Pictures from EVE

Atmospheric update

Bringing you something different this time. Grabbed a few pictures I found around on my computer that I wanted to share with you. 

At my POS the sun is always setting. And the new POS graphics make it a stunning experience

 Two captures from a brief visit in Thera some weeks back.

And then some old old pictures I found

POS bashing when CHIMP took over Detorid

Taking down the station in DG-8JV where CHIMP based out of in 2005

Yes, this is a mining op. Jetcan mining with megathron :D

And finally. My old potrait. You can tell I'm smiling :P

The death of wormholespace

For a few weeks now I have been reading through the dev posts about new structures and the changes to sov. Big changes are coming, and we are right now seeing the precursor to those changes. CFC is abandoning Fountain and Cloud Ring. Northern Coalition is abandoning Querios. Renter space almost everywhere is left to themselves mostly. Capitals are rendered useless in the capture of structures and space causing huge shift in how groups and alliances approach the aspect of conquering and holding space. From a lot of the threads it seems that a lot of people from wormholespace dont understand how these changes will affect them so this is my humble attempt at pulling some of the strings and trying to anticipate how some of it will play out. The death of wormholespace? Maybe a bit dramatic. But it will change. Change a lot.

I will divide this section into a few of the core game-play aspects we currently have in wormholespace. Let me start with the big ones first.

Eviction

The act of kicking someone out of their home. Has been one of the major contributors to the way wormholespace function. Even a scout from Bite Me Inc back in the day could be enough to send an entire alliance into depression and panic. You know what? This will be gone. Completely gone. Evictions as we know them will die with the new structures. And here is why:

• No loss of assets. (i) To accommodate the nullsec groups CCP has decided that loosing all your assets is no longer an option. The new structures will have built in security measures in them that keep your assets safe even if the structure explodes. We don't know in what shape that will be yet and maybe it will be possible to hellcamp a system 23/7 for a few weeks and manage to kill people retrieving their assets. But seriously. No one will have the will to do that.
• Structures not bound to moons anymore. (i) So there is no way to prevent your target from putting up a new structure and prolonging the siege.

So what does this really mean? CCP is shifting the focus from destruction to conquering. If you want to make a name and take over your neighbors assets you need to move in and conquer their system and live there. Not only blap the pos and be gone.

Is this a good change? In my opinion: YES. Very much so. It will definitely encourage more groups to try wormholespace and there will be more focus on fights instead of structures.

Nullsec relation

I think several of the groups like Hard Knocks Inc and Lazerhawks (and others who enjoy roaming null) already have severely wet themselves when the news about the Entosis link (i) and the new mechanic for capturing sov was released (i).

• Station Capture
  Hard Knocks have a couple of times made a mockery out of different nullsec groups by capturing their stations. Having a wormholegroup take your station show how little you are actually able to defend it. In june this will be a lot more frequent occurrence. Because why not? Capture a station, freeport it and setup a low tax. Some free isk for a little while by trolling the nullseccers.
• Bluelists
  Watching the current nullsec megablocks dropping sov and consolidating over a smaller area the relationship between nullsec groups and wormhole groups will alter a lot. We have already seen the Russian community change this and expect a lot more to be seen in the English community in the months to come. We already see a huge influx of nullsec alliances deploying to wormholespace and with wormholegroups affecting the sov war itself I suspect several attempts at diplomatic "arrangements" may be growing forth.

There are probably a few more aspect of the nullsec - wormholespace relationship that will be affected, but the strict divide that has existed between the two spaces earlier will be a lot more blurred after the summer.

Docking and mooring

Probably the hottest subject with the most feels thrown around, docking in wormholespace has always been a hot subject whenever brought up. But we also have very little confirmed information about what will apply to wormholespace and what will not. Lets assume at least that the no-local will stay as is (more on this subject later). Will docking hurt wormholespace? Many will say yes, but lets delve a bit deeper into it. What is the difference between a docked or cloaked player in a no-local enviroment? The docked player can change ship without notice. But everyone will see him undock and can react accordingly. Will you engage at the undock? No ofc not. There will be no docking games with the new structures. Why not? Because every docking structure will have defence. You know what this means? Yes docking games will be gone from 0.0 as well. You will no longer be able to sit on a station without taking the risk of being targeted, scrammed, webbed and shot by the structure! Now go back and read that again.

So if you want to be able to camp a station/structure you need a fleet able to tank the structure defense doing full aggro by manually manned guns. Same as with POS currently. So will docking make a big difference in wormholespace? Actually I think not. Will it alter wormholespace? Yes a lot. But players will adapt and new tactics will evolve. But I don't see docking games being a part of it.

Market hubs (i)

Now CCP has given us absolutely NOTHING to indicate this will be in wormholes or not. Personally I would LOVE it. Different concerns have been voiced in regards to market hubs but I think it would both allow different style of gameplay to evolve and also make it easier to actually live in a wormhole.

Drilling platforms (i)

Again. Little from CCP about this in relation to wormholes but I would love to see it as possible. Especially if it would scale with the classes. To give it short. I want this structure to spawn gas and ore sites that need to be scanned down. Scannable ore sites have been a request since they were moved and this is a perfect opportunity to bring them back. At the same time go ahead and nerf all the ore anoms and belts. That will make this structure very useful in both null and wspace.

GATES AND OBSERVATORY ARRAYS (i)

And here is the elephant in the room. The really big change that will literally change a LOT. Gates in wormholespace? Yes it looks like it :o
I'll start this with a few quotes from the thread:

We are planning on some of the structure to be placed in W-space yes, the exact type and numbers are up to discussion based on the gameplay consequences they are going to have there. It all depends if we feel they're going to negatively impact this area of space or spice up gameplay. (i)

 But the most interesting is this:

Interesting points, thanks - however, if possible, we would like to open up as many structures as possible for people not participating in Sovereignty warfare.

Why should we penalize players in high-security space by preventing them to anchor their own gates? If they're willing to pay, face the risk of having them attacked and maintenance of having them, I don't see why it should be for Sovereignty space only.

A large group of players willing to bypass Niarja by building a network of gates around it should be able to do so. Smugglers in low-sec, or FW pilots should be able to use their own gates to get a tactical edge over their opponents.

We may find out later that it may not be wise to do so for whatever design / technical reason, but we'd really like to keep the system as open-ended as possible for now until proven otherwise . (i) in reply to (i)

Now this deserves some thoughts. Basically what they are saying is that they are changing EVE. Completely. They are changing the way all travel mechanics work. Who can go where etc. We have no clue what this will actually result in especially for wormholespace. But holding a constellation of c4's i.e. may actually become a thing. That alters a lot. A lot. And I'm not sure its a good thing. But it does mean that farming several c5's or c6's in a night will be possible. How you can disrupt the gates will also be a very vital element in their affect. An example could be you are looking at hurting a c5 group that hold 4 wormholes in the same constellation. You start seeding all the wormholes and as they are all gathered farming in one wormhole you attack the gates with entosis link. Now they cant engage you everywhere and using bubbles you can hinder them enough to disconnect two of the systems from the others. Now you can proceed to clear out the disconnected systems and they have to use alts scanners to get a way back in. But with structure loot gone whats really the point of destroying for the sake of destruction? Unless the structure itself gives a 60b killmail? Yeah I can see that being a good enough incentive for a lot of groups. So possible interesting gameplay, but most interesting is the possible validation of the atlas project. 

Observatories on the other hand has some interesting uses. Most don't apply to us as it affect showing of statistics on the system map. But the decloaking effect that was teased can be interesting in itself. But we have no clue how that will work. However I don't see any good gameplay contribution coming from it to wormholespace. The cloaky meta is the signature of wormholespace and I don't want to see it gone. So please Fozzie! No decloaking in wormholespace.

This thread is however one I will keep an constant eye on as it evolves.

Closing observations

As the work progress with the new structures it will be interesting to see what comes out of it. I doubt we will have much confirmed before after the June sov patch goes out. But your welcome to surprise me CCP :D

One thing is certain however. The entire game looks like it will be changing. Will it kill wormholespace? No not at all, but it may be the death of wormholespace as we know it today. Ages come and ages go. What was once present pass into history and then into myth.

Choose a wormhole, Part 2

Part 2: Home system

(check out part 1 here about what static to choose)

This should always be your second choice but its still an important choice.Wormholespace is kinda divided in two. The systems who have a kspace static (c1-3) and those who don't (c4-5). You can also divide between the systems where capitals can transverse (c5-6. Also known as high class) and those where capitals can not enter or leave (c1-4. Also known as low class). Capitals change both pvp and pve a lot. In high class, warping capitals to the anomalies trigger extra sleepers who are worth a lot. In low class this doesn't happen. Also in pvp the tactic known as "dread blapping"(where you use webbing ships to slow down and target paint ships cruiser class and up so the dreads can one-shot them) is common practice in high class. Invasions and evictions is also far more frequent where capitals can leave and enter than where they cant. This will be an interesting change with the new structures that leaves the dreads useless except for additional fighting power. We will have to see how that turns out when the time comes.

This time I have listed the most obvious benefits of each class as I see them, connections (including how much traffic you can expect through your system) and vital considerations for homedefence.

Do you have a different experience with one of these classes? Let me know in the comments below.

Class	Benefit	Connections	Homedefence
C1	The pve in these doesn't give much but good potential as industry base and PI farm. Keep an eye out for nullsec data or relic sites tho. Possible to be a good base for solo or small group doing industry. If you want a null/ls static for pvp-roams I rather recommend a c3 due to the tiny entrance and difficult of rolling c1 wormholes.	Outgoing: Static known space Incoming: Roaming mostly lower classes Traffic: little	Always having a static kspace these system are very easy to bring mercs into and very hard to roll due to the small size. Keep 5-10 bill spare in your wallet and you will most likely never be bothered. Set up large or medium towers with loads of online ecm and neuts and offline guns. Do not build caps in system!
C2	I would argue this is the perfect class for a new corp to wormholespace. If your aim is to experience the best from wormholespace then this is a good entry. Depending on the statics you can either have steady access to good small group pve or occasional small gang pvp. You will from time to time have big groups connecting to you as well. Don't be afraid, try to gank their haulers. Camp the Kspace static. Skirmish with kiting ships. Bomb with bombers. And always scan out your wormholechain as far as possible. You never know what you find. Most often your own system will be devoid of pve sites so make sure to make a decent choice of static!	Outgoing: Dual static: Known space, Wormholespace Incoming: Roaming and static from all classes Traffic: loads	This is the most sought after wormhole class currently. Its the starting spot for a lot of corporations. If you only have a single tower and no obvious friends you may find yourself an easy prey. Having a heavy defended large POS may deter attackers bashing your POS directly but I have personally heard about several people seeing unknown groups still move into the same wormhole. Keeping some spare isk for mercs can be handy if you need. Having a spare dread if you plan to settle for several years may be useful but never heard of anyone who actually had any use of it. Rather try to give fights or ambush connecting groups and make some friends instead. May serve you a lot better than throwing isk at unused capitals.
C3	Can provide decent solo pve content for a few hours but the real strength of these wormholes are the direct kspace that have a 300k mass allowance. Depending on the static this class really shine as either industrial base or staging ground for pvp roams in null or lowsec. Of course also keep in mind how easy it is to make a powerful PI farm ;)	Outgoing: Static known space Incoming: Roaming mostly lower classes Traffic: little	With a single kspace exit this is again very easy to bring mercs into. Have some spare isk for that. But unlike the c1 the static is easier to roll making wormholecontrol for any invading force a lot easier. However as these systems don't give a lot for smaller++ groups and is primarily good for soloplayers, having a decent POS setup will most often prevent you from being evicted but if someone else decide to move in its hard to stop. Again. Having spare isk for mercs may help.
C4	Home sites really cant supply more than 2-3 active people but the major benefit is from the dual statics these systems now have. Please check my blogpost on why I personally love our c4 here. But c4's are all about the statics and can support everything from 3-4 active players up to unlimited number of people depending on statics.	Outgoing: Dual static to wormholespace Incoming: Mostly k162 from C4 but also other classes Traffic: sometimes a lot, other times nothing at all	If you have an attractive system with good PI and good statics then "maybe" someone want to take it from you. But right now there are enough empty ones to fill. You should have more than a bare few people people so fielding a fleet for homedefence should be viable. Use large towers with a proper varied defense to demotivate attackers. Hardeners and ecm to make initial bash a pain and then loads of offline guns as well to online if needed.The more towers the safer but you need to stay cost efficient.
C5	Not very solo friendly but possible for small groups depending on static. Very good isk-making potential with capital escalation but also somewhat risky. Most of the c5's are inhabited by corporations primarily focused on the pve (of which several are alt corps of the few big pvp-wormholecorps/alliances still around). Recommended for corporations with 5-10++ active members but there are also several common ways of doing it solo as well for the high skilled players with several alts.	Outgoing: Single Static wormholespace Incoming: Mostly someone else's c5 static. Occasional direct roaming low, null or very rare hs. Traffic: very little. Usually just scouts and then occasionally huge fleets.	Large POS only for defense. Medium can work few pilots but will be easy to RF with dreads no matter what defense you put on it. Large ones with neuts, ecm and guns can cause problem for a small fleet even with dreads. Large fleets there is no defense against with the current structure system. Just keep anchoring and onlining neuts while they bash to drag out the time and bore them to death. Make it as boring as possible for the attackers. Neuts to neut out dreads, hardeners to make the bash as long as possible. Batphone whatever friends you have and keep everyone online even if afk just to make sure hostiles have to be ready for defending hole control at all times. If possible batphone whoever you can and take hole control at opportune moment to get them inside. There are several lesser pvp groups that make a living out of invading and evicting small corps in c5 space so be sure to either have friends or fat wallets to hire mercs if needed.
C6	Not at all solo friendly. Right now most c6 is occupied by a russian renter alliance called w-Space citizen. If you look like a small squishy target and someone have a russian corp willing to pay for your wormhole expect to be evicted. If you have a decent group it is however a easy place to grab a system. As in c5 you have the potential for isk from capital escalations. For pvp its very much up to the static you choose. Don't expect many to roll into you as there is at most 2-3 pvp groups who do any decent kind of rolling.	Outgoing: Single Static wormholespace Incoming: Mostly a c6 static from an empty system that someone else deeper in chain scanned. Occasional direct roaming low, null or very rare hs. Traffic: very little. Usually just scouts and then occasionally huge fleets.	Same as c5 but anyone invading have a lot easier time seeding your system with capitals due to how easy it is to roll for a specific c6 (only 100 in total opposed to the approx 500 c5 systems) Also be prepared to be seeded for siteganking. Read up on relevant tactics on how to deal with that.

Why I love our C4

So I havent really told much about how it is like living in a c4 with static c4 and c2. So today I'll reveal a little bit of what its like. To the left you see our chain from 31. march. No its not uncommon. This is in fact somewhat regular to get these chains. We dont always go deep, but when we do it spreads all over.

So this is a good example of our regular chain. Now basicly the only hinderance here is the 2 bill mass on our statics and the lack of ability to bring capitals through. But other than that we basicly got all of eve at our doorstep. Nothing in the wormholes? Check some of the lowsecs. Or null. Or go gas mining in a c5.

In this particular chain we actually had Sleeper Social Club scout in our c4 static. So our scouts went hunting for their home, but couldnt find it. At the same time someone found a ishtar ratting in the c3c so we went out and killed that. Then another went off into lowsec from LSA and found some guys. We tried to get a fight but when a few of us showed up the locals just ran away.

Shattered wormholes? Daily. (here its the one with a orange border around it). If we got bored we could ofc go and scan that. They usually open up another 3-7 wormholes.

Do I miss the c5 farming with capitals? No not really. Sure its good isk but right now I consider our lovely wh the best place we have lived in wormholespace. We never close our home and 23.5/7 all of these wormholes are avaiable to our pilots to do whatever they want in.

Yes, we are recruiting. 

Join "Unsettled" channel in game.

Choose a wormhole home; Part 1

On a regular basis I do a tiny overall look on wormholespace and try to make up a somewhat subjective opinion on what kind of home would give us the optimal fun in game. And I felt with the recent changes that have happened (and also seeing how it has played out) it was time to do it again. But this time I will make it avaiable to all of you aswell. So here we go:

Part 1: Choosing a static

When choosing a wormhole your first desicion should always be what kind of static you want. The static is what will be your main source of interaction and activity unless you are determined to exclude yourself from other players. This has become increasingly harder to do after Hyperion expansion and if exclusion is a goal in itself you may also consider renting a system in 0.0.

Furthermore I have not considered roaming wormholes in this overview as that is not something that is dependable and consistent contribution to your daily activity.

I have divided this overview in three groups. How you pew your pew, how you make your isk and how you fuel your towers. Fuel will be a continual needed ingrediant even with the new structures coming up so its a vital element to evaluate.

Do you have a different experience with one of these static? Let me know in the comments below. 

(part 2 is now avaiable here)

Static	PVP	PVE	Logistic
HS	Yeah not entirely sure what kind of PVP ability you get from a HS static. Wardecs I guess?	Safety is the first that comes to mind with a HS static. Usually these wormholes make a good base for industry as you get easy access to hauling and altering market exits. Anoms in HS is usually not wort talking to much about as its usually the low end sites in all shapes and forms.	Easy
LS	This would be the primary exit type for lowsec roams. Ability to roll it also makes for diversity. Lowsec roams	Lowsec has racial gas sites for making booster gas. Also you may come across some decent DED sites. In addition you got the occasional ghost sites	There are enough lowsec exits one jump from a HS to not make this a issue
NS	Nullsec roams. Very powerfull for nullsec guerilla warfare. Especially with sov 5.0 coming the summer 2015 this will be an attractive static to have for those who love the nullsec skirmishes. Important to notice however a nullsec static doesn't allow for Capital ships to transverse so some fights might escalate above what you will be able to handle. Small ship nullsec roam	A nullsec static gives somewhat limited PVE abilities. Mostly you will be able to do nullsec exploration sites and DED sites but be limited to subcapital ships to run them.	Can be more challenging as you have to depend on other chains for a HS exit. Worst case you black ops jump a cloaky hauler through the gatecamps to a exit close to lowsec.
C1	Unless you are lucky and find a offline POS this is not a good static for PVE. C1 usually leads to HS aswell so see my points on a HS exit further up. Usual HS chain	Possible solo sites but a c2 or c3 static give better soloable content.	Usually easy due to high amount of HS
C2	This is where you first start to talk about the option of  wormhole-pvp. All C2 systems have dual static. One to known space (most often HS) and one to another wormholeclass. For small gang wormhole hunting this is by many considered as a premium static due to possible long stretching chains with a diversity of content. Currently a lot of C2's have become increasingly active with smaller groups as seen by this graph. Chains to known space and wormholespace	Easy HS Decent soloable anoms Nullsec data sites Possible group content in the wormholechain.	Usually easy due to high amount of HS
C3	C3's themself does seldom offer a lot of pvp as they are primarily used for solofarming, industry or staging. Depending on the static it has itself. 50% of C3 lead to lowsec so having a c3 static usually means you get easy lowsec roam ability. I have also heard from people living in them or having them as static that roaming wormholes has been an increasing occurance in c3's. This open options but not on a dependable level. Usually leads to lowsec (see up)	Easy soloable content Also see lowsec static further up	Usually easy due to high amount of LS/HS
C4	Ahh. Yes. The c4 static. I may be a bit partial on this as we currently have this in our home, but what connections this bring. Since Hyperion brought the second static a c4 static opens up a world of opportunity. Considering about 50% (finger in the air number) of the c4's you connect to have another c4 static you usually end up with a huge chain leading to all sorts of classes. Yes every night we have everything from c1-c6 in our c4 chain. Depending on how deep our scouts go. Considering several other groups have moved to c4's with different statics you usually find someone to fight several times a week. Sometimes you get to gank someone. Other times you get ganked yourself. And sometimes theres a proper fight. Right now a static c4 is the optimal static for diversity and activity.	Again. You get almost every aspect of wormholespace except the capital escalation option for c5 and c6.So everything from solo to big groups get iskmaking opportunities.	Usually easy due to high amount of HS further down in the chain.
C5	There used to be a joke about the endless c5-c5 highway. After living in a c5-c5 ourself for a bit it wasnt such a funny joke anymore. Occasionally you get a big group in your chain but mostly you have to go into null for fights. Looking at the killboard from the big groups living in c5's it seem like this is still the case. Long down the chain or out to null to find fights.	This is where you start seeing the big isk. For a group of 4+ these sites can be easily run and generate a very good income. If your homesystem is a c5/6 in addition you can bring in 1+ capital to escalate. And then you have the c320. Thats just raw isk in itself that you can pick up for free. The four battleships that spawn is easy to solo and adds another 100 mill to the value of the site.	This is probably the most challenging in regards to the logistic aspect. Your chains never has the promise of a kspace like the c1-4 statics have. You mostly depend on finding a roaming direct HS or you find a 5-1,2,4 down the chain. From experience you really never struggle with logistic but are more dependant on making use of good opportunities that come along.
C6	The Nostalgia. Havent we all watched Clarion Call and dreamt about the glorious battles of fame and fortune? The sacking of TLC, the invasion of Noho. But right now the land of C6 is a barren wasteland. What was once the pinnacle of wormholespace has now turned to a series of empty wormholes. Only sign of life is the single towers belonging to the russian farmers called "w-space citizen". Occasionally you will connect to former great block who still struggle through survival with fat wallets and inactive members. No, right now a C6 static offers little but another connection. Another dot on the line towards the next wormhole. Maybe you are lucky and get a connection to null or lowsec, but the glory of days yonder has past to legends.	Yes right now a c6 static is a good place to farm. Noone is rolling for c6's so little chance of ganks unless someone is coming through a chain.	Actually logistic with a static c6 is easier than in with a static c5. This is mostly due to the low number of c6 wormholes and how easy it is to roll to a 6-2 or 6-1 if you really need a HS.

The Siege of Hub

It all started on a day like just like any other day. Not this week. Nor last. But several months back. When we had just moved into SingSing (Yes thats the name of our C4 wormhole). Through our connection we had two other groups who were already fighting eachother. We made an agreement with one of the groups and togeather we took down some carriers. The name of this group we decided to fight together with was Revenant Tactical [-R3V-]. We had a blast and started talking about them joining Unsettled. However our policy of all alliance members living inside our C4 put them off as they still enjoyed the C5 they lived in.

HeWhoShallNotBe Named
contacted us on the proposal
of joining forces.

And so time passed on as she always does. Days became weeks and weeks became months. Along the way some of our members in Dracos Dozen went over to fly with them aswell and tho we rarely saw them again in our chians, a bond was formed. Along the path R3V chose to move on from their 5-4 to a new 5-3. And it is here we reconnect to recent history. As content dried up for them in the 5-3 they reapproached us to further discuss a joining of f

orces and invited us to move into their 5-3. As before we were very positive to flying with the pilots in R3V. But again the idea of moving into a 5-3 was very little tempting. But we started a discussion to see if we could find some way of making it work. Having previous experience from living in a 5-3, both ICOL and .ORLY knew it was mostly a one way street to Lowsec depending on roaming wormholes and incoming connections to actually do content in wormholespace. This was less desirable then

Two days later, on february 27, we got a urgent call. Russians had seeded R3V's wormhole and reinforced two towers. A series of communications started to go forth and back to assemble what we could of intel. It appeared to be a few minor groups. They seemed like no real threat really. But we digged a little deaper. And on one killmail a very familiar name showed up. DURA LEXX. This was not the first time we had encountered this name. No in fact we had come across them on several occasions.

A desicion was made and we assembled the finest fleet UNSET had ever flown before. We strolled over and took wormholecontrol. We set up a staging pos (since they had already seen our fleet) and logged of inside system. Then as many as possible helped keeping wormhole control through the night. Since this was not our alliance home we did not call a CTA or schedule a wormhole control group that could hold 24/7. And during US and AU tz we very much relied on R3V to keep control. But as russian prime began on the saturday too few were online to keep total control. Now the sadest part of this endevour was that timers on towers had not been manually set and expired in russian prime and our weakest timezone. (Yes we had a chat after timers began about how to adjust strontium in towers to alter the outcome). But we decided to make the best of it and assembled as many people possible on the login screen as the tower timerz approached.

Now I will take a moment and explain a little bit. The history of DURA LEXX and their friends is not easy to interpret. They are not pro on the level of Blood Union and Quantum Explosion. They do silly mistakes from time to time and after what appeared to be a falling out between DURA LEXX and QEX/BU a year or so back they have never flown togeather again. In this operation they were flying with Duckling Union, GALAXY ALLIANCE and Total Absolution. Since they impressivly managed to lose an archon to a tower we did not think too highly of them and maybe took a bit light on their ability to call others to do their work.

As the timers passed R3V pulled out a Thanatos to rep the tower. Painfully slow but sitting on the edge of shields it started repping. We kept our pilots on login screen expecting the hostiles to pull a somewhat stupid move. We did not expect them to be able to get in reinforcement so as their dreads and an archon landed on grid with tower we logged in and went straight for the capitals. Little did we know that this would be our fatal flaw in the defense (and much to my own blame for calling the tactical move). Neuts were put in place on the Archon. Guardians got up chain and the grind began to break the archon. Since it was in the middle of the day most our EU forces were not avaiable leaving us with the now somewhat tired homedefence of R3V and less than optimal UNSET fleet. Luckily for us a frigate wormhole appeared earlier before the fight. Connected directly to No Vacancies home system. Striking up a conversation with some old friends there, they brought a few bombers through to try to assist us.

The stumped feeling when you get overrun by ishtar fleet

Not many minutes into the fight scouts reported a massive fleet coming in through the static C3. Ishtars. Many of them. It was the nullsec StainRUS fleet who had come. They by far outnumbered us and as ship after ship got alpha'd off field the resignation set into our fleet. People scrambled to get out of bubbles or into POS. The havock of the ishtars annihilated our fleet completely. There was no way we could even land reps as ship after ship fell. The final numbers was daunting and as FC got blasted away noone stepped up to replace him even. A sad day indeed.

It all ended horribly wrong. From the optimistic tone when our fleet arrived the evening before, to the loosing of wormhole control and eventually utter defeat to the nullsec fleet. As the day went on R3V made the desicion to accept our offer to them to join us in SingSing with entire corp. As EU primetime approached we easily took back wormholecontrol again after the nullsec fleet left. And then we started shipping out assets. R3V agreed to a "cease-fire" with the russian corps (who could finally get some decent sleep) and the haul began. Most assets was moved out but some long gone members assets and leftover ships got left behind. Along with several POS's that it seem Total Absolution got the honor of cleaning up. By themself. As a final offering several of the capitals from R3V was lined up and self destructed.

It was a great honor coming to your aid R3V and we welcome you to our alliance. 

Great fun have already been had so look forward to even more :D 

The final lineup of R3V capitals as they all self-destruct

CSM X (that means 10 in roman numbers) elections

So its that time of the year again.CSM elections. Bring out the children, grandparents and forefathers and line up for the voting booth.Then go out shave and vote again :D

I havent been the most enthustiastic promoter of CSM elections in all the media but my Twitter feed is flowing over with endorsements and recommandations and podcasts and opinions and oneliners. In good tradition there has been both podcasts and summits that will let you spend days of your life getting into the mindset, family history and psych evaluations of the different candidates.

Or you can do like me and read the tl:dr of people who enjoy spending time doing just that. So wihtout further fuzz I recommend you go read up the voting slate suggested by Rhavas. You find it here. His arguments for all the candidates are pretty good. But since CCP has taken upon themself the burden of reworking structures in Eve soon™ I thought it might be a bit more important to vote this time. I even got Corbexx to come on our ts the coming saturday (28 feb) to talk a bit about the work that CSM does aswell. (If you want to come along aswell just send me a mail ingame).