Team Anomic Agent #4 - Vengeance

*** FITS VERIFIED PROTEUS JANUARY 2015 ***

The Vengeance Team burner popped this morning, so I have another entry to make in my Anomic Agent Info Page.

I started with the usual research and found that my Garmur fit used for the Jaguar was still viable with an ammo swap.  Today we'd be using Navy Nova to knock down the Logi ships, then Inferno to pop the Vengeance.  I've done the Jag a total of 3 times now and really haven't had any issues once I got the Garmur.  Seemed straightforward, right?

Go Orbit a Station

I have a challenge for you - Go orbit a station.

When you have nothing better to do in highsec - undock.  Pick something small, nimble, maybe sexy.  Drop in the t2 prop mod and speed boosts, set your orbit to 100km and zip around.

I've been struck lately by the vitality of some systems.  It's something I'd forgotten.

You see, in the days before warp-to-zero (WTZ) gates, we all had to slowboat in from autopilot distance.  Each gate.  Every time.  It was a tedious way to travel, and made the route from A to Z a true journey.

I'm not advocating the removal of WTZ gates and stations.  I enjoy/abuse the feature as much as anyone.  But I also think that when you're flashing from gate to gate in a click frenzy, you miss out on BEING IN SPACE and watching other ships come and go.  The humanity of it all escapes us, and EVE quickly becomes a very memory-intensive chat app.

Recently, CCP added a flash graphic and a little 'fffump' sound effect when people drop from warp around you.  It's such a subtle thing, but it's made a big impact on me as I'm coming and going.  Each time there's a flash or a thump, it means someone else, some other player, is doing something near me.

So, sometime when you've got nothing better to do ... instead of sitting in station spinning your ship ... just undock.  Take a look outside at the ships - the players - coming and going.  I hope I'm not overselling it, but it makes space feel alive. Thriving. Human.

Anomic Agent Statistics

Being a nerd, and an EVE player, I had to make a spreadsheet to track Anomic Agents.

I've now been offered 11 Solo Anomic Agents, and 2 Team Anomic Agents.

I have a 61.5% overall success rate (as in, I accepted and completed the mission).
I have a 23.1% overall decline rate (as in, I was a pansy and didn't accept the mission).
I have a 15.4% overall failure rate (failure defined as I accepted the mission, got my teeth kicked in, and then punted the mission).

I have faced all of the Solo burners except the Serpentis/Daredevil.  Both of the Team Agents have been the Jaguar.

Offer rate is averaging about every 6.8 vanilla level 4 missions.  This is greatly offset by my run of ~25 or so missions before getting the 2nd offer.  I expect this average to come down with time.  Lately I've been running more like 3:1.

I have lost 5 total ships:  2x Vengeance, 2x Daredevil, and 1x Retribution.  Total loss value of killmails is 255M isk, (355M total, minus the ~100M isk of recovered faction/t2 from the Retribution).

At an average of ~12k LP per offer, I have gained ~96k LP for the 8 successful missions to date.  The 12k LP is an assumed number; my agent typically offers 10k or 14k).

Anomic Agent Info Summary

I've added a new tab on the menu (up there ^^^^) to try to condense all of my burner experiences.  If you're a regular reader, it's just a summary of many of the posts you've already seen.

However, as the postcount here continues to rise, wanted to get my arms around this info before it got too unwieldy.

Free (Test) Titans - Pictures

Here's the rest of my shenanigans with Titans on the test server.  See previous post for generic instructions on how to participate.

However, a few more hints:
1. Move to the test system BEFORE redeeming your Titans.  You'll save yourself some fuss when it comes time to fit ships, as well as having everything in one spot so you can try multiple ships.

2. There is one racial Doomsday per Titan flavor.  For the Avatar, it's Judgement.

3. Each doomsday takes fuel to use (75k isotopes per cycle).  Each one is racial, check yours for the type.  Don't undock without a full belly of fuel.

4. When I was on, there were pickup fleets forming in local.  Highly recommended.  Be a part of the wolfpack, not one of the deer.

5.  I don't know if CCP condones it, but you CAN undock in highsec and monkey around.  Other than a few shots in the belt and doing some gratuitous warping around, there's not much point.

Pictures after the break!

Search and Rescue Operations

So, let's say you got offered the Sansha Anomic Agent (single).

You've done him before, so no worries.  You dust off your Retribution, and dive in.

Things go well - you have him down in armor and your tank is holding.  And then... the unthinkable.  You, the "veteran" EVE player, manage to burn out your rack of guns, right when you were so near to glory.

Death is now a foregone conclusion.  He reps up and grinds you down before you can slowboat off grid.

It happens.  Time to shrug and get another ship.

But let's say there's ~100M isk worth of faction webs and t2 guns/misc in your wreck.  Gosh, it would be nice if you could get to them.

This fit let me recover gracefully from disaster this morning.

 [Vengeance, Sansha Burner Wreck Recovery]
Small Armor Repairer II
Armor EM Hardener II
Small Armor Repairer II
Armor Thermic Hardener II 

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II 

Empty High Slot x5 

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

It could be tankier, but I didn't feel like getting different rigs.  It is cap stable with my skills.  With an off grid booster running, I rarely went below 90% armor (a chain of smashing' hits, I think), but with the armor reps running out of phase (Start the 2nd SARII about halfway through the first's cycle), I was normally bouncing between 95% and 100% armor.

No prop mod means a slowboat off grid under web, but faction webs are faction webs.  Use the time to think about why you don't have Thermodynamics to rank 5 yet.

I guess I should have fit a salvager, too.

Happy Sunday.


What's Playing:  Led Zeppelin, How the West Was Won (Live), Black Dog

Phoebe - Lots of New Stuff, No New Burners, Free Titans

This will be a jumbled post, so bear with me...

Part I:
New dev blog today gives the major features of the next patch (codename: Phoebe).  Lots of cool stuff.  I like the unlimited skill queue, obviously.

No new burners.  Expecting content for 3 patches in a row was probably too much to ask.  I'll be sure to poke Sugar sometime soon and see if we can get more info from the devs on how burners are being received by the players..

For PVE/Missioneers, the following statement is interesting.  The old agent UI is pretty stale, so looking forward to the new detail (if it looks anything like the sexy new Industry UI, I'll be VERY happy).

Mission Objectives Guidance

New information in the Agent Mission info panel will direct you to what you need to do next in your mission to complete it. An upcoming dev blog will go into details on this new feature.

Side note:  The new notifications and sensor overlay look sweet.  It seems reasonably obvious now that the EVE client is getting a major UI overhaul.  I was skeptical on some of this stuff (I'm an oldskool guy and still use rightclick for everything) but I like what I see on Sisi.

-----

Part II:  Free Titans

If you haven't heard, you can currently get free Titans on the test server (aka Sisi) to try out the new jump/gate mechanics for capships. And of course, blow the snot out of people with the DD.

Details here.  It's pretty simple - patch up the Sisi client (see this Wiki entry), login, go to the 'moveme' channel and type 'moveme' to get ported out to Syndicate 0.0.  Then type 'capitalships' and get free skillpoints.  Logout, claim your Titans at the login screen. Have fun on the cheaply seed SISI market, then go kick some ass.

If you choose not to get ported to Syndicate first, you can still use the 'moveme' channel after.  But one hint: BEFORE YOU ACCEPT YOUR SHINY TITANS.... make sure you're at a station that has all the items seeded for 100 isk.  Trust me.

This "testing" may go on for at least a little while, according to CCP Claymore.


I immediately went and bought enough miner2's to outfit an Avatar.  Damn right.

There might or might not have been some omber mined in highsec before I moved the titan (my alt's Leviathan is in the background looking mean).

Also bought a somewhat 'real' fit, at least with real guns.  I know nothing about capship fits, so went for a hull tanking, double armor rep, to maximize my time on grid before the inevitable end.  More on this in a future post.

Single Anomic Agent #7 - Guristas II

*** FITS VERIFIED PROTEUS JANUARY 2015 ***

Another dead worm!

This one was offered after 4 completed and 2 declined vanilla missions.  Three of the completed missions were a series, if that matters.

This will probably be the last battle report for repeat content.  I feel like I'm jamming up the place with all this.

But since I'm already typing -- I used the same Daredevil setup as last time, made sure my mods were repaired and I had plenty of ammo and cap boosters.  Same strat - warp in, run under the missile barrage and then web his squirmy butt down and blasterate holes in his ship from as close to 0km as I can get.

I thought I botched the attempt, as I forgot to turn the mwd off after pinning him down with the web.  Cost me a little cap, but I recovered, and my cat has heard me swear plenty before today.

I managed overheat better, killed him with 4/ea Cap Booster 400's in my cargo (I had zero remaining last time).

PS:  Loot sucked.

UPDATE:  Single Anomic Agent #8 was offered back-to-back with #7.  It's the Blood / Cruor, which is currently the only Burner I've been offered that I can't do.  I declined it - I don't need to lose a ship that bad right now. See also I am a Statistic.

What's Playing:  Grouplove, Colours

Single Anomic Agent #6 - Angel Burner

(Posting a day later to help spread things out...)

New record for me, I completed 1 vanilla mission and another Anomic Agent was offered.

This one was the Angel, which I had previously completed.  I used the same fit and killed Mr. Angel without overheat.  In the spirit of full disclosure: I did have my link alt running.

Not much of a battle report. I spent more time checking my fit than in the pocket to make sure I didn't mess something up (hint:  I had).

Warp in, approach, target, web/launchers, turn on SARII with shields at 20%. Profit.

Faction loot!  1000x Domination Carbonized Lead S, worth about 89k for the stack. :)

What's Playing:  Mad Season, Wake Up

Anomic Team #1

*** WARNING NOT YET VERIFIED FOR LATEST PATCH ***
*** WARNING NOT YET VERIFIED FOR LATEST PATCH ***

Another Anomic mission, this time it's the new team variety!  For those keeping score at home, it was offered after 8 successful and 2 declined vanilla lvl4s.

Here's the mission text, with my emphasis added in bold:

Anomic Team
I have a special optional mission for you, we won’t penalize you if you decline it.
A crack commando team, former members of the Republic Fleet, have struck out on their own. We don't know why, but we want you to hunt them down.  

They have all scans open, so we can't go there in force. We've acquired their coordinates and need someone to sneak in and take them out. It's you against them.  

Only frigate sized ships can gain entry to the hideout, so don’t try to bring anything bigger. 

The leader of this gang flies a Jaguar-class Assault Frigate. She fits her ship with Autocannons loaded with Republic Fleet Fusion ammo, and never leaves home without a Stasis Webifier and Warp Scrambler. She is backed up by two allies in Burst-class Support Frigates, which can use Remote Shield Transporters to keep themselves and their leader alive. I advise you to do everything in your power to eliminate the Bursts early in the fight.  

A word of warning: these soldiers of fortune are extremely dangerous and have proven very capable of destroying capsuleer ships. If you choose to decline this mission or if you fail to complete it, you will not lose any standings.

Payout:  5M bounties, 2.17M isk base completion, 2.32M isk time bonus, just over 10k LP.

Read on for the fit and the battle report....

Anomic Agent #5 - Tie Broken

*** FITS VERIFIED PROTEUS JANUARY 2015 ***

Another Anomic Agent mission complete.  Mr. Gurista died on first attempt this time, making the overall score 3 success and 2 punts.

The Daredevil survived his first trial, so now I'll name it.  Lately it's been bad luck to name a ship before its first combat.