The Cruor

[Cruor, PvP?]
Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Tracking Enhancer II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II

Medium Pulse Laser II, Conflagration S
Medium Pulse Laser II, Conflagration S
Small Nosferatu II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

At first I wasn't sure if the Cruor could pull off anything. It's bigger brother the Ashimmu is a brick, see post below.
Calling any frig a brick is just ignorant. They just can't pull it off. So what could I do with this little thing?
As fittings fell into place the numbers started to intrigue me.
3552 m/s
1144.5mm Scan Resolution (locks a light drone in 2.3 seconds and a frigate in just under 2)
The alpha is about half my favorite intie the Crow but the DPS is about double.
Then there is that 90% web.
Of course you have to get close up to do your thing so dropping the MWD for an AB gives you 1317 m/s. That's not bad considering what this thing is designed to kill, ie Interceptors and cloakers.

The thing that I'm looking at in both the Cruor and the Ashimmu though is the grid and CPU. Both have tons of it!!! I'm thinking this is for plates, but I don't want to plate this frig like I do its big brother. The ranges for its primary weapon systems is too short for anything that is not fast and agile.

Unlike big brother the Cruor doesn't benefit much from a faction upgrade. The gains are small at best. So a T2 fit makes sense for this ship.

This is one that will very likely be on the R.E.C.O.N. kill boards very soon™.

Cheers
-alaph

P.S. I also have a Phantasm and Succubus in the hangar so look for fits in the near future.
Happy hunting.

The Brick

[Ashimmu, Brick]
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II

Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Nosferatu II
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Conflagration M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


56k EHP with lowest resist at 60%
Scan res is around 675mm.
But make no mistake, this thing is a brick. You put it down and don't move it. Hence no propulsion mod.
With faction fit, T2 trimarks and full slaves EHP goes to over 100k with 70% resists.
DPS is low no matter what you do. Alpha is 956 but then drops to 250ish DPS.
Its the neuts and webs that make this interesting. With faction fit you get a range of 15km; 10km with the T2s. So we aren't looking at recon style ranges but the power out put is damn nice.
90% reduction with EACH WEB. 316 cap per neut. The Vampire triples your sustainability to 3 minutes, enough time to kill almost anything.

No local rep? Of course not. The Ashimmu has no cap stability as is so a local rep would be damn near useless. This is not a solo pwn mobile, no sir, it is a gate camp specialist. Get a Gaurdian, a HIC, some fast lockers and some DPS and go have a good camp out. The brick can take the punishment while stopping and draining anything unlucky enough to get in its way.

Will I be flying this? Maybe. I don't think its worth undocking without faction webs and maybe some other faction gear. Low Grade Slaves would be good as well.

Just gotta see but you will be the first to know =D

-alaph

Man needs a mission.

So our CEO has listened to myself and the other RECON directors and successfully addressed our grievances with our New Year mission. I won't go into the details at this time but suffice it to say that we will be having much pew pew fun while doing what I suggested in the process.

RECON is the type of corp that is a small family. That is important and that is what we want to cultivate in new recruits.

On another note Minor Threat has "followed" us into Aridia.... Wonder what that is all about? Hard feelings Rydis? Maybe not but I'm not ruling it out.

Happy holidays and cheers
alaph

P.S. anyone know of a good source of news for what alliance's are doing in eve? I already read COAD (yes I know its shit) and the SHC boards. I wish we had something like NPR....GPR Galactic Public Radio =D.

It' been awhile.....

No new updates for far too long. Finals are over and EvE is once again a large part of my life.

So what has changed since the last time we spoke? Well for one I am now a director with R.E.C.O.N. Furthermore REC has joined/formed the Talos Coalition alliance.
We have moved to the Amarrian ghetto known as Aridia and are slugging it out at the edge of Fountain.

I have started the process of going through the Agony Unleashed PvP Course. I hear great things about it and figure why not right. Unfortunately the next class won't be for awhile but here is hoping.

Oh....on the PvP side well let's just say I'm loosing as much as I'm killing recently.
alaph
WA

That last Zealot loss was because I wasn't listening to my FC.
I was in D-4 ratting while the FC found something for us to do. New neut in local, saber on scan, warping to gate safe.... saber in view....
and we sat on the gate.
I was thinking he wanted me to jump so he could follow. He just sat there.....then he locked me, so I locked him.... FC yells "ITS A TRAP" and I don't really listen so I engage after he engages....and ofc I was blobbed =( stupid loss that could have been avoided had I listened to my FC.

I'll end with some training notes:
Wintermute is training up Battlecruiser V in expectation of learning Commandships.
alaph on the other hand will finish Heavy Assualt Missile V this week and go on to do HAMS and med LaZ0R specializations to complete my knowledge of T2 cruiser and below weapon systems.

Good times to be had and its good to be back here blogging again.
Now that school is done I hope to catch up on reading your blogs while giving you something to read as well.

Oh and I've enjoyed meeting many of you in game #EvE Bloggers and on Twitter.
Cheers guys and have holiday filled with internet spaceship violence

-alaph

Holly TweetFleet Batman

Thanks to that Insane Canadian we can see that the accounted for eve community of bloggers is well over 300 pilots strong!!!

We could form a bloody alliance with that many pilots.

On top of that the #tweetfleet is so picky that my humble little twitter ID is not included nor fits the requirements...what can I say I'm pretty lazy.

The eve-blogger in game channel typically has between 10 and 20 peeps in it and is fairly lively.

We've come along way baby.
Back when I started OTEP in mid 2005 there were only a handful of eve related blogs and even fewer dedicated eve blogs.

CK has always been the spoke in the wheel of our little community and I'm thankful the work and effort he puts into this venture. I do sometimes wonder if he actually plays the game though ;)

anyhow....

cheers
-alaph

Market and Production Changes I'd love to see

Ok so image this;

You get yourself a blueprint, T1, T2, T3, doesn't matter but you have one in your hand. Now your PE skill at the moment is 0.
Each BP has a maximum mineral need (just like it does now) and since you are PE 0 you have to build at this high mineral cost.... BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
because you are PE 0 you will create a meta 0 item. What I would love to see for meta 0 is a product that has 5 random stats reduced by 10%. If the item has less than 5 stats then the randomizer would cycle through them and reduce the stat by 10% each pass.

Ok so you hold onto your BPO and train up PE to level 5. Now you are ready to create Meta 5 gear (full stat no penalty). Now if you build at Meta 5 you will need the max mineral count for the BPO (research will still help this) BUT you can elect to drop your meta level to save on mineral cost at the cost of producing a lower quality good.
So you run off 10 runs at meta 2 and 5 at meta 5. The Meta 2 products go to Jita, Wal-Mart to the galaxy, while the Meta 5 items get sold to your corp mates.


Ok so how will you the consumer know what you are buying?
Well this brings me to point two.

Right now you have no idea from whom you are buying until you have bought the product. But what if you want to "Buy Amarrian?" or stay away from NPC corp producers? Its hard to do currently. I think we should be able to see the producer, his corp and his alliance BEFORE we buy.
Sure most pilots won't give two shits but at least the option would there for full disclosure. To make it even easier make the market window a tad more like to overview; jumps/item/price/location/player/corp ticker/ alliance ticker.
Ok so when you click on "Show Info" you will see all the data you need, including Meta level and then up top like a ship in space there will be the producer's info.
Certain producers and corps would slowly get a reputation for selling meta 0 junk for meta5 prices. Consumer outrage would be extreme "Why should I have to click one extra button to check quality....WHINE WHINE WHINE"
Ships and modules would have different characteristics unless they were meta 5.

This would be EPIC. and so in the EvE "caveat emptor canis" flavour.


I am so for this....am I missing something? Is there an argument that doesn't contain the words "fair", "too hard", "I'm a crybaby pussy who wishes empire kills were refunded" that I'm missing?

Thoughts and comments welcome. And remember that in EvE the market is PvP >D

-alaph

Big plans for future operations

Dominion is a month away from deploying and things are a bit slow. RECON and some other corps reformed the Minor Threat alliance after getting soft with Zenith Affinity out in....I wanna say paragon soul but honestly the multitude of regions I find myself in leaves little impression of the actual system.
Now we are perched on the edge of Cloud Ring doing gods know what. Small PvP ops head out almost daily.
I need to get my kill on and stop goofing around.

As for training need I need to get Wintermute into commands and alaph into....well Im not 100% sure tbh. Mutie is also real close to black ops.

Sigh, alot to do

-alaph

[IC] Sweet sweet slumber....

The station sat below the Crow and buzzed with the energy of thousands of busy inhabitants. Outside the cold dark space was alive with pilot's of the alliance soaring around in the never ending frenzy of collecting ore and ISK.
But alaph slept.
Each alliance differed only in its name and proportion of fighters to bears, each alliance would fade into her NEO Comm record and become a mere flash of neural activity deep in the sub-conscience of her clone.
But alaph slept.
The station hangar had an annoying habit of retaining the bright lights needed for the mechanics and laborers to see what they were doing. They checked over alaph's Crow, filled it's missile bays, replaced the MWD and insured that the warp drive would activate when it was needed most.
But alaph slept.
The computer in her pod was busy imprinting her brain with the subtleties of torpedo flight patterns and explosion radii. Eighteen more days of the near subliminal dronning on...near subliminal but not damn total.
But alaph slept.
One tired pilot, spinning around the station, hidden in her Crow, her pods sensory manipulators completely shut down.
alaph slept.
She dreamt not of torpedoes in endless flight or jump gates along the smuggler's route but instead of a world eons away, lost in the accident that created New Eden. She dreamt of a planet that all capsulers had in there ancestral memories but that none knew of personally.
She dreamt of the ancient home. Too many systems. Too many stations. Too many planets.
Too many restless nights in the hulls of ships designed for death....hers or her enemies.
Too many clones.
And still alaph slept...

I swear I'm not dead....just divorced :D

Ok, so the divorce is over with, and yes this topic does deserve some attention but certainly not on my eve blog...

So even though school is kicking my ass the divorce does mean that every other weekend will now be freed up for some much needed EvE lovin :D

alaph is about to hit the next clone class, its the one above 54mil (Rho, just logged in to look it up)....and technically I guess Wintermute is about to hit the same plateau. This means that dying will now cost me more than a whole fleet of t1 ships, well ok so 13mil isnt that much but still.

WA finished training for amarr strategic cruisers, just need to get the ISK up to buy one.

I did decide to specialize my two pilots: alaph will be my Cal/Gal specialist while WA will do Amarr/matari. I'm actually looking forward to diving into the realm of gal ships as I don't really fly many of them. This is also true to a lesser extent for caldari ships.
Honestly I think the gal ships are very black and white in looks, they are either gorgeous or hideous but still I can't wait to fly a few of them.

Well, I'll get some more posts up in the near future.



Free at last I'm free at last......now what :(

-alaph

Interestingly Sam Walton is already taken

EvE...a sandbox open for all...

maybe it is too open. Imagine if you will a future in which corporations blur the line between virtual and real. Walmart makes a move to over take Target in Curse Region while Mc Donalds fights over Venal against bitter rival Burger King Corp.
Corporations joining the KFC alliance will receive a virtual coupon redeemable for a free combo meal at Taco Bell or KFC in RL so long as their mining and or production output remain within acceptable ranges.

Capsuler Sam Walton has stated that WalmartPvP will open all null sec stations to the entirety of the EvE universe so long as pilots join the WalmartPvP mailing list (which includes spam from the real world Walmart). Target has ceded Impass to TJMaxium Alliance and retreated into Catch.

Disney Corp has convinced CCP to rename the droin regions in line with Disney World Corporations wills. Hence forth the regions will be named after Disney characters and TV shows, gates will receive advertisment for Disney products and amusement parks. The 6 Flags Corporation was upset about this development and hotdropped the Epcot Region with 6 Titans. CCP has added gate billboard control to the list of sovereignty perks for the next EvE and Dust patches.

Nike is now including a free game time card with every shoe purchase. CCP has taken another leap in corporate gaming by allowing Corporate gametime cards. These cards will allow players to use the card for game time but will automatically place new characters created using the cards and existing characters into that corporation. Nike is leading the initiative with their new promotion. Mc Donalds responded with the new Adult PvP Meal....Mc Minmitar SUPER SIZE ME BIATCH.



Imagine.....the name Sam Walton is already taken, I just checked it.
Sam, if you are reading this, please tell me you are just some player with a sick sense of humor and not some dark corporate entity trying to find a presentation that will allow you to play EvE on the corporate dime...PLEASE!!!!!!

-alaph