This weekend the 95th numbered RvB Ganked roam – our 105th event in total – heads out into the wilds of space, the theme this week being Navy Battlecruisers & smaller. At the same time, CCP will be running a live stream to raise funds for the latest Plex for Good campaign. 

Now in the devblog all about the live stream, they mention they will be doing various things to encourage people to donate to the Typhoon Haiyan Plex for Good campaign, including shooting Dolan with paintballs, dev roams, eating rotten shark and so much more, and this got me thinking that all of us who are attending Ganked can help out here too.  

So, this Saturday during Ganked 95 – or even earlier if we hear of a Dev roam we can shoot – every time the fleet gets a kill, I would appreciate if EVERY fleet member donates 1,000,000 ISK to my wallet with a note that says “Plex for Good”.  At the end of the night I shall tally up the donations and purchase PLEX, which I shall then donate to the character CCP PLEX For GOOD. Finally,  I pledge – if you guys are suitably generous & the gods allow us to get many, many kills – that for every 3 PLEX we raise ISK for, I shall donate an additional PLEX to the cause.

Update: Ping Wu has offered to also donate a PLEX for every 3 we raise funds for, so thats 5 we will donate for every 3 raised. And if we do not reach 3, he will donate enough ISK to ensure that we at least have 3 PLEX & that I have to meet my pledge. Kudos to Ping!

I hope to see many of you in Onnamon & Enaluri this weekend, lets hope it is a good roam with many kills. 

Last night we formed up for Ganked 117: No Duck left behind. Yes, it was a Drake night. While we had many many Drakes, as well as logistics, other missile ships and plenty of frigates, we had a surfeit of something else: a high number of people 100% new to the NPSI scene. And even to large scale fleets. This of course did not stop us roaming, it just made for a strange experience, the vets were super relaxed, comms reflected this and the new guys were damn eager, this is all well and good until things actually began to happen.

Of course events did not happen immediately, word of 200+ russians in BS over in FDZ etc came down during form up, but Drake night being what it is, no way could I burn us there while still accepting people – many of whom are new to Ganked and/or pvp in general (downside to the theme I suppose), by the time we do arrive they have done what they were in system to do and gone, not even a vodka and black bread party in BWF.

Move onto my planned route, and some gate campers pick off stragglers as we free burn through lowsec, retreating every time we even think about sending groups of us back (GIS basically do this for a living as utilising their skill set in a better way is too risky for them). Eventually we get into nullsec and start moving only for 5 Titan Bridge Legion to come and play. After much “jump into us” “no U” went back and forth, with neither side being willing to give, my fleet scattered on grid to chase random shit, I got bored and fleet warp us off, however PL chose that moment to come in. They follow us to our out gate were I make a snap decision to fight and its on.

We brutalise much of the PL logi and take down a bunch of expensive vultures, then they bring in the triage. We could still land damage on targets, however due to varied amount of sp/experience of mass pvp/general “huh”, our positioning isn’t amazing and much of our damage is wasted as by now the fleet was strung out following me (good work following me though :D), and so range was all over the place – that’s a downside to missiles. Still we did better against a smaller superior force than other groups (HAI PROVI) have done without access to caps and/or reship ability.

Reforming we were to help Ceofore Aideron lose a dread, however PL Nyxed that idea – the result of lots of miscommunication between Ceo & myself, and me trying to keep 100+ dudes entertained. Lowsec was mostly a bust as well, and Providence was pretty quiet. Ended the night shooting Alpha  :evil:

So a pretty quiet night. Not the highest scoring, although certainly well attended by pilots new to the NPSI scene, I just hope that all you new guys keep coming back and do not get soured on pvp by how the roam went. Seriously ask around, we often have stellar nights with good times on comms and awesome fights to be had. And if there is anything that Ganked can do to make the NPSI experience easy to pick up as a pvp newbie, let me know in the comments to this piece.

NB:  if you know anyone looking to FC an NPSI roam, get them to contact me, Ganked is always on the look out for guest fcs.

Join me for a fleet event this Sunday 31st January from 19.00 EVE.

To cut a long story short read this first (or this).

As the article says this POS will be exiting reinforcement on Sunday evening, and the folks of EVE are invited to come and fight over it/kill the POS and take the goodies. I know Ganked 205 will be there under Jayne. (Grumble, Grumble about him getting the name in first!). However someone somewhere decided it would be fun to get me to FC something for this, and well the old schoolers here will know I do like shooting POS with drunk fleets.

Anyway, I was thinking originally I would just do a “fly what you want, it’ll die anyway” fleet, BUT I have had a long, stressful month, and to be honest thats too much chaos and would simply end in me calling you all names and logging off! So we’re gonna do Drakes. HML slinging, shield bearing, DRAKES! With shield logi, support frigs, caracals and what not in attendance. Fits can be found in game on the RvB Ganked mailing list. Not on it? Ask someone who is to forward the mail!

Ingame channel for x’s will be EVE-Bet;

High Sec meet up is: Alikara

Low Sec meet up is: Ishomilken

Meetup time: 19.00 GMT

Comms: Ganked Mumble

tl;dr Got a thing this Sunday, you all should totes be there. k?!

I wrote a little last week over on the new – EXCELLENT – Spectre website, about how I now have time for EVE and therefore time to do what I do best, provide content for people. Notably, I talked about a new roam I am doing mid week.

That roam is called Dirty Crims, and will be a mid week roam held every so often on Wednesday mornings, specifically aimed at pilots on the otherside of the world, many of whom I have yet to welp horribly. It’ll be start around 08.00 UTC. Tomorrow’s inaugural roam features Enyos and Deacons.

We are leaving from Usi / Ishomilken (if blinky) and will wander around looking for none fleeted folks to blast out of the sky. To join just hang around in the “Spectre Fleet” channel in game and look out for which of the invite channels I will be using. We’ll be using Spectre Mumble so get Mumble sorted before hand.

As you can see from the above, I have a few ships to hand out to early birds, fits may be a little tight on the Enyo so I have provided alternate guns in each, JUST IN CASE. Additionally some of the Enyo’s also have alternate mids available to vary things up somewhat. We’ll be shooting anyone we see around regardless of affiliation to any side in the current war, but that wont bother any of you right?

So yeah, be there or be something. And yes, those ship names are intentional.

Small Print – Fits

Last week saw the first Dirty Crims roam take place.  It was good, relaxed comms, some fun kills and fights and I got to see just how FUCKING AWESOME booshers are.

So this week we’ll we doing it again! 

Place: Usi / Ishomilken

Time: 08.00 UTC

Comms: Spectre Mumble

Ingame Channel: Spectre Fleet

As I had nasty migraine’s plaguing me all weekend, I decided to stick with Enyos and Deacons. However as well as last weeks Enyo fit, Daneel has provided me with the one under the first spoiler tag. I do like it, it does good dps, and has more buffer than the other Enyo we used last week. It should also be less of a stress for folks without 155m SP to fit!!! Yes its rails, but given we’ll be a small gang fucking around lowsec for a morning, a mixup style of weaponary will work well enough. Additionally, vary up those mids. TDs, Damps, Webs, Tackle are all good.

Finally, thanks to Scythian showing off how fun they are, I have a fit for a Magus down there, I’d like a couple of these along for funsies too! Lets Boosh those undock huggers shall we?!

EDIT: If you have yet to see it, go watch the new Spectre video.

Done that? Bloody great isn’t it. The creator did some good work right there. His name is Diam Feneck and deserves kind words, hot lead and maybe even ISK coming his way if you liked it as much as I did.

Those familiar with my history as it relates to NPSI, will know that way back in the dawn of time when RvB first took steps into the world of NPSI, I ran what was then known as RvB Ganked and ran it as a loud boisterous drunken party across New Eden. Often times the fleet would die as we all got pretty merry and opened fire on anyone we came across. Over time as Ganked got larger, we got more organised and considerably more sober on these roams, however we did get into bigger and more difficult fights and manage to pull off some stunning victories, so its 6 of one and half a dozen of the other really.  I mean, I have the history to prove it recorded on this very site!

While NPSI is one of the activities in EVE that I truly enjoy, I do not have the time available to jump right back in at the serious end of the purple world, although since returning to EVE, I have been mulling over getting something rolling on that front. So after some discussion with the movers and shakers of RvB, I am going to be running an old school, fortnightly slosh op on their behalf (and for my own pleasure of course!).

Ladies & Gentleman, I present to you, RvB’s Hard Liquor. Details of the inaugural roam – and I do mean roam, set yourself a good few hours and a case or two of you favourite beer aside – are as follows:

Title: Hard Liquor #1 – Ass F*****

When: Sat 2nd June 19.30 UTC

Where: Reisen

What: Assault Frigs. Armour, close > mid-range. Tackle, ewar etc etc

(No I am not going crazy and providing fitting suggestions, just an old time “rough idea”)

Comms: RvB Public Mumble

Address: public.rvbeve.com

Port: 43224

Pass: RvBLives

Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name

In game channel – RvB’s Hard Liquor

FC: Great Purple Grand-daddy Mangala Solaris

And folks, we have both prizes and a selection of prefit ships to give out on the day, but please remember BYOS is just as important as BYOB here! I’ll see you all in Reisen soon!

After the success of Hard Liquor #1, RvB and I are pleased to announce the next roam is this coming Saturday, 16th June.  In case you missed #1 a week or so back, I’ll answer a few things:

1. Yes, I’m back in game;
2. Yes, I’m in RvB again;
3. Yes, I’m Fleet Commanding again, and even better, RvB trusts me to do it;
4. Yes, I try my best to get people killed while doing the above;
5. Yes, I’m awful at naming things right now;
6. No, you cannot bring your Drake.

Check out these videos from #1:

If that gets you all excited, then here are the details for Hard Liquor #2 and I hope to see you there!

When: Sat 16th June 19.30 UTC
Where: Ichoriya
What: Cruiser down*. Armour. Close range. > Logi > Tackle > Ewar
Comms: RvB Public Mumble
Address: public.rvbeve.com
Port: 43224
Pass: RvBLives
Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name
In game channel – RvB’s Hard Liquor / OOG – RvB Discord
FC: Pimpin Purple Daddy, Mangala Solaris

If this is too short notice, then we do roll fortnightly (at the moment), watch this blog, the RvB forums and the RvB Calendar for future dates along with details of any other events you may be interested in.

After a short hiatus last weekend, in which I worked late and you guys watched RvB in the Alliance Tournament right? RIGHT? We’re back on plan this weekend, and since its my RL birthday Monday I want to have a bloody good night with my fellow spaceship nerds, so we’ll be roaming about in one of my favourite hulls, the Enyo! Originally was thinking shield, but we’ve done that a lot the past few roams, so Armour it is.  

Bring plenty of booze as I will be!

When: Sat 11th August 1930 form / 2000 dep UTC
Where: Piak
What: Enyo > Logi > Tackle > Boosh/Boosts > Probes > Ewar 
Comms: RvB Public Mumble
Address: public.rvbeve.com
Port: 43224
Pass: RvBLives
Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name
In game channel: RvB’s Hard Liquor / OOG – RvB Discord
FC: Mangala

Fits:

(Enyo mids to taste)

Anyone who has flown with me over the past 7 years or so, will have at some time or another heard me do a lot of stupid shit. Usually this results in someone dying or getting shouted at by me. However the stupidest stuff I do is lose my ship then go shopping in the arse end of some misbegotten region like Great Wildlands, Fountain, Stain, and Syndicate and end up buying some trash level ship just to keep on going.

Now you may remember Syndicate is where we fought a brief scrap with the CAS guys and upon being popped I hit the local contract market and bought myself a Raptor and a Rattlesnake. I want to use that Rattler, so we need to get it back to the corner of high sec RvB lives in, so this weekend, we are doing just that. You’re going to fly cruisers and down, I’m not. And we’re going to take my ship and I home via as much as low security space as we can.

When: Sat 25th August 1830 form / 1900 dep UTC
Where: Orvolle
What: Caracals > Logi > etc (Reprise fits from HL #6)
Comms: RvB Public Mumble
Address: public.rvbeve.com
Port: 43224
Pass: RvBLives
Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name
In game channel: RvB’s Hard Liquor / OOG – RvB Discord
FC: Mangala

Fits:

Dark Star Safari

Its that time of year again were I take off and see the world, this time round I am heading to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for 3.5 weeks of overland Safari seeing all the biggies including Lions, Elephants and Mountain Gorilla, that means less Hard Liquor for you all! Fear not I have looked around and seen what you can all get up to while I am away, as you’ll find below, as well as laying the ground work for a very special HL roam when I am back.

• 1st September, join up with the Fun INC guys for their inaugural NPSI roam, details here.
• 8th & 15th September, either grab a few frigs or something and go out and kill stuff in my name, see what RvB has to offer, or fly with Spectre. Whatever explodes your boat!
• 22nd September, the Fun INC guys have another event going on, again see the link above.

Hard Liquor Returns

Now, I am back on the 29th September, which is great timing as it’s only a few days past RvB’s 9TH BIRTHDAY!! For that we’ll be running a fun fleet that will certainly attract attention and get us killed/fights/kills/abused in local.  Yes folks, I have followed through on my promise from Saturday and have bought a bunch of Damaviks!

I bring you Hard Liquor #9: Forever War

When: Sat 29th September 19.30 UTC
Where: Vaajaita
What: Damaviks > Logi > Other Damage > Booshters > Tackle
Comms: RvB Public Mumble
Address: public.rvbeve.com
Port: 43224
Pass: RvBLives
Name: [Corp Tag] + In game name
In game channel – RvB’s Hard Liquor / OOG – RvB Discord
FC: Mangala Solaris

I have secured 25 Damaviks, over the next few days I will farm these out to HL regulars for you guys to fit. We will also need booshters, tackle, regular logi and so on. Fits in this document here. Feel free to critique/outright change these, I wont be offended, I am after all awful at this game. I do hate the Damavik in fitting terms though, just needs a little MOAR PG…

EDIT: Its 3pm on Saturday 29th, ive just got home after an overly long journey back from east africa, postponing tonight to next week as I really am knackered and just want to sleep. Oh and apparently CCP rebalanced the Dam anyway?

Draw me like one of your French girls

I have 1 – 2 billion isk available for a talented artist to draw me naked.

Not really, I know I’d need a lot more isk than that! 

I’d like a Hard Liquor banner.

All I want is a banner that features a few liquor bottles, some full some less than, has to have the RvB logo on the bottles and a couple of ships doing drunk shit. Nothing more than that.  Banner size should be 1000 x 200 at the top end.  Here’s a link to the RvB logo.