Intergalactic Summit

(emphasis added by me)

Bad tongues might say you studied the Art of Being Right seemingly very intensely and make good use of the 38 Tricks. The complete work is available translated into all languages of the cluster, one merely has to look for it, e.g: Art of Controversy

Also, it is, according to the sources given by you, based on the works of a slaver: the Topics and the Sophistical Refutations, which becomes pretty obvious when one considers the original title of the work featuring the "38 Kunstgriffe": Eristische Dialektik.
That's a mingling of eristiké téchne (ἔριστική τέχνη) and dialektiké téchne (διαλεκτική τέχνη) words that translate into ars disputandum and ars dialectica or rather art of dispute and dialogue, respectively. Those are most definitely not words native to any Sebiestor dialect and most certainly not to that the author of the work you're advertising here was fluent in.

So, to conclude: Every human being, in so far as he uses his reasonable faculties, is able to figure out the rules of discourse. That is true for the Caldari, Amarr, Gallente and Minmatar equally. All of them know the study of fallacies and the use and misuse of rhetoric knacks. Your implication that 'nobody else' but the Sebiestor care about this field of study are just plain wrong and so is your implicated assault against my ethnicity. Next time you consider to accuse others, fire up your neurons - or simply use the search options the gal-net provides, first.

Faithfully
N. Mithra

Dear Log,

the Drakes the stories tell us, were great mythical and magical creatures that were able to fly and spit fire.

To name the battlecruiser of the Caldari after those creatures is a joke, an insult. I hate this ship. Was flying it in a mission the first time in my life just a few days ago. It was a pain. It was more a brick than a ship and after some rounds of missiles I put out of this very very boooooring thing I asked the guy who lend me that crap to give me a decent ship.

He gave me a Republic Fleet Stabber, which is indeed a decent ship.

But, ya know, dear Log, the Drake is one of the most popular ships in whole New Eden. Maybe because it's a nobrainer, maybe people think it's the best battlecruiser there is or something. I had to do something about that. I redesigned the Rupture in a way to kill Drakes.

We tested this new setup of the Rupture against several of those crappy battlecruisers, which we even refitted several times to not get sawed into two parts by the Rupture. We didn't manage to safe the Drake. Of cause I'm not talking about sickly overtanked Drakes that have nothing but tank anymore. Those can not be destroyed by a single cruiser. I talk about decent capsuleer vs capsuleer battle setups. Setups with engine and point.

I have given out the layout to several people now. The militia pilots really crazed out. It's nothing special to be honest. It's just a layout that nails the coffin of the Drake where it can't do anything against it: it makes too few damage. But that's the price for a ship that has weapons that can't be disrupted, that can't be out-maneuvered, not out-distanced, that even can't be jammed when they use F.O.F. A ship that allows the no-brainer-pilots to have their "lols" when they show up with a train of them. A ship that is for the stupid. A ship that has to be destroyed. Again and again.

A ship that has deserved to be hated. A ship that now gets sawed into two halves by a single Rupture cruiser. And after the design of the Rupture I designed a Thorax that does the same. Finally the Drake gets the reward for the insult it is to all real capsuleer pilots: HUMILIATION.

Die Drake, die, die, die.

You, ma'am, truly understand tactics! A true Matari on the battlefield. Keep at it!

Oh absolutely, but then in order to avoid destruction speed is of the essence, right?

And in the case ship-to-ship combat is warranted, I agree with Alicia's thoughts on the matter.

Dear Log,

I was reading some interesting stories about the design of our 125mm Autocannons, that they were originally intended to be uses for hunting. So I went down to a planet with some 125mm Autocannons for deer hunting. I can tell ya, dear Log, whatever I have been reading was never trying this. It was an awful mess. Every time I got into a steep curve and my heat-modified targeting system was getting me a deer in the range of thirty kilometers, dived steep, got into eight kilometers, opened fire with my cannons and all what was left was a bloody mess and a negligible forest fire here and there. And minor radioactive contaminations, but everybody knows they're harmless, so what?

Maybe I shouldn't have use Fusion ammo for that. Well, I can tell ya, 125mm Autocannons are not good for hunting deers. That's for sure. Sorry for the mess, especially the fires.

I was going hungry to bed, dear Log. Next time I hunt deer I do it again with a rifle or my loved crossbow, which is a nice weapon indeed for hunting. Not the 125mm Autocannon. Maybe, you might suggest, I should have taken 1400mm Artillery for that. Because of sniping an' ambushing the deer an' all that. But I'm not sure about, if that will give a better result.

My experience is, that the 125mm Autocannon is primarily designed to shred space ships. But you may try out yourself.

I was amazed about the performance of the Minmatar Rupture cruiser lately and was eyewitness how it shredded itself through a full armada of frigate class capsuleer ships. Well, I got asked what the mysterious setup for that ship is, that reliable saws Drake battlecruisers in halve. It's a very easy, straight setup.

You put into the low power slots damage control, two medium armor repairer, a kinetic armor hardener into the low slots. The last choice is yours if you prefer to put in an energized adaptive nanoplating or an explosive hardener. Because the explosive hardener will harden you against different enemies, the other betters your chances against drakes.

The medium slots you fill with an afterburner, a warp scrambler or warp disruptor, I prefer the scrambler for this and a capacitor booster, which you feed 800 Navy capcharges. With about 10 or 11 charges in cargo this will run your tank stable for long enough until the Drake is done.

The high slots you feed with my beloved 180mm Autocannons, which are the smallest for the cruisersized models. The reason for that are multiple, but you will see that you have problems to fit larger anyway. The two remaining slots you should feed with the most damage from missile launchers that you can still fit if you are low skill, to get down the Drake as fast as you can or if you have very bad cap skills energy vampires have been handy.

You rig the vessel for damage with a Burst Areator a Collision Accelerator, both fairly cheap rigs and the whole Rupture is not even a fifth of the price of a decent Drake by this.

Don't forget the drones. Chose your ammunition and drones so that you can easily switch between Republic Fleet EMP and Phased Plasma, which means mainly EM damage or thermal. Usually the EM is the weak spot of the Drake but some smartass try to avoid that, put special hardeners there and leave a disastrous hole in the TH armor of their shields by that.

About tactics:

Go and kill the drones first with your drones. Should they fight back to your drones, pull them in, set them out again and reengage. Because the locking time of a smaller vessel is always better than a larger your drones always will get the first strike and you easily can kill off the enemy drones by that.

Keep a distance of about three kilometers on your circle, that is about the distance where you put out the maximum damage with your guns. It doesn't matter if you get webbed, just keep your afterburner running, the remaining speed is more than enough to tank that ****** Drake. We done that plenty and it will be fairly easy to kill the Drake that was mentioned near this entry with the Rupture even for a pilot with nothing more than halve ass skills in the ship and even just able to fit named armor. Start your second repairer if the first is run through halve of it's cycle, keep an eye on energy, don't fire the cap too early or too late. Remain the hardeners running, relax. Overheat the guns when you come near his peek recharge to get over it as fast as possible, overheat reppers and hardeners at the start of the fight when the things don't look nice.

The guns an' that should be advanced tech, because you need the DPS. Give it a try, kill your Drake today and show that it's a ****** ship. Even a medium skilled cruiser captain can kill a maximum skilled Drake. I don't say it's easy but in all our Drake executions not one has failed. Some were tight. But none failed.

Rupture rules. Autocannons rule. Just do not use them for hunting deer.

Right, then, let's try that again

In my initial research regarding your Ruppi vs. my Drake, I've found the following (And, yes, I freely grant you, it's not yet been tested in the only way that ultimately matters: I've a few weeks of reading for missile-qualification to do before I feel confident at the helm of a Drake, especially against other podders.):

The MicroWarpdrive won't fit on the Rup, the ship's physical-plant simply won't take it, so it has to be the 'burner, unless you want to compromise elsewhere.

With my current qualifications (High-Velocity Helmsman: Improved), the Drake will be literally twice as fast as the Rup, and more or less equally maneouverable (this is why I've never been a big fan of armour-ships: Too unwieldy, and "less wieldy" usually means "less tactically flexible." Not a very Minmatar way of doing things, if you ask me--that's what Gallente blaster-boats are for)...

...So, it comes down to you having to come in right on top of him, and shorting out his MWD (A scrammer is really ideal for this reason as opposed to a disruptor, especially as you've no Stasis Webifier, plus easier fitting, and better capacitor-use), or if he's stupid/unlucky enough to come in on top of you, in an asteroid belt, 'plex, or whatever.

After that, your second main disadvantage will be capacitor management, as you'd have to stay in 'burner to mitigate the damage from his missiles, whilst repairing damage to your armour from same--so how long will those (rather expensive, and quite bulky) Navy-issue capacitor injection charges last? And once exhausted, how long will the capacitor itself, last?

Which bring us us to your first main disadvantage:

Range, and the ability to dictate same. Assuming you can't short out my MWD in the first 10 seconds of the encounter, then I submit that I've already beaten you, it's simply a matter of time, and concentration on my part.

If you use the EANM in the Rup's free low slot, then you'll have the usual weakness to explosive damage, and I'd be hurling salvos of Havoc-class missiles right into that resist-hole. With an active explosive hardener (or passive energised plating--do consider that, as it will help with the capacitor-use), your main weakness becomes heat-damage, so I'd just switch to Widowmakers. Have I mentioned range? I can throw those missiles at you from up to 75km away, and if I'm not scrammed-out, then I can pretty much choose my range anytime, as long as I don't stray within ca. 12km of you.

This kind of long-range ordinance projection is what Caldari ships are all about, whilst the Drake's spec' has mitigated their main weakness, namely a lack of speed.

(The smart missile-marksman always carries a spare of every possible damage-type! You knew that, though, yes?)

How I'd change the above-referenced fit to fight your Ruppi:

1) One of the Invulns would be dropped for a second Stasis Webifier, or possibly a Tracking Disruptor (the latter has obvious advantages, the former is a sure bet of slowing you down to a crawl, enabling me to "coast" out of scram range, even without my MWD functioning).

2) One of the rigs would be swapped for an Ancillary Current Router, increasing the engine-plant's output enough to fit a Medium Energy Neutraliser in place of the Small one. The other two rigs would be EM- and Thermal-resistance enhancers, to shore up the resulting weakness to those damage types engendered by the loss of the second Invuln.

Tactics:

Assuming I'd seen you on my Directional Scanner first, and quickly narrowed down where you are, I would then finesse the scanner's range increment between 30-100km, of the main distance, and try to warp in at ca. 50km from you, and remain between 25-30km during the fight. At all times, I would watch for you trying to "bull-rush" against my orbit's current vector, and adjust accordingly to keep you there.

If you were at a 'plex, then I would assume that you'd remained at/near the entry-point (within warp-scrambler range), and simply...not engage you there at all. You would have to come to me, and I would certainly not be using the nominal
"zero" entry pint of any warpable destination in this ship. (Again 30-50km, minimum, 70-100km being better--so how fast and precise are you with that D-scanner, anyway?)

If you get within 12km, I would use my (overheated) dual webs and (ditto) Medium-size neut to compromise your "tank," and simply coast out of scrambler range, then blast off my MWD once out of it--and say "Bye!" of course, it's the civil thing to do --to get back out to my preferred range.

All the while, I wouldn't have to worry about my missiles tracking and hitting you--those excellent Caldari warhead guidance systems do that for me, so I can concentrate on flying the ship.

Then, it simply comes down to a matter of time, and I think I would, if I did everything right, simply outlast you. (How many cap-energy injection boosters did you say you'd brought, again?)

At my preferred range, your guns would simply be doing no damage, even with Barrage-type munitions, as those latter are shooting into my shields' heaviest resistances. And I've got plenty of shields!

Look at it like a fist-fight between a big, tremendously strong, but slow man vs. a relatively weak, but very quick man...

If you--the "big brawler" in this case; Ironic, as my ship is twice the size of yours!--get up close to me, yeah, you'd physically over-power me and "grapple" me down to the ground, and probably beat my face in, but you'd have to get in close first, which I, as the "quick little guy" in this case, would have all kinds of ways to avoid that, and concentrate on doing so. (I could concentrate all the better at that, because I don't have to worry about "aiming" my "punches.")

The "dancer" can beat the "brawler..." If he's smart and precise about it.

The standard "brick-Drake" can't manoeuvre to save its' arse, quite right...But the nano-Drake can--you should try flying one, or at least researching it if the ship itself revolts you that much--the spec's for projected manoeuverability, assuming equally-trained pilots, are near-identical.

How fortunate that I didn't start out as Drake pilot, then--Hurricane (armour-brawler spec') and more to the point: Cyclone, active shield-tank/medium-ranged Autogun spec' (another "kiter," but requiring much closer management of more systems).

I am not your "average" Drake pilot, young one...Most Drake pilots are not ready for pod-ship vs. pod-ship combat (and have no business being anywhere near the battle-space, if such is occurring), and neither are their ship spec's. I am, and mine is. I simply imagine my Drake as a Minmatar ship, spec' it like one, and fly it accordingly (not too different from a Cyclone, just much less needing of "micro-management," and with far better damage-projection than any Autogun-fitted ship can dream of).

If you get me scrammed, I still neut you out, and double-web you down to a crawl--approximately half my non-MWDspeed, even with your 'burner on. Your ship's signature radius is larger than my missiles' rated explosion-radius, so no help there, and your speed is now below my shock-front's rated velocity, so even less help, there. With us each shooting into each others' resist-holes, I'm actually doing about 45-50% more damage per second than you, and I have much, much more buffer for you to chew through, plus my shields are strongest between ca. 25-40%...which is where I would start over-clocking my invulnerability field, and its' heat-tolerances across that rack are far greater than your dual armour repairers. The one advantage you've got left is your guns' greater heat-tolerances for over-clocking--all those delicate electronics- and software-systems in my missile-batteries that you don't need to worry about--but would they last long enough to chew up my shield in the latter's peak recharge region? I tend to doubt it.

Hey, come to think of it, maybe the "dancer" can brawl and grapple a bit! (The A/S/T Cyclone would be in real trouble, here, especially if you have even a Small energy-neutraliser mounted.)

Six minutes of capacitor? I think I could keep outside your range for at least 3 of those--you pulse the MWD, with judicious use of over-clocking (be careful here, those burn up all too easily), not just let it scream, and pay very close attention to your overview, and your camera-drones' view.

Your prejudices, and your aggression make you predictable--I had an idea of your fit even before you detailed it based on same, and already thinking of how to counter it.

I submit, Soldier, that the greatest warriors' tactical choices and doctrines are not informed by passion, discoloured by group-thinking prejudice, and undisciplined brawling--they are ice-cold, calculating at all times, and completely impartial. Long-range nano-ships in general "feel" like that to me, and I think I like that...I dunno, can't say it any better than that...

Dear Log,

what's bad about passion?

You know what? Everything I do I do out of passion. When I love someone, I do it out of passion, when I build something I do it with passion, when I fight, I do it with passion. It's like arts. I never do it in cold blood.

The worst of all excuses is: "It was nothing personal. It was just professional." The guards and executors in the Amarrian slave camps were saying that when we put them in court. "It was just an order." They killed in cold blood. I am not like them. We are not like them.

When I stab a dagger in someone's chest, do I look him in the eye and say: "Sorry, mate, that's not personal?" What else could be more personal than killing someone? It's a question of respect if you do it, you do it with your full personality and not just out of cold blood because you were told to. Or a certain strategy demands it from you. If you go out and kill, warrior, to it from your heart. Not from your mind. If you are not behind it with your whole personality, don't kill someone. There are no reasons to kill but if every, every aspect of your situation demands it.

Or you become a monster without a soul.

And if you feel you should not do something, listen to the voice of your heart. Don't become a machine, keep you heart, your love, your passion alive. Because what the rebellion needs are no "professional" soldiers. What freedom needs are passionate warriors, that fight with every aspect of their existence. And not just with their minds.

So don't act in cold blood. If you do that, you are not doing it right. You are not doing it fully. You should not see your heart, your feelings as something that is disturbing your work, that is interfering your battle, warrior. The passion is the motive behind everything and not your cold blood. It's the true power, inspiration. Learn to use it.

Keep that in mind. Don't become cold blooded. Keep your heart involved, do everything with passion. Everything. Don't do it halve. Halve a freedom is worth nothing. We demand the whole deal. And we fight for it. With passion and cunning, completely. Forever.

Dear Log,

I want to tell ya a short story about the Minmatar way of war.

In the first hours, days and months of the Rebellion we Minmatar had nothing than Slasher frigates against the most powerful Empire of New Eden. And little Sebiestor girls we were bringing down full scale Amarrian battleships like the Reclamation at Traun single handed with nothing but her smarts and a screwdriver.

The Minmatar way of war is to bring down a Punisher with a Slasher, a Mauler with a Vigil, a Coercer with a Rifter, a Navy Slicer with a Breacher, a Drake with a Rupture. It is the way of war of the walking impossible. If you achieve the unthinkable flying your Minmatar ship, you follow the footsteps of our great ancestors and make them proud.

But if your manage to fit a Hurricane to kill a Drake that's nothing more than what our tribes would expect from you. It's like: "Look, I've been driving with my truck over that tomato and see - my tires were not harmed! Do I get a medal now?" The ancestors will not look upon you for that.

But if you say: "Hey, I've killed a Drake with my Hurricane but I had nothing in my hangars but lasers, tractor beams, small shield extenders and magnetic field stabilizers from looted wrecks to fit it! And besides I had accidental a bit of Navy aggro doing that…" That would be something. But to kill a Drake in a Hurricane is exact the thing that everybody from your tribe would expect from you, warrior.

So strive for more. Strive for the impossible, for the unthinkable. Walk the path that our ancestors did when they declared war to slavery, war to oppression. The true Mimatar warrior will challenge an Amarrian armada in nothing more than a Breacher frigate launching waves of sheer suicide runs against them - and win like we did at the battle of Pator, where we had nothing but Slashers and halve fitted Breachers against them. This is the stuff we are made off, this is the stuff the Amarr fear.

It is our ingenuity, our anger, our brave hearts that they fear. Because they only fly without their hearts involved. They fly with cold hearts. We fly with a burning fire in our chests. And it is not true that feeling make you a bad warrior. If you have gone through our path of rites, you will have learned to look into your heart and you'll understand your feelings and they don't interfere with your performance in battle, no, they support you, they give you in every situation the edge over your enemy.

Because inspiration is not a product that is coming from your mind, warrior. It's the blood from your heart.

So fly hot in your breast but learn to focus your emotions, to let them guide you instead to fight them down like the Amarr do when they rub their knees praying for forgiveness for the sin being human. Torturing their bodies for their feelings. Looking into a sky, praising a lord that does not exist and expect answers from the silence of his absence. Instead of living in the world that is, listening to the body, the mind and the heart and becoming a complete human being.

This is our way of wisdom, warrior. To be true. To be full. To include our hearts in every aspect of what we do. And look at the design of our space ships - they outperform everything when you fly them with heart and mind and not just with mind.

Let those that fly cold numbers be the Amarr. We fly better than that.

Fly insane. Means fly not like your mind alone dictates your doings. Fly more. So that the pure mind can't understand. That's the true meaning of flying insane. Not flying without sanity. But flying with something added to it, that the mind can't understand, can't analyse. And that's your heart. That's your feelings. That's inspiration. That's Minmatar.

The Drake is a tool. If you know how to fit it correctly and how to fly it correctly it is a very effective tool. It has pros and cons like any other tool. Ships can be fit to kill it, it can be fit to kill other specific ships. Dismissing it out of hand because you don't know how to fly it is foolish.



The Star Fraction flies Drake fleets to great effect. Just last week we smashed a pirate Battleship gang that had jam support and a numerical advantage through disciplined combat and target calling and synergistic logistic support.


We don't particularly think we are stupid. But your comment is noted.