A Year of Variety

One of the things I pride myself on is the variety of ships I enjoy flying. I hate getting into a rut and flying the same thing over and over again, I love my spaceships, and want to enjoy them all. I keep a very large hangar and like to have as many ships fitted and ready to go as possible. All my isk goes into ships and the mods to fit and fly them.

But is that actually true?

I decided to check. So I went back over the past 12 months and counted the different ships that I've registered a kill with in Eve Online. Turns out I am actually flying that way. Over the past 12 months I've registered at least a single kill with over 75 different hulls!

Wow.

Here are the double digit killers in order of most kills to least amount of kills:

• Fed Navy Comet (86)
• Imperial Navy Slicer (84)
• Kestrel (74)
• Sacrilege (62)
• Condor (52)
• Hawk (50)
• Caracal (42)
• Astero (41)
• Daredevil (40)
• Drake (31)
• Dramiel (29)
• Firetail (28)
• Hookbill (27)
• Atron (21)
• Moa (20)
• Tristan (18)
• Incursus (18)
• Corax (17)
• Tormentor (17)
• Vengeance (17)
• Breacher (16)
• Jaguar (16)
• Harpy (15)
• Thorax (14)
• Thrasher (12)
• Brutix (10)

That is a pretty healthy mix of ships, class and size represented in that list. I'm surprised that the Astero landed so high seeing as it has only been available for such a short time, but it has made a pretty significant impact.

The remaining list shows even more variety, but just not as much use. Here is how the rest falls: Taranis (9), Wolf (9), Algos (8), Coercer (8), Merlin (8), Dragoon (8), Lachesis (8), Tornado (8), Broadsword (8), Exequror (7), Hurricane (7), Stabber Fleet (6), Dominix (6), Cyclone (6), Maller (5), Rifter (5), Sentinel (5), Slasher (5), Vexor (5), Cynabal (4), Vexor Navy (4), Manticore (3), Cruor (3), Flycatcher (3), Talwar (3), Zealot (3), Caracal Navy (3), Abbadon (2), Tempest (2), Cormorant (2), Executioner (2), and the rest have one kill each. (I actually just closed the document without saving it by mistake and I'm not recounting! lol.)

I'm pretty happy with the variety represented in this list. Next year I'd like to work even more ships into the active group, like my new Nightmare and the Machs and maybe even some Black Ops and Mauraders, if things work out that way. I am surprised the Tengu didn't make that list since I know I flew it plenty of times... it is possible that I missed a few kills here and there.

Onward and upward.

My Week with the Wittle White Ship

I'm just a tiny bit crazy about Spaceships.

As I reported earlier this week, my good friend and fellow Corp mate Akirra Menelaos was nice enough to sell me one of the very first Astero Frigates off the assembly line early Tuesday. I immediately fell in love with the little Frigate and started working on a fit from scratch.

Considering the bonuses and the configuration of the ship, I was convinced it could be the perfect Anti-Plexer Ship. And that is the purpose I started fitting it for. I know other people are using it for other things, but that is the purpose I see for it. I tweaked the fit constantly during the week, as usual aiming for both effective use and cheapness. The goal, I believe, of any true pirate.

I essentially started with Cloak/Nuet in the highs, Dual-Scram, Web, AB in the mids, and then Plate, Adaptive, Drone, DC in the lows. Initially at least, that was the starting pattern. A dual Web fit wouldn't catch stabbed plexers, in fact I missed my first kill of a Venture with a dual Web fit. Which is why I switched to dual-scram instead.

Some examples:

Catalyst
I landed back at station after the Venture miss and changed the fit up a little, removed the extra Web and went dual-scram. Undocked and saw this Catalyst and his buddy in the Navitas on scan. Perfect targets to prove the concept. Landed close enough to the Cat to get points and the Navitas stayed to provide reps. It was a lot closer than I would like, I considered breaking off a few times, but the Cat finally went down. The Navitas warped off before I could get point. The ship proved how tough it was.

Comet
Another few tweaks and another chance to prove the concept. This time I showed myself long enough to get attention and then cloaked up and waited. Sure enough, he landed near me and I boated over to de-cloak and get points. I had some back-up on this one and I already detailed this kill in my last post.

Incursus
The first dual stabbed Plexer. The Plexer doesn't get much warning with this ship, which is a big part of the idea of course. The only time they see me on scan is when I am already jumping into the plex. The dual scram worked its charms and he went down relatively easily.

Megathron
I detailed this engagement in the last post, but suffice to say the little ship managed to hold tackle on the Mega and survive the de-cloaking Pilgrim long enough for the gang to arrive. Yet another successful proof of concept.

Punisher
The first straight up 1v1 against a good PvP pilot who knew ahead of time what I was flying. We went to the Sun and had at it and the Astero came out on top. Good fight and it was close. Nice to know it can hang with the traditional frigates. Confidence is growing.

Comet
This one was pure concept realized. The Comet was cloaking up as usual, so I warped in and flew around a bit, then aligned out as if to warp off - but instead cloaked up! And then waited a few minutes and sure enough, it de-cloaks about 37k from me. I boat over and the rest is history.

Tristan
Bad Tristan fit, but yet another plexer caught and taught.

Hookbill
Another perfect example of the concept at work, this time the sudden appearance of my ship was enough to grab the points needed to hold him down. Good fight.


Everytime you undock your ship it is already dead, so eventually all good things must end. We set a trap for two Kestrels that were using Legion links. I was orbiting the beacon and Sea was cloaked off of me in his Pilgrim. They landed and they hit very, very hard. We did manage to get one of the Kestrels, but I did lose the Astero.

Like any ship in Eve, it has its limitations and advantages. I'm still convinced it is a great Anti-Plexer ship and given the current environment of running and cloaking, a ship we needed to help balance the field.

Got another one on order.

Command Ships: Not Good Enough

"I know this is going to generate a lot of strong feelings due to nostalgia and I share many of those feelings. However I truly think these new versions look amazing and that in the long run this is a change that people will look back on as an obvious positive."  - CCP Fozzie

It is an obvious change and a change that makes sense. Moving the Command Ship models to the correct racial Battlecruiser hulls makes perfect sense and I fully support the idea. As much as I loved my Sleipnir Cyclone, or the Evil Cyclon Eyes on the Absolution, the change makes sense from a game perspective. So that is all well and good.

What doesn't make sense, and what insults my sensibilities as an artist, is the new Sleipnir model. The big bold stripes of the Nighthawk, the truly Amarrian Abso shininess, even the Eos Myrm, all seem worthy of Command Ship level awesomeness. And we could, as adults, argue about each of them in turn. Did they go far enough? Nope. Are they just re-skins and not new models? Yep.

Fozzie said something else I'd like to remind you about, "opening up options for the art guys in the future".

Ok, fair enough. The stage is set for some truly inspired and worthy model invention down the road. I encourage that on all four ships. Let us remember the Vagabond, as it stands as the perfect example of how to handle the expansion of a line of hulls. From the Stabber, to the Stabber Fleet, to the Vagabond, each ship is well designed and reflective of its position in the line. The top of the food chain even gets something special, as it should. The Command Ships should be treated the same way. Especially now that we have Navy versions of them in-game.

The Sleipnir is a special case at this point in Eve's history, because it is based on the Hurricane model. And the Hurricane model needs some special attention. Nothing drastic, but it needs a ground-up remake to take advantage of the love other models have received. It is time for the Cane to grow up a little bit and match the rest of the line. Think Tempest when you think of the Cane. The Pest model got that kind of love and it is perfect.

I admit, I'm a spaceship nut. So I'll be watching and waiting to see what happens. You guys can knock it out of the park, I know you can.

So let's grab some Quafe and get those sketch pads out shall we?


PS: Yes I know the formatting is screwed up on these posts lately, it is not on my end and isn't something that I can control. I'm working on it, trust me, it annoys me more than it annoys you.

PPS: Ha! I found a line of code that seems to have fixed the formatting issue.