Being scary in my Onyx, and stealing a tower

A hauler is making its way back to the tower and is asking if an escort is available for the w-space journey. I have my new Onyx HIC, I think I can at least appear threatening for a while, so I agree. It will be a while before the hauler gets in to w-space, though. Another plea comes to rescue a pilot stuck in a hostile class 5 w-space system, where Tengu strategic cruisers are spotted on the directional scanner. I don't quite fancy that, personally. But he has only forgotten to bookmark the wormhole out and needs someone to pop in to the system to give him a point to warp to, so it's not quite as dangerous as rescuing him from the attentions of Tech III ships. He gets a volunteer willing to be the beacon.

I follow a colleague's Zealot heavy assault ship and jump in to the neighbouring system just to see what's happening, preparing for the hauler's entrance. Sitting on the other side of our connecting wormhole and punching d-scan shows signs of occupation, but a colleague mentions something about them not being dangerous. I think I'll buzz them in my Onyx. Using d-scan to find the moon they anchored their tower to, helped by my colleague's knowledge that it was around a planet with a single moon, I warp in. I don't quite know what I'll find. A warp disruption module is visible on the scan but there is no sign of hostile ships, and this is effectively my maiden flight in Ro-Jaws, even if I've already been shot at.

There they are. A Helios covert operations ship, an Iteron hauler, and a Viator transport ship, all close to a Caldari tower that is in the middle of being unanchored. What a target, made more alluring by only the Iteron being piloted. The warp disruption module must be elsewhere in the system. It looks like the hauler is waiting for the tower to un-anchor to scoop it in to its hold, but why there are two Tech II ships floating in space next to it is a mystery. At least they had the good sense to anchor the tower some distance from the moon, as they are quite out of range when I drop from warp. As my colleauge in the Zealot joins me, I hit the micro-warp drive and burn towards the ships, feeling quite aggressive in my pointy and mean-looking ship. I am not able to close the gap quickly enough, the sluggish Iteron able to turn and enter warp before I can lock down his drives. But we are left with some goodies.

The tower still has a few minutes before it unanchors, and we need to find pilots capable of flying the two hulls in front of us. The pilot rescued from the class 5 system next door is able to get the Helios back to the tower, and our hauler coming in from New Eden docks his ship to come and pilot the Viator, the only engineer who can. Meanwhile, Onyx and Zealot sit around looking suitably mean, expecting others to come looking for their possessions. But no one comes, and we are able to snatch the two ships and haul the tower away with no incident. I imagine the Iteron pilot is just happy to have got away cleanly, unaware that it was a carebear who trepidatiously warped in and closed the distance with him. But facing specialised combat ships in an unarmed industrial vessel is never going to end well.

I am a little disappointed in myself. I was surprisingly nervous at facing non-combat vessels, which probably delayed my actions a little. I also didn't interpret the overview quickly enough, failing to realise which ship was piloted and which weren't. But this only shows a lack of experience, and that can be rectified by throwing myself in to similar situations again. As a first attempt, the engagement has been suitably benign to let me recognise without consequence issues that I can correct. I still have a lot to learn and am probably a bit too attached to my ships. At least I know that I can give the impression of being a menacing pirate. And when you want to appear dangerous sometimes it is enough just to pretend.

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Tags: eve online, helios, iteron, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, viator, w-space, zealot

Back in the Damnation

The fleet's back, but an ISP-enforced break prevents me from collecting my Crane or Guardian from New Eden. So I'm scanning again. This time, I have Fin with me to help, which increases our competency levels by an order of magnitude. I catch up to Fin in a neighbouring system, where she asks me to jump ahead and start scanning in a class 5 w-space system she's found. It sounds like a good idea, but I refuse to go through a wormhole quite so wobbly, indicating its brief remaining existence. There doesn't seem much point finding a way out if it can't be used to get back. Instead, I come back to check a different system.

I bookmark the wormhole leading home and pick a signature to start scanning. As well as remembering to bookmark both sides of the wormholes I pass through, I really need to remember which signature I pick to resolve. It doesn't help to pick one, punch the 'scan' button, then get a dozen refined results and not know which one I was looking at, particularly if I am trying to use my most likely percentage (ML%) method to determine wormhole signatures early. The ML% method isn't working too well at the moment, returning mostly gravimetric or ladar mining sites, probably because I am still adjusting to my new ship. I scale the strength of the ML% downwards, my scan strength being a little weaker than in the unrigged ship, and the second next hit is a wormhole. My confidence in my method grows.

The next system is big and occupied, which has the positive side-effect of having few signatures to resolve. Feeling confident about the ML% giving wormholes I put it to use. But for some reason doubt creeps in to my mind and I go against my instincts, finding a ladar site as a result. My instincts don't turn out to be much more reliable, as I resolve a radar site next, it being the last site I resolve that is the wormhole. At least it was only the last of three signatures, not two dozen. Although the wormhole leads to high-sec space, I'm plopped out in to Pator, many jumps away from both the Crane and Guardian, which also happen to be in different directions to each other. I'll have to leave them for another day. At least with the fleet back, and Fin's spare Guardian, we can pop some Sleepers.

Having more Guardian pilots not only means that we can fly as a fleet without having to rely on specific capsuleers being present, it also allows me to take a break from flying the logistics ship. The obvious choice of ship to fly instead is the Damnation field command ship. Ah, it's been too long, Bad Batz Maru is such a beautiful companion. The Damnation may not add much to the DPS of the fleet, but the warfare links it can field should boost the effectiveness of both Guardians. And indeed it does, the reduction in capacitor need for armour repair modules is a boon for the four remote reppers on the Guardians. With one of the warfare links running, the logistic ships can now run two reppers cap stable, and only need one transfer array running to remain cap stable whilst running all four reppers. On top of that, the increased armour resistances the other warfare link offers to all ships in the fleet means we take less damage. It's good to be back in the Damnation.

After so long flying a Guardian in to Sleeper combat it feels really dislocating to pilot the Damnation. In the Guardian I need to be active, monitoring incoming damage both in direction and magnitude and react to any changes, aniticipate damage spikes when new waves of Sleepers warp in, as well as help feed energy to capacitor-hungry battleships. In the Damnation, I switch all my systems on, lock the called target, and fire missiles on auto-repeat. I know I am contributing to the fleet, but it's more indirect. I do some damage, my drones help strike at the frigates, and the warfare links ease some burden of the Guardians, but I don't feel as involved or connected. It's a minor quibble when I am able to fly the Damnation in anger and put my fleet skills to good use. And when I am inevitably asked 'how goes screenshots?' I find I have plenty of time to take them now, with almost no consequences should I not be paying attention.

'It's not as exciting as when I'm repping.' But it is still exciting. We rip through the magnetometric site, Sleepers only grazing my hull once. One of the Guardian pilots wonders if he's actually repping me, agog at my mighty amount of armour. At the end, we are even left with a deserted Talocan cruiser, and although I am rather eager in returning with the salvaging Catalyst a colleague has beaten me at recovering the hull. It is exciting just to see one, and it has been a good day.

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Tags: catalyst, damnation, eve online, guardian, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, w-space

Still trying to get the fleet home

Another day, another attempt to get the scattered fleet back in to w-space. It's not only a matter of bringing back ships and capsuleers, the tower is running low on fuel and needs to be restocked. Finding a good route to New Eden is a primary concern. I start my scanning by noticing a rather silly oversight. My attempts to find a most likely percentage (ML%) scan strength indicative of an undiscovered wormhole have been unintentionally skewed.

I have been assuming the default probe range in our home system is 16 AU, whereas our system is smaller than I thought and only requires probes of range 8 AU for complete coverage. This change in ranges affects relative scan strengths, and now that I know it maybe my searches in larger systems will become more effective. Instead of looking for percentage scan strengths in systems covered by 16 AU probe ranges similar to those in our home system I can compensate for the increased range and reduced strength of the probes, compensating further for even larger systems that require probe ranges of 32 AU for coverage. I'll see if it makes a difference, and jump through to the neighbouring system.

A Typhoon shows up on an initial survey using the directional scanner, soon joined by a Dominix. I can see no tower, though, so I am unsure as to the motives of the battleship pilots. I disregard them for now and warp to a safe place to start scanning. This w-space system can be covered by 8 AU range probes, and my ML% guess nabs me a wormhole on the second signature I resolve, out of around two dozen signatures in total. I am cautious warping to the wormhole to investigate it, as I could be flying towards two battleships guarding their system. But the wormhole is clear and leads in to another class 4 w-space system. Before I move on, I'll first check to see if there is a wormhole leading to a lower-class system here.

More probes than merely my own appear on d-scan after a short while, showing I am not the only one scanning in the system. A capsuleer called Kanycmka pops in to the local channel to say hello, and I greet him back. It's perhaps unwise to reveal yourself for no reason, but being friendly has occasionally proved useful. A colleague then turns up and, once given the signature of the wormhole in our system, comes to help scanning for an exit. It will be too time-consuming to tell him the forty or so signatures I've currently ignored, which includes a bunch of anomalies, so I instead guide him to the wormhole leading to the class 4 system and he starts scanning there. It turns out that the class 4 system only has three signatures to resolve and may well lead to an exit quicker than I imagined. However, jumping in to a new system resets the list of ignored signatures, which would have been frustrating had the class 4 system led to a dead-end and I needed to come back to scan my current system from scratch.

I finish scanning the system I am in and find no more wormholes. The two battleships are presumed to be mining gas or similar, no doubt coming from the adjacent class 4 system and taking advantage of the wealth of opportunities in this unoccupied one. I warp to the wormhole leading outwards, and then to the wormhole my colleague finds leading to a class 3 system, and begin to help him complete scanning the class 3 system. I warp off to a random location to start scanning, and land in one of two bubbles actively protecting a corporation's tower. It's quite a lucky find, more so because I am cloaked and not in any immediate danger. There are two Orca industrial command ships, an Impairor frigate, and a shuttle all in the tower's shields. But there is no sign of the Drake or Helios that have been seen on d-scan. Then a second and third Drake turn up in the system, so something is going on.

Two wormholes are discovered in this system. As my colleague is piloting a Probe and cannot warp cloaked I investigate both of the wormholes in my Buzzard which can. The first leads to low-sec New Eden and is clear of ships. The second leads to dangerous parts of unknown space and has ships loitering on it. The presence of a Tengu and Loki strategic cruiser, two Drake battlecruisers that soon increases to eight, and a Catalyst destroyer makes me glad I am not reckless enough to warp to zero on the wormhole, and that I am cloaked. There is a voyeuristic allure to being this close to a hostile fleet without being detected, and I creep around as if I am observing dangerous wildlife. The sight and sound of explosions panics me! I'm not being hit myself and calming down it looks like the Tengu is only testing the shields of one of the Drakes, or telling him to stop planting ferrets in research laboratories.

The hostile fleet warps off, perhaps to engage some Sleepers because they don't head in the direction of the wormhole leading back to our tower. I don't think I'll pursue scanning an exit in the system they came from, as bumping in to them would be awkward. I head back home. It looks like the low-sec exit to New Eden is our best chance to return both fuel and capsuleers to the tower.

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Tags: buzzard, catalyst, dominix, drake, eve online, helios, impairor, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, tengu, typhoon, w-space

Fifth visit to Blackrock Depths

Death knight needs a companion. None of the pets I had as a paladin follow me to Acherus when I become a death knight, and I miss having a fluffy follower. But I know where to get them. Grabbing a friendly mage helps, starting in Dun Morogh then teleporting to Exodar and Darnassus to send me some pets. Then I can visit the crazy cat lady in Elwynn Forest, and pop in to Westfall where a cock of a night elf druid kills the chicken I woo, but there are plenty more chickens. Venturing down to Booty Bay ends my initial pet shopping. I have a bunny, three moths, two hawks, four cats, a chicken, and two parrots, as well as the account-bound baby bear, core hound pup, chilly penguin, and Onyxia whelpling. My dearth of pets becomes plenty of pets, which highlights another issue.

None of my achievements as Kiska are recorded against my death knight. There is nothing as effective as pointing out the impermanent nature of achievements to make me stop caring about them. I like getting achievements, they give a similar feeling to gaining a level and a sense of continuity with a character, but losing that continuity removes some of the attraction to achievements in general. Leaving the achievements of Kiska behind is a reminder that all I do here is ephemeral, which is good in its way. I can relax and have fun instead. So, with fun in mind, when I find out that we're missing Qattara tonight and look to do something fun yet relatively unimportant in her absence, I agree to Livya's enthusiastic call to return once again to Blackrock Depths. But maybe I just want to get the Shadowforge Key, to stand a chance of completing the 'Keymaster' achievement.

We meet up in Searing Gorge, and it looks like one of us is feeling the heat. Missing our duid, Vulzerda is happy to heal and hunts around for healing gear picked up along our adventures. It turns out that boots are all she has accumulated that affect her healing abilities. When Livya suggests that boots are all she needs, Vulzerda takes this as a challenge. She is a bit concerned about her obvious tan lines, though. Considering her normal skimpy underwear, the white marks around her delectable buttocks suggest she's been wearing granny pants out in the sun. Despite my overly pale complexion, I am about to get a tan too.

I tell Livya and Vulzerda that I am off to kill myself to talk to the ghostly dwarf, who gives the quest for the Shadowforge Key, which I do by jumping recklessly in to the lava in Blackrock Mountain. Although this lets me talk to the dwarf and pick up the quest, I haven't entirely thought this through. I wasn't in the dungeon when I die, so entering it again won't revive me and I instead need to find my corpse. And I left my corpse in the middle of a sea of lava. I have little choice but to jump back in and accept my resurrection, swimming as fast as my cloven feet will allow me towards the ledge out. Luckily, I am returned to life with enough health to survive the short paddle.

I don't have any quests for Blackrock Depths. I didn't anticipate coming back, nor do I care to run through the tedious quest chains again so soon. However, there is one quest on the way in to collect, Attunement to the Core, the old quest to enable quick access to the first raid dugeon of Molten Core. We have been too low-level to be eligible for the quest before, and it is with this new goal that we jump through the portal in to Blackrock Depths.

To get the Shadowforge Key we can't bypass the early stages of the dungeon. We can at least ignore the cell block, rushing straight across the entrance to the Ring of Law, where monster Grizzle drops some nifty mail armour healing shoulders. Vulzerda dons them suggestively, Livya commenting that slowly getting dressed is 'more sexy than undressing, yet another reason, as if we needed one, to love this dungeon'. Surging forwards, we get past the subdued Ring of Law audience and towards where Ironfel needs to be dropped once retrieved, which awards the Shadowforge Key. Pyromaster Loregrain is guarding the Shrine of Thaurissan, and although he's noted as being a rare mob he has been here every time I've visited that I can remember, making me think he's not that rare after all. Vulzerda suggests that maybe he's medium rare, and Livya agrees, pointing out that 'he is a cow'.

Around the corner is the Black Vault. Livya is sure we must have enough relic coffer keys by now, from all our visits to the dungeon, until I remind her that my inventory has effectively been reset. But we still have enough, Vulzerda holding most of them. With all the coffers open, Watchman Doomgrip throws himself against our weapons, leaving us to pick up the heart of the mountain. Thankfully, the quest item respawns after a few seconds, instead of only one party member being able to collect it per visit. We move on quickly and defeat Fineous Darkvire to grab Ironfel from his corpse, and I trot back to the shrine to get the Shadowforge Key. Rather than retreat further, I aim to see if we can defeat all the bosses in the dungeon in one session. We stomp back over Darkvire's twitching body and in to the next room, where Lord Incendius awaits. Down a corridor from him is Bael'Gar, who summons little helper spawns, which none of us remember him doing before. And then we're back at the entrance, and can use the key to progress deeper in to the dungeon as before.

It's a shame that I have to double-back from Darkvire to deliver Ironfel at the shrine, because doing so thoroughly undermines what I can now see as quite elegant dungeon design. It has taken me years and many frustrated visits, but storming through this first section of Blackrock Depths and deciding to continue onwards shows me how it all fits together. There isn't the sprawl and unconnected feeling that I have always maintained, but a clear and graceful path. Having to retrace our steps to the shrine is a design blunder, breaking the smooth flow of the dungeon with a needless time-wasting journey. It's not as bad as having to exit the dungeon to hand in a quest that brings you straight back, which we did with the quest to save the princess, but it's similar. The initial run through Blackrock Depths draws a graceful curve, a curious combination of a figure-of-eight and a spiral, whose nature is lost when forced to double-back. But now I see it, now I appreciate the design, because we're back at the Shadowforge. We had to divert away from the Shadowforge to get the key, fighting through the bosses in order, and now with the key we can fork the other way to fight the rest.

The path forwards is quite familiar now, and in a good way. General Angerforge and all his little minions are despatched smoothly. Golem Lord Argelmach runs off to get gnomish assistance, and his and his golem's immunity to my death grip stretches our assailants too far apart for our reach and we wipe. A quick soulstone recovery later and Argelmach's dead body is left in our wake. Dark Iron Ale is fed to the dwarf in the Grim Guzzler and Phalanx is defeated, leading us on to a quick fight with Ambassador Flamelash. We're speeding through the depths now.

I am really enjoying being a death knight, powerful and active, even though at 58th level I am still missing some key abilities. Runic power lets my frost strike hit the mobs hard, and a critical strike of 1337 damage seems appropriate. To celebrate a hit of 1080 damage I kick-flip off the mob to indy-grind down a ramp. But this is nothing compared to when I fight molten war golems. The first golem loses over half his health before I have even swung my weapon, making me wonder if the mob is bugged or if their health varies and I have missed noticing this on previous runs. The second golem drops even more quickly, and I examine my combat log to see what's happening. The molten war golems are vulnerable to frost damage, and my opening spell is a frost-based attack. I can kill these elite mobs with one hit. But there are only so many molten war golems, and we move on to the Summoner's Tomb.

Seven ghostly dwarves are defeated easily enough and now we can finally take a diversion from our previous visits, heading down a ramp away from the Lyceum. Across the bridge at the bottom of the ramp is the entrance to Molten Core, which holds little interest to us beyond curiosity or nostalgia. But there is a rock next to the entrance that, if a sample of it is given to the elf in Blackrock Mountain, will complete the quest to attune us to the Core. With the quest complete, we won't have to fight this deeply in to Blackrock Depths to enter Molten Core, our attunement will provide a short-cut. The quest is unnecessary for us, but it provides some easy experience points for such a short diversion. We collect the rock sample and wander back to enter the Lyceum.

The swarms of dwarves pose some problems for us. We have no paladin's consecrate spell, and the shaman's fire totem attracts a bit too much attention towards our almost-nude healer, and as we're learning how to get through in our newly constituted group the dwarves overwhelm us. On the way back, we serendipitously discover that the Molten Core attunement quest can be handed in to the elf outside the dungeon when we are dead and on a corpse-run, bagging the XP early and meaning we don't need to travel back to him later. No resistance is encountered on our way back to the Lyceum either. With a bit more care, we collect the two torches and light the beacons that open the exit, and we stride ahead to Magmus. One dead giant later and we're clearing out the Imperial Seat again before facing the emperor, Ironforge's princess once more by his side. It's sad to see someone so badly affected by the Stockholm Syndrome, we really must correct the situation once and for all.

'Let's go and tell the king his daughter's dead.'

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Tags: death knight, filesystem checkwits, mla'an, mmorpg, world of warcraft

Trying to get the fleet home

It is going to be a quiet few days at the tower in w-space. The main body of our fleet is ditched in high-sec, probably being pestered by mission agents, scammers, and the lure of buying shiny new ships on the market, and that's where they are going to stay until a route back from New Eden can be found for them. I have my new Buzzard covert operations scanning boat ready, bought specifically for this purpose. I could use a colleague's Buzzard, but I like playing with new toys. I warp out of the tower's shields and start scanning, finding our home system's wormhole quickly enough and jumping through.

The neighbouring system is small, only around 10 AU across. The directional scanner shows two cargo containers in deep space somewhere, but no sign of inhabitants. I warp off, after bookmarking my way home, and start scanning. I am still trying to find a more reliable way to select possible wormhole signatures as early as possible, my 'most likely percentage' (ML%) theory needing to accommodate my unrigged ship. Taking note of wormhole positions within the solar system looks to be unlikely to help, partly because of the uncertainty in the initial scanning position compared to the actual location of the signature, but mostly because there seems to be no correlation between signature position and type.

The third signature I resolve turns out to be a wormhole, using an iterative ML% method. The first is before I realise my scan strength is a little weaker, the second signature with the promising Red Dwarf tag JMC is just gas. In retrospect, I should have known it would be a mining site. The wormhole leads to a lower-class w-space system, which probably increases its signature strength a little. I jump through to continue looking for an exit to get the fleet back. Starting to scan, I flip the display out of the system map to check the background colour of the system, and when I return to the map the irritating bug surfaces where the positioning arrows of the probes disappear. I don't know why this happens, but it wastes time. I normally only notice the bug when I initially launch probes, which I resolve by recalling the defective probe and launching another, becoming annoying when so many launch bugged that I have to reload. Having switched to the map when I hit the scan button makes me think that maybe the situation can be resolved without needing to recall the probes and launch new ones. I start a new scan and switch between the map and back, and the arrows reappear. I'm glad I don't have to mess around too much because of the bug, but it is still annoying when it happens.

A wormhole is found quite quickly, leading to a class 1 w-space system. I understand that wormholes leading in and out of class 1 systems don't allow the mass of a battleship through them, which scuppers recovering all of the fleet, but the Guardians could at least be brought back. I look for a different wormhole anyway, just in case a more suitable route can be found. It turns out there is another wormhole in this system but it leads to null-sec space, which we'll not use to ferry ships. I jump in to the class 1 system and have a look at what's there. The signature with the POD tag catches my eye as suitably threatening, but this just leads to more gas. A wormhole leading to low-sec space is soon found, and with a bit more looking a second wormhole to low-sec is also found, this second one reaching the end of its lifetime.

There are only five signatures left in this class 1 system, I may as well finish the scan. All I end up finding are mining sites and a third wormhole, leading to dangerous parts of unknown space. I could continue my search for a route to New Eden there, but it will likely not lead directly to a suitable exit and my time is running short. I check the stable low-sec exit and find it leads to Molden Heath, my old if brief stomping ground. I have twenty jumps to get my Crane, or nineteen to pick up the Guardian, with a bit of dangerous low-sec to pass through first. I don't much fancy the extended journey for now. I head back to the tower and drop off the bookmarks anyway, just in case the alt who is also still at the tower would like to use the information I've gathered. I'll try again tomorrow.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Raiding as social lemmings

Raiding remains an impenetrably peculiar waste of time to some people. I raided for 18 months and enjoyed most of my time, even when progress was slow and difficult. I can appreciate seeing the funny side of raiding and the seemingly odd struggles that players continually put themselves through. But it is a little disappointing when people disparage raiding, and raiders, when they have no experience and are opposed to the general idea of raiding. The most insightful comedy does not come from a position of ignorance but one of understanding. Of course, it can be difficult to understand why some players have an apparent compulsion to spend several hours a night, several nights a week, throwing themselves to almost-certain doom like lemmings.

There are essentially two elements to succeeeding at raid encounters, the puzzle and the implementation. Owing to the peculiar nature of MMORPGs, in contrast to more tradition table-top RPGs, death is ephemeral, both PC and NPC, allowing for encounters that not only don't need to be overcome successfully on the first attempt but rely on failure to provide a greater and more enduring challenge. With character death being no impediment to overall progress, boss encounters can become increasingly complex, which leads to the two elements listed above. In order to succeed at the encounter, both the puzzle of how to overcome the encounter and co-ordinating the specific implementation of the solution need to be achieved. There is something quite familiar about this. Players aren't just acting like lemmings, they are lemmings, raiding in MMORPGs being the contemporary equivalent of Lemmings.

In the classic computer game Lemmings there are also two elements to success. At its heart, it is a puzzle game, requiring players to solve the problem of how to move the lemmings between two points. Completing a level in Lemmings isn't quite as simple as solving the puzzle, though, because then you need to implement the solution. With the implementations often requiring pixel-perfect precision and split-second timing, it is by no means assured that a player with the correct solution will succeed, probably needing to repeat the level several times to get it just right. Occasionally, there will be a level that will have the player swearing in frustration at missing for the hundredth time the last pixel-perfect click out of a twenty, and needing to start all over again. It all sounds very much like the precursor to raiding.

I quickly grew to hate Lemmings. I enjoyed it as a decent puzzle game, but tired of having to repeat 'solved' levels because of failing at the implementation. For me, the puzzle was the game and I didn't want to jump through hoops just to get to the next puzzle. I really couldn't see the appeal. And yet I raided for 18 months, having to repeat failed encounters dozens of times, with latency-accommodating equivalents of pixel-perfect placement and split-second timing required until the implementation was good enough to continue to the next encounter. Raiding also requires successful encounters to be repeated at a later date, not just 'solved' encounters with failed implementations, no doubt adding to the outsider's bewilderment at raiders' behaviour. Repeating encounters is necessary because of the separate mechanic of loot drops, which are sparse compared to the number of characters present, and needed because inadequate equipment can become a limiting factor to progress. But there is a reason why I kept throwing myself off that apocryphal cliff.

Raiding is as much about the people as it is the encounters, a raiding group simply being a static group with a larger pool of players. I enjoyed raiding because the group I was in was friendly and were motivated in mostly the same way as me. Some players left, others joined, but many names stayed the same, and new players became as much a part of the group as the old. And I imagine this applies to most raid groups. It may seem odd to consider hard-core progression raiders as the same as a friendly weekly static group, but I imagine they all share the same motivations and goals and appreciate being in similar company. It is still a static group, just from a different perspective.

If you find raiding to be impenetrable, or consider it to be motivated by selfish desires to get the best loot, think about any static groups you play in and ask why you keep returning to them. It's quite possible that repeating the same content several times a week still won't appeal, and that's okay, but maybe an appreciation can be gained as to what really binds raid groups together. Maybe if all your friends really did enjoy throwing themselves off a bridge at the same time, with no harmful or lasting consequences, you would too.

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Tags: mmorpg, world of warcraft

Evading strategic cruisers

I get my fearsome new Onyx to the corporation tower in w-space safely. It's a few hours after the bumbling ambush attempt and the wormhole route between our home system and high-sec space is clear. My Crane is left back at my manufacturing base, to be picked up another day, as a fleet quickly assembles to engage Sleepers in an adjacent w-space system. I tuck the Onyx away in a hangar, board my Guardian, and I'm ready. We jump in to the neighbouring system and warp to a Sleeper anomaly.

The first anomaly is cleared quickly and easily, at which point another colleague is keen to join us in w-space. We take the break in combat as an opportunity to guide her in, as two of us salvage the cleared anomaly. Everyone assembles at the tower, dropping off salvage and getting back in to our combat ships, and our new pilot tends to her battleship's fitting, modifying it to be more suitable for w-space. The fleet warps back to the neighbouring system to continue clearing anomalies, leaving our colleague to catch up when she's ready. The bookmark for the connecting wormhole is in a can at the tower, which she needs to get as she didn't grab all the points on the way in.

Sleeper combat continues smoothly, the first wave destroyed and only a couple of ships remaining in the second, when our lagging capsuleer asks why there are people shooting her at our wormhole. The question is made so casually that I am convinced we are about to be warped as a fleet to repel the minimal force that must be engaging our battleship. But I punch the directional scanner to get an udpate on ships in the system and I turn white. Three Proteus Tech III strategic cruisers, two Loki Tech III strategic cruisers, one Legion Tech III strategic cruiser, a Megathron battleship, a Brutix battlecruiser, two Guardian logistic ships, and an Ishtar heavy assault ship are all revealed, and that's not accounting for what may remain on the other side of the wormhole. We are in serious trouble.

Our pilot newly brought in to w-space is popped and podded with no ceremony. Our fleet leader has heard the communications, and has obviously seen the force on d-scan too, warping us out of the anomaly and to a random position in the system. His orders are clear: get safe and log out. We are no match for the hostile force and trying to get back through our wormhole would be suicide. Our only option is to get to an arbitrary point in the system and disappear, hoping that the hostile fleet will move on if they see no targets for a suitable amount of time. I start warping around the system to create a good safe spot when I hear our frozen corpse of a capsuleer suggest that these enemy ships may be collapsing the wormhole. Getting trapped in a w-space system with no scanning boat will make it incredibly difficult to get out to New Eden or back to our tower, as it could take a separate pilot weeks to track down the specific system we are in, and I don't relish that one bit. I wonder if what we are doing really is our only option

The hostile fleet is first noticed at the connecting wormhole in our home system, when they engage our colleague, and only seen in this neighbouring system afterwards. And a second wormhole was found earlier in our home w-space system, connecting to a class 6 system, which are particularly dangerous systems. It makes sense that such a formidable fleet has come from the class 6 system, which means they didn't come from the other direction. I know the route to high-sec New Eden is still available, as I only travelled it a short while ago. If the hostile fleet hasn't been in this system yet, they won't know about any exit wormholes, so warping to it should be clear. And if I can get to the wormhole leading out of this system, I can probably make it to high-sec space. Ditching my ship in New Eden is far from ideal, but finding a route from the tower to any one of the completely connected systems in New Eden is significantly easier than trying to find a particular w-space system. I abandon my safe-spot and warp trepidatiously to the exit wormhole.

It's clear. There are no ships on the wormhole out of the system, and I jump out and make the couple more jumps back to known space safely. There is an alt back at the tower, so I tell him that I made it to high-sec. 'You may have just saved the fleet' he tells me, although I don't understand completely until he explains. I am asked to buy a covert operations scanning boat quickly, and fly it back in to the w-space system. I can scan to see if the system is clear and if it isn't I park the ship in a safe-spot to provide a scanning boat to get the fleet out to New Eden at a later time. We have a pilot at the tower who can find a connecting route to known space, now I am providing the opportunity to do the same for the fleet. It really is a life-line for those capsuleers in our fleet.

I quickly buy a Buzzard and fit it with the basics needed to be an effective scanning boat. I don't pay as much attention to price as location, needing the ship and modules quickly, and I am soon in my second new Tech II ship of the day, heading back to w-space again. I have another dilemma, though. It is not possible to see what is on the other side of a wormhole, and I don't like the idea that I could be jumping through in to a fleet of hostile Tech III ships. Word has got to the rest of our fleet about my escape and they decide to make a break for it towards high-sec, assuming that the hostile fleet hasn't cared to find this wormhole themselves. Warping to within a good range of the exit wormhole and using d-scan they reveal no ships in range, and warp the rest of the way to the wormhole to jump out of the system. I use this information to jump in.

Despite having a capsuleer capable of scanning back at the tower, his skills are not optimal. Our fleet has all managed to get safely out to New Eden using our previously scanned route, so as I don't need to scan them out later I can try to get back home and instead find a route for them to come back another day. D-scan suggests this neighbouring system is clear of the hostile force, and pointing my scanner directly at the wormhole reveals no ships there either. They may have gone home already. I am in a covert operations boat with a cloaking device, it may be possible to blast through the wormhole quickly. I take the risk.

The wormhole is clear on both sides, and I warp with huge relief back to the corporation tower. The wormhole is somewhat destabilised, as suggested earlier, but it is unclear whether the hostile fleet were trying to collapse it or not. We suffer the unfortunate loss of one battleship, but the early warning it gave may have saved the rest of us. Some quick thinking and communicating then ensures the fleet is given the best chance of returning to the tower within a day or so, instead of being horribly lost. I am impressed with our recovery of the situation. And I get a new toy. It has been another exciting day in w-space.

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Tags: brutix, buzzard, eve online, guardian, legion, loki, megathron, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, w-space

Not bringing back the HIC

I want to buy a new toy, which means scanning my way out of w-space back to New Eden. I make it out of our home system on the second attempt, and I don't just mean finding the wormhole. My ship's computer relays the message that 'the exit wormhole is stabilising, please try again'. I don't think the wormhole has only just appeared but that the next system is empty of capsuleers, as I often have to try a couple of times to wake myself up at the tower if I am the only one there. It is good to have the assurance that I'll be alone in w-space. When I get in to the system, I am able to resolve a signature as a wormhole on the second attempt. The wormhole I jump through continues in to dangerous unknown space, lowering the probability of holding an exit to k-space and no doubt extending my scanning time a little more.

The directional scanner reveals only one planet in the system. And really only one planet. Expecting at least a star as well I open the system map and see that not only is the system huge but the wormhole I come through is situated outside the outer planet, which is what I pick up on d-scan. I warp around the system, hopping between a few planets checking to see if the system is occupied. The presence of a scanner probe on d-scan suggests I am not alone, until I realise it's mine. The system is unoccupied, and full of signatures. Sometimes I like to go by a name, and even though ZOD turns out to be full of rocks the OBI signature is a wormhole. Stretch out with your feelings, Penny. The wormhole leads in to a lower-class w-space system, an exit may be close.

D-scan reveals a tower, but there are no ships to be seen. I start scanning, finding there to be a dozen anomalies but only a handful of signatures. I pluck a wormhole from the signatures on a first attempt, and it turns out to lead to high-sec space. Today's scanning has gone smoothly. Checking the information on the wormhole shows that it is pristine, as if it has only just appeared. I imagine it will be stable for a while. Then again, it is listed as an 'unstable' wormhole, which seems superfluous as a description unless there are also stable wormholes that have no risk of collapse, regardless of mass passing through or time. Maybe these stable wormholes are yet to be found. Either way, I return to the corporation tower, drop off the bookmarks to the exit, and head out to New Eden in my Crane.

Out in high-sec I punch the auto-pilot to take me to corporation headquarters, before quickly realising that two hops are low-sec. I reset my auto-pilot preferences to remain in safe space, also confirming that the exit system is not part of a high-sec island, and restart my journey. Living in w-space makes it easy to forget these details, as all stargates seem equally convenient when all you normally have is wormholes. I get to HQ to refresh my ME research jobs, then rush off to market to buy a new ship. I take a little time to check I am buying the relevant modules, at least on a basic level, and buy and fit a shiny new Onyx heavy interdictor. It's not pretty, but part of the charm rests in the uncompromising design of locking down enemy ships. I have named it Ro-Jaws.

The Onyx is based on a cruiser hull, making it too big to squeeze in to the Crane. I leave the transport ship behind for now, starting the journey back to the wormhole to get Ro-Jaws to the corporation tower. Jumping back in to w-space from high-sec startles me for a second, as a ship and orbiting drones is sitting on the other side. But it's okay, his blue background indicates the pilot is friendly, I should be okay. I am a little surprised to see him lock-on to my new ship, scramble my drive, and start shooting. I wait a couple of seconds to see if he withdraws, activating my tank to boost my already considerable resistances to damage, but he keeps shooting. What is he thinking? I jump back through the wormhole to high-sec to escape.

Sitting on the other side of the wormhole I reflect on what has just happened. It could just have been a mistake, a trigger-happy capsuleer engaging before confirming me as a legitimate target. I have to wait a few minutes for my hull to depolarise after the recent jump, after which I jump back hopefully to a passive reception. Back in w-space, the same pilot again locks-on to my Onyx, scrambles my drive, and starts shooting. But this time he's brought a friend in a Drake to help him. Now I'm getting angry. I jump back out to high-sec and open communications with one of the attackers asking why they are shooting me. It is at this point that a series of frustrations arises, mitigated mostly by the attackers' own incompetence.

I feel obliged to point out that I have no fundamental objection to capsuleers shooting me. I don't believe I am a princess who deserves exemption from the harsher realities of New Eden and beyond, neither do I think that w-space should be safe if all I want to do is pass through a system. Far from it. I do, however, have a problem with people specifically promoted as allies shooting me, as it seems pointless having allies if they treat you as an enemy. It turns out that although my attackers are blue to me I am a firmly neutral grey to them, and they had no reason not to shoot me. I was fair game. This explains their lack of response when I pointedly ask why the bloody hell they are shooting me, as they clearly must have been bemused at my reaction at getting shot in lawless w-space. I hope my indignation at getting shot is also clear, now that both sides of the encounter are known.

There are two problems here. First, I should have been blue to the attackers. The agreement to join the alliance of wormhole corporations is a couple of months old but apparently not enacted, an oversight I believe has been corrected. There should not have been a conflict to begin with. Second, the mechanics of mutual relations are clearly insufficient. With not-red-don't-shoot (NRDS) and not-blue-shoot-it (NBSI) policies both active in New Eden, there really needs to be a way to distinguish between more than just your standing towards someone, if that standing is not automatically mutual. It turns out that standings are not automatically mutual, which contributes to my confusion. If I had been aware that I may not be blue to someone who is blue to me, I might not have been quite so agitated at an apparent ally shooting me. On the other hand, if the interface itself distinguished between mutual allies and unmutual allies I may not have made the misguided assumption in the first place. It is not sufficient to know a capsuleer's standing towards me if my standing towards him is just as important.

If it hadn't been for an incompetent ambush, I may be seriously annoyed. There is nothing particularly wrong about sitting on top of a wormhole to catch unwary ships jumping in to a system. You may get surprised when a small fleet appears on top of you, but it will certainly get some capsuleers in trouble. The mistake was the choice of wormhole to sit on. I mention above that quickly jumping both ways through a wormhole polarises a ship's hull for a few minutes, and that is key to wormhole traps. Scrambling a ship's drive may stop them warping, but not escaping through a wormhole. But if you follow them to the other side they must warp away or fight, as wormholes don't allow individual ships to make multiple quick jumps. The mistake is sitting on a high-sec exit, where engaging your prey on the wrong side of the wormhole will attract Concord, New Eden's police. Jumping through the wormhole away from the attack in to high-sec space almost guarantees an escape route. If the goal is to prevent high-sec tourists then sitting on the wormhole will work, but as it looks like this system is not the attackers' own even that motive seems dubious. Of course, I am also lucky that I choose to fly an Onyx back to w-space, its impressive tank never in danger of breaking so quickly, at least in the case of this poor ambush. But if the attack had been competent, I could have lost my new ship.

As it is, before the confusion of standings is resolved, I am stopped from coming back to w-space without getting some aid and potentially destroying supposed allies. This nearly happens, as a couple of colleagues are willing to hop in to battleships and come to my aid. I really appreciate it, but my Onyx isn't fully operational just yet and my added frustration won't help. I jump back to where I parked my Crane and exit my pod to do something different for a while.

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Tags: crane, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Rejecting the Light

Kiska's fallen, and can't get up. The strain of trying to be pure and holy for fifty-eight levels has taken its toll. The final straw is being trained at 58th level with a single upgrade to a healing spell, which is next-to-useless for a front-line tank who is followed everywhere by an angry-looking tree. There have always been assurances that the paladin's lot improves at the next milestone, and although a nifty new ability is granted occasionally the interactivity remains sparse. The main attack has a ten second cool-down, making a miss sting much more than it should, and multiple targets cannot be effectively controlled without abusing AoE spells. There is no denying a paladin's effectiveness and utility, but its passivity is not for me. I want to feel actively strong, which is why I turn to Arthas, the Lich King.

The World of Warcraft weekly static group that is the Filesystem Checkwits has reached 58th level, which is where death knights are spat out from the Lich King's command in to Stormwind. It's the perfect time to make the change, a seamless transition from paladin to death knight being too delectable to pass by. I have experience with the death knight, both in dealing damage and tanking it, and greatly enjoy the class. It shouldn't be a hindrance to the static group if I change. And although the death knight uses AoE attacks to tank, unlike the paladin that relies on AoE to tank a death knight's tanking is only based on AoE attacks. As long as I have a rune or some runic power, I am free to switch targets and instantly apply a high-threat attack as a death knight, a function I feel is lacking in the paladin.

I originally create my death knight when Wrath of the Lich King is released, nominally to reserve the name. I then create effectively the same death knight on a US server and advance her to 80th level, becoming a veteran of Wintergrasp and Northrend dungeonmaster. Although maintaining continuity in the static group is hardly a concern, I don't want the confusion of playing two identical characters. I am not keen on paying for a simple name change, so I instead need to create a new character. And if I do that I may as well also change her to be draenei, offering some opportunisitc continuity and keeping Livya as our resident midget. Being unsure how long it will take to run through the death knight starting zone and deciding on the switch rather late means I need to get a move on, although having done it twice before will help speed up the process. Deleting my current death knight, as each player is only allowed one death knight per server, Kiska is reborn as Mla'an, the cursed one.

Renouncing the Light and embracing the Dark, I am soon introduced to Arthas himself, who sees my potential. Go out and wreak havoc, he tells me, apparently a subscriber to my journal. There is a little bit of orientation to deal with first—being introduced to various undead bosses, finding my way around the necropolis of Acherus, locating the coffee machine—and then I am whisked down to Death's Breach to start slaughtering my old allies. A bit of civilian killing gets me warmed up, and I particularly relish wrenching saronite arrows from the backs of fallen townsfolk only to cut them down when they get up to thank me. As Arthas's voice reaches out to tell me, mercy is for the weak. Thanks, papa, I'll make you proud.

Running around is not the best way to appear intimidating, so I am given the task of stealing a horse to become my fearful steed. I fight my way to the stables and find a suitable beast of remarkable prowess. Fighting through the guards gets me close enough to jump astride my new mount and I ride my pony of doom back to my new masters. It's not quite fearful yet, being only four hands tall, but it can certainly gallop when pressed. A bit of necrotic magic helps the pony reach its full potential and I am feeling more of a death knight than ever. More quests from my dark masters push the pathetic humans further back, and some insiduous skullduggery disrupts their planned beach invasion, until eventually I find myself riding an undead dragon above the almost-defeated town, firing frozen bolts of destruction down on the hapless fools. It's good to be on the winning side.

Papa Lich King tells me to meet with his forces at Light's Hope Chapel to strike the defining blow. I am not one to refuse. It turns out to be a betrayal, or something like that, I'm not paying much attention, and the undead forces are defeated, the Lich King routed. Before I know it, Darion Mograine, Highlord of the Ebon Blade, has decided that I am to be redeemed and gives me a letter of introduction to King Varian Wrynn of Stormwind. I didn't sign up for this. But it looks like I have no choice. Arthas has abandoned us to the Alliance, Mograine has had a change of heart (the fool), and I can't fight the whole of Azeroth by myself. At least, not without a few more levels under my belt. I introduce myself to the king in Stormwind, and try to settle down. The Love is in the Air festival lets me spray random idiots in the eyes with stinky perfume and the Lunar Festival indulges me with random explosions and an easy route to Moonglade, where I can buy a pretty dress. I'll bide my time.

I speed through the death knight quests in a single session easily, experience certainly helping. There is the usual knowledge of what each quest entails and where I need to head to complete it, now aided by the improved quest tracker, but it is having experience of building a death knight's talents that really makes a difference. There is a swift rate of progression in creating a death knight. Because the class enters the world at 55th level there is a lot of catching up needed to be done. There are more initial abilities than 1st level characters and the rune system is novel amongst the classes, but rather than starting with the equivalent talent points of a 55th level character they are instead meted out as quest rewards. This prevents the player feeling completely overwhelmed right at the start. The steady flow of talent points also makes it seem like they are not being unduly withheld, additionally offering occasional pauses between the rapid completion of quests. Instead of having to analyse each choice, knowing in advance what talent tree to focus on and which talents to throw points at significantly speeds up the death knight creation process.

The death knight starting zone is wonderfully designed. There is the great use of phasing that helps to tell a story much more effectively than any other class does in World of Warcraft, and even though most of the mobs are equivalent level to the death knight they are suitably weakened than normal mobs of that level to create a similar difficulty curve to a 1st level character's starting zone. But where the death knight fails is in showing what could have been. There is an aspect of running around with abominations, shades, and hellhounds that is distinctly appealing after having played characters who are constantly battling them. Being shown the other side gives an amazing sense of differing moralities. Even the differences between Horde and Alliance pale in comparison. The two player factions are not separated by any distinct sense of good and evil to start with, a greyer shade of morality instead instilled on both sides that is further weakened with Shattrath, Dalaran and the Argent Tournament allowing casual mingling of the normally opposed characters. Being decidedly against everyone but your own faction brings with it a proper sense of identity.

It's disappointing that being a member of an unabashedly evil force is limited only to this brief glimpse as part of death knight creation. I am Mla'an the cursed one not just because of my fall from the Light, but because I have been rejected by Lich King. Now I am ready to unleash my power against the Azeroth and Outlands, hoping that a certain someone is watching.

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Tags: death knight, filesystem checkwits, kiska, mla'an, mmorpg, paladin, world of warcraft

Caracal versus Thorax in a friendly duel

As the scanner boats return, with no fleet forming for the evening we decide on another couple of duels. Unlike last time, where I opt to duel with guns, I will fly a Caldari Caracal cruiser complete with missiles, giving me a good chance of striking hard and quick. The Caracal is fitted with sensor dampers to hinder my targets, and a sensor booster for myself. The general idea is to reduce the enemy's targeting range and keep my distance outside of that limited range, so that I don't even get hit. The idea is good, let's see how it works in practice.

The Thorax my colleague chooses is faster than the Caracal, chasing me for long enough that the micro-warp drive drains my capacitor dry, at which point I drop to a crawl and get within his damped targeting range. My missiles don't quite get in to his structure before his guns and drones eat in to mine. To be fair, my opponent wasn't. He overheated his systems to catch up to me, which whilst far from disallowed is perhaps a little against the spirit of a friendly duel for no stakes. But it is good to know that it took overheated systems to thwart me. So prepared, I am ready for a second duel.

In fact, I am more than prepared, with a second ship ready to energy-neutralise the Thorax to help me out. If you can't win in a fair fight, make it unfair in your favour. In both picking a random distance to warp to the chosen destination, the duel starting once both present, I even manage to get a few tens of kilometres between our two ships at that start, which helps my tactics. Unfortunately, the crappy Thorax races out of range of my neuting chum and closes with me quickly. With a more optimal initial range between us I get more missiles hitting my opponent, but just not quite enough to put him in to structure before he smokes me again.

Ultimately, my downfall is not moving away quickly enough. My first instruction for the ship to move away at maximum velocity is ignored for some reason, and I don't notice this as I busy myself targeting and activating sensor dampers and missile launchers. By the time I realise I am not moving it is a bit late, as the Thorax is closing fast and I have wasted valuable capacitor on an MWD cycle or two. It is a silly mistake and one definitely better made in practice. I have lost two more duels against colleagues, which really doesn't bode well for any real engagements, but the experience is vital. Understanding the modules, strategies, and what mistakes to watch out for is all good practice.

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Tags: caracal, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, thorax