Surprise Surprise

In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies) 

This is now the Official You've got RED on you alliance them tune



A fairly uneventful day, not even any good plexes to hunt in, the area just didn't have any life in it. I had gone out for a movie and when I got back there was reports in an intel channel of a Legion and Loki in a safespot near planet 4 in Gusandall.

An associate on her way back from nullsec was passing through and dropped probes, her usual spread of 5, normally sufficient to probe damn near everything down, but recently there seems to have been a glitch with some of her cyber implants not working properly, she has put in for leave to get them looked at and is waiting to hear back from the developers of the implants.

She narrows down both ships but can't get a clean hit, no matter what she does to the formation, but then she drops two more probes and forms Volt... uhm, I mean a diamond formation and narrows the hit down even more, she eventually has to tighten the group up almost all on top of each other before she gets the 100% hit.

She warps in and reports both vessels immobile, ripe for the violencing.

I undock in The Fifthe Elephant, because well, I'm a little short on appropriate firepower, have to wait for Keira to authorize a shopping trip, but the Sleipnir would do.

I warp to our associates spot and land right on top of the Strategic Cruisers, Legion first, it evaporates, I lock its escape pod whilst switching tackle to the Loki, the Legion pod goes squish, and then the Loki explodes, followed shortly by its escape pod.

Loot is scooped and I head back to the station. Minutes later, one of the pilots opens convo with me:

Kane Rizzel > sup
Ako Izumi > how in the fuck did u kill my ships
Kane Rizzel > well
Kane Rizzel > you see
Kane Rizzel > there's this thing called space
Kane Rizzel > it's rather big
Kane Rizzel > and these two ships were loitering in it
Kane Rizzel > blatantly on scan and everything
Ako Izumi > in a fucking safe
Kane Rizzel > so a friend dropped some probes
Kane Rizzel > and probed them out
Kane Rizzel > poor fellas never stood a chance
Ako Izumi > thats bullshit they are unscanable
Kane Rizzel > quite clearly they are not
Kane Rizzel > might you have activated your cloaks, then maybe
Ako Izumi > u can make ships unscanable according to ccp
Kane Rizzel > you might want to check that
Kane Rizzel > cause that all changed a while ago
Ako Izumi > if ur sensor strength is higher then your sig
Kane Rizzel > mate
Kane Rizzel > maaaate
Ako Izumi > i mad
Kane Rizzel > yeah
Kane Rizzel > it happens to me too
Ako Izumi > yea shits stupid, its hard to keep up with all these gay patches
Ako Izumi > well reship and fly on i guess lol
Kane Rizzel > it did take a max skill character with full virtue set and a spread of seven probes but everything is probe-able
Kane Rizzel > good luck and fly safe


New Star Trek is good by the way :D

Links and Stats

"Why do you bother with him? He's had thousands of people killed!"
"Yes, but perhaps he thought that you wanted it."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

According to Battleclinic, I have inflicted over one trillion ISK in damage over my many years of piracy. A staggering figure and one which quite frankly blows my mind. In the process I have lost 21.75billion ISK in ships and modules... 

An expensive past time this ole Piracy lark.

So what makes an effective Pirate? A question asked on the forums many times with various and very verbose explanations given, but the one thing I believe, is that a Pirate makes money from the violence he inflicts, minimising losses to increase profit.

Pirates are just businessmen... with guns, we redistribute the wealth, from your wallet, into ours, much like any businessman with any savvy. 

So the question I now ask is this, would you do anything with in your power to make your business more profitable?

So this brings me on to the second part of this blog, and the part where I make a statement and then tell a story

Statement: I will no longer debate my use of links or entertain discourse with regards to their use with anonymous posters, comments by anonymous users or users not using their main in-game name will be deleted. 

What I will do is give a little background as to why links made me the effective Pirate I am today. The key word here is Pirate, cause that is what I am. 

I have never claimed to be the best solo PVPer in the game, nor have I ever claimed to be the best PVPer in my area, but what I will say, is that I'm one of the best pirates in the game and the numbers above give credence to my claim

The links were a remedy to my hunting of ISK farmers who would farm the 2/10 in nigh untouchable super frigates, who used a combination of the powerful gistii afterburners (which at the time gave better speed boosts than ordinary afterburners) and long range tackle to try and hold me in place whilst their friends would come and try kill me. Quite often elaborate traps were set to try and dissuade me from engaging them but I had built a powerful Jaguar that was perfect for hunting these pilots, but as time went on, they got faster and used ever more elaborate traps or just simply, warped away.

I got a little frustrated with these guys getting away, running the plex with impunity, them and their buddies laughing at me as I couldn't catch them or fell into their traps. Things had to change and in the NovaKane hangar, Keira was industriously studying leadership, she even went out of her way to purchase a mindlink that would be implanted once she had acquired sufficient knowledge to not have it fry her brain.

I'm not a vindictive person... Well... Actually I am and when the time came the plex farmers reaped what they sowed. Here is the story of the day Links went up for the first time, and here is the first kill using links.

Now tell me they weren't worth it? 

The trap was for the Rifter to orbit me at range and hold me down while his Manticore friend obliterated me (back then stealth bombers were very good at killing frigates)

Links helped me achieve some other notable milestones, I was at one time the holder of the Interceptor speed record of 63km/s, a record which stands to this day, even though the universe has changed.

Skirmish links also allowed me to catch ISK farmers that plagued Ingunn, the extra range and speed afforded by said links meant I was able to catch the gun shy farmers no matter the distance, despite their over reliance on warp core stabilizers.

Links have made me a better Pirate, just as some use ECM or sheer numbers, with the help of their own links, I use the tools at my disposal and make no apologies for it.

And then there are the fights, where no links are needed, or used, a fight where all involved are there to shoot and be shot at, such as one which occurred only minutes ago in Eifer, a Rifter and Incursus, seemingly together, but not sure as a friend had watched the Rifter pilot dispatch a rather speedy and cocky IVY pilot back to highsec. I bring my own Incursus and this time I remembered to deploy my drone as I mark the Rifter as the primary threat and make with dispatching him as fast as possible but I fail key tackle and let him get out of range, so I switch to the Incursus as the Rifter goes out to about 20km to claw back some armour, the Incursus is rocked from top to bottom as lethal Null rounds slam into his hull, and he evaporates so fast after the armour disintegrated I almost double checked I didn't let the bugger slip away with some fail tackle, but the fight was not over, the Rifter barrels back in and I overheat everything... EVERYTHING.

The Rifter is mighty but not mighty enough as it violently spasms before exploding, a quick non fail tackle scrambles the escape pods warp drive and I offer terms. 

Kane Rizzel > gf

Kane Rizzel > 50mil?

Damay Aprionati > gf

Brock Dallocort > gf

The Rifter pilot had a little system failure which is why I was able to lock his pod before he warped.

Damay Aprionati > teaching my buddy to pvp

Kane Rizzel > so fancy paying?

Damay Aprionati > i actually have no implants

Kane Rizzel > fly safe o7

A wicked little fight.

As a side note, I am now the most skilled leadership pilot amongst my family

Reply to: Reply to Marc Rosenberg

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Who's Boosting the Booster?

"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Night Watch)

This evening saw the launch of the 'Ten Link' NovaKane fleet, that's ten Tech 2 links, with mind-links on max skilled Tech 3 cruisers, in formation with my Sleipnir, I can also fit tech 2 Siege and Skirmish links at the moment, only a few more days and I'll have tech 2 armor links.



It's a little impractical but I thought it would make a funny picture :)

Keira had flown to Jita in a hauler to fetch the Legion and Tengu for this formation, on her way back she was accosted by a fellow in a Tornado battlecruiser, it went a little something like this:

------------------------------------------------------------
Gamelog
Listener: Keira Rizzel
Session Started: 2012.03.24 22:37:00
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 2012.03.24 22:37:23 ] (notify) Shadetr33, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.
[ 2012.03.24 22:37:23 ] (notify) Shadetr33: You have foolishly engaged in criminal activity within sight of sentry guns and must suffer the consequences.
[ 2012.03.24 22:37:24 ] (combat) 1400mm Carbine Howitzer I belonging to Shadetr33 hits you, doing 1020.8 damage.
[ 2012.03.24 22:37:24 ] (combat) 1400mm Carbine Howitzer I belonging to Shadetr33 places an excellent hit on you, inflicting 2700.0 damage.
[ 2012.03.24 22:38:04 ] (None) Jumping to Stargate (Hatakani) in Kassigainen solar system



Keira Rizzel > nice
Shadetr33 > booo

Always fit a tank folks.

In other news, I'm considering something rather drastic, but will let you know when I finally decide.