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
As the article says this POS will be exiting reinforcement on Sunday evening, and the folks of EVE are invited to come and fight over it/kill the POS and take the goodies. I know Ganked 205 will be there under Jayne. (Grumble, Grumble about him getting the name in first!). However someone somewhere decided it would be fun to get me to FC something for this, and well the old schoolers here will know I do like shooting POS with drunk fleets.
Anyway, I was thinking originally I would just do a “fly what you want, it’ll die anyway” fleet, BUT I have had a long, stressful month, and to be honest thats too much chaos and would simply end in me calling you all names and logging off! So we’re gonna do Drakes. HML slinging, shield bearing, DRAKES! With shield logi, support frigs, caracals and what not in attendance. Fits can be found in game on the RvB Ganked mailing list. Not on it? Ask someone who is to forward the mail!
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.
Then one day I stopped winning EVE and for a variety of reasons, I returned.
I stepped back into the game just in time for a rather memorable Ganked, in which I even managed to FC for a short while. Followed by another great Ganked the week after. However, this wasn’t so much a triumphant return so much as it was me easing gently into the game. A game that had changed so much in the few months that I was gone.
Then as quickly as I returned, I was gone again. Fallout 4 had released, and all my free time disappeared into the wasteland. I binged on Fallout any chance I got, putting in nearly 70 hours over the past few weeks, despite work eating into my free time as well! Fun thing is I haven’t even scratched the surface of the game yet, I’ve only JUST reached Diamond City….
Anyway, this post isn’t about me failing at failing to win EVE, nor is it about Fallout. Its about my indecision to find something to do in EVE now that I am back.
In the before time
My history so far in EVE is very much intertwined with that of the second iteration of RvB. I, like many others, started off with an alt there until one day I found myself at a lose end with my main, Mangala Solaris. I took the decision to move Mangala into RvB as a place to get some pew pew until I found a new home. It never quite worked out that way as the past five and a half years demonstrated. As RvB grew and changed, so did I.
At first I was just a regular pilot, then I started acting as a backup caller, then fully fledged FC running multiple fleets daily both for RvB activities and against war targets, culminating with me becoming one of the main war time FCs when it came to the very large fleets that RvB was throwing at the world then, especially when fighting the folks over at EVE University and BNI. In conjunction with this, I organised many large events for RvB, and through the aegis of RvB Ganked, the EVE public. From simple roams right up to live streamed tournaments, I had to have a project rolling at all times. Knowing that others were enjoying their game experience kept me going. Until it didn’t.
FC wat do?
Now that I am back, this question is the one that is on my mind. After years of focusing on RvB, and groups connected to it, I am finding it incredibly difficult to decide on what exactly my next steps are. I know for certain I am not going to remain in RvB much longer. While RvB needs all the pilots it can get following some serious upheaval back in October, it is for others to rebuild it. I am content knowing that it will still be there, continuing to provide a home for many pilots I consider good friends.
As someone who has played this game (on and off) for around 9 years, I have experienced quite a few aspects of the game, so it becomes pretty hard for me to narrow down my options to specific path. Despite my prior experiences, there are still parts of the game that I have little experience in – wormholes, FW in its current form, the other side of Empire war decs, piracy, small gang operations and even solo pvp; Additionally there are aspects of my EVE experience that I would love to delve deeper into, notably the support and building of NPSI communities in readiness for the day when CCP give social groups their attention.
Of course I could ignore all the above and finally accept Doomchinchilla’s invite to his corp, and end up in Pandemic Legion.
Meanwhile…
For now I am just going to keep up with some well needed asset consolidation and try to get some minor projects rolling, including FCing again. The environment of EVE has changed enough that rolling around with a few (or many) of you, destroying stuff seems like a fitting way to find some inspiration both for my own future and on how I will provide for you all.
CSM Elections are once again upon us, and as with the past few years, I will be recommending candidates for you all to vote for. With this recommended slate, I am focusing very heavily on people that are community focused, and whom care about the overall health of EVE, not just their own little corner of it. A strong healthy game, with a growing community is good for all of us in and out of the NPSI scene.
Now, the CSM is elected using an STV voting system (someone else can try and explain that) but basically instead of voting for 1 candidate, you can select up to 14 candidates from the field. And yes, with a list of 75 to chose from, many of whom have no published platform, interviews or anything, it can be bloody well hard. See the CCP Candidate page here, or this spreadsheet.
This is where I come in. Like many other groups and community notables in EVE, I am providing a break down of the candidates I think you SHOULD list on your ballots. Along with a suggested order for listing them.
However if you do simply want to exercise your rights as players, then get back to exploding one another, mining, missioning, exploring and ganking, here are the 14 I feel will be the best bang for your buck. Click here for a prefilled ballot with this list.
Jayne Fillon
Bam Stroker
Khador Vess
Xander Phoena
Sugar Kyle
Psianh Auvyander
Steve Ronuken
Mike Azariah
Gorski Car
Corbexx
Cagali Cagali
Sion Kumitomo
Manfred Sideous
Endie
Candidates 8 – 14 feel free to mix it up, or out right change them if you wish. After all several of them will get massive bloc support from the CFC, HERO, PL etc, whatever you do though remember Jayne is your number ONE!!!
The following is a break down of these candidates and why I think they are important for the game. The top 7 are candidates who in one way or another sing from the COMMUNITY songbook along with all of us, the 8 through 14 slots are people whom I know deserve a place on your ballots for CSM X. Feel free to change up the last 7, but I really do recommend following my top 7.
Jayne Fillon
Founder of Spectre Fleet – one of EVE’s main NPSI communities; Theorycrafter extraordinaire, excellent public speaker and a guy with as much on focus on content creation as myself. Has a true love for the game and what it can be for as large a number of us as possible through increased social interaction and integration.
Bam Stroker
Yes he’s a dirty Crim, but he lives and breaths community; After all community is at the very heart of why we play EVE. Having a such a dedicated chap on the CSM will be a boon for all of us. Along with this, he is a Sov focused player which is the real hot button topic now, having a front line soldier on the CSM will be as valuable as having coalition level FCs and leaders sitting alongside him. Having met him and seen the passion he feels for EVE, I really want as many votes as possible to go his way.
Khador Vess
Khador is an individual who has experience in many aspects of EVE gameplay and the wider interactions around the game itself. Almost a generalist if you will, and in this age of rapid development such an individual will serve the community well alongside more specialised, narrowly focused Delegates.
Xander Phoena
Despite his work forcing him away from both the game and his CSM duties for a weeks at a time, Xander has given his all to the CSM this year. Yes, some may say having a media personality onboard is not necessarily a good thing, but you know what, Xander is also a great community rep BECAUSE of that media presence. Since COMMUNITY is my song I cannot find it in myself to ignore Xander.
Sugar Kyle
Easily the most hardworking, well respected CSM member to date. Sugar has been stunning to work alongside this term. From her binders full of questions, answers, information and so much more at the summit to her well run and successful mini town-halls in game, she has been on the ball all year. Even better is, while she hails from the often fractious low sec community and therefore holds lowsec closest to her heart, Sugar is as eager to see improvements to the rest of the game.
Psianh Auvyander
Psianh is a member of NoirDOT and is the leader of their Noir Academy arm and so like those of us in RvB, BNI and EUNI, Psianh understands that new bros are hugely important to EVE. Obviously he is also a merc, and unlike other candidates from “that side” of EVE, he isnt on a “grr HS is too safe” trip. He just legitimately wants more gameplay options for mercs, so they truly can be mercs. Finally, he makes it onto the community portion of this slate due to his work as a community manager. Knowing how to be a bridge between developers and players is a valuable commodity for a CSM member.
Steve Ronuken
Steve is an industrial player, but even more importantly he is a third party dev. Having seen him at work over this term, he has been a constant touch stone for CCP in their work with crest and other technical applications. With more third pary apps appearing, and CCP being more willing to work the community on such things, Steve is a must for the CSM going forward.
Mike Azariah
Mike is a tremendous communicator, with a wide depth of knowledge about EVE and a totally steadfast advocate for the casual player regardless of where they call home. I know I said this last year, but I’ll stick by it. On top of all this, Mike is a social player constantly moving between different social groups. Another voice singing from the COMMUNITY hymnal is a bonus!
Gorski Car
Small gang pvper, neophtye – but knowledgeable blogger. Gorski has a wealth of information on ship fitting, balance and how future changes will affect the combat meta at many levels of play. If you love pvp, you have to vote Gorski. It can also be said of Gorski that he lives the Social & NPSI lifestyle without ever being a part of the more well known NPSI communities. He moves easily between different groups with EVE, which gives him a good perspective on the future of societies/social groups/social clubs.
Corbexx
THE wormhole candidate you must vote for this year. As with Sugar he has been a trooper this year, working hard for both his community and the rest of us. He knows exactly how to get what he wants and how to use what he gets to the benefit of his community. As with Steve & Sugar CSM X with Corbexx will be good for EVE.
Cagali Cagali
A member of BNI, head of their recruiting and education section. Cagali lives and breathes new players and their interests. While everyone can claim to have new players as an area of focus, no other candidate can really mean it. New players are a key to keeping EVE alive, so the experience Cagali has will benefit the CSM and CCP greatly.
Sion Kumitomo
While Sion really does not need an endorsement from me, nor your votes (Go Go CFC Ballot), I do feel he is worth the votes of people outside of his obvious constituency. His push for more transparency on the CSM (between CCP and the CSM, and between the CSM and the player base), his ability to see the wider, meta implications of game changes both small and large all point to a guy with the health of EVE as one of his core interests.
Manfred Sideous
With 2015 shaping up to be a year that either makes or breaks null – if changes come it either changes or dies, if they dont, the status quo may well kill it – key players like Manny (as he is known) are an absolute must for a place on the CSM.
Endie
Another “GRR Goon”, but as with Manfred he brings to the table a depth of knowledge on nullsec that is damn well unrivalled. More null viewpoints are 100% necessary for the health of EVE, both for the guys who live there and groups like Ganked that visit Null as a source of content.
Every one of us who plays this game gets to know people, be it corp mates, alliance buddies, or those you fly with as part of an NPSI community like Ganked, Spectre or Redemption. People we come to consider friends. Some times those people break contact with us, often as they have left for other games, or because of commitments in real life. Rarely do we hear the sad news I heard recently about a fellow player. A player who at times was a member of RvB, war decced RvB, flew with us on Ganked, fought Ganked, in other words a member of both mine and your extended community.
This player was Lex Fasces and he was well known for flying with his corporation New Eden Renegades in and around low-sec space. You can read the announcement of his shocking and very sudden passing here on Failheap Challenge. Suffice to say his young age makes this more a shock and my prayers and thoughts are with those closest to him in and out of game.
Now, Lex loved his drakes, especially the old school PODLA Drakes and in memorial of Lex, Cyberten and the chaps over at FHC are running a Memorial Roam next Saturday, 21st February. And in a break from our schedule, Ganked will be attending.
So, get your drakes down to Agil ready for next weekend.
WHEN: Saturday the 21st
TIME: 20:00 EVE
PLACE: AGIL (or HED-GP)
SHIPS: Drakes (PODLA STYLE)
Anything else thats not bigger then a bc
INGAME CHANNEL: “Renegades of New Eden”
Please bring LOGISTICS. I will reimburse the T1 Shield Logi that we lose!
Yes, this means Confessor’s are pushed back, but the more I thought about it, the more I want to fly in this fleet on this day for reasons that I hope I do not have to explain. Check the schedule for updated dates and so on.
This is a PODLA Drake:
[Drake, podla 3%PG]
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Disruptor II
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
50W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Warrior II x5
Yesterday, Saturday 3rd January 2015 saw an in-game player organised event take place in the system of Ishomilken. As ever with player events Ganked attended.
The event itself was titled “Titan Smash” and was hosted by Nashh Kadavr with the backing of the folks at iwantisk.com. The event was to publicise the upcoming EVE_NT EVE meet that Nashh also organises. As is obvious from the name, the entire premise was that a titan would be sacrificed somewhere in space with a hefty of prize of 20 billion ISK being awarded to the character with the final blow upon it. Coincidentally this event was to take place on the same day as Ganked 150 and very close to Spectre Fleet’s First Birthday, as a consequence of this fortuitous alignment Douglas Aurelius, Jayne Fillon and myself decided to have our celebrations together and fly something ridiculously special.
Golden Fleet was born.
We asked for our communities to wherever possible bring Navy Apocalypses, Apocalypses, Armageddons and so much more. On the day all three of us were blown away by the response we had received. We ended up with several fleets as Ganked and Spectre’s respective channels hurled x after x at us. Doug took one fleet, I took another, Jayne handled the capitals he had arranged to support us. Other folks started third, fourth and even fifth fleets to come along with us to the event.
The Titan Cometh
Arriving in the event system, we were greeted by the event titan – an Erebus – sitting in a large FW plex (unlike other FW plexes these do not have gates so can be warped into by anything) with a defence fleet consisting of many, many tech 3’s, t2 logistic support a small number of carriers. To our utter surprise (not really) it was our old friends in Snuff along with Shadow Cartel, Dead Terrorists and others. Groups who have in the past proved very tough to fight, but from whom we have never shied when taking that fight.
All our fleets – hostile and friendly – got stuck in to the subsequent engagement and it went back and forth for hours upon hours, with hundreds of ships dying across the grid while the Erebus sat majestically in the centre of it all. NPSI being NPSI we couldn’t quite push them away from the Erebus – despite a tremendous numerical advantage overcome the awesome organisation displayed by the defending force, even though we were inflicting horrendous losses upon them (and any other fleets stupid enough to land around us – say a prayer for CFC Harpies & CO2 Ruptures everyone!) especially their logistics and carrier support.
Now, you may be wondering what I mean when I state we were unable to own the field, this when we had multiple fleets and they had one fleet. Basically, NPSI fleets are often made up of people who do not fly together a lot, who have a vastly different amount of pvp experience and even massive SP differences; and in this case we were engaging a fleet consisting of some of the best that lowsec has to offer, flying a composition they do very well when operating as individual entities, let alone as the voltron they had formed. However, despite this we in the NPSI fleets gave it an amazing try and in my opinion we performed very well considering the patchwork job we had to do for organisation of the multiple fleets. Yes, we yielded the field to the defenders but not without seriously bloodying them.
I have said it repeatedly this weekend, but seeing what the NPSI community pulled together for this event has yet again reaffirmed my faith in our communities and their future in EVE. We have grown so much from small groups of pilots getting together for drunk roams in shit ships.
Drama llama
Now, the titan itself did actually die. Golden Fleet had pulled off – as it turns out a couple of enemy guardians too early! – and the defending fleet turned their guns upon it. Doing so caused tears of rage from so numerous parties, many of whom are part of the NPSI communities of EVE. Claims of “rigged” started to whirl around iwantisk and EVE_NT, especially when the titan died while fitted with civilian modules and the pilot with the final blow was in the defending fleet; Claims that EVE_NT / iwantisk supplied ships to the defenders appeared; Generally a stupid amount of butthurt over people’s apparent lost opportunity to whore a titan/win 20 billion ISK.
With every new claim and accusation I have seen, I have also seen Ganked and Spectre name-checked specifically as being butthurt about how the event ended, which frankly has annoyed me and continues to annoy me. Speaking for myself as the Godfather of Ganked, and for my close friends in Sash/Spectre command, last night was truly spectacular. We took our numerous fleets along to this event fully intending to get you all into a fight, a fucking HUGE one at that and thats what we did. We killed, we got killed, we had fun, we got stressed (sorry Encord!), we came away exhausted but satisfied. Somehow, we all thought you felt the same way too.
Below I address several of the complaints levied at EVE_NT and the defenders by people purporting to represent Ganked and Spectre:
We expected to simply get there, own the titan and leave with our pockets jingling.
Anyone expecting this was – and continues to – deluding themselves. If previous experience has taught us anything is that there is always a defence fleet. Given the chance, I would take you all along as a defence fleet on a similar event (oh wait…)!
Our numbers should have made it easy.
Try herding around 1000 pilots, across several comms setups, and multiple fleets, many of whom do nothing but complain about tidi, or shoot the wrong thing. Yeah….
The defence fleet should have rolled over and let us kill the titan/there should have been no defence fleet.
Originally I “think” Nashh planned to have the titan supported by a few friendly carriers flown by his Bastards, however we threw a spanner in that plan by being the largest groups to confirm attendance shortly after the event was announced. Can you imagine how quickly 1000 pilots would have destroyed the Erebus and its support had he gone ahead with that plan? Then can you imagine trying to find a fight from someone in lowsec for our hundreds of BS and support? As seriously I would have let none of you go home without getting my blood up.
The event was rigged
No one in the defence fleet wanted prizes. They wanted killmails, which they received. They wanted to test themselves against the blob, which they did.
Bloo, Bloo, the titan was civilian fit.
As I understand it the titan was fit out of Nashh or the titan pilots own pocket, so taking the fit off when it was to be killed by its own defence fleet made perfect sense. Especially in an environment where the killmail may not even generate (sounds familiar yes?). Frankly does the isk value of the titan matter when its a god damn titan on your killboard? No. Unless its a Leviathan as those things are like fucking unicorns.
As to whether iwantisk should be accountable for any issues arising from this tiny bit of drama, I really do not care enough to give it thought beyond saying that sort of decision should be between Nashh and themselves. As far as I am concerned, iwantisk provided something fun for an event run by Nashh in whatever way he wanted. Reading his own coverage of the thing, he basically got what he wanted, which nicely dovetailed with my own ambitions for last night too.
As for iwantisk, you guys have heard the saying “Any publicity is GOOD publicity” right?
Everything ends sometime
The tl;dr here is that the vast majority of the attendees in the NPSI community were there to celebrate G150 and Spectre’s birthday. A titan killmail and/or some isk would have been icing on top of icing on top of icing on an already awesome cake. That some people are complaining simply shows they were not there for the fight, they were there to get them dollar bills, which is entirely the wrong focus to have in such events.
Thats enough of that though, let me leave you with more awesome screens from last night and a great video too:
