When the in game clock ticks over to 17.55 today, Mangala Solaris will have been a member of the amazing institution known as RvB for exactly 3 years.
Like many of you, I first joined RvB with an alt however in July 2010, not long after returning from the outside world, I found myself looking for a home with my main and so I signed up to Blue Republic with Mangala. Within hours I was whoring those mails and even getting the odd final blow. My favourite kill from those early days will always be this one, and people wonder why I like the unlimited combat area so much!
Somehow I started FCing – arranged fights, impromptu scraps, roams and so much more – and from there I helped out in Command a couple of times and slowly moved towards becoming the pimp for RvB I am today.
During my journey from eager RvB main to jaded & bitter RvB veteran I have seen & undertaken many things:
Four moves from Verge Vendor to Everyshore to Lonetrek and now The Forge;
Helped RvB pass 500,000 kills, kills which no matter how they were made all have a story behind them;
Several epic wars with those smelly layabouts over in EVE University, during which high sec saw what we still hold to be the largest battles between two entities it has ever seen;
Innumerable other third party wars, some fun ones, some not so fun – MATE;
An RvB directors’ wild idea go from a simple purple roam to become EVE’s premier public roam, with dear old me having FC’d over 50 of them;
Our Mass frigate FFA’s, a couple of which have given the server a severe RvB shaped headache;
And who could forget all the support & assistance RvB gave me during my successful campaign to become a CSM 8 Delegate.
After three wonderful years & nearly 6000 killmails that I have found my way on to, I feel more at home here than ever, and I know that this is down to all of you. This includes the people who cause me to get annoyed, the people who cannot read the rules, the people who make the rules, and especially the people who make it a joy to log in and (occasionally) undock. Keep doing what you do and I’ll still be here in another 3 years.
Recently, I and other members of We Form Purple [RVBP] have resumed our Thursday night PS2 sessions. The game has improved dramatically since we stopped back in February, with new vehicles, weapons and even a new way of progressing on the way to capturing a continent: the lattice system (only on Indar right now).
So dust (lol) off those characters you have lying around and come join in the fun, every Thursday evening from around 19.00 UTC.
Remember we play as the Vanu on the Mattherson server.
Additionally, I have created two other Outfits on Mattherson, 1 for the New Conglomerate & 1 for the Terran Republic, here are the details:
NC: Smurf Republic [RvBB]
Contact is Auqakuh
TR: Elmo Federation [RvBR]
Contact is Simud
I would like to try and alternate our play on these factions just to change things up every now & then. Or if we ever get serious numbers, have our very own “Outfit Wars”!!! Yes, this does mean we too can become 4th Empire scum.
On the 29th June, the 74th numbered Ganked roam went out to play. It was lead by top scout & regular Guest FC: Green Gambit, as I would only be able to make it later due to taking part in a Space hangout with Ali Aras – a fellow CSM delegate. The time I spent with the roam was really great fun, a couple of good fights were had with the Providence holders and their friends.
Anyway, Green sent me his write up of the whole thing, so here it is:
So we’re out on Ganked 72 discussing future roams when I mention the idea of shield-Amarr as a theme. Next thing that’s chosen as the theme for Ganked 74, and I’m guest FC…
Fleet forms up in the regular favourite of Rens, although we don’t see any of the usual docking games. Departing a minute or two past 20:00 the fleet makes best-speed to Irshah where we meet up with the flashies in fleet. Now at full-numbers the 130-strong fleet heads one-jump out into Asabona when we’re informed of a small BC fleet, one jump back in Gomati. We run back to find that they’ve left local, and we have no clue which way they went. We turn around again and head into Curse.
Entry into Curse is quiet so we start heading along the pipe to VOL-MI. Forward scouts call a small gate-camp in CL-85V, so the fleet burns to try and catch something only for the scout to report the camp fleeing, as soon as we start hitting K-Q. Fortunately a Cynabal lands on the CL-85V gate in K-Q at the same time of the fleet, is forced to jump and dies in CL-85. We move on through Curse looping around through XX9 finding people in local, but space quiet. We arrive in H-A and as we’re warping towards the S-E gate, a gang on a gate in EQX is spotted, again the fleet makes haste over, but again the gang flees to station before we arrive. We turn around and head back towards VOL-MI cutting through Scalding Pass. Local009 spots another small gang in VOL-MI heading into ARG. We wait in R-3 hoping to catch them as they come through – however they must have scouted us as they flee, leaving us just with a solitary Stabber to kill.
We get intel on a relatively large Cruiser+BC gang in Providence, so head out of empty Curse and cut through Catch into Providence. Our scouts find them in T-RPFU setup at zero on the gate. This being Ganked, we jump in and open fire. We have slightly more numbers, but they have more BCs whereas we’re mostly cruisers. Add to them a dozen Scythes and they clearly have the upper-hand, but it’s a nice little brawl and we cut through most of the Scythes and net 28 kills overall.
Having finished his CSM business, Mangala joined us for round two, and the fleet reformed in Rens. We set off again around 22:45 heading back towards Providence but skirting through a little low-sec first. The fleet kills a random punisher on a gate in low-sec only to discover from the killmail it’s worth 92m ISK! But aside from occasional ships on gates this part of low-sec is quiet, so we soon find ourselves back in Providence.
We wander around Providence mostly missing small things on gates until local009 calls a small gang with Harby and Drake on the D61 gate in Y-MP. We send forward a couple more ceptors to tackle, and the two BCs are pointed. Fleet jumps in and kills both, along with 6 other ships from the gang. This seems to have turned around our luck as we then snag a few things on gates including a Raptor that thinks he can escape by burning away at 3km/s. However our tackle has him locked down and eventually he dies along with his pod. Unusually though Providence is quiet of ratter and miners.
We head further around Providence and venture into VKI then H-G. It’s quiet so we turn around to start moving round towards LF-2. There’s a little confusion about the location of fleet and scouts, and we’re told about a medium-sized gang – just as we jump into it in 3GX. Finding them set up, and ourselves outnumbered, we burn back to the gate and jump back into VKI – we lose a few ships, but most of the fleet make it back. The scouts still in 3GX inform the Provi-defence fleet, that we’ll stand and fight but only if they jump into us.
After a small delay they oblige and local spikes. A rupture is the first thing to decloak and dies almost instantly. We’re shooting other targets when Mang points out their Basilisks have decloaked right in the middle of us, so we switch targets. It takes us a minute to grind through the reps but they both die. We’re now starting to fall fast, but manage to pick-off a couple more ships before we’re done. Another decent fight, whelp two over and time for bed!
I’d like to thank.
Local009 for scouting and stepping up to target-call when needed.
Major Floor for scouting and bringing some links along
Cal Abungu for entertainment on comms
The provi-block for bringing two decent fights
As with the past 40+ roams, Somer.Blink sponsored some prizes for the roam and the winners are:
Navy Slicer: Major Floor, Akori Mitsumoto, Phantom OfKrankor, mikeshaw91 inkura, Dazmaz, Joe Appleby, Ragnar Alestorm, Kitty Baugh
In a little under four weeks, RvB Ganked turns Two years old and I can look back on the past year with a smug grin on my face. The past year has seen Ganked get bigger & stronger than it was during its first year of being with many more people joining us regularly, including several new Guest FCs: Alphastarpilot, Combat Mink, Greygal, Lorkin Desal, MirrorGod & Roigon. Ganked has easily cemented it’s place as EVE’s Number One public roam.
Our average fleet is up to around 150 pilots every week – with the roam for Ganked 67: MAX PCU technically seeing us run a max fleet and end up with a secondary fleet running too!
We are killing much more on roams than we used to, although a Titan still remains elusive! When we turned One we had 2000 kills to our name and around 150 billion isk in damage done, now we are turning Two we have increased that to nearly 7000 kills and over 540 Billion ISK exploded.
The 45 roams held since Ganked turned One have been really good for all of us, I know I have a lifetimes worth of good memories from these roams, including:
Being THE roam for EVE’s 10th birthday;
Finding a group who likes to fight nearly as much as we do – Brave Newbies Inc;
Escorting a Charon into null-sec for fun;
Epic scrap with DPS boats with pets of -A- during Ganked 40;
Fighting Alphastars talwar gang in B-D at the start of Ganked 59;
Discovering I had the support of so many of you all when I announced that I would run for the 8th CSM;
and so many many more that were I to sit here listing them, I would be here for a year myself!
The past year (hell the past two years) would not have been possible without all of you who attend Ganked and take part in our weekly sebo fuelled shenanigans for spreading the tales of the roam, bringing your mates, suggesting themes and even occasionally listening to your FC’s. Additionally some thanks has to go to CCP for the wonderful rebalancing work they have undertaken this past year too, as that has given us so many more viable hulls to play with, adding some much needed variety to both our fleets and those we explode!
Here’s to the next year, may we grow even bigger and better!
Please use the comments to discuss your memories, I shall pick my favourites to read out during the Birthday roam on 20th July and may even find a prize or two for those I like the best. For a refresher, check the videos of our roams, found here.
This past weekend, Ganked 73 was Guest FC’d by our dear friend and ender of evenings, Alphastarpilot, formerly of Thorn Syndicate, currently flying for Test Alliance.
Alpha’s chosen setup was T1 armour cruisers supported by logistics and ewar.
Yes you read that right, logistics.
On Ganked!
And boy did we ever get some logistics. We had over 35 logistics in fleet with us for this roam, together with some 20 damp boats and assorted other ewar platforms, and around 100 guys flying T1 ARMOUR HACS (this video never gets old).
Following form up we bounced into low and started heading towards Alpha’s chosen destination, B-DBYQ. On our journey there we discussed the new jump animation, how it affects traffic control and how it can cause neutral’s jumping in with us to die when they exit the animation, like this Curse & this Proteus. I wonder if they even expected it…
We soon reached B-D however CFC where slowly returning to the system after trying to kill a titan elsewhere, and so we moved into J5A-IX and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Just as we were getting ready to warp to a pos to bump a carrier out, LOCAL SPIKE!
And it was on. DPS & Ewar had anchored on the FC, our logis were anchored on an anchor of their own and the CFC had brought tacklers, HAM caracals & scythes. Their tackle started melting, bubblers exploded – in one case he came right back and exploded again – T3 snipers jumped in and died, however our logi anchor got caught by lag and fought hard to recover just as the CFC fleet started heading their way… That didn’t stop our logi though, no sir! They kept the reps coming as long as they could until they were overwhelmed, then the rest of us started to really feel the pain of fighting the numbers of the CFC next door to their staging system! And through it all fleet was damn well behaved!
By the end of it a couple of hundred ships had been destroyed between both sides. Our view & EVE-kills view – I tried to BRDoc it, but it breaks the site while I still have a third of the corps left to assign.
Following a short break we reshipped into talwars, and headed back to the area, running over this stupid tengu as we did so. The next hour and a half was some of the most fun I have had for a while, Alpha really showed off how well talwars can work to the fleet, and I picked up a few tricks for use with them too. The “doctrine” itself punches massively above its weight, especially on this proteus! During our time in B-D with these ships we got some 90 kills or so and had a riot doing it. Here is EVE-kill for that time as the Ganked killboard splits the battle into too little a timeframe for me to link properly.
All in all a really fun night was had, over 200 kills done, nearly 11 Billion isk exploded and a new guest FC inducted into our ranks! Personally, I and many others had some misgivings about Alpha FCing the roam, as we assumed that it was all a cunning plan to tarp us and ruin our fun, however this was not the case and I for one am happy to put my hands up and admit I was very much surprised!
As usual this RvB Ganked roam was sponsored by Somer Blink – who are also sponsoring the RvB AT XI team this year – and several people won sponsored prizes during the roam. These will be contracted to you by a representative of Somer Blink within the week. Congratulations to you all!
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.
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.
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 backin 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 twokillmails. 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.
As many of you will be aware Sunday’s are normally when EVE see’s the most online users of any day of the week. A consequence of this is an effort to break the existing Peak Concurrent User record – 63,170 – on the day before EVE Online turns 10 years old, Sunday 5th May 2013. Just for reference, the PCU on Sunday 28th April was 54, 783.
The main part of this effort is an event called Flight of a Thousand Rifters III: Vengeance. This will see Marlona Sky “undock” a Nyx in an incursion jammed low sec system for the playerbase to destroy or defend. I am hoping that groups will show up to kill it, to kill each other, to protect the nyx and generally be a part of something that is going to be huge. I know I for one am running RvB Ganked 67 that day, a nullsec roam combined with this event, and that I may be in for a max fleet – really pushing my FC comfort zone. I would hope that RvB attends in huge numbers for this, and maybe we bring more than 1 fleet, and for those RvBers who do not make it, at least log in!
Now if you cannot make it to Ganked, or even Marlona’s event, PLEASE PLEASE do something. Log on all your alts, tell your corpies and friends to do the same. Hold dueling contests, burn your local hub, mass run missions, roam nullsec with your alliance, just do anything you can to help us meet the goal of a new PCU in time for the 10th Birthday of this game we all love so much.
If you wish to join the RvB Ganked roam on the 5th May 2013 the details are:
This, the 67th numbered Ganked roam, and 72nd in total, will be both roaming around looking for pew & taking part in the Flight of a Thousand Rifters III event when the target system for that is announced. We will ensure – as part of the roam – that we have 2 or more hulls moved to the target lowsec system for this event. We all want to be on a Nyx kill now dont we?! Once the Nyx is down, and the system is cleared of no doubt a ton of suspects, we will then go back to roaming around nullsec. This event is part of a move to get EVE’s HIGHEST EVER PCU total the day before the game itself turns 10 years old. So tell your friends, family, enemies, colleagues and even your pets to log in their eve accounts that day and get involved in setting a record at the start of the 2nd decade of EVE Online.
As is now traditional for CCP at the CCP Presents part of each Fanfest, they unveiled a new video. This time it wasn’t a direct trailer for an upcoming expansion but more of a look at the background of the EVE Universe. It is called EVE Online: Origins.
It does a great job of putting over the history of the EVE Online universe, covers the DUST connection, graphically is very easy on the eyes, & features capitals dieing. More importantly it is very much the spiritual successor to the first EVE Online introduction, even though it is not as lore heavy:
Now there was also some talk on the night of an EVE Online TV show, or even a movie and the new video is – I will admit – an excellent prelude to any of that, however why not make this video the introduction movie to both EVE & DUST, as it does show the connection well enough for anyone to understand. Parts could even work for the introduction to a TV show on this very subject, or stretched out and you have a movie, but for now lets stop saying trailer and all say introduction.
Anyway, regardless of my opinions enjoy the video.
I have just seen the CSM election results, and I have been elected to the 8th Council of Stellar Management.
I hope that over the next year I exceed all the faith you obviously have in me. And that together with the other delegates we will keep EVE moving forward.
EDIT: Mynnna & Ripard Teg are the permanent summit attendee’s, they will go to each and every summit due to winning the most of the voting tallies. See this link.
