This game, this world, this examination of the human psyche, is 20 years old this year.
Happy Birthday EVE Online.
While I have attempted to return a few times since 2015, my life over those years really did not give me time to balance my gaming needs & work & life itself and each attempt fizzled out. Here I am in post pandemic 2023, I have changed employer, found a great work / life balance and really really want to be roaming the stars of New Eden once again!
So I am doing. All accounts up either on Omega or Alpha (depending on necessity), setting myself up to log in Mangala, and reading up on just how terrible my stuff is now. Not that I was ever any good at EVE, but damn do I feel like a 2004 newbie (I was late to this party I know!).
After the success of Hard Liquor #1, RvB and I are pleased to announce the next roam is this coming Saturday, 16th June. In case you missed #1 a week or so back, I’ll answer a few things:
Yes, I’m back in game;
Yes, I’m in RvB again;
Yes, I’m Fleet Commanding again, and even better, RvB trusts me to do it;
Yes, I try my best to get people killed while doing the above;
Yes, I’m awful at naming things right now;
No, you cannot bring your Drake.
Check out these videos from #1:
If that gets you all excited, then here are the details for Hard Liquor #2 and I hope to see you there!
When: Sat 16th June 19.30 UTC Where: Ichoriya What: Cruiser down*. Armour. Close range. > Logi > Tackle > Ewar Comms: RvB Public Mumble Address: public.rvbeve.com Port: 43224 Pass: RvBLives Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name In game channel – RvB’s Hard Liquor / OOG – RvB Discord FC: Pimpin Purple Daddy, Mangala Solaris
If this is too short notice, then we do roll fortnightly (at the moment), watch this blog, the RvB forums and the RvB Calendar for future dates along with details of any other events you may be interested in.
Those familiar with my history as it relates to NPSI, will know that way back in the dawn of time when RvB first took steps into the world of NPSI, I ran what was then known as RvB Ganked and ran it as a loud boisterous drunken party across New Eden. Often times the fleet would die as we all got pretty merry and opened fire on anyone we came across. Over time as Ganked got larger, we got more organised and considerably more sober on these roams, however we did get into bigger and more difficult fights and manage to pull off some stunning victories, so its 6 of one and half a dozen of the other really. I mean, I have the history to prove it recorded on this very site!
While NPSI is one of the activities in EVE that I truly enjoy, I do not have the time available to jump right back in at the serious end of the purple world, although since returning to EVE, I have been mulling over getting something rolling on that front. So after some discussion with the movers and shakers of RvB, I am going to be running an old school, fortnightly slosh op on their behalf (and for my own pleasure of course!).
Ladies & Gentleman, I present to you, RvB’s Hard Liquor. Details of the inaugural roam – and I do mean roam, set yourself a good few hours and a case or two of you favourite beer aside – are as follows:
(No I am not going crazy and providing fitting suggestions, just an old time “rough idea”)
Comms: RvB Public Mumble
Address: public.rvbeve.com
Port: 43224
Pass: RvBLives
Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name
In game channel – RvB’s Hard Liquor
FC: Great Purple Grand-daddy Mangala Solaris
And folks, we have both prizes and a selection of prefit ships to give out on the day, but please remember BYOS is just as important as BYOB here! I’ll see you all in Reisen soon!
Like many others, I did not simply walk away and forget this place, this community, this world that had kept me intrigued for nearly 9 years. I found myself popping back in for a moment here and there, Ganked turning 5, World War Bee with Spectre, trying to entertain some “Dirty Crims” and a couple of other times when I had the urge to check up on this most amazing of games.
However, each time I tried again, I found myself with a problem, I really didn’t feel at home anywhere, so visits to EVE dwindled away. Eventually I came to realise that the only place I would feel comfortable, the only place I know I am content to provide content in EVE was the place I had called home for many years and had left behind back in 2015, RvB.
And so earlier this year I resubbed to EVE, over 12 years since the firs time, spent some time reading through around 18 months of changes, sorting my stable of characters out then more recently rejoined RvB and I’ve never felt more welcome, even when I rejoined slap bang in the middle of my own life rearing its ugly head!
Folks will be reading this and thinking that RvB is dead, that it “closed down” in autumn 2015, or simply withered on the vine as other entities gobbled up the newbies and spai alts of EVE. The changes RvB went through since I walked away back in spring 2015 will no doubt be covered by better men than I, but suffice to we are still here, and I have Firetails to lose:
So I am back in EVE, back in RvB and am looking at NPSI stuff too, I’ll see you out there folks!!
Last week saw the first Dirty Crims roam take place. It was good, relaxed comms, some fun kills and fights and I got to see just how FUCKING AWESOME booshers are.
So this week we’ll we doing it again!
Place: Usi / Ishomilken
Time: 08.00 UTC
Comms: Spectre Mumble
Ingame Channel: Spectre Fleet
As I had nasty migraine’s plaguing me all weekend, I decided to stick with Enyos and Deacons. However as well as last weeks Enyo fit, Daneel has provided me with the one under the first spoiler tag. I do like it, it does good dps, and has more buffer than the other Enyo we used last week. It should also be less of a stress for folks without 155m SP to fit!!! Yes its rails, but given we’ll be a small gang fucking around lowsec for a morning, a mixup style of weaponary will work well enough. Additionally, vary up those mids. TDs, Damps, Webs, Tackle are all good.
Finally, thanks to Scythian showing off how fun they are, I have a fit for a Magus down there, I’d like a couple of these along for funsies too! Lets Boosh those undock huggers shall we?!
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[Empty High slot]
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Warrior II x1
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S x320
Scan Resolution Dampening Script x1
Damage Control II
Energized Armor Layering Membrane II
Energized Armor Layering Membrane II
400mm Steel Plates II
Warp Scrambler II
Micro Jump Field Generator
Stasis Webifier II
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump II
Warrior II x1
Valkyrie II x1
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S x2500
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S x460
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Small Ghoul Compact Energy Nosferatu
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Warrior II x1
[Deacon, DC MWD Deacon]
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
True Sansha Energized Thermal Membrane
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
Coreli C-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer
Coreli C-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer
Coreli C-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer
Small Trimark Armor Pump II
Small Trimark Armor Pump II
Warrior II x1
[/spoiler]
EDIT: If you have yet to see it, go watch the new Spectre video.
Done that? Bloody great isn’t it. The creator did some good work right there. His name is Diam Feneck and deserves kind words, hot lead and maybe even ISK coming his way if you liked it as much as I did.
I wrote a little last week over on the new – EXCELLENT – Spectre website, about how I now have time for EVE and therefore time to do what I do best, provide content for people. Notably, I talked about a new roam I am doing mid week.
That roam is called Dirty Crims, and will be a mid week roam held every so often on Wednesday mornings, specifically aimed at pilots on the otherside of the world, many of whom I have yet to welp horribly. It’ll be start around 08.00 UTC. Tomorrow’s inaugural roam features Enyos and Deacons.
We are leaving from Usi / Ishomilken (if blinky) and will wander around looking for none fleeted folks to blast out of the sky. To join just hang around in the “Spectre Fleet” channel in game and look out for which of the invite channels I will be using. We’ll be using Spectre Mumble so get Mumble sorted before hand.
As you can see from the above, I have a few ships to hand out to early birds, fits may be a little tight on the Enyo so I have provided alternate guns in each, JUST IN CASE. Additionally some of the Enyo’s also have alternate mids available to vary things up somewhat. We’ll be shooting anyone we see around regardless of affiliation to any side in the current war, but that wont bother any of you right?
So yeah, be there or be something. And yes, those ship names are intentional.
Small Print – Fits
[spoiler]
Maybe shit fits, but deal with it. I’m rusty!
[Enyo, DC Blasters] IFFA Compact Damage Control Co-Processor II Adaptive Nano Plating II True Sansha Energized Explosive Membrane
Nearly five years ago, RvB took on the duty of offering the people of New Eden a regular NPSI roam. You may have heard of it, it was known as RvB Ganked. Somehow, “Ganked” very much became my baby, something I managed for years until the time I stepped away from EVE, following which the Ganked mantle was taken on by the good people at Spectre Fleet. Even when I came back, I was (and still am) happy to see Ganked continue with Spectre and show my face from time to time to fly with friends new and old. I was happy doing that, I thought I was out of the limelight.
They pull you back in!
Recently, Vision Thing Achasse got in touch with me to say RvB was starting up a new NPSI roam as part of their efforts to rebuild the RvB brand following some drastic changes late last year, and offered me the chance to FC the first roam/event.
I checked my schedule, gave it some thought, and agreed. I put 5 years of my EVE life into RvB, its a time I’ll never forget and to be offered this opportunity to help them just made so much sense.
So on Saturday 19th March, come join me, Mangala Solaris, and a host of other pilots for a roam in search of DEATH & GLORY, in the inaugural RvB Memento Mori roam.
As FC I got to choose the ships and what not for the night, and following a long look at all the options available (NAUGS, Eagles, AHACS to name a few), I decided to rock it old school. To bring back that insanity that signified the early days of RvB Ganked, when my RvB experience still influenced how I ran those roams. Namely, FRIGATE HULLS.
Yes, you read that right. Its a kitcken sink frigate fleet. Break out the frigate hull(s) you love the most and lets have a great night in support of RvB and it’s future within the EVE community.
Small print:
You will all die eventually, you’ll lose your ships, get shouted at by me, and you’ll enjoy it. Meet me in Oisio/Hysera from 20.00 on 19th March. Comms will be an RvB Mumble server:
server: public.rvbeve.com
port: 43224
pass: RvBLives
2015 is nearly at an end, and like other entities, I have the urge to reflect on the year gone by as well as give you all a look the year to come for as long as I am in game.
What Was
2015 started on a massive high, Ganked had reached 150 weekly roams, Spectre Fleet was a year old and Nashh was going to sacrifice a titan for something. Jayne, Doug & myself called for all our forces to fly Golden Fleet that night and took them along to the Titan Smash event, nearly 1000 of you (directly fleeted or simply tagging along!) showed up. Despite failing to kill the titan ourselves, the numbers, the doctrine and general atmosphere demonstrated just how popular NPSI is, and just how much NPSI had grown in the previous year.
Following 150, the weekend roams went from averaging 150-170 pilots to continually pushing 200 or more, especially if Apex, Doug, Jayne or myself are the FC du jour.
Alongside this high in my NPSI life, it was not long into 2015 that I became one of the RvB CEO’s, a move which stumped some people as so many of you always assumed I was one anyway – being a gobshite on social media helps with that I suppose. At the time, this was amazing, something I had considered over the years but never really thought would happen. However, in retrospect this really wasn’t a good thing for me. I was still on the CSM, I was a leading light in the NPSI world and from time to time I would lead the forces of RvB in glorious warfare. It was such a bad thing that I played less and less until eventually I didn’t even log in for NPSI. Then I realised I had won EVE. As you all know that was a temporary victory and I continue to lose this game on a daily basis.
In the wider world of EVE, we saw many alliances die, most notably BNI. In their stead more organised groups with a similar focus have arisen, Pandemic Horde, Karmafleet, Nova Haven, Signal Cartel to name a few. 2015 also saw RvB “die”, but much like my victory over EVE, their death did not last long and following a management change RvB is getting back to its roots of providing fun, constant, bullshit free pvp (looking at you ECM!). I wish Lady, Vision, Jasper and many others all the best as 2016 begins.
The end of 2015 was as exciting as the beginning for me, I returned to the game in time for Ganked 200, where I managed to get mself DD’d by PL. Apparently there was a bit of a race to be the one to DD me! The event – Ganked 200 – itself was great fun, quite a turn out of pilots many of whom I had not seen for months, it was like a school reunion. Just without the bad 90’s pop.
@awanderingjon It should make you feel even better to know there was a bit of a race to get you. All in the very best humour.
2015 was not all sunshine and roses, some of those we started the year with we are not ending it with. Dracoth Simertet, Robyn Aurilen, Photon Torpedo are but a few of the pilots we lost this year. With the EVE community being so close knit, every loss affects us – diminishes us – however I know that those pilots fly on with us as part of our collective memory.
What will be
2016 promises to be a very interesting year for me. I am currently investigating a myriad number of options for places to call home, from EVE University, to Spectre, and a whole gamut of opportunities in between, including Pandemic Legion. I am even entertaining the idea of expanding my current one man corp into an actual thing and using it as a basis of yet more investigations into the future of social networks within EVE.
In terms of how I will affect YOUR game during 2016, on the drawing board right now are more player tournaments, more roams led by Mangala, greater involvement with NPSI communities across New Eden, a foray into small gang environments and so much more that its best if you all just watch this space and see what my mind spills out as we move through 2016.
The past few days I have been consolidating assets and generally moving around space, while doing so I noticed that there was not many pilots in the systems I passed through, even on what were once major pipes, and that even in a few months random local chatter had dropped down somewhat. I promptly joined a fleet and was awash in chat and fun times consequently forgetting all about this.
Then this morning, it popped into my head again, and I got to thinking that if only there was a way for these isolated/localised groups of people to interact with greater numbers on a pretty basic level, with a result of these players possibly interacting in more vital and interesting ways as time goes on.
So random thought for the day, replace local(system) with constellation chat? (inb4 wormholers) #tweetfleet
As you can see, I think that system local should be removed/changed/something, purely because giving players more people to chat with than offered by local/corp/specialty channels could then lead to these players being more willing to band together and do “things” (Yes, I have an almost naive view of EVE players here, but hey ho). While I do not buy into, or wish to propagate the trend of “EVE is dying”, in a time with low PCU’s giving existing players an easy way to reach out to others around them is a win with its potential to increase player activity and start a new up cycle, surely?
Additionally I know that Constellation and Region chats are available already but while Local is the default for chat (and intel), then the rest go ignored and un-used in a never ending cycle, and no grassroots movement will see this change. It will have to come from CCP themselves, maybe at the same time that local is divorced from the intel it provides (I’m on the fence over local = intel, as a good or bad thing)?
Regards implementation, yes I would love this across all types of space. With each “level” having slight differences to one another. For example in empire space (both high and low) Constellation chat replaces local with no other changes. Null, it could be delayed and wormholes, just scrap it. Okay, okay I admit I am not sure how something like this would in wormholes, so ideas on the back of a postcard please. Whatever happens, these changes are workable within the lore as it pertains to capsuleers gaining even more power/sway over New Eden.
Overall, this would be a small step in terms of increasing player socialisation, but not everything can be a giant leap.
