MMO Chick » ENN

Save ENN

LurbyJo — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:45:00 +0000

It would appear that ENN has run into some financial difficulties. If any generous benefactors are out there, this would be an opportune time to step in (especially as I all ready edit there gratis and other writers have donated their salaries).

Oh, Daddy Warbucks, where are you?

Unpublished

LurbyJo — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:06:00 +0000

My favourite part of the EVE universe is the dynamic and ever-changing PvP mechanic. Because everything in EVE is player-driven, you are able to PvP in many different ways, including bloodlessly on the market. This has always intrigued me, though I don’t really have the right personality for it. I started down that road once, training up some of the enticingly named skills before losing interest in the complexities of simply keeping track of my purchases. Still, I can just imagine making multibillion dollar purchases to corner the market and drive out the opposition, then reselling at exorbitant prices once a place has been secured at the top of the food chain. Crushing your enemies without ever leaving your station of choice just sounds so satisfying.

Outside the market, you wouldn’t think high security space would offer many opportunities to PvP. You’d be wrong. Many players choose to target miners by moving ore from a jettisoned can belonging to said miner into another they own and waiting. Eventually the miner calls in or brings back a hauler to retrieve their booty and ends up so much space dust in the solar wind. “Can-flipping” allows you to take down these unsuspecting miners and their haulers as they don’t realize they’re actually stealing all that tediously mined ore back from you. Had I known about this technique early in my yarring career, I might have tried it out to get a feel for combat. Probably not, though; I’m just too much of a softie. Squishing (mostly) helpless industrialists make me feel like a kitten-kicker.

Another option in high sec is ninja salvaging. This is accomplished by scanning down missioners and liberating the salvage components from wrecks left behind. As long as you don’t take any of the cargo, you’re completely protected and the angry missioner can do nothing. Many pilots use this as an entertaining griefing tool and an easy source of income. I’ve even heard there’s a corporation who specializes in it. Along this same vein, I’ve also heard of people advertising spots where many wrecks are ripe for the taking, luring in newbie ninjas and waiting nearby for that salvager who just can’t resist a poke around in the cargo.

Apparently suicide ganking is yet another increasingly popular high sec opportunity for PvP (and a VERY lucrative one, I hear!). A group will fit cheap ships for high, fast damage and pop haulers undocking in trade hubs, knowing Concord will take them out, while friends lurk in their own haulers to scoop up the loot. Complaints about this practice have been all over the forums for quite some time and I believe CCP is taking steps to make this harder or have harsher repercussions. I can’t say I don’t approve. This seems a tad unfair as, aside from wardecs, high security space should be just that: highly secure.

Currently, my PvP choice is the plain old vanilla ship-to-ship pirating mechanic, though I find plenty of variety in it. I’m still rather early on my path to red-blinky piracy, so I’m not always successful and I haven’t quite learned to harden my heart toward the tears of the care bears on which we first practiced. We’ve moved from hunting new pilots in asteroid belts to tanking sentry guns at stations and gates. I’m hoping to follow in the footsteps of one of my most feared opponents and get into a Heavy Interdictor. That’s still a few weeks off but things are looking up and our baby corporation, The Ninja Pirates, is growing and could be headed to a system near you!

Our Ratting Adventures

LurbyJo — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:15:00 +0000

This weekend was spent in a corp-wide effort to raise our security status. Several of us had been banned from high security space due to our pirating ways and the new alliance requires a -1.99 or higher.

Our first night ratting ended in another security drop. A Deimos decided to attack Ken (he started the evening as a permablinky) and apparently assumed his two friends wouldn’t help. He was wrong. He told us he was going to get his friends and then called us pussies, though that was his last statement in local. Ken sent him speedily to a medical cloning facility.

We also saw a big ol’ battleship fight (that’s the screenie there) and I got caught in a bubble camp. I lost my Brutix in a painful colon massage but was able to save my pod. With all the implants I wear, I felt it was a fair trade. We also ran into a group hunting us, hoping to find us singly, that scattered when we all jumped into the system. One didn’t get away, though, and we spanked his/her bottom. (WHO’S THAT ON TOP DPS?!)

Ken, Travis, and James got a Serpentis Carrier spawn with two ships carrying twenty-five million units of Tritanium and one with two and one-half million units of Mexallon. They had no way to get it back to a station as it was five hundred million m³ and they were seven jumps away. Ken ran in to wake me up and see if any of my ships were big enough to carry it but it would have been a hundred trips, not to mention that would still be fifteen jumps from Jita . They eventually did the right (dog in the manger) thing and blew it up so no one else could have it. Ha!

As I flew only interceptors until recently, my kill ratios on our boards are sweet. An enemy has only a 17.86% chance to survive against me! Fear my Warp Disruptor II !

P.S. If you hadn’t noticed, my article on ENN has arrived!

Oh, boy!

LurbyJo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:41:00 +0000

This is an exciting week for me! I’ve got an article coming out in ENN , Quantum Rise was deployed, and it’s Grandma Lorri’s birthday party this weekend.

My article should show up some time soon (here it is!). It’s called “Happy Together” and there’s a pretty sweet picture I made for it. Prepare to be impressed. *wink*

I’ve been waiting impatiently for Quantum Rise as anyone in my corp, on my vent, or at my home could tell you. As a little girl (read new pilot) all I wanted was to fly an itsy bitsy ship and pwn the shit out of people in PvP. After discovering the relative uselessness of the assault frigates, I flew an interceptor. My job was to hold people down while my friends whaled on them, but I was never able to do much damage myself. The balances QR brought to speed have really seemed to bring assault frigates up and given them a chance to shine. The certificates were fun and actually pretty helpful for finding holes in your skills. I haven’t played around with the decorations yet, but just gimme some time!

Grandma Lorri’s birthday is today! This is Ken’s mom and she’s so much fun! We share a love of good books , MAC , decadent desserts , and of course, Ken. Sadly, I’m still looking for a good present for her. I usually end up giving her a gift certificate to MAC (and who doesn’t love it?) but I still like to keep an eye out for other more interesting ideas.

I’ve also been playing a couple non-EVE games since I lost interest in WAR . Psychonauts is great! It’s SO cute and fun, though a lot of the swingy parts give me vertigo and I have to stop and try to breathe. Also, I heard about this irreverent stick-figure game from Zubon over at Kill Ten Rats . I recommend everyone come play and donate ten bucks. Cheaper than most MMOs and hilariously entertaining! I’m LurbyJo, the Accordian Thief.

I was approached by someone of importance in one of the bigger alliances in EVE about possibly joining. To be honest, I would love it as the things I could learn and the fun I could have would be mind-blowing. These guys are all about the PvP and I can only imagine the shenanigans that would ensue. However, there are seven other people in my corp I have to think about (all right, all right, I also love our name SO FUCKING MUCH). I just don’t know what to do; I was advised we’d probably be able to merge with another corp but not bring ours into the alliance. The experience would benefit us all but I really don’t want to lose the closeness we have with our baby corp or our autonomy. Why can’t everything go my way all the time? *pout*

SuperSquee!

LurbyJo — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:29:00 +0000

I’m completely enjoing my position at ENN as Junior Editor. I’ve been proofing most of the articles that come in (my FAVOURITE pastime) but I’m also supposed to be writing articles myself. However, I haven’t been able to come up with ideas that really seem like they’d be interesting and my style. Anyone have any ideas?

I’m hella stoked for Tuesday’s patch. Since starting EVE, all I’ve wanted was to be able to PvP in a tiny ship and actually be a menace. From the sounds of it, Assault Ships are going to have their place now and small-ship gangs will be viable! I can’t wait.

Also, the Ninja Pirates may be joining an alliance. This alliance is all about the legal yarr (though they aren’t opposed to a gankfest here and there and this is how we met them), so we’ve been working on getting our security status up again. Ratting is a pain in my ass but at least the rats are stupid: I found a cargo expander on one. What tanking Brutix is out waiting for a fight with a cargo expander fitted?! Maybe he was mining. Ha ha!

I stayed up all damned night again so I’d better go hop in bed before Ken wakes up and makes me keep him company all day. *wink*