sábado, 2 de setembro de 2017

Engagement Report 21 – Dual Hull Brutix




As I was running around in my Dual Hull Brutix, I went to a mining anomaly only to see a couple ships warp off. I can’t really catch anything other than a completely AFK miner or ratter in my Cloaky Brutix, so not a big deal.

While moving around in the same system I noticed an Ishtar and for a brief period a Pilgrim… Odds were these guys were forming to engage me. Also new on scan… a carrier at a station. Carriers had been rebalanced recently and not only they were stupidly overpowered against subcapitals, everyone was just eager to use it, so extra caution was mandatory.

I noticed the Ishtar to be on the same mining anomaly where I’d scared those mining ships… Very well, I warped in again, but this time at 100km range. Last thing I need is to be scrammed by a HAC, neuted by a pilgrim and then jumped on by a Carrier. Not that they’d need to use the Carrier to kill me if an Ishtar and a Pilgrim caught me at the mining anomaly, several AU away from my backup Brutix.

As I arrive at the anomaly, the Ishtar races to me… ye… he’s too eager to catch me, so let’s see if we can change terms a bit. I warp off, move around a bit hitting d-scan and get my eyes on station. The Carrier pilot reships into a Confessor and another pilot joins them in a Malediction. Good! They were getting frustrated about not catching me and reshiped into some tackle. I can manage tackle, just not a Carrier.

It was time to make use of their bloodlust. I still needed to split them a bit and get some range from their home system/station where they could bring out the Carrier at any time.

The Plan: Jump out to where I have my backup Brutix, drag them 1 or 2 jumps away from their home station and engage them. I would need to primary the Pilgrim, and then re-assess the situation. Either try kill the Confessor/Malediction if they came into Scram range as they would melt, or if they stayed at range focus on the Ishtar. I was confident I would be able to jam the Ishtar (I was assuming the Ishtar to have a Scram) and use the MJD to bail out. 

And so I jump out and wait for them to follow. As I jump out, the Malediction chases. Good… Now I only have to align out and warp off in order to draw them!

…but my ship is not moving! In fact, my overview is not loading! I can see the ship cloaked, but is not responding my commands. W…..T…..F…..!!! I spam every freaking command and nothing! Maybe I’ll just disappear in space?... One minute passes and I start taking damage but I’m not seeing anything on my overview!!!!! I cannot even move! I could try warp in my backup Brutix, but then what? Give them 2 kills?

I die without even loading grid… this was annoying as hell as I could have taken the Ishtar, Pilgrim and Malediction easily with both toons (Confessor never showed up). I petition my loss and ask for CCP to also move my backup Brutix to Curse, as he’s 40 jump away alone, due to a bug on CCP’s behalf. This roam was over for today.

The following day, I get my ship back but CCP replies they cannot move my alt as it’s not a service they provide… pffffff. I look for a Thera connection and is also 30+ jumps away… bah… Seems I’ll have to make 40 jumps alone. I also need to settle my score with those guys. CCP provided them an easy kill, let’s see if they would manage to kill me as easily next time.

The road from Curse to meet Rtb deep down south was boring and dull until I met some Coven guys… I had certainly been reported on their intel channels as they had a HIC waiting for me in an outgate along the path. Funnily enough, I had seen that gang form up with Rtb, but was not expecting them to go intercept Pleniers! I guess they don’t have many visitors down there…

So, knowing that gang had about 10 guys, including a Falcon, I tried to warp off, but the HIC scrammed me… No other choice other than jump. As I jump they only had 3 or 4 tackle on the gate, with the rest coming into local, so I opt to reaproach gate and cloak. No way I’d be able to MJD away in time before getting scrammed, and Falcon would make futile any attempt to get some kills. Eventually they decloak me, and most aggress me, but I’m already close to the gate and I jump out and warp off. The cloak saved my ship once again.

I go AFK as they have too much. When I return they are gone, but as a bonus, a couple of them complained on local how bad is a Brutix with a cloak. If a module allows me to survive a gate gamp that outnumbers me 10v1 and still pissed them off, then it’s a mod worth having…

While continuing to the system where I died previously due to the bug, I get reported in intel again, and some Coven guys from that last gang meet me at my destination. Coven and the system locals are blue and filled with bloodlust, having more than 10 guys active. Ok,  too much for me to take right now, so time to cloak up again. People come in and come out in different ships (from interceptors to carriers), link my latest loss in local over and over again, make funny jokes about my ship fit while asking for me to decloak, etc etc etc… Patience is virtue.

I go AFK, but eventually I have to log off. The next day I log in and notice about 5 or so active people. It’s time to warp around a bit and see what can be done this day, but soon enough they bring out a carrier and chase me to the gates with an Hyperion, a Rattlesnake and some extra ships… Once again, I cannot engage, but no worries.  Having more stuff to do at home I cloak up and wait. This time they posted my latest loss in local, but also complained how cloaky camping is “unfair” and “not fun”. Eventually I had to go to bed. Patience is a virtue.

Ok… 4th day! I log in! People don’t seem surprised to see me around and most dock up. Warping around I notice 4 or 5 active guys, but this time I have an extra surprise. The Pilgrim pilot that killed me while I was stuck with that bug was online and active… He was gloating very loudly in local how he managed to kill me once and would kill me again “EZPZ”, commented on my Brutix fit and how in the world a “snuggly” person like him managed to kill me so easily… 

Let’s face it… I will not hold myself back on killing someone that is suffering a bug. Not long ago I killed a 2 billion faction fitted Tengu that disconnected mid fight. Though for him… shit happens, welcome to EVE. While talking to that Tengu pilot afterwards I acknowledged to have noticed him disconnect, so no need to gloat on being a “superior pilot”, but I won’t stop shooting either! 

I actually told the Pilgrim fella “Man… I actually was suffering from a bug not loading grid… Did you not thought strange that I didn’t do anything? Nor shoot, nor move, nor even target you?” He was really acting like a 12 year old kid in local “PAWND YA COS WE BETTER N U NUTED/SCRAMD NO BULL EXCUS FAILFAILFAIL”. Sigh… ok… Number one rule in EVE is to keep a cool head and control bloodlust or personal vendettas. As long as I keep a cool head and focus, there will be always tomorrow. Also, patience is a virtue.

I move around in system and this time no one brings out Carriers. Good… Unfortunately I see nothing more interesting, so I go to the gate where my Backup Brutix is holding cloaked. Less than 30 seconds after another Pilgrim pilot decloaks and jumps out. Auch… if this guy is also stalking me, then 2 Pilgrims would be a hard to kill as they can easily incapacitate both my ships! Still… In this particular case, the social aspect and personal experience matters a lot. Somehow, I doubt they would have the proper coordination to spread neuts along both my ships, so I just go for it. I had been here for 4 days already, enough is enough.

I jump out chasing the Pilgrim with the unknown pilot. On the other side I had no idea on this guy intention, so I just go for it! He did not cloaked and aggressed me back! Good! I spit out ECM drones as I want to jam him and conserve the most of my capacitor as possible and bring out my backup DPS Brutix from the shadows.

Pleniers gets neuted pretty fast, but Rtb is delivering good damage and Pilgrim goes down at a steady rate. As expected, my previous killer in a 2nd Pilgrim jumps and joins the fight. At this point I was really worried. Would he neut Rtb rendering both my ships dead in the water? If so I would need to deaggress in order to jump out, as we were close to the gate, but his bad judgement prevailed. My previous killer in the 2nd Pilgrim also applied neuts to Pleniers, who was already capped out.

As the 1st Pilgrim was entering structure a Vexor jumps in and joins the fight, but more importantly, my previous killer in the 2nd Pilgrim started to kite away in a big hurry. I could try to catch him with Rtb, but would have been a bad call:

1 – 1st Pilgrim was not dead yet and Rtb was the only toon with enough capacitor running the Scram on him;

2 – Even if I caught him, he could neut Rtb easily and bail. Pleniers would not regenerate capacitor fast enough to join any time soon in this chase.

3 – If I did not made the proper choices I’d end up with both Pilgrims escaping. THAT would truly annoy me more than a bit of local smack talk…

I had already decided to NOT make this a personal deal, so I focused on what I had at hands and secured the 1st Pilgrim kill. As the Vexor was nice enough to show up, I proceeded by killing him too, with his 2nd Pilgrim mate watching from 70km away. 

After this engagement my previous killer went into complete radio silence… I’m pretty sure he was calling the shots in this whole engagement, and even though he survived, his mates that put trust on him died due to bad coordination on his part. That’s probably even better in the long run, as this sort of episodes tends to shake the trust you put in the “FC”, especially in groups with low experience and somewhat high expectations. I totally believe he was fully convinced he’d kill me as easily as he did the previous time, but with me being able to actually command both my ships, things got a tad harder.
It was finally time to move. 4 days for a couple kills is hardly “efficient”, but EVE is more than just raw numbers and it felt good to just do some cloaky camping for a change. Also, local chat is a wonderful way to get some extra laughs. Some taunting or blowing out some steam in local is pretty acceptable for me, as long as people don’t become rude…

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