Interview: Galdornae

How long have you been playing EVE? Is Galdornae your first character?
I’ve been playing eve since the summer of 2008. Gald is my first character, and for quite a while my only character, until I started a second account and created the now-omnipresent Corax Lorn. Not that I have an alt, I’m more or less addicted, and he’s always watching. If you see Corax around the 24th station in huola, I’m probably ready to undock 1700dps of hyperion onto your face.

When and why did you first join FW?

The first player corp I joined was mostly a mission/mining corp, but they also happened to be enrolled in FW. A week or so in I took, my missioning caracal and joined a small Amarr fleet, subsequently we got into a fight and I died in a fire, but I had a lot of fun doing so, and I knew I would be back to pvp before too long.

How many Factions have you joined? Briefly explain each faction and what made you decide to fly for them?

At this point I’ve been in every militia except the Gallente (who fit sensors boosters for killmail whoring instead of useful combat mods and will undock 10 BCs to fight 2 frigates on a gate). The Amarr was where I started, and where I’ve had a lot of good times.

Shortly after becoming active in the Amarr militia I joined Gunship Diplomacy, and we were for a time, the top player corp in all of FW, by kills. Once it became harder to get fights, Gunship moved to Caldari for a time with mixed results. After a few months hiatus, I joined Dake’s corp and we spearheaded Locus Industries as something of a gunship 2.0, which was, by some measures, even more successful that gunship.

After that too trickled off I joined Caldari again briefly where I got bored enough to basically say screw it, I’m joining the Minmatar. Having flown against those guys extensively and largely gotten along with them, it’s worked out pretty well thus far.

What is your most memorable experience in FW?

Certainly there’s been quite a few, and the highlights generally involve caps. The first big one was my first carrier kill, smog’s cap booster fit triage carrier, and the surrounding fight:

The other big one was “The Kamela Fight” which was essentially the high of Locus’ success, seen here:

Oh, and the three hours of vent-trolling Undertovv following this: Oh Tovvy, don’t ever change.

Do you participate in plexing and system capturing? Do you even think it is a worthwhile endeavor?

FW plexes are, in my opinion, one of the worst mechanics in eve (wait, can I say this or am I suppose be like, in character for this or something?)

But anyway, they’re pretty useless, given that occupancy means absolutely nothing. The only good thing about them is that sometimes fights can happen in and around them, and as anyone who knows me at all knows, I’m in FW for the fights. Shooting things in the face > roleplay.

What would you like to see changed about FW?

Overall I think FW is a great part of eve. It provides an easy place to get some pretty fun pvp. If I had to change something I’d probably want to see FW plexes provide LP to those closing them, so that players would have a more significant interest in capturing them, making them more relevent again.

What do you think about super caps in FW?

I think supercaps in lowsec in general are probably the worst thing in eve to me. Some of my favorite moments in eve have been regular cap fights, with one or two carriers on each side. These days in FW however, both sides are terrified of the other side’s supers, or supercap contacts, that no one really wants to drop regular caps much anymore. I think this is a shame. My proposed fix to this would simply be to not allow fighter bombers to be launched in lowsec. This would go a low way toward removing the constant danger of some alliance dropping 20 moms on your carrier and I think it would be a big improvement toward allowing a larger segment of the eve population to enjoy their personal highest-class ships again.

Earlier this year, Locus (former Amarrian corporation) were involved in inter-militia wardecs. What is your opinion on corporations who fight within their own militia?

I think, largely, a lot of people in FW a little too caught up in who is on whose side. At locus we were elitist douches who liked shooting everything. At the core of our wardecs, none of them were really personal, we were just getting bored with what we could get against the Minmatar. Also intra-militia wardecs can create some very entertaining drama-bombs, so for that reason alone then come Gald-Approved. And the personally butt-hurt ventrage of one Cydak was probably worth all the decs alone. Oh and trolling Cryloud. Anyone remember that guy? He was known for his Autocannon harbingers and for living up to his character name to the fullest extent.

In a previous article, Wendi Wu made the claim that you are one of the few Minmatar who will fight against the odds. Do you think that is a fair statement about both you and the Minmatar blobbing?

Well certainly throughout my entire EvE carear I’ve spent a lot of time flying solo, and as we all know that can quite often lead to somewhat stacked numbers against the solo player. So yes, I guess it’s fair to say that I do fight against the odds, in that doing so is something of a requirement when soloing in such a crowded area. As far as the Minmatar blobbing? Sure, of course they do, but let’s be honest, who in eve doesn’t?

From my experience on several different sides in FW, I really wouldn’t say that the Minmatar really blob more than anyone else. It make seem like it sometimes in the UZ timezone, but it’s mostly just a matter of who has better activity and when. Consider the advantage the Nephblobs generally have of minmatar dayfleet for example.

What advice would you give to someone who is just coming into FW?

Fly lots of t1 ships to start off. Get a big stack of frigates or cruisers and throw them at anything that moves until you get an idea of what you can take and what you can’t. Always do this with ships you can afford to lose, because of course the first rule of pvp in EvE is to only fly when you can afford to lose. One other place I’ve seen a lot fo new pilots go wrong is when they rush into flying battleships too soon. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to strap on bigger guns. A well skilled and fit battlecruiser is much more useful that a poorly skilled/fit battleship.

Thank you for your time. Any parting thoughts?

I’ve answered most of these questions in a fairly serious fashion, so I will throw in the following obligatory smack/trolls:

Ramingo: U ded bro.
Eran: I hear AFKpocs are all the rage, could you please explain the strategy behind them to me?
Pocketrockets: WTS Vagabond. Also primaries are cool mkay?
Locus 4 Life (wait, which side am I on now?)

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