One of THOSE days

Don't quite understand it, but I ended up with another one of those cloak-and-dagger "Do this and the guv'mint will love you" missions. Some idiot or other was running some pirates -- please go and blow him up.

So I take the job and notice that I can arrive at a range from the co-ordinates they gave me. And since my Big Guns work well at 30K, I decide on that. Imagine My Surprise, when I de-warp 2K from a cruiser. Poor b*gger never had a chance: I saw that the closest other ships were over 30K away and I opened up on him with everything, including drones, and blew him away before he'd even really noticed me. Then I Big-Gunned a batch of frigs, and took out a second cruiser. During which Mr.SlimeBall tried webbing me, or something. I let my drones chew on him while I salvaged from wrecks, and then blew him away too.


Whether someone was watching me I don't know :: I get home and my regular agent suggests I might like to do a mission for her that involves pirates. So I said I'd give it a try, reloaded everything, repaired a slightly wounded drone, and went off.

This time there were plenty of cruisers (and perhaps a BC in there) -- they seemed to agress in groups (and I was careful, as soon as one group did, to pull away and take them with me, so that the others didn't catch on). They took longer to kill, but I managed to stay in-shield all the way (though one drone -- Luigi, a blue one with swirly designs on his hull -- did succumb, due to going too close to a frigate and not coming back when I told him to) and one lot never even got a shot onto my hull -- I think my Big Gun had more range than theirs.

At the end, I breathed a sight of relief, and went to get paid. The mission pay was about 700K (with bonus), but the bounties for killing them were phenomenal -- I ended up with 2.7M total, so Jenni is going to have a holiday for a day or two, and Ride Poniez !!!

Trip in Jag delayed

... I found out that my research is still running, and anyway the portmaster was warning about bad weather in the warp dimentions, and shut the station down for a while.

So when that was over, I ran some stuff down to Rens, to sell it, bought some shells and went out ratting. Nothing special, but another multi-belt system with not many residents.

Query to self: should we stock up on medium projective BPOs or won't we be able to get the minerals ?

Good Dayz

So, I got one of those strange missions where you do things for people in Dark Glasses in order to boost your Faction Standings. It turned out to be a multi-part one as well, and in a system I don't often go to (because it's a dead end).

So, I thought about it, and hired someone to look after the poniez for a day or two, and went and did it. Which, in the end, and including the long-and-boring "Would you take this data to a Man in a System -- but don't ask him his name, or his dog's name, or the parrot's name, or anything that is his ?" sub-mission, took most of a day. I ended up at my base camp, and slept there. Then I went back to my mission hub (it's a system away), and found, to my joy, that the yummy +quality agent who'd been turning me away (so I had to use her -quality cousin) would give me an interview.

She also gave me a combat mission (which since she's supposed, like her cousin, to do mostly courier work, was a little ... unsettling). Thinking about it, I decided to take my biggest ship, which meant I had room for a ponie, so I took Legolam. And we set off -- it was fun (even if Legolam did get *too* excited again -- memo to self: next time, buy Industrial Strength air-freshners) and I same back to find that, with the rat bounties, I'd made seven figures.

Then she gave me a courier run to the back of beyond (all right -- 8 jumps, though!), and when I got there, I found an agent with my favourite corp (the guvvinment -- I'm working on getting my taxes down) and so I did some missions for her -- and one was another combat one, and it took the age of a duck (and meant Legolam missed feed-time, becoz I was shooting things), but at the end, when I added in bounties, I had another seven figure paycheck.

Which is two in two days. So Legolam is going to have a holiday, on a planet with Real Grass, and I'm going to fly home tomorrow, and then I gather (from a reminder message on my personaComp) that I'll have some researched blueprints to collect. In an 0.4 system. That has a deadspace in it (or did last time I was there). I think I feel a trip in my sleek and lovely Jag coming on. The question is, do I invest in T2 guns for it ? Decisions, decisions, and me (temporarily) without a ponie to ask for advice.

If anyone ever reads this

I know that, technically, a cargo pod, or the cargo in a wreck, belong to people (usually wheover jetted the pod, or wrecked the ship), and that the wreck itself, and the salvage therefrom, are (at present, and Certain People to the contrary) free for collection.

But what is the etiquette ?
Presumably if no-one is about, it's all right to salvage.
Equally, if it's *your* wreck, you should be allowed to salvage from it (whether it was your ship, or belonged to an NPC you gutted)
But how far away from a wreck (in space and time) can you be and still have that moral right ?

Take an NPC wreck in a belt, and let's say that "PDQ Carebear" wrecked it.
If PDQ is in the belt, salvaging other wrecks, can he claim it's just waiting its turn, and I shouldn't snaffle it ?
How about if he's in the belt, but mining (and therefore not going to salvage for the short-term future) ?
How about if he's in the belt, emptying wrecks, but hasn't the tech to salvage them ?
How about if he's in another belt ? Are they still, morally, his ?
How about if he's in Local but not visible (docked or in a mission space) ?

I'm going to go wild and assume that, when you leave the solar system, your moral rights lapse.

But it seems a shame to have these wrecks floating about unsalvaged.


PS Anyone who'd like to hire me to clean up after them .....

Bad News; Good News

I haven't seen my uncle in years, and now it doesn't look like I will, from what I heard last night.

He joined the Minmatar Militia some years ago, and eventually got taken into the Regular Army. He was always a believer in the adage that in every private soldier's knapsack there can be a field-marshal's baton.

The trouble was, when the Provost-Sgt checked, Uncle Ned had 27 of them.


In other news
I'm still not sure about this agent, but last night I got a call from someone a system away, offering me a Special Mission -- they seem to pop up for time to times :: always offer you boosts with one or another of the government factions, and nothing material ever comes of it. Anyway, I didn't have anything except time to lose, so I went to see what she wanted. I'm not allowed to talk about the mission itself, but the reward was in seven digits. First time I've ever been offered that sort of iskies.

SO I'm taking a couple of days off, while all my poniez get their hoofs seen to -- sparkly pink for the gurlz and sparkly blue for the boyz.

LOL Jenni

She Did It to me Again

I may have to move on to a new agent (which would be a pity -- I'm trying to butter her up to get to a far higher quality one in the same corp, who's said to offer extremely nice rates of reward).

I turn up, and do a quick run for oil for her hovercraft -- the sort of thing I used to do when I was just Starting Out (and didn't even have a single ponie to talk to). Then she says she has a little job for me.

Too fiddly for her regular pilots, which ought to have warned me. It turned out that there were drones guarding some 'roids, that she wanted mining. I almost turned the job down, but that would have meant going out to find some other work, and she was offering sparkly cash. So I knuckled down, and started planning.

In the end I had to get my own little fleet-let. And fly all of it myself. A mining ship to dig the stuff and a hauler to carry it. Then go back for my gunship, and shoot the drones. Then get the miner and mine (taking care of a local pirate and another couple of drones, so maybe the miner could have taken the original ones, but I wasn't taking chances). And finally tidy up the deadspace, and rush back to get the hauler before someone probed out my jet-can and took all the ore for themselves. Turned it in, took the miner home, and was too tired to shift the hauler for now. So that will be for doing another day, because I *so* need it *not* where it is.

I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate the 200K in ISK (my poniez will feed tonite) but I signed up to fly one ship at a time, not to have to assemble (and disassemble) little fleets. And what if I hadn't had the miner and the hauler ? Was I meant to buy them ? And sell them later, at a loss ?

Nap time for Jenni -- see what tomorro brings.

I sometimes wonder

if I know what I'm doing.

On the other hand, she was an agent who'd promised me that all she did was offer cargo courier runs. So when she said someone had run off with some documents ... and her lunch ... and would I get them back, I didn't think it was going to involve more than a frigate and maybe a couple of pet drones. I mean, how big is a lunchbox ?

I get to the co-ordinates and there he is. And there are six Very Big Ships (prob'ly cruisers) with him. Does "Get Out of Dodge" mean anything ?
And I didn't. I stayed and fought and loosed drones, up to where I was 50% armour, which snuck up on me (one second I'm shield repping, the next I'm halfway to dead), and then warped out before the baling wire took damage (my ship lacks the convenient "wingy bit" on the top). So I armour repped, docked to pick up new drones (having, in my haste, left all mine behind when I did the exit sprint), and then went back.

This time they lined up, and I could take one on at a time, while tanking the dps from the others. And I have to say, the salvage was worth it, and I found my old drones were huddling together in a corner, keeping their little cyber heads down, so I rescued them too.


After that I had a stiff drink, and went out again, to see if I could get any real cargo runs. I'm on my way, carrying ciggies, I think, when I note that there's chat on the Corp channel (which, since I'm still in starter Corp., I usually ignore). So, for the company, I listen in, and it's a n00b asking if anyone can give him a hand.
And I'm thinking "How many friends do you have, just waiting for an idiot to warp in, and get blown away ?" and "Is this a Faction Warfare ploy ?" But, for the company, I answer him, and ask what he wants moving, how big it is, and from where to where (since if it's half the galaxy away, it's no real use me responding, and these are things a girl wants to know and so forth).

And he comms me off Corp channel (which worries me slghtly) and for the next ten minutes we fence round the subjects, with things coming out in dribs and drabs -- he's 3 jumps away, it's a one jump job, but he says his hold can't hold it all. And all the time I'm watching for the catch -- but there isn't one obvious: his bio says he's been flying for only 3 days, there's no lo-sec anywhere along the routes, and I'm in a ship that just went through 6 cruiser-type things (okay, NPCs, but ... )
Long and the short is, I refuse to help till I've seen him, he turns up in a Rifter; then we head for his base of operations because he then admits it's a mining mission, and he hasn't done the mining yet. And I can't help noticing the three pods that draft through system, one of them with a 1.5M bounty on him (but do I really want someone that hard having a grudge against me ?).

He docks and rigs with a laser (and I panic in case he comes out in an uber-pwn machine and blows me to hellandgone) and we set off in-fleet. At first, the fact we aren't heading for a belt worries me, and I'm "Oh, shit ! This is where the real Pyrates leap out and I'm a kill-board stat !", but then I twig that it's a mission deadspace. We get there -- and in seconds 2 rats pop up, which is sort of expectable -- it's a mission :: if there weren't rats, the agent would have flown it themself. So I drone them to death (losing the comm channel in and among). Then three more pop up.
So I do them in too, and collect a jet can (the poor lamb has to be told how to jettison), salvage them, get a 2nd can; then we says his hold can take the 3rd lump, so I reason that that will reassure him, because I can't nip off with all his ore.

We fleet to the delivery station, and I demonstrate the "trade" bit, in handing over the ore and some salvage, and then, as a farewell, I decide to drop him the cash for a proper mining ship, just in case he wants to do some more. It's what good friends did for me when I started out, and he didn't ask for anything.

And then I went and laid down and thought virtuous thoughts till I fell asleep.
My best wishes go out to him, in his Rifter in Metropolis, and I hope he finds good fortune Rifting the stars.

Tales of a Carebear Chapter whatever

It Sometimes Happens

... that things don't happen the way you mean them to.

I didn't mean to buy a duplicate skill-book (especially when the ship it was going to be used for went poof! twinkle!). And I meant to go missioning.

In the event someone bought the skillbook (at a 10% discount), and instead of missioning, I did a deadspace (a "1 of 10" one, but so long as they still let me in ...). Not that that was the idea, either -- the scanner said there were wrecks a-plenty, instead of which I found an untouched deadspace and lots of red pirate-type people. With little ships that my faithful Dramiel (a gift from Mal) can pot in one or two shots, and which then spit up wrecks and salvage. Not as much salvage as some times -- I was only half full with the first room done, but I emptied out and then went back for room #2, which nicely filled up the time I'd otherwise have spent doing two or three cargo courier jobs.

I know: EVE isn't meant to be like this -- I'm supposed to be risking my life on a daily basis. Hello -- pet-owner here :: if I die, who feeds the poniez ? and tells the droids to clean them out ? Let me tell you, poniez left untended for 2 or 3 days make their presence known, if you get my drift.

And I look at it this way, you see: if it's good enough for Nyronds ...
(sorry -- old song there) if I do this, it gives the PvP pirates soemthing worthwhile to hunt, while I'm not.

And I also learned Mass Production (which has nothing to do with the padre), and so now I can use 2 of my new BPOs at the same time. So, so long as DrDrDr Ursus keeps doing the mining, and sells me ore (or refined stuff: he's supposed to be learning the refining skills), I can turn out some of my own ammo.

And now, I'm tired, and so I'm going to knock off, and write some more later.

CU