Apr 292013
 

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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.

 

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If you wish to join the RvB Ganked roam on the 5th May 2013 the details are:

Time: 14.00 EVE/UTC (Form up from 13.00 EVE/UTC)

Theme: Assault Frigates, Frigates & Dessies

Meetup: Rens / Uanzin

Comms: Mumble

Ingame Channel: RvB Ganked

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.

Apr 282013
 

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.

Apr 272013
 

Eve has sound?

That is the usual vet refrain when people mention that EVE has sound – be it music or otherwise. Now while I do not listen to it anymore, I did used to back in the day and I found the electronic stylings of Jon Hallur to fit EVE so very well.  Tracks like Below the Asteroids and Smoke from Down Below just created a sense of place when playing EVE. So when CCP announced that at Fanfest 2013, a Symphony inspired by that music would be happening I found my interest piqued.

Wednesday evening came along and well, it was an aural rollercoaster even sitting at home listening via the TV.  I really do not have the words to describe how hearing the performance made me feel, so I’ll leave you with the video of the event and let you experience it for yourselves.

Jan 022013
 

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What is RvB? 

Red Versus Blue, two alliances in a permanent mutual war with one another.

A war that has lasted three years and some change.

A war with hundreds of explosions daily.

A war anyone can join at will.

(The Official RvB Video by Catalyst XI)

RvB completed my cycle from ‘care-bear’ to ‘I don’t care bear’. I was only expecting to stay a month or so, then go back to null to round off. Now I can’t contemplate leaving, had way too much fun  (Shaddai Zenjii)

2012 for RvB started off pretty much the same as previous years, with hundreds of explosions being caused by the 1800 or so pilots in RvB at that time.  Little did we know what was to come our way during the next 365 days or that 2012 would be the year that RvB got into the EVE “press” more than ever before, a press usually dominated by the activities of the null-sec power houses.  Fun thing is, we even had a reporter “embedded” with us for a while during the year.

Spring

As said, the year started much the same as any other, we were living in Lonetrek at the time just doing our thing with the occasional third party war thrown in, as well as the now weekly RvB Ganked roams – the 11th of which was the first of the new year & the first big item for us in the EVE press; Who knew primarying an Erebus that went on to blap most of the Ganked fleet would get the coverage it did even if many did gloss over the core fact – we did what we did for fun, just like everything RvB does.

Following the launch of the new RvB website, and the work Algis Kemokl & I put into getting it all done, I realised that all work and no play makes Mangala a very bitter boy so as a result I approached the leadership of EVE University, the other RvB command members (I started 2012 as a Director of RvB) and raised the idea of a controlled war, a war with “rules” similar to the RvB rules.  Everyone agreed, and it was on.  For 3 days we ran around Lonetrek and parts of Metropolis fighting the good fight with the students of the Uni. 

I was in the Uni during the first war. On one encounter, I was part of a 120 strong Uni fleet facing 100 purple RvBs. I later learned Mangala was the opposing FC.  The encounter left a real impression on me. Not just the battle itself but the conduct of the RvB fleet as a whole. It was a strange, seemingly laid back, kind of approach… yet disciplined. An ethos that seemed to echo RvB’s approach to serious but fun PvP. The local chat was humorous, respectful and even useful.  In short, RvB’s pure PvP doctrine combined with mostly friendly, respectful local chatter left a real impression on me.  (Talon White)

Life went back to normal for us after this, we had some random third party wars that were a nice distraction for some of us, and then we moved! We left Lonetrek behind and towards the end of March we pushed into The Forge, leaving Lonetrek’s markets battered & empty and its space-lanes clogged with hundreds of haulers. Around the same time as we moved, CCP started advertising RvB on the EVE log in screen.

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Which saw the start of the steady rise in RvB’s numbers throughout the rest of the year, with both Red & Blue combined reaching around 5500 members by Christmas.  As is obvious, this advert brought us to much wider attention, and as a result, fleet sizes got larger – the days of having 10/15 in fleet being a “good thing” ended, and the days of 30/40 man fleets began; The fights got more intense and longer lasting;  Hell more isk got exploded in the two months after both the advert & the relocation then in the 6 months before it combined. 

Without RvB I’m afraid my Career as Capsuleer would have drawn to a close along time ago, The sheer amount of work put into these 2 corps by both command and members is just staggering and the consequence is monumental lol’s that I will always be grateful for. For anyone who is out there wondering aimlessly through New Eden I say come and try our community out, You will not be disappointed and before you know it you’ll feel right at home. (Mandelbrot Fracture)

Another consequence of the advert was Red & Blue both reaching the a major milestone in our eternal conflict, that of having killed only the other side 100,000 times.  RvB & myself provided four billion isk in prize money to the pilots with the final blow on these mails.  Blue got there first, with Red not too far behind – the carnage involved during the last two to three hundred kills was truly a sight to see!  If our numbers & activity had maintained the levels they were at during the start of the year, we would not have reached these numbers as early in 2012 as we did, we would have reached them around Christmas, maybe later.

I would just like to say that having flown in a small limited numbers Red fleet today after DT, that the chase into the final stretch was really good fun. I gave up a Zealot and a Crow in the name of getting Reds closer to this figure and for me that alone was worth doing. The activity that happened in Red – and even Blue – was a real testament to what people will do for isk, especially if they get to kill for it along the way! (Mangala Solaris)

Summer

From a command perspective: Keeping this crazy organization running and herding all the cats can be though, especially when I log on in the morning to read about the latest shenanigans going on in the warnings forum section or see that the ban list has grown overnight. At the same time though you sometimes wake up to great news that restore your faith in humanity. A couple examples from 2012 would be finding out about Torve’s crazy idea for blowing up tens of thousands of frigates or finding out that a member just donated 5 B isk to RvB because he had so much fun flying with us. The generosity that you get to see makes up for all the bad stuff (most days).  (Professor Clio)

Summer 2012 brought RvB some huge events! From some stunning wars to the 10th Alliance Tournament to RvB Ganked’s 1st Birthday, it really really was a good time to be in RvB! 

The “big” war for RvB during the Summer was a “SURPRISE” war with EVE University, which unlike the previous wars had not been arranged up front and was an all out, no holds barred fist fight between the largest groups of pilots in high security space. RvB’s unstated aim, destroy the EUNI POS, the EUNI aim to stop us from doing this & generally make us bored enough to go away. Neither aim really worked, with the POS being reinforced but not destroyed, and RvB not getting bored and going away until it was clear our members were having issue’s reshipping – and I understand the EUNI pilots were in pretty much the same situation.  Despite neither side really gaining a BIG VICTORY, this war did give rise to the single largest fight in high security space ever.  The Battle of Aldrat.

With the EUNI POS exiting reinforcement during EU prime on the 14th May 2012, RvB formed up some 350 pilots all willing & eager to get into Aldrat and take it down. The EUNI (and their allies) formed at least 500 to both defend it & prevent us from even getting into Aldrat.  The in gate was a sight to behold.  High sec had seen nothing like it, and to this day I do not believe it ever will again. For over an hour hundreds of ships of all sizes & tech levels clashed in a battle of epic proportions (in high sec terms) with RvB eventually pushed off due to a reshipping advantage by EUNI. Honestly, in my opinion several months later, neither side truly “lost” in that engagement just on the basis of “I was there”, “EVE is real”.

Thanks Mangala to you and RvB for an amazing time. Not to mention all the Unistas.  (Patrick Estemaire)

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The whole war was a blast for me and while I know some others disagree I believe targeting the POS is what brought about such great fights, a standard to fight for if you will. The biggest disappointment was the missed opportunity to mass undock in noobships and join in the battle at PTS undock, that would just have been perfect. (Sol Tertia)

Well thanks to RvB for coming and staying with it. That was simply epic and one of those true ‘I was there moments’ that I doubt are a frequent occurrence in a computer game. Just wishing some of my RL friends played as i guess i’m going to bore people in work to death today because i’m still buzzing.  (Gaim Estemaire)

That was my first taste of PvP in EVE – great fun. Sorry to hear that all PvP in EVE is not like that fight.  Props to leadership on both sides for the massive behind the scenes effort.  (Deban Huren)

Thanks for the epic fight RvB! I was afraid I was going to miss it due to work, but I logged on right in the thick of things and was able to partake in the biggest battle I’ve (and probably most of Eve has) ever seen! Thanks again for the awesome fights and experience! (Sketchy McGillis)

I can say that this particular war, and the fights that came out of it were my most memorable in EVE.  Finding a group that can go toe to toe with RvB & has a membership willing to do so, is as good for us as it is for them.  I look forward to future conflicts between us, for fun or otherwise.  

The summer did not end there, next up was RvB’s Purple showing in the 10th Alliance Tournament, thanks to CCP for making a rule that would have messed us up, but at the last minute allowing us in as a special case.  It worked better than we could have hoped.  Having a wider pool of pilots to chose from made the campaign much more interesting for those of us flying in the Purple AT team, as well as for the rank & file members watching us week in, week out. We started out with a stunning victory against Get Off My Lawn, had a loss to Suddenly Spaceships, beat Rote Kapelle & Kill It With Fire, and then lost to the mighty Pandemic Legion. Ending our campaign on the cusp of entry to the Finals day!  

Great showing by our team! You can hold your heads up high for sure and I think it is safe to say that you have had not just us behind you, but pretty much the whole of Eve! I along with others seriously think that we can go the whole way next year.  PL saying we were too strong a team to be let through is probably the biggest compliment in itself.  (Relentless Jim)

AT X was fantastic for RvB and I’m really proud of our guys, everyone put in so much effort (practising 6 nights out of 8 at one point and doing it in a WH!), and I saw us really showing the rest of EVE what we were made of. We had so much backing from the EVE community which really boosted us too.  (Cablex Dayspring)

Wonderful job guys! I’m sure I’m not the only one unaware of how much practice and preparation was going on behind the scenes. I really felt proud watching the matches and hearing the commentators talk up our corp so much!  (Hojou)

Before we could rest from such a great showing in the Alliance Tournament, RvB found itself in another spectacular war, this time against the forces of the Northern Coalition. 

Over the word mate.  

I have gone in to this elsewhere, so I shall let that article and others speak for themselves.  Suffice to say, never in my time in EVE have I seen someone go to war over something so ridiculous, however so much entertainment was gotten out of it, and not just by RvB and our friends mates in the North, that I will remember it as long as I remain in EVE.

E5i3L

 

Autumn

We turned 3 in September 2012, and we had a lot of events and publicity to go along with it.  The birthday celebrations were our biggest yet and were unofficially kicked off by several RvBers getting very messed up at the Veto meet in London!

The community here is the best I have experienced in eve. The amount of effort people put into making RVB fun and exciting and compelling day in and day out is amazing. Leadership is engaged, and organized, and always working to make RVB better. I don’t get to play as much as I would like anymore, but when I do log on, I know my time will be enjoyable, and I can’t say that about any other aspect of eve I have been a part of.  (Tral Ma’Fador)

Then I joined RVB. It is, quite simply, the most fun I’ve had in game since I started. I can pvp to my heart’s content or sit back in an alt and work towards the betterment of RVB without it feeling like a grind. I was also planning a short stint in RVB while receiving offers to go back to null but I’m hooked now. You guys are stuck with me.  (Random McNally)

Two of my favourite birthday week events were Combat Mink’s Cargo Run on 15th October and Flight of the Dauntless on the 17th October. Brilliant ideas both of them and hope we have something similar some time in the future. Towards the end of Flight of the Dauntless ( I was in an arty ruppy) I’d started to take heavy damage so warped carelessly to the sun which was bad enough but then doodled about while my shields repaired. A few seconds later a Blue pilot in a frig showed up and because I wasn’t paying attention had me scrammed before I realised what had happened. Of course he was too close for my arty guns to hit him so who ever you were know that you were whisper close to bagging a rupture that day. All that saved me was the event finished and we had to stop shooting each other . Phew :-) Such are the thrills of RvB.  (Penelope Star)

For a while after the birthday events, RvB was quiet with kills dropping off due to the usual end of people’s free time, although we were still killing more daily than many do in a weeks of action! Then we started seeing more and more war decs come in, not that we actually saw targets, it turned out we had become the latest “victim” of Dec Shield’s attention seeking use of broken game mechanics.  That lasted the remainder of the year and really didnt put a crimp in our activities, if anything it just made people annoyed with notification spam!  I like to think it also caused the madness that has begun our new trend of holding MASSIVE FREE FOR ALL FRIGATE FIGHTS.  The first of these saw some 8,000 frigates exploded in 1 weekend, along with 1 server cluster.  The second went much more smoothly, and saw 12.000 frigates exploded.  The third is planned for 26th January & will see 26,000 frigates made available to attendee’s to utilise in the glorious business of RvB!!!!

Winter

I first flew with RvB back in Feburary for Ganked 15. I saw it being advertised on reddit and Eve Radio and i figured “why not?” I died fairly early into that night, but It was fun nonetheless. My usual “play eve for 4 months and then quit again” was about to run it’s normal cycle, until i found ganked and started attending just about every weekend. This led to many memorable events including a revelation kill by rifters, and the decidedly annoying RnK ‘encounters.’ It was about July when i finally decided that 1 day a week of RvB was not enough for me, and i enlisted. Since then, it’s been 6 months of great fun and i’m confident that i’ll be here for much longer. RvB fills a gap in pvp that no one else has been able to; a no-risk, low-cost, instantaneous fleet combat environment where GFs are the rule rather than the exception. Some people won’t like the comparison, but this is the closest thing to spaceship ‘battlegrounds’ i’ve found, and I’m proud to be a part of such an achievement.  (Rashino Zea)

And the year comes to a close.  RvB has increased to around 4 times the size of what it was at the start of the year; We have passed 300,000 kills of Red & Blue by Red & Blue and are now pushing 400,000;  We are closing in on 5 TRILLION isk exploded just in the eternal war between Red & Blue; In all conflicts we have passed 7.5 TRILLION isk exploded over 380,000 kills; Ganked has passed 4000 kills in over 50 null sec roams and continues to provide fun for over 100 pilots every week.

It’s been almost three years now? What was meant to be a temporary introduction to PvP has become my home. As I learned more and more about the goings on of null sec PvP the less I cared to participate. The casual nature of RvB has kept me paying my subscription where I probably would have let my account lapse a long time ago. I’ve been in hundreds (if not thousands) of fleet fights, each of them fun. I’ve flown with dozens of FC’s, some terrible but most have been supremely fun to fly with (♥ Melkor Valor. When are you going to take out a frig fleet again?). I’ve taken part in some epic events (The first Sink The Bismarck was the first time I flew a Battleship in PvP. I’ll never forget that feeling. Thanks a million Mangala.) and many epic free for alls. These days I mostly look forward to the Ganked Roams, but I can still log in whenever I want and usually find some good fights within minutes. And while RvB has grown into something that barely resembles the little fight club it started as, the spirit of casual fun remains. Thanks to RvB and all of the folks in leadership who’ve done such a fantastic job keeping the chaos under some semblance of control. I’m proud to have been a part of this community since it started and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon. (J’mee Leggs)

My highlights, can’t say only one, from the crazy congas to the chaotic lemming jumps, every minute has their small history behind, enjoy everything,  (Kronthar Lionkur)

Best Ganked moment of the year? Without a doubt. GCC Revelation dies to rvbgank in low sec. (AdW)

 

A major highpoint of the year is that we have seen 1 RvB pilot pass 10,000 kills just while flying with Blue Republic. Step forward Jagtor!  The wife-whisperer really exemplifies what RvB is about and he continues to do so against all odds! Now all I have to do is poke the right people and use this fine gentleman & killer space pilot as publicity for RvB!!!!

In terms of how well our 9 months in The Forge has worked out, we have over 200,000 kills in this region alone, that is nearly as much as we had killed in all our other homes put together. With nearly 192,000 of those just in Josameto, Poinen, Otela & Liekuri.  Good thing we are in the same region as Jita, otherwise I do not think any manufacturers or traders could have kept pace with our rapacious appetite for destruction.

And that boys & girls was RvB’s 2012.  Some of it I had covered elsewhere as the year went on, other parts I have written about from memory.  All in all it was our best year yet.  I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did and I look forward to going even further in 2013.  I will leave you with a few words from Del Delvechio “The Man” behind the scene in RvB and a wonderful video from Zaqq:

When I joined RvB back in the Stone Age, we got excited when we could get 12 in fleet and argued about where to fight for 3 hours. Now we can get 3-4 times that number in fleet and the argument is done is 30 mins, so we’ve come a long way. I think one time I led Red with 400 kills in a month and I thought I was the real deal, now pilots get that in 4 days, and I am still not the real deal. We get more kills in a month than we used to get in 4-6 months. In my opinion, 2012 was the year RvB “grew up”.

Special thanks from me to:

1. Mangala-Technically not a part of “RvB Command”, Mangala had been vital to RvB’s long term success. Mangala is our KB expert, organizer of Ganked, Propaganda Minister, and major benefactor to all events and causes in RvB. Truly devoted to the cause and always goes above and beyond the call of duty.

2. Algis-You are all no doubt aware by now that although my general IQ is Einsteinian, my computer IQ is Lilliputian. Enter Algis, our forums wizard who can kiss my self inflicted forum boo boos and make them all better. He sorts issues, fixes problems, and generally keeps it up and running. Thanks for all the help…..

3. Shadowmaster-Although CCP took him well before his time to Spaceship Gaming Valhalla, Shadow was the consummate RvB FC. Only cared about bringing good fights. Not enough people in his fleet? Who cares, lets go. We just got pwned by the other side? Who cares, lets go. The other side has no FC? I switched, lets go. Neither side has an FC? Ok, I got both fleets, lets go. Shadow we hardly knew ya….Well played, my friend.

4. FCs-To everyone who FCs, whether its just once or 400 times, you truly are what makes people come and play. Without death and destruction there would be no RvB. So keep bringing it over and over again. Salutations to all of you.  (Del Delvechio)

Nov 132012
 

This past weekend saw the 45th RvB Ganked roam.  The theme was fast frigates and was FC’d by Green Gambit, and you can read his report of the roam below:

“So I was a little late on comms – due to real life – at the start of the night, only to find that events had already been hijacked. The fleet was already up, and the first kill of the night was already up on the killboard – a RvB war target killed on the Rens undock. Somebody had also already given the order to move to the first destination, so most of the fleet had already left Rens and were en-route to the low-sec meet-up.

The fleet doing it’s own thing was a theme that continued throughout the evening…

Kast had donated around 70 interceptor hulls, and I spent most of the time until the 21:00 depart time going through the contracts, picking out the scammers and giving away the hulls to the people actually taking part. With most of the fleet already in Bar, myself and the other stragglers departed Rens spot on time.

I arrived on the Irshah gate in Bar, to find a swarm of around 150 fast frigates and interceptors buzzing around, we jumped through and proceeded to Doril – our null-sec entry – being greeted by traffic control and time dilation on every gate jump. As we were jumping into Sendaya, eviliain called point on an Executioner in Doril, and the fleet raced to kill it. Some strange grid-foo meant that half the fleet landed on the Executioner, and half on a different grid. But it died anyway along with the pod.

Scouts then called a small BC gang in Hemin heading towards the Utopia gate. They landed on their gate and jumped as we were jumping in from Doril. Eyes reported them warping to a planet so we gave chase. We caught 3 of them – a Cane, Harby, and Drake – although another Drake escaped just in time, fleeing to a station.

We headed back to the Doril gate, as another gang coming in from low-sec had been reported, however they docked up in Doril, so we started down the Curse pipe. Along the pipe was quiet, with a couple of unguarded bubbles, until the scouts reported a small gang of around 10 frigs/cruisers camping in 8G-MQV. As we jumped into CL-85V the camped dispersed so we crashed the system and warped around hoping to catch something.

After a couple of minutes it was clear they’d ran to a POS, so we re-grouped on the VOL-MI gate. Just as we were gathering a Tengu was reported incoming on the other side, so we setup to catch it. The gate flashed, the Tengu appeared, then cloaked – I’m not sure if this was entirely down to the theme, or just a bit of luck, but it was de-cloaked and pointed it before it warped. Dead Tengu, and pod.

We jumped into VOL-MI and a gang was reported heading our way from ARG-3R. We landed on the gate as their scout in a Dramiel jumped to us. He crashed the gate and we gave chase, only for the entire gang except a single Cane to flee.

A new gang coming from HLW-HP was reported, so we got back into VOL-MI to intercept. They fled to a deep safe leaving us chasing their Cynabal around various gate TACs. After a few failed attempts at landing on him, we gave up and headed towards the Hale constellation.

We buzzed around the Hale constellation for around 15 minutes, mainly trying to tempt the residents to aggress in some shiny ships – only getting a Hound and a Hurricane kill. I called a short bio, docked and went afk. I came back to find the fleet now being commanded by Mangala “honest I’m taking a break from being in charge” Solaris, shooting a Vagabond and hunting a Megathron – both died.

The fleet regrouped on the out-gate of the constellation and the locals resorted to bombers. We caught a couple of Hounds, topping them off with a Skiff on it’s way in, without a scout!

We moved on, skirting around the rest of Curse, seeing very little active in space. We caught a Hurricane in G-G78S – holding it long enough to get 112 pilots on the killmail. Then we tried to bait a group of Tornados sniping off the station in OSY-UD only for them to dock when the lemmings in the fleet spiked local.

As we headed back towards VOL-MI some pilots in-fleet started reporting friendly fire. An examination of the killmails showed that we had some members of Sniggwaffe alliance within the Ganked fleet, were shooting friendlies. They fled as they were kicked from the fleet and so we moved on.

We landed in ARG-3R and chaos descended, with some of the fleet chasing a battleship off a gate – the rest of the fleet engaged some of the kicked Snigg pilots. Somehow the battleship managed to jump through the gate and get away, but some of the Snigg pilots weren’t so lucky.

As we regrouped, a small gang was reported warping across VOL-MI towards K-B2D3, so we gave chase. We caught them on the D87E-A to 0SHT-A gate, and chased them through. Some of the fleet engaged a separate Hurricane off the gate. Meanwhile the rest jumped after the gang, snagging a handful of cruisers, frigates and their pods.

Moving on towards HED-GP, the final destination. We snagged a Test Drake on the HED gate in SV5, then jumped through and snagged another. Scouts called a Scimitar travelling solo along the route behind us, so the fleet went back into SV5 and killed it and a Nulli Secunda Vagabond that appeared.

We crashed back into HED-GP killing a few small things first near the SV5 gate, then on the station un-dock. Test shipped-up and un-docked some battleships and repping carriers. Unlikely to collect any more kills, we fled to a planet whilst our scanners and scouts attempted to lock down a nice target from the large camp on the Keberz gate. A Cynabal obliged by moving away from the gate, and we got a point on it. The fleet warped in – despite being aligned to the wrong gate, and chased down the fast-moving ship. The Cynabal died, and the fleet turned to other nearby shinies. A Stabber Fleet Issue, Jaguar, and Rapier joined the Cynabal, by which point most of the Ganked fleet had been killed.

At this point it was getting quite late, so most pilots called it a night. However a handful decided to take a part-two roam into Providence to see if we could snag a PvE ship…

Entering Providence through the G-5EN2 gate and caught a Brutix on the out-gate to 9-F0B2. Unfortunately he had a lot of friends who jumped through to us. We finished off the Brutix and fled, deciding to find another route into Providence. We went around to Dital, and back into Providence, via KBP7-G. That system was clear and Thecla moved on to scout B-WPLZ. Declaring that system clear we warped to the gate to find an Arazu had arrived, so we attacked. A Drake arrived to support the Arazu as it died. We turned our guns on the Drake as further ships landed. The fleet briefly switched targets to blap a Retribution, then back onto the Drake. Unfortunately the reinforcements were a little too much for us to handle and we were defeated with the Drake in low-shields.”

 

Mangala says:

All in all a really good night.  I had a well deserved rest, my record remains unbroken and lots of explosions were made.

 

In other news, the winners of the Somer.Blink prizes were:

Scouting Distinction – Inty pack (1 crow, 1 stilletto, 1 malediction, 1 taranis) x3 (PVDNS77, Thecla Elarik, Sir Yohnny)

Corpse Collector – Sabre (macgyver 3rd)

Spot Prizes – Firetail x10 (Metaloid, Rando Ary, Mangala Solaris, Uskehan, Christopher Scott, Captain Hurrdurr, Zen Tsai, Wayne Fontes, Khador Vess, Snortle)

Combat Distinction – Cynabal x3 (Daneel Trevize, Mactabilis Maero, Wiiggls)

Combat Excellence – Tempest Fleet Issue x1 (Caterpil)

Heretic – Augoror Navy Issue (Phantom OfKrankor)

Oct 232012
 

A few weeks ago, RvB found itself needing to declare war on a small corp local to our bases in The Forge;  This corp was called Rock Huggers Inc & depending on who you ask, they had either been flipping cans in RvB fights, causing the less aware members of RvB to become flashy to them or they had been “innocently” leaving cans of ammo around, and merely defending themselves when RvB pilots “borrowed” that ammo. Either way, Command deemed them a nuisance – all 8 of them – and war was declared. 

Given it was a cheap war against RvB, several other parties a long the way allied themselves with Rock Huggers Inc and lots of explosions – on both sides of the fence – occurred.  Eventually the combat wound down till only one of the enemies allies continued to fight, and only against Blue with whom they now have a mutual war, while the remaining allies finished their period of support and went on their way. 

And then roughly at the start of last week, Rock Huggers formed an alliance, which inherited the now mutual wars with RvB. 

For a few days we did not think anything of it until they started advertising free mutual wars against us.  

It was at this point when the fun began.  Following a short, sweaty & hot period of action in the form of the original war declarations, it seems RvB became a carrier – if not the Patient Zero – of the internet spaceships version of an STD.  

Basically, should you hop into bed with Purple Legion or The Marmite Collective you will become embroiled in a mutual war started by RvB –  wars which we freely admit to starting, for various reasons stemming back to the original war with Rock Huggers Inc.  However, once you get out of bed with those entities, instead of leaving the war behind, you take a fresh case with you. No matter how much protection you use. Then when you meet a new alliance, go to dinner, maybe dancing and then back to their place for “coffee”, you give them a dose too, all the while continuing to play host to your own infection. And each time the alliances have new corporations back to theirs, they too leave with a new case of Aggressive RvB Mutual War Syndrome.  Ad infinitum.  Indeed, Rock Huggers Inc used the executor corp of Purple Legion to pass a solid dose of this syndrome on to Dec Shield, who are now spreading it to every corp that passes through their doors. 

The following is the list of current wars caused by various entities bed hopping:

Mutual

  1. RvB Blue v Skunk Works (Consequence of mutual war with The Marmite Collective)
  2. RvB Blue v Kicking Smurfs (Consequence of mutual war with The Marmite Collective)
  3. RvB Blue v The Marmite Collective (EDIT: Was mutual, seems to be changed now)
  4. RvB v Belteaters (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  5. RvB v Madre Del Amor Hermoso Corp (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  6. RvB v Purple Legion (Consequence of mutual war with Rock Huggers Inc)
  7. RvB v Impromptu Asset Requisition (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
  8. RvB v Purple Legion Holding Corporation (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
  9. RvB v Dec Shield (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
  10. RvB v Ba’als Deep Space Mining (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  11. RvB v Epicurus Philosophy (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  12. RvB v CEBEP DV (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  13. RvB v Battle BV (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
 
None Mutual
(Should have gone mutual when these entities left various alliances, but did not, despite leaving after the mutual wars had gone live. Yet another bug?)
  1. RvB v Beyond the White (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  2. RvB v Pulsar Engineering (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  3. RvB v Benedictus Ordinis Fessa Milites (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  4. RvB v Army Ninja Society (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
  5. RvB Blue v Lonetrek Salvage and Scrap (Consequence of the former mutual war with The Marmite Collective)
  6. RvB v Entek Heavy Industries (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)

As you can see, all the above have happened in a little over a week, think of what this could look like in another week, or a month, should this keep spreading like it does. Could we be looking at the eventual doom of peace in high security space, or will a vaccine be forthcoming? 

Now here is the crux of the matter, is this a bug as the folks at Dec Shield claim or is it a mechanic working as intended with the usual lack of documentation? Answer’s on a postcard please. And if you do send one, wash your hands first.

So kids, protection does not always save you does it. Still, remember

 

EDIT: This is not me – or RvB – complaining about the wars, as we like to fight given it is the RvB raison d’etre, but merely me wondering exactly what is going on with mutual war declarations right now.