War Record: Compounding stupidity

The Kataphract Slicer was handily destroyed by a Firetail, fit with both a scrambler, tracking disruptor, neutralizer and webifier.

Even though the Slicer could brawl in a pinch, the guns were disrupted, speed limited to about 100m/s and the capacitor drained. The fight was ended within seconds, and the Firetail's shields barely scratched... which didn't matter, as he was fit with an armour plate.

How do I know this? Civility and diplomacy. I congratulated him on his victory, and politely asked for his fit, which he was kind enough to send me. Remember, the Arcani are pledged to learn from shadows.

How did this happen?

I warped to an acceleration gate, where he was already orbiting. Foolish. He locked me up faster than I could get away, and from then on, I was doomed.

Review

So what could have been done better? Simple enough: don't warp so close to the acceleration gate. Warping to the complex itself always lands you at a beacon, but the acceleration gate can be approached more cautiosly.

New routine: Warp to 30km.

This engagement again highlights my weakeness towards Electronic warfare, and close quarter fighting in general. I dislike brawling. I believed it to be the domain of gutter fighters, and the unthinking brute. This fight has taught me better.

Minmatar ships, whilst they can be adequately fit for long range warfare, are ambush predators. These are the weapons of guerrillas and terrorists, not the true fleet ship. They have their advantages in catching the enemy off guard, and doing unexpected tactics.

Amarr ships, whilst they have an edge in conventional fights, have limited tricks up their sleeves. They are soldiers weapons, designed to exemplify traditional combat values: firepower, damage application, and defense.

My training so far has just been with Amarr tactics. Clearly, I cannot win by simply understanding these tactics. I will learn how to fight like a Minmatar. Once they are understood, they can be defeated.

My kill counter will be reset. I still have yet to check off the first step on my plan.

***

The next loss was hardly even noteworthy. Experimenting with a Slasher, I landed at a complex I expected to be empty, only to find 3 frigates already brawling. The reason: my D-Scan setting were wrong.

Utter stupidity.

To be honest, those pilots should have taken my clone as well. I deserved that.

Review

Check your settings. Idiot.

As my old teacher used to say, on a week like this, it's time to put down your gun, make yourself some tea, and contemplate your multitude of sins. 

Trade Log: Depreciation

No, I don't mean I don't like my customers!

Depreciation is when the value of an item decreases over time. Take an obvious example: the humble Gallente potato.

The Galpo is worth s most when it's freshly dug from the soil. Obviously there are price differences between planet side and station vat grown samples, but nevertheless, it's the freshest and most expensive as soon as you get it out of the ground.

Then, it starts to get older. Day by day it gets less fresh. It goes wrinkly. It develops buds. The flavour goes, it starts to dry out. It can take a while, but eventually, your potato will rot. Have you ever tried to sell a rotten potato? It's value plummets.

The same is true of any item you buy in New Eden.

When you buy an item, with the intent of selling it, it's value to you is the profit you can make from it. Generally speaking, it's at it's peak value the moment you buy it... then the clock starts ticking.

Let's start with what I call Market Depreciation.

As any trader can tell you, the markets of New Eden are fiercely competitive. Prices are undercut, buy orders over bid. Once you set an item to sale, it will inevitably fall in price. I can't think of a logical time when prices will increase, except for a sudden and drastic surge in demand, or a catastrophic drop in supply.

This is your items depreciation. Most traders hedge their bets, taking a 20% hit n their projected profits to represent this. I'm one of them, introducing as many worst case scenarios into my calculations as I can.

You should to. My own calculations (since I have occasional obsessions with arithmetic), take into account standings, taxation, travel time etc. However, it's not really necessary. Just do as most others do: 20% off projected profit. It'll keep you smiling when your wallet balance is better than expected.

But that's not the only other form of depreciation. Let's look at Profit Depreciation.

If you're a serious trader, or looking to supply a soldier whose skills aren't stellar with a frigate every day, then you should really start calculating in terms of Profit/day.

The calculation is easy enough:

Profit per day= Profit ÷ days to sale

Calculating this way actually gives you a much better idea of what an item is worth... or at least, worth to you as a trader.

Say you have a very expensive implant. You got it cheaply, and you can make 100,000,000 ISK from flipping it to someone else. Sounds great right? But it takes 10 days to sale.

Profit/day = 10,000,000 ISK

Not too shabby. But, say you have a cheaper implant, that you can only sell for 50,000,000 profit. No brainer right? Go for the better profit margin. But lets check Profit/day. How long does it take to sell. 2 days.

Profit/day = 25,000,000ISK

Better than double! And you get your money back quicker, which means you aren't subject to Market Depreciation for so long!

The point is this: Big wide profit margins look good, but can be misleading. Estimate how many items you can sell in 10 days, and see if that super-shiny implant is worth the trouble of buying, when you could get two cheaper ones for better Profit/day.

Happily, every Region in New Eden keeps a record of market fluctuations. It's that funny graph on the market window. Very handy.

So why is this on my mind right now?

Well, to do with my experiment. Profit margins in Hek are very wide, but volume of items sold is pretty poor. Right now I can expect to have an item sitting on the shelf for a week, if not longer. And yes, the profit off each will pay for a fully fitted frigate, but I think the same items can do better.

Just to be clear, I'm not manipulating the market. I'm working with market forces... whether it's sustainable or not is up those same market forces. 

Trade Log: Market Experiments

Every now and then, I like to experiment with the market.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand my master's orders... I still maintain my other business. But when those a stable, such as now, even the clink of coin flowing into the bank can become dull.

When this happens I like to fiddle with market forces and see what the results are. My goals with trading are to keep my master happily supplied with ships to blow himself up in, but since that Slicer of his hasn't gone boom yet, we have a bit of a breather.

Today's experiment: Volume increases in Hek.

Traditionally, Hek is good for it's low volume, but wide margins. There's money to be made if you're patient, and don't expect ISK to pour like a waterfall, but more like periodic geyser.

The downside to high margins is that volume of sales are low. So, the idea is simple: lower sell prices, and raise buy prices, to see if we get more product mobility. I'm going to invest a relatively small sum, and see what the results are. I'll track the progress, and see if I can update you guys on how it goes.

Theory: Decreasing the gap between Buy and Sell orders will make items sell faster.

Counter argument: Market is already balanced due to laws of supply and demand. Basically, the amount of items flowing already satisfy the people living in Metropolis... in which case, we'll see no change.

Why?: I have a soft spot for Hek. I've pretty much made all of money here, and, well, my family came from here.

End Date: 03/12/2013 (Subject to my Master's needs)

War Record: My weak spots

Some things confound me more than anything else. My weak spots, whilst obvious, is no less frustrating for being so. In fact, it's much more irritating because of it.

On a recent patrol, I took my Kataphract Slicer into a Medium complex. The Republic Fleet cruiser gurading it was relatively easy to take down... a close orbit of less than 5km meant it's slow guns couldn't track the agile Slicer.

This was the first time I had entered a Medium Complex, and I was looking forward to finding what targets I would face. A cruiser? A destroyer? What ship would seek to end my Kataphract's survival streak?

A pirate frigate appeared on scanners.

Disappointing, but I readied my weapons, and quickly exained what type of vessel it was.

A Maulus. An Electronic warfare ship, specializing in Sensor Dampening. It also fields drones, making it an excellent kiter.

Sensor Dampeners do exactly as the name suggests. They reduce your locking distance, or increase your locking time. For a kiting ship, this is effectively a combat nullifier... if you can't lock a target at range, your strategy is useless.

But, foolish and cocky from my recent good luck, I attempted to close to short range against the frigate, loading Multi-frequency crystals, determined to brawl the target down.

The Maulus entered, and sure enough, the Sensor Damp hit, bringing me down to a limited lock range. What followed was the most tragic display of piloting on my part, and an excellent display on his. He was similarly fit with a MWD, and could kept out of range of Kataphract, sling-shotting around me with ease, his drones pummeling my ship.

I believe I got off one salvo on him.

Seeing my armour slowly whittled away, I decided disgression was the better part of valour. I overheated my MWD and burned away, putting enough distance between him and myself to escape.

After a quick compliment on his skill, I left the system, soundly defeated, my tail between my legs.

Review

This patrol highlighted all of my weak spots, and lays them bare for me to think upon.

First of all, over confidence will get you killed. I underestimated my opponents advantage, and did not act cautiously enough when attacking a new threat. Lesson learned: act with caution against EWar frigates.

That said, I do not know the weakness of the Maulus. I assumed paper thin defenses, but that's not something you can count on when you can't even lock. Does it have low speed? If I destroy his drones, is he out of options? These things I must know.

Second, my piloting skills are terrible. The Kontos Exectuioner largely removed this problem for me, the equipped Webifier allowing me to make mistakes and maintain distance at the same time. I've come this far by working around my problem. I must tackle my failings head on.

Third, I have not considered defenses against EWar. I was unprepared to counter Sensor Damps, despte having lost a ship to one before. I lost a Coercer to a Hookbill wielding a Sensor Damp (I can't find the kill mail... I do however have an odd capsule loss I don't remember). I must find a defense against Sensor damps...

All in all, a reminder that I have much to learn from these shadows.

100% and Moving Forward

When in sevice to a cause higher than yourself, personal acheivement pales in comparison to the overall aim. Such is the pride I find in service to the Khanid Kingdom.

However, when such personal achievements do occur, I see no reason not to celebrate them!

In the last month, I lost 0 ships. This meant my efficiency in combat was 100%! I reported this to my King, and he rewarded my family with the leasing of one of his private asteroid belts. Not an uncommon gift, but apprecited none the less.

The caveat is this though: I only performed two patrols in October. But still, 3-0 is not bad.

With this in mind, I'm re-opening my old Plan. I hope to get a 5-kill solo patrol streak, before learning the intricacies of Fleet Command. In addition to this, I will start adding Small Complexes to my target list, hoping to take down Republic destroyers. At first I shall attempt to use the Kataphract Slicer, but I may need to change to a destroyer myself.

On a recent patrol I found that the cruisers guarding Medium Complexes could be easily taken down with the Slicer, by flying in close orbit. I will add this to my list of patrol targets, with the aim of finding what ships make their way into such arenas.

Despite a relatively poor exploration trip, October was a good month!