The Short Con

What got me interested most in EVE was reading of the infamous long cons. The Guiding Hand Social Club murder of Ubiqua Seraph CEO Mirial and the synchronous looting of their coffers. A plan that was carried out over an entire year. Or the downfall of Band of Brothers at the hands of Goonswarm. Not too mention the myriad large scale bank and investment scams.

I, personally, have no interest in engaging any long cons myself, but I like knowing they're allowed, legal, and can happen anywhere and any time. This lawlessness in EVE reminded me of the heydey, the first 18 months, of Ultima Online. Still my fondest memory in MMO gaming. Like the original design goals of Ultima Online (before carebear whining ruined it all), EVE too is built upon the precept that the players should be in control of their destinies, their destinies should not be defined by game mechanics. EVE is not perfect in this regard (bugs, a few bad design decisions, lag), but it is close, and getting closer.

As interesting as the long cons are (they are few and far between), there are the short cons. The daily subterfuges and scams of EVE Online.

I consider myself reasonably bright. And have not fallen trap to any subterfuges in this game. Well, until yesterday.

I was engaged in a long troll/slam thread against EVE University on the EVE Online forums. Just some meta-game fun, as well as a little vindictive revenge. Railing against their hypocrisies and contradictions, their overall desire to insulate themselves from most of the game.

It was all going well-enough until about page four of the thread, when a fellow Uni instigator, dum dumdum, appeared. He seemed to share all the same reservations I had with the University. At that time, I'd already revealed the main troll of thread, and the thread had now become just a generalised bash on the University. I should have left the thread at that point. I thought about it. But the moment got the best of me, and I continued to engage. From morning until afternoon, just a stream of sarcasm and discontent towards University policy, and in particular their inept Admiral, Silentbrick.

Well, perhaps not quite so inept (at least where non-combat and non-fleet operations are concerned.)

I decide to take a break and go get the oil change I'd been meaning to get for the last week. Do that. An hour or so later, return home to find that dum dumdum had replied to some post meant for me, but that he used first person pronouns in the reply. Obviously intended to sound like I was making the reply, that dum dumdum was intending to pass himself off as my alt, that I'd made a grave posting error. That I'd just spent most of the day playing the multiple personality game.

At first I was a little confused. I must have read over dum dumdum's post six or seven times. Making sure I was actually reading it correctly. Making sure that this was happening. It was. I'd just been trolled. Where the hell was Admiral Ackbar when I needed him?

By this time every Uni alt was going fullbore on the discrediting game, using dum dumdum's troll as their rallying point. Kind of obvious and none too subtle. The rahrah Uni alts are obvious to pick out of the woodwork. Even now, it is still the Uni alts and Uni supporters furthering that agenda.

I began wondering who dum dumdum might be. Was he just someone screwing with me? He was obviously an alt. Only five days old. Was he a Uni alt? That seemed the likeliest explanation. Obviously a clever alt. Meant to pull me along for as many cross-quotes as possible before dropping the bomb. I knew for sure he wasn't Silentbrick's alt. That guy has all the subtlety of a tweaker at a meth convention.

Then I received an in-game conversation request from dum dumdum. I've posted the logs and the screenshots. They more or less speak for themselves. Who he is, still remains a mystery, but he was obviously out to do a job and he did it successfully. He may have been expecting emorage in our conversation. To be honest, I was kind of impressed. You get schooled like that, there's little recourse in raging about it. Suck it up, be a man, accept that you just got your ass owned.

Like I said, I posted the conversation to the forum, and wrote "Kudos to the Uni."

Five minutes later I receive another conversation request from dum dumdum. At first he wants to sell me some chatlogs he has with Silentbrick. I decline. I have a pretty firm rule on not paying ransoms and not paying for unverifiable information. He then states that the Uni does not deserve the credit for my being played. He would like me to instead edit my post and change "Kudos to the Uni" to "Kudos to [his alliance]".

I'm leaving the alliance name blank, simply because there is no way to verify who he is exactly. He claimed to be from a certain organization known for their subterfuge and social engineering operations. There was no way in hell I was going to write that name down without any proof. While I have no problems with the Uni being pissed off at me, I don't want [alliance] pissed off at me if I'm being played yet again and I end up wrongly accusing them of this subterfuge.

Anyhow, I eventually agree to just say "Kudos to the hired operative." His only beef seemed to be that the University was incapable of such subterfuge and it seemed to tick him off that I was giving them such credit.

Here is that final chat log (edited to remove corporation and alliance names, though likely not hard to figure out what they might be):

---------------------------------------------------------------
   Channel ID: -24592717
   Channel Name: Private Chat (dum dumdum)
   Listener: Poetic Stanziel
   Session started: 2011.08.31 01:00:57
---------------------------------------------------------------


[ 2011.08.31 01:01:10 ] Poetic Stanziel > Yo yo.
[ 2011.08.31 01:02:03 ] dum dumdum > Hey bro, saw your post just now
[ 2011.08.31 01:02:25 ] dum dumdum > im looking for a deal, if you are interested
[ 2011.08.31 01:02:38 ] Poetic Stanziel > A deal?
[ 2011.08.31 01:03:20 ] dum dumdum > Silentbrick used an alt for contacting me for most of it except once, i have a chatlog
[ 2011.08.31 01:03:40 ] dum dumdum > willing to post it for you and upload a copy onto eve files
[ 2011.08.31 01:03:44 ] dum dumdum > if you can tip me
[ 2011.08.31 01:04:02 ] Poetic Stanziel > I am not rich. Not a billionaire like most of the directors.
[ 2011.08.31 01:04:22 ] dum dumdum > well this is just free money to me, not like i need to work for it
[ 2011.08.31 01:04:51 ] dum dumdum > unlike the work i had to do to set up the whole thing today
[ 2011.08.31 01:05:16 ] Poetic Stanziel > Yeah. Not really into getting played twice. If you know what I mean.
[ 2011.08.31 01:06:15 ] dum dumdum > ah i understand its fair enough then
[ 2011.08.31 01:06:32 ] Poetic Stanziel > No prob. Thanks for the offer.
[ 2011.08.31 01:06:58 ] dum dumdum > no harm in getting easy work
[ 2011.08.31 01:07:06 ] dum dumdum > trying to get*
[ 2011.08.31 01:07:11 ] Poetic Stanziel > Nope.
[ 2011.08.31 01:07:16 ] dum dumdum > btw just so you know
[ 2011.08.31 01:07:38 ] dum dumdum > Silent already tipped me 200 mil extra to delete the log when he realised id talked to you
[ 2011.08.31 01:07:47 ] Poetic Stanziel > Heh.
[ 2011.08.31 01:08:11 ] dum dumdum > poor dummie thinks il be honest to him because he has hired me in the past
[ 2011.08.31 01:08:39 ] Poetic Stanziel > I have two suspicions ... you're either [corporate member] ... or [alliance].
[ 2011.08.31 01:08:48 ] dum dumdum > heh
[ 2011.08.31 01:08:51 ] dum dumdum > 2nd one mate
[ 2011.08.31 01:09:37 ] dum dumdum > fork in the [corporation]
[ 2011.08.31 01:09:49 ] dum dumdum > under [corporate CEO]
[ 2011.08.31 01:09:53 ] dum dumdum > work*
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:19 ] dum dumdum > and another thing plz can you alter your post a little
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:20 ] Poetic Stanziel > Well, good play. Still impressed. I joined because of this sort of shit ... never thought I'd have it done to me ... but c'est la vie. ;)
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:26 ] Poetic Stanziel > Joined EVE.
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:31 ] dum dumdum > hehe
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:48 ] dum dumdum > plz give myself or the [corporation] credit for this
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:55 ] Poetic Stanziel > Alter it how?
[ 2011.08.31 01:10:58 ] dum dumdum > the uni simply paid. I planned and did the work
[ 2011.08.31 01:11:11 ] dum dumdum > dont give the uni credit for something they didnt do
[ 2011.08.31 01:11:34 ] Poetic Stanziel > Yeah. I probably won't do that ... in the event this has nothing at to do with [alliance], and you're in fact silent. Rather not have [alliance] pissed at me too.
[ 2011.08.31 01:11:55 ] dum dumdum > hmm undersrtoof
[ 2011.08.31 01:11:58 ] Poetic Stanziel > Uni is fine. I can deal with the Uni.
[ 2011.08.31 01:12:04 ] Poetic Stanziel > I can't deal with the [corporation].
[ 2011.08.31 01:12:05 ] dum dumdum > then change it to give dum dumdum credit then
[ 2011.08.31 01:12:22 ] dum dumdum > [corporate CEO] knows its me anyway
[ 2011.08.31 01:12:38 ] dum dumdum > just dont want you to give credit to the uni for this work
[ 2011.08.31 01:12:48 ] dum dumdum > and esp not silent
[ 2011.08.31 01:13:02 ] dum dumdum > dont mention the [corporation]
[ 2011.08.31 01:13:18 ] Poetic Stanziel > If you're biomassing dum dumdum. You can give the credit if you wish.
[ 2011.08.31 01:13:37 ] dum dumdum > well kinda pointless for me to credit myself
[ 2011.08.31 01:13:43 ] Poetic Stanziel > I'm more than a little wary at the moment. Understandably.
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:05 ] dum dumdum > but yes i understand
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:09 ] Poetic Stanziel > I don't see the end game in this ... but if there is one ... I'd rather not fall for it hook line and sinker.
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:21 ] dum dumdum > well i understand that you cant trust me
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:35 ] dum dumdum > but dont lose sleep over this bro
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:42 ] dum dumdum > im not gona trail you or anything
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:49 ] dum dumdum > my job is done
[ 2011.08.31 01:14:57 ] Poetic Stanziel > Not at all. Currently all I have to worry about is the Uni. And not particularly worried there.
[ 2011.08.31 01:15:13 ] Poetic Stanziel > Just don't want to make more of a fool of myself than I probably already have on the forums today.
[ 2011.08.31 01:15:30 ] dum dumdum > ye just wondered if you could credit me (i.e. dum dumdum) for this work
[ 2011.08.31 01:15:39 ] dum dumdum > rather than leaving it as it is, which implies the uni did it
[ 2011.08.31 01:15:50 ] dum dumdum > which they did not do, they simply comissioned me and i did the job today
[ 2011.08.31 01:15:52 ] Poetic Stanziel > I'll think about it. I may post something.
[ 2011.08.31 01:16:49 ] dum dumdum > "Kudos to the Uni for it." just alter to "kudos to the hired operative"
[ 2011.08.31 01:16:57 ] Poetic Stanziel > Why do you say "please give myself of the [corporation] credit for this"
[ 2011.08.31 01:17:05 ] Poetic Stanziel > And then say "don't mention the [corporation]."
[ 2011.08.31 01:17:30 ] dum dumdum > because you seem to worry that the [alliance] have marked you for something
[ 2011.08.31 01:17:41 ] dum dumdum > when it is not like that
[ 2011.08.31 01:17:50 ] Poetic Stanziel > I see.
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:00 ] dum dumdum > i play this game for fun
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:12 ] dum dumdum > and i dont want you to think that this is something personal for me
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:16 ] Poetic Stanziel > Well, I doubt they'd be bothered to mark for no particular reason ... unless I pissed them off directly.
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:22 ] dum dumdum > or that im out to get you in the guture
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:33 ] dum dumdum > i have a little bit of conscience
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:37 ] Poetic Stanziel > Heh.
[ 2011.08.31 01:18:54 ] dum dumdum > i mean if you were like emo emo ragey ragey i couldnt care less
[ 2011.08.31 01:19:04 ] Poetic Stanziel > Anyhow ... maybe I'll just post this chat log and be done with it.
[ 2011.08.31 01:19:16 ] dum dumdum > but you got rolled over by the uni and i rolled you over again today so
[ 2011.08.31 01:19:50 ] dum dumdum > oh,so you are not worried about the [alliance]?
[ 2011.08.31 01:20:04 ] Poetic Stanziel > Of course I am.
[ 2011.08.31 01:20:42 ] Poetic Stanziel > Who wouldn't be ... except maybe Mactep. :)
[ 2011.08.31 01:20:51 ] dum dumdum > tch
[ 2011.08.31 01:20:58 ] dum dumdum > we [alliance] are misrepresented
[ 2011.08.31 01:21:02 ] dum dumdum > we arent all that bad
[ 2011.08.31 01:21:24 ] dum dumdum > its prob because all the bad stuff we do is what ppl remember and pass on
[ 2011.08.31 01:21:25 ] Poetic Stanziel > Don't get me wrong. I am a fan of the [alliance] and [alliance].
[ 2011.08.31 01:21:41 ] Poetic Stanziel > Both personalities during Alliance IX were my favourites.
[ 2011.08.31 01:21:51 ] dum dumdum > mmm i go hot and cold regarding [alliance]
[ 2011.08.31 01:22:01 ] Poetic Stanziel > And it was the story of [alliance] taking down [alliance] that got me to join EVE.
[ 2011.08.31 01:22:11 ] dum dumdum > before my time unfortunately
[ 2011.08.31 01:23:00 ] dum dumdum > regarding [alliance] i dont rly care all that much because i dont have to fly with them
[ 2011.08.31 01:23:14 ] dum dumdum > too busy infiltrating and playing the social manipulation game
[ 2011.08.31 01:23:39 ] Poetic Stanziel > I will do the "hired operative" thing for you. That is no problem. I've thought about it.
[ 2011.08.31 01:24:18 ] dum dumdum > great glad to hear it
[ 2011.08.31 01:24:20 ] Poetic Stanziel > But it will be in a separate post. not going to edit the chat log posts after the fact ... that could be used against me.
[ 2011.08.31 01:24:30 ] dum dumdum > ofc understoof
[ 2011.08.31 01:24:34 ] Poetic Stanziel > By Silent, Uni, whoever.
[ 2011.08.31 01:24:34 ] dum dumdum > understood
[ 2011.08.31 01:25:05 ] dum dumdum > "hired operative" id prefer this
[ 2011.08.31 01:25:23 ] dum dumdum > i doubt silent has the brains or finesse to pull of anything close to the things ive done
[ 2011.08.31 01:25:50 ] dum dumdum > escpacially after seeing him "trying to help" finish the trap
[ 2011.08.31 01:26:35 ] dum dumdum > btw regarding chat logs im not sure that they will stay for long
[ 2011.08.31 01:27:09 ] dum dumdum > im not sure if you can post chat logs in general discussion
[ 2011.08.31 01:27:24 ] dum dumdum > then again old forums are gone in a few days so the CCP dudes may not bother
[ 2011.08.31 01:27:34 ] Poetic Stanziel > Done.
[ 2011.08.31 01:27:55 ] Poetic Stanziel > His last post was a bit hamhanded.
[ 2011.08.31 01:28:15 ] dum dumdum > ok thanks v much for that post.
[ 2011.08.31 01:28:25 ] Poetic Stanziel > Making a big issue of pointing out the "first person" thing, in case no one caught it.
[ 2011.08.31 01:28:26 ] dum dumdum > i do enjoy my work
[ 2011.08.31 01:28:48 ] Poetic Stanziel > Not subtle at all.
[ 2011.08.31 01:28:55 ] dum dumdum > well like i said, its a skill what i do in eve
[ 2011.08.31 01:29:12 ] Poetic Stanziel > You had skill. Had me completely fooled. Silent. Not so much.
[ 2011.08.31 01:29:30 ] dum dumdum > aww ur making me blush
[ 2011.08.31 01:29:32 ] Poetic Stanziel > I come back from my oil change to see your post and my first thought was "Fuck. I was trolled."
[ 2011.08.31 01:29:44 ] dum dumdum > ah ye kinda figured
[ 2011.08.31 01:30:04 ] dum dumdum > i was gona do it another way
[ 2011.08.31 01:30:09 ] dum dumdum > but this one seemed best
[ 2011.08.31 01:30:39 ] Poetic Stanziel > Anyhow, gotta go. Take care.
[ 2011.08.31 01:30:51 ] dum dumdum > you too and thanks for taking it like a champ
[ 2011.08.31 01:31:00 ] dum dumdum > silent woullda raged in your position
[ 2011.08.31 01:31:02 ] Poetic Stanziel > No prob,. It's all part of the meta-game.
[ 2011.08.31 01:31:08 ] dum dumdum > o/
[ 2011.08.31 01:31:11 ] Poetic Stanziel > o7

Obviously still no way to verify what he has said is true. But an interesting conversation nonetheless.

A fun, embarrassing, and interesting day all rolled into one.

Happy Camper

Earned my EVE University medal today. Happy camper. Getting the boot out the door is not so bad with my Graduate Medal. I always wanted the medal, and even if I criticised a lot about the Uni, I am still proud to have been a Unista, and now an ex-Unista.

EVE University as an NPC Corporation

Granted, I heard this second-hand, from a source that has access to the director and management forums, but it strikes me as true. CCP does view EVE University as a valuable player retention tool and has invalidated certain types of war declarations against it in the past.

CCP apparently approached Kelduum Revaan, CEO of EVE University, with a tentative offer of turning EVE University into an NPC corporation, though one that is still managed by players, thus solving the University's war declaration annoyances.

If the plan were to pass CCP final approval, and Kelduum accepted, he was also to be offered a position within CCP to run this new EVE University and act as the new player liaison.

Good or bad for the game? I can see it from both sides. Good for new player retention. It could become the defacto corporation that new players join at the start of the game.

Bad in that it offers carebears a relatively safe haven from non-Concordable PvP within a proper player-run corporate environment.

August 29th Update
As it turns out, some of the info that I received was somewhat exaggerated. The crux of the information has remained true, as verified by Kelduum here: EVE Online Forums - Reply

Cutting through the chaff, he says "I have been in communication with CCP about various things. Some time ago I did make a list of ways to improve our teaching facilities ... amongst them was adding E-UNI to the CONCORD NPC faction in game."

Whether that conversation has ended with CCP or whether it is ongoing, is unknown.

Someone did point out that he didn't explicitly suggest turning EVE University into an NPC corporation (though it was always the contention of this blog post that the corporation would remain player run, it would simply be an NPC corporation per wardec mechanics.) Other than that, what would be the point of adding EVE University to the CONCORD faction (?) if not to alter wardec mechanics against the University? Maybe someone has a reasonable answer to that one. (And I wasn't aware CONCORD was a faction, that it was simply a corporation.)

August 30th Update
The end of the troll.

August 31st Update
Damn. I was trolled.

Why Covert Ops Certification Isn't Necessary

Since the Ivy League Navy (ILN) was reconfigured in recent months, some old policies continue to persist. Programs that were in place previously need not necessarily continue. Just because some policy might have been a good idea in the past, does not mean it continues to be a good idea now. Entrenching yourself in old thought processes disallows the organic growth of a new organization.

The Covert Ops Certification system is one of these old policies that continue to persist, if only because people seem to think the new ILN should continue in the role of certifying stuff, because that's what the old ILN did.

The difference is that the old ILN was an out-and-out PvP training department for the University. A mini-Agony, so to speak. It required a commitment from its students, and the ILN took upon the role of training these students seriously. The old ILN had many such certification processes, and they made sense within the structure of a PvP training department. They served the purpose of gauging training, and as a tool for advancement. The old ILN had many dedicated and enthusiastic staff who were involved in these certification processes. All well and good in a functioning, rewarding training system. It made sense. It worked. It saw its successes.

The new ILN. Well, as it currently stands, it has no function within the University. Has had no function within the University for several months. It stands there in name only, in stark contrast to what it once was. Most people seem to be more concerned with logos and ribbons and officer credentials than giving it a mission statement. E-peen concerns trumping any thought of functionality or role.*

Now that the ILN background is out of the way, the question "What useful purpose does limiting an entire ship class serve?" About the only reasoning that seems to be parotted about is that seeing a covert ops ship on a killmail is an embarrassing and expensive loss for the University.

First of all, the University is a training corporation. The first principle of the corporation is learning through experience. People are encouraged to fly different hull types. People are encouraged to lead fleets. Many have next to zero experience with either. Many ships and fleets are lost this way. I'm cool with that. Apparently the University is as well. This is a game after all, with little consequence to loss (except ISK), so the best way to learn is through experience. You lose a ship, you're going to sit back and think "What could I have done to avoid that loss?" That's the learning process.

Except when it comes to CovOp ships. One can fly a super expensive heavy interdictor and lose it in battle, a ship I'd say is harder to fly effectively than a simple (and much cheaper) Helios. Yet, lose a Helios and a shitstorm of EVE mails will come down upon you (as well as a kick out the University doors.) Lose a heavy interdictor and no one bats an eye. Lose a recon ship in a silly way and a few people for a couple days will bat some eyes, but soon enough just water under the bridge.

Now I'm not suggesting that people should not be allowed to fly heavy interdictors or recon ships, or that some certification process for them be implemented. Not at all. Those guys flew their ships. Got exploded. They probably learned something valuable from the losses. But there does seem to be a disconnect between covert ops ships and other skill intensive ships that require much more knowledge to fly.

The University officially calls their covert ops certification process, Scout Certification. It includes such requirements as various Astrometrics skills, competence in directional scanning, bookmarking, etc. All these requirements allow a pilot to fly a covert ops ship during wartime on fleets in a scouting role. That would be fine and dandy but for the contradictions. The University allows anyone to scout as long as you aren't in a covert ops ship -- you don't need any proof that you have skills in directional scanning, the use of combat probes, or the effective creation of bookmarks and tacticals. So why does flying a cov ops suddenly require aptitude in these additional skills, whereas normally you wouldn't need them? It is perfectly acceptable to endanger yourself and your fleet with a lack of experience in one set of circumstances, yet not another. Bureaucracy gone mad.

As for cost. That doesn't seem to be much of an argument. Here's a pretty basic Helios fit that runs about 36M ISK (according to EFT, in reality cheaper.)

[Helios, Helios - Scout]
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
[empty med slot]
[empty med slot]

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Probe Launcher I

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

As already stated, much more expensive and skill-intensive ships are lost routinely.

Hell, I'd argue that using an Interceptor as a scout requires far more piloting skill and situational awareness than flying around cloaked as a scout. Yet using an Interceptor is a-okay, whereas flying a cov ops is nada. Both ship types have a similar ISK worth.

Another argument in favour of certification, is that the University feels that covert ops ships flown without certification will be lost willy-nilly. That's silly. I think the peacetime statistics of cov op losses backs this up readily enough. Pretty much anyone who invests the time to skill to a covert ops ship has also looked into them enough to know how to avoid danger in them. And the lack of covert op losses would seem to back that up. There's just no evidence that people fly these things consistently foolishly. Yet, that is the argument a lot of people in favour of certification seem to make.

So tomorrow, I wish to bookmark the incursion sites in Great Wildlands. They make great bookmarks for eventual safespots. I would be doing this solo (not as part of a fleet and not in a fleet scouting role, no one dependent on my skills but my own hide.) This is something I've done safely and routinely in the past during peacetime (I've no cov ops losses to my record.) Since the University is currently at war, I cannot do so in my Helios, but will have to use a slow T1 frigate equipped with an Improved Cloak II. It will take hours to make the necessary gate tacticals, as well as bookmarking the Incursion sites, something that would take a quarter of the time in a Helios.

Seems to me that this is a case of how it used to be, and it's been continued for no other reason than "it seems a good idea." But when you dig into it, there's a lot that makes little sense, and has contradictions up the wazoo.

Let people fly the ships they want. Let them lose them. Let them learn from the experience. Let loose the red tape of bureaucracy. It isn't required. Why not just implement a four-month certification-free period and see what happens, gather actual data to back up any necessity for a certification process.


* Granted, there are a few dedicated individuals who are busting their asses trying to give the new ILN shape and form. These individuals are so far down the rank ladder that their ability to effect serious change is limited. Their superiors are rarely online, and rarely seem at all interested in their positions or the ILN itself. Sure, there may be some chit-chat in closed forums, but considering the exceptional snails pace at which change is occurring suggests a general lethargy in the organization.**

** Before anyone views certain paragraphs as me taking the opportunity to bitch about Silentbrick again, you would be wrong. I'm simply suggesting he take the time to do a complete revamp of the ILN, fulfill his role as Fleet Admiral. Stop it from being the old boys club it seems to have become. Get rid of the inactivity, the chaff. Fire people. Start promoting those people who are busting their asses to get stuff done. The University, and by extension the ILN, is a meritocracy after all. Reward merit. Here are a few names off the top of my head that deserve positions where their contributions can find speedy implementation: Dust Eater, Aztral Bendako, Alarien, Khandu Eesi, Gibson Thunderbird. By no means, though, a complete list. Put an end to that old saying within the ILN, that once a person is promoted they immediately retire from active duty. Duty should be a requirement of rank. I would serve under an ILN with people I see online everyday, people who I know are busting their asses to make this new ILN work.

EVE Monopoly - CSM6 and Nullsec

Inspired by The Mittani's insistence that wormholes have it too easy. Along with CCP's apparent agreement. Which all boils down to CCP's recent devblog suggestion that ABC ores might become exclusive domain of nullsec.

EVE Monopoly - Contract Scams

Inspired by some jibba-jabba on a recent PinkKnife nullsec roam.

O'Reillys

So, I want to create new terminology for EVE Online. I want to see this on glossary pages six months from now.

Next time that you're out scanning down radar sites, and someone asks you what you are doing, just say "Scanning down O'Reillys." Or, if you find one, you can tell your buddy, "Just found a great O'Reilly."

As Aldrat IX Turns - The E-Uni "Scandal"

Much sarcasm follows.

Over a week late and 1K ISK short, EVE News 24, that bastion of literate and unbiased reporting, finally got the scoop of the week. An ex-Unista is butthurt over FSM knows what.

Ten days ago I wrote about the debacle. How ridiculous it was, and how much of a waste of time it would be for anyone to expend effort spying on the University.

According to EVE News 24 here is what the "mastermind" got away with:

The universities self styled API-tool is amongst the list of assets compromised as well as the records of all students on file (which number in the thousands since is 6 years old.)

Many of the pilots who are now alumni now hold positions of power in null-sec corporations, so the damage caused by this leak impacts many alliances and corporations throughout New Eden, seriously damaging Eve University’s reputation.

Let's assume for a moment that there is an actual list of API keys that the University archives. (The truth is that there has never been such a list.)

If a list of Unista API keys was copied (the majority of which would be limited), I mean, really, what sort of valuable intel does that entail? Skillpoints? Certificates? Maybe access to the names of their on-account alts? What exactly are you going to do with that info that's so damned insidious? "Dude, he's weak in EM Armour Compensation! Let's hit him with EMP L ammo!" That might be noteworthy for 1v1 fights, but considering there's little in the way of small-scale combat in nullsec, information without advantage.

To think that a list of ex-Unista limited API keys gives one nullsec corporation some huge (or any) advantage over another nullsec corporation is silly.

There is that old saying "Knowledge is power." Perhaps the idea of having such a list makes someone, somewhere, feel powerful. Kudos to that person. You are an Emperor God.

Again, if in fact there was such a list to steal in the first place, which there was not.

On the topic of the EVE University Intelligence Department, EVE News 24 offered this nugget:

The Intelligence Department closed ... having lost both Intel Directors, the university has been left in a compromising position in which the intel and alumni assets are no longer available.

While it is true that the University closed its Intelligence Department, it's mainly because the Intelligence Director was a great big douchebag, who spent more time throwing his weight around, powertripping left and right, and kicking people from the University if they looked at him sideways. I don't think he spent a lot of time gathering much of any intel. I don't believe his "massive" network of contacts proved very useful when trying to track down info on all the pissant one to five person corporations that usually wardec the University.

In the time since the Intelligence Department closed, I think we've been getting better intelligence by crowdsourcing it to the general student population. Unistas are exceptionally motivated when wardecced, to search down information on the folks annoying us, finding all the little links that connect the dots back to other characters and larger corporations. I've seen this in action the last two faildecs we've been under. It's been kind of impressive.

As for the notion that without an Intelligence Department, the University is left in a compromising position. Someone will need to explain what compromises those might be. I'm not even sure the author of the statement could explain it such that it didn't cause anyone listening to bust out with a few lols.

Armour Incursion

I haven't lost a Myrmidon in a couple days, so it was time to build some new ones. I'm currently in the process of skilling up so I can attend some Shield Incursion fleets, but today an Armour Incursion was forming, and decided to attend. My first incursion.

Kulper gave me a respectable fit.

[Myrmidon, Myrmidon (Incursion Armor)]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Gyrostabilizer II

10MN Afterburner I
Optical Tracking Computer I, Optimal Range
Optical Tracking Computer I, Optimal Range
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

425mm Medium Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP M
425mm Medium Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP M
425mm Medium Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP M
425mm Medium Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP M
425mm Medium Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP M
425mm Medium Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP M

Medium Anti-Thermic Pump I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Warrior II x30

It was easy ISK. 48.5M for an hours work. An enjoyable time spent with Unistas.

It was certainly a good move on the University's part to allow Unista-only incursion fleets to go out during wars. Keeps a number of people in the University, who would have otherwise left at the first sign of a wardec, and earns the University some nice taxes during wartime (a time when they generally earn nothing.)

By tomorrow morning, I'll have double the incursion options. Shield and armour. I still need to work off all these gambling losses (EOH Poker and Somer Blink.)

Wolfpack Tristan

I'm really digging this Tristan fit. Already used it twice on two wolfpack fleets. I most like the idea of half the fleet using webifiers + some ewar module, and the other half equipping warp scrams/disruptors + some ewar module.

It is not the speediest or most agile ship in the pack, but it's a tough little bugger and packs a half-decent punch.

[Tristan, Tristan (Wolfpack)]
Adaptive Nano Plating II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates II
Damage Control II

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
F-392 Baker Nunn Tracking Disruptor I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

Light Ion Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Ion Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Gremlin Rocket
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Gremlin Rocket

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Hobgoblin II x1

Granted it is not all Tech II yet, but getting there. I think even once I get into my Ishkur next week, this is still the type of ship I'll continue to fly on many wolfpack fleets.

(The empty rigs are due to EVE University wartime regulations for Tech I frigates. But I probably wouldn't rig it if it wasn't a rule. It's supposed to be a cheap, though effective little fit.)

The "What the Hell" Roam

My first Fleet Command. This is my AAR (After Action Report).

A few of us (Poetic, Tanis, Dax, Flies, Komeqayn) decided to go on a short wolfpack-like frigate roam. So we spent 20 minutes fitting out some ships. The plan was to head to Otou and along through to Rancer and beyond.

Not much, really, until Miroteim. Saw the Maller and Cyclone on d-scan. Decided that wasn't for us. Heading to the Rancer gate we came upon the Maller at gate. I immediately decided that he was probably bait and eventually his pal would arrive. Figured, what the hell, we were out here to attack stuff. So we aggressed him. Got his shield down quickly enough, but he was pretty heavily armour tanked. The five of us could barely dent it. Then not one friend arrived, but three. Called out a bounce (though I might have yelled jump in a panic.) Two of us got away, Tanis was dead from the start, being in the shiniest ship. I probably could have got away, but spent 3 seconds spamming the D key to jump through the gate until I realized that I couldn't, since we were the aggressors. By the time I started warping to a celestial, they'd already pointed me, so just readied my podsaver to save my implants.

Tanis - Jaguar
Poetic - Tristan

Dax and Flies stayed in system, while Komeqayn returned to Hek with the two pod people, Tanis and myself. I'd fitted out three Tristans for the evening. Grabbed the second. Tanis didn't have a ship fit in Hek, so lent him my third.

The dudes that done killed us were camping the Otou gate in Miroteim (as per Flies and Dax's intel), so we met in Lamadent instead. The pirates had a neutral newb pilot following us to give the pirates eyes on us. In Lamadent their scout was popping between the Otou and Miroteim gates to figure out which way we were heading, the system we'd use to jump into Miroteim. He saw us jump into Otou, and the pirates arrived in system too. We decided to make a run for the Miroteim gate, figuring they might be trying to warp to our jump in to the system. Got into Miroteim and headed straight to Flies safe to figure out the situation.

Decided to head to Rancer. Lots of Negative Ten in system. Fifteen or so. Knew the Miroteim side would be clear, since Negative Ten never gate camp that gate, since it can be d-scanned quite easily. There were no other targets in system, so headed to Criliere gate to jump on contact. As expected, about 8 Negative Ten on gate. No problems getting through.

Rest of roam was pretty boring. Criliere -> Olettiers -> Artisine -> Bamiette -> Carou -> Ignoitton ->Iyen-Oursta -> Faurent -> Ambeke -> Criliere -> Rancer -> all the way back home to Hek. The only nervous moment was jumping into Rancer knowing a large Negative Ten fleet was on the other side. We all got away. Frigate align for the win.

Positives

• Saw some action. 
• Some of us got blowed up!
• Was fun avoiding the pirates after the initial encounter and trying to out guess what gate they'd be camping us at in Miroteim.

Negatives

• Learned I don't much like FCing. Too much stress knowing that I'm responsible for showing the people with me a good time.
• Was sort of indecisive at the start, deciding what to do or where to warp. (As fleet wore on my decision making became quicker and more decisive.)
• Need to remember that I can't gate jump after aggressing.
• Whereas just randomly roaming around solo is cool, not so cool when in charge of a fleet.

The UniBlob™

The UniBlob™ Preparing to Roam

The New ILN vs. The Old ILN

The Ivy League Navy (ILN) was recently reorganized. I'll try to explain the reasons, as I understand them, why the ILN was reorganized, and how the new ILN may be falling into a similar pattern.

The OLD ILN
The old ILN was a distinct and fairly separate entity within the University. Joining the ILN required a three-month commitment from a student. This included some intensive PvP training, as well as fleet operations training.

Whereas the University still ran fleet operations that were open to any Unista, and any Unista could run a fleet operation, the ILN often ran special ILN-only fleets. That, of course, is perfectly acceptable. They are a PvP training group, and you're going to get the best training by keeping that training to members only, where everyone understands the rules and procedures set forth, the chain of command, etc. Training is better within a team, as people learn to predict and coordinate their behaviours over time -- tighter, more successful fighting units form.

At the time, the ILN was comprised of three battlegroups, each battlegroup focused on a specific period of the day. Thus each battlegroup could cover a specific set of timezones effectively. Obviously some battlegroups had more active players than other battlegroups. The North American and European battlegroups simply had more players than the Asian/Australian battlegroup. Again, that's fine. It is an acceptable methodology to service such a broad playerbase.

Each battlegroup was responsible for its own training programs, its own fleet operations, its own advancement of members through the chain of command. Each battlegroup was responsible to itself, reporting only to the admirals.

As one might expect, a competitive atmosphere formed among the battlegroups. Success with fleet ops, their killmails, and the like. Healthy competition is good. Unfortunately, in any competitive endeavour, one group eventually shows itself as more consistently successful than the other groups.

That's when healthy competition started to turn caustic.

Jealousy and resentment reared its ugly head and there were calls of elitism, unfairness, etc. all directed at the more successful battlegroup, simply because they had the better training program, the more active members, more fleet operations, and the better killmail records. The other battlegroups, being responsible to themselves, could have implemented better training for themselves, rallied their troops to get more activity out of them, recruited out of the University more heavily, basically just tried to mirror what the successful battlegroup was doing right. Complaining and pointing fingers is always easier, though. (Hell, man, I know this, I'm guilty of it often. Which is why this post was born, an attempt at a positive useful critique.)

Thus, to keep as many people happy as possible, the restructuring of the ILN was born. The reasoning was to unify the ILN, discourage the appearance of it as a totally separate entity from the University, eliminate the fractious nature of the battlegroups. Basically, the goal was to create a more cohesive single entity.

The NEW ILN
First of all, before getting into the meat of the Ivy League Navy's reorganization, first look at the ILN organizational chart. I will draw upon its structure as I go forth. I'll also be making italicised comments after each paragraph.

The new Ivy League Navy has dropped the concept of memberships and commitments. Now, every single Unista is considered to be a member of the ILN.

I agree with this. I was never going to commit to three months of anything under the old system. I sometimes don't know what my in-game plans are from day to day, much less month to month.

Battlegroups were rebranded as Task Forces, and there are now four of them, still defined by timezones.

It's difficult to move away from the timezone concept, especially in a single-instance MMO where players are spread out across the globe. As for the rebranding of battlegroups to task forces, I understand why it had to be done. No problems with the change of designation.

Each task force has its own commanding officer, its own executive officer, and its own group of five liaisons.

This is where I'm going to spend most of my time. To be honest, this seems hardly different from the old ILN. Each task force is responsible for its own training, its own personnel, its own security, diplomacy and logistics. It's already structured in a competitive manner. Training methods between task forces, for example, will likely end up being very different, and as such, preferable training that isn't accessible to players due to timezone differences will simply breed resentment and jealousy.

Already, as you can see from the structural chart, some task forces are more popular than others. Some are blessed with more players to play with due to timezone population differences. This will, naturally, lead to more success for certain task forces over others. The problems of the old ILN will repeat here.

Since change had to be made, perhaps that change didn't go far enough along the road. The structure of the new ILN is still eerily similar to the old ILN, and I'm just not sure how its solves any of the problems that forced the reorganization in the first place.

The NEW NEW ILN
Here is what I would do to solve the problems inherent in the old system.

1. Drop the concept of task forces altogether. Divvying up the ILN by timezone is what created the original problems. Some timezones are haves, while some are have-nots.
2. Replace the commanding/executive officer level of the ILN structure with fleet and wing commanders. Increase the total number of these fleet/wing commander groups to at least ten, preferably more. Enough fleet/wing groups to adequately cover all the timezones.
3. Combine each task force liaison group into a single ILN liaison group. The group would consist of a single training officer (with subordinates) for the entire ILN. One security officer (with subordinates), one diplomatic officer (with subordinates), etc.
4. Now with a single liaison entity, develop for the ILN a single consistent training program, a single consistent security program, a single consistent diplomatic program, etc.
5. Ensure there are enough liaison subordinates to cover all the timezones. Since they are all following a single set of guidelines, consistency across the ILN is ensured. For instance, a student can no longer complain about any other student receiving better training -- everyone is being trained under the same syllabus.
6. ...
7. As per normal University policy, the fleet commander positions do not limit regular University students from taking fleets out themselves. Though perhaps an idea to consider is that during a time of war (and not under a relaxed WSOP), only a designated fleet or wing commander is allowed to command a fleet.

The following are simply random suggestions. The details of each suggestion are not important unto themselves.

• Implement three levels of fleet commander certification.
  • The first level would be the easiest to obtain, and would simply require attending the Fleets 101, 102, and 103 courses. This would only allow the commanding of tech 1 frigate and destroyer fleets of no more than fifteen ships.
  • The second level of fleet command would require the first level of fleet command, plus having taken out ten such fleets. The Fleets 201 and 203 courses are required. This would allow fleets of up to 30 tech 1 or tech 2 ships, with hull sizes up to battlecruiser (minus strategic cruisers.)
  • The third level would require having commanded twenty fleets at level two, plus some undefined higher level courses. It would allow hull sizes up to battleship, including strategic cruisers.
• I'd also suggest that the admiralty mingle with the general University population on a more frequent basis (real life permitting), especially on Mumble. It's never a bad thing to let the broadest audience possible get to know you as a person.
• I'd also suggest that the admiralty take out fleets themselves on a more regular basis (real life permitting), if only to not lose sight of how stressful it can be to fleet command in often difficult and complex situations. It provides better hands-on leadership, as well as greater connectivity to the membership at large.

I think that sort of does it for the critique and the suggestions. I am eager to read comments and suggestions back.

So Silly

I've received a message that I am in violation of University rules for having a cuss word in my biography. An in-character biography that has been mostly in its current form since the second day I joined EVE Online. (The penultimate paragraph is new in the last month, and the last paragraph a minor rewrite from the original, to add E-Uni.)

Grew up mining in the Verge Vendor region. I hope to use my background as a miner to get the hell out of Dodge and see the galaxy. Sick of seeing the same people over and over, and those people knowing too much about my shit.

Parents dead and I have this fucking hull breach scar as a reminder. (Yeah, there it is. I offset the reminder of it with my tatt and piercings on the right side.)

Currently attending EVE University. I'm thinking, at the moment, I eventually want to get into w-space, live out a good number of my days there. I'm eyeing up Future Corp ("For the Future!") as a likely home for my endeavors, once I pass all the wormhole and scouting requirements in E-Uni.

Good people in E-Uni. And they don't ask too many fucking questions. So it's all good.

That they are only bringing my biography up now, when no doubt they saw and read it when I first joined ... well ... that's a tad odd, but I have written a few things that have made a few people unhappy.

(I could point out some other prominent Unistas with cuss words in their biographies, but I'm not in the habit of throwing people under the bus like that.)

The rule I'm apparently violating is as follows:

Our members keep all public communication channels free of inappropriate content
While we appreciate that losing your ship to the last rat in a mission, falling for a contract scam, or having everything you own destroyed by a pirate in LoSec can be infuriating, members avoid profanity where possible. While occasional mild profanity may be tolerated, it is neither required or expected in common usage. Sexual or other off-color chat is to be avoided at all times, and there is very little tolerance in this regard.

I would say it's a bit of stretch to regard my personal biography as a channel for public communication.

I can't help but roll my eyes a little. But comply I did. All of the fucks have been changed to f*cks.

The Medal for Badassery Goes To ...

Mystical Might (at least this guy knows how to spell mystic.)

This guy, over the course of 45 minutes, took apart a University fleet, one ship at a time. Fourteen ships total, half the fleet. Sure, some cheap fits. Some inexperienced pilots. But still, that's badass piloting, kiting and baiting.

13:45	Rifter	0.5M ISK
13:46	Griffin	4.5M ISK
13:52	Curse	141.6M ISK
13:58	Merlin	0.4M ISK
13:59	Arbitrator	12.7M ISK
14:04	Blackbird	9.9M ISK
14:05	Blackbird	3.2M ISK
14:07	Punisher	0.5M ISK
14:07	Rifter	0.5M ISK
14:10	Hurricane	44.8M ISK
14:11	Vexor	18.3M ISK
14:13	Drake	39.8M ISK
14:24	Buzzard	34.9M ISK
14:28	Incursus	3.9M ISK
	Total:	315.5M ISK

There's no learning without losing.

(Before anyone gets all self-righteous and starts passing judgement on fits and tactics. We have a lot of new FCs learning the ropes at the moment. Mistakes will be made. The new FCs will get better with time. I'm sure the allure of a super shiny billion-plus killmail had something to do with them sticking around. The University had a large exodus of experienced FCs last month to Test Alliance and Morsus Mihi. So, new FCs are trying to fill the empty roles. This stuff goes in cycles.)

Unista Spotlight: Aztral Bendako

The dude is chock full of wisdom.

This is going to be the toughest spotlight to write. Not because there isn't enough to say about Aztral Bendako, but because there's too much to say. How to organize this into something meaningful and coherent?

I have a tonne of respect for this guy. Everything he says and does is rooted in the seriously solid cement of rationality. When Aztral speaks, it is well considered. He does not construct his opinions on the fly. He looks a situation or a person over a time before coming to his conclusions. And even then his conclusions are based upon a large breadth of experience.

Something else that speaks well of Aztral is that he's a confident, secure fellow. He has no problems reading his poetry to a channel full of relative strangers. I'm not much of a poetry fan, but I give him much recognition for regaling us with his compositions. Some people might refer to me as fearless in my outspokenness, but Aztral is truly fearless. I've written short stories in the past, but I would never think to read or link them to a group of strangers. I'm not very open with other people, Aztral is, and that is to his credit.

Aztral is likely the oldest player in EVE University. Not in days playing the game, but in actual birthdays. Whereas age and experience don't always connote intuition, in Aztral's case it does indeed. He understands people. He has a certain way of interacting with his Unista peers that immediately puts them at ease. There is no aggression in his manner, no false flattery, no platitudes. He gets to the point and makes it firmly and confidently.

Aztral holds no high position in the University, and that is a shame. I feel the University needs more people like him in leadership positions. He has a passion for the game, and a passion for his fellow player. Currently he holds a personnel position in Task Force 3 of the ILN, and has his hat in the running for the Task Force 21 Executive Officer position, under Commanding Officer Croixant. I hope he gets the job. Croixant and Aztral have similar dispositions and I could see them working quite well together. No matter who gets the job, Aztral is going to be happy for them. That's Aztral's nature. He would like the position, to be sure, and he would excel at it, but he doesn't feel entitled to it.

How Aztral Bendako conducts himself as a human being and as a Unista, well, there is a lot for all of us to learn from that.

Planetary Interaction Revenue

Anyone else have spreadsheets to calculate their revenue at their planetary interaction sites? What sort of ISK do you make, after you account for all the costs?

I have my spreadsheet. I am wondering, though, how well I am doing in comparison to others. I take into account all the costs, the construction costs, the import, export and sales taxes, as well as any ship losses. After deducting all of that from the gross revenue, I earn about 2.5 million ISK per day on my planetary interaction. Granted, not a huge source of income, but it is a relatively passive source of income that only demands my attention for about an hour every five days.

I never produce greater than P2 products. I have two planets extracting P0 resources, which are then turned into P1 products. I ship those P1 products off planet and import to a factory planet to construct the P2 product. The P2 product is then brought to market in quantity.

I always do my planetary interaction in lowsec. Have only lost one ship performing planetary duties, which I take into account as a cost. I started out manufacturing enriched uranium, but left that market as the prices continued to fall. I have since moved to electronic parts (but may move out of this in a few weeks, as the sales volumes are low, and often engage in a couple of days of price wars before the items are completely sold.)

How to Fix Lowsec?

Okay, this isn't really about fixing lowsec. All I know is that most people seem to think lowsec is broken (CCP and the players), and I'm trying to understand what it is people think is broken.

We had a discussion about this earlier today on EVE University's Mumble server. So far, as I understand it, the main issue with lowsec is the lack of a population.

For the purposes of this blog post, I'm going to assume that's the only problem (there are, of course, other problems, of which I would not mind being clued in on.)

Unista Spotlight: NuclearLlama bogus

First of all, the B in bogus should be capitalized. This immediately tells us something about NuclearLlama bogus. You don't need to point this grammar faux pas out to Nuclear. Gosh dang it. He knows it should be capitalized.

To know Nuclear is to know him through EVE University's Mumble server. You can find him there, chatting it up, almost daily, North American prime-time. And chat he does. Llama is a chatty little bugger. That's fine though. He's friendly, helpful, congenial. He can go off on conversational tangents and interjections, but he's far from annoying about it. The public/combat lounges are always a friendlier place when Nuclear is online. He's a good kid. His parents done right in raising him.

Besides his general good nature, Nuclear's biggest personality asset is his ability to take a ribbing. Oh my gawd, if anyone else had been ribbed as many times as poor Llama, about a certain Caldari Navy Raven loss, they'd be tracking the perpetrators down to give them a good solid punch in the nose. Not Nuclear though, he takes it mostly in stride, and goes along with it. (Of course, the teasing can get a little out of hand, but even then he doesn't lose his cool.)

Even if Nuclear is a forgetful little rapscallion (always keep the Angel Cartel damage and resistance types on hand, because he asks twice a week), he knows his stuff where Caldari tactics and L4 missioning are concerned. He's also becoming a shield-fleet Incursion guru.

NuclearLlama is one of those guys you can't imagine the University without. He's a mainstay. Or should be. He probably won't be Unista forever (few are), but when he does leave, his presence on Mumble will be missed. Sort of like Lebowski's rug, Llama really ties that room together. And yes, we sometimes pee on it, but it's all good-natured fun. No malice intended.

If CCP ever allows us to do a name change, for Aurum, I hope Llama doesn't take up the offer (he's often said he doesn't much like his character name). Sure, like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, even I fuck up the pronunciation of nuclear (uh oh, does this mean I'm Republican? Gosh dang it, I hate that word.) So you'd think I'd welcome a name change. I wouldn't though. The full name is Llama's identity. The nuclear. The llama. The bogus. He's not a Jazz Rockethead. Or a Dirk Torpedoman. He's NuclearLlama bogus.

Time for Gunnery

It's no wonder I can hit the broadside of a Dominix. I am now training Gunnery and will not stop until it tops out above Electronics. Then I will go back to core skilling. (This still all fits in with my wormhole plan.)

Chillin' WSOP

I tend to leave the University during non-active wardecs, but for this particular one-man war declaration I've decided to stay, try everything I can to ensure my time isn't dull, drab and boring. (I do admit that my willingness to try out the new, terribad queue software again has weighed somewhat significantly in this decision.)

We're on Relaxed WSOP so there are some non-fleet options open to explore. Locust fleets mainly, though there is the option to do wormhole sites (ship restrictions make wormholing slightly impractical) and incursions.

Did a few L4 missions with some fellow Unistas yesterday. Played chase-our-tail with our wartarget this afternoon, and will do some more L4s tomorrow. Maybe later in the week will put together an Imicus (since not allowed to fly my Helios during wartime (!)) and scan down some C2 or C3 wormholes for some of us to farm.

So, yeah, nothing terribly exciting this week. I did skill up some shield skills in the event an incursion pops up near Aldrat, since most folks tend to do shield fleets rather than armor fleets. At least the Myrmidon can go both ways (so to speak.)

J161811

Today, Tanis Andor invited myself and a couple others (Tymeran and Dax Draconis) to do a class 1 wormhole he'd scanned down in Eygfe. J161811. It was the first wormhole I'd ever been inside, and the first sleeper sites any of us had done.

We ended up doing about seven sites before trouble arrived. The sites themselves were easy enough. Three of us flying battlecruisers, and one salvaging in a Noctis. Netted 85M ISK total for about 90 minutes of work.

While doing our sixth site, a Heron showed up on d-scan, core scanner probes as well. He was in system for maybe 15 minutes, and he jumped out. About 20 minutes later, while we were in the middle of site seven, a Loki, two Drakes, and a Stabber popped into system. We continued with the rats, aligned to a bookmark at our first site, waiting for combat probes. After some discussion, and since it was possible the Heron could have probed down the site we were currently doing, we decided to warp back to site one, which they would not know about, and which would keep us safe, unless they combat probed.

A bubble then appeared on d-scan. Crap.

About 10 minutes passed, and no combat probes appeared on scan, so I was reasonably confident they weren't equipped for scanning. We were pretty much safe where we were, though with a possible bubble at the most convenient exit, we were between a rock and a hard place.

Tanis, though, had a probe launcher on his battlecruiser, so he began probing down an exit. I wanted to check out the way we came in, get eyes on the situation, so ejected from my Myrmidon (I didn't want to deal with a slow align in a Myrmidon and a Loki on grid, even at 100km off exit) and capsuled to check out the situation. I guess they were getting bored, since the bubble was down, and soon after they all left. Can't remember the corporation of the "friendlies", but they weren't negative to the Uni. Maybe they decided it wasn't worth the bother when they checked me out on grid and saw the Uni tags.

All in all, a fun little time. I think I'm going to scan down some wormholes and see if we can do it all over again tomorrow.

Bait and Switch

All I can say is that building people up to a certain type of big event, and then bait and switching them to something far more underwhelming, simply because you want to see numbers show up, well, that's childish and shows a lack of character and leadership. Not too mention it's simply flat out lying to the people you're supposed to be leading.

People spent hours building out ships for a particular type of long-term event, only to find out that their fits were not at all appropriate for the underwhelming, short-term event you actually had planned.

And what I am going to do with 50,000 rounds of this fucking long-range ammo? It was meant to last through an event over a few days, which, of course, was never going to happen because you lied to us.

I cannot believe for a second that Kelduum knew about this bait and switch. He has far better sense than this.

I'm glad I left fleet the moment the con game was revealed to us. What a joke the evening turned into for everyone that didn't leave.

I think 150 people deserve a bit of an apology.

(And before anyone says, "But we never actually said we were going to do what we entirely lead you to believe we were going to do." Bullshit argument.)


Disclaimer
Again, my opinions are my own, and do not represent those of EVE University, its directors, or its managers.

<sarcasm>Spies in the Uni</sarcasm>

Some strange awkward politics happening in the University as of late. Not sure what the story is, but a Bladeheart and Victyrael imposter popped onto chat.e-uni, our fairly public chat channel (anyone who has a forum account can get in.) [One of the personnel officers] proclaimed that Bladeheart and Victyrael were banned from the channel. Jeanne Hurt quieted [the personnel officer] down. Not sure if [the personnel officer] actually believed the imposter was Blade and Victy, or if they were actually banned for some reason, at some earlier date. I guess I'd have to believe the former. Both were highly placed and respected in the University. Not out of the realm of possibility that crazy, heated things could occur, but not sure why they'd try to burn all the goodwill they've earned over the years in only a couple days.

Who knows, though. Stranger things have happened. Online games can make people more than a little insane. I know getting into Test Alliance can inflate one's ego to ten times the normal size, if a few members of PWWN are any indication of the phenomena. So maybe something to do with that. I know PWWN formed out of some general dissatisfaction with University rules and regulations, as well as the direction they were taking with the Ivy League Navy. Though it didn't really seem like an issue that was worth much more than leaving over (which they did, and apparently with much good grace.) Again, who can tell, really, what is going on. Doesn't much matter in the end. They are there, the Uni is here, and there's a whole lotta space in between. I'd like to think that space is filled with a whole lotta disinterest in each other's business and goings on.

Back to the Bladeheart and Victyrael imposter ...

The really interesting thing about the imposter was the strange message he kept spamming to channel. It was long and rambling, barely coherent, but the main gist was that the Uni is incapable of removing spies, and that Test Alliance has spies infiltrated all throughout the University, stealing our intel. Stealing. Our. Intel. That bears repeating. If only for the lols.

Unless your goal is to infiltrate the University and bring it down financially (loot all the coffers and wallets), spying on the University has to be the most pointless waste of time ever. I didn't believe the imposter's message. I'm sure Test Alliance has far better things to worry about than a highsec training corporation, but it brings up an important point -- there is no reward to spying on the University. Even financially, what might some thieves make off with? Ten or twenty billion ISK at most? Doesn't seem worth the year or so of effort it would take to even get access. And I'm sure Kelduum has most of it bottled up in holding corps that only he can access.

What can you possibly learn from spying on the University that would be of value? Ooh. Fleet going out. So now you can possibly bring down 20 or so T1 frigates, maybe a couple cruisers, and a battlecruiser. Ooh. You win at EVE Online.

Maybe these spies are statisticians, calculating where the average newbie spends their skill points. Or pervs, curious about how many escort girls a student likes to keep in their hangar (50 total, with 2 per ship as cargo, if you must know. We like our threesomes on long space voyages.) Maybe industrialists, seeking the lowdown on who's manufacturing what ammo on the Tuesday versus the Thursday?

University intel runs deep.

Further, what possible threat does the University pose to anyone? It's a highsec corp that has no presence anywhere, except in a single 0.6 system. Sure, our students are all over the place, but not doing much more than mining, missioning, station trading, and incursions. We aren't even allowed into sovereignty space unless we promise our first born to Silentbrick.

So, yeah, it is completely ridiculous to think that Test Alliance is expending any effort whatsoever spying on the University, but it's even more ridiculous to think that the imposter crafted his document believing anybody would buy into it. See it as anything but completely ludicrous.

So, yes, come one and come all. Come spy on the University. Waste your time and resources. And while you're here, teach us a class on intelligence gathering.


Disclaimer
My opinions are my own and do not represent those of EVE University, its directors, or managers.

Edit (August 23 2011)
Removed the name of the personnel officer mentioned in the post.

Unista Spotlight: Neville Smit

Neville Smit is in love with the sound of his voice. This is no secret. He tells us this every University course he teaches. There is good reason for this. His voice is ambrosial. If he doesn't earn a real-life living off his voice, he should consider it. Doing Old Spice commercials. The new voice of Cook on South Park. Sleep aids. I could fall asleep, cuddled up to my bishōjo body pillow, listening to Neville recite pi to the 10,000th digit.

As crazy as it sounds, Neville is more than just a voice on the Mumble server. He was the recipient of EVE University's first Professor medal. He holds more titles than any other single unista (Freshman, Student, Recruitment Officer, Senior Recruitment Officer, Assistant Recruiting Manager, ILN Ensign, Graduate, Teacher, Mentor, Mentor Manager and Teaching Manager.) Currently he is the Director of Education. His drive for further power and prestige has him locked in an eternal struggle with CEO Kelduum Revaan.

When not maliciously taking a black Sharpie to the CEO's large collection of kitten photos, he teaches classes. A short list of many -- Introduction to EVE University, Messing With Your Head, EVE Careers 101, Capacitor Management 101, Drones 101/102, Gallente Ships 101, Mining 101, Hauling 101, plus many many more. He also teaches the very popular How I Became an EVE Billionaire.

One of his more memorable Mumble sessions had him moderating a two hour Q&A with Ian Chisholm, creator of the Clear Skies movies.

Power, prestige and eternal struggles aside, he is very much invested in helping new students. It is his second greatest love in the University (just behind the coveted CEO position.) When he's not mentoring, he's teaching. When he's not teaching, he's earning his next billion. When not earning ISK, he reads out loud to himself.

He was last seen at the EVE Vegas event hawking EVE University pins.

Unista Spotlight: PinkKnife

Seamus Donohue suggested that I do PinkKnife. So, I figured, what better way to increase my chances than writing a Unista spotlight about her. Hell, I didn't even know I had a shot.

PinkKnife is a crazy dangerous chick. You spend any amount of time in her company, and you're going to die. A lot.

She is one of the more active fleet commanders in EVE University's Ivy League Navy. She has one of the better all-time kill records. Her fleets have a reputation for finding trouble, for good or bad. If you want action, Pink has a knack for drawing action.

She's a laidback fleet commander. Runs open comms, though expects people not to be dumb with the privilege. She's soft-spoken and not prone to agitated states of emotion (i.e., there's no Shadoo in her.) It's my opinion that the best fleet commanders keep a level head, don't spaz out at the slightest adversity or mistake. Pink is most certainly in the level-headed category. That doesn't mean she's a push over, though. She expects people to obey commands and follow her directions. You don't, and she may pass you over for future fleets.

Pink is a risk-taker. I'd guess this has more to do with her personality, than anything gender related (i.e., trying to compete with the boys.) Her fleets are as likely to get blowed up good, as they are to blow people up good. For me, this is what makes her fleets fun as hell. I go out on a fleet, I want some action, no matter the results, success is simply the possible proverbial cherry on top. So, Pink, don't ever lose that risk taking attitude.

Granted, I've ever only been on two of her fleets, but they have, of the ten or so fleets I've been on, been added to my most memorable list. If you've never been on a PinkKnife fleet, try to get in on one of her nullsec roams.

Aside from fleets, Pink also teaches the Stealth Bombers 101 course for the University.

Travels Thus Far ...

My limited travels thus far in New Eden. Still working on broadening my horizons.

Unista Spotlight: Seamus Donohue

I think every once in awhile, I'm going to write a short piece in praise of various Unistas that I interact with occasionally or often.

Seamus Donohue may be the most famous Unista in New Eden. Most capsuleers have heard of him, without really knowing of him. He was featured a month or so ago in an Interstellar Correspondents' news article, as well as being featured semi-frequently as a ticker on the captain's quarters' video screen.

He's a self-professed super carebear, with a high streak of paranoia to the dangers inherent in the game. To each their own, of course. Being a carebear is no slam on the man. There is no single way to play EVE (which is what makes it a great game), and Seamus is very successful at his style of play.

Within in the University, he is known as The Professor and is one of a few that hold the Professor medal. He is most often found on the University's Mumble server performing his favourite task within the University, answering questions from new players, helping guide them through the initial complexities of the game.

His recall of game mechanics and material is unparalleled. Starting with the phrase "Neocom ..." (around which an EVE University drinking game has sprung) he can guide a user through any sequence of game windows and contextual menus, from memory. He can recall detailed minutiae on the most obscure subjects. Some of us believe he nearly has eve-survival.org memorized.

His greatest contribution to the EVE Online omnibus of information is the multi-part tutorial video series, How to Survive EVE Online -- 45 parts and 7.5 hours of content. He also has another 15 videos on more advanced topics, such as planetary interaction, incursions, station trading, plus more.

All that, and he's a pretty nice guy. Always friendly, always in a good mood, always ready to assist a Uni member (even if it means dropping what he's doing to fly 15 jumps to their location.) He tells the worst jokes in New Eden, but that's part of his charm.

Truth be told, I didn't always have a soft spot for Seamus. But his personality, his cheerfulness, and he definitely grows on you. I enjoy logging onto the University Mumble server into the middle of one of his explanations. Seamus on Mumble feels like home in New Eden. The University would be a much poorer environment without him.

As an aside, I have a sneaking suspicion that his character portrait is actually quite close to who he is in real life. His voice matches that character portrait quite well.

For the Fun!

James Arget, of Future Corps, has been thinking of arranging a mutual wardec between his corporation and EVE University. He mentioned he'd been thinking about it after I brought it up as something I'd been thinking about.

The problem with wardecs with the EVE University is that the WSOP completely gimps their operations. So, how to have a fun, mutual wardec, but not totally gimp operations and education?

I offered up to James the following suggestions to then offer up to University management:

1. State that you'd like the ship restrictions on the UNI WSOP lifted. Let everyone fly their best, if they so desire. Since it's a fun war, the ISK tally at the end doesn't matter. It's meant to let everyone have maximum fun.
2. Set a few systems that will be off-limits for PvP. Namely the Aldrat cul-de-sac, minus Aldrat (Fredagod, Hardbako, Urnhard, Erstur, and Libold.) Basically the Uni WSOP would apply to all systems except the five mentioned, allowing unistas some ability to still mine and mission if they so wish, and to allow some classes to still run practicals.
3. Set POSes off-limits.
4. Urge them to try to find the Future Corps system. Would be fun if they did find it and brought in a fleet.

Hopefully something can be arranged for late August or early-September. These guys would be fun as hell to fight.

The UniBlob™ Strikes the CSM Crowdsource Vote

So, the voting results of the July 2011 Prioritization Crowdsourcing are out. Perhaps surprising to most is that corporation management issues dominated the top ten positions in the results. Why? Because EVE University voted as a bloc. Nearly 600 unistas voted, and I'd guess that 500 of those voted the party line (i.e., following the voting instructions and copy-pasting the instructed vote into the crowdsourcing thread.)

The EVE University voting recommendation was as follows: 143,28,82,34,91,54,76.

(As an aside, I voted for only two of the EVE University issues, docking games and wardec fixes, and then mostly voted for ship rebalancing, UI, w-space, and jumpclone issues.)

As a result of the UniBlob™ voting strategy, every item important to EVE University as an organization fell into the top ten. Remove the 500 unista bloc votes, and only a couple those items even make it into the top twenty (and barely, at that.)

Whereas The Mittani engineered CSM6 such that nullsec dominated the elections, taking control of the agenda, and pretty much wiping highsec out of the picture, this vote showed that a highsec bloc, given a little motivation, can still dominate vote proceedings in New Eden.

Imagine what this might mean for CSM7, if the directors of EVE University decide to motivate their membership to vote for a couple or three candidates. Give highsec back its voice with CCP. Maybe Mittens has some extra work this winter, to keep nullsec's representation strong.

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Below is a table of the top twenty votes. The +Uni column represents the official vote count. The -Uni column represents the official vote minus the ~500 unista-strong voting bloc.

#	+Uni	-Uni	Description
34	1179	679	Docking games fix
28	1122	622	Corporation and Alliance tool overhaul
82	1010	510	Overhaul of roles and grantable roles system
143	1001	501	War-dec mechanics
91	954	454	Remote repping and aggression
3	919		Switching characters without relogging
14	902		Black Ops Improvements
8	895		Assault Frigates 4th Bonus
54	750	250	Corporate add/kick history
76	675	175	More Control Over Medals
35	787		Drone improvements
75	763		Modular Starbase
27	733		Corporation Bookmarks
68	731		Make guns continue firing after reload
23	610		Commit to excellence
88	620		Reconnect to lost drones
17	592		Bountyhunting Improvements
31	557		Destroyer Improvements
108	511		Show Implants on POD killmails
123	469		T3 Refitting inside Wspace

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Personally, I'd like to see more wormhole representation in the next CSM, but since w-space isn't sovereign space, and w-space corporations generally much smaller, would be much harder to find that common voice among w-space dwellers.