Insert humorous and enticing post title here

I hope you are enjoying the festive period, I certainly am. But I needed a break from eating my body weight in roast potatoes, playing Fallout New Vegas (thank you Santa!!) and trying to explain to my toddler what "lie-in" means, so thought I would stop by and make one last post before the end of the year.


J!nx T-Shirt Competition
I’m a little bit loath to promote this as out of the 7 or so designs I submitted they only allowed one to go through and it was probably the worst one of the lot! But, there are some fantastic designs up by other people so I’ll HTFU and get on with it. Click here to see the entries. You need to register to vote.


Another milestone for SOTF
Warning. I am going to indulge in a little corp chest beating...

It’s been quite a year for SOTF. We have grown considerably in numbers and dabbled with our first base in 0.0 during the past year. We have also killed just over 11000 ships and, in addition to our usual targets, pewpewd our way through 20 war decs. Earlier this month we also passed the 20k kill mark. Cool beans!

We have upped our game considerably during 2010 and our ability to do this comes down purely to the efforts that the individual corp members make to SOTF, both in and out of the game. I was thinking about all the individuals who do jobs of one sort or another or who contribute to the corp in some vital way and quite frankly there are an awful lot. Whether it's Gallactica's mind boggling powers of diplomacy, the FC's who lead us to our doom/victories, the people who step up to train and fly logistics, the individuals always willing to scout you up a pipe or help you fit a ship or the superb corp shopping service run by one of our members - everyone brings something that has helped the corp become what it is and will hopefully ensure that we continue to do well in the future.

As ships get shinier and more new members join the family then problems inevitably arise. But the essence of the corp remains. It’s still an excellent, laid back and fun place to hang out, filled with interesting people and pilots of all skill levels. And if you see us out in space, we are probably all still drunk too.

So here's a salute to my corp-mates, and to another 12 months of SoTF o7


I r scammer cat
I’ve not yet sat down and sorted the in-game contracts for the lotto prizes but, as I have now heard back from all the winners, I will make a point of sorting this out within the next few days. Sorry for the delay!

Raffle Winners!

Raffle has been drawn this evening! Winners as follows:

First Prize - 310/Jared Reidel

Second Prize - 182/The Methatron

Third Prize - 218/Einon Draconus

Fourth Prize - 62/Loren Gallen

Fifth Prize - 238/Laedy

Sixth Prize - 10/NL Jarin

Congrats and thanks to everyone who took part. Winners, I will eve-mail you this week about prize deliveries.



Due to a very busy real life schedule this might be my last post till after the holidays. So a very merry Christmas to everyone, hope that you have a good one.



o/

Happy 1st Birthday...

...to Eve Travel, one of my favourite Eve Blogs, which also currently features snowfall!

And thanks to all the raffle entrants. I have a couple of ticket number emails still to send which will be finished this evening. Unless my house collapses under a snowdrift the draw will take place tomorrow at about 8pm.


o/

Mini update

Lottery update
I have extended the date for buying tickets till Friday 17th, partially because of the downtime move and partially because I don't know how much online time I will have before the weekend. Lottery will still be drawn on the 19th as per original post.

And, a bit later than planned, here are some pics:





Don't do it kids
It seems some friends of mine have recently been given suspensions/bans for breaking the EULA. I don't know exactly what happened but it is horridly sad news in so many ways and I was pretty gutted to hear about it. End of the day what people do with their own accounts is none of my beeswax and everyone knows knows the risks involved. But the "loss" of these pilots will have an impact on a lot of people, not just because they were awesome pvp'ers but also because they were darn good company. It's a sad, sad day :(


That pewpew thing
Soo, I have a hanger full of shiney new Minmatar ships and no time to actually undock any of them. Christmas is a busy time in our house! We recently had some ex Bi-Po/Wolfy pilots joins us and I'd very much been looking forward to flying with them. I also need just 1 more kill to pass 1000 mails whored onto, but it just isn't happening at the moment.

So I've asked Santa for a baby sitter, a clone to send to work, a cleaner and a quiet room with a lock on it. Fingers crossed eh.

How "War" works in Eve Online.

It's totally not meant to be like this, OK?
























Sometimes people do make me wonder...

Faction War Interview: Lacco

Love them or hate them Draketrain is certainly one of the most well known corporations in the Gallente/Caldari war. I am very happy that Lacco agreed to take part in an interview. Enjoy!

Read more >>

Presenting the WTFIMS Christmas Raffle

I am super chuffed to finally announce the WTFIMS Christmas Raffle!






Now don’t be fooled by the title, there is no Victoria sponge or cheap booze on offer here but instead some Faction War themed prizes that I hope will have wide appeal. So without further ado, here are the prizes!

FIRST PRIZE
FW Store Faction Battleship of your choice*
Hardback copy of the Emperyean Age Signed by Tony Gonzalas
Gallente Themed Eve Thermal Mug
50million isk


SECOND PRIZE
Caldari Navy Cruise Missile Launchers x4
“Can I Have Your Stuff?” XXL T-shirt


THIRD PRIZE
Republic Fleet Warp Disruptor x1
Red Guristas XL T-Shirt


FOURTH PRIZE
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane x1
Orange on Black Guristas XL T-shirt


FIFTH PRIZE
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer x1


SIXTH PRIZE
10k Caldari Navy or Federation Navy Ammo Of your choice
OR
10k Caldari Navy Missiles of your Choice
OR
15million isk alternative

How it works

- Tickets cost 2mil each.

- Max amount of tickets is per 50 character (100mil).

- Each ticket purchased will be assigned a number. You will be eve-mailed your number/s. These are your raffle tickets! You cannot choose your numbers; they will be auto-assigned in the order they are purchased.

- Tickets must be purchased before 11pm (eve time) on 17th December 2010 (see update below). Any isk received after this time will be returned, as will any odd amounts of isk that do not meet the minimum ticket price.

- Lottery will be drawn on SUNDAY 19th DECEMBER 2010 at around 8pm Eve time.

- Send your isk in-game to CUCUMBER SAMMICHES with "lotto" in the reason field.


Some Technical stuffs

* The Faction Battleships to choose from are, Navy Issue Dominix, Navy Issue Scorpion, Navy Issue Armageddon and Navy Issue Typhoon.

All prizes will be contracted out of either Jita or Dodixie.

T-Shirt sizes are not changeable as they were donated to the lottery.

I have not arranged a "guarantor" for this event, it is basically a corporation Christmas lotto that I decided to expand on. It is completely self-funded and not being done to make profit. I’m sure there are plenty folks who can vouch for my honesty but if you are unhappy with that, well you don’t have to enter :-P

Tickets will be drawn using www.random.org and overseen by my sort of independent adjudicator Rashmika (and if he offers to film me doing the numbers on his new iPhone one more time I am going to shove it up his arse...)

Winners will be announced straight away in Gallente militia chat, The raffletastic public channel (which anyone can join) and then later posted on this blog. Winners will also be contacted individually by eve-mail to arrange delivery of in game items. Delivery of OOG items will take place in January 2010 (don't want things getting caught up with the Christmas post).

I think that’s all the important stuff, so to stop the wall of text if you have any other questions just give me, Eelis Kiy, a shout ingame.




Huuuge thank you to Tony Gonzales for his help with the out of game prizes.

Tickets can be purchased… NOW! :-)



***UPDATE 15/12/10***
Ticket purchasing now closing on Friday 17th instead of the 16th. Some prize photos can be seen here: http://wtfims.blogspot.com/2010/12/mini-update.html

wutwut

Have been rather waylaid in real-life doing various work related tasks though I did have the pleasure of being part of this spiffy engagement:

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8095296


OUCH!


Major props to the SoT remote reppers; it was a pretty insane engagement. You will of course be pleased to know that we did get revenge with an even bigger lolblob a few nights later (and I was bloody afk but watching my other half on his PC, having all the fun without me):

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8115630

Slightly screwy report but you get the idea. It’s not the first time we’ve teamed up with the squids during the last month and have to say it is refreshing to spend time fleeted with some of the more amiable folks over there. In amongst the RP, forum trolling and smack I think it’s always nice to be reminded that, just like us, there are folks on the other side who just want a good bit of pewpew and don’t have time for drama bombs.

The Saturday fight came after quite a long period of roaming in a bad case of all dressed up with nowhere to go until we found the SoT fleet. I hope this is not a sign that things are going to die down again now that many of our war-decs have ended.

The 8th have moved on to new ventures and MC dropped their dec against us a few days ago. In addition Ta8ula Rasa appear to be disbanding, so whilst we shed a tear for the loss of targets we’re also having quite a childish giggle at being partially responsible for causing the end of an 0.0 Alliance... FW noobs 1, null-sec noobs 0 :-P

Here’s a fun RP thread on the subject if you are so inclined: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1419335

I hope to be back in the thick of it soon. Some fab new pilots have joined us recently and the corp is buzzing. I am also 10 kills off 1000 player mails whored onto. Woot!




One last thing. I am trying in vain to publish an Eve video that I’ve made but Windows Movie Maker keeps having a mental breakdown and messing it all up. If anyone has any tips on Movie Maker please drop me a message! Alternatively, if Santa happens to be reading this please can I have Adobe Premiere Pro. Go on, I’ve been a good girl this year. Well mostly.

Fly safe, and Happy Thanks Giving to all the American types out there o/

Friday funny

Have a good weekend! o7

Remember remember

Well in between these...



a lot of this...


and a few nights of this...


...there hasn't been much time for me to indulge in internet explosions. However, last night I enjoyed a traditional, hectic and action packed evening with my corpies which more than made up for the all the fun I've been missing out on.

Read more >>

First impressions and a big milestone

so we've been out in 0.0 for a week or so now and I've finally had the pleasure of a few fleets in my limited online time. It's been fun learning about bubbles and bombs as well as playing with giant rats though the system names are an utter PITA. Never again will I bemoan someone’s mispronunciation of Vlillirier.

We've also had time to get to know our new associates which has been both interesting and frustrating. I-RED have a completely different mind-set and playstyle to ourselves and I am not sure how our "gung-ho-kill-everything-or-die-trying" attitude is going down. I have heard that we are having a positive effect but I cannot help but feel like the crazy drunk relative who has reluctantly been invited to stay.

Our priority as a corp has always been 100% pvp focussed and our entire corp structure has grown up around this priority. We log on, we kill stuff, we go to bed. Any isk making or logistical efforts are simply thrown in to help us achieve our desire for internet explosions. We also live surrounded by corporations with exactly the same attitude and if the call goes up in a shared intel channel, the x's quickly flow in from all our trusted Gallente Militia allies.

But I-RED is an Alliance with complex goals and strong focus on roleplay and storyline expansion. To put the two together and see our corp against a different background has been interesting. The differences in priorities and pilot attitudes are quickly apparent. They call for patience whilst we scream for more fleet members so that we can get out and get on with it.




One thing I have accidently learned all about from our time with I-RED is the RP history behind their alliance and it's relationship with the Gallente militia. Even though we had a previous war with them relating to the same issues I had not previously paid much attention to the story that was going on. This week I found myself having a history lesson whilst in conversation with wivers from I-RED on the subject of an RP post for the eve-O forums. Can't say this crazy drunken pilot is going to become an intense RP player any time soon but it has been quite a learning experience and I was a little embarrased at my ignorance on the whole affair! Perhaps both sides have something to teach the other in this somewhat unlikely pact.

Overall the experience seems to be going down well for us. There is a new lease of life in the corp and a lot more people to shoot at. It was certainly the right decision to bite the bullet and give it a go.


Cane-tastic

I've used the change of scene as a chance to get out of my Ares and into my first Hurricane. All I can really say is OH MY GOD ITS SO AWESOME WHY DIDN'T I TRAIN THIS SIX MONTHS AGO. It's quite a new experience to be doing actual real dps and not sitting on the bottom of all the kill mails with my warp disruptor...

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7949745

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7949900

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7949703


Those kills were from quite a messy fight. Out gunned at the time, as we lacked the battleship numbers to meet them head on, we ended up hopping to difference distances off the gates in the hope of popping a few ships before they got a warp-in on us. Perfect chance to test my arti-cane out, it was a lot of fun though pretty intense.

SOTF Milestone
This week we passed 1 trillion damage done. Not too shabby for a bunch of FW nublets! :)

Faction War Interview: BacardiDesire

I actually arranged this one with my crazy Dutch friend sometime ago but due to real-life had been unable to follow it up. So tyvm BacardiDesire for still agreeing to take part, even though we are now at war!

Read more >>

Blog Banter 22: Home is where the heart is

Welcome to the twenty-second instalment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux.

This months topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

I first discovered MMO's back in 2004 with Star Wars Galaxies and a few weeks into the game I was invited to join my first ever player guild; STORM.

STORM truly gave me a baptism of fire into the social delights that are possible with online gaming. At its height the guild numbered around 200 members, its underlying ethos was to have fun and be helpful (and arguably to be drunk and filthy at all times). I was absolutely hooked.

Read more >>

Fun stuff I totally missed out on...

NibbleTek have ended their campaign in the Caldari militia and moved out of Nisuwa. The final stats do not look too shabby for us at all, being down on kills but up on isk destroyed. This was no doubt assisted by the carrier kill, apparently Nibbles first ever Carrier loss. Kudos to the QCats and go us! Well I say us, but that doesn't actually include myself, having been tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle and lots of aspirin for much of the past fortnight.

Read more >>

In which I try to be all artyfarty

From the distinctive designs of Rixx Javix to the comical delights of Sassy B there are some truly amazing Eve Online artists out there. Just taking a look through the entries for the Eve Online: Create a Starship Contest it is pretty hard not to feel completely in awe of the talents of those blessed with creatively awakened brains.

Then there are people like me; People who have Photoshop and too much time on our hands but not much in the way of talent. Usually the result of such a combination is "art" like this or this or hmm yes this.

Read more >>

New targets!

Last week a rather formidable pvp corp, NibbleTek, joined the Caldari militia and moved into our home station in Nisuwa. On the back of this many other Caldari corporations are now growing a few balls and the result has been more entertainment than we've had in a loooonnng time (and ship losses lol). Nibble presents quite a challenge for us and one we are going to have to work hard to face up to, but my gawd it makes a nice change from chasing cloaky Hurricanes and camping dead gates in oversized fleets.

In addition, war appears to be kicking off with The 8th Order (who re-formed recently). I swear it's like waiting for a bus round here, you wait for 1 and then 10 come along at once.

However, even with this new upsurge in mutual explosions, as a corp. we've had to face up to the fact that Faction War has largely been dead for us for far too long. Our member activity picked up as expected in September but our Caldari foe appear to have largely lost their momentum of earlier in the year. It's all been quite disappointing.

After the loss of one prominent member (who no longer considered us enough of a pvp corp, it was a fair point) we opened the discussion on other directions we could take together. Should we go pirate? Move away? Change our tactics?

Change can be good of course, but it can also be a corporation’s death knell. All of our members are united in their addiction to Faction War and there will always be some people who don't ever want to do anything else. But the facts are plain and simple; there is not enough pvp round here to sustain our interest. We either shed more members or we start putting eggs in new baskets. So even with the recent developments in Nisuwa I expect to see the corp taking tentative steps into new directions.



In other news that has no particular title:

- SOTF pilot Lunara Yoshi has a very detailed drone guide featured in this months EON Magazine. I can’t buy the bloody thing but I hear it’s a very good guide! Part 2 of the guide will be in next months issue.

- I will be running a Christmas lottery during December. Prizes will have a Faction War theme and hopefully there will be a few little surprises in the prize pot also… cryptic I know!

- 11 days and I’m in a Hurricane, woowoo!


o/

SISI: Character Creation

After reading a few posts from fellow bloggers on the Character Creation testing, currently available on SISI, I decided to give it a go. Certainly been a nice distraction from the lack of pvp going on in Black Rise lately.

Read more >>

Blog Banter 21: What's good for the goose...

Welcome to the twenty-first instalment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost who a few month ago asked "Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?" Is it? I'd like us to explore this even further. Is Low Sec being treated differently by CCP Games than Null Sec (Zero-Zero) or Empire space is? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither Alliance nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What's needed? Or is everything fine as it is?

Read more >>

Li'l update...

Work-family-work-family-work-family GAAAH... don't these people know I have internet spaceships to blow up? Yes real life is kah-pwning my Eve time of late, which in turn prevents any interesting blog writing! However I would like to do a mini update on a few things.

The quest for pvp
Faction War is quiet again, bleh. In my limited online times I have seen two pretty nice Caldari fleets out, being countered by big shiny fleets including Carrier support. But overall there isn't enough going on to keep the corp.’s lust for explosions sated.

There are various discussions on our forums about different tactics or areas of game play we could explore to get our pvp kicks, personally I am hoping for some 0.0 roaming.

I understand that fellow Gallente militia corp., QCats, have decided (or are in the process of deciding, not sure which) on going down the piracy route. Can't say that I blame them, they will certainly have a lot more targets to choose from if they do. It's probably never going to be an option for SOTF though. I have nothing against piracy myself (I love reading pirate blogs!) and nor do most of our corp., many being ex-pirates themselves, but it simply doesn't suit the play-style or ethos of the corp. as a whole. I think a big deciding factor behind it has always been that our CEO wants everyone to know what to expect from SOTF members when they see us out and about and as such it is not often we fire on neutrals in low-sec, unless we know they are hostile in some way.

On a personal note, I have 2 Brutix (Brutixes? Bruti?) a couple of Vexors plus a whole bunch of Rifters just waiting to die in a big ball of solo-fail-explosion. In addition I am just a few days away from Minmatar Cruisers 5, opening the door to lots of new ships to play with... all I need now is to a) not be completely knackered b) time to sit down at my computer and c) join a fleet that doesn’t nag me to fly as tackle!

In other coming soon (tm) news I am still poking about with a big Faction War guide and also working on a few new Faction War interviews.


If we do it in a bubble will she still get a surprise in her drone bay?
You might have seen the Eve-O story on skilltrainingcomplete.com - a rather fun way to procrastinate away your lunch hour and help other Eve-players at the same time. It's a little bit like "Yahoo answers" but specifically for Eve questions. I've been mucking about with it for a few days and have to say I hope it keeps going. It seems to be sensibly managed, well thought out and so far a much less flame-ridden place to ask questions than the Eve forums can be. >>Take a look<<


21st Blog Banter is announced
I mentioned a few weeks ago how you can involved in the Blog Banters run by Crazy Kinux. Well we've just had a heads up on the topic for the 21st Banter. If you want to find out how you can get an early start then click here.


o/

Random Reports

It's been a frustrating month or so. Real life has turned rather hectic and the result is me having to be more efficient with my Eve time in order to get the most out of the game.

I thought this would result in my missing out on a lot of fleet activity but in fact quite the opposite has happened and I've found myself constantly joining rather fab fleets. Competent FC's, great company and good ol’ light hearted, banter filled evenings. Fantastic!

Read more >>

First Blood

I'm close to reaching 1000 kills on the boards and was having a little reminisce over my mails on Battleclinic and Eve Kill this evening when I found this beauty, one of my first ever losses in Eve and my first ever pvp loss in Faction War:

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=2037933

A *cough* fine pvp fit *cough* there I am sure you will agree, and what cool folks to hand me my first buttraping… today I spent most of my evening in a MENTL run fleet lol.

In addition, my first ever pvp kill, which was also in Faction War:

http://www.gallente.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7603503

Whenever I recall this kill it makes me chuckle. Having no particular idea of what we were doing when we first signed up to the militia my corp-mates and I made ourselves a fleet, hopped into Old Man Star and went off to save The Federation.

The first ship we came across was a neutral Dominix ratting in one of the belts, so like all good carebears we closed our eyes and opened fire, yaaarr!

Not only was he ratting for real and NOT baiting for a trap (like every other battleship ratting in OMS I have ever seen since that day) but we actually managed to kill him. It took us sooo long to take him down that passers by were warping in at range to watch and then laughing at us in local.

We didn't mind, we had fun, and it felt good to be the (slightly fail) bad guys for a change :-)

So um, what was your first time like?

Saving pods and session timer tips

After yesterday’s angry-face post I thought I would counter with a few titbits on saving your pod in low-sec.

Generally, in low-sec, unless you suffer a lag monster incident or are within range of a smart-bombing ship, you should be able to save your pod after your ship explodes.

As soon as your ship starts exploding begin spamming the "Warp to 0" icon on your overview.




Having a handy "escape" style overview tab set up, showing all stations/gates etc. will help you to quickly select something to warp to. Select your object and click the hell out of that warp button, 9 times out of 10 you will be out long before your attacker can lock up your pod.

One very important thing to bear in mind is that there is that you have a session timer when you lose a ship and during that time you cannot dock or jump through a gate. So if you lose your ship at zero on a station don't sit there spamming the dock button - spam warp away instead. The same thing goes for when you lose your ship on a gate, don't try to jump, warp away.

A word on session timers, there is a handy little widget available in options that lets you see a session timer count down in the top left of your screen.


It is very small but can be quite useful, when you float your mouse cursor over it you will see the timer counting down.

I find it especially handy for surviving station camps where you need to re-dock quickly. When you undock from a station you have a 30 second session timer and before this timer ends you will not be able to redock.

In addition you also have 30 seconds of invulnerability, during that time you cannot be targeted by another player. BUT you can remove this invulnerability early if you start moving your ship, begin warp, activate certain modules or even try to re-dock. But because the session timer, preventing re-docking, remains in place you will still be stuck outside the station.

One thing you CAN do without removing your invulnerability is stop your ship (ctrl + space is the default shortcut key for this). So, if you undock and realise you are camped and might not be able to redock before you are popped simply stop your ship, so that you don't drift out of docking range, and watch your session timer widget count down to zero. Provided you don’t activate anything or start moving your ship around you will be safe until the counter hits 0 - and then you will be able to redock pretty much as instantly as your invulnerability wears off - giving your attackers little chance to lock you up and kick your butt.

Of course if you do stuff it up and lose your ship... remember to warp your pod out and don't try to redock it...

...and if you stuff that up too don't forget to update your clone ;-)

o/




*additional info*

Corp mate alexthefox pointed out that my first picture suggests warping to a gate - obviously bear in mind if you warp to a gate with your pod just after loosing a ship and the warp distance takes less than 30 seconds to complete then you still won't be able to jump out of this gate either. You can always bounce to a planet or bounce to another gate. The session timer is 30secs, and you can watch it with the session change timer.

Also, I've not gone into it here but yes you can of course change your warp to 0 distance, just as you can change your orbit distance. Right click on the >>> button to set a new distance.

Don’t fly what you don’t have the balls to die in?

I've been flying with the Gallente militia for over 2 years and in that time I’ve seen a lot of lame stuff. Fail FC's, smacking, back stabbing, exploit abuse, childish behaviour of all shapes and sizes. We're not golden and I have no deluded desire to put us on a pedestal above anyone else. The bad eggs and failures here are the same as in any other militia or indeed any other part of Eve.

But one thing I've never ever had the shame to witness is a Gallente Fleet Commander ordering his fleet to dock up and pod home. If only the same could be said for our Caldari war-targets.

Read more >>

Nevermore

My pvp ships are a little dusty at the moment thanks to rl being hectic and a distinct lack of war targets whenever I log in. So instead of pewpew I've been indulging in a spot of carebearing, hanger sorting, the Gallente Epic Arc (rather excellent btw from a pve combat and story perspective plus and you get a nice reward at the end AND you can repeat it every 3 months) and spending time on my trade alt.

I've still not got over the joy of being able to play Eve with all the graphic settings turned up to ze max so I've also been frapsing everything that moves and taking lots of screenshots then procrastinating my evenings away by messing about with the clips/shots in different programs.

Couple of nights ago I was experimenting with the Advanced Camera options whilst filming the NPC Leviathan in the Luminaire system. Whilst there I took a rather nice shot of some pilot's Raven, which I am now using as a desktop background. So until I have some tales of war to share I shall share my nice screenie!

(click image for full size version)






o/


***Sneaky Fake Edit***

Forgot to mention that EVE SOB is putting together an idea for a "Frigate Cage Fight" which sounds like potential for lots of fun and I wanted to give it a quick plug. Check his blog post here:

http://evesob.blogspot.com/2010/08/lowsec-frigate-cage-fight-good-idea-or.html

Faction War Interview: Aurora Nyx

Back in my early days with the Gallente Militia I often found myself flying with popular scout and interceptor pilot Aurora Nyx. He was a regular face around the militia, a staple member of any decent fleet and good company to boot. When I finally made the decision to return to FW full time I was dissapointed to find out that Aurora had left the Gallente Federation and was now fighting for the Caldari State, his original militia home...

Read more >>

Blog Banter #20 : Think like a Capsuleer

Here is my response on this months EVE Blog Banter from CrazyKinux.

CK says:

With the recent completion of the 3rd instalment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: "Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all...but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it's needed."

There is risk in everything that you do in Eve, no matter how peaceful your intentions, and that is the way it is supposed to be. The real problem with the game in this respect is not scams, heists, ninjas or anything like that – the problem is the people who do not understand or accept this risk. Pilots need to stop thinking like humans and start thinking like capsuleers.

Humans have a limited life span and as such limited opportunity to make money, form relationships and perform activities. But capsuleers have all the time in the world. Death is a minor event and even the loss of an entire fortune can easily be regained in time.

I personally think that education is the key to people learning how to protect and counter all the “darker” traits of this game. CCP’s tutorial covers basic flight and mechanics and to complicate it further wouldn’t help new people get started, it would probably scare a lot of people off! But Eve has a fantastic community which provides guides, blogs and forum help on avoiding the darker pitfalls of the game. This information is freely available, however not everyone will do the reading before jumping into something and so there will always be lessons learned the hard way. The trick is to pick your self up and get on with it. Eternal life remember, think like a capsuleer!

Lets take a look at the specific areas raised in the banter question:

Ninja Salvaging

Salvage has no owner – first come first serve – that is how it was intended to be. Probing out your mission and salvaging it is fine. Get used to it.

If you want to keep the salvage generated by your wrecks then there are of course things you can do such as work in quieter systems for less popular agents or have a friend come and salvage your deadspace pockets behind you. If you are planning on making a long term living from running missions then Marauders are perfect for mission running and salvaging as you go. Simples!

If a ninja loots your can and goes red… and you decide to engage… chances are that you will learn an important lesson in trying to pvp in a pve ship. Ninjas that do this usually have a trick or 2 up their sleeves - it’s an important lesson and if you are going to learn it the hard way it is worth learning early...and not in a Kronos like certain friend of mine (albeit some very nice friends of his did eventually arrive to save his sorry butt with some RR... and despite dipping to 1% hull at one point he eventually got away!).

Suicide Ganking

Again, simple mechanics here that need to be drilled into the minds of people who pick this game up:

1. The undock button is the consent to pvp button.

2. High sec is not safe space it is simply safer.

3. CONCORD is there to punish criminals, not to protect you.

4. You were not given the gift of eternal life with the intention that you would never have to use it!

But again there are often things you can do against suicide ganking such as using common sense when buying and moving expensive items, using the right ship for the job, not being afk or using autopilot.

As for Hulkageddon… this gets SOOO much publicity, in the news, on the forums, adverts on Eve related websites… it is EVERYWHERE. People have plenty of notice that it is coming and that it’s time to dock up the mining barges.

Trolling

I have been a member of various forums, chatrooms and online communities on topics such as parenting, gardening, jewellery making, tarot, weddings, conservation, animal welfare and of course a ton of MMOS. Not once have I found a 100% troll or smack free environment.

The anonymous mask of the internet encourages all of us to at least speak honestly and without fear of repercussions upon our real person. It should be no surprise that some people will take it further and become full on trolls who just want to cause a fuss. Forums full of trolls and games full of smack-talkers is not unique to Eve Online in anyway shape or form, it goes with the territory. Infact in comparison to other MMOS I actually find Eve’s forum community much less antagonistic.

Of course it is easily countered. There is a block option in game and you can simply ignore people on the forums. It’s really not that hard to do.

Scamming

Over the last few years the contract system has had many tweaks which have made it even harder to fall for scams involving miss-promoted items and misleading decimal points. But people still fall for it over and over again. It happens – and because it happens it will continue.

The fact is ALL contract scams can be easily countered by reading things properly. Trade box scams are another one that catches newer players but again and this is something that ones own eyes can always solve. Besides which, legit traders always have room for another contract!

In addition, corp. heists and business/lottery scams are all very much part of Eve and will continue for as long as people fall for them. But they are often easily countered with a little bit of common sense and a small enough dose of mistrust to make you use your head without becoming too paranoid.

Griefing

Well firstly you have to think about how you define griefing. Some people think that griefing is when you get a war dec, others think it is when you are camped in a station. Some people would call piracy griefing, other people would say it was smacking in local. The term gets bandied about far too often to describe perfectly legitimate game mechanics that someone hasn’t worked out how to counter yet.

True griefing involves personal attacks, constant personal harassment and abuse of exploits that prevent you from playing the game (that’s playing the game at all, not playing it exactly how you want to play it). Things like this are petitionable.

Make Eve a safer place?

To take things like scams or ganking out of Eve would be to take away part of the heart of it and if you started there where would it stop? Are you going to ban piracy? Are you going to stop people probing each other out? What about the markets? Many people have no clue of the fierce isk battles going on there; every time you buy or sell something you are unwittingly engaging in someone else’s market pvp!

It’s all part of the game. All pilots should learnt his and then learn how to live smart. Learn to think like a capsuleer – because these things are not griefing, they are just part of Eve’s Darwinism.


Here are some of the other blogger responses to this months BB questions:
1. Blog Banter: SPACE POLIC HARASSMANT- Hallo, can I violence your boat
2. Blog Banter #20: Griefing in EVE - My Loot Your Tears
3. Blog Banter #20: Grieding in Eve - Planet Risk Show

A trip to the unknown

Last night I had my first proper fleet skirmish in about 3 weeks. Feeling a little rusty (and a teeny bit tipsy -.-) I joined a corp. run Battlecruiser fleet as a fast tackler and off we headed down the pipe towards Tama.

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Confessions of a Carebear - a lesson in high-sec war

I’ve mentioned previously how Factional Warfare helped me bridge the pve side of Eve to the pvp side, but I've not mentioned what happened with my very first taste of pvp, this took place a long time before FW had even been introduced to the game.

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ooh a quiz!

Eelis's Result: Loyal Pony on quiz: EVE Online - Are you an emo rage quitter? You most likely have been playing EVE for quite some time. You have stuck by this game despite all the lag, bugs, imbalances and other crap CCP never get around to fixing. You may not always be happy with the way CCP prioritizes things, but you still think EVE is best MMO out there and there is nothing quite like it. You consist of the majority of players in EVE, somewhat unhappy with many things, yet you are committed to stay and hope things get better. Quiz School Take this quiz & get your result

EVE Online - Are you an emo rage quitter? » online test

Sums me up well! Nice quiz Laedy :D

Whose side are you on?

Ahh the summer holidays. Sunshine, breaks from school/college/uni, screaming kids, ice-cream, festivals, barbeques and the season of porta-loos.

For many people it is a time for family, kicking back and taking a break from the normal routine. As such, the summer holiday, along with the Christmas break, is traditionally when gaming gets a bit quieter for a lot of people. I have seen this happen in predominantly EU corps. and guilds in the various MMOS I have played over several years.

Here in Eve-Online SOTF is no different. Traditionally the corp. has a huge downturn in activity in the summer – it was the same last year and the year before and it will be the same next year and the year after. The AFK forum starts buzzing; our fleets and kills dwindle.

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Faction War Interview: Julius Foederatus

Welcome to the latest FW Interview. Many thanks to Julius for agreeing to take part. I have enjoyed seeing his different view and insight into things, I hope that you do to.

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Fleet Tackler Guide

I recently put together a guide on how I fly my Ares for some corp-mates. It went down a treat so I have re-written this version to share with others. Comments, tips and your own experiences are of course most welcome.

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The Shadow

In which I get all pointy hat on your butts and try my hand at a bit of fiction writing...

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Random Ramblings

Primary
Couple of things in the pipeline for this blog, 2 guides are on the way, I think I have mentioned them before but one is a biiiiig Factional Warfare guide and the other a low-sec fleet tackler guide, again with FW pilots in mind but much of it will be relevant elsewhere.

Secondary
I had somewhat underestimated how many of my fellow militia pilots would be unwilling to talk about themselves, I guess not everyone is as vain as me eh. I do however have a new FW interview in the oven and it should be posted up soon (tm) :-)

Tetary
My darling, lovely, wonderful, amazing, super boyfriend has upgraded my PC. I have no idea what he did because my PC building knowledge does not extend further than extracting and cleaning old mouse balls... but what I do know is that for the first time ever I am playing Eve Online with all settings turned up to SUPER DUPER HIGH MAX T2 SHINY OMG ELEVENTYONE. So after years of everything on low with all effects turned off and no sound it feels like I've just been handed Eve Online for the first time! As such I have turned into a tourist and my PC is now filling up with Fraps clips and screenshots. I'm hoping to get working on a few videos soon, I just hope Microsoft Movie Maker can handle my shiny footage and directorial dreams.

Quar... Quata... er 4th
I did not participate in this months blog banter because I didn't feel I could add anything fresh or insightful over what has been said 100s of times already. But if anyone is interested and not seen it yet: http://www.crazykinux.com/2010/07/eve-blog-banter-19.html

Bail Bail Bail!
Rixx at Eveoganda is running a rather fun sounding new event called Deathrace - Check it out!

The rise and fall of Mr Blobby

Spend a few weeks in any militia and you will soon notice the term blob being bandied about quite frequently. It's not a new word of course, the real Blobs of Eve have been around for many years. They consist of hundreds of ships, crash nodes and are generally spotted out in sov holding 0.0 space.

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Up goes the heat in Black Rise

Well, what can I say other than it's going nuts round here! A combination of frequent large Caldari fleets and plenty of pirate gangs has lead to a week of many skirmishes and accompanying explosions. On top of this we currently have a war dec going with Haters Gonna Hate which has yielded a few scraps and yesterday we had some notice that a large pirate alliance may potentially be moving into Nisuwa... aiiieeeee.

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PERVS leave Factional Warfare

Amarr Militia and former Caldari Militia corporation Space Perverts & Forum Warriors have announced they are to leave Faction War for good.

The Gallente serving pilot in me screams for joy, huzzah! The most annoying, irritating and successful enemy militia corp that I have ever had to cross swords with are gone, viva la Gallente!

However for the person behind the character, the one that sees the wider picture of FW, this is a pretty sad moment and a bitter sweet goodbye.

From the moment I joined the Gallente Militia I became aware of the pain in the ass that is the PERVS. Their prolific (but entertaining) use of spys, their unbelievable dedication and efforts on plexing, their reluctance to fight unless they had a nasty trick up their sleeve, their tyrannic smack and frustrating forum trolling has made them one of the most challenging Caldari corporations in FW history. They constantly thought outside the box and as such are both admired and detested in equal parts and amongst all militias.

PERVS members are also largely held responsible for the Caldari taking ALL systems by Plexing on the Gallente Side about a year ago. I don't wish to downplay the incredible efforts of the dedicated Gallente plexers but it is telling that we only started to take systems back when the PERVS first defected to the Amarr militia many months later.

So why would I be downhearted about their departure? PERVS pushed boundaries, discovered holes, manipulated them and constantly tested the walls of Faction War mechanics. They irritated, they annoyed and they worked hard for what they believed in. They constantly highlighted issues for CCP (sadly in vain) and forced all of us, especially the Gallente militia pilots, to up our game. The PERVS were a constant challenge and their departure will leave a hole no other corp, that I know of at least, will be able to fill.

I'll simply finish this post with the infamous Disco video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlZ0EcsneSg

gaaaaah my head...

*sups fizzy asprin* now then what did I do last night hmm...



ookay looks about right...




ya ya sure I know this scene...




o_0



hahahaha!
http://www.gallente.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7052305


boooo!
http://caldari.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7052320




Anyway, afk back to bed +_+

Impromptu Delights

I'd had a very busy day planet side so had not particularly intended to go fleeting on Sunday night but somehow I still ended up camping the Nourvukaiken gate in Tama.

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Turning tides

It's been a slightly random week, my own activity stifled by rl comings and goings and a sudden surge in new recruit interest has kept me largely in station rather than in space. I'm still trying to work out what exactly I did whilst finishing 2 bottles of red between Monday and last night, meep.

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The Faction War Interviews

Ahh Faction War, that black sheep of the Eve family. A pointless activity? A playground for noobs? Is it all blobs and role-play? Why DO people still join militias? More importantly what is it that keeps them playing? Why on earth do people fight over system control when it offers no rewards? What sort of players call the landscape of Faction War their home?

In an effort to answer questions like this and diversify this blog I am conducting a series of interviews/questionnaires with the familiar faces in Faction War. Initially Gallente and hopefully Caldari militia. Eventually I hope to include Minmatar and Amarr militia pilots also. Participants are invited to reply as in char or out of character as they wish.

If you are interested in being interviewed drop me an email at eeliskiy@googlemail.com.

Enjoy!


1. Gallactica (Gallente Militia)
2. Julius Foederatus (Gallente Militia)
3. Aurora Nyx (Caldari Militia)
4. BacardiDesire (Minmatar Militia)
5. Lacco (Caldari State)
6. chatgris (Gallente Militia)
7....more to come!

Faction War Interview: Gallactica

For my very first interview, and in honour of SOTF's 2nd birthday, I have decided to begin with Shadows of the Federation CEO, Gallactica.

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RIP MDP

Yesterday the Mutual Defence Pact of the Villore Accords, formed in 2009 to defend against those who seeked to further weaken an already struggling Gallente Militia, was dissolved as a formal organisation.

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Eve Offline?

Soo, the server is down tomorrow for maintenance. Don't Panic! Before the shakes set in check out my collection of out-of-game Eve fixes to brighten your spaceless day...

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Apologies...

...to anyone wondering wtf was going on Villore last night.

This week Drackarn, one of our corp Directors, leaves the UK for 2 years working in the back of beyond. In true SOTF fashion he put on a goodbye competition for the corpies, which in theory consisted of a treasure hunt, with clues to be found and then a final target to destroy, but in reality mostly consisted of us blowing the crap out of each other in t1 frigates.


Much smack, station camping, griefing, blobbing and primary-ing of the CEO was had. Most people were in teams of 2, some with tactics others just attacking whomever they could find. The funniest part was the ongoing and slightly exasperated chatter over vent from S810 Jr trying to organise his team-mate, Gallactica, who was rather drunk and not paying attention but instead running around being shot at by, well everyone.

A night of many lols and quite an appropriate send off for our lovely Drackarn. Congrats to the winners and kudos to everyone who took part.

Good luck Drack, hope you get a new Internet connection sorted quickly!

Lucky days and close calls

I thought I was in for a lucky streak this week when I won 10m isk in a prize draw and then my blog entry for the Women in Eve contest got picked as one of the winners. I also pulled Germany and Brazil in the SOTF footy sweepstakes, woot! (This was before the crummy Germany v Serbia game, bleh). So perhaps my luck would continue into the week?

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Blog Banter #18: A journey, not a destination

Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com.

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who've been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has your gaming style evolved through the years or months since you've started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance - say manufacturing. Let's hear your story!

I've already written a lot on my past in Eve here so I will try and keep this fresh and hopefully not bore anyone into a new clone.

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Women in Eve: Winners Announced!

CrazyKinux has at last announced the winners for the Blog Banter #17; Women in Eve contest. Here are the results (original link):

1. The Ghost Report: Eve Blog Banter: The Girls Who Fly Spaceships
   
2. “Prove It”: Women In EvE
   
3. Blog Banter #17 – Women in Eve
   
4. The Ladies of New Eden (An Analysis on How Men are not from Mars, & Women are not from Venus)
   
5. Cloaked and Watching You: The Ladies of New Eden
   
6. Space Broker: Gal-Ristas!
   
7. Tech 2 stilettos
   
8. It's a woman's world (they just don't know it yet!)
   
9. Ladies of New Eden
   
10. Lady Vengeance, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pew-Pew

CK's pick of other entries worth reading:

• Why I don’t play Eve Online
  
• Where Are All The Wenches
  
• Sweet Little Bad Girl: Eve vs Women
  
• Space Boobies Are Bad, m'kay?
  
• Getting more Eves in Eve Online
  
• Flashfresh - The Pirate.: Women? In MY SPACESHIP? Is she from Mars as well?
  
• mikeazariah » Blog Archive » The X-Factor

So I'd just like to say...



GET IN, I'M AT NUMBER 8 WOOOHOOO! :o)



It was a really enjoyable blog banter, I love that it got so many "I think I might make a blog" types actually starting up. There were 80 entries overall and lots of different opinion and ideas. It certainly encouraged debate, even the comments list for the contest is full of people discussing the issue of ladies who play Eve.

Thank you very much for running the contest CK and also thanks to whomever it was that upped the prize fund (I cannot find the blogpost which mentioned the player who did this).

I shall be putting my winnings into my pvp isk pot, ensuring this Woman in Eve has plenty of equipment for kicking butt around New Eden ;-)

Out of my comfort zone

Sooo, the Alliance Tourny kicks off, which for me means plenty of friends and enemies watching the matches and not pvping, bleh. This has however given me an opportunity to fit my new toy out. A Nemesis, the Gallente Stealth Bomber.

I do love the (Tristan) hull, does it not look like it should be in a Transformers movie?


I've become rather addicted to flying tackle in general but fancied trying something new and admit it would be nice to dish out some DPS for a change, so I've been skilling up for Stealth Bombers over the last few weeks.

Last night I joined a roaming fleet, initially in an Ares but later on I swapped into Peepo (see above pic!) and rejoined the fleet. Now aside from messing about with my other-half on a station this was the first time I'd ever flown a SB in combat, and my God it was hard work.

I hadn't realised what a pain in the butt fleet roaming was going to be. My optimal range is around 50km but the fleet was moving about an awful lot, so I'd end up landing with the fleet at 0 on a gate only to be informed that targets were incoming. So then I'd have to get my slow ass backside out to range and cloaked before the incoming targets arrived... only to have to burn back to 0 again when the targets changed tact and the fleet started moving again... this "stop and start" type fleet movement is never a problem in a speedy 'ceptor but I found keeping up in the Nemesis to be a right blimin nightmare. I also noticed the difficulty in staying cloaked when fellow fleet members wandered too close to me.

Neither the fleet or the nights targets were the best situation for a Stealth Bomber and I had constant pangs of longing for my Inty whenever stuff ran by that I would have liked to catch. But it was good to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. Before the night was up I even got myself onto 2 kills...

Whoremail 1
Whoremail 2

... buuut with 0 damage, doh. Not the best start, but a start non-the-less!

The Caldari Militia activity seems to have been a little quieter in my play time recently (in general that is, there have been a few big fleets out) but SOTF and the other MDP corps are now involved in 3 war-decs which should provide a bit more activity, and hopefully more opportunities for me to try my new toy out.

Recruitment Part 3: Useful links

I hope you have found this guide of use. Any feedback is welcome and as previously stated feel free to add your own comments and tips.

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Recruitment Part 2: Eve-O forum as a recruitment tool

In this part of the guide I will cover how to effectively use the Eve-O recruitment forum as a recruitment tool.

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Recruitment Part 1: Methods of Recruiting

Here are some of the ways you could potentially recruit new members for your corporation, and my feedback on them.

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Recruiting in Eve Online [a guide]

I have written this guide to share tips and information on recruitment and how to successfully make use of the Eve-O recruitment forums. It is aimed at new corporations, clueless idiots and anyone who is interested in upping their new member intake.

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May musings (and moanings)

A few musings from the past 4 weeks...

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X up for Pac Man! (OOG)

Ok, yes this is an out of game post, but I just had to share.

Now quickly. Go set up your afk mining alt and head over to Google... for a game of Pac-Man!

At the time of writing this post Google's logo has been changed into a Pac-Man screen to celebrate the game's 30th birthday.

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A salute to The 8th.

I was very sad to hear that Gallente FW corp The 8th Order are to disband.

BacardiDesire, founder and CEO of The 8th, was one of the few people who would step-up and FC fleets when all others started to leave or close ranks. This was during a pretty difficult period on the Gallente side of FW, I think around 14 months ago now, which was made all the more challenging when several ex-alliance corps descended on FW and thus we found ourselves rather out blobbed by heavy pirate presence throughout Black Rise.

Much has been said about Bacardi and everyone who knows of him seems to have some sort of opinion. Personally, I always remember those difficult times and the struggle to find someone to lead us to death and glory. Bacardi's fleets were a lifeline for people like me back then and I always admired him for having the balls to step up when no one else would.

Bacardi went on to create his own corp, The 8th Order. It seemed clear he wanted a politics and drama free environment for small/medium gang warfare, and that is what 8th became all about.

8th has always been quite an independent corp. They did their own thing but still remained approachable and very much a part of the militia. They also served with the Minmatar militia for a time but I would guess are best known for being one of the most familiar faces on the Gallente side of the fence. I am sad to see them end their chapter in the ongoing saga of Faction War.

To BD, and my other friends in The 8th, I salute thee. Good luck for the future and fly safe o/