Apr 23, 2014

Impact

While there were always a few Eve players who felt compelled to assert their negative opinions and even outright hate of me, Hellcats, the philosophy behind a women-only corp, my community activities, who I was flying with, and my work in CSM5, the majority of interactions with other players back in the day was positive. As I have discovered upon reconnecting with folks since my return, much of what I did and said as leader of the Hellcats had a strong impact on how others played. Quite a few women have told me that Hellcats inspired them or gave them the courage to take up pvp.

I couldn't ask for a better legacy than that. To be honest, the good press and fans that Hellcats enjoyed always kind of surprised me. We were, after all, a very small corp (I don't think we ever had more than 35 members) that didn't do much but cruise low sec and look for trouble. Yet even after years of being inactive, the corp still inspires wistful nostalgia and positive memories among fans. Something resonated with people, I guess. Which I suppose is why I am now getting earnest requests that Hellcats be rebooted and hearing good ideas for how that could be done.

That would be an interesting effort, but it won't be my effort. I wouldn't mind seeing it happen (especially if done in the same spirit as the original corp) and might even "advise" if asked. But the time and work required to spearhead such a project is for others to invest in who have more energy, time, and interest than I can muster. Yet, I admit that the idea of Hellcats coming back to life makes me smile. It's a good feeling to know that content I helped bring to the sandbox during the Hellcats heyday has had an impact--however small--that persists to this day.

Although I log in these days with a certain sense of remove and casual nonchalance compared to before, the stories created by players continue to fascinate me. If it so happens that the legacy of Hellcats inspires something new and evolved, more power to whomever takes the idea and runs with it. Therein lies the eternal allure of Eve Online...the ability to create an impact at some level of the game and have it endure for years in the memories of players. Such impacts been happening for 10 years across the width and breadth of New Eden and its community. When you think about that compared to any other game, it is quite remarkable*.







* Regardless of mis-steps by CCP along the way and the long list of things in game which still need improvement.








Apr 17, 2014

Old School Solo Shakes

This post is about a solo frigate fight. Such a thing wouldn't normally merit a blog post but as my first solo kill since my return to Eve--and one that was an excitingly even match right up until it wasn't--it is worth note.

So there I was last night cruising around in my Slasher looking for targets. I spotted a Tormentor in a FW plex. Activating the gate, I landed 6K away from him. To my delight, he immediately engaged. Nothing says commitment like being mutually warp scrambled, after all!

Old situational awareness habits started to kick into gear. Good thing too, because it was a blow-for-blow fight right from the start and I immediately had to micromanage my repper and overheating . He got the jump on me taking out my shields but his were also being blown apart. My armor was disappearing rather alarmingly fast compared to his. So instead of micromanaging my top and bottom racks, I just overheated both and figured I'd either get an advantage or die in a glorious ball of twisted metal. My armor began to recover and cap held steady. His armor was peeling off in the smallest bites and it seems he recovered a bit here and there. I had a few seconds to wonder if this was going to be one of those stalemate situations (like one of the best solo fights I ever had, with Dame Death; both of us in faction frigates and neither able to find an advantage; after 10 minutes we called it a draw!). Then suddenly a huge chunk of my armor repped and the Tormentor started taking a ton of damage. My opponent must have capped out--my small neut earning its keep, I imagine. He managed to do some more damage but immediately the advantage went to me and in short order, the Tormentor blew up.

It was close--I ended the fight with 65% hull and 10% armor. If my opponent had had the tiniest bit more cap (or taken the booster in his cargo that he later chastised himself for forgetting), the fight would likely have gone the other way because my repper and DCU had burned out. Ooops...so much for managing overheated mods very well. But in addition to having a neut fitted, I think my rig configuration offered a bit of a tanking advantage compared to his. Anyway, while this fight was not particularly epic, it was fun as hell and the pilot was a great sport about it when we chatted in local afterwards. As a bonus, his wreck yielded some useful loot that will probably blow up soon on of my ships. :)

I love the thrill of solo fights when opponents are evenly matched and the outcome is in question right from the get-go. Nothing offers a more sure way of getting those good old PvP shakes that are so addicting! I know I started having them the second my armor blew off! I was talking about this fight in a friend's channel afterwards and had to laugh at suggestions from others to employ link and logi alts for more solo uberness. No thanks. I don't care how much New Eden has evolved while I was gone...I prefer to get my thrills from old school solo frigate fights that are solo in the traditional sense: one ship vs one ship, not one person vs one person with an alt army backing them up. It might limit the number of good fights I get, and it might mean I die a lot because the alt army practice is so common. Oh well. It just means that when I do win--especially against an evenly matched opponent--the victory seems more genuine and well-earned than bringing overwhelming invisible assistance to sway the odds in my favor. ymmv. 

So, GF, sarhamen, and thanks for giving me the first solo kill of my return to New Eden. Definitely feels like I'm getting my space legs back.

Apr 14, 2014

Stayin Frosty...

It was exciting to log back into Eve last evening for the first time in three years. Hearing "Warp drive active." in Aura's old familiar voice brought up so many memories of good times past.

Hopefully more good times are upcoming because I put an app into Stay Frosty and it was accepted by Rixx Javix this morning. I considered quite a few other offers and of course the pull to regroup with old friends was strong. But in the end, Stay Frosty has a basic philosophy that precisely matches what I'm looking for in New Eden this time around plus a sizable, active membership. I think it will be a good fit.

I had to chuckle at Nashh Kadavr's tweet about it:
harri is in frosty as well?! Wtf, Rixx is like a black hole swallowing up everyone!
I guess people are just going where the fun is!

As I flew through low sec from Vitrauze to Ishomilken, delighted to be back in a spaceship, all I could think was how good things look! Wow...so  much has changed. Now I need to stock up on a rather large supply of frigates, get used to all the changes, and see what I can do to cause some mischief and mayhem.

Watch your six. :P

Apr 8, 2014

CSM9: I Voted!*

No better way of getting re-invested in Eve than by returning as the CSM elections begin, eh?!

While on hiatus from Eve, I stayed fairly plugged in to CSM stuff. Thus, I don't feel completely at a loss as far as candidate selection goes. However, this is the first time I've voted since the STV system was implemented. Holy shit, it takes some brain juice to put together a personally informed roster! Listening to podcast interviews with candidates, reading blog posts, studying endorsements, following candidates on Twitter, and skimming campaign threads (my eyes glaze over there, I admit) all helped a lot.

Major influences on my choices: informed low sec voices, CSM8 efforts, sandbox preservation, pvp-centric issues, and likelihood that a candidate will step up to the CSM workload and remain visible to and engaged with the community throughout the CSM9 term.

After mushing these imprecise variables around in my brain, I assembled a roster and then voted accordingly. I considered giving slots to mynnna (for good CSM8 work) and Matias Otero (for "Fun Per Hour") but they are likely to be elected anyway by their own alliances so it hardly matters. In case you couldn't tell by my choices, wormholes would be my second choice of residence after low sec so I'm interested to see wormholes have a strong voice on the CSM.




*Yup, resubbed today. Won't be able to log in until I have my new computer set up and software installed; probably this weekend.