Lowsec has been awfully quiet for several agonizing weeks now. Recent roams have not been hugely successful, which caused the newest addition to my fleet - a Stabber - to return empty handed from its maiden voyage.
It came close, but another Stabber must have gotten cold feet and decided not to play; much to my dismay, as the pilot managed to violently disassemble my Vengeance a few days ago.
Let's just say he appears to be braver when he is being supported by a Kitsune.
Be that as it may, fellow Tusker and cunning wormhole entrepreneur Suleiman Shouaa took the matter of barely anything to shoot at in his own hands and announced his Assault Frigate Tournament.
In a nutshell, for a mere 10 million ISK you can bring an Assault Frigate of your choice to Hevrice on September 18th and join the scandalous scallywags that are bound to gather and gank each other.
Now I'm no fan of pre-arranged duels - first I enjoy staging fights by myself, second I'm not fond of traps - but I'll make sure to put together some sort of devious setup. Turns out to be a really tough choice, since I can fly all Assault Ships but Caldari. And some of them become so much more attractive once you're not forced to fit a warp disruption module.
Nevertheless I have a strong tendency to... well, wouldn't you want to know? Save to say I sure won't be the only one thinking of this particular mischief, but it should become all the more interesting then.
Hope to see you around, it's gonna be fun.
9/02/2010
8/05/2010
My, It's Been A While
A number of- well, numbers have made me realize something, which at first had left me rather stumped: I'm old.
Okay, maybe not exactly old, but I can't really call myself an upstart novice pirate anymore; I feel established of some sort, well-known and somewhat notorious among the residents of at least Essence. Feels nice (or at least imagining it does).
Also kills that once could have been referred to as remarkable achievements of a talented combat pilot now have an entirely different flavour to them. And more often than not, they have come to taste a bit stale. They have become "same old".
In hindsight, this seems to be the prime reason that I have been flying more recklessly recently, attacking for the sake of fighting more than for the sake of gaining something out of it.
So reckless in fact, that it endangered a goal I had set for myself: accumulating 500 kills before exceeding 50 losses.
The little incident with Caster Rom you can read about in the previous post had made my losses "skyrocket" from 47 to 49 - at that time my kills stood at 475.
I'm not usually obsessed with my numbers, but I became determined to go for that 25 to 1 run in order to gather 500 kills at a ratio of 10 to 1. Numbers that pretty couldn't merely be disregarded.
The prime issue in this endeavor had been picking targets and survivability. I could easily force myself to minimize risk, but as far as survivability goes, it mainly came down to selecting the right ship for the job. First I considered my Imperial Navy Slicer, but in the end I didn't feel comfortable enough with approaching some tricky targets while staying out of scrambler range. Regardless, I was sure that I might either engage against unfavourable odds more likely or that my lack of experience with the Slicer would lead me to miscalculations.
However, there was one ship in my hangar that refused to explode despite my worst efforts: my Jaguar. Of all things a ship a lot of people aren't very fond of (to freely quote Kishin Hattori: "When I undock in a Jaguar I instantly go 'Waaah kaboom [more exploding sounds]!!'").
No mystical necromantic powers or other wildly exotic fittings, just a plain full-tackle shield-tanked run of the mill cookie cutter Jaguar. But it works for me - the tank is huge compared to what I'm used to, the speed is decent enough, the damage sufficient against a good range of targets and it can hold down anything it manages to scramble (safe for Dramiels maybe, but I always ignore them anyway).
And well, there is no great tale to the 25+ kills I managed to score before being blown up for the 50th time. Not many of them were against worthy foes, mostly easy pickings. But my personal objective wasn't 25 epic killmails, was it?
There is another number that seemed to hit me out of nowhere: I've been a Tusker for almost 10 months now, not much less than a whole year.
Suddenly I realized that I was no longer one of the new guys among all the other applicants pouring in - in fact, I was even being referred to as a "veteran" by one of them recently. Woah, veteran? Me?
Well, it's not really like I felt the need to correct him...
Okay, maybe not exactly old, but I can't really call myself an upstart novice pirate anymore; I feel established of some sort, well-known and somewhat notorious among the residents of at least Essence. Feels nice (or at least imagining it does).
Also kills that once could have been referred to as remarkable achievements of a talented combat pilot now have an entirely different flavour to them. And more often than not, they have come to taste a bit stale. They have become "same old".
In hindsight, this seems to be the prime reason that I have been flying more recklessly recently, attacking for the sake of fighting more than for the sake of gaining something out of it.
So reckless in fact, that it endangered a goal I had set for myself: accumulating 500 kills before exceeding 50 losses.
The little incident with Caster Rom you can read about in the previous post had made my losses "skyrocket" from 47 to 49 - at that time my kills stood at 475.
I'm not usually obsessed with my numbers, but I became determined to go for that 25 to 1 run in order to gather 500 kills at a ratio of 10 to 1. Numbers that pretty couldn't merely be disregarded.
The prime issue in this endeavor had been picking targets and survivability. I could easily force myself to minimize risk, but as far as survivability goes, it mainly came down to selecting the right ship for the job. First I considered my Imperial Navy Slicer, but in the end I didn't feel comfortable enough with approaching some tricky targets while staying out of scrambler range. Regardless, I was sure that I might either engage against unfavourable odds more likely or that my lack of experience with the Slicer would lead me to miscalculations.
However, there was one ship in my hangar that refused to explode despite my worst efforts: my Jaguar. Of all things a ship a lot of people aren't very fond of (to freely quote Kishin Hattori: "When I undock in a Jaguar I instantly go 'Waaah kaboom [more exploding sounds]!!'").
No mystical necromantic powers or other wildly exotic fittings, just a plain full-tackle shield-tanked run of the mill cookie cutter Jaguar. But it works for me - the tank is huge compared to what I'm used to, the speed is decent enough, the damage sufficient against a good range of targets and it can hold down anything it manages to scramble (safe for Dramiels maybe, but I always ignore them anyway).
And well, there is no great tale to the 25+ kills I managed to score before being blown up for the 50th time. Not many of them were against worthy foes, mostly easy pickings. But my personal objective wasn't 25 epic killmails, was it?
There is another number that seemed to hit me out of nowhere: I've been a Tusker for almost 10 months now, not much less than a whole year.
Suddenly I realized that I was no longer one of the new guys among all the other applicants pouring in - in fact, I was even being referred to as a "veteran" by one of them recently. Woah, veteran? Me?
Well, it's not really like I felt the need to correct him...
7/08/2010
Tuskers Gonna Tusk
Once a Tusker - always a Tusker. At least that's what several (curiously some of them former) corpmates confirmed in their interviews with NEUN correspondent Sketur Treveiwern (collected in Romeo Blakstorms logs Life Among the Pirates Cutthroats Pirates again).
Back when it was my turn, I couldn't provide a definite answer myself. But recent events lead me to believe that it can't be far from the truth.
I was out hunting in my Vengeance. I had been wildly impressed with its capabilities, as it is always the case with vessels Suleiman Shouaa recommends; on its very first roam, it devastated a Wolf/Rifter combo. What a joy it was to actually see my armour crawl back up to 100 percent when only the Rifter remained.
To see it mauled by a swarm of angry drones a couple of days later was however rather unpleasant - PreZiDenT1 had mischievously called his Myrmidon after a very young pilot in system and only had to wait for me at an asteroid belt.
Well played, and he was lucky too: both my rather expensive afterburner and armour repair unit survived the explosion. So I figured I'd like them back, though having no other option but to pay for them.
After I politely asked PreZiDenT1 for said trade, he invited me to dock at Hulmate's only station. Dock up I did and promptly was greeted by an incoming transmission of two items. I was a bit confused why PreZ confirmed it without any discussion for a price so far.
Being the nice person I am, rather than hitting ACCEPT!!1 as fast as I could have, I asked if this was intended. PreZ assured me of that and I thankfully received the modules back.
To clear my confusion, he advised me to check his employment history - indeed, he had been a Tusker for quite some time.
Another time and more recently I undocked in a Taranis. Mere moments later, I arrived at Jovainnon gate in Hevrice and got targeted by another Taranis; I decided to fight back. Long story short, I failed miserably. A prime example of what happens if you hesitate a second too long in an interceptor fight. More importantly - even more embarassingly - I didn't deploy my drones.
The pilot I was going against was Caster Rom, also a former Tusker who likes to visit us in Hevrice now and then. As I undocked in a Rifter to maybe turn this day around, he was sitting near the docking bay. I decided it was time to kite yet another web-less Taranis. Except that it wasn't yet another web-less Taranis, but an ex-Tusker's Taranis.
Imight have should have won this time, but instead I got plenty of reason to kick myself: no Barrage loaded, no overheated afterburner. Pop. The first Rifter I have ever lost to a Taranis. A dual-prop Taranis. Yes, the ones with no web I normally laugh about.
Here is what normally goes on in local when someone gets to pop a usually at least half-way competent pilot of a pirate corp two times within five minutes: ... you know what? I'm sure you get the idea.
If the pilot has flown under the Tusker banner in his past however, chances are you will get none of that rubbish. And if he doesn't care for the autocannons and ammunition he got to loot, he might even give those back to you.
I'm sure there are other pilots out there without any relation to The Tuskers, who would be just as good sports as PreZ and Caster after wiping the floor with you. But it's great to see that one seems almost certain:
Once a Tusker - always a Tusker.
And another thing: you better bring your A-game when you go up against one.
At least if he happens to remember his bloody A-game that is...
Back when it was my turn, I couldn't provide a definite answer myself. But recent events lead me to believe that it can't be far from the truth.
I was out hunting in my Vengeance. I had been wildly impressed with its capabilities, as it is always the case with vessels Suleiman Shouaa recommends; on its very first roam, it devastated a Wolf/Rifter combo. What a joy it was to actually see my armour crawl back up to 100 percent when only the Rifter remained.
To see it mauled by a swarm of angry drones a couple of days later was however rather unpleasant - PreZiDenT1 had mischievously called his Myrmidon after a very young pilot in system and only had to wait for me at an asteroid belt.
Well played, and he was lucky too: both my rather expensive afterburner and armour repair unit survived the explosion. So I figured I'd like them back, though having no other option but to pay for them.
After I politely asked PreZiDenT1 for said trade, he invited me to dock at Hulmate's only station. Dock up I did and promptly was greeted by an incoming transmission of two items. I was a bit confused why PreZ confirmed it without any discussion for a price so far.
Being the nice person I am, rather than hitting ACCEPT!!1 as fast as I could have, I asked if this was intended. PreZ assured me of that and I thankfully received the modules back.
To clear my confusion, he advised me to check his employment history - indeed, he had been a Tusker for quite some time.
Another time and more recently I undocked in a Taranis. Mere moments later, I arrived at Jovainnon gate in Hevrice and got targeted by another Taranis; I decided to fight back. Long story short, I failed miserably. A prime example of what happens if you hesitate a second too long in an interceptor fight. More importantly - even more embarassingly - I didn't deploy my drones.
The pilot I was going against was Caster Rom, also a former Tusker who likes to visit us in Hevrice now and then. As I undocked in a Rifter to maybe turn this day around, he was sitting near the docking bay. I decided it was time to kite yet another web-less Taranis. Except that it wasn't yet another web-less Taranis, but an ex-Tusker's Taranis.
I
Here is what normally goes on in local when someone gets to pop a usually at least half-way competent pilot of a pirate corp two times within five minutes: ... you know what? I'm sure you get the idea.
If the pilot has flown under the Tusker banner in his past however, chances are you will get none of that rubbish. And if he doesn't care for the autocannons and ammunition he got to loot, he might even give those back to you.
I'm sure there are other pilots out there without any relation to The Tuskers, who would be just as good sports as PreZ and Caster after wiping the floor with you. But it's great to see that one seems almost certain:
Once a Tusker - always a Tusker.
And another thing: you better bring your A-game when you go up against one.
At least if he happens to remember his bloody A-game that is...
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