Thursday, 24 September 2015

Pyfa/EFT Damage Profiles

It's been a while eh? (again).

I just made a big post to Reddit, and thought I might as well copy it over to here as well for longevity.

I just downloaded Pyfa to play with the new BC changes. I'm normally an EFT man, but I'm trying to convert myself.

When I was looking to import the various different damage profiles, the top two links on google didn't work, and it appears as though Gorski has changed the way you import the damage types.

He's gone from:

[name] = EM:0, Therm:0, Kin:0, Exp:0


DamageProfile = [name],[EM amount],[Thermal amount],[Kinetic amount],[Explosive amount]

I though it might be handy to list them here for anyone who wants them.


1) Open Pyfa
2) Hit CTRL+D (or Window > Damage Pattern Editor)
3) Copy the below list on to your clip board

DamageProfile = Antimatter,0,20,28,0
DamageProfile = Aurora,20,12,0,0
DamageProfile = Barrage,0,0,20,24
DamageProfile = Conflagration,1,1,0,0
DamageProfile = EM,1,0,0,0
DamageProfile = EMP,36,0,4,8
DamageProfile = Explosive,0,0,0,1
DamageProfile = Fusion,0,0,8,40
DamageProfile = Gleam,1,1,0,0
DamageProfile = Hail,0,0,13,48
DamageProfile = Javelin,0,32,24,0
DamageProfile = Kinetic,0,0,1,0
DamageProfile = Multifreq,28,20,0,0
DamageProfile = NPC Amarr,47,42,7,4
DamageProfile = NPC Angel,7,9,22,62
DamageProfile = NPC Blood Raider,50,48,2,0
DamageProfile = NPC Caldari,1,48,51,0
DamageProfile = NPC Drones,0,10,20,70
DamageProfile = NPC Gallente,1,39,60,0
DamageProfile = NPC Guristas,2,18,79,1
DamageProfile = NPC Minmatar,12,7,31,50
DamageProfile = NPC Mordu's Legion,0,30,70,0
DamageProfile = NPC Sansha,53,47,0,0
DamageProfile = NPC Serpentis,0,55,45,0
DamageProfile = Null,0,24,20,0
DamageProfile = Phased Plasma,0,40,8,0
DamageProfile = Quake,0,0,20,36
DamageProfile = Radio,1,0,0,0 DamageProfile = Scorch,36,8,0,0
DamageProfile = Spike,0,1,1,0
DamageProfile = Thermal,0,1,0,0
DamageProfile = Tremor,0,0,12,20
DamageProfile = Void,0,1,1,0

4) Click "Import patterns from clipboard" (bottom right of the dialog box) 
5) To use, right click anywhere in the "Resistances" tab of the fitting screen and select the damage you want to test your tank against.

You can use the same thing for EFT.

The process is a little bit different and is as follows:

1) Open EFT folder
2) Open the "config.ini" file in Notepad (EFT should not be open at this time)
3) At the very bottom of the file (the last line), copy and paste the damage profiles.
4) Save

To use:

4) Right click on the Defense section of the fitting window
5) Choose what profile

Friday, 22 May 2015


Test Alliance has a special interest group (SIG) called Predditors.

Predditors is a group of people who like flying cloaked things. They support our strat ops with bombing wings (with limited success), but their main purpose is hunting enemy pilots doing PVE and "dropping" them.

The group is actually a really good advertisement for Test as a whole, and as Dreddit HR, I've seen a fair amount of apps from people who are only interested in Test because of Predditors.

Last night, we had a Predditors fleet going and I just thought I'd write a little bit about what happened - and what we killed.

As with most things in Eve, the fun part wasn't flying the space ships but was instead hanging round on voice comms and tinychat with a bunch of people.

The first drop (which the fleet initially formed for) was a battleship gang. Our initial intel was that they were sat off a gate, and we assumed they were smart bombing. What other use does a small group of battleships do in nullsec have?

The battleships were about 30-40km from the gate, and were sat in a dictor bubble of their own making. They were supported by a small frigates on the gate itself

Our tackle, who had been cloaky AFK in this system for a while, got himself within scram range of an Armageddon and as he decloaked to get point, he lit a covert cyno and the rest of us bridged through.

The Armageddon melted pretty quickly, and we managed to scram ourselves a Typhoon as well, as two more battleships burned to the gate and made their escape.

As we were just finishing off the Typhoon, a second Typhoon landed in the bubble (which the enemy Heretic had kindly refreshed). I feel for that guy, he must have known he was dead as he entered warp right as his friends were screaming about being dropped. It must have been a hell of a long warp for him.

He died pretty quickly as well under the DPS of our torpedos. Our fleet scattered and cloaked. We lost the initial tackle (which is normally to be expected) but we also lost a bomber, who for some reason had three polarized torpedo launchers. Those launchers each cost more than the hull they were fitted to. Of the three of them, only one dropped as loot. 

After the fleet had safed up, I remained on grid as the de facto FC to make sure everyone was safe. The fleet we had dropped had all fled except a single interceptor, who quite rightly wasn't that scared of a bomber gang and was tooting around looking at the contents of all the wrecks. 

I too, was on my way to the wreck of our lost bomber - slowly, as I was still cloaked. I watched in annoyance as the Interceptor started burning towards the wreck I wanted and we both reached it at the same time. I stopped my ship prior to getting there to avoid being de-cloaked, and positioned the wreck so that it was between me and the Sun. My annoyance changed to glee as the Interceptor overshot has mark without looting the wreck, and I quickly decloaked, opened the wreck and grabbed the torp launcher before warping off. As I was in a bit of a rush, and my muscle memory (and new mouse) aren't yet comfortable, I warped to 0 at the Sun. The Interceptor followed me, and in fact arrived before me. I landed 2,800m from him. Pretty bloody lucky.


Note: Some of those fits are fairly questionable...


Note: At least one of those fits is questionable...

We headed back to our staging system and sent our hunters out for more targets.

They found some fairly quickly - another gang sat on a gate.

This gang was a bit more danger zone, as it contained cruisers and other ships that could easily kill a bunch of bombers.

We dropped anyway, culling a Scythe Fleet Issue that had strayed from it's herd.

We didn't hang around on grid, and I believe we all got out safely.

While we were waiting for our jump fatigue to lower, we set up at random places around the station in system.

Right as we were contemplating whether we could volley a Noctis on the undock before he could dock, our prey were set blue by our Alliance (for reasons).

We decided to go home, and were about to leave when a RED gang came to station. We couldn't REALLY engage them safely, but we watched with growing glee as a Curse strayed from the pack and was sat 30-40km from his friends. He was quickly probed, and tackled and destroyed. Unfortunately, he was not looted. Why this is apparent will become clear when you look at the following killmail:

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Jump Freighting

So, this past week has been quite stressful for me. This is quite a long read, but I wanted to document my ordeal and hopefully you'll find it interesting and/or entertaining.

I left Black Legion and re-joined Test Alliance a couple of months ago, and unfortunately, since Phoebe, this meant that two carriers worth of ships and modules were left behind in Venal. The carriers, were literally full to the brim - both the Ship Maintenance Bay and the cargo hold (with the use of cargo containers).

I had been pondering what the best way to retrieve this stuff was, as the sum total of everything worked out at around 7-8 billion ISK. I had resigned myself to the fact that my only option was a C5 or C6 wormhole, leading from somewhere in Venal to somewhere in Low Sec - or more hopefully to somewhere in Wicked Creek (where Test is now living).

This plan was sound, except for the fact that we didn't live in Venal, so finding such a wormhole was not going to be easy.

Last week, I was on a plane for RL stuff, and the thought suddenly occurred to me that I could use a JF to move. Jump Freighters were not subject to the massive fatigue and jump range nerfs of Phoebe, so it would actually be relatively straight forward. I could move out all the items, repackage all the ships (the rig loss was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be) and jump everything out. The actual carrier hulls could be sold in Venal, as if it's hard for me to move out, it's just as hard for someone to move in.

Once I got back home, I started planning.

My first problem was that I didn't own a jump freighter. I did, however, own a JF pilot. I didn't really want to buy a JF, as I have no real regular use for them and I also didn't want to lose money and time buying one, then selling it again once I'd finished with it. 

My solution was to ask around in Test. We have a sub-forum dedicated to market stuff, and buying/selling capitals, so I threw a post up explaining my predicament and asking whether I could borrow one. I was prepared to put down full collateral, in case I lost it and to protect against me stealing it.

I was lucky, someone offered me an Anshar with no limit on how long I could use it for and asking no ISK for the opportunity.

So I started planning my route. The JF was in Nonni, a HS system with a LS connection about 6 jump away from Jita.

My route was this:,553/Nonni:5ZXX-K:K3JR-J:5ZXX-K:Otsasai

I started moving my alts around straight away, and was quite fortunate with jump clones.

I also contracted everything to the Venal cyno character, who repackaged all the items, repaired what was damaged and got everything else in order. It was then contracted to the JF pilot so that when he docked, it was a case of dragging everything from the station into the ship and jumping back out.

The final cyno in Otsasai (also close to Jita, and a pretty quiet system) was also quite easy. I have an incursion running character, who unlike my other characters (barring the JF one) is not under the constant war dec peril that those in Test are subject to.

It was the mid cyno that really caused my problems. Getting there from Venal was fairly trouble free, and I got myself situated, sorted myself a cyno spot (not easy on these NPC models) and was getting ready to jump.

Then disaster happened. I undocked my noobship cyno, and a Svipul landed. He locked me up and alpha-ed me. Instead of clicking the dock or warp button, I somehow managed to hit the "View in Planet Mode" button, and thus my pod was also killed. This was my first mistake. My second mistake was that I had not set the mid station as my "home" station, and thus I ended up back in Wicked Creek, some 60 jumps on the other side of the universe.

Shit happens, so I jumped in a travel fit interceptor and started the long burn.

I got through NS and all the way through HS with minimal trouble, even though I am negative sec and at war with seemingly most people in HS.

I slipped through the Torrinos>EC- perma gate camp with ease and thought all was easy sailing.

Second disaster. Apparently, travel fit interceptors and not completely immune to everything.

Another bastard Svipul (actualyl two of them), being remote sensor boosted by a Griffin caught me and my pod, and sent me ALL the way back to U-H again. 

This time, I was a little bit cross and may even have sworn a little bit.

I changed my home station to the Dreddit corporate "home" system in HS, podded there and then logged off for the evening.

The next day, I logged back on and flew back to Torrinos, that last system HS system before NS. Here, I set my home station for that station, and in a noob ship, jumped into EC-. 

Bubbles. Bubbles everywhere. And also bad guys. Quite a lot of bad guys.

I died, as can be expected. I died 4 or 5 times, as once podded, I'd get back in my free rookie ship and jump right back through. I was hoping that the law of averages and gate mechanics would put me in the one weak spot of the bubbles, where I MIGHT be able to get out with at least my pod.

Inexplicably, after the fourth of fifth time jumping through, I saw that all the bad guys were warping off. Result for me. I slow boated out of the bubbles and bounced to a planet near the outgate, anticipating some kind of cruel trick.

I was in luck, they all jumped out. I waited about 15 minutes, and then proceeded on my way. I made it about 3 jumps when I jumped into a small gang. Luckily they didn't have any bubblers, and whilst they managed to get my rookie ship, I got my pod out alive.

From there, it really was plain sailing to 5ZXX. The problems only started when I got there. I jumped in, and local was quite high, at about 80 people or so. I warped to a planet close to the station and hit my d-scan. Bubbles. Bubbles everywhere. Not just bubbles. Fighters. Lot and lots of fighters. And carriers. Lots and lots of carriers. 

Overnight, Goons had decided to hell camp the station I needed. I looked at the killboard and sure enough, they'd been here since about an hour after I was podded out, and they showed no signs of going away.

The character I was using is my main character, so there was no chance of just waiting it out, and I sure wasn't very safe floating around in a capsule.

I looked at the map, and realised that there are not one but two NPC pockets in Pure Blind. 

The one I wanted to use is owned my the NPC corp Mordus Angels, and there's a group that live there called MoA, who are actually fairly good at the game (which is why they were being hell-camped/evicted presumably). The other NPC pocket is owned by Sister's of Eve, and whilst no big group lives there, it's still fairly busy. I took a look at Dotlan and headed over there (uneventfully). X-7, the main system was busy - 40+ people and whilst it has three stations to choose from, the system next door J-C only had two or three people in it.

Finally some luck. I docked up, set my home station and flew back to X-7 to grab an overpriced cyno and some very overprice Liquid Ozone. I also realised that I had two Talwars and a bunch of loot and spare modules in the staiton, so I grabbed those as well and flew them all to J-C, packaged them all up and contracted them to the JF pilot.

This station model isn't the easiest to cyno onto, but I found a spot I thought was decent enough and tabbed back to the JF screen. I was undocked and ready to light the cyno when the mid system spiked by 30 people. 

I obviously didn't jump, but I used the time to check my route one final time, and it's a good job I did, as I realised that this new mid wasn't in range of the final exit cyno. I logged in the HS character and flew him across to Nonni.

The time had finally come. Everything was looking good. All the systems were as clear, quiet and empty as I thought they were going to get so I did it.

I undocked the JF and lit the first cyno. 


No bounce.




Light second cyno.


No bounce.


Fist pump.

I'd made it one way safely. I may have done a little dance in addition to the fist pump and I think I scared the neighbours.

I threw all the items into the JF and undocked. In hindsight, I probably should have looked at the cyno still up in this system to make sure the coast was clear. k3J isn't a pure kickout, but it comes damn close and it would have been mighty easy to tackle my JF and bump it out of the docking radius. I got lucky again, and it was all quiet. I jumped back to the mid. I picked up all the stuff from there and undocked once more. Jump. No bounce. Dock.

I'd made it. I was in LS. I had no more bubbles to be scared of, no more bounces to avoid.

The warp to the HS system gate was one of the most satisfying (if not longest) warp I've ever done. My hands were shaking, my heart was pounding and I was slightly out of breathe.

Those ten minutes probably took five years off my life.

The carriers are on contract in Venal, and everything else was freighted (in five trips) to Jita and is either on sale, sold or waiting to be sold. I'm several billion ISK richer, for the cost of quite a few grey hairs.

Monday, 13 April 2015

Guess who's back?

You are correct, obviously... I am back.

I've re-subbed four of my accounts and have rejoined to Test Alliance.

I'm enjoying it so far. More updates to come soon.

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

The call is strong...

It's been nearly three months since I wrote anything, and more like five since I last logged in.

Recently, the urge to return is very strong and it's only getting stronger.

I've hit a dilemma though. I don't want to resub all my accounts. Paying 60 bux per month is a lot of money, and I'd rather not grind for PLEX.

I'm very seriously considering selling a couple of my characters, once I work out exactly how much it's going to cost me - and have a look at home much they will be worth. And of course working out which characters I want to part with. The problem with the way I did things is that by selling a couple of characters, I lose the specialisations that I have with them.

I'd also have to resub them all to sell them, and to transfer the assets they have over to other accounts.

The second dilemma is what to do once I resub. These are the issues:

No pressure to log in - My current job involves quite a lot of travel and periods away from the internet so things like a small WH group is unfeasible

Background - Obviously, my time in Black Legion and previously Test slightly limits my options for the huge conglomerates

Income - I have ISK but, as always, want more. I like making money in an easy way. This is probably going to involve moongoo, PI, WH ratting or incursions or a combination thereof. I've never been very good at market stuff, and even worse at industry.

The probable way forward is to resub all the accounts for a short time, log in and do some incursions whilst I look for a "bigger" wormhole group that will take me and try and choose a couple of characters to sell.

Let's see where that gets me...