And a wild Real Life apears

So my entertainment time got gobbled up by real life yesterday.  No EVE for me.  Meanwhile the petition is still not even looked at.

Good fleet again.

This time I managed to get into a decent fleet again.  It was split between two FCs and both were fine.  Once again flying as logi.  The first part I was the only logi, after a re-ship we were 2 then 3 logi.  I felt much better about my performance this time.  No one died that wasn't busy chewing off more than they could handle (like when the FC orders the logi to burn out to 50km, then decides to jump to the other side of the gate and engages... dude takes us time in cruisers to crawl (MWD) back to a gate.  Did manage to save the 2nd frigate.

Or the scout who engages a shiny when logi is not only 1 jump back but at the start of a 100au warp (frigates warp twice as fast as us lumbering cruisers).  He new he was going to loose the ship but at least 2nd tackle got there in time.  I mean we don't like loosing ships in fleet, but if you're going to do that type of stuff there's not much we can do.

I saved enough ships in that fleet enough times that I'm happy with the way I flew.

I also got a nice shiny bug it looks like at the start of the evening.  I burned a plex down and it didn't give me any LP even though I was the only player in the plex (heck the system) at the time I ran down the timer.  Petitioned, we'll see what happens.

Slooooow night in GalMil

Last night was a slow night with little or no fleets in my time slot.  So I took the opportunity to do some plexing.  Not a lot to say about it since it's plexing.  Ya go in, while d-scanning, ya kill the rat while d-scanning, ya loot the rat while d-scanning, ya move off the wreck while d-scanning.  Ya sit within 30km of the button while d-scanning.  Ya cloak up when ever ANYONE shows up  by (95% of the time it's the local pirates).  Ya watch the local pirates warp away and un-cloak to get the timer working again while d-scanning.  Rinse and repeat until the timer is done then on to the next plex while d-scanning.  The only time you stop d-scanning is when you're the only one in the system.  Boring, but I'm not plexing to get fights, I'm plexing to get LP so I can buy logi that get used in fights.

I still say this is lazy design on CCP's part but it's the system we need to live with in FW.  I also say a system that rewards fleet participation as part of plexing would make things MUCH more interesting.  But since FW has already been the subject of much re-factoring in the last few expansions, I suspect that would be too much to ask for at this point.

Movie night

Not much to say EVE wise.  I went to a movie. I'm assuming my character chilled in station chuckling at the latest Gallente Adventure production's interpretation of capusleer life.

And more fleet time (with power outage interruption)

After finishing off some final shuffling of hulls and ships.  I got some more fleet time on Sunday.  Then partway through the fleet I got a power outage...

Everything goes dark

I managed to re-join the fleet once I was back online and we had a few engagements.  At one point I had to once again overheat the reppers to save an expensive ship.  I'm noticing that these T1 meta 4 reppers can overheat for quite a while.  Note to self - get some nanite repair paste on each hull (lord knows I make enough of the stuff).

Overall I was much happier with this outing.  Less stupid mistakes, more saving ships.

There was a Scythe lost in one of the actions, but that's par for the course when you're flying logi.  You get in fleets but you will get primaried at some point.

Re-fit time

So after loosing 3 Breachers and generally disliking the lack of performance, I have come to the conclusion that my current Breacher fit is made with absolute fail.  Not surprising since this is the first time I fly them since they've gotten the revamp.  I went with a more traditional buffer tanked kitting setup and it was just in-effective with the current meta.  So changes there.

The two Brutix Navy Issues have now sold so it's time to revamp my hull selection a bit.  Obviously I'm going to need more T1 logi hulls, so that's a priority.  3 Hulls incoming there.

As for the Breacher  I'm only keeping 2 hulls on hand for the new fit.  We'll see how it works out.

My Burst fit is fine once I switch the prop currently has mod it has.  My Navitas fit is fine, I'm just going thru them at a decent clip (to be expected) so I'll just want to build a new batch of those (4 more).

I like my Talwar fit so no changes there.

I'm not sure what to do with my Rifter fit.  It's not total fail but it's not great either.  I think I need to re-think it some more.  It would be fine for shield fleets but GalMil does not run enough of those.  So either re-fit as a passive armor tank setup (useful for armor fleets) or go to some active shield boosting setup (for 1v1).  I think I'll just expend the rest of them in combat and see which way I'm leaning once the last of the current ones is gone.

I think I'll also change my slasher into two separate fits.  One for tackle and one for plexing.  Where I'm only going to keep 2 hulls for plexing (one active and one reserve), and the rest as throw away T1 tackle.   Although we'll have to see if those get any use as I seem to be getting into fleets as a Logi pilot more often than not.

That pretty much covers my "ready hulls" situation near the warzone.  We'll see how the change-up works.

Regarding Opsec on this information.  There have been enough loss mails on my part that most of this can be figured out by the squids if they really really wanted to examine my loss history on eve-kill.  Most of the above should be blindingly obvious to any squid analyst and I'm mostly blogging this so that people get a feel for the way I prepared for and how I keep myself supplied in hulls in Faction Warfare.

As always there is some stuff I won't blog about if I feel I need to keep it away from general knowledge (or it hasn't showed up on a loss mail yet).

The other logistics

I decided to fit up the Scythe hull that I had gotten the previous evening.  Between less time available due to other commitments and quite a bit of distance to cover, Sorting that out took the entire session.  But that's fine.  Sometimes you need to get stuff done.

So no fleet for me last night.  But I will be slightly more ready for a fleet next time.  I also have a Probe of rapid warping to help me move VERY low volume cargo around the war zone.  Basically 3 low friction nozzle joints and 3 Inertia stabs and you've got something that can haul 400 m³ but get to warp faster than most interceptors.  The fittings and ammo of most cruisers will fit inside that.

Think of it as the Minmatar version of a Jeep.

AF fleet this time.

Another fleet,  Another logi.  I started off the evening with a bit of light plexing in order to get some more LP which I'll turn into isk at some later date.  Then I started hunting for a fleet.  Lucky for me some people recognized me from my blog pack days and I was able to get into a shield AF fleet.  Once again as logi.  Since I still have a rather extensive reserve of Bursts (that I build and got the fittings for at the start of all this) I was kind of glad I'd finally be able to use them.  Except of course since I've got full logi skills the fc wanted me in a logi cruiser for this evolution.  So I traded in one of my Bursts for a Scythe and the Burst went to a less skilled pilot.  Fair enough.

I'm not going to describe each engagement of that fleet as we had quite a few (4 or 5) and there were pauses for re-shipping (never for the whole fleet, just for those who waxed after a particular engagement).  I ended up in an other of my Bursts by the end of the evening.  There was one fight where I was rather glad I could overheat the reppers as it allowed me to save an other Scythe (Fleet Issue this time).  In that fight due to warp in issues, the other logies landed dead on the other fleet and I landed at 100km, so I got in rep range late (other two logies went down) but I managed to keep the SFI alive by overheating the reps.

Overall I'd say a 75% performance.  There were times we (the logies) were on the ball and times we weren't.  Getting in the fleets is allowing me to get better though.  So I'm happy with that.  Now if those sell orders would just sell I'd be even happier.

At the end of the evening I got gifted a Scythe hull and an Exequror (fit).  I'll be keeping those out where I was traded them for use in future fleets.  Getting the modules to the Scythe now that I know what sort of fit the FC wants should be a snap.

Excellent evening with GalMil all told.

More fleet action

Once again with a new FC.  Going to be nice once I get some consistency with regards to FW FCs.  Then I'll actually be able to judge who I'll listen to when expensive ship requests come up.

When the request went out for more bodies to an existing fleet.  I jumped in one of my Talwars and burned to the fight.  Got in on 2 kills and then the FC called the bug out.  I wasn't quick enough and -1 Talwar.

Still, trading a Drake for a Talwar, not a bad exchange per see.  Then the FC started requesting Logi as I was flying back to reship.  I indicated that I would be coming back in a logi frigate as I had no fit and ready logi cruisers.  The FC made some assumptions about someone having a spare logi cruiser available but no trade window showed up and the call to roll was made before anyone traded me one, so I rolled in a logi frigate.

And after some warping around I manage to cover myself in lack of glory.  At this point the logi chief had assigned me to ride heard on the blackbirds as I could lock them up early and get reps on them faster should a fight break out just after we get out of warp.  At this point a lone harbinger screws up and uncloaks into the fleet (sucks to be you dude).  At this point I have the Blackbirds covered and try to sic my lone ECM drone on the squid Harbinger...

And I miss target and send it against one of the blackbirds...

Wince...

Gate guns hurt when you're in a frigate...

-1 Navitas and I burn back to re-ship to another one.  Brilliant -.-;

I'm still 2 jumps out from re-joining the fleet when the fight the FC has been trying to engineer breaks out.  Just as I get on field our Blackbirds are under heavy pressure.  I manage to get 2 of the 3 locked up before they die and get reps on them.  Unfortunately the enemy's Alpha and DPS is just too high for the logi squadron and we eventually lose all 3 Blackbirds.  At this point outnumbered in cruises against BCs and having lost a good chunk of the DPS ships, the FC calls the fight and miracles of miracles I managed to get out in once piece.

One thing I'm going to work on if one of those BC's I have on sale sells, is fitting up some T1 logi ships for use in these larger FW fleets.  Also an armor cruiser or two would probably not be out of place.  I'm still waiting on the sales though so not until that.

Yay, A fleet.

So, just after I started killing the rat in my first plex of the evening, GalMil channel lights up with a call for pilots to get in fleet.  So I stop killing the rat and burn back to my base of operations and switch to a combat frigate.

Jump in fleet and get on comms and burn towards the fleet.  At which point I learn they have a carrier tackled.  Unlike the time I got in fleet and got the Guardian aced, this time Things work much better.  Turns out the carrier was not an FW carrier, but was entirely defended by squids.  When I got there, the carrier was in triage and trying to keep some squid BS and cruisers alive.  With some very good target calling on the part of the FC we were able to slowly whittle the enemy force down.  It took a while until a neuting BS could get on the field and really break the defenses of the triage carrier.  Once that happened it was all over rather quickly.

All in all a good outing and I managed to get on some kill mails finally.

Converting that LP

Yep, when you're with GalMil it takes longer to build up LP and longer to get iskies for it.  I've just figured the reason for the Squid farmers being so much more active than the gal farmers.  Just look at the difference between the price of a Brutix Navy Issue and the equivalent Drake.  200-ish mil vs 300-ish mil...  The squids are making over twice the LP per plex AND they are getting Much more isk per LP due to the popularity of the faction Drake.

The whines we hear in GalMil channel about how we can't seem to capture anything are pretty much due to the combat pilots whining about the farmers not farming.  The thing they seem to forget is that most farmers are professional farmers (in a lot of cases, for 0.0 entities) and they go where the isk is.  Even if we had better FW zone control, they'd still be flying for the squids since they can get 2-3k isk per LP instead of 1-2k isk per LP.  Not to mention, since they consider themselves "combat pilots" and won't lower themselves to plex for the most part, you end up with the current situation in the GalMil.

Anyways I spent most of the weekend (the few hours I was actually on EVE) converting that LP to iskies and re-building my wallet after the Guardian loss.  Depending on the sales of hulls over the next few days I should finally be recovered and can start being more pro-active about getting in fleets again.  This time no Guardians with any FCs I haven't flown with before.

Nothing to see, move along

Didn't have a lot of time last night.  So just a bit of light plexing to kill some time.

More rust shows

I ended up in a situation where I decided to engage pirates instead of fleeing or cloaking up.  Mainly because I got into situations where I was not in a plexing boat with a cloak.

Oh yea I'm still making mistakes.

a) when in a frigate with hail, don't forget to switch out of hail and into something a bit more effective against frigates after you've kill the NPC BC's...  loss number one attributed to this (Rifter).  Also to the fact that I engaged with a passive extended tank instead of an active tank (which rule 1v1s).

b) when engaging with a kiting Talwar vs a condor - running away will extend the engagement time and penalize his rockets by allowing you to hit him on his approach to you longer.  Don't maintain your orbit around the warp in point like a putz.... loss number two attributed to this (Talwar).

Note that both these losses could have been avoided by not engaging the pirate in question but both losses where eminently affordable and can be considered the price of re-learning how to fight.  So I'm annoyed at my mistakes, not at the losses.

After some relatively un-exciting plexing (other than those two items) I got a request for help from ...

ya know what? details are un-important compared to Opsec on items like this.  Let's just say that stuff was done and I got a Plex (the in game item, not the abbreviation for complex) in payment of a successful job 1.5h later.

Once I get either the LP converted to isk or the Plex sold, this will finish off the building back up of funds after the loss of the Guardian.

All in all, not a bad night in EVE.

Lack of action.

So I was doing some plexing last night (still recovering from the loss of the Guardian).  When I noticed what seemed to be someone forming up a frigate fleet for a roam.  Once the last plex in the system I was in capped I decided to join fleet and see what was what.

Seemed like a relatively newbie FC (you can tell when they say jump when they mean warp etc...).  After laying out the "built and ready to rock" choices for the FC he elected to have me in a Navitas (armor logi frigate).  We almost made it back to the carrier kill that went on last night but not quite.  Otherwise it was lack of tackle and nervous targets getting away from us all evening long.  The squids where elsewhere apparently.

So not a lot of action but at least it was a fleet.

Not a bad evening after burning my brain with Regex's all day.

Still in FW

Wellp, still not having lots of luck finding GalMil fleets.  The one major fleet I did find ended up -1 Guardian.  I have since been building back up.  Lots of plexes.  And yep, my Slasher now has a cloak.   Pirates are otherwise just too annoying.

I have to give the current plex design a D-.  Maybe a E+.  Hard to say.  They need to have LP per pilot bell-curve like it does in incursions to encourage small gangs to plex together instead of splitting the FW population between plexers and combat pilots.  So that right there is VERY BAD DESIGN.  But very CCP so *shrug*.  What I've come to expect from their design team.

Back to plexing and dodging pirates to make back what I lost with the Guardian.

Also: Post #700.  I do believe I sound like a proper bitter vet now :P.