd. For 15 minutes, gate and station guns will shoot you. To avoid this, dock up, or keep bouncing between safe spots. Anyone can engage and kill you with no penalty.<br />
Any gun that shoots you has it's own 15 minute timer. IE, if you GCC on a gate, and then warp to a station to dock up, your criminal flag will wear off, but your aggression timer on the faction of the hosting station will still be there for an additional 2-3 minutes. So if you undock after your GCC runs out, but before your yellow timer runs out, you will get shot again, and the yellow aggression timer will be reset to 15 minutes. This is a point of much confusion.<br />
After you agress, you have a 60 second timer during which you cannot dock, nor jump through gates. This counts down from the last aggressive action you took (EWAR, shoot, drones shooting something, etc). If you are trying to deagress, deactivate all agressive modules, and recall your drones entirely. This does NOT prevent you from warping off, so if you are stuck on gate, under gate fire, you can warp off instead of waiting out your aggression timer.<br />
If you jump into Hisec while GCC'd, you will be immediately Concordokken'd.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><u>TL;DR:</u></span><br />
There is none. Read it. It'll save your fleetmate's life one day.<br />
<br />
<br />
-------------------------------<br />
And now for deciding what I will write about "next time". I think it's about time that I delve a little bit into the industrial side of things, which is where I think I might lose anyone that has even read this far :-). Stick around, though! Industry is a really good source of passive income. So... I guess the next post will have to be "Industry for Non-Industrialists". I like it.<br />
See you then.<br />
<br />
-K'K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-13792043134089569162011-07-31T22:13:00.001-07:002011-07-31T22:35:57.804-07:00The Joy of SB Ratting<a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/sb-ratting-fittings.html">[Recommended Fittings]</a><br />
<br />
Belt ratting in a stealth bomber is honestly one of the things that I enjoy the most in EVE. Ever since I discovered it about 15 months ago, it is always what I go and do whenever I am bored with what I am doing in EVE at the time, and oftentimes it is what I go and do other times as well.<br />
There are many, many benefits to ratting this way, and it's not as hard as you might think to get started.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Benefits:</span><br />
You are in one of the smallest, stealthiest ships out there. You can warp cloaked.<br />
It takes some determination for another player to catch you, either in the form of hunting you cloaked, gatecamping for you, or probing you down. In most of these cases, that player successfully catching you is due to you making at least one mistake, as well.<br />
In my time SB ratting, I've honestly lost more bombers to rats than I have to players. And this, again, is a case where I made mistakes, either biting off more than I could chew, or not properly doing my homework. You're here, so you have the K'-Notes on it, which should save you a few SB's.<br />
PS, even when I was newly figuring out how to do this, I was still bringing in more ISK than I was losing, by a pretty significant margin.<br />
<br />
So, the reason why the choice of stealth bomber is made is due to a few factors. You have an extremely small sig radius, which helps mitigate incoming damage. You have the ability to dish out a lot of raw damage to large ships, which is the ideal for making lots of isk; the large ships have the higher bounties.<br />
You do lack the ability to clear smaller ships off of the field, but there are a few solutions for this problem. And flying a small ship, dodging the fire of the bigger ships that you are hunting is rather fun.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">WHY YOU SHOULD</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">--------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">FITTING</span><br />
<br />
Do and Don't:<br />
DO fit a Medium Shield Extender.<br />
DO fit an afterburner.<br />
DO NOT fit a microwarp drive.<br />
DO fit web or target painter, if possible.<br />
DO fit a probe launcher, even if it has to be offline.<br />
DO NOT fit a bomb launcher.<br />
DO fit as many damage mods as possible.<br />
DO NOT get cutesy with your flying.<br />
<br />
Let's go through these one by one:<br />
The medium shield extender does increase your sig, but not by too much. It gives the necessary tank for you to be able to take down battleship rats even in the presence of smaller ships that are better at hitting you.<br />
The afterburner is to keep your speed up, give you more mobility, and assists in keeping your transversal up on rats as well as potentially helping you get through player gatecamps.<br />
The target painter makes it easier for you to take down cruiser and battlecruiser sized rats, which can be very helpful in clearing suboptimal spawns.<br />
The probe launcher can have a couple of uses: wormholes to escape a truly horrendously camped situation, signatures to make off-planetary-lines bookmarks, and if you can fit an expanded one on, allows you to offline your offensive capabilities for the ability to scan a gate you want to warp in to for potential problems (helpful sometimes in busy crossroads systems)<br />
The lack of bomb launcher is simply because a single bomb has negligible usefulness. Using bombs on rats is far to expensive and doesn't add that much to your ability to take them down. Using bombs on players won't get you out of a bad situation, unless the other player makes a huge mistake (lighting an MWD on a frigate, for example). This is just one of those things that will be valuable only in certain corner-case situations.<br />
Damage mods are clearly for damage, which not only helps your isk/hr, but also your survivability; the less time you have to spend on each spawn, the less your shield gets hit, the better off you are. Gank is tank.<br />
Cutesy flying can include a lot of different things.<br />
- trying to directly approach a large ship, so that "then you can get your transversal higher"; you don't have to take zero damage to succeed, you just have to survive. Orbiting BS's at 20km is good enough to do this, you don't have to get to point blank range.<br />
- continuing ratting after a clearly dangerous ship appears on dscan. Interceptor, interdictor, recon, all of these count. Get into another system, or cloak up and make a sandwich.<br />
- trying to weave between asteroids; this always turns out badly.<br />
- sticking in on a target after your shield alarm goes off. The first rule of SB ratting is that when that alarm goes off, you align and warp out. No exceptions (Your shield is far larger than either of your other bars in an SB, so it's a really bad idea to stick in past this).<br />
<br />
<a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/sb-ratting-fittings.html">[Recommended Fittings]</a><br />
<br />
So, let's step through the things that you need to be considering at each level, from closest to furthest.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">FITTING</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">------------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">PROCESS</span><br />
<br />
The Process:<br />
<br />
Dealing with the rats<br />
The goal here is simple. For each engagement, which are easily separated, because they happen at different belts, your goal is to kill all of the battleship rats, while not taking any armor damage.<br />
Warp time gives your shield ample time to recharge between engagements. If you take larger damage on a particular engagement, then choose to make a larger warp.<br />
To take the least possible damage, light your AB when you land, and choose a path that will make your transversal big, quick. Try to work your way to where you are about 15-20k from each battleship, but remember you can still hit them from as far as 60km, and can be shooting while you are burning closer. Don't put yourself in a situation where you can get caught on an asteroid.<br />
If you see an elite frigate, warp out, cloak up, and look it up. If it has scramming ability, never go back to that belt. If it does something more harmless (TP, for example), then you can potentially farm that spawn.<br />
<br />
System Level<br />
- Write down the locations of the larger spawns. You will want to come back to those in about 20-25 minutes, to harvest the battleships again. Likewise, write down the locations of dangerous spawns. You don't want to go back there.<br />
- Be aware of local.<br />
- Keep an eye on D-scan. As someone enters local, you can "reasonably" assume that they will be in the same ship they entered local in, unless that ship entirely disappears. IE, if you see a dominix on D-scan as a new person enters local, and then suddenly there is no dominix, but he's still in local, it's much safer to assume that he shipped into a Rapier or similar to kill you than to assume he's in a cloaky dominix.<br />
- Which brings me to my next point, assume the worst. Someone jumping in system is there to kill you. If you don't catch them on D-scan, then they are in a ship that is specifically designed to kill you. If you do spot them on D-scan, then they have the best possible fitting for that ship to kill you.<br />
<br />
Region Level<br />
The most dangerous point in this whole operation is jumping from system to system, but if you are in a quiet enough branch of nullsec, this presents little problem, itself. It also behooves you to take particularly quiet times (if you are going to be regularly in the same region of nullsec) and making offgate bookmarks to be able to warp to. Remember, you will have the ability to cloak whenever you are in an SB, so you don't have to be offgrid, just off-warp-line. [Future link to Nullsec Travelling post]<br />
The map also provides many tools [Future link to map post] that you can use to make your travelling safer.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">PROCESS</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">EXPANDING</span><br />
<br />
Making it bigger:<br />
The temptation here would be to add more stealth bombers for additional DPS. This is a reasonable idea, but in a funny instance of math, you actually get more of a DPS increase by adding a single Rapier to your squad than adding a second bomber. This additionally leads to the ability to clear out spawns with pesky smaller ships, as the rapier's weapon systems, paired with the long webs and TP bonus, allow it to melt those frigates (and cruisers melt under Rapier web/TP and SB fire).<br />
Beyond this single rapier, you can add multiple stealth bombers to increase potential DPS/system coverage, with an operational limit of (I would guess) about 4 SBs per Rapier.<br />
This can lead to a very interesting roaming gang, largely set up for PvE, but able to take on particularly ignorant nullsec ratters with relative ease. You're looking at putting out about 2000 DPS per 5 man platoon, with the ability to hold a target motionless, and the only risk really being medium turrets to your stealth bombers, which could be somewhat overcome by SB's using their TP slots (opened by the Rapier having TPs) on things like turret disruptors or sensor dampeners.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">EXPANDING</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">FAQ</span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">What SB should I use?</span><br />
Always match torpedoes with the damage bonus on the stealth bomber. Always. Then use the stealth bomber that is appropriate for the region you want to go out and rat in. Stain? Use a Purifier. Syndicate? Use a Nemesis.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Where should I go?</span><br />
There's a lot of good options. Pretty much anywhere in nullsec (outside of drone space) is a reasonable choice. The more active a piece of space is, the more dangerous it is to you to rat there. The lower the true security status, the more profitable it is. My initial instincts said that the best reward-to-danger-ratio, but in trying to find a source to verify this, I've gotten some mixed messages. Something else to look into! For the moment, I'll just point you in the general direction of <a href="http://www.ombeve.co.uk/">Ombey's Eve Maps</a>, and tell you that it's a good resource for planning a space to go hunt in. This may be the topic of a future post.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">What do you do about the loots?</span><br />
A few ways you can handle this; leave them, drop them off at a station, or somehow get a secure can into a safespot. Each of these has their problems: leave them, you lose the ISK. Drop them off, you just put yourself in a station, needing to undock, which is the most dangerous spot in nullsec. The secure can requires that you had a hauler to drop it, and a hauler to pick up the loot afterward. It's also something that brings you to the same place multiple times, which is always unsafe.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Aren't Torpedos too big to carry many of them?</span><br />
Sort of. But if you daytrip, I guarantee your full cargohold will last longer than you will.<br />
If you plan on sticking around for longer than that, then you have a couple of options;<br />
-buy a lot and haul them in<br />
-bring BPC's and make them yourself from reprocessed minerals<br />
-In your travel fit, you can use expanded cargoholds in your lows, stuff more torpedos in your hold, and store them in a nullsec system nearby.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Should I live in 0.0 to do this?</span><br />
SB's are slippery enough that it's not a horrendous idea to base your jumpclone (if you decide to place one) out of a lowsec system and make the low->null jump every time you want to go ratting. I tend to prefer this over having to undock into an unknown situation every time; I think even if you jump into a gatecamp you can burn back to the gate often enough that it's worth it.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">What is most dangerous to you?</span><br />
Gate camps suck, obviously.<br />
As far as the dangers in the actual belt-ratting itself, you _must_ watch out for elite frigates. If there is one on grid when you land, warp out straightaway and google it. Sometimes they do something harmless, like target paint. Sometimes they scramble you. And then you are dead.<br />
Other than elite frigates, the only thing that poses a danger to you is your own pride. Never fly close to asteroids (just don't do it). You might get caught on a warpout. Never stay in after your shield alarm goes off (just don't do it). You will get popped surprisingly fast after that.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">But you are in 0.0 without a point!</span><br />
Yes. Stealth bombers are limiting enough with their slot layouts that you don't want to try to do more than you can. On the stealth bombers that have 3 mid slots, you really need to use all of them: AB/MSE/TP. With the fourth, you could use the spare for a point if you really wanted to, but I've found that the second TP (or a web) to be way more useful. Sometimes you just have to clear out a cruiser spawn, and these modules make it much easier to do this. You can definitely take these fits and throw a point on them if you wanted to go SB hunting rather than SB ratting, but that's a different topic altogether!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Why the expanded probe launcher?</span><br />
To me, having the ability to use combat probes can be a lifesaver if you are travelling through uncharted nullsec. Dropping a quick set of probes onto a target gate lets you know if there is a camp there, even if it is off d-scan. This proves helpful in station systems where people could be docked or in space. Core probes are nice, yes, and you can usually have these offline, but to me if you are at the point of using combat probes, you can afford to offline your offensive modules, because you are looking to get out of there, not to kill something.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">FAQ</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">TLDR</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">TL;DR:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If you've never considered it before and you are close to being able to fly one, think about ratting in 0.0 belts in a stealth bomber. Throw on an MSE and AB, and go somewhere where you can shoot bonused torpedos for the best damage. Shoot at BS and BC rats, and run away from Elite Frigates.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Fun and reasonable profit await!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">-K'</div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-75153461415587450332011-07-31T22:13:00.000-07:002011-07-31T22:14:26.328-07:00SB Ratting: FittingsFittings for <a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/joy-of-sb-ratting.html">[this post]</a>.<br />
<br />
General comments (for all four):<br />
- Be aware of your native resists, and what rat you are fighting. Angels shoot explosive, so you might not have to boost your 50% native resist. Sansha shoot EM, so you might want to boost your 0% native resist. Play it safe, first, and then move to maximizing your damage output. Small rigs are cheap.<br />
- Rigs are customizable. If you have a rough time staying in long enough to kill all the rats in a spawn, then you can rig for more resists, or more speed. If you are doing fine, then rig for more damage to move faster.<br />
- AB/MSE are required. Other mids can potentially be colored to taste.<br />
- Lows are as many BCUs as possible, with fitting mods where required.<br />
- T1 launchers are far easier to fit than T2. You can fit T2, but I can't endorse this yet, as I haven't tried it, and I'd bet that the cost or penalties associated with them would be hazardous to your stealth bomber's health.<br />
- Your SB does have the ability to fit a turret, and this is not a terrible option if you don't want to carry probes. It probably won't save you against elite frigates, though.<br />
- All of these fits are handily cap-stable.<br />
- <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Green modules</span> are flat out required to make this strategy work, as outlined in the other post.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">COMMENTS</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">-----------------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">FITTINGS</span><br />
<br />
<br />
[Manticore, KIN RAT]<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Micro Auxiliary Power Core I</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Shield Extender II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">1MN Afterburner II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Target Painter II</span><br />
Target Painter II<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Juggernaut Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Juggernaut Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Juggernaut Torpedo</span><br />
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I /OFFLINE<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Covert Ops Cloaking Device II</span><br />
<br />
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I<br />
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Statistics:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">431 DPS</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">732 m/s</span><br />
<br />
------<br />
<br />
<br />
[Hound, EXP RAT]<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Micro Auxiliary Power Core I</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Shield Extender II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">1MN Afterburner II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Target Painter II</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Bane Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Bane Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Bane Torpedo</span><br />
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I /OFFLINE<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Covert Ops Cloaking Device II</span><br />
<br />
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I<br />
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Statistics:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">50% Native Explosive Resist (Good against Angels)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">433 DPS</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">953 m/s</span><br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<br />
[Nemesis, THERM RAT]<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Micro Auxiliary Power Core I</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Shield Extender II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">1MN Afterburner II</span><br />
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Target Painter II</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Inferno Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Inferno Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Inferno Torpedo</span><br />
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I /OFFLINE<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Covert Ops Cloaking Device II</span><br />
<br />
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I<br />
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_980969732"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Stats:</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_980969732"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">431 DPS</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_980969732"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">765 m/s</span></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Shield Hardener can be swapped for a TP, passive shield resist module (Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II), Tech II Hardener (Photon Scattering Field II), or Small Shield Extender II, depending on what you are fighting and how you customize your rigs.</span><br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<br />
[Purifier, EM RAT]<br />
Nanofiber Internal Structure II<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Shield Extender II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">1MN Afterburner II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Target Painter II</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo</span><br />
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I /OFFLINE<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Covert Ops Cloaking Device II</span><br />
<br />
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I<br />
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Statistics: </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">460 DPS</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">837 m/s</span>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-22145973418229197722011-07-22T15:49:00.000-07:002011-07-22T15:49:32.011-07:00ShipStudy: Drake, PvP<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6fa8dc;">Starting Note: In all cases possible I am going to attempt to keep all of the fittings on ships posted here as Tech II for a number of reasons. First, they are easier to identify by sight, second they give you something easy to search for in EFT, and third it keeps me from having to make value assessments on Meta3-4 modules. A 3m warp disruptor is worth it for some, and definitely not worth it for others, depending on their financial state. As is, for the most part, I'll T2 it up, unless the T1 fit would look _seriously_ different (as will be the case on a few hulls that I can think of... but only a few)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If the name of the game for PvE was recharge, the name of the game for PvP is buffer. All the buffer you can fit.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">That being said, for a standard issue PvP drake, you are going to be looking at a fit that is very similar indeed to the PvE fits in the last thread, with extender rigs replacing the purger rigs.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The other consideration is that an additional factor has to be placed on the tank vs. gank balance scale: tackle. My recommendation for a drake is a web and a long point, though you can put together any combination you like. The benefit of being in a drake is that the naturally heavy tank can carry you through losing 1-2 of your shield mods for the purpose of tackle.<br />
<br />
Drakes also have the natural strength of high resists, which makes them rather effective in gangs with logistic support of some sort; any shield that is transported onto the drake will tank more damage (because of the higher resists) than onto a nearby Harbinger, for example. This is an important consideration for an FC coming up against drakes, but it is also important from the drake's perspective, as well. Shield Maintenance bots can be used in drake gangs to supplement your gang-mate's native recharge, to extend their lasting power. Because of the high resists that a drake has, these bots become very effective in relatively small numbers, and can soon boost your recharge beyond the opponent's ability to break your tank, in small-gang warfare.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">While on the topic of recharge, because the name of the game is _mostly_ buffer, you don't get quite the flexibility of using Shield Recharger IIs, nor Shield Power Relay IIs, as these both only affect the recharge. Thus, we re-task your lows. Ballistic Control System IIs prove handy for gank, Nanofiber IIs prove handy for moving around, and Power Diagnostic System IIs help provide a little bit of shield buffer in the lows, as well as helping your capacitor.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This fact lends itself to mostly standardized PvP drake fits, that have been used by many.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pvp-fittings.html">[Standard Drake]</a><br />
<br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This can be done equally easy in an HML flavor (321 DPS, more range), or with T2 missiles (514 DPS). It all depends on the situation, In a gate engagement, 20km is close enough to catch everything jumping through, and you can hit pretty much anything you have tackled. Some other engagements the additional range is very nice. The ecm drones are a must for small fleet warfare, in my humble opinion. They work miracles when used in swarms, so if everyone packs them, good news happens. Obviously your FC's orders override mine, but I love the little things. Cheap as chips, as well, so you can afford to carry 40 in your hold and eat them like candy.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Another potential role for the drake is in a cohesive gang called the Drake Nano Gang... This works like so. Fit a drake out like this:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
<a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pvp-fittings.html">[Nano Drake]</a><br />
<br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Then get together with 5 of your best buddies who have done the same (possibly various drones), and warp to a distance from your target. Start shooting. If they run away, hope you chose your spot well enough that your long point reaches. If they close to engage, you're waiting for them with open arms and double webs, which slows them down really quick.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The "nano" part of it comes in when this gang starts to pull range from anyone who wants to stay an fight; those that chase are caught in the points and webs, and those that stay longer range are put at the risk of the drake-alpha and DPS, potentially without the ability to return fire. All in all a very interesting tactic that doesn't have an easy, obvious counter. Yes, there are counters, but those are for another time.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">However, the drake doesn't _have_ to be used by this. Let me try a little exercise with you:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Call the primary:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Which one has the lighter tank is purely a matter of luck.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Most FC's even faced with an enemy fleet built like:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Drake, Drake, Hurricane, Harbinger, Omen, Blackbird, Brutix</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">would end up choosing the drake as a likely _last_ primary, or at least not first. That Blackbird would suck to keep on the field, and that Omen looks pretty squishy. Even in an armor gang (where drakes are a bit more likely to get primaried, if there is logistics on the field) if the gangs are small enough, a weaker armor ship would be primaried over the drake's big buffer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And this is a mentality we can take advantage of. Now, the next part is where you might go "naaaaah, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about"; and you might be right. But the point that I'm trying to get across is still somewhat valid:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"> if you aren't getting shot at, you don't need to be tanking, do you?</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But, without further ado, I give you the complete opposite end of Drake possibilities: The armor EWAR drake.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pvp-fittings.html">[Armor EWAR Drake]</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As per "Won't the enemy fleet notice if you are doing all this Ewar??": possibly. They might. But people in PvP have a penchant for playing their overview, as opposed to the space part of things. This means that the only clues of ewar would be if you are using ewar on them, or if that gets reported across comms (which many FC's would protest).<br />
If you mix types of ewar, someone might get a bit suspicious; that is, if you have a target painter, sensor dampener, and turret disruption all on the same cruiser, he knows you're using at least 3 slots on him.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If you use your duplicate types of EWAR on the same person (2TD on that Zealot, 2Damp on that Falcon), then they aren't so quick to notice your duplicated EWAR. the only thing that tips you off is that the timer resets at odd times, and even then they can only peg you for having 2, which might leave you with a decent tank. Hardly the sort of thing you bother the FC with when he's in the middle of things. Doubling up like this also prevents the people that actually _are_ looking at the pretty space-lights from seeing your little spiderweb quite so vividly; you might look like you have a few effects out, but that won't tip most people off. A shield drake can project a few EWAR effects onto their opponents without hurting their tank; many drake pilots take a sensor damp with them instead of so much tackle. This helps the potential of an armor drake, because people are more used to seeing these effects, and it isn't a "dead giveaway".</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If you're feeling braver, of course, you get better bang for your buck if you fully hydra your EWAR and nab as many targets as possible with negative effects, and switch your damp targets all over the place (break locks). If you have sufficient logistic support to do this, more power to you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It's not _all_ that crazy to put together an armor-tanked Drake, if it is either supported by logistics or figures a way to keep range from the rest of the engagment. Though not a "native" armor tanker, like the Harbinger or Brutix, it still gets a respectable 61k EHP, plus an EWAR tank.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It's also important to notice that the three highest resists that you have are the three highest likelihood to hit you. Along the same lines as "you don't need to tank if they aren't shooting", you don't need to tank explosive if they aren't shooting explosive.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Yes, a lot of people will put a variety of DPS into a fleet, but consider: Amarr will only shoot EM/Therm. Drones will be Therm. Drakes will shoot Kin. Minmatar tend to use EMP for legacy reasons. And everyone thinks you are shield tanked and have an EM hole (and your shield _did_ melt when they used EM, right?) Fortunately for you, if they shoot pure EM, then you're actually working at 69k EHP. Who shoots explosive at a ship that's _only_ ever shield tanked, anyway?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">PS: Yes, I've given you permission to put EWAR on your drakes. No, that does not mean you can put ECM on your drakes. For various and multiple reasons, ECM is not recommended on non-bonused ships, and if you happen to land a jam, it calls a _lot_ of attention to your EWAR. Have fun with your TD and Damps, though, those are very attractive.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So the drake is not so much a one-trick pony, as much as some nullsec entities attempt to make them one. You can fit a reasonably standard one, or go entirely the opposite direction, and still get interesting results. Possibly the two best things about a drake in PvP: they have to shoot you first, to test your tank, and your drake is fully Platinum-level insurable. Insurance is of course, a matter for another time, but as long as the mechanic exists, there's no reason you personally shouldn't be benefiting from it, right?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">One last note:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Drakes in large numbers start to take on a bit of a life of their own. They are no longer so much about the DPS, and become significantly more about the alpha. If the fleet of drakes as a whole can put out more damage in one volley than a hostile ship can stand, that's an instant pop. The fact that the drakes themselves are pretty hardy makes them harder to take down, and makes it an interesting strategy to need to break. I could speculate, but I'll leave that there for now.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Fighting Drakes:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">To prepare you against a drake, first of all, assume that it has a single point and a web, and is carrying a flight of light damage drones, until you see otherwise. In general, in a 1-v-1 type setup, nothing smaller than a BC will be able to break a drake's tank (though stealth bomber is a pretty even fight). The key to fighting a drake is preparation, however.<br />
If you fit a Kinetic resist mod to your tank, you reduce the drake's DPS by 20-25%, either through those resists, actively, or through making them switch missile types, depending on the decision they make. This can be a game-changer, and is a moderately unexpected one in most cases.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Fit to win.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Next Time:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I think that next time I'd like to cover Stealth Bomber ratting in Nullsec.<br />
How to do it, why to do it, what to watch out for, and what might get in your way.<br />
It is one of my personal favorite ways of breaking away from anything else I might be doing in EVE, and making some ISK while I do it ... and in a relatively safe fashion too!<br />
Beyond that, I'm thinking that the next entry might be getting away from the shiptypes and combat side of EVE, and might be about some aspect of the market. That's a decision for later, however. Suggestions welcomed! K' out.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">-K'</div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-15216086954752258012011-07-22T15:48:00.000-07:002011-07-22T15:49:56.606-07:00ShipStudy: Drake PvP (Fittings)This post is just the fittings for the next post <a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pvp.html">[found here]</a>; follow the link for the discussion!<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Green denotes "Required" Modules to make the fit "work", either in terms of fitting it or in terms of tactics. Other modules, I can think of at least one other module that I could see being useful in that slot.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span><br />
Remember, as with all drake fits, these have a utility high slot that can be changed to taste.<br />
<br />
NOTES<br />
--------------------------------------------------------<br />
STANDARD<br />
<br />
<u><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The "Standard" Drake</span></b></u><br />
<u><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><br />
</span></b></u><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">[Drake, PvPHAM]</span><br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Power Diagnostic System II</span><br />
Damage Control II<br />
<br />
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Large Shield Extender II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Invulnerability Field II</span><br />
Invulnerability Field II<br />
Stasis Webifier II<br />
Warp Disruptor II<br />
<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile<br />
Small Energy Neutralizer II<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Core Defence Field Extender I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Core Defence Field Extender I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Core Defence Field Extender I</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Hornet EC-300 x5<br />
<div><br />
</div><br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Statistics:</div><div>401 DPS (Kin)</div><div>86k EHP</div><div>Resists: 66/72/79/83</div><div>MWD Intentional (T2 underperforms)</div><div>Drones jam another BC 26% of the time</div><div>2m32s Cap; 10+ w/ MWD off.</div><div><br />
</div>STANDARD<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------<br />
NANO<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The Nano Drake</span></u></b><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">[Drake, Nano]</span><br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
Ballistic Control System II<br />
Nanofiber Internal Structure II<br />
Nanofiber Internal Structure II<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive</span><br />
Large Shield Extender II<br />
Invulnerability Field II<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Stasis Webifier II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Stasis Webifier II</span><br />
Warp Disruptor II<br />
<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Small Energy Neutralizer II<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Core Defence Field Extender I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Core Defence Field Extender I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Core Defence Field Extender I</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Hornet EC-300 x5<br />
<div><br />
</div><br />
<div>Stats:</div><div>321 DPS (Kin)</div><div>122 m/s</div><div>2m32s cap all running; 20m just MWD</div><div>75k Targeting range</div><div>Instant death to any tackler that follows the burn-away.</div><br />
NANO<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
ARMOR<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The Armor EWAR Drake</span></u></b><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">[Drake, ArmorDrake]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Damage Control II</span><br />
<br />
10MN Afterburner II<br />
Remote Sensor Dampener II<br />
Remote Sensor Dampener II<br />
Tracking Disruptor II<br />
Tracking Disruptor II<br />
Target Painter II<br />
<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile<br />
Auto Targeting System I<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Ancillary Current Router I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Ancillary Current Router I</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Medium Trimark Armor Pump I</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Hobgoblin II x5<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Statistics:</div><div>360 m/s</div><div>317 DPS (Kin)</div><div>75k targeting</div><div>ewar optimal 45 (Damp/Paint), 72 (TD)</div><div>61k EHP</div><div>Resists: 75/72/67/55 (Armor)</div><div>Drones: combat to not call attention to yourself.<br />
Auto Targeter: Allows additonal targets, since you will have separate EWAR and damage primary targets.</div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-26752985204599546422011-07-17T22:57:00.000-07:002011-07-17T23:11:48.017-07:00ShipStudy: Drake, PvE<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I made a rookie mistake.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I chose a huge project for my first ShipStudy. So, I'm going to break it into two. First we'll talk about the drake in PvE, along with some drake basics, and then we'll talk about the drake in PvP in my next entry.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The drake is the Caldari Tier 2 Battlecruiser. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has a 5%/Level bonus to Kinetic damage on heavy missiles and heavy assault missiles per level.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has a 5%/Level bonus to shield resistances per level.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Basics:</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This gives us a couple of pretty good indications right off the bat. The drake is a boat for dealing missile damage while shield tanking. That's a good place to start. Let's dig a little bit into the ship properties, though.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The big thing that drakes are known for is their ability to passive shield tank. Two factors play into this ability on an unfit drake: the native shield (~5500 HP) and shield recharge time (1400 seconds, lower is better)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Comparing that to the other ships in its class, the shield recharge time is identical (I was surprised to find), but the base shield is over a thousand points higher than the nearest follower (Hurricane), which makes a big difference in the ability to passive tank.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's also important to notice here that the big boon that the drake offers is twofold: high resists, and quick recharge once fitted. For the purposes of PvE, the buffer isn't the biggest factor ever, so I'm not reporting those numbers in the statistics section. They are available to you through copying and pasting these fits into EFT, however, so have a blast!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But let's throw some EFT at this, and see exactly how we can put together a solid drake fit for whatever it is that we want to do in PvE.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, let's first just go all the way into the tanking-overkill zone that I like to call the Brick Drake. It's a brick because it moves like one, but is also about that hard to destroy.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pve-fittings.html">[The Brick Drake]</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Statistics:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">997 Omnitank, Passive</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">406 Signature</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 Targets</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">175 m/s</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">317 DPS (Kin)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8.6s Align</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Capacitor: 7m 29s (!!)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notes: This setup can be played with, changing any of the modules there for other ones on the build, or shield rechargers. I chose to post this one because it was the highest omnitank that I could come up with on the fly.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What does this mean? Well, to me, it means that you can tank the drake hard enough that you could warp it into any given PvE site and go afk to make yourself dinner, knowing it will be okay when you get back. almost 1000 tank? Yes, please.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, all of this comes at a cost... an opportunity cost. What I mean is this: each module that you are fitting on there is costing you the ability to fit something else. A propulsion module would be nice on there in a lot of situations, as would a ballistic control system or two. Also, it would be really nice to keep this cap stable, especially given that the capacitor is responsible for a lot of your tank (drops to 633 DPS Omni without capacitor</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So we can say that while the fact that drakes can tank 1k DPS is something that we should keep in our back pockets, it probably is also not the most useful fact in the world, in terms of putting together most PvE fits that we will be interested in. It could be useful in certain fits for things like tanking an L4 mission with additional DPS being added from other pilots, but by and large, something more balanced sounds like a much better plan.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In search of this balance, let us consider the exact opposite end of things, a drake set up purely for damage.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pve-fittings.html">[The HML Gank Drake]</a></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statistics:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">460 DPS (Kin) (HML)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">261 Omni Tank, Passive</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">446 m/s</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">378 Signature</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9.8s Align</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Capacitor Stable at 62%</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, the trade that we just made:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can hit an additional ~150 DPS in trade for 700+ DPS in omnitank. Kind of sad. And yes, to be fair, you could throw on _one_ more BCS2 to give yourself 21 more DPS, but you lose 44 m/s mobility, and you are deep into marginal returns at that point.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Along these same lines, though, you can put together a drake that utilizes the other primary weapon systems for a drake: heavy assault missile launchers. These trade a lot of the range advantages offered by HMLs for a little additional DPS. This kind of loadout might look something like:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statistics:</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">550 DPS (Kin)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">237 Omni Tank, Passive</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">446 m/s</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">378 Signature</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9.8s Align</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Capacitor Stable at 55%</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this setup gets into a different DPS bracket than the BrickDrake, with almost twice the DPS, but it lacks both the tank and the range. This quickly begins to frame the fundamental tradeoffs that you can make when considering a drake fit. You can make a fit that is long range, high tank, or high DPS, but you can't have it all. Likewise, instead of making a higher DPS fit, you could keep the lows with shield power relays (still reducing your cap stability) while opening up a few mids for some kind of utility (a web or a target painter could work nicely). This basically gives you all the tools that you need to fit a standard issue PvE drake. Obviously, for most K-space purposes you'll want to use rat-specific hardeners to increase your tank even further to those types of damage.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Special Considerations:</u></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Web: Adds ballpark 40-60 dps to anything cruiser or below you can web down.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Target Painter: Adds ballpark 20 DPS to anything frigate, or 40-60 DPS to any cruiser you can paint.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(These two "mostly" stack, but these mechanics are for a later entry).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kin vs. Non-Kin Missiles</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one is a fun debate that I have with people from time to time. Drakes have that bonus to kinetic damage. Some rats tank kinetic damage more effectively than they tank other forms of damage. So when you are in a drake, should you be shooting other missiles, or should you still shoot kinetics? To math we go!</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, in order for a missile switch to be a better idea than sticking with Scourge or Terror, we need the other missiles to be more effective, even with the lost bonus. Assuming L5 skills, this is a 25% difference.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So...</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">\begin{MATH}</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scourge DPS = Missile DPS * 1.25 * (1 - Kinetic Resists)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other DPS = Missile DPS * (1 - Other Resists)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the condition to switch is </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scourge DPS < Other DPS</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.25 * (1 - Kinetic Resists) < </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(1 - Other Resists)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solving this out, the condition to switch off of Kinetic Missiles to another is:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other Resist </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">< 1.25 * Kinetic Resist - .25 </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When this is true, yo</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">u're doing better shooting the "other resist" whether that be EM, or explosive, or thermal.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note: This math is based on using resists like: 86% is entered in as .86</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually finding these numbers is a bit difficult, but can be done <a href="http://eve.grismar.net/rats/index.php">here</a> (for example, search for Arch), but can be a bit of a pain to find any kind of generalization.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">\end{MATH}</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other words, always do kinetic damage to rats that are weak to Kin, but in general you get good results by matching your missile damage type to the type the rat is weakest in.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last possibility worth considering for PvE is a situation in which you expect you might be getting neuted (for example, facing sleepers or incursion rats). In this case, it could be to your benefit to run an entirely capacitorless drake, and the way the drake is put together doesn't actually stop this from being a reasonable decision. I haven't ever tried this myself (disclaimer), but the principle is no different than the brick, and the numbers line up reasonably.</span></div><br />
<a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pve-fittings.html">[The Capacitorless Drake]</a><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Stats:</span><br />
372 Kin DPS (HAM)<br />
670 Omni Tank<br />
Capacitor Stable at 100%<br />
175 m/s mobility<br />
8.6s align<br />
Can be put together in either HAM or HML flavors, anywhere along the tank/gank spectrum <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><b><u>Closing Comments:</u></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like the drake for PvE. I've used one as my sub-level-4 mission boat for a long time. I used to explore in one in nullsec. I've used one in W-space sites many a time. They are the workhorse of the EVE universe, being very flexible for a lot of applications. They can be fit out anywhere along their own personal tank/gank spectrum, depending on the situation, and either tank or gank can be sacrificed to allow for utility slots to be opened up. There are a lot of different ways to put together a drake, so play with it! These are just pieces to work with, and hopefully gives you an idea of the range of things the boat can do, if you weren't familiar with it already.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I haven't made this obvious yet, I don't think that there is a perfect drake out there. I think that each is tuned to its own particular situation where it is ideal, so the best way to go about it, in my humble opinion, is to have some spare fittings for your drake to be able to tune it to whatever situation you find yourself facing on any particular day.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><u>TL;DR:</u></i></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are fitting a PvE Drake...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HML's are pretty awesome for their range.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Purger rigs give you the best passive recharge tank.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fit enough tank to comfortably survive what you are doing, and fit the rest with gank/propulsion/utility.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can put together a drake that uses no capacitor for neuting resistance. Let them neut away, and it doesn't hurt.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are throwing a drake into EFT, make sure to change the missiles to Scourge before you cringe at the DPS. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drakes are pretty powerful for the flexibility they offer, especially given the training time to get into one. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So long, and until next time, o7</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-K'</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-58705014954728159082011-07-17T22:56:00.000-07:002011-07-17T23:12:24.176-07:00ShipStudy: Drake PvE (Fittings)<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This post is just the fittings cited in the next entry (found <a href="http://emergent-structure.blogspot.com/2011/07/shipstudy-drake-pve.html">here</a>). Follow the link for the discussion!</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I'm not quoting a statistic you don't like? Throw it in EFT yourself, everything is able to be copy->pasted from here into EFT!</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><br />
</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>The Brick Drake</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Drake, BrickTank/HML]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shield Power Relay II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shield Power Relay II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shield Power Relay II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shield Power Relay II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Large Shield Extender II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Large Shield Extender II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Large Shield Extender II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Auto Targeting System I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hobgoblin II x5</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statistics:</span></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">997 Omnitank, Passive</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">406 Signature</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 Targets</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">175 m/s</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">317 DPS (Kin)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8.6s Align</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Capacitor: 7m 29s (!!)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~85km range</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~75km targeting</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>The Full-Gank HML Drake</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Drake, FullGank/HML]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ballistic Control System II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ballistic Control System II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ballistic Control System II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nanofiber Internal Structure II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10MN Afterburner II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Large Shield Extender II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Large Shield Extender II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shield Recharger II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Auto Targeting System I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hobgoblin II x5</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statistics:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">460 DPS (Kin)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">261 Omni Tank, Passive</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">446 m/s</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">378 Signature</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9.8s Align</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Capacitor Stable at 62%</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~85km range</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~75km targeting</span></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>The Full-Gank HAM Drake</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Drake, FullGank/HAM]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ballistic Control System II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ballistic Control System II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ballistic Control System II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nanofiber Internal Structure II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10MN Afterburner II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Large Shield Extender II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Invulnerability Field II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shield Recharger II</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hobgoblin II x5</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statistics:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">550 DPS (Kin)</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">237 Omni Tank, Passive</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">446 m/s</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">378 Signature</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9.8s Align</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Capacitor Stable at 55%</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~20km range</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~75km targeting</span></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>The No-Capacitor Brick Drake</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">[Drake, NoCapBrick]</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Shield Power Relay II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Shield Power Relay II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Shield Power Relay II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Shield Power Relay II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Large Shield Extender II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Large Shield Extender II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heat Dissipation Amplifier II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Shield Recharger II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Shield Recharger II</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Terror Assault Missile</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Medium Core Defence Field Purger I</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Statistics:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">372 Kin DPS</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">670 Omni Tank</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Capacitor Stable at 100%</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">175 m/s mobility</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">8.6s align</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">~20 km range</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">~75 km targeting</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Also comes in HML flavor, just change weapon rack to taste.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All of the above fittings fit without implants or hardwirings of any kind. High slot utility can be changed to taste.</div>-K'</div><br />
</div><div></div></div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-67247769883766502592011-07-08T23:25:00.000-07:002011-07-08T23:25:24.358-07:00Last of the FirstAnd with this we finally get to the "last of the first posts", after which I will fall into the actual pattern of blogging, rather than blogging about blogging.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">Warning: This gets technical. No hard feelings if you skip over this post and read the TL;DR.</span><br />
<br />
The purpose of this particular blog post is to explain the name of the blog. I'd hope that it was odd enough that it at least garnered a bit of curiosity from you, by this point. And more than that, I hope that the explanation makes a bit of appropriate sense for down the line.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">\begin{engineering_lesson}</span><br />
So, I've alluded to the fact that I'm an engineer by profession. When you're looking at controlling a system, or optimizing something, you have the choice of two extremes. You can have a centralized controller that is responsible for making the decisions for everything that happens in the system. On the other side of the coin, you can have an entirely decentralized strategy, where each individual part of the system (down to some level) is making independent decisions based on what that piece can sense.<br />
<br />
You can also do some blending of the two, to get the best of both worlds, if you know what you are doing.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">\end{engineering_lesson}</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">What does this mean?</span><br />
This means that in the first case (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Centralized</span>) you have one "thing" that is making all the decisions for every part of your system. This means that the right hand always knows what the left hand is doing, because the brain is controlling it [<i>Central</i> nervous system and all that]. This is a very very good thing if you have a controller that is good enough at processing to make this happen. You can get some very impressive results. But... (and yes, there is always a but), you have a choke point in your system. You have a single controller that is:<br />
- Obtaining all the information about the entire system at once<br />
- Doing all the processing<br />
- Communicating to every piece of the system what it is supposed to do<br />
This leads to some obvious technical requirements.<br />
-Your controller needs enough incoming communication bandwidth to receive all the necessary information.<br />
- It needs enough processor power to be able to take all of that information, make sense of it, and figure out what each piece of the system needs to do to get the desired results.<br />
- It needs enough outgoing communication bandwidth to send all necessary information to each piece of the system.<br />
- It needs to <i>not fail</i>, because if failure occurs at the central controller (or its communication points), then the system is without a head. Total system failure is expected.<br />
<br />
You can notice here that there are some analogies to biological systems. You have a central nervous system that senses and controls (almost) every action you take.<br />
These kinds of strategies are used pretty often in an engineering setting as well. Assuming your problem is simple enough and your controller is robust enough, then this is a very good solution.<br />
This is also used in some kinds of organizations (or situations pretty close to a centralized controller). I have been in some EVE fleets that have functioned very much like this. We'll touch back on this later.<br />
<br />
For the second case (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Decentralized</span>), you have a bunch of separate "things" that are each taking in the information available to them, and making decisions based on what they can sense, and what options are available to them. You can start to see that this is the exact opposite of the centralized scheme. So each "thing" (let's call a "thing" an agent) is responsible for:<br />
- Obtaining as much information as is available to it<br />
- Doing some processing using that information<br />
- Deciding what its best action (if any) is to take<br />
In the purest sense, no communication between the agents is necessary for some coordination to appear.<br />
This leads to some different technical requirements.<br />
- Each agent needs some way of sensing whatever it can<br />
- Each agent needs some kind of processing power<br />
- Each agent needs to take the "best action" that it can to help the system get the desired results<br />
- Agent failure leads to some decay of system performance, but isn't catastrophic<br />
<br />
Now, this is entirely opposite of the centralized scheme. But it is pretty important to notice that this one <i>also</i> bears some similarities to some biological systems. Look at an ant colony: each ant goes about its business, and the colony survives without the need for meetings to make sure that each ant is caught up on the comings and goings of the other ants.<br />
Likewise, look at a termite colony. <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=termite+tower&hl=en&biw=1112&bih=683&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ZO4XTsy0Eu7SiAL02ZzSBQ&ved=0CC4QsAQ">The towers are impressive</a>, to say the least. And these termites are <i>blind</i>. How do they do this? Well, I guarantee that there isn't an architect termite that is drafting up plans and directing the workers around. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">They just follow a set of very simple rules, and the results speak for themselves</span>. They simply put the building material near other freshly deposited material. This forms a pile. Piles start to form small spires. These spires join to form arches. Arches join with arches. Floors are formed. And then all of a sudden, the simple rules are starting to make something not so simple. An <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Emergent Structure</span> starts to form.<br />
<br />
I've also been a part of EVE fleets that have been run like this, where each pilot is making their own decisions, and just using comms to inform the other pilots about what they are doing. No one is directing the whole scheme, but the interceptor pilots are tackling, the EWAR pilots are ewarring, the logistics pilots are keeping ships up, and the damage pilots are picking off easy targets.<br />
<br />
But... (and again, there is always a but) the right hand can not know what the left hand is doing. It is possible that agents can be (intentionally or not) working against the interests of other agents. Remember playing basketball in elementary school? Remember the kid that was the ballhog? The actions he was taking (which I'm sure he meant the best with) were hurting the team overall. Same story here, but in a very different setting. How do you get around this? Well, that's not an easy question to answer, and that's why I have a job in real life ;-). Suffice for now to say that as long as you zoom out far enough to look at the longer term results, you can start to figure out which actions were good and which actions were bad.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">So how does this all relate to this blog?</span><br />
Well, first of all, it's a glimpse into what I do with my everyday, which affects the way that I look at problems. Second of all, the concept of emergent structures will pop up again and again through this blog, whether I specifically call it out or not. None of the ways that I go about looking at a situation involve any black magic or voodoo. It is always just taking the problem, breaking it down to its most basic, and then figuring out how to solve each individual problem. I do the same thing whether I'm looking at the market, or looking at a ship fitting, or looking at a fleet engagement.<br />
<br />
It's okay if you don't quite get what I am saying here, yet. If you did, then I'd have awfully little to write about, wouldn't I? If you managed to get through this far, then I do thank you for your patience with Russian novels.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">TL;DR:</span><br />
Simple rules, impressive results: Emergent Structure.<br />
<br />
Next we will, in fact, go into a ShipStudy of the Drake. What makes it so popular? What settings does it work well in? What do you <i>need</i> on it when you fit it? What are the misconceptions? How can we use those to our benefit?<br />
<br />
-K'K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-59130910526158671592011-07-08T21:39:00.000-07:002011-07-08T21:39:50.449-07:00Where/When/How?<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Where</span></u></b><br />
Here!<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">When</span></u></b><br />
When I have a chance. Obviously I like to actually <i>play </i>EVE, but one of the benefits I've found is that there are plenty of times that there are a few minutes here or there that waiting is the right course of action. I'll probably end up using these and the miracle that is having a second monitor to write a post here or there. My goal at the moment is about a post a week, depending on how broad of a topic I choose. When I choose to tackle something, I try to get as far into it as I can to get something out of it, so if I choose something big, there might be a bit more lead time.<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">How</span></u></b><br />
Hmm. "How". There are a lot of different ways to answer this. With a computer?<br />
Nah, cop-out. Let's go for the more "how is this going to be structured" side of things.<br />
Each week I'll choose a topic that interests me, and throw EFT, EveMon, Google, Excel, or another tool at it, to see what shakes out. I'll write it up, and put it up here for perusal at your leisure. As an example of the kinds of things I might do for a post, here are some potential titles (mostly from forum posts that I have made that will likely be cross-posted at some point)<br />
- The joy of stealth bomber ratting<br />
- How to: fleet comms<br />
- Why should I do T2 production?<br />
- Using market orders for the non-trader<br />
<br />
Given my past experience with the written word, my posts might be a bit longer than you would expect, but most of them shouldn't be excessively so.<br />
<br />
In each post, I'll always finish off with a TL;DR, so that if you aren't sure if you want to spend the time reading the entire post, you can at least get the overarching idea of the post, and decide for yourself if you want to read more.<br />
<br />
I'll try to post the subject of the next entry I will be working on at the bottom of each post, as well. If I don't manage to do this at the time of posting, I'll come back and edit it at some point when I know what the next post will be! Again, I'm not going to handcuff myself with this, and if something else pops up that attracts my attention, I'll write about that first before getting back on track. Likewise, I might have a small post here or there in between the more significant posts that will likely be on an entirely random topic. Just fair warning.<br />
<br />
I am perfectly open to taking requests/questions for future posts. Comments here work, so does EVEMail. I really would like you, as the reader, to feel involved in the evolution of this blog, and have it be a bit more of an interactive activity than it might otherwise be, so please, feel free to speak up if you have something to say!<br />
<br />
It's also entirely possible that I will talk a lot about fitting specifics. In the case that I'm looking at one specific fitting, I'll probably leave it in the main body of the post, but if it is more than 1 or 2 fittings that I am talking about, then I'll very likely put them in a separate post of just-fittings. <br />
That is, unless I figure out an <i>easy</i> way to allow part of my post to fold out of view by default...<br />
<br />
And just to make sure that everything is comparable throughout the life of my blog, whenever I'm looking at the stats of a fitting, I'll be comparing numbers using all level V skills, and will call out whether drones are considered in a DPS calculation or not.<br />
For the ease of you, the reader, I will also be using a direct copy-and-paste out of EFT for the fittings, and will name the fittings something reasonably descriptive, so as you follow along throughout the operational life of my blog, you can copy/paste those fittings into EFT to start building your personal library of fittings to play with (at no work for you!), or do the copy/paste shenanigans with EVEMon to figure out how long of a skill train that particular ship loadout will be.<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">TL;DR:</span></u></b><br />
Once a week-ish, a topic should be pretty thoroughly considered here. Expect longer-than-your-average-blog posts. When I'm talking about fittings, sometimes I'll just put the link into the post (if there is a lot of them) and post the fitting itself elsewhere. It will always be set up to be easy to copy/paste so you can do additional analysis on your own, if you like! I am open to suggestions on ideas to consider/posts to make/etc, and would like for this blog to be interactive for the reader.<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Next Time:</span></u></b><br />
Next, I'll wrap up my blogs-about-blogging, before actually launching into the kinds of posts that you can expect to see on a more regular basis from me. I'm thinking of starting with something simple, like a ShipStudy (which will likely be a regular fixture in this blog) where I consider the ins and the outs of a particular ship for the various roles it is good at playing. I'm thinking first it might be a ShipStudy of the ever-famous workhorse, the Drake. We'll see.<br />
<br />
Until next time, remember "ho<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">W</span>" has a W too ;-)<br />
<br />
-K'K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-74730144709636319752011-07-08T17:18:00.000-07:002011-07-08T20:16:15.298-07:00Who?"Who" is also a very important question to ask, here. I could be some crackpot. And maybe I am, but that's beside the point. The point is that my background affects the way that I look at things, and the way that I tackle an issue, so you knowing that gives you a bit better clue as to what you can expect out of me.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Let's break this up into two pieces. Who am I outside of EVE, and then who am I inside of EVE?</div><div><br />
</div><div><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Outside of EVE</span></u><br />
Outside of EVE, I am a 23 year old Mechanical Engineering graduate student in the US. I like using numbers to understand things. I like looking for trends in things. I like looking for, and potentially finding, things that are unexpected. Solutions that you might not "normally" see.</div><div>I enjoy games of all sorts, from athletic to card to computer. I like the organization and framework that a game provides. In the past I have subscribed to that game that is traditionally not named in the EVE community, though I've now been free of that for long enough that the memory of it is beginning to fade. Because I do have plenty of other things to do with my time, with respect to MMO's, I do try to be pretty efficient about what I do in-game. Figuring out how to get more/better results in the same chunk of time is something that's fun for me.</div><div><br />
</div><div><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Inside of EVE</span></u></div><div>Inside of EVE, I am K'endro of Adhocracy Incorporated, of Adhocracy.</div><div>I tried EVE once a year or so before I actually picked it up. It didn't quite stick for whatever reason. I think it had something to do with me trying to use Bantams for L1 missions (they were cheaper than the other ones!), and getting blown up. The second time that I put together a 14-day trial, though, something was different, and things began to click easier.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I immediately thought "well, I might as well jump all the way in", and found a 0.0 corp that I could join up with and move out to nullsec. I'd read a good bit, and knew that it was far too easy to get "stuck" in empire space. Unfortunately it was a smallish corp, and no one seemed too terribly interested in helping the new guy out, so that didn't work out too well. And then I heard about the UNI, in the rookie help channel. And people didn't start immediately shouting down the guy who said something about it, so I went to check it out!</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">The UNI</span></u></b><br />
That had mixed results. I appreciated the Uni for some of the stuff that they did, and not for other things... but even the things that I didn't like had positive effects.</div><div>I loved the class library that they had put together, and listened to what was at that point every single class that they had up, putting them on in the background while I played, etc. </div><div>The UNI likewise got me into station trading; when you are stuck in a station in Korsiki for so long, spinning while wartargets run about, you might as well do something, right? So I started remote trading in Jita, and found out that that worked pretty well. I started a small trading fund, where I took some ISK donations from people to fund my new trading habit, and turned 100% profits for the first 3 weeks I did it, before eventually getting out of that (to trade with my _own_ isk, now that I had some!)</div><div><br />
</div><div>The UNI got me into FCing. During my time in the UNI I think I was _not_ FC in a total of about 2 operations, that happened near the end of my stay there. The first time (and every time after that) I was on and looking to roam, no one wanted to FC. After warning people that they were going to get popped with me as an FC, I volunteered, and my first fleet was a 40-man patrol.</div><div>The UNI got me into wormholes. I soon learned that combat patrols were relatively pointless as a unista, and started looking for other cool things I could do. Wormholes were new, so I led a few fleets in there, to try to figure out what we could do with them. The first few trips were successful. Eventually I got locked in, and lost my first pod to the self-destruct button, having no other way to get out after having to log.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">ADHC, I</span></u></b></div><div>Pretty much as soon as I was eligible to graduate, I was looking to get out and on to other things. Wartimes were far from entertaining under the UNI ROE, and I was playing a game, after all! I happened to find ADHC on the work fair forums, and soon gathered my things to move into W-space with them. It was a much smaller operation then, and very different than it is today, but it was a whole new world apart from the UNI. I loved it. It was great.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">SF</span></u></b></div><div>A few months later, though, I got an interesting response from an evemail that I had sent out when I was looking for corps originally out of the UNI. It was from a member of Star Fraction, about my letter of interest that I had sent. At this point in time I was still very interested in a pure-NRDS engagement policy. I thought it would be nice if everyone used one (I now realize that NBSI is a major driving force in the economy), and the whole concept of SF intrigued me. So after considering for a while, I ended up deciding that the only fair thing to do would be to give SF a fair go as well, and packed up to move out to their lowsec headquarters at the time.</div><div><br />
</div><div>There, I learned a lot about different combat tactics, different ways of getting results. The fleets moved way faster than ADHC's. WAY faster than the UNI's. The whole lowsec combat style intrigued me and proved very instructive in my PvP knowledge. SF later moved to nullsec combat, and for a little bit, nullsec living, with me learning more about the mechanics at every turn. POS bashes, gatecamps, faction warfare, black ops.... you name it, I learned about it there.<br />
I also took advantage of my knowledge of WH's to lead SF PvE raiding fleets into W-space, to fuel a T3 production machine (that later resulted in my Legion that I still fly). Running these fleets like PvP operations honed my FCing skills to the speed of "actual" PvP. My experience in SF really was irreplaceable.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">ADHC, II</span></u></b></div><div>And then life came up, and I let my subscription drop.</div><div>A bit ater, I decided to reinstate it, and wasn't sure what I would do with respect to corp. I posted on the ADHC forum, asking if I would be welcome back if I chose to take up EVE again. The ADHC response was very warm and friendly, and after thinking about it, they became the clear choice for coming back; while I learned a lot in SF, the WH life just appealed more to me, and I tended to steer a bit more clear of RP than SF. Plus, rejoining ADHC offered the opportunity for me to take what I learned in SF and share it with a whole new group of people. ADHC doesn't spend nearly as much time in lowsec or k-nullsec as I did during my stint with SF, so I definitely had some expertise to share.<br />
It turned out to be a good decision.</div><div><br />
</div><div><div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">Present Day</span></u></b></div><div>And that brings us pretty much to present day in my EVE career. I now do research and production, market trading of all sorts as opportunities present themselves, and spend a large chunk of my time in W-space with ADHC.</div></div><div>I've also taken on roles as a diplomat for ADHC, which I'm sure will lead to a post or two here.</div><div>I like to EFT around with ships that I have no experience flying just to see what they can do (this is usually step 1 for me wanting to train a new ship, as it turns out).</div><div>I'll mission in known space when the opportunity presents itself, and occasionally will explore or rat in nullsec.</div><div>I've taught a few classes at EUNI, some of which have probably been recorded (I will post links at some point), and plan on teaching more as the opportunity presents itself.</div><div>What I really like about EVE, though, is the market; reading the market, playing the market, understanding the cause and effect of it all, and profiting from it.</div><div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><b><u>You</u></b></span></div><div>Enough about who I am... you're involved here too! Send me an EVEmail, tell me what you do in the world of EVE, maybe what you'd be interested in seeing me do a post on. I have a few ideas of my own (which is good, or this blog would already be in trouble), but I'm always looking for new opportunities.<br />
<br />
TL;DR:<br />
I'm a numbers nerd that likes to use those numbers to look at the bigger picture of things, and to try to find some patterns in the chaos.<br />
<br />
-K'</div></div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-74574501056489987142011-07-08T16:22:00.000-07:002011-07-08T20:16:01.088-07:00Why?<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So, why make a blog?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Well, the reasons are many, but they come down to these: I do it for me, now; I do it for me, later; and I do it for you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I do it for me, now, because I have begun to realize exactly how much of a therapeutic outlet writing is for me. Writing about pretty much anything. My corpmates have seen this in some of my Russian-novel-worthy forum posts, and they will still likely experience a lot of that. But there is plenty that I have to write where a blog makes a bit better choice of a locale, for whatever reason. As it is, anyway, having something to be able to regularly sit down and write on is something that I think will offer personal benefit.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I do it for me, later, because it makes a pretty good place for storing info about EVE. It will be way easier to search through blog posts for a "Market Insight" tag, for example, than trying to search through my hard-drive for a word document that may or may not actually have a useful tag, that I may or may not have deleted, or probably didn't even write down in the first place. In terms of RL benefit, I have noticed that my writing skills have started to decay, since I've last actually *had* to write anything. This is bad, as I'll soon be doing a lot of writing (grad student reporting in), so just getting back into writing will be a plus. You will probably also notice that this means that I'll stick pretty well to the standard rules of English, as opposed to much gaming/online shorthand. Habits and all that.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And I do it for you. I like helping people out. Even if those people are an internet away from me. It doesn't stop you from being any less real. And yes, I may be helping you out by writing about a virtual world, but that doesn't make it any less of a help. EVE has its fun parts and it's not-all-that-fun-parts (that help to make the fun parts more fun, or meaningful), but there's no reason that we can't put a little thinking to the problem to make the not-all-that-fun-stuff a little more fun, or a little less present. Grinding missions for a long time isn't too fun, but sometimes it is necessary to afford a new shiny toy. If you could put your production skills to use while grinding missions, though, and cut off a few hours of missioning time that way, while still getting your shiny, then everyone wins.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And then, going with that example, there is even the side effect that helping you change your habits helped make something that I might want to buy just a little bit cheaper... and voila! We have ourselves an effect on the virtual economy starting up. Multiply that by however many people start to read something I write, and that's potentially a big change. All because of a few words.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So, I hope this becomes a repository of very useful insights into little bits of the EVE universe.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I hope this is a place that unistas will be able to come and find a bit of info that's perhaps a bit more advanced than some of the classes that E-UNI teaches, that'll help them transition into their eventual place in EVE with less pain.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And I hope that it is entertaining, along the way.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">TL;DR:<br />
Why? Because I want to, because I can, and because I think you might like it.<br />
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-K'</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-66163755672060253542011-07-08T15:48:00.000-07:002011-07-08T20:15:48.387-07:00What?<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So, as my first foray into the W's, I suppose that "what" is the best place to start. Or at least as good of a place as any.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is going to be a blog.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is a place where I will apply my RL training (engineer) to game problems.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is going to discuss matters of interest to me. </div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is going to be intermediate-to-advanced, as far as EVE-depth goes. I hope to write about things simply enough that even beginners can find some usefulness in it, but I don't plan to handcuff myself inside of the realm of what a beginner can fully understand.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is going to discuss matters as varied as EVE itself. Some posts will delve into a specific mechanic. Some posts will look into a specific ship. Some will be about the meta-game. Some will be about something cool that happened to me. I'm not limiting myself on content possibilities, but if you are interested in what is more likely to show up here, I'll point you to the "Who?" post.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The basic idea here is that I like to look at a situation and look for the unexpected. If everyone says that a particular ship is bad, for example, my immediate reaction is "Yeah, but what is it good for?" This is the type of attitude that I plan to bring to any topic I bring to the table--looking for something non-obvious, and hopefully insightful.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The other hope is that this will turn into a place where I can do my part to collect and record some of the EVE knowledge I've acquired, to make it easier on the new guys. There is a lot of good info out there on EVE, and there is a lot that is a little sub-par. I'm definitely not perfect, but I hope to keep the information at a high quality level, so that you can know that if you read it here, it's pretty likely to be true.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The final thought that is worth mentioning here is that the goal is for this to be a place where you come, read a post, and leave a slightly better EVE-pilot in some way. While I am interested in "newsy" matters, I'd love for most of what I write to be a bit more timeless, and there is enough of interest in EVE that I think I don't have to turn to news to keep enough interesting topics on the table. To really draw the distinction here, I, for example, wouldn't be particularly interested in making a post on the recent "NEX riots", for the sake of the news of it... why the people are doing it, and such. I might, however, take a look at how people shooting at monuments for days on end impacted the ammo markets around that time, because that's an interesting trend that could be turned into profit if something similar happens again.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I hope that sheds a bit of light as to what you can expect from this, because I'm not sure what else to say, except... wait and see!<br />
<br />
TL;DR:<br />
It's a place for my random thoughts on bits of EVE to see the light of day, and hopefully a place you can come on occasion to broaden your EVE horizons.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">-K'</div>K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1501951988604612751.post-75966502481454114462011-07-08T15:21:00.000-07:002011-07-08T20:15:14.297-07:00First!Hello there.<br />
If you've stumbled across this, you are either randomly web surfing, completely in the wrong place, or have some kind of interest in EVE Online. In any case, I hope that there is something interesting here for you.<br />
<br />
Over the next day or two I'll post a series of blogs answering the "W"s (who, what , when, where, why, and how), and kind of laying the groundwork/philosophy of what I want this to become. This is as much for me in the future as it is for you as the reader, so that I can periodically check back and see how I'm doing on the goals that I'm setting.<br />
None of these goals that I'm setting are written in stone, by any means, and will be subject to change at a future point.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Some of the posts might turn into Russian Novel length entries, and for that, I apologize in advance. I'll try my very best to be concise, while still offering all of the appropriate details for those interested.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And a general shoutout, if you read an entry that I make and want to bring up something, a point that I missed or whatnot, your comments are <i>completely and entirely welcomed</i>. Post them here, EVEmail them to me, whatever. If you'd prefer that I don't directly address that comment in a later blog entry, or if you'd prefer I leave your name off of it if I do, please call that out clearly if you EVEmail me though, otherwise as fair warning, I'll consider anything EVEmailed to me as fair game.</div><br />
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Before I call it a post, I guess that here is probably the best place to mention that the layout and look of my blog will change quickly in the first few weeks that it is up, as I play around a bit to find a look that I like, and may change periodically after that. While I can appreciate the significance of keeping an aesthetic, at the same point I'd like to hope that anyone reading this is more interested in the content than the pretty background. Besides, I like a little change every now and then!<br />
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And with that, I shall call this a successful first blog post, and get to tapping out some of the W's...<br />
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-K'K'endrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13683622546040948818noreply@blogger.com1