CVA

This post doesn't need a lot of words because all I want to say is contained within the above image.  They say that those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  'Nuff said.


Ok, not 'nuff said.  I don't like CVA and I never will.  They screwed LFA and they screwed PXF and anyone that was in one of those Alliances who aligns themselves with CVA now should be ashamed of themselves.  Sadly that involves a lot of people that I consider in-game friends and that makes me sad.  But I'm not going to back down from something I believe is so painfully self-evident.  Not within the context of the game, out-of-game is different and I couldn't honestly care less.  Does that make sense?


The above image has been hidden lo these many months because I made it (and two others) for the private pleasure of my fellow Paxton pilots back when ElTorrent and Aralis screwed all of us and the efforts we had made in Providence.  At that time I promised myself I'd never publicly publish the image.


But then, last evening, CVA did it again.  They consorted with a known Pirate Corporation and hotdropped a DION Jump Freighter in Low-Sec.  Which, if you know anything at all about CVA, is in clear violation of their RP crap.  And it isn't the loss of the ships that pissed me off, but that once again (right when I was trying really, really hard to give them some slack for taking Providence back and see them in a different light cause some people I like joined them!) they clearly break the foundation of the bs they are built upon for a easy kill.  (And believe me, this kind of crap happened all the time before too.)


It doesn't matter that I don't like CVA.  It doesn't matter one single iota to anyone other than me.  Nor should it.  I'm just one single little pilot and no one should care.  But it does matter to Rixx and this post is for him.  This post is for all the times he lost something defending something that didn't exist.  Rixx is pissed off and he is drinking heavily tonight in some lonely low-sec station bitching to anyone within earshot.  He'll end up getting into a fight with some wack-job Amarrian and be hauled off to the brig to sleep it off.  I know him.  So this post is a selfish, drunken Rixx post that he'll regret in the morning.  Once he wakes up.




PS: My sincere apologies to my good friend Kirith for venting on his blog today, sorry about that m8.

Take Me To My Leader

Someone named KHAAAAAN over on Eve Report  has written a post about CrazyKinux that you should read. If you want to of course, the following won't make much sense if you don't.  Which, if you are a reader, might not be all that unusual anyway.  Mandrill also posted a reply to the KHAAAAAN post and my Blogger buddy Ecliptic Rift has also written a post about it.  So go catch up.


And no, I am not going to repeat any of that.  I will say this to those that might have been too lazy to read it for themselves, the poster wants CK to step down as our Leader and stop being such a hog.  Or something like that.  I know, I know, that sounds just plain silly.  Speaking only for myself here, which is all I ever do, I don't have a Leader.  Not here on the blog at least.  In-game my Leader is my CEO LJB, at home my Leader is my wife... other than that, don't got one.  So sorry CK, if you thought for a second there that you were my Leader, sorry bud.  That's the summary wrap-up, on to the post.


To KHAAAAAN i say "Pffft!"  (I wonder if that's his real name?)  How dare someone think they have the right to tell another Blogger what to do?  This makes me angry.  In fact, I am rather miffed.  When I was reading his post my mind kept replacing the CK references with RJ ones and my blood started to boil.  What if it had been me?  Or you? (Supposing you have a blog dear reader, you may not.)  Ok yes, I wouldn't really care one way or the other, true enough.  Would it make one iota of a difference?  Of course not.  There may in fact be a tremendous amount of people out there that do not like me, I don't know.  I can't imagine why they would feel that way, but it is a big universe and we have lots of room.


It isn't the attack then, it is the presumption of leadership and the further gall of attempted usurping of something that doesn't even exist.  That's what gets me.  This is indeed a big universe with room for lots and lots of Eve related blogs, PodCasts and other Eve related doings.  It is one of the things that most fascinates me about it.  I've heard there may be upwards of 700+ blogs about Eve out there!  Whoa, that is amazing to me.  I welcome them all.  Have at it.  I keep discovering new ones every day myself.  But to designate any one of those bloggers as our "leader"?  And then have the balls to ask him to step down?  Sheesh.


If someone wants a better Blog Pack then go and make a better one. No one is stopping you. In fact, I know of many people that have done so. CK helped found this community, and his was the first Eve Blog I happened upon when I started playing Eve. As such, he did inspire me to eventually start my own vastly superior blog!  LOL.  For that CK will always have my respect and admiration even when we have disagreed in the past.  (I don't remember why we disagreed, but I remember we did. I don't remember because it isn't important now, we kissed and made up or something.) 


Let me say this now.  If you have a problem with me, write me an email, comment on a post, shoot me in-game, do something to let me know.  I am not a leader and never want to be considered one.  I have enough trouble trying to write in this thing, keep up with my work and find time to play Eve.


However, if you want to bash me, feel free.  I ain't gonna stop, I might listen though, who knows you may have a point.  

Well Well Well

Deep subject.  As is so often the case in my experience with Eve, I take a break and the game changes under my feet while I am gone.  Will this end up being yet another move in the long and storied history of Rixx Javix?


I was about to say "unknown" at this time and be a good boy about this.  And while I do not know exactly what is going to be happening this week, I have a pretty darn good idea.  And while I was away the forums were busy with the news anyway, so who am I trying to protect here?


Let me be clear, I do know exactly what my Corp is doing and that will have to wait until later to talk about.  But as far as the Alliance goes, while the ultimate answer might be days away, the end result will still be the same.  Total failscade.  Again.  Boy I sure can pick 'em huh?  Last week's decision to evacuate Impass to a fall-back position in Catch was exactly what it looked like.  Our regional "partners" have more important problems right now and Circle of Two is in no position to do much of anything on its own.  Two months of intense fighting has taken its toll.  I've been thru this too many times not to know what is going to happen, more than likely.  I say "more than likely" because no one can know for certain, but like I said, I've been down this road before.


This is how it happens.  The war starts out decent enough, everyone is playing nice and we're all one big happy family.  The losses are mounting, but systems are falling, so no one cares all that much at first.  The enemy doesn't die, he just backs up.  Again, no one seems to notice that at first.  Already some of the more "carebeary" Corps start whining in Alliance chat about not making any money, when can we upgrade systems? when can we start ratting?  No one pays this much attention at first, cause seriously, people need money to fight a war right?  The enemy starts hot-dropping those that are out trying to make money, this makes the carebears extremely nervous.  The war starts to slow down and slog a bit.  Some of the partners get distracted by stuff they have to deal with and don't show up on some ops for support and a few of those ops go badly.  SBUs pop up in systems that you thought were safe.  No problem, we'll just take those down.  But now a Station is in RF and lo and behold a few enemy POS Towers pop up here and there.  Now the enemy is seriously hot-dropping and camping stations, and while you seem to be dealing with it ok enough, the momentum is seriously swinging the other way.


Now, at that moment, is when you either win or lose in this game.  Because no one wants to be a loser or a quitter, the worst possible thing of them all is next.  The AFK Pilots, the station-spinners, the RL concerners, the people with something more important to do, those players will start not showing up for awhile.  Participation is down, suddenly fleets that had 200 pilots now have only 75.  And what you don't know is that many of those AFK pilots have moved their assets to Empire, "Just to be safe".  And then, some of the Corps start doing the same thing, moving their assets to Empire.  They don't tell you this, you only find out about it later.  Once that starts, you've already lost.


Every cloud has a silver lining though and this one is no exception.  For one thing, I was not personally invested in this Alliance like some of the Alliances I've been a part of in the past.  That isn't saying anything 'bad' about Co2, but it also isn't saying anything good either.  A little over two months in is not an investment, and while we moved to enjoy Providence, a week in and we were in a War for Impass.  Not exactly what we signed up for.  But we did our best as a Corporation and led the Alliance in PvP while we did it.  Which is something to be proud of.


This week should be interesting and I'm sure the coming months will be even more so.  I'm excited about some things I can't talk about right now, but let me say this much.  Our Corp has had a plan in place for the past six months and this is simply another step in that plan.  What is the next step?


Stay tuned.

Break for Turkey

Click to embiggen!

For the next few days I will be enjoying the Thanksgiving Holiday with my family, eating way to much food and sitting around on the couch with my belt unbuckled watching American football. Needless to say I won't be writing in the blog or playing much Eve during this lethargic over end-indulgent American festive thing we do.


Eating is only part of it however, we are also supposed to pause to consider those things for which we are thankful.  In that spirit, here are some of the things I am thankful for in Eve.


I am thankful for:


> My Corp m8s!  They are awesome and DION is the bestest darn group of people in Eve.  Especially Unity Love.


> My readers!  WoOt. They are simply the brightest bunch of blog readers on the interwebs.  Thanks guys for stopping by and hanging out and commenting and stuffs. And to those of you that say "Hi" in local, thanks!  Especially those on the enemy side that give me intel, much appreciated.  Shhhh.


> Providence.  For some stupid reason this region keeps calling me back again and again, having just docked back in station there again yesterday it felt good to be back home.


> Ammo.  Without it you just can't kill people.  Although, I am flying a Curse now, so we'll see how going Ammoless works.


> Bookmarks.  Without them I'd be dead a lot more often than I should be.  Having said that, it appears that you can never have enough of the damn things.


> My Ship Crew!  I've killed them an awful lot and they keep coming back for more, god bless 'em.  Especially Dominic the cranky old mechanic who keeps my warp engine tuned.  


> Reds.  I hate 'em but without 'em the game would be a lot less interesting.  Send moar!  Especially the young and noobish!


> CCP.  C'mon, let's give them some love, they did invent the darn thing.  Although, add another "C" and they could be an evil oppressive Communist super-power, which does give me pause from time to time. (RJ shows his age with an ill-timed Cold War themed reference that the kids won't get.)


> EVE!  In the end I am thankful for this slow-burn evil bitch that destroys hours and hours of my life and keeps me addicted to an immersive virtual experience that has zero reference to the real world and yet often feels more vibrant and relevant then the explosive hate filled reality I am forced to watch outside my window.  Shucks, I do love me some Eve.


To all of you that are also enjoying your Thanksgiving Holiday, I wish you the very best with your friends and family.


Keep the courage and see you back here soon.

War Effects

We've been at War now for what seems like months. A week after we moved to Providence we went to war and have been on a war footing ever since. I've written about "war fatigue" before and we are certainly seeing it in full force now.  Here are some observations about long, protracted wars in Null Space.


• The worst thing isn't quitting, the worst thing is not playing. Afk, station spinning, or simply not logging on are all symptoms of this most vile after effect of war fatigue. The finger gets pointed at me as well as many others.  Although my lack of play-time has nothing to do with the war, the results are the same.


• Funding. Long sustained wars take mucho isk.  How exactly does one make mucho isk when there are 200+ reds in your system?  Or CTAs are being called whenever you do log-on?  For short periods of time this is fine, but over the long-haul?  It begins to take its toll and people start disappearing.


• Morale. An often over-looked effect is in morale.  Yes, even a game has morale issues. Why log on when you are only going to lose yet another ship, system, or expensive asset?  This begins to wear on even the most veteran pilots.  And for the younger set?  It is even more difficult.


This isn't a whine, war is a bitch.  And zero space isn't for pussies. This is the reality of Eve today, large scale universe wide conflict. It's everywhere around the map and it isn't going to end soon. So man up and shut up?


No. I don't like a lot of what is happening. Every time I try to put a Corp Roam or Gang together we get a red fleet in local, or another CTA gets called. I planned on running training ops for the past month, so far I've managed to run none. War is a bitch and while there is nothing one can do about that, one doesn't have to be happy about it.


But in the final analysis this is why I play. To fight. So when I do manage to log-on I do that the best that I can. Hence the frustration. The desire to fight balanced against all of the above.


In my humble opinion frustration is the greatest enemy to long-term Null Space Sov Warfare.  And right now, there is plenty of frustration to go around.

Advancing In A Different Direction

As usual Mord Fiddle has a good wrap-up of the goings on in Impass.  The situation has kept yours truly unusually busy the last three days.  Even though I wasn't able to log-in all weekend.  So I'd recommend reading his report if you are interested in the politics and whatnots.


As for me, I worry about things from a much more grunt oriented perspective.  What all this means for me is mucho headaches and logistics issues.  When I do log on later I will be in a station surrounded by reds.  My last ship in the station (the last of 26 moved, sold, or trashed since Friday) is my trusty Falcon.  The rest of my assets are split between another station on the other side of the enemy six jumps away and one over 10 jumps away in Catch.  How I get everything back together again is problem number one.


Many thanks to the amazing DION and our logistics team.  Well done as always and I can't say enough about how well they work together.  Once again they saved my ass.


I'm sure I'll have more to say about this in later posts.  For now sadly, my predictions have all come true.  But despite current events it will be interesting to see how things work themselves out.  With the Holidays here in the U.S. coming up, playing time is going to be hard to come by.

More Worx

Told you I was working my way through the commissions!  Telathe, a long-time reader and frequent commenter here on Eveoganda, asked me to do some various commissions for him awhile back.  The first was a Wallpaper for his Corp Tower of Ravens, which you can see above.  This is a perfect example of how a off-hand comment can sometimes lead to inspiration.  He mentioned in one of his emails how he saw dark birds circling a Castle tower, very dark and gothic images sprang to mind.  Certainly Tower of Ravens would start you thinking in those directions.  I thought however, the in-game Raven certainly looks like a bird of prey, so why not have them circling a dark gothic Castle?


The next one was a blog banner for his blog Republic of Tyrants, but I don't post those until they go up on the site, so you'll have to wait for that one.  The next was a forum banner for the Alliance "The Laughing Men".  I could have gone a lot of different ways with this one, and I tried a few, but this image captured everything I wanted in a simple, elegant manner that the other ideas just couldn't do.





I'll post the Blog Banner once he gets it up and running.  In the meantime, Republic of Tyrants has been added to the growing blog list in the right sidebar, so give Telathe some love and head on over.




Back to the drawing board.

The Durzo Chronicles

Not all blog banners need to be complicated or overly wrought photoshop feeding frenzies, sometimes the simple execution is much more effective.  Take this one I recently completed for The Durzo Chronicles as an example.  When I read Durzo's blog I was struck by the clean, simple execution of his words - which is a compliment by the way - and thought the banner should reflect that style.  I do try and match my impressions of the artist in the work that I do, sometimes I manage it and sometimes I come close.


Either way, stop over and give him some comment love.

The State of Commissions

At one point about two weeks ago I had 27 Eve-related projects on my list.  That list included banners, wallpapers, ads, logo designs, and just about anything else you could think of.  That might sound like a lot, but it isn't really.  Not during normal times.  Sadly, these have not been normal times.


About two months ago I came very, very close to experiencing a catastrophic event in my professional life.  The details are not important, but suffice to say that close call has taken every bit of attention that I could muster to prevent it from happening. The good news is that we are well on our way out of harms way.


I try not to allow Real Life to impact this blog or the work that I do for "fun".  As we all discover from time-to-time ourselves, that is an impossible goal.  Real life does often affect our playing time, or commitments in-game and other aspects of our Eve experience.  This is normal and as it should be.  As my Corp m8s would tell you themselves, my playing time those last two months has been nearly zero.  And this during a period when I was needed, for the war, for helping our new recruits (most of whom I was responsible for recruiting) and generally getting settled into our new home.


There is good news here as well.  Things are slowly returning to normal.  For anyone that has been waiting for my attention to your projects, I can assure you that you haven't been forgotten.  I am working my way through the list to you right now.  Those 27 projects have been honed down to only 12 right now.  My goal is to have everything completed before the middle of next week and the Thanksgiving break.


I appreciate all of you and thank you for your readership and your patience.

Fashion Sense

Knee Anderthal is an Eve pilot with a strong sense of fashion and style!  How do I know this?  Well it is obvious if you click on the link and visit his website, you'll see for yourself.


Took the day off yesterday to spend with my son, we both skip school/work each year on his birthday.  It's kind of our tradition.  So give me a chance to get caught up and I'll be back later with something yummy.

Ecliptic Rift Banner

Click to embiggen

Ecliptic Rift is one of my daily reads, or was before he took a break (but he's back now), and a while back he asked me to design a new blog banner for him.  He finally got around to posting it, so go over and let him know how awesome it is.
I tease, but you get the point.


And yes, I am behind on my commissions, but I will be working on getting caught up this week. Hang in there.

proper bitching

First of all, thanks to everyone who wrote, convo'd or otherwise commented on my posts of late expressing my frustrations regarding the current situation.  As always, I sincerely appreciate all of you and your consideration, offers of help and all the other nutty stuff.  Thanks.


Secondly, this brings up the question of proper bitching.  (Not whining, that's a whole other ball of wax.)  Bitching properly is an art form in my opinion.  And while complaining for the sake of complaining is tantamount to whining, proper bitching has its place in honest dialogue.  One just has to know how to bitch properly.  And why would you need to know this?  Because proper bitching gets things done, makes changes that need to be made and motivates others.  Improper bitching, moaning and whining make you annoying and get you into trouble.


So knowing the difference can be crucial.  The fundamental difference between moaning and bitching is "having a point" or in other words, "moving the conversation forward".  Whining, moaning and complaining have no point other than a self-righteous, self-centered, making yourself feel better agenda.  But proper bitching, if you are doing it right, always has a point, always keeps the conversation moving forward.  Sometimes things are just wrong and no one seems to be noticing, so bitching about it can make someone else see your point.


However, just like in the military, bitching goes up the chain of command and NEVER down it.  Sergeants complain to Lieutenants, but Sergeants never complain to Privates.  In Eve it is important to remember that, especially when you are a Director or a CEO, or anyone else in some position of authority.  Bitch up but never down.  Bitching down is a fail response, usually a miserable attempt to generate some sympathy for yourself.  Which, if you need that, you shouldn't be in charge in the first place.  The same holds true in Alliances as well.  A properly formed Alliance/Corp will have established "bitch channels" set up, a channel for the bosses to complain to each other outside earshot of the privates.  It is extremely important to the well-being of your organization to allow bitching, but to also control its exposure.


Now, what if that Sergeant has a blog?  (Assuming one would even be allowed.)  Then his responsibility would be to keep his negative opinions to himself now wouldn't it?  Really?  Yes, in a military situation where lives are actually on the line, I think that would be obvious.  But in Eve?  


I want to be clear.  I spent some time recently bitching about the current situation in Eve, mostly in regards to my own personal lack of playing time.  And some in regards to the Alliance.  And here is the clear part, not one word of that had anything to do with my Corp.  No one has said it did, but I want to make that clear.  I am frustrated with my recent lack of playing time and with some of the decisions and lack of enthusiasm the Alliance has been making/showing recently. But that is in CONTEXT to the following: we've been at war for a long time.  Sov War is a grind and it is hard to make isk, to trade, to run plex, to rat, everything is difficult and has been for a while now.  Adding fuel to the fire was not my intention.


I'm not apologizing, everything I said was true.  I don't apologize because I know how to bitch properly.  I bitch to make things better, to improve the situation and I bitch up. (mostly, although I do realize that the blog does change that a bit.  I have to be aware of that.)


I finally got a chance to play some on Saturday, contributed to some nice fleets and managed to kill eight ships including a Carrier.  That felt good.  And today I am fitting my new Curse, Zealot and Pilgrim and that feels even better.


So don't be afraid to bitch properly, and I hope you know I am using the word "bitch" to make a point.  It really is about complaining about things that are wrong in order to see them fixed.  And standing by your words and working to make things better yourself and not always relying on others to do it for you.

1v1: #28 IN COLOR!

Click to Embiggen!

Well it has been a few weeks (yikes almost over a month!) since the last 1v1 Comic appeared, and while certainly no one was missing them or demanding they come back to a regular schedule (!), I'm going ahead and bringing them back anyway!  So there.  If you haven't noticed however, this time there is a twist.  The strip is in FULL COLOR now!  Wow, am I amazing or what?  You guys are so lucky to have me as your friendly neighborhood Eve blogger, y'know?


Enjoy the strip if you can and have a great weekend.  I may or may not be around this weekend, undetermined as I write this.


Let me know what you think of the COLOR version.

Frustrated 2: This Time It's Personal

Man, wouldn't it be nice to be able to play Eve like 24/7?  Just think of that for a moment, you'd never miss out on anything.  You could be in all the CTA's, the gate camps, the POS Bashes, the Black Op Bomber Ganks, the... well heck, everything.  Of course no one plays Eve 24/7, at least not for long.  But there are those that have the opportunity to play a lot, we all know one of these players.  The ones with the killer killboards, the ones that seem to "always" be on when we log-in, the guys that have plenty of time to run Missions, Rat, Mine, Build and make fortunes.  We all know one of 'em, or we happen to be one of 'em.


I'm not one of those people.  Even from the beginning, my time in Eve comes in random spurts of mostly unplanned time chunks.  Managing to put together more than an hour at a time is a massive undertaking.  Although oddly, because of the way my life works, I can often be 'on' Eve for 8-14 hours a day.  But that isn't "play" time, but more of "social" time - time to chat, fix up stuff, fit ships, write in a blog, etc.  Lately even that time has suffered.


But yesterday I managed to eke out an hour or so to "play".  I log in and start talking, watching intel, catch up on the 57 mostly Alliance emails I've missed, and try to get back into the situation.  Which given the rapidly changing war environment around Impass, isn't as easy as it sounds.  I feel a bit detached at the moment to be perfectly frank, this can happen when you haven't been on in awhile.


Watching intel I notice that several reports of reds running around are coming in fast and furious. I watch, trying to determine if there is a developing situation that I might be able to do something about.  And then, a few systems over, someone reports nine reds in one of our systems.  Nine?  That is a much better number than the usual 80+ we've been getting.  But that isn't the best part.  The best part is that they apparently have a Widow.  A Widow?!?  You've got to be kidding me.  I ask for confirmation and sure enough, that's the report.


I can fondly remember a day when the report of a Widow, a Loki, a Rattlesnake, a Cynabal, heck any cool expensive bad guy ship would cause immediate action to erupt in Alliance chat.  Someone would form a quick gang and we'd all go running after the chance to kill said bad guy ship stone cold dead.  I mean really!  How dare they!?  This is, in my opinion, what it means to defend your space.  You can call all the CTA's you want, but if you can't keep a nine man gang with a Widow out of your systems, then what is the point?  Even if you don't kill it... at least you've tried.


Nope.  Nothing.  I raised a ruckus, but I kept my tongue bitten for the most part.  Eventually I got so pissed off that I jumped into one of my Falcons and flew over there myself.  Not only were they in the system as reported but they were ratting in one of our own hidden belts!  I yelled at the reds in local, but otherwise there was nothing I could do alone.


More and more I miss the old days.  More and more I wonder about what exactly my "fun" is in this game.  Please DO NOT misunderstand me here, I am not quitting Eve.  This isn't about Rixx, but more about his User.  What am I getting out of this experience and where do I go from here?  I don't know right now.


All I know is that the current state of affairs is frustrating.  And what little time I have to play is often being wasted.  That is not a sustainable combination.




Anyone looking for a good summation of the current situation should read this.  Mord pays a lot more attention to politics than I do and sums it all up very nicely, and fairly.

New Shirt: I Rep Stupid!

Click to embiggen!

Well this is the last of the "already done" line.  Which represents designs I already had in the hopper from several months ago when I first thought of the idea of designing and selling Eve related t-shirts.  Goodness knows I haven't had any time lately for such things.


This one might be my personal favorite, the idea came to me during one of our fleets when I was struck by the shape of the Scimitar.  I remembered the old "I'm with Stupid" T-Shirts and thought it would be funny to do something similar for the poor Logi pilots in our fleets.


Even if you are not a Logi pilot the sentiment is, I think, still funny.  And yes, before you ask, I do have one of each of my own designs.  Which I proudly wear on the weekends.


You can select from a wide variety of styles, colors and even things that aren't t-shirts by clicking on the SHOP! EVEOGANDA button in the right sidebar.


As always, all proceeds go to charity, in this case the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  Thanks.

Veterans Day

While we play at war in our virtual playground, in the real world there are those that have experienced the brutal reality of war themselves.  I would be remiss today if I didn't say Thank You to all the Veterans out there, I appreciate your service, your sacrifice and your dedication.  While this day is one I wish more than anything we had no need for, sadly that isn't the way the world works yet.  I have never served in the military, but I have many friends and family members who both have and continue to do so.  There are those in both camps that have given their lives and this day is in their honor as well.  To those of you that read Eveoganda and have served in your respective Armed Forces (This being an International blog) I salute you.  You have my respect and my sincere thanks.  For any that may be reading this that are currently serving both at home and abroad, please do me a favor and keep your head down, do your job and get your asses safely back home.


Let us all hope that someday, the only wars we fight are the virtual kind.  But until that day comes, thank you to all our veterans.


Keep the courage.

Frustrated

<--- not that frustrated.


But close.  Real Life has been a bear the last two months, not to share my current pains with anyone but it has been.  'Nuff said.  This happens from time to time and while this particular time is worse than any others since I've been playing Eve, it happens.  I'm not one of those people that needs perspective about where this game fits within reality.  But, and there is always a but, this also happens to coincide with two months of protracted Sov warfare in Impass.  This is not a good combination.


Sov War is a grind.  Granted we all know this.  There are constant fleets, reds in your systems, station camps, iHubs in reinforce, POS Bashes, the list is long and these fleets all take time and commitment.  This can be draining even during normal circumstances.  Add to that the extended amount of time this one is taking, over two months now, and the fact that I seldom have the amount of time needed to participate in any fleets - and you begin to get a sense of my frustrations.


The last ship I killed was over a month ago and that was a whore job.  The last really good string of kills was back in September.  That is a long time.  Which is one of the reasons I decided to hold the Hunt For Rixx Javix just to stir things up a bit.  Which only resulted in losing two Hurricanes, stranding a Dramiel in Rens, and losing about 600m isk.  That wasn't a very good solution.


These are my whoas, and I'm not asking for sympathy or anything.  If I'm going to have a blog about Eve I figure I should be as honest and open about the experience as possible.  I certainly try to lean towards the fun and entertaining, but sometimes it helps to just write these things out.


Yesterday when I got podded back down to Impass I notice our station is in reinforce.  This is the icing on the cake.  Because that means that once again there is no apparent end in sight.  And this is the beginning of my frustrations.  The rest comes with the job and I can deal with that stuff easily.  But thinking about this war dragging on for another month or two or three?  That begins to wear me down.  Why?  Because I can't really participate the way I should be, I should be helping, I should be fighting and joining fleets and killing bad guys.  But I can't right now.  To me, a soldier in both intent and purpose, that is the most frustrating thing of all.


So for now I continue plugging away and hoping that things, both in-game and out, get better soon.  


Keep the courage.

Day of the Hunt

The Hunt For Rixx Javix is today at 22:00 Eve time until 23:00 Eve time, maybe even a tad longer - who knows.  I thought I'd start this post and update it as the day goes along.  I also plan a pretty thorough telling of anything that happens during the Hunt.


15:00 Hours
Having already bought and fit the RED OCTOBER I decided to fly from Rens down into Molden Heath so I'd be ready to go at 22:00.  That was easy enough and I've docked in a station somewhere in a low-sec system in that region.  So I'm all set up and ready to undock.


What do I expect?  Not much really, to be honest I don't think much will happen, I don't give myself that much credit.  So I will be the hunter at first and try to get into some fights.  Maybe someone will come along in response to this post and maybe I'll be exploded by a total stranger... who knows?  But that's why I'm doing it.  For the same reason I do everything, for some fun.  So let's see what happens.


22:26 Hours
Congratulations to CaptainHeroUK and Talinthi both of The Gentlemen of Low Moral Fibre for killing me proper.  They were waiting for me in Bosena where I had docked up, but they weren't on station.  I warped to a planet and then a belt, and then to planet 7 and Captain showed up in his Cane at about 30k.  I waited to see if he would aggress and he did, so I pointed the Red October in his direction and started my attack run.


I am the first to admit that I am rusty at this point, I haven't played much lately and the rust is showing.  I thought I could close the distance to his Cane so I waited and didn't switch out my ammo.  By the time I realized I wasn't going to close fast enough his buddy showed up in his Cyclone.  I switched my drones and attention to the Cyclone, but my earlier mistake cost me the fight.


My Corp m8 Eradicator44 showed up in his Cane to help (Which I didn't know about before!) and he also died after I had podded out.  I distributed the 300m based on the percentage of damage they each did and we all "gf"ed each other in local.  It was a good clean fight and exactly what I was hoping for.  Although I was also hoping to do a bit better, I was also fully prepared to die.  The point wasn't winning or losing, but just to have a shot at a good fight.


So thanks to CaptainHero and Talinthi.  Good fight.


I am re-fitting another ship and headed back out.  Why not?




"hiya rixx, just wanted to thank you for making this a fun evening. I read your blog and when i heard about the opportunity to come along and have a go at shooting you I couldnt resist. Also thanks for the isk injection it will help a lot. Thanks again bud, good fight and keep up the blog."
Cheers - CaptainHeroUK


23:50
So Angor calls me up and says come on over to Verge and get into a fight.  It's 22j away and I know I'll be flying into a trap, so I go anyway.  You might find this line of thinking odd, but I figure I owe him.  I've killed him three times and he's never gotten the chance to return the favor.  Once I killed him because he asked me to, once I killed him because he was red and made the mistake of coming around, and once I killed him by accident during one of our "test" fights - so he was due.  Plus I was bored.  


So I flew all the way across the universe to get killed.  The problem is this, the stupid Eve Gate thingie means Angor was still set Blue to me.  So when I switched my overview settings over to PvP he didn't show up.  So I land on the planet surrounded by Tuskers, a Dramiel and a Drake - plus Angor's invisible Cane.  I'm doomed of course, but I go for the Dramiel in the hopes of at least killing the tackle.  When I should have gone for Angor's Cane, I probably would've killed him again.  Needless to say I died and then the expected happend, they grabbed my pod and demanded ransom.



Angor Mau > o/
Rixx Javix > o/
ItsmeHcK1 > o/
Rixx Javix > scum sucking pirates
Angor Mau > how much is your pod worth to ya?
ItsmeHcK1 > ^^
Rixx Javix > i dunno its a long drive back to impass
ItsmeHcK1 > No implants?
Rixx Javix > yeah a few of course
ItsmeHcK1 > Let's start small here.
ItsmeHcK1 > 1b!
Rixx Javix > lol not that many implants
leyo690 > 900 M ?
ItsmeHcK1 > 100M then? :P
Rixx Javix > thats closer
Angor Mau > 50m?
Rixx Javix > seriously name your price guys
ItsmeHcK1 > So, you seriously came down here to let us kill you? :P
Rixx Javix > im not gonna haggle
Rixx Javix > i did
Rixx Javix > i was bored
ItsmeHcK1 > That is... quite strange.
Rixx Javix > i am odd
Rixx Javix > sov war will do it to you
Angor Mau > 50m and your pod is free
Rixx Javix > agreed
ItsmeHcK1 > And shiny belt rats with officer spawns.
Rixx Javix > who do i make the check to?
ItsmeHcK1 > I will neut you down though, just in case!
Angor Mau > make my wallet blink
Rixx Javix > im good on my word
Rixx Javix > expensive day for me :)
ItsmeHcK1 > :P
ItsmeHcK1 > You nullsec ratters make way too much anyway. :P
Rixx Javix > i dont rat
[Angor Mau > you are free to go
Rixx Javix > u guys are still scum sucking pirates though
Rixx Javix > i'd have paid 100m
ItsmeHcK1 > Well, you did come all the way to get killed.
Rixx Javix > true
ItsmeHcK1 > It's only reasonable to return the favor. :)
Rixx Javix > lol
Rixx Javix > gf

The sucky part is the this however, I got podded a couple of jumps out of Rens by the smartbombing a-hat on a gate.  So boom back to Impass minus my implants.  Which is no big deal since I always have spares in the hanger.  Still all in all it was an extremely expensive day for RJ.  But it wasn't boring and I did manage to get two good fights out of it.


Now back to the grind.  While I was away someone put our station into RF.

The Hunt for Rixx Javix: Prep

Tomorrow is the day I am hunted down like an animal and exploded... or at least tomorrow is the day someone will try to hunt me down like an animal and explode me.  Trying is not doing.  If they do, they win 300m ISK.  If you need details about this insanity please read the post about it down there somewhere, I'm too lazy to link it.  It's only a few down and it has the cool poster art on it also.


So I drove my Dramiel 40 some jumps through enemy territory (without a single encounter btw, so sad) and plopped myself down in Hi-Sec to buy and outfit my new soon to be exploded Cane.  I'm not taking it easy on you and I plan to outfit the doomed ship as well as I can.  I'm not an idiot though, so probably not a lot of faction mods or anything super expensive.  I know you people will only loot my wreck and whatnot.


I would expect much taunting and drivel in local however, so I hope this turns out to be fun at least.  It is kind of a crazy idea, but never let it be said that ever stopped me!  If it does turn out to be fun I suspect I'll do it again, so don't let me down people.


Until then, I'll have my wrench out working on my new Hurricane.  You can't just buy these ships and undock, they need a ton of work.  Minmatar y'know.

Sneak Peek At The Next Expansion!!

Eveoganda Spies have returned from their secret trip to Iceland with news of a staggering new Spring 2011 Expansion called "Coffee Break". While several of these spies did not make it back alive, ( my friends told me not to hire spies thru the Bothan Spying Agency, but I didn't listen)- we have learned some startling facts about what CCP has planned for us this coming Spring. Seriously, if you are faint of heart or a wuss, don't read any further. Spoiler Warning in other words.

Here is the official PR release:

22/04/2011
CCP Announces Spring 2011 Expansion - EVE Online®: Coffee Break

Reykjavik, Iceland – April 22, 2011 – CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, has announced a new expansion for all subscribers and trial users of EVE Online that will be released in May, 2011. EVE Online®: Coffee Break will feature the nerve-wrecking contract negotiations between all four Empires' and CONCORD. PIlots may often scoff at the importance of NPC elements within the Eve Universe, but they won't when a mere week into negotiations CONCORD walks off the job!  That's right, in what becomes known as COFFEE BREAK the Empires' law enforcement arm is effectively removed for one FULL WEEK of chaos!

Watch as every system becomes Null Space!  Experience the sheer terror of Jita!  Gate guns grow silent, gate patrols disappear, no one is around to issue criminal complaints and every treaty suddenly becomes null and void!  NO MORE SOV!

CONCORD spokesperson Neil Buttplug had this to say, "We at CONCORD are tired of being taken for granted and we think it isn't unreasonable to take a few days off to spend with the kids and family.  We work 24/7 y'know!  If the Empires' won't take us seriously then we'll see what they say after a week without us!"

Also CCP is pleased to announce a new ship will be available in COFFEE BREAK, the BUNKER will be a large asteroid looking ship that players can hide their valuables inside of during the week of chaos, cause who is to say how cargo and hangers will be held secure without CONCORD around?

In the spirit of COFFEE BREAK all CCP offices will be closed that week and no one will be answering the phone, or following up on petitions, or anything else.  Lag might be an issue.  We will have extremly

[ EDITOR: Bill, this is CCP HammerTime, do you really think this expansion release is such a good idea?  We didn't say anything about some of the subtle, minor UI fixes we have planned?!  Wtf? ]

[ EDITOR'S BOSS: HT this is Bill.  You guys kept whining about not getting any vacation time, so this is what happens! Now get back to work! ]

Don't forget The Hunt For Rixx Javix!

Catch Up

If you haven't yet, take a moment to read the previous post and come on The Hunt For Rixx Javix on Wednesday!  I'll be hanging out looking for a fight and whoever gets me also gets 300m ISK!  How can you beat that deal?  You can't, so stop crying in your cereal!  For goodness sake, you are a disgrace to your parents.  Sheesh.


A few words to all those that are awaiting Commissions.  I apologize, I have been very, very busy lately - but you are not forgotten.  Rixx will not be accepting any more commissions between now and the new year and will be working very hard to get everything cleaned up and back on schedule between now and then.  So if you are waiting I appreciate your patience and will be with you shortly.  Real life punched me in the mouth about a month ago and I've been working on getting things back on track ever since.  We're getting there.


I agree with Kirith, where is Incursion?!  If I'm not mistaken the calender says it's November and we don't even have an official release date yet?  That seems very, very strange.  The valley of silence from CCP on this the past few weeks has been odd.  I echo his thoughts though, if you guys need more time or something that's cool, just let us know.  So we don't think the worst y'know?  Cause we will.  Just mentioning it here has started my brain going... I'm starting to think the worst now.  Yikes.


I also want to recommend a blog that I just found the other day, it's called Hallo, Can I Violence UR Boat?  and I find it absolutely hysterical.  When I discovered it I devoured every single post in one sitting, smiling and laughing to myself the entire time.  While the style of writing takes some getting used to, it remains consistent (which is a credit to the writer, that isn't easy) and provides a unique and entertaining perspective on life in Eve.  I found the urban slang style, mixed with some seriously messed up "justice league" type comics language, warped enough to keep me coming back for more.  I've added the blog to my right side-bar list, which means it is now on my reading list.  Highly recommended.




I'll be back later with something or other.  Probably horribly entertaining and mind blowing. The usual.

300: The Hunt For Rixx Javix

300 posts!  It sure sneaks up on you.  I promised myself when I started this blog that I would write every day that I played Eve, which I mostly, sorta, kinda do.  I say "mostly" because I do try and take the weekends off - even though I often play on the weekends.  To make up for that I often post more than once a day during the week, sometimes as much as three times a day.  Although that is rare.  Whatever, this is the 300th post and in my last post I asked for some help in coming up with ideas to help me celebrate the event.


On the six-month anniversary I announced the Death Race (and yes, we will be having another one of those soon!) so I needed something cool to come up with.  Several good ideas in that last post and while not one of them is exactly what I am going to do, they did help me think of this idea.  So thanks to everyone who commented.


I am pleased to announce THE HUNT FOR RIXX JAVIX!  


On Wednesday November 10th, starting at 22:00 Eve time, Rixx will be in the low-sec region of Molden Heath (places like Bosena, Gonheim, Atlar, and others.) your job will be to hunt me down and kill me.  I will not be fitting a cloak and I will not be hanging out in safe spots.  I will be either at a planet or in a belt, or sometimes jumping through gates.  But I will not be running and hiding, I'll be out and about looking for a fight.  I'll be in a Hurricane for exactly one hour!  Anyone that kills me will receive 300 million ISK!!!


Now, if multiple people kill me they will split the 300m according to the percentage of damage they do on the killmail.  So you ECM pilots won't see a dime, same goes for anyone that does zero damage.  This is my way to try and discourage the use of those ships, I'd like a clean fair fight if possible.  In that spirit, if someone decides to hot-drop my ass with Carriers they won't see a dime.  Same goes for podding btw.


I know the TZ sucks for some of you, but I have to pick a time that works for me and no matter what time I pick someone won't be able to play.  Sorry about that, but them is the facts.  


I fully expect to lose my ship, but I am not going to make it easy on you.  I will use every trick I know and will fight to the death, so you'll have to be smart and determined to catch me.  Heck, I've given away all my advantages - you know where I'll be, when I'll be there and what ship I'll be flying.  Sheesh.  It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel.


The Hunt For Rixx Javix
• Wednesday Nov 10th
• Between 22:00-23:00 Eve Time
• Molden Heath Low-Security Space
• Rixx will be in a Cane
• No cloak, no safe spots
• Only gates, planets and belts
• Winner gets 300m ISK


Good hunting and thanks for reading Eveoganda!

Next Post

CrazyKinux is celebrating 6 years of blogging, so go over and say congratulations!  Six years is a huge accomplishment and the man deserves all the credit for it he can get.


I've only been writing Eveoganda since January so he has a huge head start on me.  Hopefully I never catch up.  Since I don't keep track of stats or anything over here I have nothing to compare to the numbers he mentions in his post.  The only thing that jumped out at me was the 800 posts number, especially when I realized my next post would make 300 Eveoganda posts since January!  300!?  Already?


Sheesh, I write a lot.


Which is a funny statement in more ways than it might appear, since I am a writer.  They say that writers write and that is mostly what I do every single day.  I also do other things but when it all boils down, I write.  Writing is a habit and I've been addicted for a long time.  It helps that I take time off, mostly on weekends.  My regular readers might have noticed that I rarely post on the weekend.  That's on purpose, it helps to keep the gears working in the brain.  Or working as well as they ever do.


But 300 seems to be a milestone of some sort, so what should I do with it?  The last milestone around here was my six-month anniversary and I took that opportunity to announce the Death Race.  What should I do for my 300th post?


Any suggestions would be welcomed.




UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.  The 300th post will be tomorrow and I'll be announcing your chance to WIN 300m ISK!  I'm a giving type blogger y'know.  And in the spirit of Eve winning will involve combat of the most dangerous kind, so check back tomorrow for details.

Gooder Eve: Bombs

[ Gooder Eve is a series of on-going articles that examine ways in which Eve can be made Gooder.  Some are serious, some are not, but all are intended to create debate, dialogue, and discussion.  So enjoy! ]


Today's Gooder Eve post isn't about one thing and one thing only, but it does share a common theme so I thought I'd group these concepts together.  Each one is probably not worthy of a single post, but together hopefully they are.  What do I know anyway?  I'm just a pot-stirrer.  Ask anyone.


The Depth Charge


Eve has often been compared to more of an underwater simulation of submarine warfare than a space simulator, that may or may not be true (I see the point but it's hard to ignore the fact that it takes place in space!) but perhaps we could take something from the world of the submarine and apply it to Eve?  And if that wasn't a run-on sentence, then I am a turkey.


Introducing the depth charge.  What does it do exactly?  Well it doesn't cause any damage, instead it de-cloaks cloakers.   It has the same type of radial area of effect as regular stupid Eve bombs, but instead of damage it disrupts the cloaking field around nearby ships - causing them to not work.  Since it doesn't cause damage, the radial effect is one based on time.  The closer to the center of the explosion the more time it takes to re-activate the cloak (make repairs) and the further the vicey versa.  


Eve is crying out for a way to de-cloak ships and I think this is a way to do it and keep the cloakers somewhat safe.  Let's face it, you'll still need to know where they are, they can still hide, but wouldn't it be nice to catch them at their own game sometimes?  Or see if they really are hanging out around the gate?


The Bumper Bomb


For those that may not know, "Bumping" is the act of ramming your ship into another ship to "bump" it away from an undock, gate or out of a POS shield.  Let's all continue to ignore the silliness of this system and the fact that doing it causes no damage to the bumper or the bumpee.  What if Eve had a bomb type that did the same thing?  Instead of damage it caused a shock wave that "bumped" ships within its AOE away from the center of the explosion?  Said Bumper Bomb also has the ability to be programmed, effectively entering a POS password would allow the bomb to affect ships inside a POS shield!  Whoa.


The Scrambler


Currently there aren't any in-game mods or ammo types that affect the UI, not that I am aware of anyway.  But why not?  One of the biggest parts of modern warfare is electronic countermeasures, and while Eve has its share of those - not a single one that actually impacts the "electronics" of the pilot.  What do I mean?  How about a bomb that disrupts the targets Overview?  Take any science-fiction universe and crap in space is always messing around with the sensors, mucking up the computers and generally giving false information.  Gosh, how many times did Spock tell Kirk that very same thing?  In Eve?  Nothing.  I think this would add a level of interesting developments and immersion to the universe of Eve - devices that directly impact YOUR electronics (in other words the UI you rely on) and return false information for a certain amount of time.




In the end, are these actually bombs or modules or ammo types or missile types?  I leave that to those that know better, the point is that without much effort at all an entirely new line of available offensive and defensive weaponry can be made available to the Capsuleer.  I picked bombs because right now they are, in my opinion, about the most worthless ammo type imaginable and it would be nice to change that.


What are your thoughts?  Can you imagine any other bomb types that might be useful?  And what do you think of the Depth, Bumper and Scrambler?  I await your wisdom.


[ Of course we do also have Lock-Breaker bombs, which do have some utility.   Killian Redbeard wrote me an email and suggested we could also add a bomb that drained capacitor or caused heat damage to mods.  Both are interesting suggestions, I like the Cap draining one especially. ]