Oh dear....

... my factional warfare experiment appears to be going nowhere, fast.

The character continues to skill up, and already has some ships fitted and ready to go, but I just haven't got into it yet.

To be fair though, this is not a reflection on FW, but more a reflection on me suffering one of those "periods". You know, when you suddenly just seem to find it hard to log in and play, when your other non-MMO games suddenly seem more appealing, or god forbid tv seems more watchable.

Obviously family, friends, pets, and RL in general is always more important, than Eve, and indeed some variation in ones gaming is always good. However, there comes a point when you realise you are only logging into Eve for the purpose of changing skills, adjusting market orders, and to check eve-mail in hope of an alliance op.

This is not to say that I am going to quit Eve (so cancel any "Can I have your stuff?" requests), but more that I have been on a hiatus for a wee bit

As for the this lack motivation, all that I can deduce is that it is due to my main alliance being in what is essentially a period on consolidation after a long period of open hostility, and then outright war.

Peace is boring.....

Why this has stopped me from getting into FW I don't know, indeed it makes no sense. All I can deduce is that this is due to a sense of guilt that if I do log in, I should be doing alliance stuff, or helping my in-game friends.

Hmmmm

I think I will make a point of logging in to play FW tonight.... but then... that movie sitting there is looking mighty interesting.

Hey this ain't the same......

I have to admit something

Something that I am somewhat embarrassed about.


Kahamahl: "Hi...., my name is Kahamahl"

Everyone: "Hi Kahamahl"

Kahamahl:"I'm here, because I have a problem!"

Kahamahl: "I almost lost my Tristan today, doing a level one mission!!!"


Everyone: "NOOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Well okay, not really.... But I am finding that getting standings for Kahamahl, so that he can join a Factional Warfare corp, has proven to take longer than expected due to not spending much time online.

Kahamahl is now sitting at 0.48 with the Gallente Federation, having followed Van Hemlock's advice in Path to Acceptance. So following the path of least resistance, I am now running missions for a level one agent; in a Tristan.

This is where I have to admit there is some truth behind the earlier mention of a particular ship.

First some background. My two regular mains, fly mostly either small fast movers (speed tanking) or Caldari (shield tanking). As such my experience with armour tanking is somewhat less impressive.

During a recent mission, I had got right into the middle of the rats I was fighting, and although I was popping them left, right, and centre, I was also starting to take some damage.

"No worries" I thought, giggling at their pathetic damage. But eventually, down went the shield. Then they started to chew into the armour itself, but still I was not even vaguely concerned.

My finger hovering over the repair button, ready to click, just waiting for the armour to get low enough to warrant using the repair (after all no point wasting cap). Sure enough the moment came, with the armour nearly all gone, I clicked and waited to laugh at them as my armour climbed back up.

However I had forgotten a fundamental difference between active tanking shields and armour, namely that the HP boost comes at the end of the module cycle for armour (not the beginning like shields).

So though the repairer was now active, the armour just kept falling for the duration of the cycle, right through the last of the armour and into the hull itself - gulp.

Then suddenly the first cycle finished, and up shoots the armour... Ship intact, but pride damaged.

This little event, though never really getting out of hand, has made me reevaluate my plan for this character. The original plan of skilling straight for Interceptors, is essentially just repeating what I have done with my other mains. Instead, I'm considering whether I should skill for cruisers first? After all, the skill training time is pretty minimal for Kahamahl at this stage (only a few days).

Indeed was not my aim with this character to try something new, to try stuff differently??

That's not to say that I will not still skill for the fantastic Taranis and Ares, but I think I owe it to myself to try out not only a race I have limited experience with (Gallente) but also a hull size that I had skipped over, and an entire method of tanking.

Thorax! Here I come....

War.... What is it good for?

...absolutely everything!!

Lets be honest, Eve is driven in all it's forms through warfare. From the dedicated pvper, to the solitary new player just finding their way in the game, to the hardcore industrialist, to the miner mining Veldspar or Ice. In Eve every player contributes to the economy, and hence to the supply or demand of ships/equipment/ammo that is the lifeblood of war in this game.

The more we fight, the richer the game is for everyone, both in isk and fun. It is in this light that I personally view the advent of Factional warfare as a great development for the game.

Factional warfare provides both new and old players an opportunity to engage in some pvp with the sole intention of having "fun". Now that's not to say the pvp experienced elsewhere in Eve is not fun (though people involved in POS sieging may dispute that), but there is a distinct difference.

Factional Warfare is low risk, you can participate at a low cost, and can have a lot of fun, without the real risk of losing your home (in comparison to 0.0 where the cost of loss can be an enforced loss of assets and your 0.0 home).

It is this risk of losing your home that sometimes restricts 0.0 life to long periods of preparation and short explosive stints of all out war. In short the risk of war, often outweighs the benefits in the minds of many alliance leaders..

Factional Warfare so far appears to encourage constant all-out warfare, with people readily feeding ships, equipment, and clones into what is a massive meat grinder....

....and this is good. This constant loss of equipment will lead to an invigorated eve economy, and indeed the faction standing loss for Gallente and Minmatar should help long term to reduce the dependency on Jita. At the very least, my hope is that the position of the minor trading hubs is strengthened...

Indeed, all this opportunity for fun, and listening to WDA and TDB, has convinced me to give Factional Warfare a go...

As such two weeks ago, a new Gallente pilot was born on my third account (yes I am that addicted to eve), and the other character put on a training hiatus. Currently my intention is to train this new character towards a Taranis and Ares (interceptors are a favourite of mine on my other mains), or potentialy some gank/tank cruisers.

Currently Kahamahl is training the base skills he needs to be able to participate in PvP, and so far can now fit T2 blasters and MWDs. Warp jammers and Webs should be finished by tomorrow...

Currently I am doing the Data Center missions, to build my standings with Gallente.... but I should be in the fight by the end of this weekend.

Meanwhile my 0.0 alliance is probably wondering where I have disappeared off to...