Monday 31 December 2012

Woof bloody woof

"But surely dogs can't talk--" Sacharissa began.
"Oh dear oh dear oh dear," said Gaspode, "Did I *say* I was talking?"
"Well, not in so many words--"
-- Sacharissa meets Gaspode the Wonder Dog
(Terry Pratchett, The Truth)


High above the Gusandall station, an AARGH covert operations specialist stands vigilant and resolute, ever watching... Watching the comings and goings of the space lanes through Gus and surrounds. Along with her associates in various systems, she is able to report any possible prey directly to the AARGH HQ.

On a rather quiet evening, with not even a hint of possible targets anywhere nearby she still patiently waited, a true virtue of hers. A Probe ventures into the once mighty fortress of Gusandall, once vibrant with frigates from all parts of the universe, now just a way point on journeys further afield.

Thinking nothing of it as the Probe docks at the station, she continues to watch her screens, a little Invader Zim to keep her company, The Probe undocks and she spots it out of the corner of her eye, again thinking nothing of it, probably only warp straight to Eifer or Ingunn if it were feeling a little frisky... But it doesn't warp... Instead slowly moving away from the station, my covops friend starts to pay a little more attention, an unaffiliated pilot, in a Probe, in lowesec, what the devil was he up to?

CYNO!

CYNO!

CYNO!

She repeats her cry three times.

LOOKS TO BE OUT OF DOCK RANGE!

I immediately board something more suited to a prolonged fight under station guns, my mighty Megathron 'Gaspode'

I undock with haste, reports still filtering through all the time, nothing has jumped through yet.
Once out of the dock, my systems calibrate and show the Probe and cyno 18km away, I pulse my mwd, drop a flight of Garde II sentry drones and lock up the probe, no need to tackle and wait to see what jumps through. The cyno is a good 15km away from the stations docking range

Not long to wait, a Thanatos carrier jumps through and I immediately tackle it, my sentry drones ordered to pop the Probe, they dutifully comply.

All attention is now on the carrier. It is scrammed and webbed, sentry drones and blasters start punching holes in her shields, eagerly straining to get at the meat of the Thanatos, it's massive armour tank. All the while, I calmly ask in a shared intel channel if there was anyone about interested in a carrier kill, the channel lit up like last weeks xmas lights, and folk started making all haste to the ghost town that Gusandall has become. Folk from all walks of life rushed for that one last piece of gold, to help the Sheriff of this little corner of outlaw space dispense justice.

My biggest concern was the carrier pilot self destructing, next up was the fact he deployed fighters in my general direction, but I ordered a full stop of my drives and held firm, my tank already being severely tested by the station guns. Next up on the concern-o-meter was the neut being applied to my capacitor, this fella wasn't going down without somewhat of a fight, but I was timing my cap booster cycles pretty well and continued to tank as more guns arrived.

The Thanatos now out of shields was having chunks of its armour decimated by the arrival of more and more guns, eventually nine other pilots joining in the festivities. The Thanatos tank wasn't holding up too well and as it hit structure the pilot declared he would self destruct... Too little too late my friend, this kind of cowardice would just not stand as we continued our assault. I had burnt through all my cap boosters , no cap left and at half armour, no reps as the Thanatos explodes.

The explosion from a capital ship is a joy to behold and this one more so as I haven't been on a carrier kill for a good long while, and this was the first capital ship to explode in Gus for even longer.

Sometimes a little fortune favours the brave but as most the entities that came to help were hostile I made my way back to the station and docked to survey the damage to Gaspode and bask in the glow of the shiny killmail.

Happy New Year every one, thanks for your time and continued support, all the best for 2013.
Stay strong and never surrender.


Saturday 29 December 2012

Ghost Town

 It is the fate of all banisters worth sliding down that there is something nasty waiting at the far end.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade)


A few weeks ago I prodded some CCP devs on Twitter (Follow me @Kane_Rizzel) to get this thread some attention, lo and behold it worked and a dev responded and said that due to the holiday season the devs in charge of such changes wouldn't be around until the new year. In the interim however, Gusandall has become a ghost town for frigate PvP, and this saddens me.

This is still something I feel really strongly about. One of the upsides of this change though is that Gistii modules have sky-rocketed in price and even though I'm sitting on several billion ISK worth of of them, looted from those that CCP said farmed the plexes for ISK, I will not saturate the market with them, I will hold onto them until server end, or use them myself to make my frigates loot piƱatas for those intrepid souls brave enough to venture into lowsec with their frigates for little to no reward.
 


I lost my Venture a few nights ago, but have it replaced already, using a carebear ship designed for carebears, by carebears to kill carebears is one of my favourite things

Wednesday 26 December 2012

You've got RED on you

Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?
- Pete

Many years ago I created this signature for my forum presence, one of my all time favourite Zombie movies, Shaun of the Dead was my inspiration because I was particularly drawn to a specific quote:

You've got RED on you

This quote has now become an Alliance, ingame, NovaKane Incorporated and associates will now fly under a single banner, as by now everyone knows who is part of my family anyways and it will make red standings easier to monitor between our various corps. For those don't know, we only have one standing, red, normally set for people who are known blobbers or dishonourable types that fly with logi/ecm. everyone else is just a neutral waiting to be red.

Now y'all know I do from time to time fly with others, but this is what NovaKane's standings look like, two of the excellent's are my associates corporations, the other is an old friends corp, now retired planetside and no longer a Capsuleer.



I don't shoot my personal friends, and there are a few, but I know them by name and I hope they would afford me the same courtesy, so I don't need to set blue.


Other than that, if it moves, shoot it, safeties off, open fire... If it doesn't move, shoot it, in case it decides to move at a later date, pay it forward folks.

AARGH wants BRAINZ... And it wants them now.

Monday 24 December 2012

Do you mind, I'm trying to mine here...

Quote #101.

"There is nothing that can be in our way, for this is Jekub, that Laughs at Barriers, and says brrm-brrm."

-- From the Book Of Nome, Jekub, Chap. 3, v. V
(Terry Pratchett, Diggers) 


My new occupation has not met with great success, every damn time I try to mine some bastard tries to shoot me, so instead of rocks, I have to mine hulls. Now somebody said that this is salvaging, but I don't even have that skill.
I've decided to name and shame the horrible people who keep intefering with my peaceful mining operation:

A combat Venture, very sneaky, using a mining ship as a disuise

This guy just kept trying to bump me

Arty Rifter of Poo

Herp Derp indeed

Other miners are rude and try to mine my rocks

This guy was fueling a POS that disturbed the rocks in the nearby belt.

Not sure what he was doing but it disturbed my calm

 This... Turned into this... And This, after I went back for a combat vessel, the mighty Caracal war bird.

Yet another greedy miner who wouldn't share the astroid.


So as you can see, my mining career is having some teething problems, if only people would just let me mine in peace...

Ship Kills
Venture Venture
Unknown
15

I was told mining is a peaceful and relaxing occupation, the hum of the mining lasers able to soothe and calm...


Editor's note: The Stiletto adventure had Kane in stitches of laughter for a good fifteen minutes, so much so he almost lost the Caracal.

Sunday 16 December 2012

A New Venture

Quote #109.

"They say there's dwarf mines under the Ramtops," she said inconsequentially. "My, but them little buggers is in for a surprise."

-- Granny reflects on Esk's methods of lighting a fire.
(Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites)


With the loss of my beloved 2/10 and with no explanation from the powers that be wherefore or why, I have decided to embark on a new career.

A new ship was recently released and seems perfectly suited to my new career, no longer a plex Pirate. I fit her up best I could with my skills and head on out for her maiden mission.

The destination was Eifer, home from home and now the scene of something remarkable.




I warp to a belt at random and as I exit warp there appears a ship of same designation and colour as mine, I close to investigate his intentions, friend or foe but he lights me up like a xmas tree...

I can't stand for this and proceed to mine his hull




A rather interesting outcome


WAR... DunDunDun... What is it good for?

Quote #135.

Slab: Jus' say "AarrghaarrghpleeassennononoUGH"

-- Detritus' war on drugs
(Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)


Something stirs in the heart of high security space...

NovaKane Incorporated Declares War Against Void-Legion
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2012.12.16 17:40

NovaKane Incorporated has declared war on Void-Legion.
Within 24 hours fighting can legally occur between those involved. If war is due to a corporation at war joining an alliance, then the war starts immediately instead.


Which was shortly followed by an inquiring mail.

Wardec? What's up?
From: Erth Paradine
Sent: 2012.12.16 17:44
To: Keira Rizzel, 

A wardec? Really? Why?

- Erth Paradine


A fair and just question, which deserves a measured response.

Re: Wardec? What's up?
From: Keira Rizzel
Sent: 2012.12.16 18:34
To: Erth Paradine, 

Greetings and salutations

It has come to my Brothers attention that you and your alliance are engaged in clandestine affairs. As honest hard working folk we can not and will not abide such shenanigans...

Also...

You killed our father...

Prepare to die

Hugs and Kisses

Keira





Also, follow me on Twitter @Kane_Rizzel

Sunday 9 December 2012

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??!!

 "'E's fighting in there!" he stuttered, grabbing the captain's arm.
"All by himself?" said the captain.
"No, with everyone!" shouted Nobby, hopping from one foot to the other.
-- Making Friends and Hitting People
(Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)


I have never supported the idea of Arenas in EVE, I never had a need to, as the 1/10 and 2/10 plexes always supplied what I thought were Arenas, but made so by the players themselves.

So now that CCP have taken away player made arenas without a proper explanation, even though we, the arena Gladiators, have specifically asked for one and been ignored.
I propose Combat Arenas be introduced into the systems  that were home to the 2/10s that allow only frigates and destroyer hulls inside, anything outside, but no cloaks... At all.

Not sure how to make them worthwhile, the 2/10s, whilst not massive ISK printers, could always lure players who wanted to try their hand at some lowsec shenanigans without risking their shiny big ships, which is why they were perfect meeting spots for rascally types to violence each other.
Don't know about the highsec plexes but the lowsec plexes were policed by the players, even with the limited resources we had available to us to do so, but anybody who tried to run the 2/10 in Gus whilst I was online knows exactly what can happen.

I even have a name for these Arenas, [Insert System Name] Coliseum, Maybe have a point system whereby you score a single point for each gladiatorial kill and lose a point foe each death made inside the coliseum, with a built in ranking system.

Or scratch the ranking system, not sure I like that idea, but anyways, this is just something I've been thinking about.

I'm still out there, in space, doing my thing, having some fun with some rather unconventional ships, and I'm loving the new gate gun mechanics.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Into the heart of Darkness

Quote #474.

SQUEAK.
-- The Death of Rats
(Terry Pratchett, Small Gods) 


It is with great sadness that I report the death of a very old friend of mine.

We shared many an adventure, some epic late night shenanigans, but the universe turns and I shall have to find something new, what that is, I don't know.



I guess I can no longer call myself the Arch-Chancellor of Gusandall, as the school has been closed. Five years, seven months and seven days of some of the most epic lessons in spaceship violence, good and bad.
Log on traps, log offs, plex farmers, anti-pirates, lowbies, newbies, fortune hunters, bounty hunters, blobs, cloakies, nano fiends, ECM fiends, friends and enemies, I salute you all and all the fun times we had in Gusandall.

Still no word from CCP.

Saturday 1 December 2012

Have they gone mad?

Quote #542.

He didn't look mad, but they never did.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Strata) 


CCP have seemingly lost their minds... AGAIN... And are looking at removing ALL 1/10 and 2/10 static plexes... No more Gusandall small ship PvP haven, no more Heild, Bogolek or countless other systems where folk can enjoy civilised small ship PvP.

As the Arch-Chancellor of Gusandall and Guardian of the 2/10 for almost six years, I call on all my readers, followers, friends and foes to speak out against this madness.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Do it for small ship PvP, do it for honour, do it for freedom but above all, please, please do it for me.