Intergalactic Summit

Stardate: 31.5.2016
Region: Essence
Entry: Day One


Well I arrived in Duripant today by shuttle and found my dad's much loved Velator waiting for me just as he promised. I'm guessing it was the smallest ship docked in the station but seeing her still filled me with a both pride and a sense of great responsibility. I knew that flying that ship was not just my escape from home and vessel of my future prosperity but also that I represented my family who sacrificed everything so that I could have this opportunity.

I took HMCS Flea out for a quick run and ran across some punk Hoodlams which I surprisingly dispatched quickly. I guess the rumor of space being violent was true. After collecting my bounty, I looked into getting the old girl a bit more firepower as dad had her rigged for mining and that wouldn't cut it for me. I stripped off the Civilian Miner Laser / Blaster combo and replaced them with two Light Neutron Blasters coupled with antimater charges. That should keep me safe even if I have park right next to the target to do damage. I also added a Small Armor Repairer to ensure survivability.

The rest of the day I spend running some missions that a nice Navy officer assigned to me. The first one was tricky as I was warping in too close but once I got the hang of picking when and who to fight, it wasn't a problem. I tried to add another Small Armor Repairer module but the power system on the old girl just isn't up to it, yet. I settled for installing a Capacitor Power Rely which should let me run the Small Armor Repairer non-stop when things get hairy.

By the end of the day, I was feeling pretty confident in dad's old ship so I took her down to a 0.5 security asteroid belt in Villore. Wow...It made me realize a few things (1) that the Navy officer's missions were really easy, (2) the Velator's limits are tested pretty hard at 0.5 and that (3) I'm going to need a few more key skill if I want to hunt in 0.5 as while I survived, the first outing saw the ship's structure drop to about 50% and that was with overloaded everything. I'm thinking luck played a roll in that. But I survived and looted some nice ship-droppings which made the victories against the rats even more delicious. I tested the ship against some 0.6 rats and that was much easier.

Oh I forgot to mention that I've started my training and boosted my light drone operation to level 3. I know I need to upgrade to a frigate soon but I think I want to wait a bit before making the switch...I also don't know what to choose...
All-in-all, a great fist day...The Flea is much improved and battle tested plus I have just over a million ISK in the bank...not bad, not bad at all...

Thanks again mom and dad...miss you two.

--- signing off ---

Such kind of reports making me sentimental.

When I first undocked and jumped straight into the "sky" I barely made it back home. That palpitation when you realize you are lost and don't know where to go. Aww...

My next Quafe is for you. Good luck out there!

If you happen to need guidance or a sounding board for ideas, problems, or anything like that, I'm more than happy to lend what experience I have to your arsenal.

May the sense of wonder at exploration never vanish from the human spirit.

Good luck with your future career, and don't lose that spark.

Great to see that while I've read many logs here, mine is also being looked-over. I hope that the daily routine will consist of compiling the previous day's events while I enjoy my morning coffee and watch the ships arrive/depart from the spaceport.

Just to let you all know, I met a Caldari during a high school exchange way back when and we've kept in contact ever since. She went on to become a very successful trader in the Lontrek /Forge area. I've gleaned as much information from her as possible so many things I already know...combat isn't one of them as she mostly avoided it at all costs. So while I'm new to space, I'm not "new to space" if you get what I mean.

The Tristan is my first choice as I'm going for a strong background in drone-boats and the Tristan-class frigate is the best around. My second choice is a "parked in the enemy's cockpit" close-range mauler like the Incursus so...step one then step two. Great advice from everyone and I should be making the switch to a frigate in the next 2-3 days.

One question I have is this: Who thinks a Velator-class ship can do Level II security missions? LvL I misions are not a problem at all and as mentioned, the old girl took on 0.5 rats...it was close but she did it.

Well the ammo captain is signaling that I'm all loaded-up so, that's it for now...fly safe folks and thanks for making cold space a bit warmer...

[NC]


Captian Mokk

You mentioned a little "something" an while I wholeheartedly appreciate the offer but our family motto is " Mali principii malus finis" which translates to "Bad beginnings lead to bad results". Thanks for the offer and one day if I'm in a jam then I might take you up on that offer but for now, however unsteady, the path I walk must be my own...

...I will look into the Horde though...

Welcome Ms. Chosokabe,



Hi there, I am Chief Warrant Officer Karina Ivanovich. I would like to formally welcome you to the grand life of a Capsuleer. Your journeys will be fraught with danger and trepidation. It is a dangerous place out there, full of pirates, rogue slavers, drones and people. The whole 'verse is out to get you. And it is the best place to be.

Some advice for your long term piloting. One of the few things the Gallente Navy has going for it is their superb take on the Vexor. It is absolutely superb for high level survival while hunting down non-Capsuleer pirates for money. It is a purpose built drone boat that will ruin any unsuspecting criminal scum's life very quickly. That being said, I am a EWAR specialist so I do not know much more than it's reputation, that and it is a Gallente ship so I will likely never fly it.

I will also caution you to take your time before deciding a long term corporation to settle down with. While Mr. Mokk is quite right ,that Pandemic Horde is quite friendly and even helpful to new Capsuleers, it may be worth your time to consider all of your options. PH has a little of everything, with specialists in every field imaginable. But, we are a nullsec Sov corp. If the dangers of deep space are not quite what you are looking for I would recommend another place; EVE-Uni being one of the most premier training corporations out there.

Lastly, I wish you the best of luck in your adventures exploring the vast nothing. Remember to connect to the IGS via Galnet while in space; there are always a few of us hanging out. And remember Mokk's words carefully. Everyone is out to get you for some reason or another. Some, like Mokk and myself, may just want you in their corporation, others may have a much more sinister idea in mind. Watch your back, fly safe, and make some friends.


CWO Karina Ann Ivanovich
Electronic Warfare Battalion
Pandemic Horde LLC
Commanding

Stardate: 1.6.2016
Region: Essence
Entry: Day Two

Well that was a busy day. Lots of running around doing missions for the Navy, Material Acquisition and a "special" mission for the Center for Advanced Studies...that last one seemed more like a meet n' greet but a paycheck is a paycheck, plus they gave me an implant so it turned out all good.

The HMCS Flea is still holding together quite nicely and even took on about 8 frigates and a destroyer. She was coming apart at the seams mind you and dropped to about 33% structural but nothing a little overload couldn't fix. The guys at the repair shop are getting to know me by name! I bet dad would be shocked to hear that I've gotten her old girl up to 902 EHP and 63 DPS after just two days. I think I can easily push the EHP past 1100 but I need to solve a power grid problem first as every joule of juice is being used already. I know it's a bit of a fool's errand but I'd love to see what a Tech 2 fitted Velator with a Level III Master Captain could do...I might plug the numbers into RFT later just for fun. It's going to be hard parking her and I see why dad is so fond of his baby...

ISP wise, I'm at the 4M ISK mark after 2 days and that's not including the 600K in gear I have for sale. I've started looking around for a good deal on a new Tristan-class Frigate as that's what fellow captains are recommending. The specs seems to show that the advice is sound as they're real beasts with a full bay of drones.

Looking further in time, an Incursus might be the next ship for straight-up brawling but an Atron is very interesting as a hunter. All three ships employee vastly different tactics but are all intriguing nonetheless.

Well folks, that's it for today. I just got a page that the Flea is ready so off I go!

If or when you fly anything bigger than a frigate, be good to your crews and try to keep them safe.

The Mastery Certificates that DED recommends are garbage. Don't ignore them, but you don't have to train all the skills up to that level. For example, if you have a choice between Trajectory Analysis IV and Gunnery V, always go for the gunnery. Ultimately, you'll get all your support skills up, but for now, one is far more useful. Additionally, if you fly ships that could be either armor or shield tanked, the Mastery Certificate will want you to have both sets of support skills trained up. If you only fly armor, don't bother to train shield for now.

Your progression should look something like: (specialize in something useful so that you're pretty decently skilled in it) -> (FITTING SKILLS) --> (do the same for something else that's useful and fun) -> (FITTING SKILLS) --> (do it again) -> (decide which set of skills like best, skill that up and you'll appreciate the extra effectiveness) -> (PROBABLY MORE FITTING SKILLS WOW) -> (find something that your corp does a lot of, train that) -> (maybe skill up the support for something you enjoy) -> (train cloaking V) -> (train something fun that your corp also does a lot of) -> ???

You get the idea. Don't yet sweat training for something long-term while you neglect the now.

Combat in New Eden is all about specialization. A jack of all trade is weak to everything. The way a battle is won is when you have the rock to your enemy's scissors. If they have paper, you run.

Thus the saying "90% of your victory is won before you undock". Combat is about either bringing the biggest rock to a rock fight, or about making everybody thinks your paper is actually a tiny, off-color rock. Skills win fights, but deception ensures there never was one.