RVB » Mangala Undocked

Newsround: 21 May 2013

May 212013

Hi guys.

Going forward I have decided to post a regular blog entry that will summarise the past couple of weeks of my EVE time especially the following:

Ganked Prizes listings for those Ganked’s I do not write about seperately
Fun things RvB may have got up to since the last of these articles
Updates about CSM: how I am finding it, the people, CCP and so on
Videos I have seen that I think more people need to watch
Anything else I feel you want to briefly read about

========================================================

Ganked 69 was held this weekend, and it was a glorious 5 hours in Rahadalon fighting the forces of Brave Newbies Inc, TEST, CVA & Friends, and many others who I forget at this point. Suffice to say the system was rammed. I had plenty of prizes to award over the evening from both SomerBlink and the wonderful guys over at Angeli Mortis.

First up are the SomerBlink sponsored prizes:

Fed Navy Comet x15 (1 per) – Bandsaw1961, VALENTLEADER0524, Trinneth, Brutor Adtur, Ian Lemmy Killmeister, Sun Seer, Rexanna Gold, Gyouzac, 2Larmer, Mogubu, Mourning Souls, Melancholy707, Rida Carter, Rasputin1979, Serenety Steel

Eris x3 (1 per) – Local009, Butch Cassidy, Fishysquirrel

Exequror Navy x1 – Charlotte Winter (A none rep hull for an awesome repper!)

Deimos x1 – Xan Drakov (Because a man should care about the sanity of others)

Vigilant x1 – MirrorGod (BNI POS hates Mangala, so again he came to the fore!)

Navy Megathron x1 - Meirantean (Didn’t want that corp anyway)

The above will be contracted out by a rep of SomerBlink this week.

And now for the prizes generously donated by Angeli Mortis. (Who assure me they are always recruiting new members, so look into them if you are looking for a new home!):

Vulture & Aliastra Catalyst – John Hartley (Excellent Warp-ins)

Harpy & Aliastra Catalyst - Horus H’kaan (Fix Rails Mang!)

Basilisk & Aliastra Catalyst – Charlotte Winter (Love reps)

Sabre – PVDNS77

Wolf & Stabber Fleet Issue – Miss Snuggless

Vexor Navy Issue – TGL3

Keres – Equinox Starborn

Gnosis – Caterpil

Raptor & Taranis – Sascha Naskingar

Daredevil - Irodanis Maricadie

Dramiel – Miri Boirelle

Ishtar – Xallaxa

12 Rifters - VonSpaky (for asking if he won anything!)

========================================================

In RvB news, we are at war with Brave Newbies Inc. Despite appearances to the contrary we have done this for fun, and boy has it been fun! The BNI guys really are mostly a great bunch and the fights I have had with them have been bloody good ones. We have a few days left in the current war period and I am hoping for even more explosions before it comes to an end, although it may not end – watch this space!

For those wondering, RvB are closing in on 2000 kills in 5 days, including a couple of freighters and a rather shiny strategic cruiser. Neither side has lost carriers yet despite RvB moving a couple over. I have hope for a sweeping capital engagement though!

Good thing about this war, I get to stop losing sec status from spending time in Rahadalon. Which is good as I am far too lazy to rat to get my sec back up. So roll on Odyssey!

========================================================

As you will be aware, I have been a member of the 8th CSM for around 3 weeks now, and for the majority of that period I have spent a lot of time reading super sekrit CSM forums, getting to know both my fellow delegates (many of whom have vast knowledge on parts of the game I only have the most basic conceptual grasp!) & the members of CCP to whom we currently have access, and digesting much of the material released about the upcoming expansion than I normally would, especially anything relating to the changes and additions that I am not very confident on. I would sooner be able to represent you all by understanding how everything fits together than just spouting something because I feel a need to be seen to do “something”. All of this just ends up with a very quiet Mangala, not the person you are all used to I know. However, as time goes on I hope to become more vocal, especially if anything happens in the content area’s to which I have concerns or hopes for change.

========================================================

And that guys is the first News Round. Not much to say, but lets hope I can improve that over time.

Happy Birthday EVE

EVE, Fcing, Ganked, RVB 3 Responses »

May 062013

While EVE is 10 today – the 6th May 2013 – Sunday the 5th May saw the highest Peak Concurrent User count in 2 years occur. 65,303 pilots logged into the game to mine, rat, ship spin, trade, scam, and most of all pvp. I myself like to think I encouraged some 250 of them to log in and attend the 67th Ganked. This was a frigate & destroyer hull themed roam that as well as rampaging all on its own, would be shooting a Nyx piloted by Marlona Sky.

As the system for the Nyx event was to be announced on the day, I had the roam form up in Rens, which turned out to be very fortuitous in that it was 8 jumps or so from the event system, so we changed plans slightly and moved a few hulls over to Floseswin to allow us to be better prepared for any losses suffered while helping take the Nyx down later. While moving ships we scored a few kills in the low sec systems along the way, and even back in Rens.

Following this, we roamed into null sec, not really getting any fun out of it at all. A few bombers that got some dudes, and in turn got killed as well but pretty much all we found was dead space. We then got word from CCP Foxfour that the Devs would be roaming and so we bounced back to Empire and waited.

CCP FoxFour > How big is your fleet and where is it?

CCP FoxFour > LETS DO THIS!

We did not have to wait for long. The Dev’s appeared in Brin, and so we moved out that way, tidi-ing every system we passed through severely, 180-200+ pilots will do that it seems in low sec. Watching the Devs stream we saw them bounce into Todifraun and so in we went, to find them already engaged by a MUCH smaller group of frigates. And so we joined the battle.

I called all our favourite Devs and one by one they were caught and they died. Then I did my usual and burned out of range, so House then Mirror and others stepped to the plate and called more of them too. Eventually CCP were overwhelmed by both us and the never ending “others” streaming into the system. I think we did damn well! Yes it shows kills only, and I think some randoms are missing, but thats how Ganked rolls. Also even evekill shows no losses!

Then it was time to head to Floseswin for the main event.

I can only really say “OH BOY”.

The system was crammed with over 2000 pilots. Most of whom wanted to shoot the Nyx, and others who wanted to shoot everyone else or even rep the Nyx. All rather interesting under 10% tidi. Eventually the frigate dps could not break the remote reps hitting the Nyx and Marlona set it to self destruct. 20 minutes later, we had two killmails. Here are some images from the system by RvB member Zibbal:

Brave Newbies had been inviting all of Floseswin local to theirs for an afterparty, so around 80 of the Ganked fleet ran over and played around with them for a while until the day caught up with us and we needed sleep. All in all yet another awesome day, made even more spectacular by the fight with CCP, the excellent Nyx event and of course EVE being on the cusp of its 10th birthday.

And setting another Ganked kill record too, 300+ kills over the course of the roam!

It was a day I am proud to say “I was there”

While all this was happening, over in “robe & wizard hat” territory, a SOCT representative was addressing CONCORD in Yulai about the past 10 years:

And so, with the strike of ten, it begins.

Children of New Eden. Welcome.

Ten years ago, a sudden advance in technological capabilty heralded a new dawn for the people of New Eden. It brought about a new age for the human race.

The result, was all of you.

Capsuleers. The Empyreans. The first generation of post-humans.

The Society of Conscious Thought has watched your development over the course of the last ten years.

We have watched you, the Empyreans, develop from a small group of promising individuals who sucessfully made the transition into posthumanism a decade ago, into a faction of your own.

A faction strong enough to create your own empires. A faction strong enough to govern and manage yourselves, albeit via methods through which the Society of Conscious Thought has not always approved.

However, in the same respect, the cluster has been witness to how the perception of life and death, and the value of such concepts, can become twisted by those whom become alienated from their grasp.

We have watched you create, build, and nurture, while at the same time we have watched you burn, crush and destroy the dreams of trillions.

The very existance of the capsuleer is a paradox.

You are those who no longer know the meaning of death, defeated in battle only to rise again, reborn.

For ten years, the Society of Conscious Thought has monitored your progress since the flood gates opened at the dawn of the Empyrean Age.

We watched as the immortal children of New Eden took their first steps into the void. We watched as you first spread your wings, and reached for the heavens.

We have watched you colonize, create, and grow, and at the same time we have watched you shatter entire worlds, tear down empires and crush those whom would oppose you.

The Society of Conscious Thought comes to you today with a message, and a gift.

Tomorrow, we will gift every capsuleer in New Eden a Gnosis-class Society of Conscious Thought designed battlecruiser, and with it, we relay the following message:

Our message to you is simple.

Tomorrow, the Second Decade of the Empyrean Age dawns.

Tomorrow, we embark on the next stage of our journey.

Children of New Eden, Empyreans… accept our gift, and realise your true potential.

Before I go into the many & varied prizes, I think you should all watch this video by delonewolf, it really is amazing and expresses so well how many of us feel about this game that has kept us engaged for so long:

And now, prizes.

First off we have the prizes provided by our regular sponsors – SomerBlink:

Scouting Distinction – Inty Pack (1 of each interceptor) x3 (Sarkis Udoka, William Hazard, Jamie Banks)

Most Pods – Purifier x2 (Val ona)

Spot Prizes – Worm x5 – 1 each (Thecla Elarik, Calbary, Zibbal, Cloudwolfe, Little George)

Combat Distinction – Gila x3 – 1 each (tgl3, alphastarpilot, Andre27) - Generally doing good things like stepping up or scramming CCP Rise!

Combat Excellence – Navy Megathron x1 (Macgyver 3rd) – highest of our fleet on the Nyx & Marlonas Pod!

These will be forthcoming from a representative of Somerblink this week.

Secondly we have the prizes donated by the Angeli Mortis alliance:

2 Navy Comets – 1 each (Fork Off, a1tra Ural) – Fork for being Persistant & a1tra for this image
2 Navy Vexors – 1 each (Calintor, Azula Kishtar) – Calintor for public contracts & Azula for top damage on Fozzie.
1 Navy Dominix (SaintCav) – Final Blow on Marlona’s pod

Finally, Ganked attendee Carathas donated 2 billion isk for prizes related to podding & being the MVP of the roam, here are my chosen winners roughly following Carathas’ conditions:

Quinten Sarn – 1 billion isk for getting the final blow on CCP Fozzie

Andrew Butcher – 750 million isk for the most kills during the roam

MirrorGod – 250 million isk for being pretty damn useful during the day!

FC’s Note:

We had over the course of yesterday some 350 people cycle in and out of the fleet, with maybe 150 of them being people new to RvB Ganked or even PVP in general, and I feel that they all enjoyed the time they spent with us. This is down to all of you who come to ganked regularly and make it what it is. Thanks.

Bigger thanks from me for making the past (nearly) 2 years of my EVE life something really special.

Mangala

Get your kicks on 66

EVE, Fcing, Ganked, RVB 2 Responses »

Apr 222013

To die will be an awfully big adventure.

This weekends 66th numbered RvB Ganked roam was themed on Ventures, mostly because I think the number 66 evokes a sense of adventure for many, mostly thanks to references about the famous Route 66 highway littered throughout pop culture.

We formed up around 75 people in fleet – the majority in Ventures. Our initial jump into Akora saw us warp to a cyno when suddenly FCON lands in a BC down fleet, and we have a go. However their logistics proved too solid for the dps of our ventures to break, so we bailed, reshipped our losses into “mostly” Ventures and went out again.

People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure.

We burned through lowsec finding random things to shoot, especially this rupture which didn’t try to run or even burn back to gate. Eventually we rolled into Amamake and mooched around for a while, killing a couple of smartbomb fit BS that we did not actually land on, and had plenty of time to warp out because of our “amazing” lock range. Following this we took a bounce into Seaside (Siseide) and had a good scrap at the FW IHUB there including a reship and a return. Lots of kills were had for sure.

Now my plan had been to burn us to Rahadalon to fight Brave Newbies and we still did this, but with less Venture’s present, however this did not stop us getting over an hour of good fights out of the Newbies. I will let the videos from that section speak for themselves:

Overall it was a stunning night, we never left lowsec and we had so many fun fights along the way. A lot of us gave up a bit of sec status but it was worth it. As for not having our usual 120+ I think that having to train Mining Frigate to 1 put many people off attending – their loss as it turned out! Oh and that little thing known as Burn Jita.

We set a new Ganked kill record too, 283 kills in a single roam.

Adventure is just bad planning.

Somer.Blink has been – as of this roam – sponsoring RvB Ganked for 1 year & 45 roams. They have generously provided over 50 billion isk in prizes to attendee’s of these roams, although thats not why you all show up right? Anyway, this roam was no different and we had the following winners:

Scouting Distinction – Inty Pack (Crow, Stiletto, Taranis, Malediction) x3 & Buzzard+Probes+Launcher x3 – (Green Gambit, Major Floor, Combat Mink)

Most Pods – Hound x2 & Sabre x1 – (Fynmar Azaph)

Spot Prizes – Daredevil x5 – (RRISNER, Sascha Naskingar, Weedmasta, Melkor Valor, Jakob Anedalle), Dramiel x5 – (Local009, Codename Par, Andre27, Sally Shepard, Horus H’kaan)

Combat Distinction – Vigilant x2 – (Hackbert, Luckyccs), Cynabal x2 – (Tragot Gomndor, VonSpaky)

Combat Excellence – Vindicator x1 – (Andrew Butcher)

Masha’Fozzie

EVE, Fcing, Ganked, RVB No Responses »

Apr 032013

The most beloved of places to Fozzie are the shipyards

As anyone who has been playing EVE since the summer has noticed, there has been a bountiful presence at work when it comes to the balancing of ships, and that presence is CCP Fozzie, and because I have found a new love for EVE due to the gifts he has bestowed upon us, I thought why not run Ganked 63 in honour of his munificence.

The roam would be a multi part roam involving cruisers, battlecruisers & destroyers changed or added since Fozzie transcended to CCP.

And whosoever puts his trust in Fozzie, then He will suffice him

We started after down time on Easter Sunday with a cruiser roam, which saw a nice mix of rebalanced cruisers take the field. A run around the Amarr-Minmatar Faction Warfare area got us a small fight with the Amarrians, before we decided low sec space was too quiet for a holiday weekend and made best speed for Geminate & points north. While moving through Geminate, the days ubermencsh scout Roigon suggested that Thecla take a detour into QKTR-L. Thecla then exclaimed he had found a Thanatos in space. He got to work finding it while the fleet held next door praying furiously to Fozzie, begging him to shine his light upon us. It was then that Thecla called a tackle on the Thanatos.

Then fight in the cause of Fozzie, and know that Fozzie Heareth and knoweth all things

Fozzie had smiled upon us. The Thanatos died, along with the “rats” he had been killing in his site. He also paid 500 million ISK to one of our members, who tried to ransom the pilot. Shame he told us about the ransom AFTER the Thanatos exploded.

The remainder of part one was very quiet, until we received intel of a fight in X-7OMU potentially involving lots of capital ships. So we scrambled there pretty fast with a couple of kills being scored along the way. However upon jumping in, it was apparent that Fozzie had chosen to punish us for our hubris over the Thanatos kill earlier. We found many cyno fields with fleet after fleet being bridged in, and only our fleet as a potential target. We sought redemption in the only way we could, and died gloriously in the name of Fozzie.

Those who believe, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Fozzie: for without doubt in the remembrance of Fozzie do hearts find rest.

After a short break the second part of the roam moved out, this time in Battlecruisers. A slight detour to Rahadalon to visit Brave Newbies Inc did not get any glorious combat for us to demonstrate more of our love for Fozzie, so we moved onto Providence. Where, excepting a few bombers, we really did not find much to shoot. That is until Corebloodbrothers a fellow CSM 8 Candidate contacted me and asked for a fight, to which I agreed. We fought in G7AQ-7, and while we were outgunned & out logisticed, we fought and died with the name of Fozzie on our lips.

The Prophet said, ‘A single endeavor of fighting in Fozzie’s Cause is better than the world and whatever is in it.

The final section of this roam-cum-festival of worship was lead by Greygal from Agony Unleashed. The theme was Destroyers & Frigates. We wandered into Curse and eventually Catch, finding nothing that would willingly engage our small group of ships. Even HED-GP was a dead end, until Fozzie provided an aggressed Navy Dominix. However the Dominix had friends who cyno’d in to support it. Yes, Init had arrived to test the patience of the Faithful. Infidels. Following this Greygal moved us towards NOL- in Delve, with a blinky gang that got in our way in low sec space allowing us to demonstrate the supremacy of our faith once more! And then before we knew it, we were in NOL- and we found HBC, CFC and others. We fought a few of each until we died.

The night was over, our faith had been proven repeatedly throughout all day long with the final tally being 116 souls reclaimed for Fozzie.

Let those fight in the way of Fozzie who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Fozzie, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward.

As usual Somer Blink sponsored prizes during the roam, and here are the names of those upon whom the light of Fozzie shone:

Inty Packs (2 each of: Stiletto, Crow, Malediction, Taranis): Green Gambit, Xenos Wiggin, luckyccs, roigon, kaeda maxwell

Dramiels: Ivoto, Mourning Souls, Astrox Tadaruwa

Daredevils: roigon, Zao Amadues, DocFloyd

Succubii: FishySquirrel, Mal Crichton, Cathach

Cruors: House2Twist, Trinneth, Patchouli Airuta

Phantasms: roigon, Ne’Rubis Tanthalas, Mexicantis

Cynabals: Thecla Elarik, Jim Hammond, Butch Cassidy

RvB Presents: I Demand Satisfaction

EVE, RVB No Responses »

Mar 262013

RvB is proud to announce that on the weekend of June 1st & 2nd we will be holding our first ever public 1 v 1 frigate tournament.

The basics of the event are as follows:

Two Brackets. One for characters under 90 days & one for everyone else.
Tech One frigates only (No Faction). Any fit is a go.
No links allowed. Duellists will be fleeted with an RvB umpire to ensure this.
Implants – we cannot check for these so will be allowed, but note that you can be podded so use them at your own risk.

Prizes will be announced closer to the date. I am open to offers though if you wish to have your name in lights (or at least mentioned in blogs, forum posts and advertising).

Keep checking back to this blog as I release further information on this event.

Universal Remote

EVE, Fcing, Ganked, RVB No Responses »

Mar 252013

Not long after I returned from warmer climes, Daneel linked a video of a gang of RR vexors having an incredible time:

This excellent video got me to thinking about how well – or not – this would translate into a Ganked theme with 100 pilots or more rocking similar ships. And so I announced that the 62nd RvB Ganked would be using this theme. Its name: Universal Remote. This roam went out into the wilds of EVE last night.

Before we did that though, we found something to do during the form up when I noticed a Rhea slow boating away from our meet up station. He was obviously afk. I shall leave Daneel Trevize to sum up the little slice of fun that followed this discovery:

There once was a Rhea in space,
who’d drifted right off his home base;
a Ganked gank fleet was formed,
of sec hits they were warned;
then they busted a nut in his face…

The End

Now it being hisec, we generated A LOT of CONCORD.

We then shipped into our RR vexors – and assorted other ships – and got the night going. TG found us a couple of drakes in an anomaly in Akora, so we grabbed them, repped them, killed their rats, then killed them. They took it very well – one of them shot me a brief convo and asked who was repping them, why and did we plan to kill them. No tears or anything. Love players like that.

Geminate beckoned next, and except for a fun fight in EOA- & me making Neil Patrick Harris jokes everytime we entered NBPH- it was very quiet, despite numerous groups living there. One day it will pick up I am sure. Anyway, we kept heading north wandering into Vale then Tribute which saw us spend a while tussling with a Razor gang in and around IMK- & G9D- (note to the bombers, check our range before bombing in future!) before moving off towards HD- which had been the scene of “something”. We also saw a TEST frigate & destroyer gang along the way, but they would not hang around and shoot us. However this Vigilant pilot did, so we repped him until everyone possible had whored onto the mail. Look at that damage taken!!!

The end of the night came with a whelp to Nulli in HD-, who brought pretty much a perfect counter to our fleet, and that was that.

A different theme to normal, that certainly works well for small gangs, and given a better opportunity could have worked well for us, but regardless it was great fun! All in all we scored around 11.5 billion isk in damage over 80 kills, with 6 billion or so being the Rhea. And more importantly Ganked passed its 5000th kill milestone. GO US!!!!!

Vidya:

+ More to Follow.

As with roams for nearly the past year, the roam had prizes sponsored by Somer.Blink and the winners of this weeks prizes were:

Scouting Distinction – Helios+Launcher+Probes x3 (1 each) (TGL3, Roigon, Green Gambit)

Most Pods – Eris x1 (FishySquirrel)

Spot Prizes – Fed Navy Comet x10 (1 each) (Xenos Wiggin, Zenghar Zandoken (wins 2), House2Twist, Meita Way, Diadem Eltanin, Tothebone Bad, Butch Cassidy, Scooby Dooby Doo, Cobbler Rotineque (Ganked Cherry!))

Combat Distinction – Vigilant x3 (1 each) (Reek Star, Lodavier, Daneel Trevize)

Combat Excellence – Navy Dominix x1 (Hegia Rilemack Opper (Got Gankeds 5000th Kill))

Heretic – Exequeror Navy Issue x1 (Aegis Kashniir)

Congratulations to you all!!

I go, I come back.

Fail, Fcing, Ganked, RVB No Responses »

Mar 052013

So I went on vacation, had a great time and then I came back to lead Ganked 59: Wulfpax, this past Sunday.

The chosen theme was purely destroyers, with no specific range or set-up.

We formed up in Stacmon with the intent of a roam through Syndicate, and the surrounding lowsec space, however Alphastarpilot from the HBC convoed me to let me know he also had a destroyer gang forming and would we want to fight? I put it to the fleet and despite some wariness they went for it. So after a little delay due to some douches trying – and failing (they killed like 10 ships) – to smart bomb the fleet in highsec, we moved out as fast we could to the target system, although fast is probably too polite a term, given that the server through tidi & traffic control tried its best to slow us down.

An uneventful run to B-D saw us regroup on the gate before it, and then once 170 or so of us were there, I called for us to jump in and hold cloak as the HBC gang was set-up ready for us. And right as I jumped it, things went south for my client – total lock up despite everything being either off or set low. Luckily others stepped up and FC’d the fleet while I waited to get back in, and Ganked took over 100 names in that one fight! Although one of those names was mine, shamelessly killed before I got back into the fleet, BY MY OWN FLEET!

Here is the kill board views of this fight:

http://rvbganked.co.uk/kills/index.php/kill_related/9598/

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=16639604

Take a look at these two videos from that fight, both from the HBC point of view – I prefer Bagehi’s as it has comms on it:

Most folks did not survive that, however several got out and made their way back to Stacmon to rejoin the rest of us. These people had assistance from both our regular scouts and Andre27, who lead them out scoring a Sabre kill along the way.

Following a short break & reship period, we headed back out following my original plan, but we did not find much at all. We arrived 30 seconds too late to crash someone else’s party, although did snag an Armageddon & a Damnation. After this, we got a tip off that some potential bads could be found in Aridia, so we burned in that direction, only for them not to come out and play despite our best efforts. We had a similar situation with a carrier in Shafrak – again in Aridia – that was missioning, its pilot wised up to us and docked depriving us of a kill.

As it was late, we made the decision to power down to Delve and find a whelp. We did so. One side of a gate was a Brack Region Muninn gang, the other-side a Goon Rupture gang, we hit the Goon gang dropping a Claymore & some support before they started bailing as the BL gang came in and pretty much cleaned us out.

And that was pretty much that. My first night back was over, with us snagging 187 kills, nearly beating my personal best Ganked record of 189 kills.

As ever the roam was sponsored by Somer.Blink.

Scouting Distinction – Helios+Probes+Launcher x3 (Green Gambit, Roigon, Thecla Elarik)

Corpse Collector (Most Pod Kills) – Sabre x2 (Macgyver 3rd)

Spot Prizes – Daredevil x5 (Daneel Trevize, Longdrinks (First Final Blow on First Proper kill of the night), Melkor Valor, Ahmed Ibn Rustah, Alphastarpilot (for giving us a good fight!))

Combat Distinction – Cynabal x3 (MirrorGod, Andre27, PVDNS77)

Combat Excellence – Navy Megathron x1 (Kadesch47)

Heretic – Caracal Navy Issue x1 (Crynsos Cealion)

Prizes will be contracted to the winners this week by a representative of the Somer.Blink group.

NB: Except for the Sabre’s, these prizes are 1 hull to each winner.

50 DKP MINUS

EVE, Fcing, Ganked, RVB 1 Response »

Jan 232013

This past weekend, Ganked ran out to play using a mixed DPS & ECM fleet for Ganked 54: MOAR DOTS.

We assembled in Rens, with the fleet having over 100 pilots in it an hour before the kick off time! The usual conga formed up with it very nearly encircling the hub station there, and then I made it a really straight line and managed to keep it like that for a good while. During the form up, one of the fleet members suddenly found themselves under attack from a war target they had in system, however our fleet came to their rescue and we won the day against the evil aggressor from EVE University. Before I continue it must be mentioned that EVE University require its pilots to comment on all losses & kills on their killboard – although not many do as even there it seems reading is hard – and this is what this pilot commented on their loss:

I got a good punt to Yendaj, he was buzzing around the RVB Fleet as it was forming up in Rens. Got him into structure, and suddenly the RVB Fleet exploded into yellow as they repped him. There was no way to defeat all the neutral reps, and then the other 2 U-Mad warped in. Managed to get the pod out, at least. Didnt even once consider that he would be getting reps from RVB…

Following this we moved out, in a fleet that numbered over 200! With a massive amount of battlecruisers all fit for bear. We bimbled through lowsec, including a pass through Amamake – the first time I had been there my 6 years of EVE. We swiftly moved towards the Dudreda system, home of the EVE University Low-sec Camp. A group of pilots I had observed as being willing to fight, and possibly drop caps on gangs of people they think they could beat. And Ganked is terrible right?

However, upon reaching the area, we found a much more fun target. Pandemic Legion!

As the fleet was about to jump into Dudreda, a PL rapier jumped ahead of us. I imemdiately called for us to leeroy in after it, where we found a cyno up and 20+ Rokhs, 8+ Scimitars, 2 carriers & a bunch of recons waiting for us. The cyno rapier died first to us, with me then calling the other recons, however I was quickly brought down by the PL fleet, following which I disconnected on warping my pod out. So MirrorGod stepped to the plate along with assistance from Daneel, and 1 by 1 all the T2 ships on field went down, as the carriers were proving too tough to crack. Eventually we held the field. Props have to go to PL for bringing that fight, it was pretty intense and I know from asking them that a lot of the Ganked fleet enjoyed it.

[MANG RANT] As I have previously mentioned we had visited this system just to say hi to EVE University’s Low Sec camp, however it turns out they really have been taught how to act like good little null residents and to only undock when you are certain you can kill the other guy usually using superior numbers/capitals. Yet we make it easy for them with many people going suspect/criminal, both from PL & the Ganked fleet, and they chose to remain docked up, instead of come in and make the fight a three way. And a fun, no balls touching three way at that. This children is why politics is bad. “Oh No. We might offend someone” instead of “Hey, lets fight them. Bet they would enjoy it as much as us”.

Anyway, back to Ganked. We reformed and moved on out, however lowsec following this was horribly empty. Not a single target was seen, and when just before Egbinger we did see some, they docked up and smacked, as thats what pro-pvpers do right?

[MANG RANT] Seriously to any “pro-pvpers” who want to be seen as such, take on Ganked. Fight us. Prove to us your oh so apparent superiority, especially in the face of larger numbers. Surely that is why you play?

So, you have all seen those movies that speed up time with like a fast spinning clock, or a calendar flipping pages over & over quickly. Imagine that happening with nullsec gates. I am speeding it up as Great Wildlands & even Curse was full of nothing or docking queens. Following Curse we moved towards Providence in the hope that we would find something, after all its been damn good to us the past couple of weeks. However, it was not. I cannot say why, maybe it was the 100+ guys we had in a mix of BC’s & Cruisers, maybe it being a 3 day weekend the US based residents were out partying, but all we got out of Provi was Alphastarpilot from TEST jumping Logi supported Oracles into us!

Made for a nice way to end the night, even if we did all die.

And that was Ganked 54: MOAR DOTS. Compared to the past few weeks it was much quieter, however PL got us an interesting fight at the start so it wasnt a total wash.

As ever the roam was sponsored by Somer.Blink. And the winners this go round are:

Scouting Distinction – Inty Pack (Zero Threat, Switch 4, Thecla Elarik)

Corpse Collector – Eris (Xallaxa)

Spot Prizes – Daredevil (Val Ona, snowterror, Phantom OfKrankor, MirrorGod, Logic Luke, Lodavier)

Combat Distinction – Cynabal (Daneel Trevize, Yendaj, Fewell)

Combat Excellence – Navy Megathron (Sascha Naskingar)

Heretic – Navy Augoror (Crynsos Cealion)

RvB: A Few Numbers

RVB No Responses »

Jan 212013

RvB.

An endless war fought by thousands of pilots who have moved through our doors since September 2009.

Pilots who have all contributed to an ever increasing set of numbers.

Numbers which I keep finding myself drawn too. So below I have grabbed a few of those numbers, thrown them together into a mixer with the result being this blog post.

–=============–

On 16th January 2013, RvB passed 200,000 kills done in the core systems of Josameto, Liekuri, Nomaa, Obanen, Otela & Poinen. This includes Red on Blue, Blue on Red, Red on Red, Blue on Blue & Purple on anyone who gets in our way.

RvB passed 400,000 life time kills on the 20th January 2013.

In the Forge as a whole we have over 212,000 kills since we moved here in March 2012. This figure is more than we killed in every previous “home region” combined by around 25%.

During the week to 20/1/13 we hit the 5 TRILLION Isk exploded mark purely for Red on Blue, Blue on Red, Red on Red, Blue on Blue kills. Not bad considering many “out there” still view us rifter alts.

RvB has killed over 371,000 ships in ONLY the regions we have “officially” lived in since September 2009 (Everyshore, The Forge, Lonetrek & Verge Vendor), this includes Red on Blue, Blue on Red, Red on Red, & Blue on Blue.

Outside of our home regions – and our eternal war – we have exploded around 28,000 ships since 2009, 4500 of those being in low/nullsec as a consequence of the excellent RvB Ganked roams.

Regarding cruiser use, following the advert back in March 2012 & our move to The Forge we had a sharp increase (obviously) in cruiser use, however over the rest of year it settled down to around an average of 1500 cruiser explosions a month. Then December 4th came and it went up to around 2400. Right now we are at 1800 for January 2013. So thanks CCP!

Blue are “winning” when it comes to Red on Blue & Blue on Red kills, by roughly 20,000 explosions. Blue should hit the 200,000 Red kills mark in February, with Red hitting the 200,000 Blue kills mark in March. The Poinen Must Burn FFA will be the reason these milestone’s happen so quickly!

The 3rd party we have killed the most is Eve University, currently sitting at 3,100 kills to 2,200 losses.

Yankunytjatjara is un-matched as RvB’s number 1 solo pilot. 1965 solo kills at this point in time. The nearest currently active Red has around a third of his total.

Yank is also the leading “loser” in RvB, with some 1700 lifetime losses. Matthias Duran in Glorious Federation of Red, has around 870 total losses and is Yank’s closest rival for most losses.

Blue spend much more time in Otela (Red HQ), than Reds do in Liekuri (Blue HQ). 26,000 to 17,000 kills respectively. Indeed, this has been quite the pattern in all the systems we have called “HQ” over the past 3 years.

Josameto is easily our busiest “core” system, with both Red & Blue sitting at around 32,000 kills there since March 2012.

Red’s all time killer of Blue’s is Kikkio with over 8500 Blue kills, while Blue’s all time killer of Red’s is Jagtor with nearly 10,000 Red kills.

Red has killed more Carriers than Blue, while Blue has killed more Dreads. Neither side has killed a Titan or Supercarrier (the 6 “live event”/incursion Mom’s do not count in my opinion).

Nomaa, the FFA/Solo system has seen 10% of RvB’s total kills for the month of January 2013. Which means there is a place for solo action in RvB!

–=============–

I hope you enjoy this look at some of what makes RvB interesting for me, so please come back in a few months when I will no doubt have much larger numbers to share with you!

RvB Presents: 26000 Explosions!

EVE, RVB 2 Responses »

Jan 102013

As many of you will know, RvB likes to explode things. Especially itself.

And to kick off 2013, we will be holding our third MASS FFA.

What is a MASS FFA?

The Mass FFA is an idea that Torve Starduster had back in October 2012. The basic premise is get a POS, chuck in a few thousand pre-fit frigates, dilute with several hundred RvB pilots, leave to cook for a couple of days with the end result usually a dead server node and lots and lots of wrecks. It works!

The first Mass FFA in November saw 8,000 frigates exploded over 48 hours, with the second in December seeing 12,000 over the same period.

The next, to be held on January 26th 2013, will hopefully see 26.000 pre-fitted frigate hulls blown up all in the name of a good time.

How do I join in?

You have to join RvB any time between now and 15.00 EVE on the 26th January 2013. Then on the 26th, get into the FFA fleet, find out the POS password, grab a hull, warp to a belt, planet, gate or station and start killing fellow Reds & Blues.

Then do it over again.

And again.

Until nothing is left.

To get an idea of what these are like, check out this video by Catalyst XI:

Older Entries