Our Lady of the Salty Tears

DISCLAIMER: I have returned to the universe of New Eden. For how long I cannot say, only that I have a thirst that must be quenched.
---
The Prayer of Mother Amamake, our Lady of the Salty Tears

Mother Amamake provides, I shall not want
She makes me seek out the foolish and unprepared;
She leads to me to wait above the Osoggur gate;
She restores my killboard.
She leads me in good roams,
And even though I get into difficult fights
and go into deep structure,
I fear no blaster;
for She is with me.
Your stations and safe spots--they comfort me.
You lead many scrubs to stumble into your bosom
For me to harvest their tears and wrecks;
You give me good loot from noobs;
My cup overfloweth.
Surely bounties and poor sec status shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the system of Amamake
forever.

Quartermaster's Report - December 2013

Gentlemen of Black Flag,

As we roll along into the colder months of this year, it was determined by the corporation's executive officers that we issue regular communiqués to all our members to clarify and guide us along toward the goals common to the capsuleers of Black Flag.

While there are many things that need to be discussed and clarified, there are a few key issues that must be known at this time. The first of these is the mission of this corporation. We are, first and foremost, a PvP corporation. It is the basis on which this organisation was founded and the basis of our gameplay. We are together here to kill, pillage, destroy and loot anyone that is neither corp-mate nor friend. We maintain a strict “Not Blue? Shoot It” (NBSI) protocol in all space. Ultimately, how you produce ISK to support your PvP activity is your own business, and it is expected you take responsibility for making your own money.

Second, while Black Flag's numbers have been growing steadily over the last couple of months, we would ideally like more manpower, so as to enable a greater range of combat options. We encourage those amongst you who understand how this corporation operates to, inasmuch as possible, be open and inviting to others into joining us. This can be done through befriending, trawling recruitment channels, or, and this is my personal favourite, inviting pilots who you have recently killed or destroyed the property of. The executive will look favourably upon those who are able to bring others into our fold, be it through a monetary reward or expanded powers within the corporation.

Third, and finally, the corporation's executive are instituting a codification of some basic rules of engagement, in order to maintain, amongst this gang of soldiers, pirates, thieves and trolls, a modicum of decorum and respectability:

1) Henceforth, ALL RANSOMS MUST BE HONOURED. This includes pod and ship hostage taking, and covers both ISK ransoms as well as singing ransoms. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the latter practice, upon taking hostage of a pod, you may demand the victim sing a song as payment for you letting them go. Normally, you invite them either onto comms or Eve-voice, and you request they sing. You may request that they sing a particular song, with or without musical accompaniment, although you may find it easier that they sing a song that they know the words to. Pilots found not honouring ransoms will receive disciplinary action from the CEO or me. Repeat offenders will find themselves looking for a new home.

2) SCAMMING IS NOT ALLOWED. And by this, we mean that no one may undertake the activity of scamming under the Black Flag name. Feel free to do this on alts, but do not discuss this with others in the corporation. The result of anyone found scamming as a member of Black Flag, or found gloating about scams in chat or comms, will find themselves looking for a new home.

3) HARASSMENT IS NOT OKAY. While this corporation's membership has many a troll in it, and trolling local, chat channels and other people’s comms is acceptable activity, there comes a point when it stops being trolling and becomes malicious and harassing. Public and private messages sent to other players of Eve that are mean-spirited, and/or are racially or sexually motivated are NOT acceptable. Henceforth, any Black Flag member found to be sending messages deemed to be harassment will not only find themselves looking for a new home, they will have earned -10.0 status from this corporation for the rest of their EVE life.

So go out, have fun, fly dangerously, take risks. At the same time, have a little respect while flying with Black Flag. As a final note, anyone who needs help engaging fitting, flying, or any other part of gameplay, feel free to chat or mail myself or any member of the Black Flag executive for advice. We are here to help.

Yours sincerely,

Edna Ironsides

BFAQ Quartermaster

Report from the Docking Ring: October 2013

Captain's Log: Edna Ironsides
Aboard BFAS Malcolm Reynolds (Incursus-Class Frigate)
Above the docking ring of Duvolle Laboratories Warehouse, in orbit over the 19th moon of Heydieles IV

 Baby Steps

The story so far: I left The Gaping Maw and joined the extremely young corporation Black Flag Acquisitions [BFAQ]. In hindsight, I'm not really entirely sure why I did this: I needed to reinvigorate my gamplay, I wanted to try something that was outside of my range of activity previous too now, and maybe perhaps, I was getting a little tired of always being the least experienced and responsible member of the corp - I wanted to be be responsible for something. Well, I got my wish. In roughly the month I've been with BFA, I have found myself as their quartermaster, FC, and general advisor on everything from ship fittings to wormholes (which I don't even know a tremendous amount about). The best part is, I actually enjoy it. Admittedly, being told about every little detail of people's fitting, shopping and PvE activities can be a little testing, it is more than made up for when I can provide something to enhance the gameplay of the younger players. That, for what it is worth, on some days entirely makes this game worth playing, and makes me happy as the persona of Edna Ironsides.

RP: Black Flag

The hiss of the airlock confirmed the shuttle had successful docked with the station.

Captain Ironsides stood up quickly from the cockpit and opened the door, stepping from warmth of the shuttle into the slightly cooler, clinically sterile air of the station. The dulled click of her shoes on floor reported Villore-manufactured durasteel, coupled with the low hum of the entire station from its fusion reactors told her she had arrived in a Federation station.

The computer interface to her right chirped up, "Welcome to the Center for Advanced Studies, Lisbaetanne School. What brings you to us today?" it asked in a smooth, vaguely feminine voice.

"I am looking for the corporate offices of Black Flag Acquisitions."

"They can be found on Deck 289, Section B9. The gravity lift at the end of the hall can take there." It purred, almost sounding pleased with its omnipresent knowledge of the station.

Edna strode purposely to the lifts, called out the deck number and stepped out over the edge into the tube. For a moment, she felt herself in free fall before the graviton beams of the lift caught her body and moved her smoothly and quickly down past the hundreds of decks of the station. At 290, the lift flawless slowed her descent until she found herself hovering before the entrance to deck 289. She stepped off back on to the firmness of the floor.

Edna felt herself tense slightly as she approached the office she was looking for. Interviews were always these awfully awkward times for her, as people who try to figure out who she in what seemed like an overly formal procedural manner. It would be so much easier if these meetings could be carried in a bar or promenade, somewhere where she felt infinitely more comfortable at home.

She reached the door of Section B9. On it was a large black square which surrounded a three-towered castle coloured a deep crimson red. Edna opened the door.

A young woman turned around from the main reception desk as she walked into the office lobby. She approached Edna. She was fair, with short curt brown hair but with long locks coming down from the crown of her head that were bleached platinum blonde. Beneath her right eye was a double-lined tattoo that Edna recognised as Detei. She was Caldari, like Edna, although the Deteis were rather more removed from her Achuran heritage. She wore a blue leather jacket and combat trousers.

She smiled. "You must be Edna. We have been expecting you. My name is Azalea." Edna suddenly felt much more at ease. The young woman's bright greeting relaxed the tension that had been building in her. "You can call me Ed. Everyone does."

"Right then, Ed. Well, originally I was going to be here to interview you, but due to some difficult time constraints you have caught me as I must leave now to attend to other matters. My colleague, Karin, will meeting with you instead." She gestured to another woman coming down the long hallway toward them. Ed turned and greeted her. She also bore a Detei tatto, but unlike Azalea had longer hair that was raven black. "If you want to come with me Captain Ironsides, this shouldn't take too long." Saying goodbye to Azalea, Karin led Ed back down the hall to a large conference room

"Can I get you anything, coffee? Quafe?" Like Azalea, Karin also made Edna relax somewhat. This wasn't so bad. "Coffee, if you don't mind please." replied Edna. Karin replicated two cups of coffee from the small machine in the corner of the room, and came back and handed her the cup, sitting across from her

She and Karin talked for sometime. Edna described her capsuleer career. Her days with the Minmatar militia, her various adventures in 0.0 space, her time with the Heretics, and her subsequent move to Federation space. She seemed pleased with most of things Edna told her. The corporation was young, a startup of young enterprising captains and pilots, having made home in the Lisbaetanne star system, and looked like there might very well be a place for Ed amongst their ranks.

"Everything seems to check out." Karin said. "You are welcome to submit a formal application now."

"That will have to wait a couple of days." Ed replied. "I will formally have to divest myself of my position within my current corporation." "But I do informally accept at this time." She was pleased with what Karin and the recruiting agents she had been in touch with had told her. This seemed like a good group of pilots, exactly what she was looking for.

Shaking hands with Karin, Edna made her way back to the shuttle, stopping by the requisitions floor to request captain's quarters in the station. This was going to be her new home. She felt a bubble of happiness within her, and a sense of excitement and trepidation for the days ahead.

----

Signing off,

Ed

For Voi Lutois

Report from the Docking Ring: September 2013

Captain's Log: Edna Ironsides
Aboard Zoidberg (Algos-Class Destroyer)
High Orbit over Amamake II

The pirate life is paradise.

Well, perhaps there are some days that it is drole/no one will fight you/nothing particularly expensive stumbles into Amamake through the Osoggur gate. There also some days when you are godly, and manage things that require major intervention from Lady Luck (like the situation in the picture above, which shows my destroyer limping away in 9% structure). I have come to embrace the maxim which permeates the culture of Heretics:

"Mother Amamake provides."

And provide she does. In kills, in loot, isk, and surprisingly often, the lawlz that come out of our interactions with locals in the area, both elite and noob. I opened up my client this morning to note the automated message that, after an astonishing 5 days as members of the Minmatar Militia, the alliance was expelled due to low standings from relentless AWOXing of the entire Militia, as well as the results of at least 3 major war decs plus their allies that we accrued upon joining FW. Before we joined, much of the local militiamen and pilots in the nearby systems knew of Heretics by reputation, but never seemed to be particularly afraid of us, which was good, as it meant that continued to receive a stream of fools and uninformed muppets who would fall into our waiting jaws. Now, however, rage and smug dickery have increased hundreds of times, as Heretics, for a brief moment, became a 'hidden danger', we did not show up on the overviews of unaware FW pilots, or we appeared blue, right up until we locked, scrammed, and webbed them down. In a few days, there was no one in Amamake, our sites all open and the system completely uncontested. The magnificent intel instrument known as Militia chat was awash with a flurry of voices complaining, speculating, and trolling about our presence in FW. Sadly, with such a hit to our faction standing with the Republic due to the multitude we slaughtered, it was only inevitable that it should have to come to an end, and recommence our lives as ordinary pirates.

Also, we rolled in millions of faction LP, which should keep us space rich for the months to come.

As a final point, because readers of this blog must be alerted to this event, there was StefanMcCormack McCormack. This pilot of an extremely ill-fated Mackinaw has provided Heretics with a spectacle which we will be remembered fondly for months, if not years to come. After being silly enough to jump into Amamake and lose his Mack to our gate camp. He then came back after one of my alliance mates said we would return his loot to him if he jumped once more through Osoggur to Amamake and would slow-boat out to the canister where we had put his loot, conveniently next to our two smart-bombing battleships. And return he did, in his pod. In a moment I will probably never again see in New Eden, I watched his little pod slowly, at 172 m/s make his way out to the loot can next to the Rokh and Typhoon, arrive at the can, and we watched as he finally understood that his pod had no cargo bay. Below is the video of this little pilot's journey from the gate to the can and his subsequent demise. Special thanks to Switch 4 for frapsing this hilarious occasion, and adding very fitting theme music.

Signing off,

Ed

Introductions: Missy Lorelai

As part of my continued experimentation in maintaining this blog which, by and large, is a mish-mash of the things that have really interested in the game world, I decided I would try something that many of my fellow eve bloggers seem to be really good at (props to Shalee Lianne), interviews and profile write-ups. And who better to begin with than one of the most infamous pirates of Amamake, Missy Lorelai.

Name: Missy Lorelai (aka. Missy, That Asshole that solo camps gates)

Eve Birthday: 22.09.2008 (almost 5 years old)

Profession: Low-sec pirate; Master Pvper; Troll

I encountered Missy when I first began PvP, and joined the Minmatar Militia. He was a member of the now degenerate Autocannons Anonymous, where he forged his reputation as a completely fearless, balls-deep PvPer that had a knack for EWAR, gate camping, always having a cloaky alt to surprise buttsex people, and just generally being stupidly hard to kill. He has thus garnered a not insignificant amount of hate, fear, and respect from other capsuleers, both low-sec pirates and the hordes of hapless fools that stumble into one of his traps. He has, by and large, seen most of what low-sec has to offer, and unlike many other vets in this region of space, never seems to get bitter. So I thought I'd sit down and ask Missy about life as the menace of Eve pilots everywhere.

How long have you been playing Eve and what got you into it?
About 5 years now, I had always seen advertisements for the game but it looked like utter crap to me until Apocrypha came out; being that I'm a heavy ganja smoker the visuals are what sold me initially...  

Could you give me a briefly outline of your eve life? How did you start and did you wind up where you are now.
I did what any scrub who came into Eve during the Apocrypha release would do: started a wormhole corporation... After training my first account I realized it would take WAY too long to train up for anything fun; things didn't get interesting until I acquired my main characters through somewhat illicit methods which unfortunately I cannot discuss.

Faction warfare was the next step, I think the first person I ever PvP'd with was Flyinghotpocket; cool guy but a bit eccentric and righteous. All along the way people had misgivings about me; either because of how sassy I was or how successful I was while being sassy and free; from that point on it was an exponentially expanding snowball of LNA (Late Nite Alliance) drama and "Non-solo, solo kills", as my victims and peers like to say. 

What else have you done before you became a low-sec pirate, and why is low-sec piracy your profession of choice?
 I flew with Black Legion for about 6 months after the tower of Babel that was the Autoz/LNA merger couldn't support my weight or sassiness xD. Then i got with some ex-Heretics and went to nullsec for a while where I discovered oversized afterburner fits. After about 3 months I came back and was invited to join Heretics after spending about 2 months in an NPC corp killing shit in Amamake. 

Why are you so fearless?
It's a game, I'll save being a pussy for real life.

What is so great about the Heretics?
No political drama so far... Fighting both militia's, PL, and anyone else who dares; I like having a healthy pool of targets. 

What do you hate in the world of Eve?
CCP, Political Drama, Pandemic Legion. In that order. 

What is the best thing about Eve? 
Thieving and Trolling; It's a game of cunning and guile.

Best fight you've ever been in:
Loki Boosted DD vs Loki Boosted DD, Same fits.

10 seconds long, It was like drawing pistols at dawn.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=13764698 

Most embarrassing fight you've ever been in: 
This one time I setup a 10 man shield Vexor fleet and put them up against an arty Rupture fleet... lets just say the Vexors didnt last even one cycle of their prop mods; uber fail. 

What do you fly the most, and why?
 Hah, I fly ship types based on what is required for the job. but since thats not a good answer I'd say the number one ship is the merlin because its easy to bait with and has a very nice tank along with great DPS when set up correctly. 

Can you post your killboard link, and any other websites you would like other people to see.
Battleclinic
http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/combat_record.php?type=player&name=Missy+Lorelai

Twitch Channel
http://www.twitch.tv/missylorelai/profile

Heretic Initiative Alltime
http://kb.heretic-army.biz/?a=alliance_detail&all_ext_id=99003225&view=pilot_kills 

Favourite Thing:
Local Rage 

Favourite Ship:
Merlin or Harpy (same setups)

 Favourite Ammo:
Void S or Void M

Favourite Corpse(s):
Killdu's Frozen Corpse 
Rothgr Bronn's Frozen Corpse 
Redrick38's frozen corpse 
Superior Glokta's frozen corpse 

Favourite Prey:
 Small Gangs 

Favourite drink while playing Eve:
 San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa, Vodka Soda, Water 

Favourite Food while playing Eve: 
Grilled Chicken, Beef Stew, Fine Cheeses, Steamed Vegetables, Chocolate. 

Favourite music while playing Eve:
Zombie Nation, Simian Mobile Disco, The Who, Trap Music, and anything from the 80's 

Favourite Star system(s):
Bosboger, Siseide, Amamake. In that order. 

Best place to fight? 
In a plex or on a gate.

Favourite Irishman:
I've heard they have a curse of some kind.

Favoured kind of destruction (1v1's, gate camping, POCO bash, etc.):
Black Ops

---
Signing off,

Ed 

Report from the Docking Ring: July 2013

(I took forever to write this, so I appreciate that I will be posting in August)

Captain's Log: Edna Ironsides
Aboard Seventh Wind (Rifter-Class Frigate)
Outside docking ring of Expert Distribution Warehouse in orbit over Amamake II, in the region of Heimatar

After a few months of being in 0.0, I have come to the conclusion that I do not really belong in null. I have become significantly space rich, and by all means it was a good experience, and is not a reflection of negative experiences I've had in null before now. This said, the corner of space I've been living in (which I will not identify for security reasons, although I can say my alliance left Immensea for security reasons) has been largely quiet, and found myself yearning for the hustle of low-sec, where I learned how to be a pirate, how to PvP, and where many of my most enduring friends in this game live. So it is with some reluctance (Cadre has been a wonderful corporation; professional, fun and reliable) that I've been packing up my things setting my sights once more for my spiritual home of Amamake, where I lost my first ever ship in a PvP scenario. It perhaps took this trip to null to realise that I am a pirate and small-gang PvPer, and that there is in fact a place for me in the 7500 odd star systems of New Eden.

Somewhat paradoxically to the above, I have also found that I really love big ships. Battlecruisers, Battleships and Capital fights will always see me as the first volunteer. This leads to the rather amusing conflict, as anything bigger than a battlecruiser is rather unwieldy in low-sec, where frigates and cruisers generally rule. It will remain to be seen how things go with regard to this.

I have pulled out of Cadre, and am now a member of the infamous Heretics. For those of you who do not know that name, it is the name associated with the numerous deaths of all capsuleers on the infamous Osoggur gate in Amamake. They are a lovely bunch of people, sprinkled with several old faces from my days in FW.

Sigining off,

Ed

On Revenants & Professionalism

So, if you haven't heard, the recent AWOX and destruction of New Eden's first Revenant-class supercarrier has been creating waves, with a degree of awe and giddiness that hasn't been seen for a long time in Eve.

As a reference, here's the article from Mitten's website:

http://themittani.com/news/ten-pl-supercarriers-ambushed-revenant-down

As a former low-sec pvper (perhaps only in remission, we will see), my first reaction was that this was a long time coming for Pandemic Legion. Their propensity for picking on kids smaller than them in the sandbox has been accumulating bad karma for some time now, and this ambush I would argue is the pinnacle of PL cockiness and wanton use of disproportionate force. It was only a matter of time before lording their power over the weaker forces in low-security space was going to catch up with them (as they seemingly have developed amnesia over having lost an Erebus on the Amamake gate last year to the likes of the factional warfare horde).

But, all personal feelings about PL aside, the incident brought up in my mind a lot about discipline.

In Eve, having been playing now for over two years, I have seen a fair number of fleets, both good and bad, covering the better chunk of the different compositions used in the game (although I have yet to do pipebombing, which looks like a lot of fun). I would argue that fleets that I've had the most fun with, and have ultimately been the most successful in, are ones which had a good degree of fleet discipline.

Fleet discipline boils down to a few key elements. The big one is listening to your FC. In combat and fighting in groups, both in Eve and the wider world,military hierarchy and a respect and obedience to a chain of command is a huge part in determining the effectiveness of a fighting force. When you are able to follow orders and hold up your part in a group (and for Christ's sake, don't talk over other people on comms), it makes combat incomparably more fun and effective. By maintaining obedience to your FC, you allow him/her to shape the battle in a manner in which they think will give you the best chances for winning. Sure they will make mistakes and even perfectly run it may not work out, but you minimise the influence that disorder has on your chances of winning a given fight, which is arguably the cause of death of many a well-intentioned (and some not-so-well-intentioned) fleets.

Another element of good fleet discipline is having a good understanding of your role in a given fleet. This means knowing the capabilities of your ship and having a good assessment of your own skill and knowledge, so as to be able to operate in the most effective way possible. Knowing yourself gives you an immense power because it gives you a reference from which you can make judgements regarding your conduct within the fleet as well as being able to reasonably size up your opponent relative to yourself.

The third, and perhaps the most relevant element to the PL ambush, is having effective knowledge of the battle in which are or are about to engage in. Strategic and tactical capability is in large part determined by intelligence. Knowing who your enemy is, the nature of the battlefield, but also having a healthy knowledge of your own comrades, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as having a reasonable idea of what they know or don't know. Which means knowing what your FC can handle, what your corp/fleet mates can handle, of what everyone should be doing, and knowing what orders or directions are good and which are bad.

Ostensibly, the doomed super-carrier pilots of PL had neither clues nor scruples when it came to this. They evidently did not know who they were messing with, where they were going, or the specific details of the battlefield (such as the presence of a massive enemy dread and tornado fleet in the system next door). But most critically of all, they did not question their orders. They gave zero thought whether what they were doing was in their own best interest or in the best interest of their alliance. While the first element I covered in this post was obedience, it should not be blind obedience. Obedience to command should arise from a healthy scepticism and respect for your superiors, that they have done their work properly so you can do yours.

Grath Telkin was right in his now infamous rage on comms: incompetence and blind obedience killed that Revenant, more powerful tools of destruction than all the weapons of Black Legion combined.

Signing off,

Ed