EVE Journey

Minmatar ships, they look like they are taped together but once you fly one, you’ll love the speed. The Republic Fleet Firetail has been high on my list of ships to test out ever since seeing it in action during the recent Alliance tournaments.

The Firetail is modeled off a fighter frigate known as the Shamrock, a design used by a small, now-extinct pirate faction known as Lazari Dromitus.  The blueprint found its way into the hands of Matari military forces after a raid on Lazari Dromitus’s headquarters succeeded in killing its leader, thus beheading the organization and scattering its remnants to the four winds.  It has since been improved upon and upgraded, and the Firetail is now a mainstay in most Republic Fleet patrols.

Minmatar Frigate Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to maximum velocity and 7.5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret tracking speed per level

Speed is a thrill .. Cap stable at 76% and speeding along at 1641 m/s (even faster if I have Minmatar Frigate V trained), the technicians have given me one hell of a zippy devil. I look forward to using this in fleets one day. Meanwhile, Gone Berserk mission is offered and I pursue the terrorist fanatics. Had to swap fits to get more DPS out of the ship and dumped the stasis webifier since it wasn’t helping much. Had to remind the weapon technician to load more rockets as I actually ran out right at the end! These fanatics sure don’t know when to quit!

[08:11:32] Message > EoM Priest:  More vermin have showed up on our doorstep.  Purge the unbelievers, in the name of the Lord!

[08:16:02] Message > EoM Priest:  Brothers, our own are suffering at the hands of these infidels.  Come to their aid at once!

[Republic Fleet Firetail, Mica - PvE ]
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Gyrostabilizer II

1MN Afterburner II
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed
Peripheral Weapon Navigation Diameter

‘Malkuth’ Rocket Launcher I, Foxfire Rocket
‘Malkuth’ Rocket Launcher I, Foxfire Rocket
200mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S
200mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Got a new mission while out testing the faction frigates. The Seven’s Brothel Objective : Find and eliminate the leader of the ‘Seven’s’ forces within their compound, then report back to your agent.

Great time to test another faction frigate from the collection! I’ve not been a fan of the aesthetics of Caldari ships (what is with the all the blinking lights?) but the Caldari Navy Hookbill actually looks pretty good.

Long struggling with a reputation for being the ugly duckling of the Caldari ship repertoire, the Hookbill recently got a new lease on life, being upgraded from a routine patrol vessel into a fleet-standard frigate. With the advancements brought on by the upgrade, the time is nigh for this little slugger to prove itself on battlefields throughout Caldari space and beyond.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Shield capacity and 10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret optimal range per level

Shield tanked, this ship hardly broke a sweat against “Sarah”, the leader of the forces I had to eliminate. DPS was comparable to the Comet and slightly faster at 970 m/s. Losietes was definitely pleased when I reported success in a rather quick time.

[Caldari Navy Hookbill, Mica - PvE Blasters]
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Overdrive Injector System II

1MN Afterburner II
Small Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Small Shield Booster II
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix

Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
‘Malkuth’ Rocket Launcher I, Gremlin Rocket
‘Malkuth’ Rocket Launcher I, Gremlin Rocket

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Ever since getting most of the  faction frigates together, I’ve not had time to do a proper test flight (missions only.. Not yet able to use them in actual combat!). Recorded the following image while running a Level 2 mission. With the rather large lights up front, the Gallente Navy Comet looks like a police vehicle!

The Comet’s design comes from one Arnerore Rylerave, an engineer and researcher of the Roden Shipyards corporation.  Originally created as a standard-issue police patrol vessel, its tremendous maneuverability and great offensive capabilities catapulted it into the Navy’s ranks, where it is now a widely-used skirmish vessel.

Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus: 7.5% bonus to Small Hybrid Weapon tracking speed and 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage per level

The flight technicians had equipped the frigate with a standard load out for missions (wanted T2 rails but they had ran out!). It definitely feels very quick to handle at 900 m/s although it lacks the DPS of my favorite frigate class ship the Ishkur. The Serpertis pirates took slightly longer to take down but it was pretty manageable.

[Gallente Navy Comet, Mica - PvE]
Small Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
100mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II

1MN Afterburner II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

‘Malkuth’ Standard Missile Launcher I, Sabretooth Light Missile
‘Malkuth’ Standard Missile Launcher I, Sabretooth Light Missile
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Hobgoblin II x1

Here’s a slightly different version than Jar’s boring places visited post. 

I’m about 11 months young and have seen a lot more action that the boring mining and production that Jar is so fond of. As a military man, the thrill of undocking and getting in a good fleet is what I look forward to.

Most of the places I’ve visited, Jar will probably never visit as they were during fleet roams. As you can see though, New Eden is huge and there is still a lot to cover.

The time in Sylph Alliance saw some nice roams to Derilik, Curse and Stain with Providence and Catch being the active defence areas. Some very memorable fights were in F9E-KX (first Double Doomsday!), HED-GP and ERVK-P with Ushra’Khan and Against All Authorities (when i see –A-, I’m glad I insured my ship). There was also a Scrapheap Drake fleet that attempted to mess around with Providence and got sent home (not very accurate picture as there was a lot more kills/losses).

After we left to form Nova Invicta, an attempt was made to settle in the Outer Ring (lots of production folks were excited coz that’s where the exhumer BPOs are sold). Unfortunately, after a few days (now fruitless) of making tactical bookmarks, we were told to pull out due the to increasing conflict between Dead Man’s Hands (allies) and Avarice. This very short lived adventure marked the visit to Syndicate and Outer Ring.

The quick trip to Pure Blind just last weekend with Agony Unleashed’s PvP Basic class saw quite a bit of T1 mayhem. Over 70 in fleet with some insane ewar setup saw a hostile casualty list of 5 Battleships, 1 Battlecruiser, 1 Assault Frigate, 1 Covert Ops, 4 Heavy Assault, 1 Recon, 2 POS Modules and 4 Pods. The jump gate bug didn’t help much for travelling but I look forward to a longer roam during the Wolfpacks class in a few days (will write a complete account of the two classes after Wolfpacks).

What’s next? 0.0 beckons and hopefully we are able to resolve some corporate and alliance matters so that we can make a move back. I’m not too fond of running missions and be at the beck and call of agents in Empire. There’s currently lots of hotspots with Querious and Etherium Reach seeing lots of action so hopefully we’ll find something there

Patch notes for Apocrypha 1.2.3, released 26 May 2009

FIXES

Critical

• Jumping through a gate will no longer cause the client to lock up.

After numerous complains, the engineers have finally figured out a fix to the issues when ships use the jump gates. This has caused many delays to travel. I’ve personally not experienced the lockups but an associate who helps me with large volume couriers had to wait a few agonizing minutes while his systems came back online after a nasty lockup. However it seems they won’t be able to fix this before next week so this might have an effect on the practical portion of the PVP Basic class.

2 days to go! With the current lull in alliance activities, I’ve decided to go back to school and get a fresh perspective on fleet formation and tactics. Was introduced to the school while reading two articles at Eve Tribune titled “Back to pvp Basics” and “Destroyers”. While I’m no slouch when its comes to fleeting up during days in Sylph. It has been over a month since I last saw action. Running missions for SOE has been great for my wallet but when the mission rats are unable to hurt my Dominix, its time to hunt some capsuleers.

After a rushed sign up for the limited spots in the class (only 50 are allowed), I managed to register for PVP-BASIC [BASIC - 2305091800] and PVP-WOLFPACKS [WOLFPACKS-3005090030]. The course materials has just been released and I’ve gone through the well written materials that is great read for new players or as a refresher course. I’ve made sure that the basic skills are met and took time to train up skills for the destroyers class that is held next week as I’ve neglected some of the training for it.

The basic class will consist of using T1 frigates in a Hydra fleet. I’ve decided to go with the Incursus since it is the T1 version of the Ishkur which I’m fond of flying. With spare ships and hydra ewar fittings (ecm, webifer, tracking disruptors, dampeners, scram, disrupt) all ready, I’ll be ready to set out for Nonni where the course will be held. Just need to remember to use a new jump clone before I fleet up for the class.

I’ve always been fascinated by the ship names in Eve in particular those of the Gallente variation. Kyle Langdon has compiled a very useful reference here. My favorite ship for its nimble tackling duties is the Ares (Interceptor): God of War (Greek). Unfortunately, the Megathron and Dominix which I often fly doesn’t have an equivalent.

*Update*

Kyle has another great post about Minmatar ships here.

Since our departure from 0.0, I’ve been busy getting in contact with my old agents. Unfortunately, Inesmir Jimud from Sisters of Eve won’t talk to me as I’ve not gained enough standing with them. Its time to unpack my trusty Ishkur and help them clear the pirate scum near their agents.

One of my dreams has been to own most (if not all) of the faction frigates dreamt by the engineers from various factions. I’ve finally managed to get in contact with some traders and got this sweet collection below. Hopefully, I’ll have time to assemble them and get them fitted nicely to run some missions.

Amarr Navy Slicer – 40mil
Caldari Navy Hookbill – 35mil
Daredevil – 75mil
Dramiel – 60mil
Gallente Navy Comet – 35mil
Republic Fleet Firetail – 28mil
Succubus – 54mil
Worm – 40mil
Cruor – 140mil+ (Not in collection)

From Mica’s Diary

After an accident in J104537 where I lost my helios due to the bad warp in and clashing into some huge veldspar rocks, CONCORD apparently has managed to find the wreck! Those guys are amazing!

2009.04.03 19:54
Dear Mica Breeze,
A salvage operation recently recovered your "Helios" class ship from a debris field in "J104537".
You should be able to retrieve your ship at "Daedalus Forge".
The salvage team could not find any items that were ejected from your ship prior to its apparent destruction so if you were not able to retrieve the cargo canisters there is sadly nothing we can do.
Law requires us to notify your friendly insurance company and they have deducted any financial payout from your account.
Sincerely, 
Your friendly neighbourhood CONCORD police squad.

From Mica’s Diary

With the wormhole having collapsed, I now had no way back to the home systems in Catch. This added pressure now renewed my resolve to find a exit and I continuing scanning fervently. However, with the Class 5 system spanning beyond 32AU, my core scanner probes could not cover the entire system making it very tiresome to track down each signal. The mess of gravimetric signals meant I had scanned down almost every gravimetric site but a wormhole exit!

Finally, a difficult signal presented itself and I thought this might be it. When I exited warp, I couldn’t believe my eyes! An entire of high end ores including Mercoxit!

The sheer amount of high-end asteroids in this belt was a sight to behold and I quickly took time to observe them. They certainly looked different since I last saw them. The mercoxit with its fiery crystals would have surely made Jar go wild with his Hulk!

As I finished surveying the belt, I found yet another signal this time a cosmic anomaly “Core Garison”. This looked to be more heavily guarded than my previous encounter and I chose to keep my distance and concentrate on the task at hand.

Finally! After spending countless hours tracking down each signal, I had found 2 wormhole exits successfully. One lead to another Class 5 system (J100415) without any spatial effects while another Class 3 (J113143) beckoned. The thought of being stuck for much longer did not appeal to me as I had no ships to take advantage of the bounties before me. I quickly prepared the ship and took a last look at the system map:

2 x Core Stronghold (Anomaly)
1 x Core Garison (Anomaly)
1 x Minor Perimeter Reservoir (Ladar)
2 x Average Frontier Deposit (Grav) 
2 x Common Perimeter Deposit (Grav)
2 x Ordinary Perimeter Deposit (Grav)
2 x Unexceptional Frontier Deposit (Grav)
2 x Rarified Core Deposit (Grav)
2 x Wormhole (Class 5 and Class 3)

This would have been an interesting place to create a tiny foothold but without the right equipment, every delay meant I would run out of supplies. As I made the jump into the wormhole leading to another unknown space, I hoped that there would be a safe way for me to get home.