Buying Rifters...

So I have an alt in a trade hub doing market trading.  It should be able to fund my PvP habit (in 3 weeks I'm about 50 million in the black with 5 million seed money to start).  I also have had that character fill up a container with stuff that Jack Dancer can use - 200mm reinforced rolled tungsten plates (50 of them), barrage ammo(30,000), cold-gas arcjet thrusters (50), E5 vampire (50), patterned stasis web (50), etc.  This is on top of the 50 million profit.  So things seem to be going well.

I had an order in for 20 Rifters - never can have too many Rifters! - and since the price that I was offering was pretty low (120k) the order wasn't getting filled.  No problem.  I have 18 Rifters in the hanger now, so there's no rush - but if someone wants to sell them to me cheap, I'll take them!  I think the highest buy offer was around 180k (far above my 120k offer) with the lowest sell around 230k.

Every morning and evening I check on the markets and adjust my buy and sell offers to be the most competitive (except for this Rifter offer - I just leave it in hopes that somehow, someway it'll get filled).  Last night I was doing that and going through my list of about 15 buy offers and 15 sell offers.  They are for all sorts of stuff - much of it stuff that I haven't a clue about how it's used.  But if it's profitable, then great!  Sell me some and I'll sell it to someone else for a higher price and bank the profit.

After going through all the offers I noticed that I had 20 new Rifters in the hanger!  YIPPEE!  Somehow someone had taken my offer of 120k for them!  So I looked at my wallet to be sure of the pricing and all.  Oh oh.  I DID buy 20 Rifters, but not at the 120k that I thought.  I paid 305k for each of them!  YOW!  Apparently when updating buy prices I selected the item just above Rifter on my list and checked the price and it showed that I needed to change my offer by a few cents to be the highest offer.  Whatever it was was selling at 305k, so I (apparently) mistakenly clicked on the line below it (the Rifters!) and changed the buy offer on the Rifters to 305k.  Someone, seeing that outrageously high offer, immediately took me up on the deal!  I would have done the same too!

So, 20 Rifters at 100k over market value means I paid about 2 million ISK more for them than I should have.  In the end, I get 20 more Rifters to outfit and a lesson learned...

Not a Micro Transaction!

OK, a new item in my line of Black Rebel Rifter Gear - the bumper sticker!

For $3 (including postage!) on www.buildasign.com you can design a bumpersticker!  I'll get this one by July 14th they say.  I'll let you know how it looks...

July 1 Update - bumper sticker arrived today.  For $3 it's a great deal!  Looks just like the picture.

I Can Walk!

The new update to Eve arrived yesterday.  I'm not overwhelmed by it (I'd much rather be flying around space than walking around a space station).    But it's probably ok.

The new Eve reminded me of this great scene... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIFzR48ABqE

And I don't know about you, but when my rifter is screaming into battle with (hopefully) overloaded afterburners the music playing in the cockpit is that same classic Vera Lynn version of "We'll Meet Again" that played at the end of Dr. Strangelove...  Or sometimes "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (and featured in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)...  OK, OK, and sometimes the Artie Shaw version of "Stardust" (played at the end of The Man Who Fell To Earth)...

Tee Shirt...

FRONT

BACK

Now to find someone that can make it...

SS George Gobel - RIP

I was loitering in Fasse (which is next door to my base at Ney) in the mighty SS George Gobel when I received an offer from another player (named "3200Plus") for a rifter match.  Wanting to get some PvP experience and flying a very cheap rifter that I was fine with losing in exchange for that experience, I said sure!  We warped to planet V (both of us in rifters) and the epic battle was on!

Well, maybe not epic.

3200Plus is a very experienced player compared to Jack Dancer.  He has 94 kills and only 12 losses and he's been playing Eve Online since April of 2009.  Going into the match I had 0 kills and 0 losses and Jack is just a month old.  I was definitely outclassed both in the ship equipment (as it turned out - not surprisingly) and in experience.  It showed.

I managed to stay even through shields, but then his T2 guns made quick work of my armor and I was done.  The details are here.

What did I learn?

Well, first off losing isn't painful.  The killmail puts the total price of my ship at about 450k and the insurance policy paid about 250k - so the final cost was just 200k ISK.  Almost nothing in Eve terms (especially since all of the modules on my ship had been picked up in salvage while ratting or missioning).

Secondly, I need to turn on my armor repper at the start of the battle - I realized after having my armor drop by about 30% that I hadn't even thought about turning the repair system on!  DOH!

Thirdly, I forgot about that overloading option.  No sense spending all those ISK on a skillbook and then taking time to learn thermodynamics if I don't overheat my modules.  Hopefully, I'll remember next time!

Fourthly, for now I'm happy with losing cheap ships to get the experience.  Once I have those concepts ingrained in my procedures ("Scotty!  Turn on that armor repper!  And don't forget to overheat all the modules again!"), I'll move up to the T2 equipment.  But there's no sense losing ships that cost ten times as much if I'm losing them due to noob mistakes instead of equipment disparities.  When I start thinking, "If I had a better ship I would have won that fight..." that's when I'll move to T2 gear.

New checklist for next fight:

• Turn on everything
• Overload everything
• Attack!

And on a final note, 3200Plus was a very friendly opponent and gave me some advice when we chatted after the battle.  Thanks 3200Plus!

War Tactics Dramatized...

This is a very violent and extremely graphic video of tactics the Black Rebel Rifter Club will be using in the current hostilities...  I imagine us acting like they do around the 1:00 minute mark on this video...

WAR!

The Black Rebel Rifter Club has declared war on three evil corporations.  Very evil corporations.  Their average members (a bad mix of miners, haulers, and hi-sec mission runners that makes my blood run cold) make Darth Vader look like a choirboy.  And, apparently, they are not very good at PvP (always a plus in my book when declaring war).

I rambled around the targets' neighborhoods last night (cruising the Essence region between Villore and Isenan) and found a couple flashing red targets - but they were lounging around in stations unwilling to come out and face the wrath of my shiny new Rifter - the SS George Gobel.

Unfortunately, tonight and tomorrow night I have other responsibilites so the all-powerful SS George Gobel won't be able to wreck havoc on our evil enemies.  But, if there are any left on Thursday night - they should look out!

Happy Birthday Jack Dancer!

One month old today!

Black Rebel Rifter Club

I joined the Black Rebel Rifter Club today.  Seems like exactly the sort of group I'm looking for.

• Rifter pilots.  Check!  
• Encourage solo PvP with few strings attached or additional responsibilities.  Check!  
• Friendly. Check!
• Willing to admit me to the club!**  Check!  

What more can a person ask?  Check us out if you're interested in finding a Rifter/Solo Piracy corporation.  Here's some background information:

Rifter hull enthusiasts.  Unwashed beards, grease, silver sunglasses, long beaded hair or shaved heads, tribal faces, armpits, earrings, chain whips, pistols and stripped-down Rifter hulls passing in formation like a burst of dirty thunder. It's Black Rebel time, baby!

Low-sec pvp, high-sec harassment and war-decs, espionage and infiltration, null-sec and wormhole expeditions, bar fights and ganks.

Recruitment is by invite or vouch only. Join public channel >> The Autocannon

• Spare drive chain parts from the Rifter's deadly autocannons have been known to be stripped down and used as 'belts' on the Rebels' clothing . . . Always at hand when a bar fight turns ugly. - - Gallente Police Training Manual.

• How they manage to do it? Last I heard they are drinking their beer from unrinsed mindflood flasks. Interesting idea come to think of it. You selling some? - Unkown Roden Shipyards welder, Egghelende.

• How did the Rebels grow to be such disliked hell-raisers? Easy, they worked overtime at being crafty, cruel and cowardly. - Serpentis chemical plant worker.

Weird Haul Found at Gang's Hideout.Four coffins, two electronic grave markers and Thukker tribe emblems were found Saturday in the headquarters of a notorious frigate flying gang where three members were arrested on narcotics charges.

The residence also contained a throne chair five feet tall, a stuffed owl, an Amarrian beheading sword and assorted frigate trophies and memorabilia. - Excerpt from a weekly news report on New Eden's known criminal gangs.

** "I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER" - Groucho Marx

Ransom Script

From a thread on Flight of Dragons came the idea of having the victim name the ransom.  Here's the script I hope to (someday!) use...

Greetings!  Interested in paying a ransom to get out of this spot with your ship in one piece?  Stop your engines, stop shooting, recall any drones, and deactivate all of your modules.  I will make you a very fair offer.

Here’s the deal.  You can make me ONE offer of a ransom amount - you know how much your ship is worth to you - and if I like your offer then you pay me and you are free to go.  If I don’t think it is enough, then I will continue with the rain of destruction, I will destroy your ship and I will attempt to capture your pod.  You can only make ONE offer. 

I will not tell you how much I think is enough, there is no bargaining, no discussion, and I will NOT make a counter-offer.  I will either take your offer or destroy your ship (NOT both!).  You have 30 seconds to make your offer from right now. 

If your guns or modules (especially your armor repper!) operate during the 30 second period then the deal is off and I start shooting.

Roamin' and Schoolin'

I roamed around with bad intentions again last night hoping to lose a ship or two (it's definitely time that I had that experience and something I need to get used to) - but had no luck finding anything less than a battlecruiser-size opponent.  That seemed like just too easy of a way to lose a ship, so I passed...  There seems to be a real absence of reasonable targets in low-sec (something that I had read about on blogs by other frigate PvPers) - several systems were totally empty and others had just one or two occupants (often resting in stations).

I also finished training Science to level IV so that I could train Thermodynamics (it's now at III).  And now I'm again back to training Small Projectile Turret V - two more days to go on that one.  Then Electronics to V (I think that might be a 4 day training period).

HALLO, CAN I VIOLENCE UR BOAT?

Best Eve Blog Ever!!!  http://ladyshaniqua.blogspot.com/

There's a link over on the right - hopefully Lady Shaniqua will continue to post these amazingly fun tales...

Jack Dancer - Millionaire

Sometime during the night Jack Dancer passed the million skill point mark.  Still young, but getting older...

WOW!

New video card (nothing special - Evga GeForce GT 430 1 GB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card) + new 23" monitor (a flat screen replacing my ancient 17" monster) = WOW!  It's like playing an entirely different game!