Observation: Jove structure

The difference between a lore hound and a scientist is working solely from observable evidence. That's not a detraction from those who relentlessly sift through the antiquities and ancient texts of New Eden. However, as scientists we can't rely on witness statements. We need some hard evidence.

Here's the start of our data points: The Jove structure themselves.

The description is as follows for the Jove Observatory:

As evidence this is not compelling... we have no source for this particular description. We can't even be sure this is an observation outpost! But we'll call it that until we have a better name.

Here's the structure. It's about 180km in height, and about 300 m in width. Note the dust cloud around the center of the structure. This may have formed part of its cloaking device. However, if this was the case, with the cloud forming a solid barrier around the structure to cloak it, we would expect to see if more evenly distributed around the structure.

It's more likely that this dust was ejected from the structure itself through some internal catastrophic failure. Which brings us to this:

And this:

And finally this:

Note the angle of the girders. These sites of damage are most likely from internal explosions rupturing outwards. We could argue that smaller external impacts breached the hull leading to explosive decompression. However, we are missing other impact sites we'd expect from either combat or meteor showers.

Equally, the internal damage seems to be relatively slight. We'd expect to see some ricochets causing more internal damage from shrapnel bouncing around inside the hull.

Another interesting point; see the the gasses being vented? The lights still on? These stations are still operational. More or less. The cloak is down, but the power sources are still on. So where is the station crew?

Further evidence for internal explosions; these damage sites are common to all stations. This shows a sudden, network-wide catastrophic failure of certain components.

I left a mobile depot going into reinforced mode in the top picture. I was juts curious if that was done by the circadian sleepers or a player.

Conclusion:

The observatories all suffered sudden catastrophic failures in at least three systems, one of which must be the stations cloaking device. This may not be linked to power supply, as some of the stations systems still appear to be operational.

Follow on:

Where are these observatories placed?
What are they observing: capsuleers, Empires, or natural phenomena. Are we just looking at a cluster wide radio telescope?
Is the damage consistent across all known observatories?

Treasure hunter and Scientist

You know... I don't really enjoy PvP.

It's a massive hassle. All that preparation for a a few minutes adrenaline seems hardly worth it. And once you're used to the adrenaline, like any good drug, you need to up your dose. Which means increased preparation time. 

I tried. I went to different militias, I dabbled in piracy. I tried different ships, different tactics. But they ceased to be engaging. 

Oddly enough, the most fun I had in Eve in the last year was floating around space taking pictures. Which was nice, but not really fitting for a Khanid cyber-knight, with a head stuffed with military doctrine. 

When the Confessor was released I went back to something I hadn't done seriously in an age. I went belt ratting. I found clone soldiers, I found a Garmur blueprint, and I found those weird Jove ships. In short, I re-discovered New Eden.

I think I'll keep doing that. 

Yes, it's PvE. But you know what? I like it. Treasure hunting. Warping out to a belt to find God knows what, and occasionally hitting pay dirt. A variety of different challenges with each belt. Far more interesting than orbiting a plex, or sitting waiting for a small gang of 10 capsuleers to leave system.

I also want to take more pictures. Even though it's a little late to the party, I want to investigate these new Drifter ships for a while.

Out of the pod, I've recently changed career tracks from Language teacher to full Physics teacher. Even though I have the degree, and the training, I'm not a full scientist by any means. I know the methods, and teach them to the next generation. I sometimes wish I could be in the lab, taking measurements of electrons wizzing through graphene sheets.

I think I would like to try being a scientist for a while. In space if not in reality.

So I'll start really examining the natural world of New Eden. See if I can dig up something interesting. And of course, subject my findings to peer review by my fellow capsuleers. Maybe this could be called PvP of the mind?

Well, we'll see.

War Record: College Boys

So back in the saddle at last.

I went out on patrol in my Xiphos Executioner. Simple scram range kiter, with a single ancillary armour repairer for defense.

It would be fair to say the Executioner is one of my favourite frigates, and hardly qualifies as Amarrian at all. Yes it has lasers, and the shiny hull, and yes it prefers an armour tank. But it's design focus is downright Minmatar.

A slim profile, and basically all engines with pulse lasers attached, this ship is designed to control range and apply firepower. Not much for cheap tricks (although I do have a couple of ideas that might surprise), but a very capable skirmish ship, fighting out in scram range.

A laser boat that can dictate range is king. Your weapons have phenomenal projection in warp jammer ranges, and very strong damage output. A speedy ship with lasers on it needs some kind of unusual strategy to counter it, be it dual propped Firetails, sensor damped kiters or neuting Slashers.

A little interesting fact, tracking on pulse lasers being what it is, you'll hardly ever want to switch from Scorch. Unless you ca be sure of an orbit at 4km, you'll be far more effective using Scorch. Less than 4km, and you'll be hitting nothing anyway.

And also... have you seen this thing in Matari space?

Crimson metal... I love it!

I warped out of Hek and entered the warzone.

A few jumps in I saw my first complex. A novice, with apparently some Rifters sitting in it. I eyed up local, and it was full of people doing things.

Nothing else for it... I had to check and see if they were friendly, and jumped in to the plex. Damn the odds, I've got a job to do!

Neutrals.

After a fashion.

I locked them up, and orbited at 8km, lasers blazing away in the void. Shields stripped quickly on both sides. Armour Rifters, meaning this was going to be a close fight. And 2 vs. 1 meant the tough was all on me.

Bullets rained in from all sides, but the Rifters could not close distance on me. The first one popped, and although my nanite paste had run dry, my little Executioner hadn't broken a sweat!

It was close between myself and the last Rifter. My capacitor eventually depleted, and he got away,

The plex was mine! But with weapons overheated and nanite depleted, I was in no position to hold it. I warped out to my perch.

Good fights were exchanged in local, and the two neutrals showed themselves to be some fresh faced university graduates trying out the Warzone for fun. Not a particularly grand victory, but not bad for two on one!

I gave them some advice then went to find some extra nanite paste. This ship was not allowed to make it back to Hek. And of course, this kill puts me no closer to getting to the next rank in the militia. Still have some work to do!

Good luck in the future Gardner Khronnus and your buddy whose name I didn't catch! A little more training and you would have had me. I recommend switching to Slashers right now. Rifters are excellent with Barrage, but if you can't use it, the knife fighting Slasher is a little easier to use.

Review

Never underestimate the enemy... but equally, never forget how capable you are.

Nation Warrior

The first rank of the TLF is Nation Warrior. The pin itself has a short inscription:

"Though free I am bound by the chains of my brothers."

Short and simple reminder of why we do what we do.

For my stint as Nation Warrior, I'll be using whatever is laying around in the hangar, an eclectic mix of attack frigates, Breachers and Rifters. I'm not too picky. At this rank I'l be focusing on burning stock rather devising tactics. I know how to use the ships already, so a tactical focus would be a waste of brain power.

Not that I'm using much brains for strategic focus either. My running orders look borderline suicidal, and a little out of character for me:

Standing Orders

Fly into combat zone.
Eliminate opposition.
Find and occupy first novice complex seen.
Find and occupy first small complex seen.
Come back in a pod.

The last one is important. When I spend a lot of time planning a ship and specific mission, I tend to make myself skittish about unknown variables. It's not fear in a normal sense, but more a case of not wanting to look stupid. Giving myself this objective for every ship sent out mitigates that somewhat.

It's simply formalising the "I didn't want that ship anyway" flying philosophy. It sounds bad, but for me it's getting me to take more risks, rather than fretting about how to mitigate them. That's the development I need at this point.

I'm also going to be ignoring my killboard for this entire rank for the same reason. I'll do a tally of victories and losses after I've ranked up. The idea here is to role-play impetuous youth again, with scant regard to loss or consequence.

Of course, I'll be posting any interesting stories along the way. That's the point of my blog after all!

Re-write

I recently wrote about how you need to make your own story. I think my own story came to a bit of a halt for the past few months. Well, half year.

I've spent the holidays trying to write a new narrative for myself. It ranged from the melodramatic to the maudlin, and frankly, was more exhausting than it was worth.

So, I'm re-writing my story.

Yes, simple as that.

And simple is the story I'm re-writing.

I'm leaving the pirates to re-enlist with the militia. The Republic again. I've got a fondness for Hek that goes beyond rational thought. It'll feel good to be part of its defense force.

As a change of tactic, I will also take my rank progression a little more seriously.

Before, I was mostly concerned with perfect fights. I'd sped a few days crafting a ship with tactics to go with it, and then go test it out. I spent a great deal of time on single fights, and analyzing them afterwards.

Valuable, but exhausting.

This time, I will focus on progressing through the ranks of the Republic militia. This is a much broader success criteria, meaning that fighting is just a small part of my overall development. Capturing outposts, mission running, I-Hub sieges... all these are important to success in Faction Warfare. And that's not to mention the logistics of supplying the front.

I fooled myself into thinking that capsuleer combat was all there was to New Eden. This is not true, and frankly, life would be boring if it was. Simple ship to ship duels are just a tiny part of the universe, and I did myself a disservice by focusing on that small section.

But enough rambling. Leaving pirates. Joining militia.

Looking forward to putting down some slave murdering zealots.