Aug 112023
 

This game, this world, this examination of the human psyche, is 20 years old this year.

Happy Birthday EVE Online.

While I have attempted to return a few times since 2015, my life over those years really did not give me time to balance my gaming needs & work & life itself and each attempt fizzled out. Here I am in post pandemic 2023, I have changed employer, found a great work / life balance and really really want to be roaming the stars of New Eden once again!

So I am doing. All accounts up either on Omega or Alpha (depending on necessity), setting myself up to log in Mangala, and reading up on just how terrible my stuff is now. Not that I was ever any good at EVE, but damn do I feel like a 2004 newbie (I was late to this party I know!).

Apr 052016
 

I wrote a little last week over on the new – EXCELLENTSpectre website, about how I now have time for EVE and therefore time to do what I do best, provide content for people. Notably, I talked about a new roam I am doing mid week.

That roam is called Dirty Crims, and will be a mid week roam held every so often on Wednesday mornings, specifically aimed at pilots on the otherside of the world, many of whom I have yet to welp horribly. It’ll be start around 08.00 UTC. Tomorrow’s inaugural roam features Enyos and Deacons.

We are leaving from Usi / Ishomilken (if blinky) and will wander around looking for none fleeted folks to blast out of the sky. To join just hang around in the “Spectre Fleet” channel in game and look out for which of the invite channels I will be using. We’ll be using Spectre Mumble so get Mumble sorted before hand.

As you can see from the above, I have a few ships to hand out to early birds, fits may be a little tight on the Enyo so I have provided alternate guns in each, JUST IN CASE. Additionally some of the Enyo’s also have alternate mids available to vary things up somewhat. We’ll be shooting anyone we see around regardless of affiliation to any side in the current war, but that wont bother any of you right?

So yeah, be there or be something. And yes, those ship names are intentional.

Small Print – Fits

[spoiler]

Maybe shit fits, but deal with it. I’m rusty!

[Enyo, DC Blasters]
IFFA Compact Damage Control
Co-Processor II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
True Sansha Energized Explosive Membrane

5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Phased Muon Scoped Sensor Dampener
J5b Enduring Warp Scrambler

Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Small Knave Scoped Energy Nosferatu
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II

Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Warrior II x1

Void S x320
Null S x800
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S x800
Targeting Range Dampening Script x1

 

[Deacon, DC MWD Deacon]

400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
True Sansha Energized Thermal Membrane

5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Small Capacitor Booster II

Coreli C-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer
Coreli C-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer
Coreli C-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer

Small Trimark Armor Pump II
Small Trimark Armor Pump II
Warrior II x1

Navy Cap Booster 400 x20

[/spoiler]

Jan 282016
 

 

Join me for a fleet event this Sunday 31st January from 19.00 EVE.

To cut a long story short read this first (or this).

As the article says this POS will be exiting reinforcement on Sunday evening, and the folks of EVE are invited to come and fight over it/kill the POS and take the goodies. I know Ganked 205 will be there under Jayne. (Grumble, Grumble about him getting the name in first!). However someone somewhere decided it would be fun to get me to FC something for this, and well the old schoolers here will know I do like shooting POS with drunk fleets.

Anyway, I was thinking originally I would just do a “fly what you want, it’ll die anyway” fleet, BUT I have had a long, stressful month, and to be honest thats too much chaos and would simply end in me calling you all names and logging off! So we’re gonna do Drakes. HML slinging, shield bearing, DRAKES! With shield logi, support frigs, caracals and what not in attendance. Fits can be found in game on the RvB Ganked mailing list. Not on it? Ask someone who is to forward the mail!

Ingame channel for x’s will be EVE-Bet;

High Sec meet up is: Alikara

Low Sec meet up is: Ishomilken

Meetup time: 19.00 GMT

Comms: Ganked Mumble

 

tl;dr Got a thing this Sunday, you all should totes be there. k?!

Dec 312015
 

2015 is nearly at an end, and like other entities, I have the urge to reflect on the year gone by as well as give you all a look the year to come for as long as I am in game.

What Was

2015 started on a massive high, Ganked had reached 150 weekly roams, Spectre Fleet was a year old and Nashh was going to sacrifice a titan for something. Jayne, Doug & myself called for all our forces to fly Golden Fleet that night and took them along to the Titan Smash event, nearly 1000 of you (directly fleeted or simply tagging along!) showed up. Despite failing to kill the titan ourselves, the numbers, the doctrine and general atmosphere demonstrated just how popular NPSI is, and just how much NPSI had grown in the previous year.

Following 150, the weekend roams went from averaging 150-170 pilots to continually pushing 200 or more, especially if Apex, Doug, Jayne or myself  are the FC du jour.

Alongside this high in my NPSI life, it was not long into 2015 that I became one of the RvB CEO’s, a move which stumped some people as so many of you always assumed I was one anyway – being a gobshite on social media helps with that I suppose. At the time, this was amazing, something I had considered over the years but never really thought would happen. However, in retrospect this really wasn’t a good thing for me. I was still on the CSM, I was a leading light in the NPSI world and from time to time I would lead the forces of RvB in glorious warfare. It was such a bad thing that I played less and less until eventually I didn’t even log in for NPSI. Then I realised I had won EVE. As you all know that was a temporary victory and I continue to lose this game on a daily basis.

In the wider world of EVE, we saw many alliances die, most notably BNI. In their stead more organised groups with a similar focus have arisen, Pandemic Horde, Karmafleet, Nova Haven, Signal Cartel to name a few. 2015 also saw RvB “die”, but much like my victory over EVE, their death did not last long and following a management change RvB is getting back to its roots of providing fun, constant, bullshit free pvp (looking at you ECM!). I wish Lady, Vision, Jasper and many others all the best as 2016 begins.

The end of 2015 was as exciting as the beginning for me, I returned to the game in time for Ganked 200, where I managed to get mself DD’d by PL. Apparently there was a bit of a race to be the one to DD me! The event – Ganked 200 – itself was great fun, quite a turn out of pilots many of whom I had not seen for months, it was like a school reunion. Just without the bad 90’s pop.

2015 was not all sunshine and roses, some of those we started the year with we are not ending it with. Dracoth Simertet, Robyn Aurilen, Photon Torpedo are but a few of the pilots we lost this year. With the EVE community being so close knit, every loss affects us – diminishes us – however I know that those pilots fly on with us as part of our collective memory.

What will be

2016 promises to be a very interesting year for me. I am currently investigating a myriad number of options for places to call home, from EVE University, to Spectre, and a whole gamut of opportunities in between, including Pandemic Legion. I am even entertaining the idea of expanding my current one man corp into an actual thing and using it as a basis of yet more investigations into the future of social networks within EVE.

In terms of how I will affect YOUR game during 2016, on the drawing board right now are more player tournaments, more roams led by Mangala, greater involvement with NPSI communities across New Eden, a foray into small gang environments and so much more that its best if you all just watch this space and see what my mind spills out as we move through 2016.

Dec 032015
 

Once upon a time, I won EVE.

Then one day I stopped winning EVE and for a variety of reasons, I returned.

I stepped back into the game just in time for a rather memorable Ganked, in which I even managed to FC for a short while. Followed by another great Ganked the week after. However, this wasn’t so much a triumphant return so much as it was me easing gently into the game. A game that had changed so much in the few months that I was gone.

Then as quickly as I returned, I was gone again. Fallout 4 had released, and all my free time disappeared into the wasteland. I binged on Fallout any chance I got, putting in nearly 70 hours over the past few weeks, despite work eating into my free time as well! Fun thing is I haven’t even scratched the surface of the game yet, I’ve only JUST reached Diamond City….

Anyway, this post isn’t about me failing at failing to win EVE, nor is it about Fallout. Its about my indecision to find something to do in EVE now that I am back.

In the before time

My history so far in EVE is very much intertwined with that of the second iteration of RvB. I, like many others, started off with an alt there until one day I found myself at a lose end with my main, Mangala Solaris. I took the decision to move Mangala into RvB as a place to get some pew pew until I found a new home. It never quite worked out that way as the past five and a half years demonstrated. As RvB grew and changed, so did I.

At first I was just a regular pilot, then I started acting as a backup caller, then fully fledged FC running multiple fleets daily both for RvB activities and against war targets, culminating with me becoming one of the main war time FCs when it came to the very large fleets that RvB was throwing at the world then, especially when fighting the folks over at EVE University and BNI. In conjunction with this, I organised many large events for RvB, and through the aegis of RvB Ganked, the EVE public. From simple roams right up to live streamed tournaments, I had to have a project rolling at all times. Knowing that others were enjoying their game experience kept me going.  Until it didn’t.

FC wat do?

Now that I am back, this question is the one that is on my mind. After years of focusing on RvB, and groups connected to it, I am finding it incredibly difficult to decide on what exactly my next steps are. I know for certain I am not going to remain in RvB much longer. While RvB needs all the pilots it can get following some serious upheaval back in October, it is for others to rebuild it. I am content knowing that it will still be there, continuing to provide a home for many pilots I consider good friends.

As someone who has played this game (on and off) for around 9 years, I have experienced quite a few aspects of the game, so it becomes pretty hard for me to narrow down my options to specific path. Despite my prior experiences, there are still parts of the game that I have little experience in – wormholes, FW in its current form, the other side of Empire war decs, piracy, small gang operations and even solo pvp; Additionally there are aspects of my EVE experience that I would love to delve deeper into, notably the support and building of NPSI communities in readiness for the day when CCP give social groups their attention.

Of course I could ignore all the above and finally accept Doomchinchilla’s invite to his corp, and end up in Pandemic Legion.

Meanwhile…

For now I am just going to keep up with some well needed asset consolidation and try to get some minor projects rolling, including FCing again. The environment of EVE has changed enough that rolling around with a few (or many) of you, destroying stuff seems like a fitting way to find some inspiration both for my own future and on how I will provide for you all.

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.

 

 

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.

 

Mar 082014
 

During Fanfest 2014, CCP will be unveiling a monument to all EVE players past & present. 

In addition to engraving all our character names upon it, CCP will be sealing a time capsule beneath the monument that will contain messages from the playerbase. And I would like to give one of you the opportunity to write a message on behalf of the Ganked community to the people who will open the time capsule in 25 years. Feel to talk about Ganked, what you think of Ganked, notable things Ganked has gotten itself involved in and so on.

As an incentive, I am offering a hard copy of EVE Source (not the limited editions as I thought this up too late to snag any of those for this), to the entry I deem the winner.

So if this competition interests you then please get writing! 

 

Things to note include:

1) Must be no more than 1000 words.

2) Must be submitted to me via evemail, or shared google doc, or posted in the comments to this post by downtime on 25th April. I will then chose my winner and start the submission ball rolling.

3) Follow CCP’s small print at all costs

All texts, videos, and other submissions for the monument must comply with the EVE Online End User License Agreement and Terms of Service. Players may not submit texts, videos, or other materials that include harmful, threatening or obscene language or content that may infringe on a third-party’s intellectual property rights. CCP reserves the right not to include any texts, videos, or other submissions we deem inappropriate. No refund will be given for inappropriate submissions.

4) If I can swing it, the prize MAY even be signed by members of the Dev team & CSM 8.

5) I will cover all submission & postage costs personally.

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

 

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

gankedyr2mk2.png

 

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!)

 

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

rvbofficialsmabanner1

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!

 

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


CSM_LOGO

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.

May 062013
 

communityHeader_10thAnniversary

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