(1) If I am a pilot for State or Empire (and I occasionally am), and you are a target in a war-- what do I owe you?

Do I owe you a fair duel? A chance at my crew? At my pod?

Do I owe it to you to pass by, and let you kill my allies who risk their lives defending friendly facilities-- or, else, to let you strengthen your defensive position in peace, knowing you will later use it to assault our positions?

If anything, I think I owe it to you to honor the risk you take with your ship, your crew, your pod, by matching it with my own. That is, I owe it to you to come at you all-out, with all the skill and cunning at my command, and to expect you to do the same.

To do less, to leave you, an enemy, in peace-- to say, in effect, that you and the harm you can do me and mine is not worth my time-- is an insult. And since, in the end, this is a conflict that serves primarily to prevent a wider war, if I treat you as "unworthy," if I approach the war as though it were a game and not a serious contest of nations, I not only insult you but undercut the very purpose of the war and insult the memory of the lost on both sides.

Therefore, expect no mercy for your ship or pod. If I owe you anything, it is to show you none.

In that situation, you owe nothing as any target of war is a valid target. But off the top of my head, 50% of my losses have been to 'criminals' either coming into complexes to hunt or waiting to pounce on FW members as they arrive in contested systems. I'm not really talking about the faction wars but rather those who hunt anything for sport/profit/giggles outside of any structure other than their own moral guidance.

I was in a medium complex once (I think) and along come a random T2 destroyer flown by a captain of (I think it was) 5 years experience. If that captain was worth his salt then he would have (1) checked my ship, (2) my age (3) my kills and (4) affiliation and should have came to the conclusion that it was highly unlikely that I was flying anything valuable. Yet he cam anyways for an easy kill...I ran, waited 3 minutes in another system and returned to finish the complex.

What you are saying makes perfect sense to me but what I'm seeing is also not usually what you are suggesting.

Warp stabs are never the answer....

On a more serious note, the best tactic is to know what you are flying and what you are flying against. With that branching out is extremely helpful (for instance, I was rather clueless on how to fight against ewar ships when the time came until I flew them and learned what I dreaded when flying them). You will always be 100% at fault for your ship loss, don't kid yourself. On the other hand it will always be their fault they lost when you win. There's always something to improve and that right there is what separates a real combat pilot from a washout one.

Thanks Captains Vess and Egivand. I'm more conservative when it comes to expenditures (and other most things) So I like the Algos route myself. The Comet is an interesting ship BUT actually very expensive if you think of the sale price of that LP-bought ship. T2's allow a small ship to punch way above its weight-class but the price for some of those T2 modules is ridiculous.

As for the Incursus suggestion, I am training in small hybrid turrets so eventually I do want to give those a try but for now, my tactics are more evade/kite which is contrary to the Incursus.

So I think the Comet is the third choice...I'll have to look at the numbers for a T2-Tristan vs a T1-Algos and see where they stand.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Question for all those that are still reading this...

I'm still happy with the Tristan but I see the need for more DPS. The three options are

- Stick with the Tristan and move to T2 moduals/Drones and get to Skill level V
- Move to Navy Issues Comets
- Move to T1 Destroyers (Algos)

From my initial research, the best DPS/ISK seems to be the Algos destroyer option.

Stardate: 23.6.2016.118
Region: Essene
Entry: Roadtrip

Good morning,

So I'm closer to both my literal and figurative home as I decided to return to Essence yesterday for a few days of R&R from the war. Caldari's defense seem to be melting away so I'm guessing the Gallente brass wont miss me.

After parking the shuttle, registering my clone and sorting-out the loot I brought back, I headed to Dodixie to buy/build a cheap little explorer ship for my downtime. After insurance, I'm guessing the Imicus ran me about 3M ISK so really that's not bad at all.

As I've run tones of explorer missions in simulators back at home before my days in space, I quickly picked-up the practical aspects and got right too it. I first found a quiet 0.7 system to test in and without issue, locked in on a cosmic signature combat site and cleared it of enemy ships. But then I headed into LowSec to do the same and all I found were wormholes in the three systems I explored. I know that's just the luck of the draw but I was a bit disappointed. I'll probably do the same today and hope for better results. Don't think I'm changing career paths, this is just a little vacation...

I received some great advice from other captains as to the direction that I should be going in regards to the T1 Frigate with T2 mods, a Navy Frigate or moving up to a destroyer. I've decided that the most cost effective way to both increase DPS and increase FW earnings is to remain in Frigates but push towards T2 mods. That way I'll be able to capture BOTH novice and small complexes as opposed to just smalls if I went -up to a destroyer. Lots of great people around here.

[NC]

...and remember to bookmark...

Stardate: 24.6.2016.118
Region: Essene
Entry: Enter the worms!

So as a little change of pace, I headed back to LowSec in search of a wormhole to NullSec or Wormhole Space. As luck would have it, after hacking a data site I found a WH to NullSec and went in. Once there I hacked 3 of 5 data sites and then took a look around. Pretty fun to be that far down in the rabbit hole.

I wasn't impressed with the data hacking and scanning down anomalies isn't something I'd want to do as a second job but I think I might be interested either gas mining in WH space (at a later date as the skill books are pretty expensive) and/or ore mining in NullSec. I bought and fitted a Venture for the ladder but didn't get a chance to give it a try yesterday.

I really like the "cat n'mouse aspect of both FW and Low/Null Sec so that coupled with mining high yield or valuable ores/gases might be interesting...especially if eventually as a tertiary roll I start manufacturing. Lots to daydream about.

So today, back to the worms!

[NC]

Stardate: 25.6.2016.118
Region: Essene
Entry: Bad Girl

So yes. In wormholes, you can die really, really fast if you stop paying attention for just one second.

I thought I was doing good at pounding away at the D-Scan when all of a sudden a Tactical Destroyer (Heretic) just appeared (Covert Ops or just bad d-scan?) and bubbled me before I could put my coffee down. Actually I did try and cloak but then promptly uncloaked as I wanted to warp away (idiot). Then I realized that I should have been orbiting the roid I was mining as in LowSec (idiot) to some momentum in reserve. Then I realized that even though I knew I was in a warp bubble, I still hit "warp-to" (idiot). Only then did I fire my main engine and light my afterburner...I think I survived three salvos before exploding and I think a third ship joined in but I'm not sure really.

So lesson learnt. I rebuild a venture for WH-space that's a dirt cheap shield tank 5mn microwarp escape artist. Haven't tried it yet so this enthusiasm may change. On the other hand, I've had a lot of luck mining in LowSec...no problems there.

Speaking of mining...I've developed a bit of a bad habit of relieving some local jet can miners of their ore. I scanned a system and found over 8 cans basically labeled "come take my ore" so I bought a industrial hauler and did just that. I have 90K m3 of Plagioclase just gathered in the last 24 hours. I have a little twinge of guilt but that goes away pretty quickly.

Oh well, I know it's a slippery slope but......weeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

[NC]

Prospect. If you want to ninja mine in WH space you want a prospect. Also, don't orbit the rocks you are mining.get to your optimal on the other side of them relitive to the belts warp in point and align out to a safe, planet, moon, or station. A safe spot is best.

((Don't ya just hate it when that happens?))