Effort...Why Bother? Because It Matters.

Celebratory Hugs Fleet roams have become a thing in Signal Cartel for notable membership milestones. As we approached 500 members earlier in July, Johnny Splunk (EvE-Scout co-founder and a founding partner of Signal Cartel) decided to plan something special. While he worked on his secret plans, I planned the "Dangerous Places" Treasure Hunt to commence immediately after the roam.

There is always a fair bit of work involved in a celebratory Hugs Fleet. We try to go somewhere special, we give stuff away, we aim to include an educational component. Because of Johnny's special plans and my treasure hunt, this one was particularly time-consuming. All told, I spent about 20 hours on it and Johnny spent 10 to 12 hours. Prep consumed the majority of that time. In the week preceding the op, my main tasks were to:

• Track prize donations and send thank you notes to donators
• Help coordinate schedules and support
• Work out treasure hunt process and prizes
• Draft a comprehensive instructions and tracking post for the treasure hunt (which ended up being almost 7k words!)
• Anchor a test container at a location off-grid from a celestial and work with Johnny to ensure it could be reached using only d-scan
• Anchor a total of 20 password-protected secure containers in low sec systems across as many regions as possible

In addition to helping me with the treasure hunt test, Johnny:

• Staged and fitted 100 Hugs Fleet doctrine ships in Thera (which a failed Iteron delivery did not deter!)
• Coordinated schedules and worked out plans with key players
• Moved a cyno alt into place
• Did route planning and last minute re-routing
• Managed fleet day prep and festivities in space prior to fleet departure

During the fleet, Johnny FC'd (and continued to co-FC after he met with unfortunate circumstances mid-roam). After the fleet op concluded, I oversaw the treasure hunt, purchased treasure hunt prize items, and ensured that the 60-odd prizes from the roam giveaways and treasure hunt found their way into the hands of the winners.

Yes, it was a lot of work. But when everything comes together according to plan and people have fun, it is totally worth it. Why? As Johnny says: "First of all, it's fun to plan an event that I know will be enjoyable for our members. Second, it's fun to participate in fleets like this. Finally, it's entertaining when plans don't work out precisely and the whole fleet just takes everything--including ship and pod loss--in stride. Seeing everyone's maturity, good humor, and the credo in action at those times is fulfilling." I feel the same way. Our members are extremely generous in helping each other and particularly new players. Organizing these special Hugs Fleet roams is our way of returning the favor and hopefully inspiring others to organize their own fun events.

So did all this effort pay off? You betcha! Prep and plans were all wrapped up an hour or two before start time. The fleet went up and we had somewhere between 35 and 40 members join. A few of us sat in station to hand out ships while excitement began to build due to Johnny's hints of what was to come.

"Why are we getting an Infomorph Psychology book with the ship?" asked one new member.

"You'll see. Just inject it and train it to at least Level 1." replied Johnny. He likes to play his cards close to his chest in order to give our newbros fun learning surprises on fleet ops. Our more experienced players smiled at the implications.

As an incentive to join fleets early so that ops can leave on time, we usually have a fun little treasure hunt in Thera before departure. Everyone undocks and gets to random safes, then Johnny dumps a set of bookmarks into a Corp bookmarks folder and pulls the trigger. There's a mad dash to be first to grab loot from the cans at the bookmarks. Loot typically consists of collectible trinkets, Sisters gear, implants, and other items useful to explorers. This tends to get everyone excited and hearts pumping, which is the best state in which to begin a Hugs Fleet roam!

With everyone chomping at the bit, our FC--who may well be the calmest, politest, most instructive FC I've ever seen--called the op start. Member Captain Ace Rico produced a video of the roam which does a better job than I ever could of showing the fun we had. Go watch it.

How awesome was that? Our most heartfelt thanks to Phoebe Freeport Republic for their freeports with jump clone installation capabilities and to Otto Bismarck of Pandemic Legion for providing us the opportunity for a memorable experience with the greatest of all ships in EVE.

Hugging Phoebe Freeport Republic--thanks for the jump clones! (Image by Stikkem Innagibblies)

OMG it's a Titan! (Image by Stikkem Innagibblies) 

Once the remnants of our fleet bridged through to Doril, I announced the "Dangerous Places" Treasure Hunt, posted instructions, and gave fleet members a 10-minute head start before sending a corp email about it to everyone. It seemed our intrepid explorers still had energy to burn as they raced across New Eden to the far-flung low sec systems where I had hidden containers with prize vouchers in them. Along the way, they used their Google-fu to figure out container passwords using the clues provided. Once in the target systems, explorers had to use their d-scan skills to narrow down the off-grid location of each container and manually fly to it. It was great fun on comms listening to the excitement, frustration, and determination to find these cans.

Their effort was well-rewarded. The vouchers were good for things like Asteros, sets of 6% scanning implants, Stratioses (Stratii?), Sisters gear, ISK and collectibles, one of Rixx Javix' battlecruiser posters, and a character portrait by yours truly. Any idea I had of this event lasting a day or more was obliterated by the competitive nature of our members. Most of the containers were discovered within an hour and all had been looted within about two hours. Remarkably, only one can was MIA and I think that happened because I forgot to anchor it and it got junked at DT.

Participants had a great time with this Treasure Hunt and provided useful feedback to inform the next one--which will be a lot harder! I was really thrilled by one member who said she didn't know how to use d-scan before the treasure hunt and got so good at it thanks to the "just in time" practice that she ended up helping someone else learn to d-scan! That, friends, is op success.

So the festivities for our 500 Member Celebratory Hugs Fleet concluded with a bunch of tired, happy explorers. We had a lot of laughs on comms, corp camaraderie, and fun times but also--and maybe more importantly--gave a few very new players a great introduction to EVE Online. One that I hope sucks them in and makes the game and its potential irresistible. I beat this drum a lot but the message is important. How we treat new players matters. It has a very real impact on our corp culture, on the wider community, and (I believe) on the sustainability of the game itself. Our goal in Signal Cartel is to give new players a solid start, fun experiences, and peeks here and there into the bigger game outside our corporation. They may stay with us or ultimately move on but either way, we do the best we can to prepare them for whatever path they choose and hopefully both the community and the game ultimately benefit from that.

For that alone, the effort is worth it. It matters.

#####

Shout-outs to a few individuals who provided donations or special support to this event:

• robertbobo Orlenard, Breysyth Asythe, Gaston Cartier, Foolproof Kado, Edohatrem Inur, and Helios Anduath for random drawing prize donations
• Johnny Splunk, Hugs Fleet FC darling
• k98sniper, Hugs Fleet Hero FC
• Edohatrem Inur, Sentosa Erata, and Selvien Mieyli for scouting
• Dorian Reu for handling the random drawings for prizes during the fleet op
• Everyone who helped newbros in fleet with private mentoring convos
• luobote kong, former and forever honorary Signal Cartel member, for joining us
• Captain Ace Rico for superb videography
• Otto Bismarck for arranging Titan love for us and talking with members afterwards to provide eye-opening insights on what it's like to be a big league player in New Eden

IC: BrightStar's Promise

It was good to be back on solid land, if only for a day or two. Zoohen V's morning sun was warm as I walked through profusely blooming gardens toward the kennel. Promise ran ahead to examine and mark every tree, rock, and bush with great enthusiasm. Despite his compact stature, he was athletic and extremely correct. But his most notable feature was the sharply striated tones of black, gold, and russet in his coat. The uncommon coloring appeared to ripple in the bright sunlight as he moved. While more traditional brindle coloring is known in miniature slaver hounds, Promise's coloration appeared to be a unique variant. It was my hope to develop this variant as a dominant feature in the BrightStar Kennel line. I had my fingers crossed that it would breed true in combination with the excellent conformation and temperament for which BrightStar pups were known.

My Kennel Manager waved to me from an exercise yard. I could see a horde of fat little pups bouncing around at her feet--three litters sired by Promise, all about 7 weeks old.

"Hey Lacey!" I called out.

"Hey, Mynx!" she replied, "I'm so glad you could get back here while they're still in the cute stage!"

I grinned, stepped over the low fence, and sat on the grass. Immediately fourteen excited pups bombarded me in an effort to lick my face, chew on my clothes, and bite my fingers. Six of them--four males and two females--looked to have Promise's coloring. Only time would tell if their conformation, temperament, and coat pattern was good enough to qualify them for the breeding program. In the moment, however, they were all adorable! That wouldn't last...in another month or so they would all be horrible hooligans and their training to become good citizens would begin in earnest. Lacey would have her hands full then, but if I knew her, she'd love every minute of that process.

After extracting myself from the puppy pack, Lacey and I retreated into the cool, cozy office to discuss the breeding stock's family lines and outlook breeding plans for the pups. We were both excited by the possibilities but it would be a year or more before any of these plans bore fruit. Meanwhile, we could dream.

"By the way, none of the plain-colored pups in these litters carry the mutated gene. I assume it's okay to sell them after I'm done with their basic training and temperament testing?" Lacey asked.

I nodded and said, "Sure thing...let's DNA-test every pup going forward...I don't want anything with the mutation leaving here intact. I guess we need some more breeding quality bitches--I'll see what's available and bring them home next visit."

"Makes sense...we have room for 8 or 10 more in the kennel...and there's no end of demand for the pet quality pups. Want some lunch?" she asked.

"Sure," I said. We headed for house, Promise at my heels.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Lacey said as we sat on the veranda later. "The association paperwork is in order and the name registered, so I'm going to go ahead and hire someone to deal with the admin stuff."

"Great...it'll be nice to get a hound registry going here. What'd you call it?" I asked.

"Nothing very brilliant: the New Eden Miniature Slaver Hound Association. I figured we could call it NEMSHA for short." She shrugged.

"Sounds good to me. Thanks for following up on that." Lacey was one of my favorite employees; practical and high-energy, she always got things done and done right.

I finished my lunch and tossed a tidbit to Promise who caught it mid-air as usual.

"Did the lab get his straws done?" I asked, indicating my hopeful little hound. I threw him another tidbit.

"Yeah, we're good to go for ... like ... ever." she replied.

"Okay then, I'm taking him with me this time," I said.

"Thank the gods," Lacey exclaimed. "All he does is mope around when you're not here. Spoiled brat."

"You're fired, Lacey, for calling this darling creature such vile names!"

We laughed...we both knew Promise could be a pain in the ass. (Just ask my Hangar Manager. On second thought, don't. She gets very cranky about "that damn hound underfoot all the time".)

The afternoon was spent drinking a delicious local wine while I described life in Signal Cartel and talked about the Drifter threat and recent dramas concerning Dr. Hilen Tukoss' remains. As a non-capsuleer, Lacey found it all fascinating and at the same time horrifying. She couldn't quite wrap her head around capsuleer immortality, the atrocities and loss of life that so many of my kind were responsible for, and what it all meant for someone who almost never left the planet.

"You seem so different from all that when you're here...so...normal," she observed.

I sipped my wine. "I guess I've learned that in order to stay human, one must do basic human things. Like walk in sunshine, breathe fresh air, and pet dogs. It would be easy to never leave my pod but...I fear that way lies madness. You know?" She nodded, but she couldn't ever really know.

In my quarters the next day at the Theology Council Station, I stroked the small dog asleep on my lap as I worked through several days' worth of emails and whispered, "You keep me human, Promise. You keep me human."

Curating a Corp Culture

It is an interesting thing to establish a vision for a "counter-culture" corp, lay the groundwork, and watch it manifest the way it has been doing in Signal Cartel.

As we continue to grow at the surprisingly consistent rate of about 100 new members per month, the central pillar of our corp culture--the Credo--is subject to interpretation by more people every day. More questions are raised about meaning, intent, and scope. More guidance is sought regarding practical applications in specific circumstances. More boundaries are tested and more debate is generated. This has led to some heated discussions as different interpretations of the Credo and different temperaments or outlooks collide. While sometimes challenging to moderate in a way that fosters free expression yet maintains civility, all such discussions are welcomed and encouraged by leadership.

In an effort to better understand what parts of the Credo our pilots struggle with and how they personally embrace its tenets, I recently put out a call to our membership for Credo feedback. To give you some idea of just how strongly our pilots feel about the matter, I got back about 10,000 words of opinions, suggestions, and questions within a couple of days. In addition to which, there have been extended conversations about it in our Alliance chat and on comms. In all these communications, I find myself constantly amazed at the intelligence, maturity, wisdom, and insightfulness of our members. The really neat thing is hearing from so many how much it means to them to be a part of the vision for Signal Cartel. It is a humbling responsibility to curate a corp culture that has such high value to such a large number of people.

And so Signal Cartel leadership (myself, Johnny Splunk, G8keeper, and Helios Anduath) is currently reviewing all of the feedback received and considering how best to answer questions and provide guidance to our members. As our Credo-inspired culture becomes ever more deeply entrenched, we are less interested in being "Credo Cops" than in sharing our vision of Credo intent and "best practices" application in ways that encourage others to internalize those things and let their actions and decisions be informed appropriately. It is particularly challenging to find the right balance between policing Credo compliance and evolving a self-policing culture but that is an organic thing which can only happen over time and we are beginning to see desirable trends in that regard. As someone who finds the social interaction in New Eden to be its most compelling aspect, I am fascinated by how far things have come already and how Credo challenges play out among our members.

"But spaceships, what about those?!" Oh yeah...well, we don't just sit around ship-spinning, drinking fine Gallente wine, and droning on about corp culture all day. We *are* out there in space all the time, everywhere, doing things:

From crazy-ass Party Probers fleets to in-space research to wormhole ops to getting lost on expeditions to impromptu mentoring roams, we are fearless about undocking and embracing the unknown. We encourage and provide lots of resources to aid in savvy piloting but losing ships is simply the price we sometimes pay for going in search of enlightenment and valuable loot in dangerous places. I sometimes joke that we are solely responsible for keeping the Astero market afloat. The truth is that killboard ISK efficiency is of very little interest to me. What I care about is that Signaleers accept losses gracefully, show opponents respect regardless of circumstances, and undock their next ship with the same enthusiasm as they did the previous ones. We do this amazingly consistently, thanks to the mindset fostered by the Credo and the generosity of our members with each other both in sharing expertise and helping each other with more tangible support. The lack of tears and whinging due to losses might well be one of the most delightful things about our corp culture. We know how to laugh at ourselves, have fun, and roll with the punches.

And so we go, and so we grow. It is indeed a fine thing to behold. You can be part of it, if you're so inclined. We welcome everyone with whom our corp culture resonates. If you'd like to learn more about our culture or about joining, drop by the EvE-Scout public channel in-game and listen to our recent interviews on The Neocom and Hydrostatic podcasts.

The Engine of Interesting Experiences

In 2007 when my first EVE character was a two-day old newbie mining her little Gallente heart out in the rookie system Bourynes, a friendly 2003 pilot named Edohatrem Inur struck up a conversation. He convinced me to join his corp along with a bunch of other newbies he'd recruited. The opportunity to harvest knowledge directly from a veteran player fast-tracked my EVE experience in many valuable ways. 

What goes around, comes around...in more ways than one. Not only do I now find myself leading a corp doing the very same thing for exploration-minded newbies, but in full-circle fashion, Edo recently joined Signal Cartel. A self-styled glittervet (kind of like a bittervet but with more optimism and an interest in helping new players), he is still up to his old tricks in Bourynes and elsewhere engaging "adorable newbies" (as he calls them) with his special brand of tough love and carrot-on-stick recruiting tactics.

Edo is fond of pointing out contradictions and questioning assertions. I learned long ago to be amused rather than annoyed by this, since it can lead to interesting discussions and reflections on how we change and grow as players. Case in point: I grumbled recently about the time demands that leading Signal Cartel imposes on me. He immediately pointed out the contradiction of the situation with assertions I posted just over a year ago upon my return to New Eden regarding what I wasn't interested in, to wit:

• Leadership responsibility
• Restrictive corp rules
• Non-PvP, non-low-sec corps
• Newbie corpmates

HA! Guess I'm eating those words now, as my peaceful, credo-bound corp is at 275 members not quite 3 months after public launch...

The contrast between a year ago and now is amusing. But I can roll with it because I've been around EVE long enough to know that nothing stays the same. Anything can happen. Being open to new things--like EvE-Scout founders G8keeper and Johnny Splunk approaching me to lead a peaceful exploration corp--leads to new friends and new experiences. As I've said before, the Signal Cartel experience has given me a fresh perspective on the game, a sense of purpose, and interesting new challenges. All of that is made even better when old friends like Edo decide to come along for the ride...and he is by far not the only one who has done so. Quite a few friends and acquaintances--many who were or are pirates, amusingly--have joined Signal Cartel and contribute significantly to the camaraderie and success of the corp.

Relationships are clearly the engine of interesting experiences in New Eden. Whether those experiences are dramatic and sweeping (e.g, BRAVE's recent troubles) or result from taking a path less traveled (as in Signal Cartel), they all create ripples--sometimes with far-reaching and unanticipated outcomes. The unpredictable way that those ripples, even the tiny ones, intersect with others and evolve will trump assertions every time!

War Hugs :P

It's now about five weeks since public launch of Signal Cartel. Corp life is bubbling along delightfully with over 170 members active all across New Eden, mostly in wormholes, null and low sec. Which makes it kind of funny to get war decced...we are already mostly in places where we could be shot at without the need to pay for it! Still, a war dec provides an excellent opportunity to field a Hugs Fleet as we did in response to the first war declared against us. That war ended with a pleasant conversation with our war targets who said we were "so nice and polite" that they just didn't have the spirit to continue in a war with us. :P Our credo in action!

Hot on the heels of that came a new war dec, this time by The Pursuit of Happiness alliance. With considerable intel in hand, a Hugs Fleet op was called and FC'd yet again by the venerable Carrie Frog. Having run locators on our war targets, we headed to their last reported location. No dice, but within a couple of jumps, we got reports that several were in the adjacent system and heading our way. We sat excitedly at a gate tactical waiting for them to jump in but darn if they didn't choose to go somewhere else. In the end, we were briefly in the same system with a one war target a couple of times. They did not respond to our cheerful greetings in Local and soon left system.

To assuage our disappointment, Carrie made the call to take the fleet to the Jita 4-4 undock to deliver hugs to deserving pilots there. We felt a little better after this charitable action--giving hugs is just as nice for the giver as getting is for the recipient!

Delivering hugs to a suspect pilot at the Jita undock

We hoped that our few war targets still online might come looking for us. Unfortunately, the last one logged off as we were about our business in Jita Local so the FC called the op and led the fleet home to Thera. I stopped in Amarr to leave some hugs for our war targets, then meandered into low sec (where I still feel most comfortable) and called it a night. Better luck next time!

A gift left in Amarr for our war targets after we couldn't deliver in person

At The Quafe Rack

CCP announced a contest the other day for EVE-related artwork submissions. Two winners will be selected whose work will be enlarged, printed on canvas, and displayed on a blank wall at CCP HQ. Not gonna lie, I would love to see my work hanging on that wall!

For my entry, I repurposed my ink and watercolor portrait of Niraia into a Quafe ad poster, with a little play on words:

I'm looking forward to see which submissions the CCP judges choose as winners and hope we will get to see all the entries in some online format. There's a lot of talent in the EVE community...it would be very cool if CCP designated to target blank wall as a curated "gallery wall" of fan art in the office. The pieces selected for large format canvas printing could be supplemented with framed paper prints of other fan art that could be swapped out from time to time to keep the exhibit interesting.

Recent EVE Character Portraits

I'm continuing to work my way through the Eve character portrait queue. In the last few weeks, Real Life and the considerable attention that Signal Cartel has required since launch have cut into the amount of time I have had to work on these. Fortunately, things are leveling out and I'm back on track with getting current commissions done.

Thinking ahead to real life commitments in the year ahead, I have simplified the portrait service to offer only ink and watercolor sketches for new commissions. These are a lot faster and easier to do than more formal portraits, so hopefully that translates into faster turnaround time for everyone who orders a portrait going forward.

Here are the most recent portraits completed:

Marc Scaurus

Makoto Priano

Zappity

If you'd like a portrait of your character, check out the info in the Gallery tab above and then get in touch via EVEmail or regular email.

By the way, if you're doing creative EVE-related things, there is a creatives channel on the Tweetfleet Slack. Go and share your work there!