Feb 252015
 

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.

  1. Jayne Fillon
  2. Bam Stroker
  3. Khador Vess
  4. Xander Phoena
  5. Sugar Kyle
  6. Psianh Auvyander
  7. Steve Ronuken
  8. Mike Azariah
  9. Gorski Car
  10. Corbexx
  11. Cagali Cagali
  12. Sion Kumitomo
  13. Manfred Sideous
  14. 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.

 

 

Feb 242015
 

This morning a close friend, fellow pilot in RvB and all round top bloke, Dracoth Simertet passed away after a short battle with cancer. This cancer was diagnosed last October and while Dracoth and his friends within both RvB and the greater EVE community hoped for the best, it was not to be.

Personally I am torn apart. I feel like I lost a true friend, and no matter that our friendship was mostly founded in EVE, I considered Dracoth as close as a friend as the people I see every day. His humour, even when directed towards me, was enough to lift your spirits at just the right time. His enthusiasm for everything was contagious, you could never feel down around him, even in the midst of a tremendous welp.

By his passing, and the passing of other members of this community, I feel we are diminished; however I know these fallen pilots will forever leave an echo of themselves in and out of game thanks in to the community they called home. They will travel in the memories of those they touched, even when EVE is no more.

I just know that I’ll miss my friend of the past 4 years.

———————————————————————

Several members of the EVE community asked me for details of anywhere they could donate in Dracoths name, I have been in contact with his family and they would prefer donations are made to The St John’s Hospice on the Wirral.  This hospice provided considerable relief for Dracoth in his final days and survives only on donations, so anything you can donate will go to ensuring they continue to help those with progressive or incurable conditions. For ease of use, they do have a Just Giving page.

Feb 142015
 

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

Jan 052015
 

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:

Oct 242014
 

I know the current CSM 9 term still has 5 months and change left to run, however it has been asked in recent weeks, most notably during EVE Vegas as to my intetions regarding CSM 10. 

I will NOT be running for a third consecutive term as part of CSM 10. That’s not to say I will not attempt to run again in the future, but I will certainly not be running for CSM 10.

Tl;dr of why is I want to play eve again. I want to login to do more than answer EVE mails or FC / Admin Ganked. I was elected to CSM 8 on the back of massive name recognition (Single largest number of votes regardless of ballot position) and a huge level of activity in RvB. I barely scraped onto CSM 9 – and while folks have assured me it was down to voter assumption I was a lock, I am working on the idea that my visibility where it matters was not sufficient. 

Its time I did more to reinvigorate my EVE experience, and that of others both inside and outside of RvB. So many projects I want to get off the ground. Things I cannot do while CSMing and working heavily in RL. Somethings gotta give, in this case my career in Space Politics has to make way for actually playing with spaceships.

I will for the rest of my term as a CSM member continue to represent you all to the best of my abilities, just after that, its time to shoot you all instead.

Oct 232014
 

RvB-Tyrian-Trophy-800x200

This weekend I am hosting a 5v5 Tournament for RvB.  This tournament is to be live streamed (on Twitch) and commentated.  Currently RvB’s own Thecla Elarik, and the great Ceofore Aideron are signed up to commentate. We did have two more, however apparently studies and getting your insides cut open are more important to those people.

Anyway, this is a VERY last minute call to anyone who would fancy joining Thecla and Ceofore in commentating the matches.  Check out the rules, prizes and so on below. Schedule is here, get in touch if this interests you with a slot you can fill in to commentate.

You can get an idea of what you are in for by watching a tournament from earlier this year, that was ran in the same way. Videos are here and here.

RvB Tyrian Trophy Rules, Guidelines, & Points information:

Points:
We will be using a points as with the AT, SCL & NEO. This will make for more interesting matches as the points & rules do not allow you to just bring 5 mallers!!!
Teams are responsible for providing their own ships and fittings.
Teams have a maximum of 33 points to invest in the following ships:

T2 Logistics Cruiser – 13
Battlecruiser (None Faction) – 12
Faction Cruisers (Not Pirate) – 10
T1 Logistics Cruiser (Augoror, Exequror, Osprey, Scythe) – 9
EWAR Bonused Cruiser (Blackbird, Celestis, Bellicose, Arbitrator) – 8
T1 Cruiser – 7
Electronic Attack Frigate – 5
Interdictors – 4
Pirate Frigate – 4
Assault Frigate – 4
Faction Frigate -3
EWAR Frigate – 3 (Griffin, Crucifier, Maulus, Vigil)
Interceptor – 3
Destroyer – 3
Tech 1 Industrial Ships (aka Haulers) – 3
T1 Logistics Frigate (Bantam, Burst, Inquisitor, Navitas) – 3
Tech 1 Frigate – 2 (Except EWAR Frigates)

Ships not mentioned in this list are not allowed.

Fittings:
Tech 1 & 2 modules are allowed
Faction and officer modules are not allowed
Tech 1 Rigs are allowed
NO T2 Rigs
Only one local repair module per ship
Only a logistics cruiser or logistics frigate may use remote repair or capacitor transfer modules or RR drones
No Pirate Implants are allowed. EVEBoard will be used to check this.
All boosters (drugs) are allowed
Faction ammo is fine
Pirate ammo is not allowed
Faction drones are fine
Augmented drones are not allowed
ECM Modules are allowed ONLY on a hull bonused for ECM.
ECM target jammer drones are not allowed
No smartbombs
No links in any way
NO Deployables. Only the Referee will have one out, and thats an MTU.

Rules:
Teams will field a maximum of 5 pilots.
A MAXIMUM of 2 of the same ship types are allowed per setup. Ie 2 caracals, or 2 moas or 2 harpies (Skinned ships count towards these totals) etc etc etc
Only one T2 logistics cruiser OR T1 logistics cruiser per team OR 2x T1 logistics frigate per team.
One (1) EWAR Bonused Cruiser or Frigate Hull is allowed.
The arena will be have a diameter of 200km (so a radius of 100km). Leaving this arena bubble will mean disqualification if you do not rectify this within 30 seconds.
Teams will be allowed to warp to the arena before the match starts. However only at a range between 0km & 50km.
NO podding – do so and your team will be disqualified.
NO warping in the arena.
NO prelocking the other team. Only lock them once the match countdown has started.
Matches to last 10 minutes. No more. (In the event of a points tie, an extra 3 minutes sudden death combat will be added and the arena will reduce by 50km. First side to kill a ship wins the match).
If a team is more than 2 minutes late to a match, it automatically forfeits that match.
Team that goes into the Finals as the Victor of the Winners Bracket, will be allowed to issue 1 ship ban in the 1st and 3rd “Best of 3” matches.
Team that goes into the Finals as the Victor of the Losers Bracket will be allowed 1 ship ban in the 2nd “Best of 3” match.

Sep 152014
 

You all know the history of Ganked, you all know what we have become over the years, and you have all experienced our ups and downs as we have gone into space on over 150 occasions. As every week has gone by, our fleet size has grown, our Saturday roams are now The Event when it comes to regular NPSI events, and we often get into memorable fights – intentional or otherwise. 

Despite loving everything that we have become when it comes to fun filled Saturday nights, I want to have those memorable fights happen more often. However a 150 – 200 pilot fleet, in increasingly more serious setups, will NOT get those fights all the time. It is the nature of EVE that people will run and hide from such a thing, especially if they see it often and/or have no friends.

In an effort to both solve this and my recent lack of contact with EVE (and all of you) outside of FCing a roam from time to time, I announce Ganked: A Spin Off. I could wax lyrical about what I think this is, what I hope it will become, but even I get tired of my own words from time to time. Just read the FAQ below!

F.A.Q

What is Ganked: A Spin Off?

  • A limited numbers roam to take place on a week day, flying very specific, and often very serious and expensive doctrines.

Limited numbers? Doesn’t that go against your support for “open to all” public roams?

  • Yes it is limited. Specifically they will be limited to 52 pilots (One FC and one full wing with a wing commander). Smaller numbers should ensure that interesting regular fights are found often, without the need for our opponents to over-ship, or batphone EVERYONE!
  • I still support open to all NPSI, however sometimes, one has to do things differently. This will still be NPSI.

Doctrines?

  • Ganked has over the years begun using doctrines, some self designed, others cribbed from entities across EVE, however we are still loose about enforcement of these. For Spin Off, we will continue to use doctrines, including more of our own devising, and I will be ensuring that doctrines are followed 100%. No more will sebo spam be tolerated unless the doctrine calls for it, no more will any old amount of logi suffice – if we do not get a particular amount, the roam will not happen. 
  • Of course, I will be using Spin Off as a proving ground for doctrines I want to use on Ganked in a larger format, so while I do say expensive, not everything will be.
  • Ships used on these roams will include HACs, Tech 3’s, Battleships, logistics, capitals, and many other ship types especially T1 cruisers. 

You say week day, but how can I join, I am x timezone and you are in Gods Own Timezone?

  • I envision these roams to change time zones weekly. Initially they will be limited to GMT/UTC and EST on an alternating basis either on a Tuesday or a Wednesday.  Crims and PST pilots, I know I am missing you out, but come on I have to sleep sometime. Honestly though, Mate Roams have your backs anyway!

What about RvB Ganked?

  • Ganked is still very much alive.  I – and our guest FC’s – will never stop organising our famous weekend roams, and getting us into the massive fights we end up in.
  • Over time I hope to see many of the doctrines used by Spin Off, utilised by Ganked. Even if they have to be tweaked to be more usable by all, I know you will enjoy flying them.
  • Ganked will also benefit in that pilots who fly on Spin Off, will undoubtedly see their piloting skills improved, as well as seeing more pilots take up the logistics mantle, or even step up as FCs. 

How do I get involved?

  • You do not need to sign up to another mailing list. These will be advertised via the RvB Ganked mailing list. I will use a prefix to mark them as what they are. So folks do not get confused and show up to the wrong thing in the wrong ship. The information for these will never be displayed in the RvB Ganked channel MOTD, that is always going to show the Weekend roam information. They will not be advertised via the RvB forums either.
  • You do have to have a fleet-up.com account with membership of the RvB Ganked group. All Spin Off roams will require that pilots RSVP via the Operations section of the Ganked Fleet-up.com group. This will enable me to track and balance logistics/deeps/support.
  • (Optional) RvB Ganked has its own forum, found here.  I will be using this to discuss doctrines for Spin Off as well as allowing folks to have their say when doing Spin Off after action reviews. Allowing involved pilots to determine whether a doctrine would work within the larger community is a key aspect of Spin Off.

I’m a newbro, can I take part?

  • Yes. In many doctrines newbro’s have a place. Even if that place is tackle (suicide or otherwise) or being a bro a T1 logistics cruiser. Obviously from time to time a doctrine may not offer newbro’s or low SP folks an opportunity to fly with Spin Off, thats just how it will be.  We’ll always have the weekend roams, and of course the good work Spectre Fleet does every day of every week, along with Redemption Roam’s new newbro series.

When is the first Spin Off roam?

  • I am tentatively penciling in October 28th.  This may well change, so keep an eye on the mailing list/our fleet-up.com group. Regardless, this program will go live after EVE Vegas.
  • As yet I am unsure of the doctrine to be used. 

I created a poll, vote in it!!!

[poll id=”9″]

Aug 312014
 

csm9

CSM 9, like CSM’s 7 & 8 before us will be continuing to hold regular Town Hall meetings where you the public can ask questions live to your CSM representatives.

The second Town Hall of CSM 9’s term will be held on Sunday September 7th 2014 from 19.00 UTC. This Town Hall will be a little over a week before seven of my comrades depart for the Summer Summit in Iceland.

As normal, the town hall will be held on the EVE University Public Mumble and broadcast live by EVE Radio.

You will be able to ask questions live on the night via the in game channel “CSM Townhall”, or if you are unable to attend you can post questions in the Town Hall thread on EVEO and we will ensure our moderator on the day asks them of us.

We look forward to seeing many people attend this Town Hall.

(Yes, we understand that this is AT Finals day, however this is the best available day for all the attending CSM before Summit prep truly kicks in. If you cannot make it, then at least listen in between matches).

Jul 062014
 

Hi guys.

The leaders/FCs of various NPSI communities in EVE are currently discussing a brawl to be had between fleets lead by FCs from all of those groups.

Would this be something you are interested in? Answer the poll so we can get a read on things.

[poll id=”8″]

Notes: Fleets limited in numbers around 50 per fleet – maybe more if the interest is there; Most likely in lowsec; Close Range fits so we’re all in each others faces. All fleets are NPSI to one another and so on.

Jul 012014
 

Those of you who joined in the first CSM 9 Town Hall back on June 22nd will have heard me say that I wished to run a project relating to any potential future corporation/alliance revamp, and how such a thing could benefit the numerous social groups in EVE.

Well here I am.

First up what do I mean by “social groups”. Usually these are 2 or more individuals with a shared interest coming together to undertake that interest outside of other ties, familial or employment related. Borrowing from wikipedia (I know, I know), I found this list of definitions which works even better:

Common motives and goals
An accepted division of labor, i.e. roles
Established status (social rank, dominance) relationships
Accepted norms and values with reference to matters relevant to the group
Development of accepted sanctions (praise and punishment) if and when norms were respected or violated

In EVE terms, the following are what I would class as the prime examples of social groups:

  1. Incursion communities such as Warp to Me, Incursion Shiny Network or The Ditanian Fleet and many many more.
  2. NPSI / Open Roam groups like RvB Ganked, Spectre Fleet, Redemption Roams or Stille Gewalt
  3. Groups from outside communities that wish to enjoy EVE’s content together without leaving the potentially disparate corporations they are in. Examples being the SIG’s famous in the CFC, forum based groups like those in the Teamminmatar channel, shared language communities and so on.

For those interested in my current thoughts on the issue have moved beyond simply allowing the creation of truly public fleets. Currently I would love to see social groups/communities in EVE be more than a chat channel and potentially a mailing list. This could be done by merging both of those as the key systems the group coalesces around, with membership of one granting immediate access to the other. Combine this with greater granularity of roles for those assigned them by the community. Roles that potentially allow some people to moderate the chat, some to moderate the mail systems, or others to form fleets that any members of that community can access just like they would a corporation fleet, fleets that can inherit standings from their FCs, that have built in kill logs, allows some people to post operations in a group calendar (rather than relying on outside sites and tools) and so on and so on. Effectively a corporation without the shared assets, hangars, taxes, and all the other useful aspects that cause people to come together under a corporate banner.

This is where I need feedback. I have my own ideas, some of which I have wrote about above and in the past on my weekly Crossing Zebras column, but the larger the level of feedback the better.

When providing feedback try to use concise explanations, with plenty of obvious keywords, this will make it easier to scan and get that feedback centralised for when and if the time comes. 

NB: Feedback is welcome either in the comments on this blog, or in the matching thread on EVEO.