Legos for me!

In response to Jester's Trek - No LEGOs for you.

I believe Jester makes a very valid point as to the chances of a LEGO Rifter ever being developed. However, there is a counter-point that is also valid. While LEGO will not allow a Firefly lego set due to their reasoning of:

LEGO produces toys for children. Therefore all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content-appropriate for this core audience. With this in mind we have decided that as cool as the Serenity model is, the Firefly TV show and Serenity film contain content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11.

He does not take into consideration the fact that our game is merely a sandbox world with spaceships. Where Firefly may have a more...adult... appeal, EVE is merely a sandbox. If run by a group of 6-11 year olds, would the game be more suitable to said age group? I believe so. If EVE is what the players make it, then the game itself is for any age group. That's why the ESRB does not rate the online portion of video games because it changes constantly. People change. Games with people change.

Further, the point can be made that in terms of graphical representations of sex, drugs, and violence, EVE is about as offensive as Hello Kitty Online. No dancing girls, no blood, no gore, no heroin addicts, no strippers, and no death (we're capsuleers, we don't die). EVE online is boring if you believe that those things make a good game. We know this is not the case, but I digress.

Finally, if an EVE ship can't be built because it is a

 "product featuring repeated death, scams, non-consensual violence, rape jokes, porn, profanity, and various forms of hate crimes"

then how did the Star Wars franchise slip through such scrutiny? Repeated death, scams, non-consensual violence, rape jokes, porn, profanity, and various forms of hate crimes are a staple of the Star Wars universe. Remember that the Wookies were enslaved, Princess Leia was tortured, the jedi were wiped out, Han Solo owed debts that he refused to pay, the Empire destroyed whole planets, and rape jokes littered the whole series. There are still Lego sets featuring many of the ships and vehicles from this series, why not a spaceship from EVE?

Now, I know this point is moot, because its a rambling  and I have no say in what will happen. Yes, Jester is more than likely going to be right, but I feel that my point, if made by the right person, could change the outlook of the committee.

Until next time, fly safe
 -Onterion

Off on my own

Quote of the day: Always defend what is yours.

It has been quiet. The last few weeks has found my corp, Galactic Alta Imperata, rather quietly moving to our friendly systems to assist their takeover in the Drone Regions. Being bored myself by the lack of fighting on home turf, and without my trusty Rifter, I jump cloned back to Highsec after a failed attempt at finding a passage through wormhole space. No nearby wormholes, no easy access. I made a rather easy run home, running into only one camp along the way. Speed rifters do not often get caught, though, when they do, its quite an embarrassing pop. Finally set up in our sister alliance's system, I ran back to 9QS to go help Greenspan with some drones. He was waiting on another, so I went out and popped some drones with my Tornado, having some fun watching the frigs instapop under my guns.

My Tornado got its second taste of action only a few weeks ago. After our fight in 9QS with the Stealth Bombers and random pvp gang, I got a chance to fight again. We had found our enemy POS in our nearby system of Z0G. Having some time and ammo to kill, I joined up with the bashing fleet to find that they had been bombed all day. I grabbed some buddies, and warped on the POS. Four stealth bombers orbited the core of the POS just inside the shield. They would often move out and cloak, prepare their run, and warp off. This usually resulted in little damage, but kept us on our toes. Every so often however, one would fly out for a quick bomb and run. As I watched these little bombers, I noticed one getting close to the shield. Calling out that he was about to break out, I locked him up. I took a quick shot, missing him. However, Boozer Hoover did not, scoring a quick Hound kill.Well done.

Angered by this, the bombing runs picked up. Of course, so did the mistakes. Another bubble run, another quick lock. This time I got a hit, however, dragonheart fire noticed his little mistake and fled back into the safety of his POS. Somehow, lag triumphed and even about 2km inside the bubble, the lasers popped his Rapier. Boozer Hoover's Apocalypse was fitted for quick locking, making a fool of the bombers. The Love The Bubble guys did well in their bombing runs, but finally lost too much, fleeing back home. The POS was killed 15 hours later, freeing our space once more.

Such fun times :)

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Quote of the day: Fly it like you already lost it.

Finally, some action. I log in yesterday to find multiple reds in system, with Greenspan (My beloved CEO) taunting them in local. Apparently, he had lost a Talos to their stealth bombers a few minutes before. Feeling a rush of excitement, I offered my services in any way. I wanted to take these guys down. A friend offered up his Stabber as bait, but needed someone to fly it. I heartily offered up my clone, knowing he was stripped bare from his last entanglement. Its not worth having implants in null.

I undocked in the stabber, and crossed my fingers. Our stealth bombers were in position everywhere. The trap was laid. I flew circles, I pulsed a microwarpdrive, I got nothing. Then, they warped out. Scouts searched our nearby gates and found them in NWX. I moved to the station, jumped in my rifter, and headed to gate. Sitting at 50km, I waited for them to return as my friends searched NWX. Suddenly, a gateflash announces the fleet again, they were back. I burn to the gate, trying to get close enough to scram one. The closest target decloaks about 20km from me. However, he doesn't decloak long. Hes gone before I get there.

My fleet jumps back in system, moves to different positions, and begins their search. Suddenly, one of the reds, Santina (The one who bombed me days ago) appeared just off station. I jumped back, hit at about 30km from him, and moved quickly. Just before I get there, POP goes the bomber. I get close enough to grab his pod, but as I lock, he warps off. Worth a shot. I jump off to a gate to try and intercept the rest as they burned for safety. However, I see the pod instead! Hes only 50km from me, although I know I will not catch him. Sure enough, he evades me. The rest of the reds leave amid our taunting.

Dinner time.

After a quick dinner, I check back in with Greenspan and find that a fight is happening. Looking over local, there are about five neuts roaming about. Reading alliance chat, apparently I missed a Vagabond kill already. I undock in the Rifter, find my fleet, and warp off to the nearby gate. Suddenly, we hear that they are 100km off station from our gate. I turn and burn for their position, jumping in about 30 km from the fight. They have 2 Tornadoes, 1 Vagabond, a Tengu, a Raptor, and a very adventurous pod who wanted to watch. We had amassed a decent counter to this fleet, however, they had speed on us. I moved towards their position to tackle, however, I was quickly locked and primaried. Pop went my Rifter. I warped out in my pod, jumped back to station and grabbed my shiny new Tornado. With a good shield/resist fit, I was excited to test her mettle.

The fight had changed venues, they were now in NWX, about 100km off gate, and moving quick. I jumped in and ran with afterburner engaged. Not even close, they were burning better than 1km per sec, and I was moving just above half that. I turned back and selected a planet opposite the fight. I hit 150km from the nearest buddy, and I warped in. Apparently they noticed this plan, as they popped our fastest ship, a Firetail, and had burned away from the engagement. Even with my warp in, they were 70km from me. No-go. Bouncing around, I tried to get in range, but it wasn't happening. Greenspan gave the order to retreat, and I jumped back to station at 0. Waiting there, we saw local spike again, they weren't done with the fight.

Greenspan was in his slepnir, and saw them warp in at 70. My fearless leader burned toward them and opened fire, damaging the other vagabond into structure, forcing it to warp off. I burned toward them, but when I hit about 50km from Green, pop went the Slepnir. Not cool. He warped back to station, and I turned and burned back. Fast tackle got in on them, as well as another battleship. I burned quick to get 150km away, and turned back to the fight. Hitting the BS at 0, I locked up the nearest Tornado, just in time for it to warp off. The Vagabond returned, half shield and half structure. Green had warped to me, and all of us locked up the Vaga. Our tackle got him down, and a burst from our guns laid him out. Vagabond kill. GF all around. They will return, they loved that fight.

Things calmed down a bit after that excitement. After noticing an old ally in system with a neut, Genseric Tollaris (a fellow corp member)  called out that he was tackled in a complex. I warped to him, dropping the shields of the aggressor, but also noticing that Sabik had me locked up in his Cane. He wasn't shooting either of us. Local chat revealed that the neut was only blue to one corp in the alliance, and had thought they had captured a free kill. No problem, no harm, no foul.

Finally, bored out of my mind, I decided to go help reamau out. He was out in a nearby wormhole, scanning away. He was trying to find a high or low sec tunnel. Jumping into the C3, I was astonished by the number of signatures. I got a list of the ones he had already scanned, and selected a new signature. Bingo, wormhole! The other side was a Black Hole with only 3 signatures. We each selected one, and both found wormholes. His lead to more w-space, but mine was a pipeline to highsec. Score.

Upon inspection of our neighboring space, a friend found that the reds in our system had set up a POS. It was only days old, and hadn't fully charged its shields. Forming a quick fleet, we began our bash. I took a few free shots, but the night had worn me down. Time for bed.

What a fun night.

Things you know

Quote of the day: Trust the things you know, not the things you used to know.

Another night, another bottle, another journey to highsec.

I logged in last night with a few buds sitting a system over, mining away at ice. They needed some extra guns in case of surprise, so I undocked my Tornado and jumped over. Sitting in a belt, watching them make big asteroids into small asteroids, our trigger fingers were getting itchy, so we warped off to a pair of in-gates and set up shop, watching closely for something we could kill. After an hour of waiting, only some blues had flown through. Nothing exciting at all. Thats the life in null I suppose, brilliant flashy experiences between the drudgery. Tonight was a drudgery night... for a minute.

After going AFK at a POS, I returned to find the mining expedition had called it a night. Now they needed a highsec run. I offered my services as a scout, and was invited to fleet. Undocking in my Rifter again, I felt much lighter and happier. I always enjoy zipping around. We began our perilous journey back up the pipeline to high. Without the benefit of a known wormhole to take us back in a mere 6 jumps, we took our time. Patience paid off, as we avoided a few systems with some shady life, and were rewarded with a safe journey. Running around, I picked up and injected a few skill books. I was close to a lowsec system, so I decided to go sit on a gate, play the life of a pirate again. It has been a while, and it seems I have forgotten some rules.

As I sat at the gate, a Badger moved his way through. I tried to get at him, but he warped off. I sat on the gate, twiddled my thumbs some more, when the badger reappeared, 15km from the gate. I immediately knew he was on autopilot, and I moved to take it. Opening up my cannons, I was amused to watch his shields fail, just as my ship flashed a pretty explosion. Yeah, I had forgotten about gate guns. I noticed the consequences of assaulting a player in empire space slightly too late. I laughed about it with the pilot, as we both agreed I had spent way too much time in nullsec. Running back to Rens in my pod, I feared assault. However, shooting a pod is apparently uncommon for players in high. They're a different breed I imagine.

I finish refitting my new Rifter, and make my way back to the pipeline. My fleet was almost there, so I sat and pondered the universe in station. Undocking, we began a long journey home. We found no real action along the way, but had a few close encounters. A similar convoy was bringing cargo along the pipeline, and the appearance of my scout startled them. They played gate jumper with me as I powered through. I wanted to get back home.  A few jumps later, I sat on the station, watching as my little duckings followed me to the nest.

One last glass of bourbon.

The first Eve blogpost

So, I started a blog. I suppose I am inspired to do so thanks to the semmingly dying number of Eve Bloggers out there. The blog packs also inspire me to start, because they show how interesting Eve really is. I find myself captivated by the musings and adventures of many other pilots, why not amuse myself as well?

So, this morning I woke up in a slight haze, the adventures of last night wearing off my system. A good 10 year small batch bourbon and a night of scouting. Our Alliance has found a wormhole to C5, and on the other side is a lowsec system. 6 jumps from a major trade hub, its a lucky find, and one that happens about once a month or so. Needing supplies for the station, I scouted out a safe trip to and from the beautiful hub, and I passed out from sheer exhaustion combined with a delicious beverage.

As I logged in this morning, we had one neut in system, just sitting in a stealth bomber. My allies were jabbing back and forth with him, so I undocked in my Rifter and jumped in the standing fleet. Nothing special, I flew circles around the station, then warped off to check the belts. Nothing but rat drones and small wrecks, indicating that my allies had been mining recently. I warped off to check the gates, hit at 100, when I saw a gate flash. Seeing another neut pop in system, I waited to get a glimpse of what we might be in store for. NWX isnt really known for lots of action, but as a Loki decloaked, I reported it up. Another gateflash showed his buddy in a Talos. The Loki cloaked up, but the Talos was staring me down. At 120km, in a Rifter, I was less than afraid. Then I made my mistake.

Knowing that these guys were part of a WH gang that appeared in NWX, I warped back off to station at 0. I made a lethal error of not docking up. The talos wapred in about 40km from me, and locked me up. I hit dock, but he opened up on me, preventing my dock. Pop went my rifter, pop went my pod. I awoke in Rens, upset at myself for making such a tactical blunder, but I suppose I'm still shaking off the rust from a year overseas. I fitted up a spare rifter and headed back to the wormhole in lowsec.

Jumping to the last gate before my wormhole, I found a Stabber on gate, along with a Navy Slicer. Gatecamps don't bother me in my little speed ship, so i passed into the last system. I prayed for a decent placement as I saw the stabber burning to the gate. At 3k m/s, I knew he had a MWD fitted up, but my scram would negate that if he got too close. My hope was that he didnt have a scram of his own, or that he landed a good 30km away when I jumped. I hit my warp for the wormhole, and as I prepared, I saw he was 22k from me, burning at max. He must have had a scram fitted, because he was only a good 15km away when my warp drive engaged. I jumped into the WH and made it home safe. A point would have grabbed me from 20k, but maybe he was a bit newer to the pirate game. Maybe he had one and didn't use it.

Oh well, home safe with a new ship, maybe I'll find some action.