A Great Resource

I've never claimed to be an authority on all things Faction Warfare. I'm not even the best at capsuleer combat, which is why I write about and study fighting. I have to do a lot of reading.

So I have a lot of reference material:

http://www.factionwarfare.com/

The above is a fantastic website for budding Faction Warriors. It endeavors to have up-to-date news about the dramatic and dynamic landscape of the FW arenas.

It also has amazingly high quality writers publishing regular columns and opinion pieces. How do I know this?

I'm one of them.

Take a look!

Blog Banter 55: Famous to me

In response the the recent blog banter:

Last Blog Banter we talked about heroes in EVE Online. The followup to that topic has been provided by Wilhelm aka The Ancient Gaming Noob:

Write about somebody who is "space famous" and why you hate/admire them, somebody who isn't space famous but you think should be or will be, or discuss space fame in general, what it means, and how people end up so famous.
I'd like to add another take on the subject, is there a cost of being famous in EVE and if so, is it worth the price?

*****

This started out as a response to the previous blog banter. I didn't really like it though. Everyone had already said much of want I wanted to say. But this idea did form out of it, and it neatly lines up with the current banter.

Rather than focus on who's famous to everyone else in New Eden, I'll instead look at who's famous to me. All of them are bloggers, which perhaps says more about me than I'd care to admit. But these are the people I've come to respect and admire in New Eden.

Roc Weiler
A blogger, former Matari colonel, body builder and generally a nice guy.

Whilst I served in the Crusade I considered him my Minmatar opposite. Just as I sought to exemplify the teachings of a Khanid, he sought to express the spirit of the Brutor.

He recently joined Stay Frosty, casting aside his old military harness in favour of struggling for freedom from the Empires. I wish him well, and hope he finds whatever cause he's looking for among those surprising pirates.

What I admire most about the man is his sheer optimism. He genuinely believes that others can gain the discipline and success he has. His posts on physical fitness are a testament to his faith that people only need to be shown how to help themselves to make their lives better.

I hope he realizes others believe in Roc Weiler, and I consider it a tragedy I never crossed turrets with him when I was with the Crusade.

Sugar Kyle
A blogger, a pirate industrialist, and budding politician.

Sugar was actually the first blogger I met in space, although I doubt she remembers the encounter! Needless to say I didn't realize it was her at the time either, but we did chat about trading a little.

I admire how she balances her life between piracy and industry. Rather than simply use low-sec space as an arena, she truly lives there. It's not enough for her to use it to fight in. She develops it, and I'm grateful that her Cougar Store has had such a positive effect on Molden Heath (my youth's stomping grounds).

This woman embodies the low sec resident ideal.If you haven't voted for her for CSM 9, and you live in low-sec, I implore you to stop reading now, and change that.

Azual Skoll
A skilled pilot who has left fame and infamy.
I can't think of any solo-pilot who hasn't benefited from his teachings. His 'Know your enemy' posts were some of the first lessons I had in capsuleer combat. I'm continually amazed at how little I know about piloting in comparison, and how topics he wrote about years ago are still relevant today.

Mord Fiddle
I know nothing of null-sec politics, and yet Mord Fiddle's writings lay all so clear that even a fool like me can understand.
The enjoyment I find from his discussions of the state of the sovereignty alliances cannot be over stated. I only hope that my own feeble writings on the state of Faction Warfare come to but a tenth of the quality of his.

And now a word from my market partner, Benh Thanh...

The Three Wise Men

Yeah these are mine: croda, Gevlon Goblin and MoxNix.

Croda and the boss both started blogging at around the same time. I've stolen a lot of good ideas of that guy, and he was the first to link Behnid's blog. Nice Guy, and very market savvy. You only need to look at his wallet to see that.

Gevlon is a bit of a controversial character. He has a strong opinion about pretty much anything, but the way he attacks his projects shows more love for New Eden than most of the more popular personalities show. Stolen some good ideas off him too.

MoxNix showed me how to trade without all the effort of the other two. That's not to say he's lazy, but when it comes to making the easy ISK, without the data banks full of spreadsheets, he's true trade royalty.

All right, I've got work to do. Whilst Behnid wastes time writing about his idols, guess who's gotta keep the ISK flowing in. Don't know why I still work for the bast...*static*

Yes, thank you Benh.

You'll note that names such as The Mittani, or Ripard Teg aren't on my list. The reason is simple. I don't know them. I've read hundreds of articles on Jester's Trek, and I've heard many tales of the Mittani's nefarious actions. But they aren't famous to me. If they dropped out of the game tomorrow, I doubt I'd bat an eye.

People don't become famous in isolation. We make them. By the simple act of celebrating who they and their accomplishments, we turn them into celebrities. The people I've listed, to me at least, are worth celebrating. If any of them read this, I just hope they know what a positive impact they've had on my New Eden career.

Honourable mentions:

Kirith Kodachi. His simple posts linking my Rifter thought experiment gave me a wider audience than I ever thought possible. I couldn't thank him enough.

Rixx Javix. My former CEO is a man who hardly needs help tooting his horn. He is one of New Eden's true Characters, and his antics are always an enjoyment to watch.

Jack Dancer. A man kind enough to link my blog on his site after a chance encounter in space. I still owe him a Rifter duel in my Breacher!

Trade Log: Hauling (Regional Trading)

The graceful art of moving stuff.

Here's the secret. Look at your stuff. Put stuff in ship. Undock. Fly to destination. Dock. Take stuff out of your ship.

And that's it.

There are some tips though.

I rarely use industrial ships for this. Now that there are speedy industrials, it's not a terrible idea to use them, and can give you a good deal of tank.

What you deal in is usually quite mall, so the cargo capacity of a hauler isn't necessary. Gankers, pirates who prey on the humble hauler, used to be able to pop open most industrial ships without breaking a sweat. Not quite so true now, but gankers will still target you, since you're most likely to have cargo.

A fast frigate requires someone to have a ship designed for speedy locking, since they warp quite quickly, and they will also have to cargo scan you. No sense in wasting a destroyer or battle cruiser on a rookie's mission ship.

A Vigil, the Minmatar E-War ship, is usually the hauler of choice. However, gankers know this too, and will target those first. Any frigate will do though. I know of some traders that used to haul in destroyers too... no one ganks destroyers.

The speediest ship for moving around valuables is an interceptor. With this ship you'll zip across the space lanes, and outrun all but the most determined ganker.

It goes without saying that you shouldn't be asleep at the pod when you haul something valuable. Auto-piloting gives gankers an awful lot of time to peruse your ship. They'll scan you to see if you have cargo, and then blast you at their leisure. Manual piloting limits this time, and makes it less likely for you to be a target.

Also, avoid low and null security space. CONCORD won't help you out there. If you absolutely must, get a cloaked ship. Covert Ops vessels are good for this.

If, on the other hand, you find hauling too stressful (and boring), I recommend using either Push X or Red Frog on Courier contracts. I mostly deal with Push X. They are reliable, and have have a good insurance network.

When setting collateral for the contract, you might want to consider putting a small mark-up on your goods being hauled. Certainly do this for public contracts. I'm disinclined to do it for Push X though, as they're very professional about what they do. Good relationships are the foundation of any business.

The reason for the small mark up is lessening the damage to your business cycle. If you lose your valuables to a pirate, then you will have lost all that time spent buying and setting up the Courier contract. The small mark-up gives you a little bit of profit, to make up for the lost time. Don't be greedy, though. Just a little bit to pay for your time. Too much is simply unfair for your courier, and will damage your reputation.

So there you go. Get moving stuff. I've got things to do... 

Trade Log: Buying (Regional Trading)

Hi again. I'm here to tell you about Buying.

So, this is actually the hardest part of the whole trading business, and how well you do as a trader is a direct product of what you choose to buy.

That said, don't feel too pressured. So long as you set your sell order higher than what you bought the item for, you will make a profit. Of course, when you make that profit is a completely different question. It depends on your patience, and how active you want to be in trading.

Before you do anything, choose your hubs. Here is an excellent description buy a far wiser trader than I am, which highlights the regional hubs by size. The idea is buying from a bigger hub, and selling to a smaller. The hubs I work are Amarr and Hek... the reason being I was born in Hek, and Master Arcani operates from Amarr.

On a side note, flooding the Republic's markets with cheaper Amarr goods also sucks wealth from the regions economy. This is the one reason my Master didn't kill me on site for selling guns to his enemies. An added bonus is the intelligence my Master picks up from his patrols. Every ship he blows up gives us an idea of what the Liberation Force is buying, and thus what I should be selling.

A better idea is to work from Jita, that giant ISK blackhole in Caladri space. Prices tend to be the best there, and you'll never want for supply. If you are a serious trader, not working a Jita store is dumb. Really dumb.

Anyway, the easiest way to find things to buy is to use appropriate intelligence channels. This trade tool will give you a distinct advantage in choosing items. Essentially, set your budget, fill in your hubs, and you can just select the items you want to trade.

Sound simple? That's because it is! Using this site, you are nearly guaranteed to make profit.

Nearly.

This is where your experience and knowledge will come into play. Some items sell faster than others. As a rule of thumb, the fastest sellers are:

• Skill books
• Implants
• Modules
• Rigs

... and in that order too. Avoid things that are manufactured, since you'll put yourself in competition with the industrial capsuleers. Use your common sense too. If you can pick something up for a million and sell it for a billion, chances are it's too good to be true.

Feel free to take risks and gamble on unfamiliar items. The only thing that can hurt is a slow down in profit, provided you don't go all in on one item.

The actual buying can be done in two ways. Ideally you'd set up 'Buy Orders' at the bigger hub, so you can get something for the cheapest possible price. The problem with that is that you'd have to manage the buy order, which is added hassle.

The lazy way to do is simply to buy from the cheapest 'Sell order'. Not the most ISK efficient, but it depends on your chosen vocation. A pure trader can spend his time managing the buy orders along with what they station trade. If you'd like to do other things with your time, just pick up a sell order. It all comes down to what's important to you.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next post which tells you how to haul. 

Strategikon: Deployment

My King has ordered me to war. For the Arcani, Khanid and the Kingdom!

But before we go flying off into a blaze of glory and destruction, proper planning and strategy must be discussed.

Contrary to popular belief, successful capsuleer combat rarely follows the form of 'Jump into frigate, find fights, win.' That more than often ends with one dead frigate, one dead clone, and a long, tedious turn around between fights.

To give ourselves more time fighting, and less time preparing to fight, we should choose a system to fight from, and to re-ship from.

My trade hub, where I purchase all of my arms, is Amarr Prime. It is a great hub to work from, and a strategic advantage for the Crusade. Prices and availability of weapons and ships are good here. However, it is too far from the front lines.

As with all warfare, first go to your maps. I have a fantastic cartographer who I use for this.

I have chosen a system near The Bleak Lands to stage from.

The system you choose will be based on what your needs are. As a solo player, I won't be able to mount a consistent defense of a Faction Warfare system. I can only access stations in systems the Crusade has conquered, meaning tht should the Republic take it back, I will have a struggle to reclaim my armoury.

I could choose to stage from a system occupied by other militia corporations, but that would leave me vulnerable to their own defensive capabilities.

Instead, I have chosen a High-security system, just on the outskirts of the Faction Warfare zone: Kuomi. This system gives me to entry points into the War Zone. CONCORD prevents the Republic from invading these systems, so my arms will always be accessible. It also has an allied corporation running the stations there, which I appreciate. Caldari food is satisfying, if a little bland to the Khanid palette.

To move there, I have a choice of hauling it myself in industrials flown by my slaves. Concord should hopefully protect them from pirates, but there is still a risk of lost goods. A second choice, more expensive but less risky, is to use PushX Industries. They are a courier service I've worked with in the past, and have always been reliable.

To begin with, I will move ten frigates plus fittings there. When I fall in battle, I will fly back, and grab another frigate from here. Moving stacks of ships and equipment will allow me to fight many times in one day, without needing to retreat back to Amarr

Eventually, I can set up buy orders at this staging area, to attract traders to courier my weapons for me. This will save me time, and allow me to get on with the task of defending the Empire.

Stages:

• Decide on your needs
• Find a map
• Find a system that suits your needs
• Move many stacks of equipment you need

This will be my first serious deployment. If any have advice about how to do it better, please let me know.

War Chest

Whilst I have been trained for combat since I underwent cloning, I am terrible at fighting.

My skills are good enough against the common pirate that manages to sneak past CONCORD, and I can even best entire fleets of these vermin. However, capsuleers are just as well trained as me, if not more so, and have a wealth of experience to call upon.

To put it bluntly, I will be killed. A lot.

Death itself does not scare me. As I am an immortal, it has become merely an inconvenient period of pain. Loss of ships does, particularly if I have no plan for income to replace them.

Enter my family's Market Slave: Benh Thanh.

A Vehrokior by birth, commerce runs deep in his blood. He has been working my family's assets for as long as I can remember, a shining example of what a slave can accomplish if given certain liberties. he has lisence to deal with the family's finances as he sees fit, either by tading or investing.

Many Holders are against this kind of freedom for a slave, but Benh has proven himself to be trustworthy for many years now, and excels at his job. Explosive implants are also remarkably cheap and easy to install.

When I was called to the Crusade, I spoke to him about what we could do to fund our war effort. He went away to research our options.

After a week, he came back with tales of Goblins, Kings and young merchants.

"I've seen what these men can do," he told me, "Give me 5 million ISK, and I'm sure I can do the same."

I granted it. He bought some training text books from the Amarr market, and set off in a Minmatar frigate. The next day, he came back with 10 million ISK. Region trading, he explained, was a relatively easy income source, and we could increase our war chest rapidly.

This will be my strategy. ISK will be generated from Trading, supplemented by rewards from the Crusades loyalty store. I will have my slave do a thorough explanation of his dealings at some point in the future.