EVE Online: Right To rule, Sansha part

As a real capsuleer I went after the money and chose to help the Sansha Nation, entering the not so scary place that is low security space to do so.

What I did see in low sec was one Nemesis and one Iteron Mark V on the gates, mostly systems that were empty or had one or two people in them and one system had a pilot with suspect status in it but mostly I noticed lots and lots of anomalies to clear.

So I just ignored it all and wizzed around being a carebear.



The low sec part of the Wildfire arc took me less as an hour to complete in an imperial navy slicer. You do need a data analyzer for one mission and some of the missions feature energy neutralizing cruisers. In the final mission I had to orbit them at range to avoid being capped out and unable to fire my lasers, otherwise I just zapped everything as soon as I could lock it.

The final mission reward is a Sansha Modified 'Gnome' Implant. When I looked it up on eve central after completion I noticed it was worth about 350-400 million.
For comparison, the Imperial Navy Modified 'Noble' Implant is worth about half that and goes for about 170 million isk.

EVE Online: [Winter] Marauder rebalancing

Marauder rebalancing has been announced and it's awesome!

Marauders will gain an 8th high slot to fit a Bastion module.
The bastion module will basically make your marauder go into siege mode, increasing all resistances by 30% (no stacking penalties withother fitted modules!), doubling shield and armor repair, makes you immune to EWAR and gives a range bonus to weapon systems.
It does however make you immovable and unable to receive remote assistance and the module cannot be deactivated before the cycle ends.

There is a new x8 skill involved in using this module. The skill itself will reduce module cycle time, down to 60 seconds at rank 5.

 

Marauders will also get  a new role bonus, 70% reduction to Micro Jump Drive activation. Meaning you can use your Micro Jump Drive after every Bastion cycle if needed.

Overall speed will be reduced to make them more dependable on the MJD and drone bays will be decreased because marauders are supposed to depend on their main weapon systems.

The Paladin will trade it's webifier velocity factor bonus for an optimal range bonus.
The Kronos will trade it's webifier velocity factor bonus for a falloff range bonus.

For PVP it's like they are miniature dreadnaughts. How will these fare against a POS?

I was about to start saving isk for a Navy Faction Raven but perhaps I should reconsider.
My Vargur is getting a refit this winter, that's for sure.

Marauders were a PVE ship with a niche role, these changes are meant to make them viable, if niche ships for PVP. Do you think we will see these ships more in PVP engagements or will they be limited to (high sec) POS bashes? 

Update flooding

Oops.

Hadn't realized that editing a title counts as a new post.



So here's another post to apologize for all the new post spam if you happen to use a rss feed.

EVE Online: Right to Rule

Right to Rule, the Amarr arc, starts with Karde Romu, agent for the Ministry of Internal Order, located in the Kor-Azor Prime system.

By the time I started running this arc I had lost some of my interest in running so many missions in a row but didn't want to switch to anything else. So I took a break and returned to the Eve universe this week.

Interference

•  The Sansha ambushed and destroyed an MIO investigator.
•  The Sansha attempted to destroy an outpost owned by Lord Touraj Miyan.
•  The Sansha were driven away from one of Miyan's slave convoys, but the commander escaped.
•  The commander escaped, aided by a third party flying Amarr ships.

Spiderweb Politics

• You met Aralin Jick, your local contact.
• An opportune attack by the Sansha convinced Security Chief Riff Hebian that Lord Miyan was the target of their attacks.
• Lady Jariza, a minor Holder who was rejected by Lord Miyan for political marriage, has been courting Lord Durabi in recent months.
• Aralin Jick suspects the Amarr ships you encountered were mercenaries hired by Lord Manik.
• You successfully tracked the mercenaries back to their camp.
• You severely ruined the mercenaries' day.
• Mina Darabi, Aralin Jick's contact and the daughter of Lord Darabi, was successfully retrieved in your violent "kidnapping."
• Mina Darabi revealed that Jariza funneled money from Lord Darabi and was in contact with Rahsa Teff, the Sansha commander. You judiciously eliminated the Sansha base and captured Teff.
• Rahsa Teff's fate was decided.

The Old Guard

• Interrogating Rahsa revealed that he had help within the Amarr Empire. You retrieved a Sansha command signal receiver for Aralin's plan to capture the traitor.
• Luring his forces into the open using the head of Rahsa, you revealed the Amarrian traitor to be Terrius Harkan, former commander of Miyan's security.
• You were sent to arrest Harkan before any more damage was done, but the traitor apparently committed suicide by destroying his own home upon your arrival.
• Riff Hebian was informed of Harkan's death.
• What was believed to be the last remnant of Rahsa's forces attacked a House Miyan outpost. After engaging the enemy the Sansha ran, revealing themselves to be a diversion.
• Lord Harkan emerged alive after all, and launched a surprise assault on Lord Miyan's safe house. You bravely broke through the corrupted defenses and turncoats. The traitor Harkan fell to your superior flying, allowing Lord Miyan to continue his rightful rule.

Yesterday evening I finished the amarr epic arc with my main. My alt has completed the first 13 missions and is now sitting in Amarr, fitting up an Imperial Navy slicer to run the the low sec Sansha chain.

Against rats like the Sansha and Blood Raiders the legion really shines. DPS and range are similar to my HAM tengu but there is no reloading or flight times. The tengu is saved by the fact it is immune to tracking disruptors.

EVE Online: Attempt at solo pvp

A while ago I gave solo pvp a first try. I threw together five wolf assault frigates and went out to Bosena, home of Sugar Kyle and The humbleless Crew.

My first attempt didn't last long. I warped to the station at range where Naoru Kozan was loitering in a Scythe Fleet Issue, he was nice enough to dock and change to a Jaguar. After undocking he warped off and then warped back to station at range as well.

He was MWD fit so closed range quickly, he came into scram range on approach but I didn't activate to save cap. That was mistake one, after that he settled into orbit around me and slowly tore me to shreds with his artillery cannons. http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=18719616

Only afterwards did I think about station sentry guns. I assume we were far enough from station by the time he agressed me. As a real carebear I have safety on.

Lessons learned:
A wolf is slow.
Small armor reppers use lots of cap.

A short time later I returned in an almost identical wolf. I had replaced the T2 TE and SAR with 2 meta 4 TE. Naoru Kozan was nice enough to undock in a different ship this time and went for an Incursus.

Once again I felt like a mouse in the paws of a cat toying with his food.

Just as before he quickly settled into a comfortable orbit around me poking me from range, sometimes coming in a bit closer where I could do a bit more damage before retreating and repping up. http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=18719881

Lessons learned:
A wolf is slow. Don't expect a kill a faster ship if you have no tricks up your sleeve.
Some lessons just have to be repeated several times I guess.

Afterwards we talked a bit and Naoru linked me some fits and gave some ideas for other ships like trashers to learn pvp.

I had planned to return to Bosena and lose 3 more wolves before making this post and fitting up some ships as suggested to me but I didn't free up time for this so far.

PvP really isn't my forte, I don't have quick reflexes and have trouble keeping track of everything. In that way I am more suited to the F1 grunt play style seen in big nullsec fleets. Of course I don't like big time dilation fleets and CTA's either.

I don't think I overheated anything at all while fighting in Bosena. I remember to overheat in PVE when I want to kill that rat just a little bit faster or need to tank just a little bit more until I can manage. In fleet PVP I also remember to overheat. In solo pvp I am mostly busy looking at dps application, tank, speed and distance.

I would rather build than destroy so perhaps I should try to sell Naoru hulls and modules I build and have him kill stuff in my name. But I also want to kill Naoru in a fair fight just to prove I did learn something from him.

Blog reboot

This will no longer be a pure Eve Online blog, instead I will just cover about anything that gets me interested enough to write about it.

I haven't been playing Eve online at all for the last few weeks. I was working on the Amarr epic mission arc but got a bit bored running combat mission after combat mission in the same ship.
If I wasn't so low on ISK I would buy a Navy Raven so I would have some change at least but my wallet contains less as a billion ISK divided among half a dozen characters.

The other item on my wishlist right now is an orca to support mining and moving shit around.

Because I like to change history I might do some sneaky edits and removal of previous posts as well.
My other blogs were removed and the articles saved for possible reposting here.

EVE online: Wildfire: part 2

Mission 13: Church of the Obsidian

Rewards: 7.000.000 ISK
Bonus Rewards: 1.150.000 ISK
Location: random system nearby.
Granted Items: Relic Analyzer I

The Ammatar “sister” that was the source of all the information was based in a nearby cathedral called the Church of the Obsidian. Get inside that church and get something called the “Blood Obsidian Orb.” I don't know what to do with it after that, but I think that's our first step.
Take this analyzer with you, and use it on the church.



Mission 14: Heresiology

Rewards: 8.000.000 ISK
Bonus Rewards: 1.400.000 ISK
Location: random system nearby

Something was written on the orb as well, and I want you to go find what it is. There's a tablet that goes along with the orb and supposedly tells more about its purpose. The Church of the Obsidian did not have this tablet, as far as I can tell, but I was able to decipher a code on the orb that told of the tablet's location: the ruins of an old Ammatar church.

I always inscribe the location of manuals on my artefacts as well.

Remember to use this analyzer on the area. It'll allow you to unearth anything hidden around those ruins. Good luck!
 
Unlike the previous mission where you don't get a minigame for activating a data analyzer for this mission you get a free relic analyzer but there are hacking minigames to be played.

In both cases I had to complete 10 minigames succesfully to get the mission item to spawn. The only loot from the hacking game was carbon, data sheets, electronic parts, hydrogen batteries, metal scraps.

I can't believe what you found among those ruins. This is a historian's dream come true. Now that we've got the Blood Obsidian Orb and the Blood Obsidian Tablet, I think we finally solve this mystery. We're very close to uncovering the secrets of the Wildfire Khumaak.
By the way: Did you notice anything strange there? I could have sworn I saw an RSS ship flying about those ruins. Weird.

Mission 15: Wildfire

Rewards: 7.000.000 ISK
Bonus Rewards: 624.000 ISK
Location: random system nearby

I've been a scholar and a historian for many years now, so I know how to handle ancient relics. I will confess, though, that I was about to cut right into the middle of the Blood Obsidian Orb to see what was inside.

I was already on a mission to get the answer for you! Are you that impatient?

Yes, I was getting rather desperate for answers. Luckily, the tablet you uncovered was more than just mystical mumbo-jumbo and flowery metaphors. Rather, it was practically an instruction manual to open the orb. Spirits be praised!

I found this datacore inside the orb. According to the tablet, there's a church in this area called the Wildfire Life Chapel. Inside the chapel is something called the Book of St. Arzad.
This book must be recovered. I'm almost certain that it's in the chapel. Put the datacore in that chapel and see what comes of it.



Lots of warp disruption frigates (5 that actively did so for me), webbing as well.

Mission 16: Stillwater

Rewards: 8.000.000 ISK
Bonus Rewards: 1.250.000 ISK
Location: random system nearby

That RSS agent showed up? That's no good. There's no telling what he'll do for the book. You have to catch him and get that book!

We need that book, and that RSS agent has it. This is my worst fear realized: Karkoti Rend was trying to get his hands on the book. The RSS claims that he was working alone, but I don't know how true that really is.







The Choice: With Great Power

After all of the trials and tribulations, we finally have the truth at our fingertips. Now it's time to dig in and find out what the Wildfire Khumaak is all about.

Mission 17: Revelation

Rewards:  25.000.000 ISK
Bonus Rewards:  208.000 ISK

Posmon Aubenard is a Gallente historian. If you take this book to him, I know that he will preserve it and keep it safe, possibly even put the book in the proper historical light with a best-selling book of his own in a few years. Go and give the Book of St. Arzad to him, and let him keep it safe. It's the right thing to do. Isn't it?

Mission 17: Retraction

Rewards: 10 x RSS Core Scanner Probe
Bonus Rewards: 1.250.000 ISK

This text belongs with my people. I cannot attest to how they will handle it, nor can I say for certain that they will bury it. But the right thing to do is to give it to them and not to let any outsiders take possession of it. This pains me as a historian, but it feels right as a Minmatar.

Conlusion: the minmatar arc is not fleshed out, no choices in mission path except at the very last step where you choose your reward.

Unlike the gallente epic arc I think all hostile ships paid out bounties or dropped tags in the case of Ammatar ships.