That’s a Big Spodumain

I’ve seen this a couple times before, as I’m guessing most miners in 0.0 systems have by now.  The industry upgrade on systems introduced with Dominion spawn “hidden” asteroid belts after level 1.  This particular belt boasts a spodumain roid the size of several titans.  I don’t have a good fix on the yield of the rock, but I know it took quite a few hulks to mine one out..and it took four hours or more.  Not a bad rock–spodumain does net some megacyte for your trouble.

Doesn't get much creepier than that.

 With any luck there will be Arkanor tomorrow, and the requisite bistot,  crokite, and on down the line.  Skyforger  continues to grub for minerals to build our new station and needs every rock we can find in our home systems.

Capital Ship Hangar

In reference to Tipa’s comment about T2/T3 production.  This is one of our current production POS’s, though we are currently working on building a new station.  We sold our old station in A-VILQ, Leo Nemeum.  That station has fallen to the AAA horde and pets.   EVE Monkey has a pretty good running history of the recent -A- invasion of Catch/Providence on his blog.  I seem to have just missed him again, as we left Catch when he went to Empire, and joined TNT and the Northern Coalition when he went to -A-.

That is a very large hangar–if you can make out the small ship to the left, it is an Iteron V.

Skyforger History

One of the great things about EVE is the dynamic nature of the player corporations, alliances, economy, and virtually all aspects of the game.  I have been in a nullsec corp for about a year now.  There are a large number of Latvian’s in the corporation who have taken me in and helped teach me to survive and thrive in 0.0 space.

We are recruiting–check the post on the EVE boards  for more info or join the REC_LVSKY channel in game.  There are also contacts listed in the EVE forum post.  If your particularly nerdy, I have posted the corporation history below.  It fell to me to rewrite it as we moved out of Sylph alliance in Catch, and I thought it should get aired out somewhere.

Skyforger [LVSKY]

An EVE-Online PVP/Industrial Corporation

Founded: 16 September 2006

Corporation History 

Skyforger began in September 2006 when Defft created the corporation to provide camaradrie for a small group of players in high-security space.  They corporation hovered around 8-15 members for the first year of its exsistence, with activity centering on mission running, mining, and some rudimentary item production.  Defft ran the corporation for the first few months, until Kita Hoshi took over.  In April, 2007 a new member came into the corporation, named Eperor.  After three months in the corporation, he originated a plan which would help launch Skyforger to success.  Simply, the corporation would be handled by directors, each of which was responsible for their various divisions.  The goal was to begin serious and dedicated industry production, build logistical resources, and to expand the membership of the corporation.

The adoption of Eperor’s new structure, coupled with a desire to increase both corporation resources and membership, led to a new and successful period in corporation history.  However, this did not come without some struggle.  Because of the changes in corporation structure, and the need for members to contribute to corporation activities through taxes on missions and dedicated mining, some members left, leaving only 8 active members.  The corporation was able to build their first research POS in Caldari space during this time, and Eperor began actively recruiting, raising the membership to 24 after a few short months.  The corporation began to build its first freighter to help alleviate and expediate the movement of member and corporation resources.

In November, 2007, despite the early successes of the new rank structure, Kita Hoshi decided to leave the corporation and Eperor became the new CEO.  Within a month of this change the corporation grew from 24 to 50 members.  The first freighter was completed at this time and the corporation decided it wanted to move to 0.0 space.  Kita’s last act as CEO was to find 0.0 space for the corporation, and under Eperor’s new leadership the corporation moved to the Vale of Silence region of space, becoming part of the Impure Alliance, which rented space from Pure Alliance.

The move to 0.0 space occured in early November, 2007.  The 0.0 experience became difficult for Skyforger very quickly.  Standings amongst the alliance corporations was confused at best, resulting in Skyforger being targeted by not only red pilots, but neutrals and blues as well.  Despite valiant attempts by Skyforger to fight back, the sheer numbers facing the corporation made resistance costly.  From November 12, 2007 until February of 2008 the corporation stayed with Impure Alliance, but the NBSI rules the corporation was living under were unworkable and the corporation began looking for a NRDS alliance in 0.0.

Kra Ra, a member of Aegis Militia was actively recruiting corporations at that time for a NRDS alliance and Skyforger joined Aegis on 12 February 2008, relocating to the Providence region.  Within a month of joing Aegis Milita, the Alliance began a war with the terrorist alliance Ushra’khan.  With the successful conclusion of the war the corporation began working towards building its own station, with the expressed goal of locating the future station in a NRDS area of 0.0 space.  However, internal political problems within the Aegis Militia Alliance began to drive away some of that alliance’s key members, and these disgruntled former members began to cause sovereignty issues for the Alliance.  Skyforger had grown to 120 members and was becoming quite strong.  The corporation volunteered to help solidify and bulwark the Alliance by taking control of 6 large systems.  The corporation began to build POSs with the resources obtained over the previous months with this intention.  Through hard work and the dediction of Skyforger’s members, peace was maintained for a time.  The corporation honed its PVP skills and pursued its industrial goals as well.  Internal alliance politics became an issue once again as many new corporations came into Aegis Alliance and vied for control over the direction of Aegis.  Skyforger left the alliance because of the increasing hostility and factional fighting within alliance.  Skyforger set out to find a new alliance in 0.0 with a NRDS policy, a strong and organized leadership, plentiful PVP opportunities, and conditions where industry could continue to be devoloped.

After actively searching for a new alliance, Skyforger was offered positions within the Paxton Federation, the Sylph Alliance, and Libertatus Fidelatus Alliance.  The corporation chose Sylph, moving to their space in early April 2009.  After two months, Skyforger constructed a station “egg” and was negotiating with Sylph for an acceptable location for its installation.  The system A-VILQ was chosen by mutual decision and negotiations between Eperor, Drakmor (Sylph CEO), and Mazzdreg (Sylph Co-CEO) in June, 2009.  The station was installed in the early morning hours.  Both Skyforger and the alliance were pleased with the installation of this new station, and the future looked promising for both entities. 

The Skyforger PVP pilots were representing themselves well in the fleet and individual actions against roaming red pilots, and were scoring increasingly impressive victories during this time.  The red activity of Ushra’khan and AAA increased dramatically after the station was installed, giving the corporation and alliance more opportunities for ship to ship combat.  Unfortunately, in the middle of this successful period of corporation and Sylph history, Drakmor announced he would be stepping down as CEO of the alliance and leaving.  The turmoil after his departure cost the corporation members, dropping the member count to 48.  The alliance itself took serious hits as corporations left and members dropped from the remaining corporations.  Ushra’khan tried to take advantage of the chaos, and declared war, as did a number of other entities in New Eden.  In the months following Drakmor’s departure the corporation continued to fight as Ushra’khan attacked POSs and other targets.

The corporation members and leadership became increasingly distraught about the conditions of the Sylph alliance.  However, because of corporation members reservations concerning the direction of the Alliance, the membership of Skyforger met in November, 2009 and decided to leave Sylph.  After one month in Empire, the corporation found a new alliance and coalition, moving far to the north of Catch and Providence.

Current Corporation Status

On December 8, 2009 Skyforger joined Total Narcotics Team [TNT] in the Deklein region of 0.0 space.  The corporation moved its assets through Lonetrek and began installing itself into the new region.  This move brought the corporation into the Northern Alliance, along with Tau Ceti Federation, Mostly Harmless, Morhus Mihi, and various other groups.  Due to this greatly expanded player base in the new space. Skyforger members were involved in large scale sovereignty battles throughout the Pure Blind region for much of January and February 2010.  Further, the corporation began work on a new station to be installed in [TNT] space with all due speed and began anew its T3 and capital ship production.

Corporation Goals

13 February 2010 

The membership of Skyforger Corporation have met and agreed upon the following goals to ensure the future success of the corporation:

Overall Corporation Goals

• Continue to support and fight with the member corporations of the [TNT] alliance.
• Reach 100 active members and maintain that level of membership.

Industry Goals

• Continue and expand both T2 and T3 production
• Create T1 and T2 fleet reserve ships for supporting PVP fleets
• Develop capital and super-capital ship production
• Construct a new station in 0.0 space
• Further devolop and expand our mining/production assets

PVP Goals

• Develop Elite-Class PVP fleet
• Train and develop our fleet commanders and pilots under the tutelage of CVA personnel.
• Develop capital ship fleet commanders
• Use capital ships in fleet engagements
• Expand and develop the use of specialized PVP ships (logistics, EWAR, etc.)
• Continue to develop a stable and lethal PVP division within the corporation

 Current corporation and directors:

CEO:  Eperor

Co-CEO:  Disease U

Director at Large–Meclin

Tech 3 Director: Cometeer

Corp. Information Manger/Webmaster:  Hen Jin

Fleet Commander:  FlamingOgre

Avatar Emerging from POS Shield

The alliance bridge bitch poking his head out of the POS.  I got somewhat lucky with this one–their is a Caldari freighter in the forground for scale.

Making it in the Big Time

I have had my first big time link and I’m stoked.  Everquest 2 mentioning my old articles is nothing compared to this.  My How to Trotline article was mentioned over at The Survival Podcast.  I have been waiting for armaggeddon for quite some time myself. and have hence been learning to fly internet spaceships and practicing feral druidism.  I have not got up the balls to listen to the podcast yet, but I’m sure I will.  I guess if the end times are up0n us I can break out my fresh water long line and live high on the catfish.

Alliance Intolerance

Stone Wall Inn Revisited

Apparently they heard about our St. Patricks day parade rules.  UK is on the warpath again as well.  Someone let me know if Empire is still around–I always assume if I’m not there, the server doesn’t load the system.

Curse and a Paladin

Picked this screenshot up the other day on a roam around space adjacent to our alliance.  The Curse belongs to our fleet, the Paladin was a blue moving through the gate we briefly camped.  The drake is me–cheap and expendable.

Isk In Space

War in Space

Still means hurry up and wait, regardless of the setting.  Is the primate below in a vagabond?

Tech 2 DPS Needed!

Beginning of the week brought new tidings from our neighboring PVP alliance, UK and some other group I haven’t heard of, Embers of Fire.  Another group, Bombus polaris [sic] declared and retracted war within minutes.  Not sure what that was about.

Coming to get us, apparently.

 

Nothing Instant in EVE

Not unlike The Great War, apparently mobilization means fighting and there is nothing our diplomatic corps can do to avert it.  However, why is there a 24 hour wait?  Why not instant combat?  Perhaps UK needs to train another set of skills to wage war?  I guess it is so that the “victim” cannot be immediately ganked in highsec by a suprise wardec (if there is such a thing).

So far the combat seems to have centered on UK blocking the pipe to highsec for our logistics.  A virtual “space blockade” on the bottleneck to market meaning there has not been a sustained engagement as of yet.  We have seen a few 5-15 ship fleets come through our space looking for lone targets, but they tend to get cloaky when we come out to fight.   I went on a short roam yesterday with some corp mates in tech 1 frigs and a cruiser.  We went to the UK hangout, and I saw my first war target icons.

All Cloaked

Everyone expects this to be a long war, and UK has wardec’d several other alliances and corps as well.  I can only guess they want more pvp in more places.   Until I can do more than tackle, I am guessing I will be piloting a pod more frequently in the coming weeks.

Monday Ice Op

The corporation continues to move along, working on our fuel needs for the various POSs and the new station.  Today was ice mining, but unfortunately the dark glitter did not spawn, and we were left with enriched clear icicles to pick apart with our mackinaws and hulks.

Blue Beams of Happiness

I really need to get my second two miners into tech II ice harvesters.  The one character I have using tech IIs outpaces them by a large amount.

0.0 and Me

Having switched multi-box obsessions from LotRO, to EQ2, and finally landing back in EVE the last few months, I made the move to 0.0 space and a new corporation while remaining on speaking terms with Wilhelm and Potshot, et. al.  I’ve been taking lots of screenshots, and may try to do something similiar to Kilgore’s EVE Online Pictures for awhile.  First up, corporation mining operation this last week.

Lots of Lasers

Things went well until our frequent roaming band of gankers came by from -A-.  We quickly reshipped and began to harrass the two reds in our system, giving them enough time to call in reinforcements and cost me a drake.  Incidentally, the same gang caught me the next day while I was installing “Cinderalla” on another computer for my daughter.  This time it cost my other pilot a raven.  Apparently, they hate children and I can’t seem to learn that 0.0 AFK equals 150 million ISK.

Speaking of which, Adam of The Witty Ranter and other Virgin Worlds podcasts has joined me in 0.0.  He seems to be having fun, although his losses of choice are hulks rather than Caldari rigs.  Of course, it helps when your ratting with this monster.

Goldfinger and Me!

We used his firepower and my drake to get a nice kill a couple days ago.  Incidentally, Adam got credit for helping kill my drake as well.