A slightly sinister email in the inbox the other day, from CCP, who are doing their best to remove any excuse I might have about why I am not currently playing EVE Online:

“Our records indicate that the above character has a balance of 300 Million ISK or more. As part of our sixth anniversary celebration, we would like to extend a one-day reactivation offer to you so that you may have the opportunity to turn that ISK into game time using the ingame PLEX system. Simply log into Account Management and claim your 24 hour reactivation time.”

And above that was my character name and what I presume to be my current ISK balance. I wouldn’t know, having not been in there a while, but if CCP are to be believed, I have enough ISK lying around to play for free for two months, as long as I’m prepared to fritter away my virtual-savings that I’d put aside for…er…

I think that was one of the main reasons I’d stopped playing actually. The only thing I was saving up for was replacement Battleships in case I lost one in the process of earning money for replacement Battleships, a somewhat cyclical bit of logic that the astute among you will quickly realise can be broken out of by simply not undocking again. In terms of future goals and ambitions, I never really had any. Certainly there were a whole heap of Tech 2 toys I could of gone out and bought, but none of them would have improved my ability to play the existing game, which to me, was mostly about grinding out Level 4 Agent Missions. Distinct lack of impetus, which I will need to address if I ever want to go back. I think I may have been idly considering a Maurauder for Missioning, but really didn’t feel like I needed one, to be honest, the basic Megathron being up to most of the missions.

One reason that isn’t keeping me away form the game however, is an inability to afford the monthly sub, and I’m both faintly amused and vaguely insulted by the whole notion. Its time thats the decider for me, and if I wasn’t so stubborn about the whole concept, I’d probably be more of a currency buyer than seller.

A month of game-time, under current PLEX rates, would work out at something like ten to twenty Agent 4 missions, which I’m almost certain I wouldn’t get done in a month at the rate of play I could spare for the thing. Turns out that the time that ISK represents, is far more valuable to me than the price of two months admission.

Objectively though, it is a very clever marketing ploy and is likely to get more than a few ex-players with large ISK balances sitting about and doing nothing, back into the game. Also impressed with the plan to let players pay for Fan Fest tickets using EVE-Money: Wilhelm explains in more detail.

Bit of a moment of realisation this weekend; I may not be Minmatar Tribal Liberation Army material. EVE Online’s Factional Warfare expansion, the Empyrean Age, is getting on for a couple of months old now, and I’ve certainly given it a shot. I don’t say my best shot mind you, and have been giving a go as effectively, a brand new player; a fresh out of creation newbie alt; 800,000SP, a 20 million isk bung from my main, and as it turned out, massively unrealistic expectations of starfighter glory!

Its certainly been an interesting month or so, and a glimpse of a whole other EVE, and many would say, the real EVE; large-scale strategic PvP. I’ve rambled about specific encounters previously, but from zoomed further out, it really is a remarkable spectacle; hundreds of players all suddenly pulling in the same direction, pitted against each other in the inky darkness between worlds. Battles are fought, ships explode, (mostly mine), and systems change hands. I’m not sure many folks are that fussed about the bunkers and control to be honest, and are largely in it for the shooting; a chance to sample a different kind of 0.0 game, but one without the politics, drama or Titanic Doomsday Instaboom!

A great many people seem to have given it a go, but how many have found it a game that suits their tastes is harder to say. Being a numbers obsessive, I was quite taken with this statistical exercise:

IC – Faction Warfare Statistics (via CrazyKinux)

The graphs show various statistics, which can also be found in the Militia window in-game, and tell a bit of a story:

Kills (30D): Cry Havoc and Let Slip The Dogs of War! A rousing early start, with people blowing up left right and centre, but as the month continues, and perhaps, personal warchests dwindle, the pickings seem to fall off a bit, to perhaps half the early totals. Gallente and Minmatar seem to give a good account of themselves, with Caldari doing okay, but perhaps not as well as their numbers ought to dictate, and the somewhat undermanned Amarr coming in a consistent fourth place. I’m curious what happened on 28th June – seems the Gallente went a bit berserk! Vive Les Fous!

Victory Point Statistics (30D): Turns out there are other things to do there, than shoot people in the face! Points are the point, apparently, but here too, a month-long falloff, but also an interesting reversal, with the Black Rise front line being largely VP driven early in the month, but then the Myridian Strip conflict taking over as the bit where people are taking it all seriously and not just going out and shooting people in the face.

Population (30D): If you patch it, they will come. An interesting graph. No real surprise to note that Caldari outnumber the other teams nearly two to one; the mighty Metagame Empire has always been ‘teh bestest’, despite their shockingly asymmetrical ships. Gal and Min about the same each, and the Amarrians coming in as Most Unpopular. Make of that what you will, but what interests me, is the almost entirely flat nature of all four lines, showing that since FW started, almost no one has actually resigned from their militia. Somewhat contradictory to the above two graphs, and suggests not so much that FW is being abandoned, per se, but that many FW people are just not going out to fight as often, one month in. My guess is that rather than leave all together, many folks are just parking up the FW Alt, and going back to business to usual on their mains.

System Occupancy (30D): All Your Base Are Belong To Minmatar! I assume this means number of systems that belong to one empire, that have been occupied by another, two slightly different things, (and a point of popular disgruntlement – why occupy it if you can’t own it?) Gallente seem not to appear on this graph at all, which I can only assume means that they don’t hold any enemy systems. A very flat graph, showing just how much work, effort and time is needed to make any visible headway in the overall Faction Wars. It looks from this, as if the Minmatar are putting in the most of that effort, perhaps rather than going for straight kills; guerilla warfare maybe?

A strange story, all in all; one of great initial interest, a slowly fading honeymoon period, and a fair number of people deciding that it is at best a ‘sometimes’ game, and at worst, simply not for them. This all corresponds to my own FW experiences quite closely, and the other night, I sat there and thought ‘Pfffft…’ and set a skill training on my Main instead, effectively putting my FW Alt on hold for the time being. Its hard work, and I found, a game that can be played solo OR as a newbie, but not both. Its fair enough, and I can’t complain; it would be a farce if week-old characters in starter ships could omfgBBQ three year veterans in the shiny top-end toys. One Ishtar may cost the same as 200 Rifters, but that logic only helps if you have 200 Rifter pilots attacking that Ishtar, at once. It all seems a case of ‘X up or get ur Main’, and perhaps both for real peace of mind and confidence.

I’m also not a terribly obsessive EVEer these days. My interests come and go, and this current EVE session has been one of casual dipping in, poking about with newer stuffs, and general dabbling, since just before Trinity went in. I still like the game, overall, and I expect that level of interest to continue for some months or even years, but it really isn’t suitable for the PvP side of the game, where constant practice and regular gang sorties seem the best way to learn the thing and get any good at it. I’m a flake, without the required time, but that’s okay, and oblivious to all the carnage, my L4 Agent Running Main has been quietly parked at my Agent 4 mission station, waiting for my admittedly rather fickle interest to throw them a glance once again. She’s a patient woman and seems very pragmatic about my current dalliance with my routinely exploding FW Fancy Woman. She knows I’ll be back sooner or later…

So not farewell, but au reviour to Factional Warfare from me. Perhaps next time, I’ll man up enough to try it with my main, in something fierce, shiny and expensive of my own, but for now, its Combat Drone Operation V on the skill plan, and a somewhat quieter life grinding out standing for my long neglected Jump Clone…

Some more Factional Warstories here. On the whole its going somewhat less well than I’d hoped, but perhaps a little better than I expected. My self-imposed stockpile of ships and equipment isn’t faring too badly, for the amount of time I’ve been out there, and I’m down four ships out of the twelve I’d brought to the firefight. Mind you, on the other hand, I’ve managed a grand total of zero killmails so far, which is a bit discouraging.

Of course the odds are stacked immensely against me; I’m a newbie alt with about 1.2 million SP, I’m only flying Tech 1 Frigates, and am missing a large amount of general purpose, and many more specialised, skills that I’d come to take for granted on my main character. I also know very little about PvP in EVE anyway, although not nearly as little as I knew three weeks ago, which is something, I guess. Even so, I’d have hoped to have at least landed an assist by now…

Lesson 4: Shooting Back Isn’t Always The Right Move

A shortish mid-week session, which saw me out in my standard tackling Rifter setup, detailed previous. Having tried solo work already, I was keen to ‘X up’ and maybe hope to score at least a 30 vs 1 gank Assist for my time and lost ships so far. I’d even done the Right Thing and set my CPSA Charges to 0! (Open Mail, Rightclick Inbox Tab, Set Charges to 0 – this means that your potential new Fleet Commander doesn’t have to click through the anti-spam pop-up, and also pay 3,000ISK just to talk to you, or invite you to the fleet!)

Alas, EVE was being less than cooperative, and a number of times on my way out to the fleet rendezvous, the game crashed. Been getting this a bit since the last patch or so – actual game client crash to desktop, rather than simple disconnects, although those happen as well more than is usual out in FW Country. After the third one of these, which also dump you from the fleet, requiring you to ask for another invite in Militia Chat, I’d decided not to bother again, deeming my client not reliable enough for grouping. By the time I’d got back again, the Fleet had already left. I followed on my own in a likely direction, arriving at a gate to see a few friendlies hovering there, and jumping through. I followed through, and we all waited at the other side; an impromptu gate camp of sorts.

A lone enemy Punisher showed up – the Amaarian equivalent of my own Rifter; doable. It appeared on the gate out of warp, waited a few seconds, then jumped through. Everyone else immediately jumped through after him. I’m not sure what for, mind you; as soon as it would have got to the other side, it’d be off to some safespot or planet or moon, and become extremely difficult to casually chase down. Meanwhile, back on my side, I’d seen that there were several other war targets in Local, and figured that the Punisher was just a diversion and/or scout, checking out the gate. So I stayed put, and sure enough, thirty seconds later, in comes a gang of about four or five Interceptors, Assault Frigates and similar.

I have moments to congratulate myself on my foresight, as now, I’m manning the Most Ineffective Gate Camp In History. Everything lights up red, reciprocal target lock goes off, I’m warp scrambled and I panic. I mash the F-Keys, opening fire with all the modest peashooters at my disposal. At some level, I knew I hadn’t a hope, but what I should have done was just Afterburn to the Jump Gate, a mere 5km away, and jumped on through, to safety and survival. They may have followed, but by then, I’d be as safely hidden away as the earlier Punisher no-doubt already was now. Of course, by the time I’d realised this, is was all over. Scratch #4.

I found this a lot in Planetside actually – I have a kind of knack for knowing exactly the right place to be at the right time; how the enemy is thinking and what they are likely to do next, and yet find my own inadequate skills, abilities and resources utterly incapable of doing anything about it when it does happen. This probably makes me a decent General, but a lousy Soldier, and given both the anarcho-democratic nature of most RvR pick-up zerg fleets/armies/teams, and my own easily bruised self-esteem, I’m certainly not going to embarrass myself by trying to lead a fleet in there!

Lesson 5: Know Your Enemy!

Last night saw a rare conjunction, both me and my Cohost playing the same MMO, at the same time, and rarer still, actually grouping! He was in a Rifter, fitted much like my own, and I was trying out an ECM Vigil, having been impressed with Lesson #1, previous. A ropey and somewhat scraped together fitting, with three ECM modules in the midslots – an Anti-Amaar one, an Anti-Mimatar one and an Anti-Caldari one. I figured that there wasn’t much point taking an Anti-Galente one, as they tend to just set five drones on you instead. The Vigil actually gets a bonus for Target Painting, not ECM, but the chassis is cheap (half the price of the Rifter), and has enough CPU and targeting range to still be able to use ECM fairly well. A better ship is the Griffin, the Caldari’s equivalent, which does get and ECM bonus instead, but I don’t have the skills, and anyway, am supposed to be a Minmatar Fundamentalist of some sort!

We had the voice going and everything; it was just being in a real fleet! We spent about three hours again, zipping about the middle cluster of systems, which form a bit of a chokepoint between Minmatar and Amaar controlled areas, and usually see a fair bit of action. Undergunned as always, we figured scanning for, and then defending, Minor Minmatar Naval beacons in these systems would be doable, providing a deadpsace pocket which only ships of our class could enter, making a somewhat more fair fight than I’d seen so far.

That was the plan anyway. We jumped about various systems and planets scanning for these things, but with no success. Enemy sightings, while frequent on the Local Chat window, were almost non-existent in space, and this is starting to get on my nerves a bit. Probably nothing 0.0 Players aren’t already also sick of, but Space Is Big, meaning that even if you’re in the same star system, it can be very hard work to actually find the enemy. Directional scanner work helped a bit, and if you have the skills and ship, you can use probes for even more precise locating, but most people out in the FW areas know about these, and simply by constantly staying on the move, you can avoid these as you choose.

Militia Chat was helpful-ish, but often vague, and as much rumour as intel. Apparently, the Amaar had fielded a number of stealth bombers in our neck of the woods, and we definitely saw one hostile arrive out of warp at a distance, and the make the cloakey noise and vanish. We didn’t hang about to be casually Cruise Missiled, and continued on our canning for sites. After about two hours of fruitless pinging, we popped across the line to the Amaar region. We came across a few sites there, but these were ones that needed attacking, and our puny fleet wasn’t up to the sizes of NPC they would throw at us, even in the ones with no players.

Bedtime approached, and we headed back to the barn, then just before entering ‘safe’ space, decided to go out shooting instead. We worked back outward a few jumps and finally found a target. It was a lone Ishtar, drifting near a gate. We jumped in cloaked, so he couldn’t see us, but he could see the big flash the gate itself, so knew we were out there somewhere. This cloak that the jump gate itself applies only lasts 30s, and he’d evidently decided to wait us out. Rightoh, charge!

The principal error, (for there were many), was my mis-recognition of the ship. I’d thought that it was an Ishkur, a Gallente Assault Ship – a T2 Frigate, which is still powerful, but could perhaps, conceivably be outfought by the two of us. I may have been a bit overly optimistic on that score, thinking about it, but we certainly had no chance against an Ishtar, a Gallente Heavy Assault Cruiser. Despite only being a Cruiser variant, these sell for more than Raven Battleships, and for good reason. I think I managed to jam him a couple of times during the ensuing atrocity, despite having exactly the wrong selection of ECM on board, but it didn’t help much; he’d already launched five Ogre IIs, each themselves more powerful than our own frigates, if a bit slow, and my desperate jamming attempts blew my capacitor out jolly quickly. While his drones ambled after me, he must have been busy dismantling my Rifter wingman.

No fight at all really, but it didn’t seem to stop him calling in a Sacrilege, (another Tech 2 Cruiser) to help him out, which I was at once flattered and appalled by. I mean sure, we were out to get blown up so we could call it a night by that point, but really…is it absolutely necessary to use 200 million (plus fittings) of Tech 2 Cruiser to take out less than a million’s worth (including fittings!) of newbie frigate? I can only assume that the ensuing and accompanying smacktalk was on a level so ironic that even they didn’t see it…

Anyway, we got our pods out safely, so I guess that’s as much of a win as can be hoped for in that kind of circumstance. I shall certainly remember the difference between an Ishtar and an Ishkur in future.

I’ve got seven more Rifters to burn at the moment, but the more I try it all out, the more unpleasant things I’m starting to see under the rocks. As a newbie Rifter pilot, I’m beginning to see that the only places I ought to be, are in the middle of a very big fleet of Real Characters (15 Million SP +), in Real Ships (Battlecruiser or above, or Tech 2), or in a Minor Complex protected by a weight-rated acceleration gate, preferably one with friendly NPCs. Having been out and about in it all, I’d humbly suggest that the real entry level for Factional Warfare is probably Interceptor, not Frigate. There’s also an awful lot of Not-Fighting involved, for a PvP expansion; dodging, scanning, camping, travelling, fleeing, exploding, bitching in Militia Chat that [Enemy] just station-hug all night, etc.

(Note To All Minmatar Militia: Yes, we know there are four WTs in Battleships hugging Boundless Creation in Hek – just leave them alone. Hek is unconquerable, and all they can do is gank friendlies coming out of dock there. There is no point rounding up a posse, because if they get into the slightest amount of trouble, they’ll just dock. Just avoid the station and worry about the Front Lines! Rens is nearer to the battles anyway.)

We’ll see. Perhaps I’m kidding myself that Rifters and Newbies matter out there, in a game facet based not so much on Risk vs Reward, but Risk vs Success. Perhaps I do just suck, but if I’ve not managed even an assist by the time I run out of Rifters, I may just have to retire altogether, if for no better reason than my frequent and fruitless deaths are making the Minmatar look bad on the high-score chart! Its all very well being given these lessons, but am I actually learning anything?

My ongoing correspondence course in EVE Online pew pew continues, with a night spent mostly soloing out in the contested Myridian Strip and surrounds, the front lines of the recently erupted factional war between the godless rebel scum and the self-righteous fascists. Having pitched in with the aforementioned scum, it was out on patrol last night, pottering about largely on my own, partly to see if Factional Warfare can be done alone at all.

I think I’m regarding the entire project as something of a literal education actually; I’ve paid up my tuition fees in the form of a big stack of disposable low-end ships and gear, and seem to be looking on the entire thing in perhaps the spirit it’s meant; one big introduction and tutorial to the harsher side of what EVE can be – a side I’d previously had very little truck with.

Here’s the fitting, scrapped together from my own rudimentary ideas of what might work;

Rifter:

• 200mm AutoCannon I (Nuclear S)
• 200mm AutoCannon I
• 200mm AutoCannon I
• Rocket Launcher I (Phalanx)
• Warp Scrambler I
• Stasis Webifier I
• 1MN Afterburner I
• Gyrostabilizer I
• Small Armor Repairer I
• 50mm Reinforced Steel Plates I

No Tech II, No Named, No Rigs, making the primary advantage of all the above the price; about 500,000ISK for the lot, including the ship itself. I’m all very new to this, you see, so it wouldn’t do to blow my entire war budget on one ship! With my newbie alt’s skills, it all just about fits; 149.9/150 CPU, 35/42.55 Grid. It seems to have all the basic requirements of a small gang/solo PvP Tackler, but could probably do with all sorts of refinement – do chip in with advice below – I’m here to learn afterall!

Quite a lengthy session, at least three hours, in which I started in Minmatar defended space, and gradually worked my way across into Amaar territory. As a solo, and quite weak, ship, I seemed to find that the most productive use of my time was securing Minmatar beacons, of all sizes. These overview beacons lead to areas of space with the increasingly familiar Capture Points, but these are intended for the Amaar to assault and hold – grab enough of those and they’ll win our systems, which is bad, so I’ve been making a point of flying to any that show up and capturing them myself.

This is easy enough in itself, as they’re guarded by a large fleet of friendly Minmatar Navy NPC ships, making it a bit of an uphill struggle if any lone Amaarians come along and try to beat me out of there. This can be a bit dull; having to orbit the marker for upwards of 20mins at a time, but I like to think I’m helping, making it much more difficult for the enemy to make progress into our region. Not every site I secured was uncontested though, and some had an Amaar logo on, showing that the enemy had attempted, and made some headway toward capturing our sites. They can be a bit fierce though, and several contained Amaarian wrecks. A later solo go at an Amaarian Minor Complex in their space saw me have to bail before the capture could go through, so more skills, equipment and/or wingmen, than I have, is needed to solo these.

Not sure whether they’d just been ground down by the NPCS, or if a Minmatar Clean-Up Crew had blasted through the place, but then been in too much of a hurry to wait out the timer for the secure. It’s entirely possible that most people aren’t there for flags or capture points, but just want to shoot people in the face, in which case, the sites must be a bit on the tedious side.

I’m mostly there as practice and training, and learnt three important lessons over the session:

Lesson 1: If You Can’t Win, Prevent The Fight Entirely

I’d arrived at a Minmatar Minor site (T1 Frigates and Destroyers Only), and the Local chat window showed only me and one War Target, making it a fair guess that he was in the Complex, and in something I might have a chance at killing. I warp in and see a single Inquisitor orbiting the CP, dallying with some of our own Frigate sized NPCs. Excellent, I think – the Inquisitor is a mid-range Frigate, specialising in Missiles, but not nearly as well as the Caldari’s Kestrel. Weight for weight, this ought to go well for me; the Rifter is several notches up the pecking order. Afterburner on, Target, Orbit At 1500m (My optimal), and let ‘im have it! I land a couple of shots, and suddenly, the target is unlocked. Without being locked, I can’t actually shoot the guy.

I orbit a while and try to lock again, but he’s using at least two mid-slot ECM modules on me, cycled in such a fashion that I’ll never reacquire him as a target, and all the while he’s hitting me with his mediocre missiles, and doing a fair bit of damage. I can out-repair this for a while, certainly, but to what purpose? Everything I have fitted needs an active target to use, and while I probably could have shredded him in short order in a straight fight, he’d decided, by his fitting, that he wasn’t going to have any straight fights if he could help it. All quite cunning, and in the end, there was nothing for it, but to leave him to it. He probably captured the CP after I left, and fair play to him.

It seemed a intriguing plan, and a fit designed to focus on the objectives, not the fights. With two ECM modules occupying both the Inquisitor’s mid slots, there’s no room for tackling gear, so I could happily disengage any time I liked, but then again, that’s what he wanted; to be left alone to capture territory, not to kill anyone. Two ECM would be a handy addition to a fleet too, I expect, and in the event of a larger gang than “Just Me” challenging him, simply vanish into hyperspace and try your luck some place else. Certainly one way to play it all. I could fit various Sensor enhancement modules to combat the ECM effect, but that means sacrifices on an already tight fit. F.O.F Missiles or Drones have independent targeting, and could have ruined his day, but I have access to neither of those in the above Rifter. Smartbombs are AoE (practically Melee at that!) and need no target, but in general, only crazypeople use those, as accidents are all too common – I’d have probably taken out useful NPCs on my own side long before I’d have bombed him to death.

Informative, and worth considering for a change of pace later perhaps; a Vigil maybe, geared up to confuse and annoy, rather than dominate and kill.

Lesson 2: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

I’d fetched up at a Major Site in the Amaar held region, just as a handful of my own Militia, the Tribal Liberation Navy were also getting stuck into it. No enemy players in the system, just us, so a free run at a significant objective. Of course there’s the NPCs to deal with too, and we were all in the smaller kinds of ship. Guarding the CP was a cluster of five Amaar Battleships. (I can never tell the difference between Armageddons and Apocalypses!) There was a bit of umming and ahhing, and then one of our loosely affiliated group just charged in there with a Thrasher (Min. Destroyer – only one step up from the Rifter really), and got all five aggroed. Then, over the course of the next twenty minutes or so, through a terribly impressive combination of skilful flying, high speed and gutsy daring, managed to kite the vastly more powerful ships, and take them out of the fight entirely. The long ranges, small signature radiuses, transversal velocities and powerful, but lumbering lasers being used meant that although catching the occasional fluke long hit, the Thrasher was more or less safe the entire time, although unable to actively capture themselves.

More clusters of NPCs showed up of course, and the rest of us still had to work for it, but with the enemy Battleships removed from the fight, the whole thing became a lot more manageable for our Frigates and Cruisers. I wonder how well it would have worked if any actual Amaar Navy Players had shown up, since people are typically more complex than game AI. Kiting players can be done, but is a much more subtle art if you want them to keep on after you, rather than just let you go, and turn on the people you’re trying to distract away from.

Impressive stuff though, and I suspect with careful aggro manipulation, even the largest sites can probably be captured with only two or three small and very fast ships taking it in turns to kite, and orbit the CP. There is no requirement to actually kill anything – you just have to survive within 30k or so, for 15mins or so.

Lesson 3: You Can Hurt Them If You Can’t Catch Them

Toward the end of the night I actually ran out of ammo, which is always nice in an PVP game – to have survived that long at all is a result for me! I headed back through the front lines, into our own defensible space, en route for my local ‘War Depot’, near Rens, in High Sec Space, where most 24th Crusade would be crazy to follow; (Naval Patrols, etc). On the way, I saw a Minmatar Major beacon and figured I’d wrap up with a little light Orbiting a CP for 20mins – doing my part and all. I think the presence of 20+ Minmatar Navy ships, including Typhoons, lulled me into a false sense of security, which was a bit stupid, given Lesson 2. I may have also been surfing in another window, so probably deserve what followed.

Perhaps five minutes from capture, a Pirate entered Local. It’s easy to forget that it’s Low Sec, and that the 24th Crusade aren’t the only things to worry about out there. Before the Empyrean Age, these systems were worked by a long tradition of cottage industry based psychopathic brigandry, and not all of them slunk away when the militias arrived – many see it as simply more targets to ply their trade on. I continued orbiting my CP, hoping he was just passing through, although my CP was the only beacon on the overview, and I was the only Militia on Local, so two and two can’t have been hard to put together.

Moments later, a Crow shows up – an Interceptor variant of the Caldari’s Condor. I guess if I’d have left immediately, I’d have got out intact, and it’s this kind of dithering that is something I hope to improve through all of this stuff. Anyway, by the time I’d fumbled my way to a warp menu item, it was too late. With a Microwarp Drive fitted, Interceptors are capable of staggering speeds; several kilometres per second, compared to my own top speed of 700 metres per second.

Within moments, he was running rings around me, in the most literal sense imaginable; wide, super-fast orbits at 20km – well outside the range of anything I had on board, and even at full burn, I could do nothing to close the gap. Scrambled, of course; 20km being the maximum range for that to work, or he’d probably have been even further out. By then it was all over, but I managed to tank his missiles for a fair while. Mind you, I wasn’t going anywhere, and he had all the time in the world. What was most surprising was that he was doing all this in the middle of a hostile fleet of NPCs of perhaps Agent 4 Mission grade, and by virtue of his superfast ship, was managing to speed-tank the incoming missiles and shots from over 20 Minmatar Naval ships of all sizes, largely without a scratch. Annoying, but impressive. I tried to fly myself into their ranks a bit more, in the hope of exposing him to closer ranged guns and such, but the entire spawn only managed to get him to half shields before I blew up.

I suspect even with the longer ranged, but more cumbersome Artillery turrets fitted instead, I still would have had trouble hitting him for more than glancing damage, given how fast he was going sideways. Standard Missiles, instead of Rockets would have hit him, possibly; it’s what he was using on me, afterall, but again, the Rifter isn’t really set up for that kind of thing; a Breacher would have been a better bet there. A Warp Core Stabilizer would have let me at least escape – the 20km scrambler only does one point of, er, scramble, but again, only so many slots. Of course the best tactic there would be to just pay attention more, and get the hell out as soon as he showed. I’m not sure there was any way I could have actually beaten him, except in an Interceptor of my own, or something much bigger, set up for sniping.

I got the pod out safely at least, and back to base. It was all a very silent and business-like ganking, but then again, I’m not worth the hassle of ransoming, which is the point of being an alt in the first place. He gets his +1 on a killboard somewhere, I get a useful lesson in how Interceptors should be flown, which may come in handy in the future, and we go our separate ways.

More lessons to come, I’m sure, but so far it seems soloing isn’t quite a hopeless cause in FW, but it does bring all sorts of challenges of it’s own. It’s nice to have two different games there, the big fleet ‘X to join!’ blob-hunting thing, and also the objective-based smaller work. I also made it to Rank 2 for my work in the complexes too – Spike Lieutenant, so not an entirely wasted night!

I was going to just edit the last post, but it all got a bit complicated, so here’s a whole new post! Last post, I was bitching about how long it would take the brand new player (or fresh alt), to grind out the required Faction Standing to take part in Factional Warfare. Well, several commenters came to my rescue, most notably Bremen’s tip-off about the Graduation Certificate missions.

So, I’ve spent an evening following up on that, and seem to have worked out an optimal route to the magical 0.5 standing:

• Make new character: 0.00 Standing
• Work through the tutorial: 0.07 Standing
• Visit the first of your race’s three data centres: These are listed here, are all in safe space. Identify the agent that has the Graduation Certificate mission – one at each. Do his job, a short courier mission that can be completed in any ship: 0.11 Standing
• Follow up his lead to the named Event agent: This agent has a multi-part story mission, which was quite novel and interesting in it’s own right. A top-end Frigate with reasonably picked combat skills will work here – did mine in an Autocannon-Fit Rifter and was never in any danger. (Note: Remember the name of the moon when the pop-up tells it to you – you won’t be told again and there are lot of moons out there!)
• Do these missions: Part of the story chain has an extra mission within it, which you should do to take you instantly to: 0.22 Standing
• Finish the last part: 0.23 Standing
• Visit the other two Data Centres and do the other two Graduation Certificate missions: 0.27 Standing, 0.33 Standing. (These two will refer you to the same person you just did the multi-parter for, who will not give it to you again.)

Well over half way there, and a triple honours graduate to boot! Now, look up your factions ally Data Centres. i.e. If you are Minmatar, visit the Gallente ones; if you are Caldari, visit the Amaar ones (or vice versa).

• First Ally Graduation Certificate mission: 0.36 Standing. (The increases are lower here, as you’re working for the ally, not your own faction, but all adds up!)
• Follow that referral to another Event agent, for another multi-parter. (Interestingly, the Gallente contact actually takes your certificate here, while the Minmatar one didn’t seem to do any checking on my CV!)
• Again, there is an extra mission inside the main chain, which will take you to: 0.38 Standing
• Finish the main multi-part again: 0.40 Standing
• Visit the remaining two ally Graduation Certificate chaps and do their jobs: 0.44 Standing, 0.48 Standing
• One set of visits; the Data Transportation Circle Agents. These give you short courier jobs to do, including the occasional ‘Important’ task; (the one I found on the Minmatar circuit added 0.1, but other races may vary): 0.58 Standing – job done!

(The wiki there seems to be missing entries for all races for these, so you may need to scoot round the full circle to find the one you need. If you do, do update the wiki!)

Total after all that mucking about:  0.58 Standing and also about the same with your Ally Faction, which may come in handy later on if you want to swap Militias. On the other hand, that lot will put you at about -0.27 Standing with the enemy bloc, making life difficult if you want to switch sides to those. You also now have six degrees, which is six more than I ever managed in Real Life!

(Note that enlistment appears to not register correct standing immediately – you may need to push the button a few times, or wait a few minutes for the  last increase to go through.)

The above was all done starting as Minmatar and moving to Gallente; I suspect the Caldari/Amaar route will be very similar.

The whole thing takes two, maybe three sessions, can be comfortably done in the kind of frigate the tutorial gave you, and with the skills you got out of character creation, (which if you’re gunning for FW, should probably be mostly combat-based to begin with!)

There’s a fair amount of leg-work involved, but it’s not nearly as bad as banging out 400 Level 1 Agent Missions and gives you time to cram a few Rank 1, Level I skillbooks into your head, and in my case, write this post, listen to two Virgin Worlds podcasts, and dabble with Photoshop, coming up with this rather busy and exceedingly cliched poster!

Next stop, the recruiting office…

So I finally got a bit of time to have a crack at the new EVE Factional Warfare thing last night, only it didn’t quite go how I was anticipating, and I’m quickly learning that the whole PvP-Lite, Jump In and Face-Shoot aspect of it isn’t nearly as accessible as I was imagining. I shouldn’t be surprised really; this is EVE Online, not Planetside, and I think I’d somewhat lost track of what ‘casual’ actually means in this particular game, compared to most other MMOs.

I’m keen! I want to give it a go, as I suspect it might be the kind of thing I’ve been looking for, but failing to find, all along; meaning-less PvP in internet spaceships, and perhaps half an hour’s quick fun zerging about the galaxy, allowing me to at least get some kind of introductory inkling even, of what EVE is really all about; PvP, but tailored for my own kind of quite hectic schedule – a schedule which would make me worthless to any proper PvP corp of any skill or reputation.

Factional Warfare comes with a pretty hefty pricetag; namely that taking part will massively alter your standings, and eventually make you kill-on-sight in certain parts of the galaxy, a hassle that my main could do with out.

The other concern I have is that by sheer dint of long subscription and training, my character has far out-levelled me. A curious concept, but it hinges on the Golden Rule; ‘Don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose’. These days, my available EVE playtime is now no longer comfortably sufficient, for me to afford to buy clones on a regular basis anymore, let alone replace Battleships – one replacement ‘me’ costs about the same as the bounty take from an average Agent 4 mission, which can take several hours. Effectively, I can’t afford to lose myself! Not exactly the kind of drop-in and blast gamestyle I’m after.

So it’s a newbie alt, created specifically for the purpose of playing in the new wargames. At the very new end, you don’t even have to pay for a clone at all until you hit 900,000 SP or so, which I’ve only just done. More importantly, with no implants and barely any SP over the default clone threshold, I don’t care if I get podded anyway – I literally have nothing to lose. I still have to pay for new ships when I get ganked, but again, at the newbie end, I can keep the alt in T1 Frigates for as long as needed, with only the occasional cash handout from my safely hidden away money-earning main – turfing over the cost of one of my main’s clones to the alt will probably buy and fit about 20 Rifters.

I’m going Minmatar for this one; In Rust We Trust and all that, and once through the tutorial, (which seems to hand out a decent bundle of freebies these days), I was all set to sign up, which is when I hit the big roadblock; I must have 0.5+ Faction Standing with Minmatar. It seems such a trivial figure really – my main is about 5.0 with Caldari – but the tutorial only put me at 0.07 with my own race.

This figure can be increased in one of three ways.

There’s the old-fashioned way: doing normal PvE agent missions. Every 16 of the normal ones you do, you get given one which will alter your faction standings. At the agent 1 end, which is all my woefully underskilled newbie can manage, these Storyline Missions seem to increase the standing by 0.02 to 0.03 points a go, making something like a hundred agent one missions to be ground out. They’re not so bad, I guess; comfortable in a Rifter with moderate gunnery skills, and take five to ten minutes a time, if you don’t bother stopping for loot and salvage. Even so, that’s quite a lot of work if you’re not in there five hours a night.

Another way is to buy your way in, via the Data Centres. At these special locations, you can turn in sets of NPC Pirate tags for immediate and repeatable faction standing increase. However, these tags are rare enough at the best of times, and predictably enough, enterprising marketeers have sent the price of the basic entry level ones in my region to about two million isk a pop. As these are needed in groups of ten, and probably multiple times for the total increase I need, this all makes it a bit rich for my blood – the point of this exercise for me is No-Risk, No-Reward PvP! I’m not sure a 100 million ISK entry fee is quite in the spirit of it all, to be honest!

A third way exists; the long abandoned COSMOS constellations – a previous attempt to ‘questify’ EVE A bit. It didn’t take that well, but the various NPCs are still out there, and although only being useable once each, do offer faction standing increase after only two or three missions for each, rather than 16. Trouble in my case, is that not many of them are level one – I still have to be able to complete their tasks, afterall. I did one or two in the Ani constellation, which did indeed help (I’m currently at 0.09!), and if I was in a Battleship, there would be easily enough work here to get the whole 0.5, I’m sure. Alas, I’m not, so the Ani Constellation can only help a little, not get me all the way there.

A bit of research revealed that things which will NOT work include: the actual regular missions themselves – Storyline only for Faction Increase; ratting – belt rat kills do nothing to improve any standing, only Sec Status; training Connections – the Militias want an unmodified standing of 0.5; helping other people on their Storyline Missions – faction standing increase is not shared by the gang.

I’m unsure if flying to Amaar Prime and attempting to kill Amaar Navy Customs Armageddons would help, but it probably a tad optimistic for newbie me in my newbie Rifter!

Joining a player corp that is already in the Militia would allow me to get right into the action, but as the corp’s faction standing is an average of all it’s members, I’d still have to get my own +0.5, and quickly before the aggregate faction of the corp goes below 0.5 and they get all kicked out because of me! For this reason alone, I suspect few Militia Corps would even consider newbie members fresh out of Tutorial. (Mind you, assuming that FW Success also gives you Faction Standing, as long as your first few outings are victorious, this ought to correct quite quickly. No pressure!)

Given my erratic playing hours of late, all of the above means that it is likely to be a fair number of weeks before I’ve managed to bang out the appropriate missioning and even start on Factional Warfare. Don’t get me wrong – this whole piece is not a complaint – it’s more of a caveat or warning; I can see why they’ve done it like this, and it probably is necessary – a test of commitment, a deterrent to casual alt-spies and so on.

It just seems a bit unfortunate in my own case, and perhaps Factional Warfare is not quite the casual drop-in thing I was hoping for. Mind you, I shouldn’t be surprised – not a lot about EVE is casual, on the whole. I’m am quite surprised by just how much PvE you have to do, in any of the above methods, to be able to start on the new form of PvP, which seems a bit odd.

I’ll keep picking away at the faction entry requirements, of course, and it is good to have a goal, but those expecting to fire it up from scratch, jump in and get right to the face-shooting should be aware – you still have to be this tall to go on the ride…

More on what it’s actually like when I ‘grow up’ enough!