Cut down all the things

Saturdays usually start early for me. Very early. Having very young kids kinda wrecks your ability to sleep late in the morning. So up we go at 5:30. Oh yeah. Fresh and eager to take on a new day. The moment I open my eyes however that is not how I feel. Suddenly I regret joining in on the farming in static after the lowsec roam. Yeah I need isk. But apparantly sleep is more important. But out of bed we have to get. Put on a cartoon for the kid. Put on the coffee. Crash in the couch and whip up the phone to stay awake while waiting for the coffee to finish. Nothing interesting on eve forum. As usual. Oh wait. Proc has made a post. A serious one. Dont know if he will ever recover to his usual trolling mood from before CSM election. Maybe it has scarred him for life? Thoughts wonder to how a beaten Proc is sitting in his captain quarters watching the latest Razor propaganda to gain the will to undock. This could be true. At least in one possible universe. But this post is about wormholespace. Its about the death of wormholespace. And all the veterans brings out their wall of text. Its that time of the year again.

There are a few interesteing replies, like G0hme's tl:dr of wormholespace history. Let me pull out a quote that I felt hit a important mark:

This past bore the mark of less "big groups" where few of them knew eachother by more than at the end of eachothers crosshair. But as younger corps got bigger and everyone got multiple capitals in their systems, so came the rise of "WH Overlords" ground zero for the political cancer of Wormhole space.

You can ofcourse brush this off as a veterans ramblings about how everything was better in the old days and I think in many aspects it was. It certainly was different. 

This day I took my brand new CEO's example. There was something I had neglected for a bit. And it was time to deal with it.Having neglected it for so long there was only one way to go about it.

CUT DOWN ALL THE THINGS
So I grabbed the trimmer and went out and just started cutting. Everything down to the ground. I am not really a garden guy. Its not something I dream about at work. But sometimes it feels good to do something with your hands, demolish the jungle and then try to shape it into something beautiful. Its not really beautiful to look at yet tho. Work in progress. But actually starting the work is sometimes a milestone in it self. There are enough things one "should" have done that never get done. Life is just to short. The days dont have enough hours. And spaceships are more fun then weeds :P

Doing work with your hands often give your mind time to just think. Theres not much thinking required to cut down thistles and something else you really have no clue what is named. Among other more important stuff my mind wandered back to the state of wormholes however. It is a known fact that theres this mantra about not evicting pvp entities. As long as you play and behave in the accepted manner ofc. If you dont then everyone gang up on you. So theres an ideal that is ment to improve quality of life for the big groups that is part of the same club (WH overlords or whatever channel serves the same purpose). And ofcourse its repeated a few times on forum. But do not be fooled. This mantra only apply to those in the club. If you are a smaller group of players trying to carve your way, without "entertaining" the big groups to make them like you, you are basicly on your own and nobody cares. And there are several lesser known groups that dont mind doing evictions and infact find them fun. They dont go about boasting about it either as that would just make them a target in return. But evictions still happen. Those who can, and want to, do it. And is this really a bad thing? Are evictions and invasions what ruin wormholespace? After being on the recieving end of 4 invasions in the last year and on the dealing end a few times aswell I will VERY strongly object to this nonsense of an idea. In fact I will go so far as to state that invasions and evictions are what actually drive the major content in wormholespace. The attempt to NIP (Non Invasion Pact) everything is one (not the only) of the reasons wormholespace is becoming dull for a lot of people. Yes it sucked to loose 50 bill of assets when we was evicted from our 5-2. It was a difficult time. But for me (and I believe many others) that is what Eve is all about. Sometimes you win and sometimes you get beaten to the ground. But then you get up again and set out finding a new wormhole and start building up again. And even for those who give up, they will always remember the adventure you had, the victories and the losses. Its a story they bring on and remember. THIS is what makes eve the game we all love. Not only the victories but also the losses. And when you go and create a big blue safetyzone around you that feeling of risk, that feeling of adventure and excitement will depart and degrade aswell.

This is also one of the things that is unique to wormholespace. At least now. It used to be like this in 0.0. When ATUK[5] empire fell in the southeast we were a small group of corps that banded togeather and went back out as a new alliance [CHIMP] and took back some of the space without being dropped on by everyone. This was in the time before the big forceprojection. Before Titans. And even dreads was a rare sight.

We still have this opportunity in wormholespace. If you get beaten you can head back out and start fresh in a new system. Noone can stop you. But out of fear a lot of you sign up NIPs and add every diplo in any major group to your facebook page (metaphor). What happened to those who were willing to take a risk? To have no blues and take on the world?

This is why I love my alliance. We have taken our distance from this nonsense politics of wormholespace. We do our own thing. We have no blues. Yes it may be our downfall one day, but until then everyone we meet is a target and we can choose to fight or not as we please.We owe noone anything and nobody owe us anything. If we want a fight there are ALWAYS ways to get one. If the gnosis bait dont work then you up it to a marauder, sitting in their site, in their system. If the chain is empty you roll it or head out to kspace and scout aswell. As long as there is other people playing the game there are fights to be had. Somehwere. Even if its 30 jumps away through highsec.

I would urge anyone who read this post (even tho I dont know if anyone outside my alliance do :P ) to take the step and the risk. Do away with your blues. Drop all your NIPs and do your own thing. Win some and loose some. Bring back that feeling of being unsecure. If you have nothing to fear you have nothing to overcome, nothing to beat. Even an imaginary threat will give you more excitement than no threat at all. Dear to risk some. I promise you its worth it in the end! Cut down all the things!!

Making new goals

Having almost finished the merger of .ORLY into ICOL I figured it was time to start looking at some new goals in eve. This may be a bit messy post as I write it on the fly.

First, what have I already done
- Lead two alliances in wspace
- Done c5 and c6 space
- Ragerolling (didnt like that)
- Hunting (love it)
- Capital escalations (repetitive but ok isk)
- Gas harvesting
- Mining (afk 4tw)
- low class sites (on par with mining in fun and isk/h)

And basicly whatever else has been avaiable of content.

Now I need a isk income to fund pvp but still something that I dont have to sink too much time into.That basicly means PI. I need a proper PI farm again. Takes time to setup but easy to maintain. If the chars I set into it also can do some active isk in addition when no pew is to be had thats not bad either. No thats some chars sorted into that (yeah already got access to several good PI wh. They are often also avaiable on market for just a few hundred mill)

But who can I find a lot of fun pew with for my main chars? I started digging. Whats happening in eve? What are people doing? I still dislike sov null since the LV vs RA war in 2006. And lowsec seem to be only frigs or hotdrops. So I started looking at the killboards of every active group in wormholespace. Someone posted a overview of killboard stats on forum. Very interesting. Taking away the us tz groups and those with very tiny fleets in eu tz tho didnt leave many behind that was viable. I also took away every c6 group as I done really like what is happening in c6 space. In the end the most likely corps outside unsettled would be ducks, probe patrol and n0mex. I tried to figure out how ducks was evolving. What kind of corp culture they were breeding. Being a new(ish) entity that could be a exciting option. So sent a mail to chitsa. No reply. Hmm maybe he just was busy. So I search up on evewho to see who is in that corp. Oh Longinius Spear. Former enemy but a nice guy. So I convo him when I see him online. One of the first things he mention is that they are super serious about pvp. That make me instantly strike them from the list. I continue the convo with Spear and he is very optimistic about trying ducks way of playing the game. This morning tho I see it didnt turn out so well. You have my sympathy Spear.

So now I look up n0mex and Probe Patrol. Probe Patrol are now in ixtab. (The alliance Eve Ryuken was part of earlier) and they seem to have fun. Live in 5-5 like Unsettled. but just have more members. A lot more. Well then I could just stay in Unsettled. is my first thought. As I know the people and enjoy flying with them. So I check up the killboard of n0mex. MD even have a chat with gunnerz. Great guys. Know them a bit from a common stay in SYJ. But after studying their fleets setup and size I realise they are doing basicly just the same as Unsettled. Easier HS and less bigger size battle tho.

In the end I just scrap all my plans and figure I want to continue flying with the guys I already fly with. Love to fly with them. Love the culture we have in alliance and we just keep growing. Yeah time to haul back in my stuff :P

I'll do my best to be a ordinary member. To be a content creator more than enabler. To have a more carefree EVE life. And I will try my very very best not to step on my new CEO and directors toes :D

The story of a thief

tl:dr ships got stolen, offered thief a way out. He refuse. Mandatory forum post.

Sharing this as its a good story :)

As .ORLY is merging with ICOL all our members have to move their assets over to new towers. In the middle of it all some ships go missing, bookmarks get deleted and someone leave two velators floating at one of the towers with POS password as name. Obviously someone took their chance. Now I have never understood thieves. The lust for a quick heist but wasting away potential friendships and community. At the end of the day, isk is only a means to put food on the table (or in eve: ships in your hangar). You go and ask a elderly gentleman what has mattered most to him in life. The answer will almost always be the people he shared his life with. For longer or for short periods. Just go and search on google for that matter. Almost everyone will name the people in their life as the most important aspects of their life. I take this philosophy with me in EVE. Not everyone does. Thats ok. But I do not understand those who put isk and a solo gameplay above potential friendships. Maybe they got enough friends in reallife and just want to take a piss in the game? I guess there are explanations, but that doesn't mean I understand them.

As it would happen I was home the day after the heist as my kid got sick. I really hate those kind of days as the kids get really restless when staying home, but a fever is a fever. But I logged on in the morning and the first thing I noticed was that all bookmarks was gone. This immidiatly set off all alarmbells. This was what happened when we got invaded in the 5-2. Our static was leading to the SSC home system, but surely they would have already reinforced all towers if they were invading. But no towers was reinforced. Ok. Not an invasion then. I start having a look around. Notice two velators floating at one of the members POS but think little of it. Then I start going through the members list. Who had been online since I logged off last night. Two people (beside some of my directors) it turns out. Zuzu Aqua was one of those two. Now there are two factors which immidiatly make me suspect Zuzu:
1. When applying his skills was perfectly set towards a combat pilot. No new character does that. Yet he claimed to be a new player. He did however have no isk transfers, 0 isk trades, contracts with assets, mails or odd contacts in contactlist that tied him up to any other character. In hindsight this should be enough to reject him, but we tried to not always think the worst of people. Beside, we have a decent secure setup that allows people to keep stuff safe.
2. He wasnt active. At all. He did not parttake in anything. After two weeks we originally terminated his membership due to inactivity, but he made a persuasive case for himself and said he had given notice he would be gone due to exams. So we gave him a little bit more time. The conversation was friendly and he seemed appreciative for a second chance so didnt think he would go all butthurt about it.

However when the bookmarks was deleted and he was one of two suspects (the other one is a decent guy who have been acitve and I really look forward to keep flying with). Zuzu is sat in Jita and his division in tower is empty. I immidiatly removed all his roles and got him blocked in alliance chat, forum and other stuff. The next day I get a convo from the other guy who had been online about ships that was missing. So now we are adding theft to the list. Guardian, Loki and a Ashimmu. However I want to give Zuzu a fair chance so I send him a mail.

From: calaretu
Sent: 2014.06.24 15:53
To: MD74,  Zuzu Aqua,

Hey Zuzu. We had a theft in corp and would like you to reactivate api as we need to clear your name.

If you are innocent this shouldnt be a problem

If you are guilty we will give you a chance to refund the stolen goods

Failure to comply earns you a post on the forum (which will make your char unable to join most corps in eve)

- Calaretu

He replies friendly with his API and I start looking over it again. Not a single trade, isk transfer or anything else since before the theft. If he is the thief he has really outdone himself in covering his tracks. We had thieves before but this is certainly a new level of quality. There is just no hard evidence whatsoever. However there is also no other suspects. If there was he would have gotten away with it completely. Me and MD go back and forth about alternative possabilities, one of them could even lead to a diplomatic crisis with a corp we're friends with. However, we decide to have confront Zuzu and see what his reaction is. After all a thieves greatest enemy is himself. So we strike a convo. (If you as reader ever are in a similar position, make sure to have at least one witness you can trust with you in the conversation.)

As we are talking about it Zuzu log on. He greets in chat.
[ 2014.06.25 19:22:13 ] Zuzu Aqua > hey o/
[ 2014.06.25 19:22:19 ] Zuzu Aqua > found where the ships went?

I invite him to convo. The minutes pass. No reply. Then.

[ 2014.06.25 19:33:16 ] Zuzu Aqua > o/
[ 2014.06.25 19:33:23 ] calaretu > didnt you have any ships in retreat?
(in his API he only had two frigs and a rookie ship. that was all his assets)
[ 2014.06.25 19:33:48 ] Zuzu Aqua > i had navy vexor in SMA
[ 2014.06.25 19:33:51 ] Zuzu Aqua > in left hand
[ 2014.06.25 19:34:10 ] Zuzu Aqua > but when i logged on it wasnt there
[ 2014.06.25 19:34:49 ] calaretu > thing is. Only you and one other and directors was online during the time of the theft
(putting up our only piece of evidence right there. but he doesnt know that)
[ 2014.06.25 19:35:14 ] Zuzu Aqua > oh
[ 2014.06.25 19:35:20 ] Zuzu Aqua > who was it
[ 2014.06.25 19:35:52 ] calaretu > the one the ships was stolen form
[ 2014.06.25 19:36:29 ] Zuzu Aqua > oh

Now if he had kept his head calm here and kept the innocent act going I would have nothing. Nothing but a hunch and circumstances. And no connections to who was really behind the theft. However, I manage to trigger exactly what I was fishing for. His pride. His arrogance. The common denominator of all thieves. Their ego and sense of accomplishment. The same rush that spurs them to this way of gameplay is also their most common downfall. And in his pride he starts dragging in one character after another to the conversation. My circumstancial evidence was enough for him to call the act and start boasting.
 
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:28 ] Beliar Gray > interesting clue huh
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:33 ] Beliar Gray > oh noes
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:44 ] Beliar Gray > and yeah i know its petty thievery
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:52 ] Beliar Gray > im just lazy is all

And on and on he drags in characters. In the end I had noted down this list:

Zuzu Aqua
Zahard Ignis
Zula Terra
Gentaros
Beliar Gray (already used as scammer)
Ryan Aego
Ben Li
Pandorath (eve-search on this char turns up another alt: Arya Regnar)
Spryt3 (bought few years ago, ties up to Beliar Gray in purchase thread)
Veila Canus
 Jewels04 (shows up a interesting fake auction with more alts)

All of them online at the same time. Thats at least 11 accounts running at once.  Nwo many of these chars are clean so it baffles me that he shows his hand like this. Did we really trigger his lust for bragging that hard? Either that or he is framing some people. However, as he brought the chars into the chat I must say I am grateful for having him reveal by himself what I couldnt find proof of.

Seeing as he pulled this of nearly flawlessly I offer him to repay ships and in turn not mention this to anyone outside alliance. He refuse. So up goes the forum post Now I did not anticipate the respons to that post. But it gave me a good laugh. Usually you get the random npc corp chars that cry out about lack of proof, but this one actually got people from Pasta replying aswell. Well would you look at that.  Apparantly Pasta even make claim to have been part of eviction in Bastion. Except they dont show up on any killmails.

Let me say this tho. I have nothing personal against Pasta. I love what they do and the content they create. I dont even have anything personal against Zuzu. But action has consequence. That goes both ways :)

Below is complete chatlog of the conversation that happened.

       
---------------------------------------------------------------

  Channel ID:      -61103543
  Channel Name:    Private Chat (alone)
  Listener:        calaretu
  Session started: 2014.06.25 19:33:02
---------------------------------------------------------------

[ 2014.06.25 19:33:16 ] Zuzu Aqua > o/
[ 2014.06.25 19:33:23 ] calaretu > didnt you have any ships in retreat?
[ 2014.06.25 19:33:48 ] Zuzu Aqua > i had navy vexor in SMA
[ 2014.06.25 19:33:51 ] Zuzu Aqua > in left hand
[ 2014.06.25 19:34:10 ] Zuzu Aqua > but when i logged on it wasnt there
[ 2014.06.25 19:34:49 ] calaretu > thing is. Only you and one other and directors was online during the time of the theft
[ 2014.06.25 19:35:14 ] Zuzu Aqua > oh
[ 2014.06.25 19:35:20 ] Zuzu Aqua > who was it
[ 2014.06.25 19:35:52 ] calaretu > the one the ships was stolen form
[ 2014.06.25 19:36:29 ] Zuzu Aqua > oh
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:28 ] Beliar Gray > interesting clue huh
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:33 ] Beliar Gray > oh noes
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:44 ] Beliar Gray > and yeah i know its petty thievery
[ 2014.06.25 19:37:52 ] Beliar Gray > im just lazy is all
[ 2014.06.25 19:38:10 ] Zuzu Aqua > sorry MD
[ 2014.06.25 19:38:15 ] Zuzu Aqua > just my gank alt getting burnt
[ 2014.06.25 19:38:22 ] Zuzu Aqua > thats why all the gunnery
[ 2014.06.25 19:38:43 ] calaretu > I'll give you a option to keep the alt usefull
[ 2014.06.25 19:38:47 ] calaretu > repay the lost ships
[ 2014.06.25 19:38:54 ] Zuzu Aqua > useful in what way
[ 2014.06.25 19:39:05 ] calaretu > not being listed along with your main as corp thieves
[ 2014.06.25 19:39:29 ] calaretu > that char is worth more than you stole
[ 2014.06.25 19:39:39 ] calaretu > and selling it without stain would profit you more
[ 2014.06.25 19:40:13 ] MD74 > could have just done some scouting during anoms, and you would have earned a few bill
[ 2014.06.25 19:40:20 ] Gentaros > #1
[ 2014.06.25 19:41:15 ] Zahard Ignis > #2
[ 2014.06.25 19:41:17 ] MD74 > give that guy his ships back man
[ 2014.06.25 19:41:22 ] Zuzu Aqua > #3
[ 2014.06.25 19:42:16 ] Zula Terra > #4
[ 2014.06.25 19:42:25 ] MD74 > so, whats your point here
[ 2014.06.25 19:43:06 ] Ryan Aego > #5
[ 2014.06.25 19:43:34 ] Beliar Gray > they all have 1 thing in common
[ 2014.06.25 19:43:37 ] Beliar Gray > corp thiefs
[ 2014.06.25 19:43:40 ] Beliar Gray > awoxers
[ 2014.06.25 19:43:44 ] Beliar Gray > infiltrators
[ 2014.06.25 19:43:45 ] Beliar Gray > spies
[ 2014.06.25 19:44:18 ] Beliar Gray > the ones starting with Z were made on the same day
[ 2014.06.25 19:44:46 ] Beliar Gray > infiltration wasnt the end purpose
[ 2014.06.25 19:44:48 ] MD74 > shame, i thought all slovenians were nice people
[ 2014.06.25 19:44:50 ] Beliar Gray > just an extra
[ 2014.06.25 19:45:22 ] MD74 > end purpose was getting away with a few bil in ships?
[ 2014.06.25 19:45:35 ] Beliar Gray > well
[ 2014.06.25 19:45:40 ] Beliar Gray > i dont really have much time atm
[ 2014.06.25 19:45:57 ] Beliar Gray > and i cant use these chars without linking them to me
[ 2014.06.25 19:46:05 ] MD74 > just give that guy his few ships back and find a better target
[ 2014.06.25 19:46:06 ] Beliar Gray > beliar is as burnt as it gets
[ 2014.06.25 19:47:00 ] Ben Li > and dudes said its ok to piss a few people off
[ 2014.06.25 19:47:41 ] MD74 > you didnt piss off people, you just took a few ships from a guy who didnt deserve that
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:00 ] Beliar Gray > mehh
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:10 ] Beliar Gray > you sent me password by accident
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:13 ] Beliar Gray > Peanuts
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:26 ] Beliar Gray > i had access to that pos and all in freely accessible SMA before
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:36 ] Beliar Gray > just sucks i actually had no time sooner
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:44 ] Beliar Gray > you have decent security
[ 2014.06.25 19:48:58 ] Beliar Gray > if i was gona pass on to ICOL i wasnt getting anything
[ 2014.06.25 19:49:11 ] Pandorath > and i knew that
[ 2014.06.25 19:49:54 ] MD74 > so you settled for  Tineoidea Asanari his few ships
[ 2014.06.25 19:50:14 ] Pandorath > well
[ 2014.06.25 19:50:25 ] Pandorath > and the ships in that other pos
[ 2014.06.25 19:50:38 ] Pandorath > jamgu and 2 guardians or sth
[ 2014.06.25 19:51:25 ] Spryt3 > 2.8b isnt a good theft
[ 2014.06.25 19:51:29 ] Spryt3 > http://i.imgur.com/cXBudFN.jpg this is a good theft
[ 2014.06.25 19:51:51 ] calaretu > haha. true that
[ 2014.06.25 19:52:57 ] Velia Canus > i was considering finding a better target
[ 2014.06.25 19:53:03 ] Velia Canus > but i had a c5>c5>hs
[ 2014.06.25 19:53:14 ] Velia Canus > and enough characters to fly it all out in 1 go
[ 2014.06.25 19:53:50 ] Velia Canus > it doesnt matter if you make a post for each one separately
[ 2014.06.25 19:54:26 ] Velia Canus > i always do it with clean alts or help friends that need my skills
[ 2014.06.25 19:55:20 ] MD74 > i dont give a damn about your chars man, you are just showing off here, bragging a bit. if this is how you like to play the game, then thats your choice. but im right about one thing; this game reflects how people are in rl. and you must be one big soab
[ 2014.06.25 19:55:36 ] MD74 > with a small penis
[ 2014.06.25 19:59:24 ] Jewels04 > k
[ 2014.06.25 19:59:41 ] Jewels04 > i hit you mainly because c5 and CFC are runing eve
[ 2014.06.25 19:59:46 ] Jewels04 > easy isk farm
[ 2014.06.25 19:59:57 ] Jewels04 > well incursions too
[ 2014.06.25 20:00:04 ] Jewels04 > but you dont make 600m/h there
[ 2014.06.25 20:03:18 ] Ben Li > enjoy your sleepers
[ 2014.06.25 20:03:26 ] Ben Li > i dont give a fuck

Endings and change

tl:dr Honestly We didnt know are merging with Imperial Collective

It was last summer (before Nimons final invasion) that the CEO of No self Esteem, smokeAjoint, stepped down and I took his place. He wasn't playing anymore and we needed someone active to set direction for the corp. After having dabbled with roles and titles a lot in some of my alt corps I knew the system and volunteered. JeRaad was burnt out on alliance leading from MALAS and MD74 didn't want CEO. So I became the one to pick up the title. But I was never top chief. We led in unison. First in ENNE and Shadow Politics and then when we started Honestly [.ORLY]  we also lead in unison. Me, MD74, Grimch and Manira. It has been a great blast the last year. It has been a year full of content. Both good and bad.

This spring has brought with it the best move we have done so far. Joining forces with ICOL and forming the Unsettled alliance has been great fun, but for me real life has become increasingly busy. Thats just how it is sometimes. But it has also happened for the other directors in corp. This have brought on a situation where none of us feel the we have the proper time to both run the corp, build the alliance and still enjoy the game. So last night it was made public.  Honestly We didn't know are merging with Imperial Collective. 

So post went up on forum with info:

Leadership in .orly has continually had a review and dialogue about the state of corp. To keep things healthy and to be on top of stuff. We have come to the conclusion that currently no one in leadership have enough time in real life to enjoy the game and run the corp. So we have asked Huei and ICOL leadership for a merge of active members into ICOL. We feel this will strengthen the alliance and the group as a whole.

<insert description on how we will handle this practically> 

As it looks I will be leaving to do something else. I just need a change. I have enjoyed every moment in Unsettled and are really proud of what it has become. But I will never manage to be just a member in this alliance. I care too much. So I will be heading off to kspace at first to reassess how little stuff I really got. Then I will cry in a corner and spend some "time" with the Mrs and then figure out where I want to go in Eve. (should at least take two hours in total) It shall be said that every one of you have made this alliance what it is and as it continue to grow you will have even more fun and whelp gloriously fleets of many isk.

So there we go. The end of a era. I'm stepping down as ceo.

Its a little bit strange tho. Building up something and then just hand it over to someone else. I do believe its in the best hands possible with Ya Huei and ICOL but its like handing off your own child to someone else :P
So yes this decision has been a hard one to take. I really didn't want to but in the end I realized that by keeping up the current situation Eve would turn into a game where I did not get to play the way I liked. Too much time was spent on recruiting and other corp admin stuff. Keeping that up would ruin the game for me so a change was needed. And stepping down as CEO was the only way to do that. And as I told the alliance this means I will be moving on to something else. Most likely somewhere related to wormholespace (as I still detest 0.0 sov after the wars with LV vs RA in 2006), but I want to make sure the merger go flawless before I take a decision

But dont worry. Posts will keep coming here on the blog :)

- Calaretu

(Big shout out to MD74, Grimch, Manira, Jeraadthetnoit, SmokeAjoint and Ya Huei and ICOL for the fun times! Also a thank you to Bradford Clear and the guys in Twilight Souls and Lycosa for the times in Bastion )

Being CEO: Content creation

Eve is in many ways a strange game.  And wormholespace even more so.  You are handed some toys and then just told to go and play.  There is very little mentoring and guiding and used to be even less.  When I started playing Eve in december 2004 I was shown how to active mining lazer and the gun and then just thrown out into the world.  But during one of my first days,  while running a very important mission for the master gallente race (being intaki I felt somewhat like an outsider),  I recieved a convo from this very nice person who wanted me to join their corp. Not having any friends in Eve yet I happily accepted.  And the following days,  usually when I logged on,  I was greated and asked if I wanted to join in on a mining op.  My agent told me there was important stuff that needed to be done.  Serpentis had captured a damsel.  But for me the damsel was no longer a priority.  I was off to mine.  In a cruiser.  With mining lazers.  This was the good old days of mining.  Everyone clustered up in a belt and mined into a can.  Our dedicated hauler then came with the iteron 5 and picked it up.  Good old times.
Living in a wormhole is different.  Yet it isn't. There is a similarity that is vital. When you log on to play and hear that voice on coms that say "hey,  we are doing X.  Grab a ship and come join" thats Eve.  Thats the very essence of gameplay in Eve.  Sure you have it in other games aswell,  but none of them gives the same meaning to it as Eve.  Mainly because you know that without it everyone is pretty much just doing their own thing and soon dont log on as often.  Now for a lot of people its not natural to be the guy that actually say it.  Some force themself to,  others dont.  But for some players its what they enjoy.  These players are called content creators. 

One of the traits most leaders often have is this ability to drive content. You might have seen the corp ads that promise daily fleet ops and ready content whenever you log on.  Our corp doesn't,  but many do.  Its a way to attract members who are content consumers to your corp,  while having maybe 2-3 content creators that drive the content.  If the content creators go afg (away from game)  then the corp dies.  Often these corp/alliances have a charismatic leader that people flock around and are drawn to.  Its not unusual and happen a lot in real life too.  Charismatic people draw other people to them.  But the moment this person is gone whatever was built around them falls apart. 

In the beginning of our adventures in our 5-2 leaders in corp often did this.  Because it came natural to us.  But as a result not that much happened when we were offline.  And also all the scanning fell on us. When we moved on we made sure to 'let' other people shine in this role.  And some did. 

Now finding someone in a system without them knowing your sitting next to them is a art that is one of the reason I love wormholespace.  I really dont care what ship they are in. But uncloaking next to someone in a safe or site is a feeling that is a reward in itself. 

So creating content yourself is all well and good.  But how do you find potential members who can do the same?  In our recruitment interviews we have one question that every time nails what kind of player people are.  We ask them "if you log on and find yourself to be the only person online.  What do you do".  Assuming they answer truthfully this question tells everything you need to know about them as a pilot and what they want to do. What a man does when he is alone say alot about his character.  And the character of the person applying has always been our main condition when choosing applicants.

What is your experience with content creators?  Are you one yourself or know some especially good ones in eve?

Storytime 4: Dark nights of the soul

<< Last Chapter

So its been a few days since last post.  Summer has come.  I know a few of you who read this will not understand this concept of being outside the house.  Thats perfectly fine.  But the weather has been lovely.  Sun has been shining.  Temperature has been just perfect.  A slight chill in the wind but still warm and lovely.  Sitting on the porch with a cold beer has a special feel to every man on earth.  In some ways we are all the same.  That quiet moment when we can be just ourself in our natural habitat is precious to us.  It gives us a peace of mind.

Today we have come to a part of our story that might seem directly opposit.  But it was still early summer.  May last year.  But in our home wormhole the dark clouds had gathered.  We just didnt know yet.
We started May of by evicting the guys who first bought the c2 from corp.  We even brought our new alliance.  Invictus void.  After Eve ryuken decided to leave Malas was not what it should be and then all the corps left got swallowed up by IV.  In hindsight I think this was very bad for the alliance.  However.  We evicted the new c2 residents. They never payed up what they promised for the WH so down goes their POS.  Next week Nimon puts up a POS in our home but it is instantly taken down.  Again without much fight.  We're getting a few new members and growing.  Everything is going swimmingly. The new corp who buys the c2 join us with some combat chars in our c5. More caps are brought in and we decide the time has finally come for having a go at capital escalation. (if you are unfamiliar with this term it can be shortly said that this is the use of Capital sized ships,  dreads and carriers,  to spawn extra ships that is worth a lot to kill) Now this is our first go at this so we make sure to read up on Jack Mitons guide to cap escalation over and over. We go through our setup and feel confident we should nail it.  We got more lokis than needed and more dreads so should be easy.  Right? But as we set up to fight I (yes yours truly)  make a fatal flaw.  We have two carriers.  One triage fit (mine)  and one pantheon fit (member a).  As we are about to start I tell member A he can warp first instead of me.  As he lands in site togeather with first dread and loki's a cry go out from member A.  "I'm out of cap.  Cant do anything"  Down goes the first loki.  Dread pilot (member B)  cries out for webs.  He isnt hitting anything.  1st archon start going down as it cant rep without cap.  I make the call to bring in 2nd archon (me)  to try to turn the tide.  I land and hit triage but are soon neuted out as I overextend my rep ability.  We now got 3 full waves of sleepers hitting us. The faction battleships we brought in our confidence get burned away by the sleepers.  However the first archon manage to get out.  But without cap and in triage I really dont have much hope left and soon my archon dies. Now just one ship is left. Member B's Moros. And horribly it now just goes on dying, slowly.. very slowly. The silence on TS as we await its death feels like a thorn just digging, turning, then digging again. Its like a nightmare you just want to be over. Its like watching a murder in slow motion, having all the time in the world to stop it (but not the means). This would scar us all for months. And would be the reason for our very strange but VERY newbie friendly capital escalation fleets later on.
  Luckily we could afford to dig in and replace the capitals from corp wallet. But we did not attempt cap escalations again any time soon. (A 15 bill donation from a member leaving EVE basicly ment our very survival at this point. A big shout out to this hero)

A few days later a new incident befell us. SSC open up directly to us. Then they start moving ships and having small fleets about. We were basicly sititng and just watching. This was SSC. One of the big boys in wormholespace who had been here since the olden days. (well 2011 but yeah). And we were just this new corp without anything to our name. So we stick a scout into their wh and watch the entrance to our home. No fleet at the entrance. We start discussing. Should we close them out? The connection wasnt reduced so could be fast closed with a capital. But we needed some kinda support. We ask around what people have. Zoners have some rr domi's and some in our corp have some other battleships and random stuff. "Lets do this". I borrow an archon from Jeraad (since mine was lost just a couple of days earlier). We make the call and warp it all to the SSC connection. Scout reports a fleet landing as he jump home. We jump archon in and back. Wormhole close. But at least half their fleet made it through aswell. The engagement begin. The archon is... not fitted for combat. But got some reps and good enough cap to handle the incoming dps together with the rr domis. We start calling targets and down goes their deimos and then a proteus. Battleships are not known for fast tackle ability so they pull range with guardians and the rest of the fleet and kite outside our tackle range. This allow them to warp out when guardians dont hold. But mostly their guardians hold. This goes on for some minutes but then the fleet warp of. Except one legion we manage to get tackle on. Guardians return at range and keep him alive for a few minutes. Then suddenly comes a fleet in through static. KILL arrive. (At this time KILL was the biggest and meanest boy in wormhole class. Which was a factor that helped reduce our hope of survival :P ) Tackle goes on all our things and even jams land on the archon. One by one our ships start dropping until we warp out the rest and leave the archon to die. An extra 10 minutes that takes for them to nuke the archon down. But eventually it too dies. All the GF was exchanged before I died however :P
Full battle report

At the same time we come to a realisation that our new Alliance have totally overexpanded itself, combined with some rl stuff happening for its leaders, we decide to pull back out. It went from being a single wh alliance with a strong core and fighting group to a huge multiwormhole alliance that didnt have the same foundation anymore. As we left many of the other corps and key players also left and Invictus Void was no more. But let me just say that a lot of good people resided in that alliance and we parted on as good terms as possible. Today the main remnants of Invictus Void can be found in Kleinrock Group who live in a c2-hs/c3 and Psychosomatic who live in a c6-c3.
 Deciding we had enough of the multiwormhole alliances we decided to just form our own with Zoners inside our c5. And thus, at the beginning of June, Shadow Politics was brought back from a dorment state and we now had our own alliance.

June was a quiet month. Some minor engagement but really nothing to talk about (seriously like 20 kills and equal losses). We managed to recruit some more people and replace capitals. And we had another go at capital escalations. But a  bit different than most do them. Some student in on of our members classes said they used to do capital farming with daredevils. This sounded a bit strange but we decided to have a go. But we wanted to play it safe. So we started of with 3 guardians and some daredevils and lokis. Warp to site. Ok they live. Warp in dread. Start blapping. It worked :o. And so it was born. Our strange doctrine of running capital escalations with guardians and daredevils.
 I have to explain a little why this worked. The system we lived in was a wolf rayet. This gave bonus to armor and sig radius. Which means the daredevil is rather good. Not only does it have a 90% web but also better tank and kan speed tank in addition with an afterburner (a mwd increase sig radius which means that at a bad angle the ship instantly pops if shot at). And so we got a month of some quiet time. Well Nimon was still harassing us but nothing we had to really fear. Just had to be on our toes when he was online.

And as June passed and summer hit for real Nimon decided he had enough of us living in what he considered his home. He called his friends and in the beginning of July war had come. We were invaded.

Continue to Part 5 >>