2009.07.28.1

The life goes on quite predictably. Me losing ships, wandering around and not gaining anything. At peak, I had quite nice armada of ships and 120M ISK. Now I'm down to 50M with little to no progress.

I'm on the move. I am applying to a corp which has some plans for the next two months which require some actions from me. I have been spending my time mining and preparing the needed equipment through manufacturing. I haven't felt like mining for profit, as the mineral market is down. Propably the usual summer slump which can be observed from the market trends thorough the years.

I have been exploring and trying to utilize my findings. I haven't quite got the grasp of it yet thou. Once I have ound a suitable hole, I try to set up shop to the entry system, but usually it takes me so long time, the WH is already decaying. Yesteday I found a hole with a gas cloud. I also found a gas cloud spot in high sec. This encouraged me to learn three levels of gas cloud harvesting to fit some harvesters on an Osprey. Quick calculations showed that the highsec gas cloud would not be very profitable. GC mining has the advantge of afk mining thou. I decided to try and mine the WH cloud. I succesfully harvested a 1300 unit cloud of fullerite C50, which would have netted me 11M in Jita. No buyers nearby, thou. (Ah yes. I'm now living 25 jumps from Jita). There was another cloud of fullerite C84. While less profitable, there was lots of it. I kept using my directional scanner to keep an eye on any traffic in the hole. There hadn't been anyone visiting for the whole time. I considered myself rather lucky. While watching some mythbusters, I continued to drag my profits to a jetcan every ten minutes, checking the scanner. Suddenyly something rather predictable happened! I saw from the corner of my eye that something was up. While I set my other laptop down and reached for the mouse of the gaming laptop I was already in hull! Crap! Someone called OnoSendai had jumped on me with a Drake and pummeled my Osprey to bits in mere seconds! Ohwell, I quickly escaped in my pod and decided to leave the system for good. I fitted another Osprey and proceeded to harvest the highsec cloud. After couple of hours, I went to check the WH again. Yup, Onosendai was there with someone else. Bugger, they propably had been harvesting the goods of the system for the whole night. I wish I had some muscle to guard my mining operations! Soon, soon...

I just finished fitting a cleaner cormorant. One with tractor beams and salvagers. I'll give ratting a try. The scannable sansha places in highsec seem potentially quite profitable! So, now to pummel some drones with my trusty Caracal missile boat. I'll report in later...

Exploration

After I mined in WH space with Sab, I decided to learn a bit of Astrometrics myself, to see how it all worked. When I ran into trouble with my new fan, Sara, I had Astrometrics at level 3. After doing some missions, I decided -- as usual -- against common wisdom to try probing with only lvl 3 skill.

I bolted a probe launcher onto a heron and off I went, happlessly launching probes and trying to follow instrutions I found from youtube. I spent an hour, trying to scan down my first signature I found. I could not get the accuracy closer than 50%. Finally my probes expired and I was sure my skills just werent enough. I headed back to my base. On the way I decided to give it one more go. I got another signature, and to my surprise, I scanned it down in just few minutes! And t was a wormhole! I wasn't expecting that! You can sense my excitement:

I brawely entered the WH. Long story short: I probed around gleefully for the next several hours, running into new WH's headfast. Finally I found what I was looking for; a mining site. Luckiy I had got some advice how the mining sites work. Initially the belt is populated with rocks only. Then after 20 minutes, there will be a spawn of severa sleepers. After these are killed, the belt wil be safe. So, I visited the site and started fitting a fighting machine to put fear into the hearts of the sleepers! I bought a Ferox! Supposedly the best type of fighting ship I could fly. Soon I discovered I lacked the skills to use medium hybrid turrets, which would get bonus from the ship. So I fitted it with missile launchers. Heavy ones!

I headed back to the mining site to face the sleepers. Sure enough, there was spawn of 5 sleepers. Sooner than a bus arrives to the stop after you have lit a cigarette, I got my ass handed to me. Surprisingly my enemies were too small to really get any damage from heavy missiles. I told about my woes to the public channel of the corporation I am applying to. My mentor from the corp, whom we will call Jag from now on, replied with a quick

and told me several things that were wrong with my fitting. He was a bit sceptical about my ability to solo the sleepers. Being the stubborn ass I am, I decided to try again. This time with a Caracal, fitted with assault launchers and passive shield tank.

To everyones surprise, I managed to kill two of the sleepers on the first run and could have killed more but they magically warped 150km away from me in middle of the fight. I returned soon and dispatched the rest of the spawn.

At this point I weighted the risks of mining here. There were several unknows, but my scanner didn't show much of activity in the system. I decided to take my Rokh here. I know; you, my dear reader, are already cringing and expecting the worst...

I took the Rokh to the mining site and mined three full cans of crokite. Surprisingly, nothing interesting happened! I left the system and retuned with my hauler. Oops! There was a drake right next to the WH inside the system. I pondered my options while still cloaked after the jump. I "quickly" aligned to the WH and jumped out. I visited close-by Jita and replaced my cargo expanders with warp core stabilizers. I briefly entertained the idea of fitting a probe launcher to the hauler, but abandoned it. After jumping back into the WH I got greeted with a rather worrying message, telling me something about hauling masses through the hole and collapsing something -- trapping -- hmm.

SHIT! I was trapped. The 20k investement on the probe launcher would be invaluable now... I cautiously asked on the local if someone could show me the door, hoping the drake flying pilot could be persuaded with some cash. No answer. Bugger. I checked my scanner and saw the drake was gone. Double bugger. I had probably ruined his day too. The drake was there the whole time I was mining. This was probably his home system. I weighted my options briefly. Thinking about the 30M worth of crokite made my heart sink. But as you may already know, patience is not one of my virtues. I made a heroic decision I never had to do before: Suicide!

I would be an hero.

So, as a memento of my first solo expedition of WH space, there will be a Badger MKII full or crokite parked next to the sun J115347 I, accompanied by the frozen corpse of me and myself.

And what did I learn today?

• You can scan most anything with lvl 3 Astrometrics and cheap equipment.
• With low skills, it is slow, but the biggest factor is your own skill in using the scanner
• It is possibe to solo the mining site sleepers of Class 2 WH with Caracal missile boat
• Class 2 holes can't support battleships going in and out
• Always carry a probe launcher in WH space

I have a fan!

Yesterday evening wasn't very productive. First I got a pirate named Sara Letha flip a can. I went to get my hauler and fitted WCS. Apparently she had multiple scramblers as I was going nowhere after looting the can.

She didn't buy my puny bluff and effectively my pretty Badger was no more.

I continued mining after some time. I was actually testing how much I can mine before a can goes *poof* because it has been sitting there too long. My test was foiled miserably by another pirate chick called karasusa. What is with me and the female pirates? Must be my ruggedly handsome looks. At any rate, I decided to fight! I fetched my Blackbird and bravely charged the privateer! I was surprised by the damage which she dealed with her rifter! Ouch, I went to half shield before I could get a lock and ECM her. I kept her lock-locked, disrupted and webbed for a while and it looked like I was going to win. However, I ran out of cap and soon enough my Blackbird was humiliatingly destroyed by a rifter. After having a smoke and calming down, I decided to convo the lady and ask for pointers. I thought my loadout would be invincible against any frigate! Surprisingly she accepted my convo and gave me some very usefull pointers. I fine tuned my next Blackbird, parked it to my mining station and logged off.

Today, I was mining again in peace, when Sara convoed me and asked where the wardec was. I told her I was a coward, and besides I hadn't visited the CEO alt. Which reminded me, that my role-wiping from CUX was probably done and I could remove myself from the corp. Only maybe two minutes after I had left the corp, Sara convoed me again and asked if I had left the corp because of impending wardec. I told her no, but she 'mmhm'ed at me in a way that is typical to young females of homo sapiens species, when they think they have proven their point or won an argument. I left it at that. Perhaps there was a 10% possibility that I had chosen to leave the corp right now because of possibility of war, but you didn't hear me say that, ok?

Anyway, she came around and fipped my can. I fetched my Blackbird, flipped the can back and waited for a while. She was not in the system anymore. Curious... I kept my eye on the local for a minute or two and then just switched to a hauler and got the stuff home.

She repeated the annoying act again in haf an hour or so. This time I got my Blackbird, jumped to a gate and told her to meet me there. As a newbie combatant I didn't realize I would actually give her the oportunity to escape and denying me the same, because I would need to shoot first. Anyway, she came in some cruiser, which's type escapes me. She started with an impressive volley of missiles which took a third of my shield. She got another volley in before I managed to ECM her. With my secret new fine tuning, I was cap stable by finely managing the modules I needed to run. I was slowly chipping away at her shield and perhaps at 50% shield she jumped. I didn't feel like pursuing her, (and i'm not sure if I could have?) so I just made a few warps and created a safe spot. While making the spot I visited our fight gate again and she jumped immediately at my sight. Ahhh... I was so content. After all this fumbling I finaly made someone run! I sat on the safespot and waited for the timer to run out.

I decided that this lady might be persistent after such a failure. No wrath like woman scorn and all that... I decided to move my mining business to another place to avoid her daily griefing route. I moved the BB first and started to make my way back in a pod. WHAT!? Sara was there on the exit gate from the new system I had just decided to settle in. She continued to follow me as long as she could and refused a convo. Wow...

I have a fan! Whoo!

I set a new route -- to my mission hub. Activated the autopilot and started to write this tripe :)

Fly safe!

EDIT: I forgot to tell you how I almost lost my Rokh because I went to mine with the aggression timer on. I'll leave that to another time....

2009.07.22.2

Hooray! Finally! Congratulatory undocking of my Rokh from Jita 4-4!

2009.07.22.1

Yesterday was something special!

My day started with some menial tasks, such as scrubbing the hangar floor and organizing my cargo containers. Inventory management is such a chore!

After this I mined a couple of cans of Veldspar in Muvoailen. After this I did some lvl 1 missions in a system which's name escapes me. Nothing interesting happened really. I was considering getting myself into some kind of trouble just to have something to write about!

I asked around in the recruitment channel if some random corp was willing to employ me. Flying alone is getting the better of me. I sometimes realize I'm arguing about ship loadouts with myself on the fleet channel! No sooner than soon, I have contact from Kal Jace, offering me a position in GoonFleet! I figured he must have thought I was an experienced player because of my character age. After clearing that up we had very productive chat! (btw, sarcasm mode on)

[ 2009.07.21 08:57:15 ] Kal Jace > ahhh I see

[ 2009.07.21 08:57:30 ] Kal Jace > The old character confused me somewhat :)

[ 2009.07.21 08:57:55 ] Fizzl > yep, it tends to do that ;)

[ 2009.07.21 08:58:25 ] Fizzl > i tried starting a corp myself, but everyone and their cousing wanted to wardec a 2004 newb corp =)

[ 2009.07.21 08:58:32 ] Kal Jace > lol

[ 2009.07.21 08:59:57 ] Kal Jace > GF don't actually have recruitment requirements - but we do have a small ISK security deposit that needs made pending a background check, which you might not be able to cover if you're only 2.5m sp :)

[ 2009.07.21 09:01:17 ] Fizzl > I see... The good old GF recry scam, hehe. I haven't been living under a rock :)

[ 2009.07.21 09:01:39 ] Kal Jace > Aint a scam

[ 2009.07.21 09:02:23 ] Fizzl > Oh, was it BoB then?

[ 2009.07.21 09:03:18 ] Kal Jace > Must have been, its always been goon policy

[ 2009.07.21 09:04:48 ] Fizzl > how much is this security?

[ 2009.07.21 09:05:25 ] Kal Jace > Its unique to everyone, lemme just check how much yours would be

[ 2009.07.21 09:05:51 ] Fizzl > hehe, ofcourse it's based on char age? /facepalm :P

[ 2009.07.21 09:06:17 ] Kal Jace > nah its based off SP/employmeny history

[ 2009.07.21 09:06:55 ] Kal Jace > yours would be 254,765,976 ISK, slightly above min due to how old yer char is

[ 2009.07.21 09:08:17 ] Fizzl > ouch. yeah, too much for me right now. Perhaps i'll contact you later?

[ 2009.07.21 09:09:14 ] Kal Jace > Sure thing :)

[ 2009.07.21 09:09:27 ] Kal Jace > Ill bookmark the amount so it remains tied to you

[ 2009.07.21 09:09:50 ] Fizzl > ok, thanks.

[ 2009.07.21 09:10:15 ] Kal Jace > Just convo me if you need anything

[ 2009.07.21 09:10:21 ] Fizzl > sure

What a glorious oportunity! I can't wait to collect 250M ISK and hand it to this gentleman! Then I will be a bee too!

Now, actually information about GoonFleet recruitment is kinda obfuscated if you just try to google about it. However, everyone should know that GF only hires from their own flock of forum trolls.

And just for emphasis, a verbatim quote from their wiki: If you gave isk to join Goonfleet then you were scammed and you're shit out of luck.

But something positive! I realized I had minerals to get a Rokh! I pondered if I should do some mineral trading and get my friend to build the Rokh for me. Being the impatient bastard I am, I sold my minerals and bought the Rokh and the fittings from Jita.

I'm also thiiiis close to flying it!

In the evening something exciting finally happened. Sab, my former director called and asked if I wanted to join his mining team in worm hole space! Wow! I've never seen WH space, so I aggreed. I packed my Osprey and stuffed it into a badger. I set the course for *beep* for the WH entrance. I haphazardly navigated through some 0.3 space to save 5 jumps, but as my ships are made of unobtainium, I survived. When I got to *beep* I assembled my Osprey and was promptly escorted to the WH entrance.

I was a bit nervous. Being in 0.0 space after all. I just followed Sab, and HOLY CHRIST IS THAT CROKITE? YES IT IS!

I wasn't expecting this! Rocks of valuable ores, the size of a battleship, just floating everywhere! Ooh, I must have died, had a low quality clone and now I was in some kind of clone fuckup-stasis and merely dreaming this. I just picked nearest rock and started excavating. I was expecting something horrible to happen any minute. I voiced my concerns to the fleet, and was told that the place was relatively safe now. No rats, and apparently we had a cloaked spy monitoring the WH entrance like a hawk. After a can I hauled and refined. Whee! I had made my own Zydrine! I huggled the cold mineral warmly and returned to work. This time I picked a crokite rock, twice the size of my Osprey.

At some point Sab and hes friend went to haul their lewts to some apparently very far away system. Sab had his characteristic luck with his hauler thou: I heard screams of agony from the fleet channel. They had been podded somewhere along the route. Bubble and all. Apparenty they lost both their haulers and the goods they were hauling. Bugger...

My evening was slightly more productive thou. I mined and succesfully banked minerals worth of 20M!

This is a new one

2009.07.16 21:53

CONCORD has declared this war invalid as it breaches one or more articles in the Yulai Convention.
The war will be declared as being over after approximately 24 hours.

I have no idea what that means. Apparently the war with Zodiac Cartel, aka. Po, went sour.

Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates. My IRL work started again after vacation and I have been rather busy. Today I was mining and hauling stuff. Something interesting thou. I saw several people red to me in 0.5+ space without their corp being in war with me.

Could someone in comments explain to me what the cited CONCORD mail means, and why could I be seeing lots of red people on my overview all of the sudden? And yes, It is not just a tiny red skull indicating I have shitlisted them, but a whole red background as if I was in fight with them.

Po came!

I was again mining in yet another pigeonhole. Po Plug actually came around. Unfortunately I didn't anything to fight with. Only my mining Osprey and an Indy in the hangar. He was very impatient and left the system within five minutes. I checked the local market, bought a *beep* and headed for Jita to buy *beep* *beep* four *beeps* and two *beeps*.

I saw Po camping my exit gate, outside, but he missed me in my pod. I told him that he missed me and he responded by loggin out. I only asked for an hour to setup!

Anyway. Now I have been mining in Muvo again, waiting for war targets to come buzzing around. Ocassionally checked Jita, but seen no reds. I heard that Sam actually managed to blow up Po's muscle mans 200M battleship with *cough* some help *cough*. Anyway, that made my day. I have now lost perhaps 16M worth of items in the war, Sab lost a 7M retriever. I'm happy to lose a couple of more ospreys and *beep*s,

While starting in Muvo, I found out that most of the GSC:s were full already. Sab 'fessed up that he forgot some ore floating around. I sternly told him that unfortunately they were left too close to a fire hydrant and the ore would be towed to the nearest CUX office for misappropiation.