Saturday 25 February 2012

The Offer

You did something because it had always been done, and the explanation was "but we've always done it this way." A million dead people can't have been wrong, can they?
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant)


When made an offer you can't refuse, you have a few options, you either accept the offer, or you decline the offer, simple really, sometimes you might haggle for a better offer, but, once the offer has been accepted, don't renege, it's considered rude.

I pride myself on having honoured every single ransom I have ever offered, even on occasion having refunded ISK after some trigger happy accomplice got their jollies mid negotiation.

So. when an Ishtar and Tengu are spotted running the lucrative Angel Red Light District in Gusandall, all sorts of machinations are put into gear.

They are probed out within 30seconds of probes hitting space and my accomplice is already on the acceleration gate when I undock The Fifth Elephant™, a Sleipnir class field command ship.

Sleipnir
Sleipnir Name: Sleipnir
Hull: Cyclone
Role: Field Command Ship

Command ships are engineered specifically to wreak havoc on a battlefield of many. Sporting advanced command module interfaces, these vessels are more than capable of turning the tide in large engagements. Field command ships are geared more towards out-and-out combat than their fleet command counterparts, though both ships can hold their own in battle.


Developer: Boundless Creation


Boundless Creation's ships are based on the Brutor tribe's philosophy of warfare: simply fit as much firepower onto your ship as possible. Defense systems and electronics arrays therefore tend to take a back seat to sheer annihilative potential.


Battlecruiser Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire and 7.5% bonus to Shield Booster effectiveness per level


Command Ships Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage and 10% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret falloff per level


Role Bonus: 99% reduction in Warfare Link module CPU need


I warp to the gate and activate it, Keira is in position, Interdicition Maneuver II link active, my tackle overloaded, a massive boost in range as I would need it because the gates are far apart, they're not in the first room, microwarp drive active as I make all haste to the second gate, activated as I enter range and hurtled through to the next room of deadspace. They're sitting 45clicks away, I overheat MWD and close, locking both of them up, Tengu warps out before it resolves but I'm pleased to see a lock on the Ihstar, looooong point goes green and I close, a flight of Zerker IIs start to chase me down but the Ishtar is doomed, I hero tank hoping this would encourage the Tengu to come back but it never does, as the Ishtar explodes, the Pod is tackled and terms offered:



He accepts and transfers the isk, 90 million short, negotiations have ceased and I add his corpse to my collection. I refund the ISK, I should have considered it a donation but I have some weird fucked up sense of honour, don't ask, I can't explain it.

5 comments:

Orson said...

Looks to me like he was doomed before he even undocked that thing.

Duncan said...

Normally I'd say nice job for refunding him, but I feel like he was pretty obviously trying to scam you into thinking there were more zeros. Oh well, not like 10 mil makes a huge difference either way.

Pinky Feldman said...

First off, just wanna say huge fan of your blog. In fact, my first gang engagement (non-gank) was against you and some mean coalition gents back in late 2009. :)

Anyways, I notice you haven't tried the Talos out yet. I figure its speed and raw DPS would be something you would enjoy trying out. Any particular reason?

Kane Rizzel said...

I've seen what some are doing with the Talos and whilst it intrigues me, I'm not one to jump on a Bandwagon the moment it hits, I've only ever flown a Drake once and it ended rather badly and the fact I'm most commonly in Armour tank variants means my clone is not always best suited to the kind of destructive power the Talos possesses.

This doesn't mean I won't try it and if I do, whether successful or crash and burn, you'll hear about it here first :)

Kane Rizzel said...

And thank you :)