To boldly go where thousands have gone before...

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #30

Since the review for the Blog Banter 30 is out, I thought I owe an expansion to my banter post... Since, guess what, Bold Pilot Log entries are hitting 30 as well! So, Stan probably has got a take on the original concept, or if not he thought it was fitting into the profile of ORE and aptly named the mothership concept "Athena", which in his honor, I'll use as the name of the Gallente Mothership.

So, we have ourselves a ship that's capable of serving as a core for a deep space operation, such as Freebooting Freelancer Inc. Unauthorized Bounty and Resource Extraction, Manufacturing and Research Company. The idea here is to help small entities that probably wouldn't have the numbers to get a hold in wild space. They're only a few people a corp, with possibly less than ten active members, who usually are online for a limited time. They think the life in null or wormholes is really fun, but the POS is too permanent for their liking. Setting up a tower is too tedious if you have to be constantly on the move. Sou our wily space nomads get themselves a Mothership, the type of ship that'll serve them as their makeshift home, and will allow them quick movement if the ground gets too hot for their liking. All they have to do to move the whole base around is have it unanchor (come out of deployment mode), and jump the whole fleet at once (if they are on grid, and unless they are in combat) to a system far, far away...

Development of the Mothership concept

But guess what... It wasn't ORE's idea in the first place! In fact, the Minmatar people, especially the Thukkers always had a taste for a nomad lifeform... The problem was, they couldn't afford to run stations or towers in the far reaches of space, so what they did was is to re-purpose an existing capital ship design to suit their needs. Now they had everything they needed in the place they wanted in the time they wanted. The military implications of such a mobile outpost had not been considered at this time, and the concept was dismissed as a civilian effort. With the strengthening of the capsuleer militia however, the Republic started to look at ways to mix the effectiveness of the capsuleer vessels with the mobility of the Thukker Motherships. After a few months of engineering, this resulted in the Wolverine, the first capsule-fitted Mothership ever designed.

Meanwhile in the Empire... A few very bold Blood Raider attempts were led by ships with huge cargo and docking capacities, hauling hundreds of Raider dropships to the site of the Raid, similar to the first Incursion tactics. Soon, the military experts at the Empire realized what was happening - and that they can't fight off the Raiders without their own forces having a way to deploy full mobile operations. Searching for ways to achieve this goal, they put forth a commission for the most effective Mothership design. It was shortly decided that the Imperial Armaments' 'Reclaimer' will win.

The Caldari agents had ears and eyes everywhere again, and the Raata kind of liked the idea of having a ship serve as a mobile base for the quick response fleets. The race began as every major armaments provider started to test their own designs fr the task. In a somewhat heated discussion, the leaders of the State finally decided that the Kaalakiota Corporation's Albatross will be fitted for capsuleer usage.

The Gallente Federation's own engineers were still busy revising their Hybrid designs, when this new challenge was put forth. Luckily, ORE had been in the process of creating a ship design that would be more suitable for the hostile environment of capsuleer-inhabited outer space than the Rorqual. They sold the plans for an undisclosed (and probably incredibly high) sum of ISK to the Federation. A small group of talented scientists from all areas spent about a year, re-purposing the original blueprints to fit into the Federation's military profile.

Properties - what makes a MS a MS?

So, here we go. All the four factions have their own Mothership designs. There are things they share, in the form of base stats and bonuses, coming from their role. However, them being racial, this allows for a diversity of small boosts they can give to the fleet they are supporting. Let's go through the commonalities first:

• They have no drone bay or hardpoints. There should be a whole group of people that are (should be) able to defend them at all times.
• They have the ability to fit POS modules as if they were regular ones, and have the role bonuses to reduce the grid requirements to an acceptable level. The POS modules allow them to be used the corresponding station service. A list further down.
• They have the resources comparable to that of a Tier 3 Battleship. If they had more, they could fit capital modules in their spare slots, or they shouldn't have spare slots, both of which makes them too pewerful in combat or much less interesting to fly.
• They can support up to two gang links in their high slots.
• They can use their POS modules and gang links when in deployed mode, other modules can only be activated when they are mobile.
• Deployment itself does not consume fuels, but the usage of the station functions does.
• They cost about three carriers' worth of materials to build, and their hit points are tuned in a way that they have sufficient buffer to last through a low-number capital engagement with capital support. Dreadnoughts will be the bane of these ships.
• They have a cargo hold of 5000 or more. There are a lot fo things that you'd want to put in them even if you don't plan to participate in cargo heavy activities.

The POS modules would all fit to High Slots, allowing the following functions:

• Assembly Array: We want to be able to sustain ourselves in space, right? That means it has to be able to fit assembly arrays, fuel cost linked to manufacture job scale. It should also be able to construct ships, so allow the fitting of up to Large and Medium Advanced arrays.
• Ship Maintenance Array: Docking (as in a station) of up to a balanced number of people with subcapital ships only. Timed ship and module repair and capacitor recharge (which use fuel), fitting service (only when docked).
• Corporate Hangar Array: Storage of modules, commodities and ores within the hold of the ship. Essentially a corp hangar that's again only accessible if docked. Moving items, stacking, repackaging should cost fuel if there was at least one item to be executed on.
•  Mobile Laboratory & subtypes: Research slots. Each job consumes a certain amount of fuel depending on the scale it represents.
• Moon Harvesting Array: Yeah, you read it right. They can mine moons. Fuel is consumed for each cycle.
• Reactor Array: If they can mine moons, why not be able to react the materials? Well, they should be able to. Fuel, again is consumed per cycle. Silos are not wanted here, the materials could be placed in the cargo of the ship.
• Refining Array: The ability to reprocess minerals in deeps space is a really good thing. It should definitely not step on the toes of the Rorqual (compressing ore must remain a valid way of operation) and neither should it be more preferable than a station. Stuff can be refined from a corp hangar or the cargo and a balanced time will lapse before the end product appears in the location of origin.

Racial Bonuses

Now that we have looked at what the Mothership can do, let's stop for a moment. I did wish for factional ships rather than only one, but we can look at it from the other angle - why would I pick an Athena over a Reclaimer? Well, because they have different bonuses, meaning that the other might suit your play style! Remember, this has to keep small group in mind when in design. So, let's look at what kind of bonuses the ships would offer.

Wolverine:

• Bonus to traditional Minmatar Command links.
• Bonus to capacitor need of jumps.
• Bonus to Refining Array efficiency.

Reclaimer:

• Bonus to traditional Amarr Command Links
• Bonus to the maximum number of docked ships (when a ship maintenance array is fitted)
• Bonus to  Assembly Array slot number

Athena:

• Bonus to traditional Gallente Command links
• Bonus to jump range
• Bonus to Corporate Hangar capacity

Albatross:

• Bonus to traditional Caldari Command Links
• Bonus to jump fuel consumption.
• Bonus to Laboratory slot number

Closing Words

So, here we have them. The pride of any nomad group - their Mothership, their mobile home. No longer are they forced to carry around POS modules in clumsy ships, and no longer does it take hours to move from one system to another. Just unanchor the Mothership and go. Well, there obviously have to be some drawbacks, righ? Well, here is the list I can offer:

1. The whole stuff only works if the pilot is online. Account sharing is a bannable offense. I leave the conclusions to you.
2. It consumes fuel for every freaking operation (just as a POS would, maybe even more). You have to keep the checkbooks tight if want to rely on this thing.
3. The tank on this ship is really thin for its size. No capital modules means that the Motherships can barely be fitted to be saved by a good triage carrier when caught by a gang.
4. The only safety this ship has is that in can sit on a deep space bookmark and cloak up.

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of ways that you can exploit these things, and there may be big holes in the idea, but that's why I'm putting it out there - take a look and please comment if have any suggestion as to how it could be improved.

Sessym out.

Space Zombies

The capsuleer sat back in his couch. His eyes narrowed and his face tightened. His voice was quiet and dripping with anger.
-I don't care how you'll fix it, Kem. I didn't ask you to do this. You shouldn't have come here and I will not move a finger to save you. I'll take you with me if you're still alive, but don't expect me to save you.
The video transmission cut off. The capsuleer eyed his handgun. The trusty 'Regimen'  lay on the table, loaded, armed. All it would take him to save the girl was to take the gun into his pocket, walk down a few stairs, use an elevator, turn on a corridor, and fire two rounds. His reflexes were polished within the capsule, no ordinary man could possibly match them. But this has grown out of control. Even his mind, very much used to parallel operations, could not digest the complexity here.There were unclear intents, missing reasons, unforseeable consequences. Besides, the girl needs to learn her place.

Kem was shaking as she closed her PDA. The adrenaline in her veins was burning, and the roar of guns did little to calm her. She was hiding behind a crate, the people shooting at her were standing at the entrance of the hangar. If only she could turn the lights off. She fumbled with her pockets looking for the small hidden gun she was always carrying, to no avail. Beams of energy struck near her. They must have heatvision too. The coolant pipe did help to hide her signature, but the trails of residual heat were there. She couldn't just wait here. She could barely see from the blood that was seeping into her eyes from her wound. Suddenly a small door opened next to her. She couldn't hold it anymore, and fainted. Blake walked silently over her. The bulky engineer gently took the fragile seibestor woman over his shoulder, and disappeared into the station's twisting tunnels.

There was a knock on the door, then it opened wide. Blake had no weapon, so the only thing he could do is to try and cover Kem from view. The capsuleer stood in the doorway, hand clenched, eyes narowed.
-You've become jumpy in this place. Get your bearings, we'll leave in ten minutes.
They both knew it was no joke. He needed them both, and that also meant they would be using the ship that made Kem's skin crawl. From afar, the monstrous battleship looked intimidating, from the inside, it was the embodyment of the name the authorities gave to the class. Nightmare. The crew's quarters were comfortable, if a bit creepy. The maschinery in the fighting compartment however, Kem was no friend of those things. The huge stabilizer coils were snaking all over the place, and the web of arm-thick cables made it very similar to a spider's lair. In combat you'd hear the endless rattle of the turret mechanisms and the low growl of the coils as they infused the turrets with the huge energy without overheating them. Sometimes the cooling of the shield generators would scream up, as the Gist C-type shield booster did its work, sapping the capacitors almost as intensively as a full wolley of Tachyon beams. Kem's mind screamed at her not to board the ship, but fear overcame memory and soon she would be behind her console, monitoring the weapon systems, as they awakened by the attachment of the capsule. Blake came over to run some checks on the riggin he installed in the past few days. For her relief the shield booster of dubious origin was gone, a technology level two shield extender sitting in its place. Mounted, that thing was monstrous, and added even more complicated wiring to the already fuzzy matrix. However, this could only mean one thing. This time, it is not some petty conflict in a small system somewhere in empire. They will be going up against real tough stuff now.
-I need to check on the MWD. Home tech ain't trusty-rusty anymo'e - Blake hummed and stormed down the corridor alone. MWD? This is serious shit. For days now, Kem calmed down. This was the eerie calm she liked to work in. They will really be putting their hides on the line. She gave the green light for weapons systems and the ship undocked.

They went from warp to jump and warp for about an hour, then the movement stopped. The comms arrays lit up. They joined a fleet. The capsuleer maneuvered the camera drone around. Greenish light everywhere. Incursion. The Sansha is here. After a few ship-ahoys, the fleet commander came in clear and loud. This was it. The capsuleer opened a shipwide channel and spoke as the tachyon beams started to vaporize the shields of enemy ships:
-Here we go. Man all stations. This is not the joke of missions you people are used to. Time to roast some space zombies!

Drakes Are Bad For You

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #17

This post will be more of an opinion and personal observation than anything up until now. This is now officially about Drakes. And why do I think flying Drakes is a dumb carebears' advice to newbies. So, when asking someone, why fly a Drake, the following will bound to come up as pros:

• Strong passive tank, with no cap management required
• Good range
• Missiles don't have tracking problems, only ship size is of concern

Now, these things are newbie friendly, aren't they? From a certain perspective, yes - as in, they are easy to manage. The problem with this is exactly that. The Drake is a unique ship that has very few worthwhile counterparts in the EVE universe. I'll admit that they are effective. But my main concern here is about newer players. Generally speaking, they have a lot to learn. Not just in terms of skill points but in terms of the game mechanics themselves. So the is easy mode represented by Drakes healthy for a newbie?

EVE question - EVE answer: "It depends." If there's only one combat ship you bother flying and you're much more interested in mining, production, trade, etc., sure, go ahead and train for it. You literally get a lot of bang for your buck. But if you're the new and aspiring ace pilot of the killboards, for the love of God and all that is dear to you, stay away from passive tanked missile ships. They make you forget more than you could learn from them.

The simplest thing is the range. Heavy missiles hit out to 70 km with good skills, which is plenty for medium ships. Actually, they need help in form of fitting modules if you want to target that far. So watching out that you didn't lose target lock will be like, the only thing you have to worry about. 'Real ships' aren't like that. You have to be able to manage range, else you won't kill any players.

The second part of Drakes being too easy to fly is the way missiles work. They always hit, assuming it's not some crazy fit speed monkey that can outrun them. There are a few things about missiles that make them easy to learn. I'm not saying they are for dumb people, certainly not. There are many variables one should be aware before one can call oneself a professional missile user, but on the surface, all you need to know is that what size of missiles can hit your target. So yeah, missiles will teach you little in the way of how to pilot your ship properly.

The third reason I'd not recommend using a Drake to learn how EVE works is it's too tanky. In the real EVE, the one that is filled with players trying to kill you, and if you're in 'real' ships, you usually don't have the option to deflect 400 DPS just by existing and probably running an invulnerability field or two. That means that you actually have to worry about how your tank holds, not just try to bail when shields are under 33%.

Passive tank in itself is a scourge on the aspiring pilot. Before I explain further, I want clear up the concepts. Passive tanking means that you shrug off your opponents' damage only by the recharge rate and resistances of your shield. You are utilizing the passive regeneration of your shield. Any other type of tank that involves providing high quantity of effective hit points that take a long time to grind through are buffer tanks. Active tanks are those that depend on activated modules and expend capacitor to regenerate the ship's HP.
So, passive tanks are bad for you because you don't have to manage them, just know when they break. In a real PVP situation, you are usually fielding tanks that are either buffer or active. Not that these are not mutually exclusive, and that the Drake too can be fit with a buffer or active tank. There is no black and white in EVE. Regardless, generally speaking, you will have to learn how absorbing damage and repairing within the boundaries of the engagement works, and a passive tanked Drake will do little to help you on that.

Once you ditch the Drake as the single best ship for everything, a lot of possibilities open up. You'll have to learn a lot to be successful with the other ships, but it's well worth it. Tracking and optimal range on turret systems, active tanking, capacitor management, fitting for maximum gank... Trust me when I say, even the dull grind of PVE can turn into real fun once you realize you're speed-, active- or damage tanking the rats.

Sessym out.

Carebears and their ilk

Bold Pilot Log, entry #2

In EVE, there is a strange air around this type of person. Actually, the term Carebear has evolved in quite a predictable way. Originally it way used for the 'why can't we all just get along' type of people. Nowadays you are a carebear if don't have tackling devices or long range optimization fit to your ship. It doesn't matter if you are just grinding to get the ISK for a new shiny toy. So let's narrow down the term 'Carebear' to the people who try to live peacefully.

It's not going to happen. Because of sandbox. Because of other beople. Being safe in EVE doesn't mean that there is no threat. It essentially does not allow a situation where you are not in danger of losing something. That's assuming of course you're not sitting in a station and spinning your favourite ship. What safety boils down to, is that there are no threats that you are not able to avoid. This property fo the game has been cause of much whining in the past. Actually it is one of the things that has kept it alive.

It is simply much more fun to play a fully competitive game than it is with a fully cooperative one. By the latter, I can think of games like Guild Wars. A Guild Wars character is pretty much lost without a guild. Without buddies to play with, it gets old really fast. Not EVE. Being a privateer in EVE has its upsides. You don't have to trust anybody. You don't have to share with anybody. But you also will not get much help. It's no Carebears haven. It may seem like, if you are living in high sec or deep in 0.0 with a nice pvp alliance to protect you. But that, just like safety, is an illusion.

High sec is only safe until you aren't interesting. You start building your way, and then without a way of avoiding the upcoming dangers, you are beaten back to where you came from. Others will want your stuff. They want it because the best way for many things to be acquired is to take it from someone. That is why just can't get along peacefully. You have a moon that I want, I will shoot your POS. You fit shiny expensive modules on your missioning ship, I will find a way to blow it up and take it. Nothing is safe but there is hope. There's a tool that will keep you safe in eve. A neat little feature that comes embedded in all players. Brains. Use them.

A little hint on how might be useful you say? Well, I might try.

• Scout for threats before risking something valuable.
• Don't risk what you can't afford to replace. Yeah that's the correct advice. You maybe can afford to lose your Tengu because you have the ISK to build another. You maybe can afford to lose your Nyx because it's not your ratting ship, just a tool for battle. You might be able to afford risking to fall for a scam because you then just sit back into your carrier and rat for another evening. Got it?
• Research subjects before venturing into unknown areas. Someone has done it before and surely, he was clever enough to leave out the important details. That's where your own brain can help.
• Analyze your losses. What did you wrong? What was inveitable? Did you have a hunch that something's not right? What was helpful? What can you do to make sure it does not happen again?

This EVE online is a computer game. Your brain is inevitable part of the play. It sometimes can make you feel you are a failure. Maybe. Maybe it's just a kind poke to get better. You ain't gonna lose anything valuable. It isn't serious business or anything right? :)

Sessym out