Sink the Bismark.

How long ’til Amarr Cruiser 5!!??

Engaged a Carrier for the first time today-a Thanatos whilst in an Alliance fleet led by Varian.Its not something ive often considered being as how havent seen TOO many of them up close or involved in any skirmishes so far-and i have mixed feelings about this engagement.I was in the Falcon again stationed one jump away from the System where engagement took place and after it had started got the ok to jump in and move to engage.Voice comms was pretty frantic so had to take an educated guess at a warp in point and headed for Varian…got lucky as arrived and targetted the Carrier at 68km-6km under my Optimal range of 74km.2 other hostile boats were prominent too-both Battleships,an Amarr Armageddon and a Minmatar Typhoon but i had to focus on the Carrier-the Gallente Thanatos.
Fortuitously i had fitted 2 Gallente ECM jammers on the Falcon-whenever i fit the Boat i always have the full set of Racial Jammers plus one extra which is taken either by the jammer for ships i KNOW i will encounter or failing that i do tend to go with an extra Gallente one.I used to fit an extra Caldari jammer in case i run into another Falcon but nowadays i fit an anti-Falcon ECCM module instead-rather than attempting the battle of lock times and skill level with another Falcon i figure to ramp up my own sensor strength and make him work twice as hard for his jams.
In the back of my mind i was recalling info. i had read about Carriers and was aware that they have a huge Sensor Strength compared to the boats you would normally consider engaging-the Thanatos’ is 76-this number is important as it directly affects your chance of getting a succesful jam-to put it in some kind of perspective the Armageddon Battleship has a Sensor Strength of 17!!
Each ECM module has a specific strength assigned to it based on your ECM support modules(e.g.-Signal Distortion Amplifiers) and Skill level-mine currently stands at just over 12-increased through the above from a base value of 3.6-and trust me that has taken months to jump it those few digits!-now your chance of succesfully jamming a target is based on a few things but in the main these are-Jammer strength(12.0something)…whether you are within Optimal range(74km)…whether you are using the correct “Racial” jammer on the target e.g. a Gallente Jammer(Magnetometric) on a Gallente Boat..the Sensor Strength of the target comes into play-without getting bogged down-if the Sensor Strength of the target is say here 12 or less then i have a 100% chance of negating the effect of the targets Sensor Strength and conversely the % chance decreases the more the targets Sensor Strength is higher than the Jammer Strength(12+).
Pretty straightforward-looking at it so far you would suppose that any boat you target within your optimal that has less Sensor Strength than 12 you would be able to jam them permanently 100% of the time and anything over 12 your % chance diminishes the higher the gap gets-but theres the final factor to consider-on top of all this ECM Jammers have a random chance factor thrown in as well-just for good measure-so its impossibile to say Skill up and fit your boat-then carefully choose targets you know you can “overcome” as there is this random aspect involved too.
Sooo..back to the Thanatos with its whopping 76 Sensor Strength…here it goes as i fire up 4 Jammers-the 2 Gallente and 2 other Racials as well-though these have a way less chance of getting a succesful jam the Thanatos is Primary and luck just might be on my side.
Straight away i get a succesful jam on the Carrier!..i know now that ive broken any locks he had on fleet members and he wont be able to begin re-targetting for 20 seconds at least…i hear a call on voice to jam the Armageddon so i break one jammer off the Carrier(my Amarr RADAR) jammer and am lucky in that i need to wait only a few seconds before i can reactivate it on the ‘Geddon-great,another succesful jam-1 Jammer-1 Battleship out of the engagement.
The ‘Geddons Sensor Strength is only 17 so you can see the odds are stacked with me on getting and maintaining a succesful jam on this guy-the overall % is with me.
So thats 2 targets jammed and the Typhoon is not firing on me and im receiving no calls to jam him-im hoping that no-one is taking enough grief from him to warrant it.

The first 20 second jamming cycle on the Carrier comes to an end..i have 3 jammers on him..the 2 Gallente and my Caldari-ive kept my Minmatar jammer inactive so far in case i get a call to go for the Typhoon too-2nd cycle starts…no jam..the odds are stacked against me here.. the Carriers got 20 seconds respite where he can begin targetting again….the 2nd cycle on the Amarr jammer targetting the ‘Geddon kicks off-hes jammed again!
Now my nerves start to tremble-is that Carrier going to target me or someone else during the next 20 seconds-im not taking any damage as the cycle comes to an end…i need a succesful 3rd cycle on the Carrier but it doesnt happen-the 2 Magnetometric jammers just arent enough to keep this guy jammed-the % doesnt add up in my favor even having a “double” chance-so he’s free again for another 20 seconds.Dammit i throw the inactive Minmatar jammer onto him as well-but to be expected it cant get it done.3rd cycle on the ‘Geddon and he’s jammed again.All 5 jammers are going now but i see my shields start to disappear and see ive been snagged by a Minmatar Rapier thats come into view-on the overview id thought momentarily that it was the Typhoon but no..its this damn Rapier-i hate these boats..if id care to check back my lossmails im sure id find that these things have caused me the biggest amount of grief so far.
Now i get a sense of my mistake in firing up that last Minmatar jammer on the Carrier-i switch it off but theres at least another 15 seconds to go before the cycle ends and i can reactivate it on the Rapier-it turns into a matter of whether my Shields and Armor can last 15 seconds while hes throwing out damage-the other option is to warp out-i momentarily decide i want another go at the Carrier and want to keep that Armageddon jammed up but see sense and hit align to one of the Gates in System-ive hesitated too long though and im Scrambled.Shields disappear and the Armor shrinks VERY fast-just as im into Structure i hit the Minmatar jammer onto the Rapier and it fires-he’s jammed….but im too late-Drones are out and on me-much as i would like it to be so although he cant hit me with his Cannons his Drones are engaged with me independently and they chew through the structure in a second-maybe 2.Just before the Boat goes Bang i look at the Jammers-i THINK i see that the Carrier was jammed again on the 4th Cycle and same with the ‘Geddon but i surmise its moot as dont imagine the jam cycle will last when the Falcon is no longer present.

All done in just over 60 seconds from start to finish.
Wake up in Amarr Emperors-again!-im extremely glad i didnt install any implants after my last podding.

Now-i said i had mixed feelings about this incident but more specifically its about the Falcon.When i started Skilling up ECM warfare it was because thats what Caldari boats are specialized in-support roles,specifically ECM and the Falcon was without peer.Since then its capabilities were smashed with the last Expansion-its optimal range was obliterated from 150km+(more with good skills) to way down around 60km base-with Skilling up ive got the Optimal to 74km and thats a miniscule improvement for each level trained up on various skills as well as fitting 2 Rigs to increase it as well.As it is now-if you want to be at your optimal range-and facing multiple targets you need to be-within a matter of seconds you are within range of aggressors and as you can see from above the process is very much a matter of seconds count.
Of the 3 other ECM Boats i fly-the Kitsune-a T2 Frigate!!- has an optimal Range of 79km…the Blackbird(the T1 Cruiser) has an Optimal of 100km and the Scorpion(T1 Battleship) has an Optimal of 122km-all of them dont have the Jam Strength of the Falcon-Kitsune is around 10.5-Blackbird 9.5 and Scorp 9.9(but has much more flexibility in fitting)-but im starting to get the idea that all the jam strength in the world is no good if you are gone in less than a minute.

When i consider the Rapier that snared me this time-i made a mistake in firing the Minmatar jammer i was keeping in reserve on the Carrier and that gave him time to snare and kill me but another 10-15 seconds breathing space would probably have saved me-whether those seconds bought by being at a greater distance..the extra 25km or so i wouldve had with the Blackbird or by having some Buffer(and distance) with the Scorpion-Its possibile to modify my fitting on the Falcon and drop that extra Racial jammer or maybe the ECCM and stick in some Shields but im loathe to do so and to my mind very much gimping the boat-this a 90million isk specialized boat-and i would sooner go with a 3 million isk Blackbird with approx. same “resists” or a 50 million Scorpion which has Shields/Resists that are actually worth something.
So whats next?

Nothing until ive broken out my Probing gear…sneaked my way down into 0.0 without hitting any Gate Camps…and run a dozen or so decent plexes and made some ISK…there only so many boats and so much loot stashed away that you can go trawling around the universe to pick up and sell before the well runs dry.

And i need to pay for that Curse somehow.

LuftMorder.

Sooo..my planned total hiatus isnt going as smoothly as i figured.The alliance and hence Aurelius Fed. is at war..i think it became active not 3 or 4 days into my holiday…whats a fellow to do?…sit idly by whilst your comrades are slaughtered by the merciless aggressor..stand and watch while they pillage and loot all that you hold dear?….or break out the rusty old armour and ride out to defeat the foe?………actually so far its been a bit of a damp squid..theres less than 10 “targets” and maybe a 1/3rd of them have already left their Corporation!
Be that as it may i have gradually been sucked back in the last two days…yesterday i broke out all my Manufacturing and Invention gear and decided to start up a few jobs..will knock out some Caldari Elite Frigates…a nice little earner if i can run out a couple of dozen or so and sell them on the open market in low-security and today logged in to see if there any war action happening..none…and got roped into two different “roams” around the neighbourhood.First one passed without incident..i was a latecomer to this and really just tagged along for the last 45 minutes…i almost took out the Scorpion for its first “action”(in Empire space anyway) but boated up without checking what the rest of the fellas were flying and took the Falcon as this can do two things…ECM Jamming and Recon work because of its ability to warp while cloaked up…wish id taken the Scorpion tho’ as when i arrived at the System the rest were at i saw that Cmdr GAT had brought a Falcon too and was doing the Recon thing.
The Scorpion is Battleship sized hull but i guess any pretensions at being a mighty death-dealer halt right there.Its a pure Electronics platform with 8 Middle slots for fitting the tools of your trade.All well and good…ECM Jammers..yawn…couple of Shield extenders just for psychological reasons and a Gravimetric ECCM module in case i run into any nasty Falcons with a top-skilled pilot.Its the High slots that im dying to fire up for real…3 T2 Heavy Energy Neutralisers and 3 Large Smart Bombs..i desperate for a couple of Interceptors to burn towards me and try snagging me..if some drones get tossed out too id be a happy fellow.

But, i never took it…and the next “roam” was as part of a “Stealth Bomber” gang…oh my!…i could certainly have done with the Scorp. on this one…….

5 of us set off from our home systems in Stealth Bombers..i took the Manticore..a great little boat that ive had some fun with and has got me out of a couple of tight situations when i have it set up for speed/recon stuff but this was a bombing roam so it was on with the bomb launcher and load up the torpedoes.Its pretty straightforward to set up except when it comes to a couple of the 4 mid-slots..a microwarpdrive for sure..a target painter for the Torpedoes…i go with a Sensor Booster with Res. Script for fast lock times as you dont want to be hanging around in this thing then the 4th..hmmm.I did have a small shield extender fitted but mainly because it was just a not-thinking fitment..someone suggested a Sensor Dampener which is a possibility but then i thought about fitting an ECM Burst module..something ive never considered before being as how they generally suck compared to the regular targetted ECM Jammers range wise.But, on checking out the Info. and “EFTing” it i saw that with my “Splendid” ECM skills i get a very nice increase(50%) in its optimal range and its strength goes up by more than a 1/3rd….what do i want it for?…in case any interceptors burn to me super fast and lock me down..i figure that with range out to 15km or so and strength just under 10.0 im gonna have a decent chance of breaking any lock from a burning overshooting Interceptor and being able to high-tail it..probably with about 10 % structure remaining but i should get away.
A journey of about 11 or 12 jumps took us to the System HED-GP….haha the first time i ever went into this system my bowels nearly opened there and then.You go from the relative emptiness of 0.0 space..maybe pass one or two “Blue” gate camps on the way…and all of a sudden Local is full of “Reds”..10..20…30…40..omg more.
This time it was no different tho’ there was the added bonus of jumping through the gate into a bubble with around 10 red boats(that you could see) sitting round waiting for the unwary or the foolish.One by one we go through..jump..align..cloak…realign..start burning towards the outside of the bubble keeping an eye out for cans,wrecks and the red Vagabonds burning around.With luck all of us made it through unscathed tho’ we had to watch as a friendly pilot came through just after us and was snared..ship destroyed and podded.
A warp over to the only other gate in system and it was 10 minutes to get ourselves all positioned ready for launching a salvo of bombs at whatever juicy targets presented themselves.10 minutes…20…30…40…50…nada…nothing worth opening up on….we were literally seconds from engaging a Taranis that spent 10 minutes orbiting the gate…apparently whilst he Red to us he also Red to the Locals so he was baiting them…..then the bugger jumped through the gate after leaving a cargo can with a message for the natives.
By this point we had been joined by the pilot who had previously got podded in the bubble..Midnight Wyvern rolled him into our fleet and he ended up on station with us in his Stealth Bomber too.
NolDevin went to have a look at the Bubbled gate..the Bubble was down and there only 4 Reds present uncloaked..wrecks and cargo cans were scattered all around but it seemed like there was at least 2 boats we might have a chance of taking down with a bomb volley so it was all warp over and get in position.Unfortunately one of those things happened which..how can i put it….suck.Right on the cusp of engaging i see NolDevins Boat uncloak so im off with the cloak too and let fly an Electron Bomb…but NolDevins uncloaked by default..hes disconnected and his Boats done so automatically..hes not there to launch.Hes just off to my port side(or was) and the 2 Reds are burning to the spot at thousands of m/s..now im in their direction of travel so its easy for them to get a lock on me in seconds..aha i thinks..im gonna be fine as i hit the ECM Burst then start hitting warp..but no..im not going anywhere and the Manticore just melts around me.
I wake up in Amarr Emperor(2nd time this month!) to the sounds and reports one after another of the rest of the Squad getting laid out-tho’ the fellow who joined us shot down someone with a single Scorch Bomb…those who saw it said it was very well done.

Soo..i not too sure about the efficacy of this ECM Burst module..because the boat melted in seconds i couldnt really tell if it was working correctly..whether the Intys were in range or not or because it the first time ive even fitted one whether its “Burst” comes at the beginning or end of activation.

Oh aye..and looking at the Killmail what did i see also involved in my demise…a bloomin’ Falcon pilot.

Someone loses an Eye.

What a time to start!

I figured to start another blog-used to have one ages ago- after reading often 2 others done by 2 fellas in Aurelius Federation both of which id been finding a good read for a few minutes here and there.

Aurelius Federation?-a Player Corporation in the MMORPG EvE Online-heres a link if you somehow came across this and dont have the faintest idea

http://www.eveonline.com/

Anyways…i have 6 days off work-i still have almost a full years leave entitlement to take and the year is drawing to a close so need to “use it or lose it” so a while ago spied an opportunity to string together some days..got my request in before anyone else and “huzzah”-6 days off(unless i get called in-which the way things have been is not unlikely-PLAN:dont answer the ‘phone!

Now; i had it in my mind to spend a few days in EvE due to some big in-game procedures that needed doing-namely the dismantling of a “Station” that was built by and paid for by myself and “Rayth Phaenor” my colleauge in Aurelius and the searching out of another empty system to build a bigger one.Rayth had done the majority of the searching last time around and found exactly what we were looking for-the searching is a long and occasionaly tedious process with sometimes brief periods of danger but this time round,with a  wedge of free time i figured to have a good ol’ crack at it.But…..

“The best laid schemes o mice an’ men

Gang aft agley”

No matter how well or hard we plan for something our plans can often fail to become reality..or worse,they can end up going terribly wrong…(for all you non-scots).

So what happened then?-in a nutshell the Station we had built in a “Wormhole” system was looted by another player from Aurelius and 5 Battleships and tens of dozens of “Ship fitting Modules” were stolen.Rayth,Nlor Rath and Sarah Tuttle each had a Raven class boat stolen along with the fittings and i lost a “Scorpion” class as well as my pride and joy a “Navy Raven” Battleship which is worth more than the the other 4 combined-along with some very expensive fittings which id just recently bought following the first profits from our venture into this “wormhole” project.In some ways the theft of the boats while being a real downer didnt hit as hard as the plundering of the heap of ship fittings which were also taken-these had been brought in so that any visitors to our project and more specifically any newer players perhaps without much “ISK” to spare or inexperienced in fitting their Boats adequately for the rigors of “W-space” could fit appropriately without having to spend huge amounts on fittings.Most of these Modules i had gathered over the past couple of years and was worth at a conservative estimate 150 million ISK..not sooo much in the scheme of things but somehow their value was in more than what they “worth”…..Now,total loss to me-over 1 billion isk and that including my main means to “earn”-the Navy Raven-result?-im broke!True i have several hundred million ISK tied up in the actual “Station” itself but beyond that we had ploughed all our liquid assets into setting up this whole expedition…the aim of which wasnt to “make us rich” but has a surprise purpose(if we get back our investment, cover expenses and tick over in earning as much as we would have by doing “normal” activities we be doing well at the end of it all…or at least that the aim before these events!).

Dismantling the project(Station) and selling it off to go liquid again is not an option-myself and Rayth are too far down the line with too much time and effort(specific skill training) done to close it up-to factor in the lost time/effort in ISK terms would probably triple our losses this week as well as remove the opportunity for Sarah and Nlor to get back on top and replace their Boats-if you looking to make pure ISK then w-space is the place to be for effort/reward-at least for regular guys like us without years invested in Uber-production or claims to the most lucrative plexing/mining areas.Anyhows….what to do now??

Pretty much since the start of the expedition ST and Nlor have been involved daily and say they have been enjoying the whole thing and for sure have been invaluable in the whole project so far..whether it been Gas Mining,Ore Mining, Plexing,Salvaging,Hauling or Scanning.They going to stay involved with the move to a higher class system…and as it turns out i couldnt have wished for anything better(except maybe “Vhero Min” getting hit by a train in RL!!).The whole theft thing has left a very bad taste in my mouth-a mixture of disgust at the guy who did it and probably a dent to my pride too…like i said before the ship thefts i can ALMOST fathom but the looting of other stuff for some reason really gets to me….and it the lameness of the whole episode…a “Corp. theft” from a really tough nut to crack..ok..there maybe some “skill” in that and if succesful some “wow!” factor..infiltrating an “enemy” organisation and doing the same during a “war”…fair enough…but to thieve so much from such an easy target…and our ability to seek “vengeance” is almost 0 as far as i can see…the thief has been spreading disinformation  about who/what he is and his M.O. since the incident.

With ST and Nlor looking like they going to stay involved with the next progression i decided to take a break for a while….i plan to have a little input next week when one of my characters reaches a point where it can run some T3 Reverse Engineering jobs to obtain the specific Blueprints for  T3 ship systems that i responsibile for but beyond that i have two skills to train to Level 5 on both Ajax and Kuklinski which i have been wanting to start for a while but always delay due to other day-to day skill requirements.At the moment i do plan on returning after about a month-months subscription just went through after all…. i be watching Aurelius Forum in case there any War that breaks out in Providence and it becomes all hands on deck..apart from that its..off to the gym again!!…i been wasting away these last few months so much have i neglected it..and summer is just around the corner.

These two should ensure i return from my hiatus!

and lastly…i thought this was hilarious

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1106502