Diary of a Pod Pilot

First off, the good stuff: I have completed a revenge kill on the corporation I had my first ever low security loss to. Yes, I’ve come a long way since then, from clueless budding mission runner to competent pirate. While it was not a pilot that was present back then the ISK made from the sale of the spoils of battle was a welcome addition to my wallet.

Last month has been one of my most active months when looking at combat statistics, with 27 kills and two losses. Leo and Kirsa organizing roams more than once a day have really helped there. My Falcon also finally got baptized in battle. Unfortunately it didn’t last me all that long due to a stupid command on my part. Sometimes having crew saying “Are you sure you want to do this?” wouldn’t be such a crazy idea. Or their capsuleer should simply pay more attention to what she is doing….

More bad stuff then: Vaden has decided to go on a suicide mission into Stain following some kind of vision of God about a universe without Sansha. Not sure his mind was wholly clear when he decided that or if Drop was involved, but he did make the kind gesture of donating one billion liquid and all his non-capital ships and other belongings to Ghost Festival. I’m toying with the idea of having some kind of corporate tournament and use the ships as prices. I’m sure he’d have liked the idea of the strongest and keenest minds getting his best, being Sani Sabik and all.

We’ve also seen a few other members disappear off the roster. Some were removed simply due to prolonged MIA status, others threw their hat into the ring and retired from being a podder, and then some decided to move on and chase their own dreams. A shame as it is this does mean three Wisp slots — Wisp being the rank for members being part of our inhouse academy program — are open again, but an opportunity for new recent graduates to get a headstart in piracy and the Cartel life.

Looking ahead then our time in Goinard is now definitely drawing to a close. Not that we don’t like it here, and the joint operations with Veto have been a great success on both accords, but our ambitious plans for the future require moving elsewhere for various reasons which shall be unveiled in due time. So stay tuned for that.

Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

Last month Ga’len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith “WebMandrill” Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: “Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completely from EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?”

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The game mechanic I would like to see removed from the game is ECM and ECCM in their current form. In this post I will explain to you why I’d like to see them removed and I even have a proposal for what to replace them with.

First off ECM is the only racial e-war type that has dedicated counter modules. I exclude rigs here on purpose since I feel rigging against a racial e-war type is silly as they are permanent and don’t come cheap. There are – and correct me if I am wrong here – no modules that counter target painting, one module that enhances weapon tracking (versus tracking disruption, so could be considered the only exception), yet sensor boosters form a true counter again dampeners AND weapon range disruption (twice range versus range, once signature versus signature). I have sadly not had the time to hop on SiSi or even search the forums for test results on the effectiveness of all counters but I assume that just like ECCM does not nullify the effect of ECM that a tracking enhancer does not nullify the effect of tracking disruption entirely and so forth, especially when skills come in to play. With all this in mind how is racial e-war balanced? Target painting you can’t do squat about, and range disruption / dampening and signature dampening are ALL countered by the same module providing you have both scripts on hand. And sensor boosters also give you an advantage of having more range and faster locking time against any other target.

But this post was not about the imbalance in racial e-war in general, but specifically about ECM. So why pick on ECM when there is a general imbalance? Because if an ECM cycle hits you can’t fight back. Ignoring the e-war that has a counter this leaves us with just target painting, but with this applied you can still win a fight if you brought superior damage. If I jam your ship that could kill me in three hits, and you get one lucky hit off before you die, you’re screwed. Considering that the bigger ECM ships can hold multiple targets jammed bringing friends don’t help you either.

Now you must think, why haven’t I mentioned drones yet? Simple, not all ships have a drone bay. Granted, Caldari ships suffer from this the most but they also have the most powerful e-war type. But to use an example that springs to mind the Zealot has no drone bay either. So keeping some ECM drones handy for an escape is no option here. And notice how I say ECM drones and not the other types of e-war drones. But that also is a separate discussion overlapping a lot of the racial e-war imbalance.

My personal ship focus lies with force recons and here is what I draw my inspiration from when it comes to an ECM redesign. We all know and fear the falcon even after the recent ECM changes. Solo play in one is still tricky business and in fleets they still turn the tide quicker than any other recon can. A solo setup will typically have a reliable tank and is certainly helped in damage dealing by its new drone bay. But a falcon in fleets will just stack up those ECM jammers (as ECM doesn’t stack, the chance is calculated individually per module) and happily jam from a fair range. Add to that a falcon can now pack ECM drones for even more ECM goodness which is arguably a buff.

So what do I propose then? Let’s review our racial e-war types again: Target painting is an offensive form of e-war. For defensive e-war we have disruptors that work against turrets, and dampeners that cover turrets and launchers just as ECM does. Maybe a little light bulb just popped up over your head just now, but if it hasn’t, there is a no dedicated counter for missiles. And that is what I would like to see ECM changed to. It could be done in different ways, and even work with scripts. Jamming after all doesn’t only mean electronic systems getting disrupted, but also a change getting stuck in the loading mechanism or barrel. Or it could mean the missile itself gets jammed. A bit alike to defender missiles but instead of blowing it up you send a burst to the electronics of the charge so it loses its pre-programmed course.

This does of course not balance e-war entirely. And the whole balancing goes way over my head as so many factors play a role in it. I am sure the observant reader can find a flaw or two in what I have written thus far. To really balance it evenly you need to review the whole thing from the ground up with a lot of statistics at hand. Which is what the people at CCP ultimately have the best resources for. However this could be a first step in the right direction. It removes a “godmode” mechanic and replaces it by something on par with the Amarr equivalent leaving just Gallente and Minmatar e-war to be sorted out.

1. Diary of a Space Jockey, Blog Banter: BE GONE!
2. EVE Newb, (EVE) Remove You
3. Miner With Fangs, Blog Banter – It’s the Scotch
4. The Eden Explorer, Blog Banter: The Map! The Map!
5. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, “Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!”
6. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Kill the Rats
7. Mercspector @ EVE, Scotty
8. EVE’s Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #9
9. A Merry Life and a Short One, Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won’t You Die?
10. Into the unknown with gun and camera, Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey
11. The Flightless Geek, EVE Blog Banter #9: Remove a Game Mechanic
12. Sweet Little Bad Girl, Blog Banter 9: Who is Nibbling at My House?
13. One Man and His Spaceship, Blog Banter 9: What could you do without?
14. Life in Low Sec, EVE Blog Banter #9: Stop Tarnishing My Halo
15. Cle Demaari: Citizen, Blog Banter #9: Training for all my men!
16. A Mule in EVE, He who giveth, also taketh away?
17. Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter 9
18. Morphisat’s Blog, Blog Banter #9 – Randomness Be Gone !
19. Facepalm’s Blog, EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without
20. Memoires of New Eden, You’re Fired
21. Kyle Langdon’s Journeys in EVE, EVE Blog Banter #9 Titans? What’s a Titan?
22. Achernar, The gates! The gates are down!
23. Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #9: Down with Downtime!
24. I am Keith Neilson, EVE Blog Banter #9-F**K Da Police
25. Ripe Lacunae, The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
26. Clown Punchers, EvE Blogs: What game mechanic would you get rid of?
27. Estel Arador Corp Services, You’ve got mail
28. Epic Slant, Let Mom and Pop Play: EVE Blog Banter #9
29. Deaf Plasma’s EVE Musings, Blog Banter #9 – Removal of Anchoring Delay of POS modules
30. Podded Once Again, Blog Banter #9 – Do we really need to go AFK?
31. Postcards from EVE, 2009.07.02.00.29.06
32. Harbinger Zero, Blog Banter #9 – War Declarations & Sec Status
33. Warp Scrammed, Blog Banter 9 – Never Too Fast
34. Ecaf Ersa (EVE Mag), Can a Tractor Tractor a Can?
35. Thoughts from an Accidental Minmatar Revolutionary, EVE Blog Banter #9 – Aggression timers, WTs and Stargates
36. Mike Azariah, I don’t put much stock in it…
37. Rettic’s Log, Blog Banter: Overview Overload
38. A Sebiestor Scholar, [OOC] EVE Blog Banter #9: Slaves
39. Diary of a pod pilot, [OOC] EVE blog banter #9: Because of Falcon
40. Roc’s Ramblings, Blog Banter #9 – Taking Things Slow
41. The Gaming-Griefer, EVE Sucks, But I Love It: The Memoir of a Masochist
42. Letrange’s EVE Blog, Blog Banter #9: Bye Bye Learning Skills
43. Lyietfinvar, Remove that monopoly
44. Sceadugenga, Blog Banter #9
45. Industrialist with Teeth, EVE Blog Banter #9

I’m sitting here in my office with a big smile on my face. Despite having lost a blackbird, and nearly losing an harpy as well I’m glad to see that Bold Harvest is now fully started. While we had a planned operation this weekend it wasn’t until yesterday I got to put a dedicated ECM ship to the test.

Earlier yesterday things had gone a bit sour when Zukko, Yishal and me decided to match up three assault frigates versus a Myrmidon. Little did we know the ship was fitted to counter frigates and we soon found ourselves missing a Vengeance. Draining the last bits of capacitor I managed to get out suffering only minor shield damage. I am ever so glad I took the time to perfect control of this vital part of the ship. Any less capable and it would have taken too long for it to recharge meaning I wouldn’t have been able to reactivate the MWD.

Returning to base we shrugged off the defeat and planned our next move. More and more pilots were tuning into the Neocom – resulting in a peak number in activity not witnessed since our roster was still double it’s current size! – and we formed up a new fleet with those that were combat ready consisting of several assorted frigate and cruiser hulls. And for once we did not have to look for targets as they came to us instead. A fleet of The Wings of Maak had occupied a site in our home system and we were going to crash their party.

Pretty classic scenario to start off with here. Our fleet drops out of warp and their pilots hightail it. Unlike most pilots we meet however they had the guts to come back and put up a fight. The Claw and Tristan sent in however did not stand a chance against the firepower we took along and the rest managed to get out. Celebrating our victory a little too early and having a hearty laugh about the fact Yishal had given me ECM bursts rather than multispectral jammers to be fitted on the Blackbird we failed to notice that The Wings of Maak had now matched up our fleet. As we noticed several Ruptures, a Blackbird and several frigate size hulls appear on the overview we braced ourselves but upon the quick loss of Yishal’s Arbitrator and my Blackbird alternate FC Vincent Pryce made the wise decision to retreat. During the struggle we did make them part with a Thorax. A rather enjoyable skirmish and the Gistii MWD found intact in the Claw’s wreckage covered some of the costs.

Guilty confession? I like ECM ships. Despite their fragility having the ability to render an opponent unable to fight back has a strange kind of allure towards it. As much as I like to be there up close with my fleet members the lessened need to micro-manage and keeping the oversight of the battle have their advantages. Even more so when filling in the role of FC. Who knows…perhaps I will find myself in a Falcon someday. The irony of proving Athas right would be terrible however.

But enough writing for now. There is work left to be done and I much long to find myself out there in the void again before this day ends.