He's Back

Floyd has returned...

Vagabond down (at the cost of my own Incursus and a friend's Rifter)! We weren't able to hold the field with our measly collective of frigates but nonetheless, it's good to be back.


The above is an accurate depiction of what took place. Note the rainbow exhaust and flamethrower turret on my specialized Incursus!

After almost a year I felt EVE's cold and vicious fingers clawing at my neck. Rather than fight her, I decided to man up and enter the fray once more. With a new determination to learn PVP the proper way I've joined a small-gang PVP corp that does nothing but killing internet spaceships. I'm going to attempt to impart any lessons I undoubtedly learn while blowing up in spectacular fashion so that you, my dear reader, can save yourself some time and frustration as a noob in EVE.

Your exploding companion,

Floyd

Lowsec Lovin'

Last post I hinted at a greatly improved ISK income thanks to my newly acquired flagship, the Lieutenant Dan. The Lieutenant Dan is a battlecruiser-class Myrmidon, specializing in drone warfare and armor repair. Over the months I’ve been training up my drone skills as a Gallente pilot and I’m really starting to see the power of a well-stocked drone boat. With the right fitting I can tank nearly all level three missions and my drones do almost all of the work allowing me to do other things while my drones effectively complete the missions themselves. I still find missions to be extremely annoying and repetitive but at least I have the ability to focus elsewhere while maintaining a pretty substantial ISK income.

So now that I’m able to run level three combat missions with ease I have a rather large budget to throw at my pvp ships. Traditionally I usually use tech 1 modules on my favorite frigate, the Incursus; but I decided to live a little more luxuriously and purchased five fully fitted tech II Incursus. These bad boys (Jenny IV through IX) each sported three Light Ion Blaster IIs and a Hobgoblin II drone for a total of 119 damage per second using the tech II Void S ammo. With Micro Warp Drives powering their propulsion systems, the new and improved Jenny Incursus fleet is the fastest I’ve flown and also the most deadly at close range.

Strangely enough, I decided to undock in a completely different frigate on my latest lowsec roam. The As Stupid Does is a Minmitar Rifter and features three turret hardpoints as well as space for a missile launcher. It packs a mean punch and I decided to buy one long ago if I ever felt like flying something held together by duct tape (Minmitar are known for their ability to “manufacture” ships out of leftover scrap).

In the As Stupid Does I began to scout lowsec systems around my homebase in Reisen. After a few minutes I noticed a pilot with low skillpoints flying a Magnate frigate around the planets in my current system, Tasti. I knew she was flying the Magnate because she forgot to rename her ship after assembling it and using my extreme intelligence I determined she was a new player by sorting through her employment history. Finding a noob in a squishy frigate outside of highsec is a pretty rare occasion so you can imagine the excitement I felt when I pinned her down at the first planet in the system. Unfortunately I landed one hundred kilometers away from her and she slipped through my eager fingers. Cursing myself I warped to a safe spot and tried to scan her down but couldn’t locate her frigate anywhere. So close and I couldn’t nab her!

With an empty feeling in my gut I moved on to the next system and continued to search for some easy prey but only succeeded in finding a few ships locked behind a POS shield. I moved on to the next system and repeated my search in vain. After a few more empty systems I turned back towards home. Upon entering Tasti I did the usual sweep through local chat and yelled several celebratory expletives when I found my earlier prey still in-system. Her name was April Myst and she was begging for someone to send her back to the clone vats.

I immediately began a sweep on the directional scanner and narrowed her down to the same planet as before. From our previous encounter (or lack thereof) I knew she was probably sitting directly on the warp-in point and I tried my best to land on top of her. I mashed my warp-drive button and prayed to the internet spaceship gods that April be unaware of her impending doom, courtesy of moi. My heart was pounding as I exited the warp tunnel and I shouted a few more celebratory expletives when April Myst appeared directly in front of me at only twenty kilometers!

As I slammed on my afterburner activation key and locked on to April’s Magnate I let a devious grin spread across my face. Within a few short seconds I shut her ship down with my stasis webifier and warp scrambler and began to tear into her defenses with my autocannons and missiles. Her tank was minimal and in no time I managed to kill April Myst.

God I love lowsec.

-Floyd Foggytreks

Kill Counts Commence

First of all, I know what you’re thinking about this title; “man, Floyd Foggytreks doesn’t know how to alliterate properly!” Well you can just take a number… again! I’ll alliterate with whatever sounds and letters I please!

In other news, I’m back! After an extended and unexpected leave of absence I’ve returned to the adventurous world of New Eden in the familiar shoes (space-boots) of Floyd Foggytreks, the relatively un-infamous Gallente capsuleer. With my previous few entries a little dated I thought I’d try and sum up all that I’ve done since the early months of fall, 2009.

First of all, I joined a pirate corp… and then left it after realizing that they wouldn’t show me the ropes as I’d expected. The majority of the members flew big capitol ships and battleships that I simply couldn’t afford (or attempt to fly with my measly skills). I stuck to my trusty Incursus and Vexor but didn’t have much success. We did manage to nab a POS and I contributed with my Hammerhead Is and cheap railguns but I didn’t find the outcome all that exciting or lucrative (I saw none of the 200 million ISK we supposedly made that day).

So despite my enthusiasm to join a pirate corp in lowsec, I realized that I wasn’t ready to take the plunge into the yarr lifestyle. Instead, I trolled through the recruitment forums and chanced upon a group of players living on the edge of lowsec in the Forge region of Caldari space. These guys seemed like a genuinely helpful and friendly corporation so I applied and moved my mission Vexor and my Iteron hauler twenty jumps from my previous residence to my new home in Forge.

At this point I continued to mission and roam the nearby lowsec parts of space but still couldn’t find a sense of self within New Eden. I wanted so badly to pvp and make a name for myself as a fear-inducing pirate but I couldn’t justify moving into lowsec again without making a serious amount of ISK first.

I kept missioning… and I kept accumulating relatively tiny sums of ISK with my Vexor and her drones. After a couple weeks I began to tire of the endless mission grind and decided to take a break from Eve. That break turned into a half-year absence, but now I’m back!

With that incredibly informative and extremely entertaining summary out of the way I can now begin telling the tale of Floyd Foggytreks in earnest once again. With several new Jenny Incursus frigates in my hangar, a shiny new toy to earn me more ISK than I thought possible, and a bad attitude, I leave my hangar in search of action, adventure, and avarice.

Your alliterative hero,
Floyd Foggytreks

Audacious Alliterations

Well it's been a while since my last adventurous post and I've been all over New Eden while enjoying some pretty exciting encounters. Before I start though, I should all warn you that I'm a big fan of a certain rhetorical device that some may find corny or simplistic... but I love usin it! That device is the alliteration. Already in this post I've used two whole alliterations (one of them subconsciously I'll admit)! Imagine how many I could put in a newspaper column or even a book! For those of you who don't know the beautiful device that is alliteration, let me explain it for you. Simply put, an alliteration is the use of two or more words starting with the same letter. I know that's a pretty basic definition and I know there's a lot more to it but I've been through high school English and I wish never to return. So that's it! Here's a most remarkable example of an alliteration:

Floyd Foggytreks fears fifteen frollicking Frenchmen.

Brilliant, I know. What I'm getting at is this: if you can't stand alliterations en masse, well you can just take a number!

Moving on from my semi-coherent musings on the importance of rhetorical device, I'll bring everyone up to date on my adventures in Eve.

With the loss of Jenny I fresh in my mind, I went about purchasing another Incursus frigate at a reasonable price. After picking it up in a high sec system I fit it with leftover modules I'd found while ratting in some asteroid belts and then proceeded to the dangerous system of Heydieles. Mid transit I decided to name my ship the ingenious Jenny II; not one to stick to patterns.

Unfortunately as I arrived in system I had to leave my controls to help lug some things around. I made a safe spot and left my controls for a total of about five minutes. After those few struggling minutes I hopped back into my seat to see that Jenny II had disappeared from the screen. Instead of sitting behind the controls of my Gallente frigate, I was floating in my capsule. "How the heck did that happen?" I asked myself. I stopped my ship in a safe spot... surely I couldn't have been attacked and blown out of the sky by some rampaging rapscallion!

Upon further investigation, I found that the rapscallions had indeed found me and that they had indeed shot me to high hell. Jenny II mysteriously, but quickly fell to the hands of a pirate by the name of skuggan... What kind of a name is skuggan anyway?! It's not even capitalized properly!! Floyd Foggytreks was angry - very angry.

Not one to give up and not one to make the same mistakes twice, I scoured the markets for yet another Incursus. Only a few minutes later, Jenny III tore through space in her most bad-ass fitting yet. I was out for blood. I was out for vengeance. Most importantly, I was out of toilet paper......

Stubby Arms and Scanners

What exactly am I looking for in this so-called New Eden? It seems that everyone wants a piece of some isk pie, but I'm not so sure that I'm cut out for the long grind of mission running or the logistical complexity that is mining/manufacturing. So how am I going to find some isk pie for myself?! I was fresh out of the Gallente Center for Advanced Studies corporation with about as much knowledge of the Eve world as a squirrel has about flying (not including flying squirrels of course).

Rather than wandering around with the ultimate noob corporation as my support I decided to branch out and find something a little less conspicuously noobish. Unfortunately, I didn't know a single person in all of New Eden so I was at a loss for what to do or where to look. Fed up with my lack of instantaneous connectivity to the greatest players in Eve (who I expected to escort me past the simple task of becoming wealthy) I chose to spend what little isk I had on a fast ship with some ability to tackle the other pilots out there. I'd had enough of looking around for a corp. It was time to blow some stuff up!

The Incursus is one of the more exciting frigates in regards to looks and agility and while it isn't supposed to be the best early ship for warfare/privateering (or pirating ;) ) it can hold its own against most of the other frigates and cruisers out there. I hadn't actually had a chance to prove any of that yet but I was willing to try so I fitted my Incursus with what little armaments I had available to me and flew into the nearest lowsec system I could find.

My god is the directional scanner confusing at first! I felt like a T-Rex pointing those stubby little arms around trying to grab a delicious furry creature but my big stupid head kept knocking everything over and scaring away the nomnoms. Besides that disaster, I could feel the adrenaline starting to pump as I actively sought my first live prey. Flying from asteroid belt to planet, I started to place bookmarks in between warps as I'd heard about the value of safe spots by now.

After fitting my tiny T-Rex arms through the hoops of the directional scanner for some time I finally felt confident enough in my ability to actually warp to a potential target. I calibrated my scanner towards where I thought my victim would be waiting and then slammed my finger down on the warp drive ignition. After a few short seconds of travel I popped out of the warp tube and found myself completely alone next to a large planet. My prey had run away before I even saw it.... Rather than waste time flying back to a safe spot I kept looking around for that tasty target (a frigate) at the planet I'd warped to. Within about 30 seconds I quickly discovered why you should always warp to a safe spot when using your scanner.

My first lost ship! Jenny 1 was now little more than a few chunks of metal and some space dust! I was shocked. Who knew that a ship could explode so quickly? Fortunately, I managed to escape with my pod intact, but I was still sufficiently scarred by this most horrendous loss.

Limping back to my hanger in a busted up capsule, I vowed to never stand still outside of a safespot for more than 10 seconds. Noob lesson #1 learned: never think you're safe when at a remote planet in lowsec. I'd learned the ways of lowsec the hard way on my first journey, but the thrill of chasing down that evasive frigate still haunted me and I knew that I'd be back soon.

Breaking Down Barriers

Hey everyone! After reading a solid chunk of the many eve-blogs in existence out there on the interbutts, I decided to give my character a chance to chronicle his humble beginnings in the world of New Eden. I've been inspired by the hilarious adventures of INNOMINATE NIGHTMARE, as well as the somewhat more mischievous pirating stories of spectre3353. Both of these authors' wit and control of the English language stun me and I can only hope to achieve a fraction of the success they've had in their blogs. I make no claims of being an accomplished writer, I'm merely an enthused gamer with a sense of adventure coursing through my veins.

A little about myself: I'm a huge fan of the online variety of pc gaming. I'd consider myself an aficionado of several MMOs including Planetside, Asheron's Call, Warhammer Online and the dreaded World of Warcraft. Although I currently only play Eve, I have to say that Planetside was and is my favorite video game... ever... due to its complexity, colossal scale, and dedication to teamwork. With that in mind, I'm searching the vast boundaries of New Eden for a new home. I'll be documenting my adventure as a total noob to the game (which I am) and hopefully we'll all learn a little from my experiences! I wish all you other capsuleers luck in the future and I'll see you in space!

-Floyd Foggytreks