Interview with Laura Karpinski CEO of Eve University

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The following Interview was conducted by Sakein of Wolf Brothers INC and originally posted on their website.

Sakein: I personally was in Eve University awhile ago before joining the current corporation I am in now. I had not found another corporation and or group of people that had dedicated themselves to the new player experience than I did with Eve University. This Corporation is a must look at for any new player and also for any experienced players wanting to learn even more about anything Eve Online offers it’s players.

What motivates you to Play Eve online specifically, compared to other games you may play?

Laura: Definitely the community. I have never found a community like it in any other game. I’ve made so many close friends in EVE from all across the world, and I’m lucky that I get to spend so much time hanging out with new people

Who are your main characters and who are they?

My main character is Laura Karpinski, but I have lots of other characters. I have a bit of an addiction to the new player experience – its not unusual for me to roll a new character to try out the tutorial and the start of the game from the perception of a new player. That’s the most exciting part of EVE for me.

What do you characters do, or what positions do they hold?

Laura is the CEO of EVE University, a corporation aimed at teaching players new and old about EVE Online. Several of my alts are used in administrative roles to keep the corporation and the alliance, Ivy League, running smoothly.

What is your personal main driving point that makes you play these character(s)? And how do you approach it?

I love teaching new players and I find their excitement about the game infectious. That feeling you get when you lose your first ship, or get on your first kill, is pure adrenaline, and I love helping new players to experience that and share the experience with them. I just really love EVE and I want to help other people to love it too.

Do you have some sort of goal you want to reach for your character(s)?

My focus is on EVE University, I want to make it as successful as possible and continue the mission to educate players about EVE through the Uniwiki, classes, fleets and so on.

Are there any Rl factors as to why you play the characters as you do?

My hand-eye coordination and reaction speed are both pretty bad, so I’ve historically steered away from most PVP activities for that reason. For the same reason I tend to avoid FPS games and focus more on games that involve strategy and planning.

How old are you personally? If you don’t mind me asking.

I’m in my early 30s.

Do any of your real life perspectives influence how you run your character(s)?

I always like to help people in real life, and I have personally experienced issues with my mental health and isolation. I know how important community and online friendship can be to people. So I like to try and foster a friendly and welcoming community where people can escape from whatever is going on in real life and just enjoy themselves.

Do you have any personal objectives you strive for while in your character(s)?

I’ve spent a long time doing PVE and space spreadsheets, so I’d like to try and improve my PVP skills. That’s more of a long term goal though, because I still have so much other stuff left to do.

Does your character(s) let you play out something that you wish you could do IRL?

Yes, being a space boss is awesome! Being responsible for a group of 2,000 people is something I don’t think I will ever have a chance to do in real life. It does have times when it is incredibly difficult, but it is a challenge I feel honoured to have been given the chance to take on.

ABOUT Wolf Brothers INC: initially an independent capsuleer industrial corporation, serves as the Industrial Arm of the United Neopian Federation. It is often found operating within various parts of Gallente space. Though primarily industrial, Wolf Brothers INC carries an equal opportunity policy for explorers, couriers, and anti-piracy capsuleers and baseliners alike. (Small HighSec/LowSec Industrial/PVE Corp, Newbro and Bittervet friendly)

Reflections of a Unista

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The following was written by one of our members, Hippla Tsero, who wanted to share their experience of the University:

It started in the Expanse

Five months ago, I returned to EVE after watching “The Expanse”, an amazing modern space series available through Amazon Prime. I remembered having tried EVE several years back but never really getting the grip of it.

What was about to follow completely blew my mind. I’ve been an avid gamer since I got my hands on my first Atari in the late 80s and as one of the first people in my school to have access to the internet I enjoyed playing different MMOs like Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online and of course World of Warcraft, to mention just a few.

I had found great communities in many of those games but what EVE has offered to me throughout the past 5 months is utterly unique and I would like to share my appreciation with you, the community.

Then came the Learning Cliff

After only a few days back in the game, I realised that what appeals to me about this game is its infinite complexity, unfortunately it’s also that complexity that can make it seem difficult to ‘survive’ as a solo player.

I realized quickly, If I wanted to seriously learn the game, I would need help. And help I found! After quickly looking through a few videos on YouTube and reading the EVE Online forums, it became clear to me that EVE University, a dedicated Learning Corporation, was the perfect choice for me.

I found several other beginner corporations, but EVE University offered neutrality within the EVE Universe. This was super important for me. If I ever want to join another corporation, I will be able to join whoever I want without any repercussions due to early-game decisions.  And being 6 months down the road on my EVE journey, I realise even more how important and controversial the politics of EVE can be.

Time to get my further education sorted

So here I am, a complete newbro, ready to learn! So, what does EVE University have to offer?

As a “University” I found it very fitting that EVE University is organised into several campuses. These are learning communities in different parts of space, which allow any new player to experience the different facets of the game – High-Sec, Low-sec, Nullsec, Mining, Wormhole space, Incursions and even somewhat of a “hardcore” mode by joining the campus in Solitude, where new players live pretty much isolated from the main trade hubs in the game and thus need to show self-sufficiency.

EVE University also offers a wide range of public classes, which cover core game mechanics such as exploration, fitting, fleets, missions, EVE careers and many more. Furthermore, they regularly invite guest speakers, like the incredible Jurius Doctor and Ashley Traynor, to share their wisdom with us new folks.

Like most new player corporations EVE University provides a looooong list of programmes and services – Ship Replacement, free beginner Skillbooks, Corp hangars with ships, modules etc., a mentor programme and a whole bunch of other things.

The Best Ship is Friendship

What surprised me most about EVE University though is the community. In my 30 or so years of playing (online) games I have never met such a helpful group of people. As a new player I had quadrillion questions, many of which were probably very stupid. However, I always found someone willing to give an answer, explaining it in a way that a new player like myself can understand it.

But that is not all. As someone who is rather annoyed with the vulgarity of most gaming communities, I found a level of maturity in EVE University that I had honestly given up on in the world of games. Being able to hang out in Voice-Comms (EVE Uni uses Mumble) and chat with likeminded people about EVE but also about everyday issues has just been such an enormous pleasure for me. I can truly say that I have found friends from all around the globe in an online game.

I have rambled on about this fantastic experience for way too long already. But I would like to just take a few moments to thank all those that make EVE University such an outstanding community to be part of. Everyone I have met in EVE University has just made my return to EVE such an outstanding experience. No matter whether it is the CEO Laura Karpinski and her management or other grunts like me. Thanks for giving me an often-needed escape from real life and for all the volunteer work that goes into running such a complex and wonderful community like EVE University <3

Triglavian invasion of the UniWiki

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Is nowhere safe from the Triglavian menace?

We caught up with Rayanth, our incumbent Wiki Manager to hear all about the recent Triglavian takeover of our wiki’s main page, here’s what he had to say.

In the summer of 2019, one of the UniWiki curators asked if it was possible to put the Triglavian font from the game files into the wiki, so they could demonstrate the language on a new page they were writing for the Triglavian lore.

I maintain a test copy of the UniWiki database on a private server, so I started playing around there to determine the feasibility. In my playing around, I accidentally edited the CSS such that ALL fonts on the test wiki were converted to Triglavian. Quickly realizing my mistake, I went to try and change it back only to realize that the Editor as well was illegible because of the font. It took a little doing to roll back the changes without being able to read anything 🙂

But the idea had merit. So I played with it some more and the result was only the front page being converted on the testwiki. I showed this to a few people, and the idea to push this to the live wiki was presented.

My original plan was to have this in effect throughout FanFest 2020, as an icebreaker for something to talk about, as it would be my first-ever EVE Community Event, let alone as the Wiki Manager. I was designing a custom t-shirt with E-Uni logos and UniWiki Manager emblazoned, and would have a triglavian version of the shirt as well…

Alas, FanFest 2020 was cancelled due to the Coronavirus, so much of my plans were shelved. The Triglavian Invasion was too fun to pass up, though, so I opted to keep working on it, as an April Fool’s gag.

Hunting Wild Boar

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It was beautiful and quiet and the stars where shining bright around our campus in hisec, when comm channels began to buzz with reports of a wild bore in the vineyard. In this case a member of Hog Hitman with whom Eve University was at war was in system. It only took moments to discover the pilot was the infamous Vargur, in this case slowboating toward the gate that would take him into the Jufvitte system. The active QRF had just stood down, so an enterprising UNISTA Nienke Solette took charge quickly forming a QRF calling first for a Caracal/Osprey doctrine. Quickly assessing the available assets, because in Eve time is often of the essence, she decided to go with the previous QRF’s doctrine using Vexors and Augorors as there were unistas still shipped and ready to go. And go it was.

To the Gate!

The QRF was quickly assembled and roles established and within minutes came the call, “undock, undock, undock”. The hunt was on. Now normally an FC might fleet-warp the group to the expected battle sight, but this FC was hampered because they were part of the standing fleet. So she warped the DD (damage dealing) squad and order the logi to warp themselves to the gate.

Now for folks new to Eve it is important to note that fleets large and small can live or die because of logi support. Logi (short for logistics) refers to a special class of ships that provide vital support to the damage dealers. Logi can provide extra power (cap), repair sheild, armor, and even hull repair (depending on the ship and fittings present based on the doctrine employed) when one finds oneself on the receiving end of the enemy’s fire.

While the QRF was in warp to the gate, the Varur jumped through into Jufvitte. But alas for this particular boar, the move was expected and the QRF’s scout as able to jump as well and tackle the Vargur. Now for folks new to Eve this basically means that through the applications of various types of modules a ship can be slowed down and even prevented from warping away, basically holding them in a particular location in space.

The QRF was ordered to jump the gate upon landing and join the scout who was holding point (that is keeping the Vargur from warping away). Upon landing and clearing gate cloak, the QRF engaged the target, only to learn from intel sources in the area that the Hogs were rallying and sending help. The QRF quickly applied Statis Webifiers (slow that ship down), War Scramblers (keep it from running away) and Energy Neutralizers (suck out its power so it can’t shoot back). It was all happening so fast that the logistics group was having trouble some trouble establishing and holding their cap chain. Now logi will cap chain to reinforce one another’s capacitors because if you run out of cap you cannot use modules that require this stored energy. So providing reps (healing sheilds, armor, and hulls) requires good capacitor supply.

Rounds started flying. The stars were lighting up with tracers and drones moving to take their shots as well when suddenly two Hog Guardians landed on grid to provide their own logistic support to the stranded Vargur. But it was happening too quickly and the Unistas far outnumbered the Hogs. The total damage per second (dps) the fleet could employ was so high the Vargur went down and was turned into space junk.

The One that Got Away

Shortly after intel came that the infamous Hog Deimos Barret was in the area, specifically on an NPC station in the neighboring system of Ansalle. Now Deimos is no easy hog to kill. He’s been up against many a hunter and many a prey in his day with an efficiency rating according to zkillboard of 93.1% and at the time of this writing 1,647 kills to 123 losses. But hey, Eve University is a learning fleet and often the best learning comes from doing.

Now Deimos was indeed locked out of the station due to a weapons timer and soon the QRF had him pointed and were applying damage when that pesky timer ran out and he was able to dock up. Good fight Deimos!

Vargur Round 2

This hunting party thought the action was over and was almost ready to stand down when, hello, another Vargur landed on the Amygnon gate in Jufvitte. He jumped and round two it was. This time however the Vargur was able to make it into Garoun Investment Bank station. Not wanting to waste a lot of time sitting and waiting which is no fun for anyone, the FC warped the fleet to the Jufvitte gate to watch for movement of hogs in the bushes so to speak. Just as it appeared the hog had bedded down for the night and the QRF was about to dock up, word came the hog was making a run for the gate. The fleet moved to engage and found itself with a heavier response this time from their valiant foe who was making effective use of his drones. The Armageddon in fleet started taking heavy damage but thanks to the valiant efforts of the logi guys the ship remained stable. Now there had been indicating the presence of a Leshak in the area, and sure enough a Leshak landed on grid. Intel reported this particular player was deadly with this platform so the FC called scatter following up with having the fleet warp to her in a safe position in space.

Vargur Round 3

Once again the QRF prepared to bed down for the night when word came the Vargur was warping back to the gate unaccompanied by the Leshak. The QRF’s scout quickly landed and got point and the fleet soon landed and engaged.

This hog wasn’t going down easy. Not this time. The pilot of the Vargur sent his drones for the Atron scout which was saved only by the diligent effort of the UNI logi. The FC primaried the drones eliminating their threat. But the Vargur had Energy Neutralizers which were being employed to cause disruption to the UNI’s cap chain. Suddenly fellow UNIin a hodgepodge of ships came to assist, a Scorpion Navy issue applying damage and an Osprey and a Scythe joined logi. The battle was becoming a bit chaotic and unpredictable. This hog was putting up a fight!

That Pesky Leshak

Eight minutes into the fight and the Vargur’s drones (Hob IIs) were down and the situation was looking more contained when that Leshak popped back on grid. It burned off 60km from the gate taking optimal position. This time however, the FC felt confident they had enough logi to tank the damage and held position keeping the pressure on. The Leshak dropped EC-0900 Wasps (painful buggers) and Hammerhead IIs and began “hammering” the unistas. Once again the drones were targeted for elimination. One brave unista in a Moa warping to the battle had the misfortune to land too close the Leshak out of logi range and succumbed the fight. You have to really watch out for the tusks on these hogs! In the continuing melee the a UNI Condor was also shredded by the Leshak’s tusks. But the unistas were dug in like a tick and thanks to the superb work of the logi were able to finally get through shields, armor and hull and boom… the Vargur was space wreckage. The Leshak warped away… maybe another day.

Good Fight!

In the discussion that followed among the Unistas several things were commonly held. One proclaiming how he appreciated the fellow eve players for their decency and sportsmanship and even being chill enough to come back for another round after losing the first ship. Good fun and good fights for both sides. “Good job fellas.” Among the Unistas, many of whom are new or newer to the game and PVP and fleet dynamics, this engagement provided a great opportunity for learning what worked well and what could be done better. The importance of logi and dealing with cap neutralizers was not lost on anyone. The value of good intelligence, quick form-up and movement, as well as quick and efficient calls for reps (asking for logistic support when targeted to mitigate damage) were also key lessons learned.

So to the Hogs from Uni: Good Fight!

Video Links

First Engagement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ebs2ez3FT0&feature=youtu.be

Second Engagementhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCldDo9Vg68&feature=youtu.be

Third Engagement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzItTIiF80s&feature=youtu.be

Reflections on CCI

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By Gergoran Moussou

On September 11, 2019, I became the ninth person to complete the requirements of the Cross-Campus Initiative after around four months of participation in events around the various campuses.

Like most people who join EVE University, I started at HSC. The most popular activities there, mining and mission running, were what I had been doing solo after finishing the Career Agent missions, so it was a fairly easy transition. The community was quite helpful for getting started. Even though I was unable to pull any L4 missions (and still lack the standings for the agents in Amygnon, since almost all of my solo missions at HSC were with Roden Shipyards). They gave me some good tips on how to do those activities and what ships I should train into for those activities, most notably when I was running L3 missions in a Drake and someone suggested that I train into a Dominix and then a Rattlesnake. Even when I didn’t have a ship which could help clear missions faster, people were glad to let me come along and salvage. However, the general focus of the campus meant that I was mostly on my own for what became my preferred activity: PVP. At this time, E-Uni rarely had PVP fleets scheduled, so most of my PVP was solo roams through nearby Low-Sec space (I had no victories). The first war after this year’s wardec changes was an incentive to do this more: T1 frigates are much more expendable than the Gila which I was using to run missions, so I spent more time outside of High-Sec since P I R A T rarely leaves High-Sec. Eventually, because I was spending most of my time in Low-Sec, for both PVP and exploration (since I found it very lucrative to dive into wormholes in the area), I decided to move to the Low-Sec Campus. My core impression of HSC’s community is that it’s full of people who like to do their own thing while enjoying each other’s company in voice communications, but will generally welcome you to join in if you want to join in on what they are doing.

When I arrived at LSC, I had in mind that it wouldn’t be a long-term stay and that after a while, I would check out a different area of space, either NSC or WHC. However, it quickly became a campus that I was reluctant to move away from. I joined during a golden age for the campus. The incredible work that Urban Oxide, the campus manager put into the campus made it easy to do everything out of there. The community was smaller than HSC, but hugely active and eager to do stuff together. No matter when I logged in (some days, my work schedule made EUTZ more convenient, others, USTZ, and I often did both a couple of weeks into my stay at LSC when I began several weeks of unemployment), there were people eager to do stuff. Usually, that stuff to do involved roaming around in small ships (mainly T1 and navy frigates) to find fights, so I found plenty of fights. One experience which I found at LSC, which I did not experience at all at HSC was interacting with the neighbors. When I was at HSC, I didn’t pay attention to who the neighbors were at all. Because LSC has more interactions with other players (often involving the exchange of ordnance), I kept track of who else roamed CalGal, both to consider what I might be up against and because some of them ended up becoming my friends. Even now that I have moved to a different campus, I keep my medical clone here and generally stage my fleets from here because it is a more convenient location than any other campus for roaming CalGal.

After a few weeks at LSC, I ended up at my current home, the Wormhole Campus. The first thing that I noticed was that there was significantly less room for doing stuff as individuals than the other campuses. I arrived at an unusual moment: after finally applying to WHC after weeks of procrastination, my first visit ended up being to defend some structures which got reinforced in the same weekend that I applied, before I was actually accepted. This mostly involved sitting docked in the Astrahus with a lot of other people waiting in a Retribution in case someone ended up showing up for the timer (fortunately, this didn’t happen, but that was an incredibly boring three hours). After this, I had the opportunity to do a more normal WHC activity, PVE harvesting, because Bacon (WHC’s C3 static) connected to a system with a Low-Sec static to Eugales (LSC’s home system). They formed up a harvester, so I refit one of my Confessors (since it was a Wolf-Rayet system) and joined them for it, making more ISK per hour during that than any other PVE activity that I had done to that point before logging off. I got accepted to the campus that evening, while I was on the way to the staging system for a non-Uni fleet, so as soon as I got back, I moved my scanning Anathema and the aforementioned Wolf-Rayet Confessor into my new home. More than any other campus, things are unpredictable due to the nature of wormholes, so while I have called this my home, there aren’t often any planned events and I therefore didn’t count anything at WHC toward the requirements for CCI. Some days, I’ve been in multiple intense PVP events, I’ve also spend fairly long periods without seeing much PVP in the WHC chain. Some days, we’ve rolled into great systems for PVE (the two main requirements being a small number of connections and a large number of combat anomalies), other times we’ve ended up with systems that either had no PVE content or were too dangerous for it. The main thing that it doesn’t have which LSC has is accessible solo content: as someone who hasn’t trained into any sort of cloaky combat ship yet, I can’t really hunt the chain yet in something which can engage targets that I might find. For this reason, I keep a stock of ships at LSC for use when I feel like solo-roaming. However, the teamwork-focused nature of wormhole living has made the WHC community into an extremely close-knit one.

In addition to the three campuses which I’ve used as my primary home, I’ve done stuff at a few other campuses. The first campus which I checked out was the Null-Sec Campus. I went over for a visit a week or two after moving into HSC and got set up with a ratting ship. Unfortunately, my early visits to NSC ended up being a false start: while I ended up appearing on a killmail for the first time, I got the impression that people there generally flew ships which I couldn’t fly yet (having barely trained into cruisers at the time), so I stayed away from NSC for a while. However, I later ended up returning for some scheduled roams and mining operations. I found the roams to be quite enjoyable as a change of scenery from my usual areas of Placid and Black Rise, while the mining operations gave me some great ISK. My experience of the Amarr Mining Campus has been a pretty good one. I’ve participated in a couple of mining operations on my primary character and many more on my alt which I keep at AMC (sometimes I mine while doing something on my main, sometimes I mine while sitting docked up on my main because of stuff going on in the chain, sometime I mine while not logged into my main, but there’s always something to mine, preferably ice). The community down there is fairly laid-back and relaxed, so when I’m down there, I generally enjoy the social aspect of the campus. I’ve often found amusement in how the mindset of the other miners down there differs from mine with regard to PVP. It was even funnier when the opposite occurred one time and I went on a rather long explanation to some people in WHC’s Mumble channel about which ores are the best to mine and why, despite there being almost no mining of anything other than gas at WHC (although I try to mine some ice whenever we get a shattered system near enough to be worthwhile). The last campus which I really participated in (aside from a couple of visits on my own over the months before I made my way over there) was Project Solitude. Again, like the other campuses in High-Sec space, this is a fairly laid-back community, but the isolated nature has its own appeal which I particularly like. I’m working on setting up some things to do in this location specifically to take advantage of that isolation.

Both times when I changed my primary campus, it took a bit over a week to get fully situated at the new campus. The first time, it was mainly for financial reasons. After moving to LSC and dedicating most of my game-play time to PVP, I ended up both making significantly less ISK and losing a lot more ships, so whenever I saw HSC mission fleets scheduled, I flew over because I hadn’t yet figured out how to make much ISK in Low-Sec. The transition from LSC to WHC was more because I felt overwhelmed by how much more demanding wormhole living is at first and I hadn’t gotten used to the idea that content might be different from day to day yet. Unfortunately, LSC’s golden age concluded soon after I got myself fully situated at WHC (the campus manager stepping down for real-life reasons and the assistant manager leaving E-Uni resulted in a lot of services being suspended and player engagement at LSC dropping significantly).

Finally, I noticed when adding myself to the wiki page for CCI medalists that I had directly interacted with the majority of previous medalists in earning it. Esca Sinak, the last person before me, does not interact with me very often but was in the first fleet that I scheduled and has processed many of my SRP requests. Psychotic Fickity was one of the first people who I remember encountering after joining E-Uni and being introduced to people in Mumble, and ran the first few events that I participated in. Penelore was no longer involved with FCC by the time that I started taking fleets out, but her alt which remained in E-Uni for a few weeks after that was in my first fleet and talking with her in LSC Mumble gave me a lot of informal advice on how to run fleets. She was also one of the people who most strongly encouraged me to head over to WHC. Mike Kingswell is a common fixture at any HSC event that I’ve logged in for during EUTZ hours, particularly when I’ve shown up for the monthly shared can (otherwise known as Mike’s Bounty Mining) and was very helpful when I first posted a fleet on the calendar, suggesting a good route (which I ended up following for the most part). Budda Sereda left E-Uni before I joined, but he still participates in FCC Slack and I’ve gotten some helpful feedback from him.

INTERVIEW SERIES: NEW FLEET COMMANDERS

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Interview with: Ky Hanomaa
by Gergoran Moussou

Image result for EVE ONLINE FLEET CARACAL

Jumping into a fleet can be a daunting though highly entertaining endeavor for a new player.  It can be an even more daunting prospect for new fleet commanders upon whose shoulders rest the success of the mission, the ships employed, and in some cases the capsuleers themselves. Eve University, a premier teaching corporation within the New Eden universe, provides opportunities to learn the aspects of fleet dynamics.  Recently staff writer Gergoran Moussou was able to sit down in virtual space and talk to one of our first-time fleet commanders, Ky Hanomaa, about his experience.

GM: Your first fleet was a kitchen sink frigate Noobs on Patrol fleet, correct? Why did you pick that instead of a doctrine such as BLAP Merlins?

KH: I just enjoy picking my own stuff and not being restricted to doctrine when running with small numbers. On top of that, I don’t need to coordinate with Logi.

 GM: Prior to that, you had a fair bit of experience with PVP. Did it feel any different jumping the gate to the first fight as FC than it did when as a scout or another role?

KH: Not really, the only thing that was different was actually ‘preparing’ the fleet and the expectations that might be tied to running an official fleet as opposed to an AdHoc fleet, which kind of did put a slight bit of pressure on me in the beginning. That stuff usually vanishes after the first engagement as kills are the ultimate icebreakers. Or just having something to shoot at, no matter how small it is.

 GM: How did you feel about your performance as FC afterwards?

KH: The first fleet was a little starved for content and we did run into the issue of a few people engaging a non-flashy target on a gate without having a proper rundown on bouncing. The feedback I received after the fleet was positive however and I was able to reflect on all mistakes I made during the fleet.

GM: What kind of adjustment to your FC style did you make in response to the feedback?

 KH: Actually include gate-gun mechanics and bouncing during the newbro-speech as well as being more open to take fights that might cost me a few ships, and most importantly, make sure I have at least one experienced scout.

GM: I think that might have actually been the fleet when I lost my Kestrel to gate guns even though I knew better. Do you remember what your newbro speech focused on?

KH: I actually struggle to remember, but I certainly said that I wasn’t going to take non-flashy targets on gates since we didn’t have the proper set-up to do so. Probably basic movement commands and broadcasts.

GM: I think I remember what happened with the gate guns now. Wasn’t it that there was a miscommunication and a flashy jumped at the same time as another ship with orange -5 standings?

KH: Yes, the scouts reported a ‘red’ Hecate and an ‘orange’ Republic Fleet Firetail. The Hecate was flashy, so I called to tackle it, but it got away. About three of our guys ended up aggressing the Firetail which turned out to have negative standings with the Uni.

GM: How did you plan your route, did it take long to plan it?

KH: Not really, as my time roaming solo around the area gave me a good idea of which systems regularly offer content during each respective TZ. I was also fortunate to have guys in the vanguard that I could detach to check out systems that weren’t directly on the route while our scouts went to +1.

GM: You’ve staged fleets out of both HSC and LSC. Which campus do you prefer to stage out of, and are there any other campuses out of which you would like to stage fleets?

KH: I liked the flexibility the LSC Market in Archavoinet offered, but with that gone now, I’ll stage from HSC because it turns out that it makes it easier for the newbros as well, of which I appear to get plenty. As for the future, I might consider staging from NSC once I get a good idea of how fleet engagements work in Null as opposed to Low. My NoP Fleets will still stage from HSC, though.

GM: Do you have any advice for people who are thinking about taking out their first fleets?

 KH: Try to attend as many fleets as possible and fill each of the roles a bunch of times – especially scout. It will make it far easier to detect and understand any issues especially newbros could have in these positions. Which in turn helps approaching and solving said issues as swiftly as possible to resume the fleet. It will also give you knowledge about different ship types and understanding what is engageable and what is not.

GM: You might be the most experienced scout who I’ve flown with in the Uni. How much did that help you?

KH: I generally know how much time the scouts need, when to basically ‘give up’ a system and move on as well as evaluating which targets call for vanguard and when a minor spike in local (by the vanguard) is acceptable. I’m also able to give my scouts direct feedback and help them improve and become more efficient in their own scouting-game.

GM: What kind of ships do you like flying? What is your favorite ship to fly in general (solo or fleet, PVP or otherwise), and why?

KH: For PvP, especially solo, I like flying kitey ships. The Imperial Navy Slicer is probably my favorite, followed by the Retribution. I’ve also tried the Garmur, although I find missiles kind of weird and the Garmur a little too pricey. I also like to fly bombers, be it in small gangs or Blops fleets, as the cloak paired with the NullSec Blackout make for really interesting engagements. I generally dislike brawling, as sitting beside each other trying to simply out-dps and/or out-rep your opponent just feels less accomplishing in my opinion. This might be interesting in larger fleet engagements, but when I fly solo I like to try and outmaneuver my opponents and get as much as I can without being caught.

GM: What doctrines are you interested in trying to FC? And which ones have you enjoyed flying? You’ve mentioned Blops, but what else?

KH: I honestly haven’t thought about it much, as the sole reason for me to FC was to provide PvP content for the newbros.   Since I don’t enjoy larger engagements and prefer the Hit-and-Run-Style I would be semi-interested in trying out a kitey doctrine. I also plan on starting to hunt for Blops Fleets under Bomber’s Bar or Spectre Fleet to get the fundamental experiences needed to eventually FC said fleets in a few years. Both of these kind of doctrines are hard to run with the Uni, as they either require you to have enough SP or good manual piloting skills, so I’m not really sure as to whether there’s much sense running them. 

Thank you Ky for being our first New Fleet Commander Interview! Keep doing what you are doing!

Make Magic 14 Work for you

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By: Gergoran Moussou

Are you wondering what to do with those free skill points handed out recently by CCP or what to do with all those skill points you are racking up by killing NPCs?   CCP recently referenced Eve University’s WIKI article on the “Magic 14” as a good place for these points. The Magic 14 is the foundation of any well-skilled character, though it will take a while to max them out, but since the free skill points can’t cover everything, it’s a good idea to have some pointers on how to prioritize those skills. While my specific examples discuss how skills would be prioritized on a character with Omega Clone status, the same core concepts apply to Alpha characters, that one should consider which skills provide benefit while flying one’s intended ships.

The first thing to consider is what you plan on doing with your character and what kind of ships you plan on flying for those activities. Regardless of activity, the optimal ships have basic requirements beyond the Magic 14.  But the Magic 14 do form the foundational basis for piloting and surviving in New Eden.  

For exploration, one of my primary ways to earn the ISK which I spend on ships to use in PVP, the main ship options beyond the basic T1 exploration frigates are T2 covert ops frigates and the Sisters of EVE line of ships, specifically the Astero and Stratios. To sit in the Sisters of EVE line, a character needs Amarr and Gallente skills for the relevant hull size, either frigate or cruiser (and cruiser requires Frigate III of the same empire anyway), so an exploration-focused character needs to mix the Magic 14 in with the basic prerequisites. Aside from better scanning probe strength at Covert Ops IV and V and faster scanning probe speed, the SOE ships either outperform or equal the T2 frigates in PVE exploration activities (while their difficulties in CPU make combat probing impractical). The biggest advantage is that they can engage in combat (many people can attest to the Astero being a capable J-Space hunter ship). While Covert Ops frigates do have weapon bonuses, I would never bother putting a rocket launcher on one of my Anathemas. It just doesn’t have enough durability for it to be worthwhile and an exploration fit already takes up two of the three high slots with the cloak and probe launcher. SOE ships solve both of these problems: Amarr hull skill and ample low slots provide good armor tank for durability and a substantial drone bay allows for combat engagements without spending high slots on weapons (with Gallente hull skill making these some of the most effective drone ships of their hull size). This combat bonus allows an explorer in a SOE ship to take on sites which a T1 or Covert Ops pilot would have to ignore, while also providing a chance at fighting back if unfriendly local players show up.

Because the SOE ships are armor-tanked, the priority skills from the Magic 14 for exploration are Mechanics and Hull Upgrades. Furthermore, their limited CPU means that CPU Management is the next one down. Because the only modules on a standard Astero fit which are likely to use a decent amount of capacitor are the propulsion and repair modules, an explorer does not need to prioritize the capacitor skills until later (with the Stratios’s additional high slots and bonus to energy turrets, which consume the most capacitor of any weapon type), but anyone who has ever run out of capacitor due to a long warp can attest to Warp Drive Operation being a useful skill. Furthermore, there are two other skills which an explorer absolutely needs: Cloaking IV allows equipping a module which is absolutely necessary when flying an exploration ship other than the T1 frigates, while Drones V allows the Astero to use its combat potential. Drones V is such a useful skill across so many ship types that it barely stops short of being as versatile and foundational as the Magic 14, but for ships which use drones as their primary weapon, it is absolutely essential (even for the Guristas line, while the limit of two makes it less important, enough support skills require Drones V that it is essential for those ships as well).

Similarly, combat pilots should consider what ships they plan on flying and how they plan on flying those ships in order to prioritize the Magic 14. Consider a doctrine ship like the E-Uni BLAP Caracal, the backbone of many high-sec mission fleets and ISK-positive QRF fleets defending against war targets. It is a buffer-tanked RLML Caracal, similar to many other corporations’ doctrines for the same ship. A skill plan specifically for this doctrine or a similar one does not generally need much training in capacitor skills because its modules aside from the propulsion module do not use much capacitor. However, if a doctrine uses the Caracal as a newbro ship for people who have not yet trained into the Cerberus, its Tech II counterpart, some Magic 14 skills which are fairly unimportant with the Caracal become essential. Alongside Capacitor Management and Energy Grid Upgrades, which are prerequisites for the Heavy Assault Cruisers skill, Hull Upgrades is essential for the Cerberus because of the Assault Damage Control modules, which drastically increase HACs’ durability if used properly.

One cautionary example about not prioritizing the Magic 14 enough is the mining alt that I recently deployed at E-Uni’s Amarr Mining Campus. In that character’s first mining operation, I had the skills to yield more ore than my main character, simultaneously flying an identical Procurer on the same moon belt, I had trained almost nothing but mining and industry skills on this character at that point and did not realize until I undocked the Procurer that I could not put its T1 shield tank modules online yet (a problem which I immediately adjusted my skillqueue to fix). This same problem repeated itself just over a week later when I undocked my first Industrial Command Ship, a Porpoise, and noticed that while I made sure to ask for Tech I shield tank from the AMC staff selling it to me this time, I forgot to train the Hull Upgrades skill at all, so I was unable to put my Reinforced Bulkheads II module online until the second or third time that I dropped off ore from that first moon extraction and it took a couple more days to make use of the Damage Control II in its other low slot.

A final consideration in prioritizing skills within the Magic 14 is that T2 ships are often much harder to fit, especially since they tend not to be worth the added expense over a T1 hull without T2 modules, which take up more fitting space than T1. The first ship that I ever trained specifically for was the Vengeance, the close-range-focused Amarr assault frigate. I put together a decent fit and bought the modules for it. While I set up a skill plan such that I could use all T2 modules before I trained the T2 ship skill, but when I first tried flying the ship, I noticed that I had neither the CPU nor the power grid to run all four Rocket Launcher II’s, so I needed to train the relevant skills up from IV to V.

In short, most people have some idea of what ships they want their characters to fly. While the Magic 14 are unique in that they benefit all ships, they do not benefit all ships equally. Therefore, while all skill plans should eventually cover the Magic 14, some skills deserve higher priority than others depending on the intended ships. While most of this is with regard to the hard attributes of the ship such as what kind of tanking and weapons it uses, softer aspects such as that an exploration ship is probably going to make frequent long warps are also important considerations.