Friday, December 26, 2014

Distinguishing the Good from the Bad

So far all my posts have been about the in game EVE experience. It is not my intention to waste our time with the boring mass of out-of-game drama. Certainly, one of my main goals is to make this blog a place where the 3 parties can learn from (Anti-Gankers, Miners and Gankers). I also want to show that the gameplay of Anti-Ganking, when done right, can create success, excitement, fun, tears, content, memories and stories. In this post however, I want to bring clarifications, because there has always been many gankers who claimed that "all the Toxic Anti-Gankers are insulters, and all they do is ****ing on CONCORD killmails without preventing the gank."

Warning: The three ignorant and vulgar statement examples below might make you want to vomit. 

"Most of the killmails they gleefully post in their special little channel didn't save the miner"
        -admiral root

"All I ask from the ANti-Ganing crowd is Context... You keep posting small kills without giving context about what was killed in the process. Congrats, you killed a catalyst, did you prevent them from doing what they intended no? No.
I see guys in AG Channel posting a kill with concord in it but never mention that the same Catalyst just popped a 233mil Ship and maybe few hundred mill pod.
You prefer grand standing about a few catalyst kills even if the target worth billions more was popped. You prefer grand standing even about "look, I killed a catalyst when it ganked somebody" even though he would have died to concord anyway.
"I have never been insulted or verbally assaulted as I have been in that Channel."
       -Cannibal Kane

"From what I have seen so far, the most distinct skills of a typical Anti-ganker are as follows:[…]- Is willing to share his sexual fantasies about the ganker, usually involving a lot of male reproduction organs and/or fecal matter of all sorts in local chat"
        -Alyth Nerun

Let's look at these drivels for example. As you can see, there is no end to ganker imagination. They consider all miners and anti-gankers as ineffective insulters who send death threats while also "involving a lot of male reproduction organs and/or fecal matter of all sorts" (yes, that's exactly what one of them says). Also they claim that all anti-gankers do is ****ing on CONCORD Killmails. Why do I partially quote these rather old statements? Because they perfectly summarize the most common misconceptions about us. I can find many more, similar ignorant posts.


Mercenary Cannibal Kane and "diplomat" admiral root claim that we post "small" Catalyst kills all the time even though their target dies. The problem with their statement is the fact that you cannot judge every type of gameplay by the look of those internet statistics or killmails. 
Let me clarify the following realities: Unlike what these both individuals say, nearly all miners within my sight and intervention, have survived the gank attempts against them. There isn't one Catalyst kill in my personal killboard where I ****ed on a CONCORD Killmail without preventing the gank, and 99% of those Catalyst kills actually also correspond to a miner's survival. This isn't just my case: the same thing goes to 99% of the genuine Anti-Gankers. 
Personally, I find it pointless and stupid to engage a ganker if you can't prevent the gank and I am sure many of the real Anti-Gankers will agree with that. We engage the ganker the moment he turns criminal (or during the pre-gank period), long before CONCORD arrival, and use the in-game mechanics, modules and opportunities to ruin their ganks. 

Saving another freighter in Niarja. The ganks were continuously failing as a result of successful ECM projection from multiple Anti-Gankers.

Their target's survival does not appear on those kill boards or killmails. 


I strongly believe Cannibal Kane spent a short time in that Anti-Ganking channel, so short that he couldn't really distinguish everyone. But that doesn't give him the right to base his generalized "AG community" opinion on a single chat channel, and then foolishly spew his misconceptions about every Anti-Ganker out there.

"Saying that everyone in the channel is death-threat-sending scum just because of a hateful minority, is just as ignorant and invalid as any other stereotype."
         -Jennifer en Marland 

He was never insulted by me, or by any of the Anti-Gankers that I know. Also, I don't even see a reason to "insult" him, since he seems to contribute to Highsec activity. In the contrary, I respect that.
The EVE client automatically saves all the chat logs. To see the reason behind his tears about those "insults", during my spare time I personally and seriously went through my chat log files for that channel and his name, and I never saw an "insult" sent to him. Most probably, I was not connected when those "insults" were spouted (and they were not saved).
Later on, I mentioned in a forum post that he was most probably insulted by one of those gank-victim carebears who aspire to be white knights, and fail. Those are often the ones who send death threats, post Catalyst kills without giving context and continuously complain everywhere.

Also, Alyth Nerun showed his misconceptions by saying that a typical anti-ganker "Is willing to share his sexual fantasies about the ganker, usually involving a lot of male reproduction organs and/or fecal matter of all sorts in local chat". 

Personally, this is how I prefer to see Local chat after I prevent a gank successfully (or without success) :

GFs in local between me and a CODE. member - shortly after I ruined his gank by catching his outlaw Catalyst at gate.

As you can see, unlike what Alyth Nerun declares with his ugly generalization, I don't express any fantasy, insult, RL death threat or rage in Local. All I see is an emergent competition between two players who enjoy the game and respect each other.

"Good fight. It’s a salute to an opponent, a respectful nod to their skill and attitude"

Genuine Anti-Gankers are not like those insulter AFK gank-victim carebears, and we will continue to prove that. There is a blatant difference between one group who tries white knight by insulting the gankers, and another group who actually has fun while disrupting gankers operations (as a simple example, see my past/future blog posts).

Your inability to distinguish us from AG-aspirant carebears makes you look silly.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Don't be like DarZ (Ganker Turn Away)

Ganker tears tend to be a special form of water commodity. It's almost always a combination of anger, hatred and empty words. Let's take a look at another example.

Wuos is one of those populated Highsec systems in The Forge region. During one of my vigilant Falcon patrols at the ice belt of Wuos, some Venture belonging to Perry Rodent landed at the belt.

The fact that a Venture cannot mine ice is known by nearly all ice miners, and most of us do know that the Venture is a preferred ship for the gank scouts. However, it was too early to say if he is a scout or not. Yet, soon after landing, Perry Rodent started approaching a distant Retriever with his top-secret Venture. 

He believed that he wouldn't catch attention if he scouted in a Venture. Unlike Dwin Utrigas who scouts and provides warp-ins with a Procurer, Perry was quite naive.
When a suspicious-looking ship like this approaches a mining barge in Highsec, the odds are, a warp-in will be provided for some gankers.

Perry was now very close to the Retriever. A gank scout with an average intelligence and game knowledge would probably have enough experience to not waste too much time and provide warp-in at the first mining barge he approaches. However, Perry was a slow, indecisive scout. He decided to leave that Retriever alone and started approaching another miner, a Mackinaw, which he eventually got very close to. That was the target, maybe?

It's hard to believe, I know, but Perry didn't provide warp-in this time either. Instead, he started approaching another Retriever. He was foolishly wandering in the ice belt, catching more and more attention while "discretely" looking for a target in his secret Venture. He seemed to be an indecisive, uncertain rookie who scouted for possibly another bunch of bot-aspirant, terrible Catalysts. He couldn't even find a target properly.

The gank scouts tend to find the most accurate names for themselves. As Perry Rodent was wandering in the ice belt like a rodent, every move in his actions was being observed by our vigilant Falcon, while we were also keeping an eye in Local.

At last, Perry finally thought that he found the right target. Soon after Perry got very close to that other Retriever, two entries appeared in Local chat. 

…exactly what I wanted to see. 

As any Anti-Ganker will tell you, the robot-like behavior of many gankers is confirmed by their movements, their multiboxing and also their repetitive statements in Local. Another sign, of course, is their ship choice which is the Catalyst. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when the two Catalysts appeared on D-Scan.

This is where we notice another sign of bot-aspirancy. As you can see, even a regular mission runner Golem has a more creative and original name than a brain-washed pair of bot-aspirant Catalysts which lack so much individuality that they're like named by an automated program.

While the two outlaw heretics were in warp towards the belt, I decloaked my Falcon.

When it comes to ganker behavior, I have several theories. But I won't talk all about that today. The two Catalysts appeared on grid and since they were outlaws (-10), it was possible to engage them from the moment they landed without having to wait them become criminals. About 3 seconds later, I was already jamming one of them (Plasma Death) and just before starting to jam the second one (Liek DarZ), having noticed my Falcon, they didn't engage the miner and aborted the gank. 

   [ 2014.12.05 23:01:09 ] Jason Sleepless > löl
﻿   [ 2014.12.05 23:01:14 ] Jason Sleepless > warped away

In frustration, they warped away immediately, doing the typical "ganker turn away". The so-called "invincible enforcers" were now the fleeing ones. 

"they're not so "invincible" as they pretend to be, huh? :P"
          -Hadrien Victus 

Another gank was prevented, another pair of bot-aspirants was thought a lesson.

A gallant, intelligent and respectful ganker would thank me in Local chat for teaching him a lesson. 
Nevertheless, Liek DarZ was more like the ignorant type, similar to the majority of his kin. He started spouting insane non-sense.

Upon ruining their gank as a generous Anti-Ganker of Highsec, I sincerely asked if he would be interested in a ganking permit.

[ 2014.12.05 23:00:46 ] Azov Rassau > Liek DarZ Are you interested in a ganking permit?

Liek's tears were a form of mixed water commodity composed of empty words and stealth hatred. Certainly, there was some traces of the ganker bingo as well. To mask his frustration, he felt obliged to say something. However, that resulted in a hilarious non-sense set of expressions. For your own good Liek DarZ, in these cases, it's always better to either stay silent or put a simple 'gf' in Local.

What was he babbling about? Just a moment ago, his lack of permit, ECCM, courtesy and civilization was punished by the victorious enforcement of my Falcon's electronic principles. By saying "you cannot enforce it" (which is actually different than his words "you can not enforce it"), he showed his misunderstanding of our purpose. I enforce the N-CODE of Highsec.

It is my goal to teach gankers lessons by enforcing magnetometry. 
In my case, the permit will be revoked if you don't fit ECCM. Fitting their ships in that clever way is how gankers pledge their loyalty to the art of ganker jamming. Liek DarZ not only lacked a permit, but he also didn't have a proper gank Catalyst fitting, judging from his records.

Liek DarZ certainly wasn't really understanding his own words either. So I helped him by giving some information related to the permit.

At the same time, I was still hoping to get a honest answer from him about why he couldn't gank that Retriever within my sight. However, he continued to enforce the ganker bingo and tried another way of changing the subject by telling me that all I do is appearing on CONCORD Killmails...

…which is another ignorant phrase that gankers like to express. Instead of admitting their failure and bot-aspirancy, they always try to hide behind the "CONCORD kill" statement and try attacking with it, as if we summon CONCORD all the time to come and help us, so that we can appear on their Killmails. It is known by many people, including several honest and intelligent gankers, that a genuine Anti-Ganker's utmost priority is to prevent the gank itself while also creating content for almost everyone. Meanwhile, CONCORD *****s on the Killmail. Another fun fact is, when Liek DarZ said the above, I had just got back from 6 months long Lowsec shenanigans with hundreds of kills (full of "Non-CONCORD kills" as he says it).

It is important to base a statement on coherently chosen material. While I was busy quickly documenting all the logs and screenshots, Liek DarZ had already left the system.
It's not easy to have a proper communication with these lazy gank-bots. Upon seeing a single sign of opposition, they spew one or two baseless assumptions and then run away immediately. Why do they lack so much dignity and willpower to adapt and innovate?

"some of them log off, switch system or even regions. while few of them prefer to fit eccm and show a sign of courage."
          -Azov Rassau 

As I always say, gankers can be turned into higher quality EVE players if we give them the necessary guidance and tell them how to fit their ships properly. I strongly believe that we can save Liek DarZ as well. Click here to see our official Catalyst fitting advice for him.

Don't be liek DarZ. Instead, be liek a ganker who respects emergent gameplay and adapts to deal with it.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Guide: ECM Skiff for Anti-Ganking

Last week, we enjoyed a Skiff story where I mentioned the ECM Skiff. This is your guide to the usage of ECM Skiff for collecting ganker tears in a form of salty water commodity.
Apart from the many vigilant miners I know who don't go AFK, there has also been AFK carebears who keep complaining about suicide gankers, and the EVE forums are still being shiptoasted regularly by those unhappy carebears, who also keep lobbying CCP for more nerfs to suicide ganking.
One thing these people don't realize is: EVE is mainly a PvP game. Although you can love PvE (mining, missions, incursions etc, which I respect), PvP is around you at all times (whereas PvE isn't). Shooting others is possible everywhere in space and suicide ganking is a form of Highsec PvP. It's a gift that keeps Highsec alive and brings the action miners need in order to enjoy EVE.
Instead of whining about gankers, it would be much more logical to actually do something by using the in-game opportunities and mechanisms. I have already published a post related to miner vigilance and D-Scan which can be read here

The fitting example below is just another very simple example of what can be done by using the already available tools.

Click to enlarge

It looks strange, but it's definitely worth flying. In fact, ECM is easily countered, but since most gankers are bot-aspirant and since most of them still haven't realized the importance of ECCM (the counter measure to ECM), with good skills (and some good luck) you will be able to jam up to 5 Catalysts that attack your nearby miner friends.

I have prevented a lot of ganks using that Skiff. The cool thing about this type of anti-ganking is that you're kind of a "stealth jammer". Most of the time, a ganker will not expect a Skiff do such thing. 

You will have the look of a typical ice mining Skiff while actually being a magnetometric threat for those Catalysts.
Some of the miners will definitely ask the following: "But my yield?!", "my ISK per hour??"

My answer is: what is your "Fun per hour"?

 The day you save a nearby miner's Hulk/Mackinaw, you will understand how fun it is to:
1) Have a laugh while permajamming 3-4 Catalysts with your Skiff, thus stopping their DPS and preventing the gank, followed by watching them get CONCORDed.
2) Collect those ganker tears.
3) Put a 'gf' in local.
4) Ask them to get a "ganking permit" in local.
5) Finally understand the true spirit of EVE: which is an emergent, fun sandbox.
6) Mine ice and make ISK while anti-ganking.

I also want to point out that it is stupid to insult, send RL death threats or hate mails to gankers. They aren't RL sociopaths or murderers. In this dangerous virtual Universe, they simply annoy you by manipulating and using the game opportunities and mechanisms, you can use the game opportunities against them too.

"I think jamming is the way we begin to communicate. In the old days, people actually wrote notes on paper and sent them to each other. I guess that's how they jammed."
        -Geddy Lee

The skill named Signal Dispersion is definitely needed to at least level 4 or 5. In addition to that, Long Range Targeting will also help you a lot in terms of optimal range, so it is highly recommended to train that one too. For Long Range Targeting, level 5 is not compulsory, but Signal Dispersion should be level 5. Now stop training that boring Plagioclase Processing skill book and slap yourself with it. 
This tactic certainly requires you to be at keyboard. No AFKing, forget it. Regularly check D-Scan for a Catalyst spike. For a better understanding of using D-Scan as an "early warning tool", again you can read my guide about it here.
There are times when the gankers use the Thrasher too. In those rare cases, the Minmatar jammer 'Enfeebling Phase Inversion ECM' will certainly work better. If you want, you can replace one of the Gallente jammers by that one.

When multiple neutral Catalysts land on grid, start locking them immediately, and once they turn criminal, spread the jammers on them by using F1, F2, F3 etc. For the Love of Holy Amarrian God, don't click to activate the modules! Using the buttons and quickly spreading the jammers will be a lot faster than foolishly clicking one by one (each second counts in those moments).
If the gankers are outlaws (which is often the case), start jamming them ASAP by using the same method. In addition to your jammers, also send your EC-300 ECM drones on another 5th ganker, or the one which your jammer failed on.

In case the Catalysts are neutrals, like I said, start locking all of them as soon as possible.

There are two important details here. Firstly, pre-overload your jammers at all times. You will need them for a short time and overloading provides a nice bonus to your jamming strength.
The second important detail is the safety system, especially in case of neutral gankers. Have your safety on Green so that you can already start smashing the F1, F2 etc.without being CONCORDed. If they engage the miner, thus become criminal while you continuously press the buttons, you will start jamming them immediately (because the Green safety system will allow you engage them the moment they become criminal).

The Catalyst's base Magnetometric Sensor Strength is 11 points. With good skills (and obligatory overheating), this Skiff will have about 63% chance of jamming each of the Catalysts. However, if there is only one Catalyst and you activate all your 5 Gallentean jammers on it, you will have an overall jamming chance of 99,1%. These numbers are of course written with the assumption that you have overloaded your modules, you have Signal Dispersion at level 5 and the Catalyst(s) lack ECCM. 63% might not sound huge, but even if you manage to shut down 1-2 Catalysts only, that can be enough DPS loss and result in a failed gank.

If you can't command the Skiff yet, the Procurer will also offer this gameplay with a very slight decrease in the jamming strength. The Procurer also has 1 less mid-slot.

Click to enlarge

As a miner, I really want to see more and more Highsec miners use this fitting. The more we can spread this setup, the better. The Skiff is rarely targeted by gankers (especially if you pay attention) and it has an interesting amount of mid and low slots, it therefore allows you to do original things like this. If you're reading this and you have connections with the mining community, channels etc, please spread the idea and link this post.

  "Vigilante bears, best bears."

Friday, December 5, 2014

Skiff Stories: Otela Lights - Keikira Botsada

As we all know, gankers tend to repeat the similar robot-like statements all the time. According to them, all miners are bad and AFK. What's more, many of them, especially the brain-washed heretics, want to remove all forms of mining from Highsec. 
I will show how wrong they are once again, with some more ganker education. 

Let's get to it!

It was another day in Otela ice belt when I noticed the connection of a gank scout in my watch list. It was Dwin Utrigas, the gank scout for one of the most robot-like suicide gankers in EVE history: Keikira Otsada. Besides his strangely funny name, Keikira Otsada's bot-aspirancy has been observed by almost all anti-gankers and miners in Otela. In addition to his usual fail-fit Catalyst, he mostly wanted to perform his repetitive gank attempts in the same star system without having a ganking permit.

Upon noticing the connection of Dwin Utrigas, I quickly turned my eyes to Local chat list. I surely expected him to be in Otela since he was too lazy and robot-like to operate elsewhere.

There he was. Dwin Utrigas was in Local with us. In many cases, this marks the first step of what I call "the bot-aspirant escalation of a Catalyst pilot." Experienced Anti-Gankers are experts when it comes to observing, analyzing and predicting the actions of robot-like gankers. First, the scout gets connected, followed by the ganker pilot himself about 42 seconds later, which is exactly what happened in our case too.

The Catalyst pilot was now in Local as well. I knew that Dwin Utrigas was an exception when it comes to scouting. Unlike many others, he was clever enough to use his Procurer for scouting.

I definitely expected him to warp to the ice belt. Because of laziness, they don't really try to find a more suitable target at a distant asteroid belt. 
After about a minute or two, as expected, Dwin Utrigas landed at the ice belt in his Procurer.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, most gankers believe that all miners are angry, AFK carebears who can easily be ganked. However, the intel was circulating in the mining fleet from the moment Dwin Utrigas logged in. As he landed at the belt, we were all aware of who he was, and what bot-aspirant behavior he was enforcing.

It generally doesn't take too long for Dwin Utrigas to actually find a target. That's pretty much how a robot behaves when you program it to do the same thing over and over again during all its EVE career.

At that moment, I was ice mining in my ECM Skiff with several other miners near me, one of them being a Hulk. In the middle of the impressive industrial scenery, sounds of the busy Ice Harvester modules and the crowded ice field, Dwin Utrigas started approaching us…

As he positioned his ship to provide warp-in for Keikira Otsada, I was already smashing D-Scan, waiting for that Catalyst.
In fact, he did know me and my intentions, yet such automated machines cannot realize the fact that player interaction matters, and PvP is everywhere in Highsec, including ice fields and exhumers.

All of a sudden, that Catalyst appeared on D-Scan. 

What I felt upon seeing that Catalyst on D-Scan was very similar to another feeling: Imagine you were at the Fouquet's Restaurant in Paris, and after waiting for like 30 minutes, the waitress finally appears in the corner, bringing your favorite meal to you from the kitchen. 

About 15 seconds later, the sounds in the ice belt had changed. 

[ 2013.10.08 18:21:22 ] (notify) Keikira Otsada, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.
[ 2013.10.08 18:21:23 ] (combat) Warp scramble attempt from Keikira Otsada (Catalyst) to Cyril Savalette [-FAH-](Hulk)

The sounds of Ice Harvesters were temporarily replaced by the sounds of 
Anti-Ganking justice. Only one cycle of Light Neutron Blaster reverb was heard, and then it was immediately replaced by the sounds of four Magnetometric jammers of my Skiff, projecting strong waves of ionized particles and destabilizing, disrupting every single sensor in the Catalyst's targeting system. Meanwhile, multiple flights of drones were leaving different barges and exhumers drone bays to attack, destroy and punish this automated ganking-bot.

Miners Komar Nuchi, Cyril Savalette, Caldari Police 3rd Lieutenant, Hunsen and Azov Rassau reacted to Keikira Otsada's bot-aspirant behavior.

As you can see below, thanks to our interventionKeikira Otsada's gank attempt only mattered for a few seconds:

[ 2013.10.08 18:21:26 ] Leon Tao > catalyst in belt!
[ 2013.10.08 18:21:32 ] Azov Rassau > jammed
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:21:35 ] Lacisum Utama > hes ganking
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:21:42 ] Arkatneil Makanen > Lacisum Utama your contract  White Glaze* x 281 (Обмен предметами)
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:22:38 ] Arkatneil Makanen > that's all, guys! see you tomorrow! Fly save!
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:22:48 ] Amberclad > cya man
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:22:52 ] Lacisum Utama > see you
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:22:55 ] Lacisum Utama > thanks again buddy
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:23:02 ] Arkatneil Makanen > =)
﻿[ 2013.10.08 18:23:20 ] Arkatneil Makanen > warping to Otela-2 and sleep))

The Catalyst was fail-fit, and it was successfully jammed by our Skiff immediately. This is nothing new. 
But take a second look at the involved parties:

Are you getting it?

There was no CONCORD in that kill. No God-like NPC intervention. No stupid, automatic Neuts, Jams or DPS. The heavy amount of DPS and ECM was done by real players before CONCORD had even arrived. In other words, players replaced CONCORD, and EVE was once again played in Highsec. Isn't that awesome?
This is exactly why CONCORD should be nerfed (or, shouldn't be buffed). Real player interaction, PvP are in the core of EVE. It's fun, emergent and rewarding for everyone. In fact, the more CONCORD gets buffed, the less Highsec residents have fun. Most of them just don't know it yet. 
Highsec is an environment which works and survives just like the human body. There are multiple organs that work together to keep the whole body alive. When one of the organs becomes sick, the whole body will start to suffer. The main organs that keep Highsec alive are chaos, emergency and content. In other words, it is the gankers, anti-gankers and miners. These three elements need each other to have fun.
It is our responsibility to keep each of those three elements alive. As can be seen in that killmail, once there is motivation, nothing will prevent any of them from using the game mechanics to defend their cause.
I will hereby recommend all Highsec miners to use this ECM Skiff during their mining operations. Not only will it turn you into a better miner, but it will also make you a better EVE player overall. With that Skiff, you will be able to efficiently protect nearby miners while also teaching valuable lessons to the bot-aspirant Catalysts.

Next week, we will have a closer look at the idea of ECM Skiff by showing how and why you should use it.
To the gankers who say "we want to remove all forms of mining from Highsec", our answer is: 

...we want to jam all gankers in Highsec.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Highsec Ganker Education




The Otela Ice Belt









Understanding a ganker's state of mind is not always easy. 



Another miner was saved, another ganker was educated. 


Remember gankers; it's never too late to mend.

Guide: The Importance of D-Scan for Highsec Miners


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
          -Arthur C. Clarke


          -Meilandra Vanderganken


route planning device,
chart digitizer,
course recorder,
speed log,
hull stress control panel,
light control panels,
fire alarm system,
cargo monitoring screens,
Autopilot (*sigh*, not this),
steering pump selection systems,
horn system,
compressed air & cooling systems,
engine overview,
power management systems...


How can you want to be safe in space?















The Best Gank Scout Ever


→ For the Ganker: more and more firepower needed.






Stay Alert & Safety Always.
