A brief thought on fleet/ship threats

This is more of a framework for a thought exercise than anything else.  This is mildly applicable to solo work, some of the concepts should be easily applicable but the bulk of this is aimed at small gangs where individual piloting decisions can make a significant difference.

There's two threat considerations:  threats to the fleet and threats to the individual.  This can be ascertained by the engagement profiles of the fleet.

Take the nano gang that excels at ranged engagements by virtue of superior speed, damage projection and control via bonuses webs.  A significant threat to the fleet would be opposing Huginns, Rapiers and fast tackle.  Milder threats would be tracking disruption (if turret based).  A personal threat might be the fast tackle frigate that's just waiting for someone to be burning at a Huginn.  Other ships with inferior damage projection can be ignored for the time being as they cannot harm the nano gangs ships.

The gang full of brawling ships should similarly be wary of chasing a longer ranged gang that has bonuses webs.

The use of EWAR plays into this role as well.  Damps can be used offensively on opposing logistics ships to either lower their lock range or increase their lock time.  Defensive uses would be against those web range bonused ships or tracking disruption ships.

Lowsec Industry, Part 1

Note:  I am going to break this topic up into a series of shorter posts in order to actually get stuff out in a reasonable time frame over trying to make one large post about it.

Sugar Kyle over at www.lowseclifestyle.com had an interesting post on lowsec industry.  This is not a new problem.  The wonderful folks over at Failheap Challenge recently had a discussion over the lack of nullsec industry based off an infographic showing that the majority of industry (unsurprisingly) occurs in highsec.

Lowsec does not exist in a vacuum, it competes with highsec and (to a lesser extent) nullsec.  Even then there are systems that are "better" than others for industry.  So in an effort to be thorough I shall by taking a mildly comprehensive look at science and industry as a whole.

The short answer is:  it's easier and far simpler to build things for sale in highsec.  There is little reason to build things in lowsec unless it's something that absolutely cannot be done in highsec ie, carriers and dreadnaughts. 

Part of that is the freedom to shoot things in lowsec without direct ship destruction via concord also means the freedom to shoot (or not) the ships that have the potential to build the ships and modules that do the shooting in the first place, ie, it's a social problem that has potential social fixes.  Social fixes that are unfortunately not implemented with significant regularity for a variety of reasons.  In other words the only thing stopping a player in a combat ship from shooting the mining barge happily chewing rocks at a lowsec belt is the combat ship pilot.

There's a significant volume of materials that go into building things.  Those materials are moved vastly simpler in highsec (lower barrier to entry).

Finished products (notably ships) also have volume that make moving goods difficult in lowsec.

The exception to the above is building things for sale in the same system.  While perfectly viable, sales in lowsec generally tend to be on the low side of build able items and rarely enough demand to justify it.  A wide variety of goods are required for a lowsec trade hub and not all of them can be built (as it's rare someone would want to buy a half fit ship).  Simply buying in Jita, transporting to a lowsec trade hub via jump freighter and selling at a mark up has been proven to be sufficient to meet lowsec market demands.

Markets themselves are an important part of the discussion along with various market costs (transportation costs most notably).

FW space also has an element of economic warfare for anything placed on the open market is vulnerable to being bought out by opposing militia and relisted at higher cost which is counterproductive if the goal is to supply friendly militia.  This leads to using corp contracts for fitted ships.

The market side of things is by far a deeper subject to hop into and at risk of having babbled long enough, I'll save the rest for a full post on the subject.

Tangent:  A comment on Sugars blog was a link to this experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffaker%27s_mite_experiment.  The point that I took away from it is that "prey" must have effective options to survive, otherwise the predators hunt the prey into extinction followed shortly by their own extinction for lack of fold.  This obviously isn't quite accurate for Eve Online as there are people who continue to travel through Ossogur into Amamake, or Rancer.  I'd like to think that's a decision someone would make only once, but there are repeat customers to the smartbomb/instalock party.  Having said that, lowsec survival in a noncombat or PvE fitted ship tends to be a very binary proposition:  either one is mostly safe with preventive options or one is tackled and likely to lose said ship.  I'm not sure there's much middle ground save doing DED sites in a PvP ship or group.

The Cult of T2

"Better to have a fight and lost than to not have fought at all".

My experiments with the T1/meta fit destroyers have gone well.  I've managed to bag a few kills while outnumbered with them, fleeted up with a couple buddies and had a blast not thinking much about the odds, simply being content with having an engagement and potentially bagging a couple kills in the process.

The impression I get from from other pilots has been generally "T2 guns or GTFO".  CCPs general balancing revolves around "linear increase in power for exponential cost" and T2 is a prime example of it:  it's a roughly 50% increase in raw DPS and T2 ammo flexibility (which may not even be a factor) for sometimes well over 100x the cost of T1/meta weapons.

My rationale for T1 fits are simple:

1). I'm not thinking much about taking an engagement where my ship is destroyed.  For 3-4m a pop and 0.5m back from insurance I can happily take many potential engagements where I would've hesitated with a 10m fit.

2). I feel that when fighting solo I tend to lose from simply bringing a rock to fight paper, in which case I lose almost without exception and T2 wouldn't have made a difference.  In which case all I'm doing is throwing isk away.  Other losses occur from simply being outnumbered by backup, in which case again the likelihood of the extra DPS from T2 guns allowing me to kill more than one, or even getting a kill at all, are slim and not worth throwing isk at.

3). Fleet fights almost always result in loss, moreso in a high DPS environment. Better to lose a 3m ship and not think twice about grabbing another to was out again.  If my fleet outcomps the other, then T2 wouldn't have mattered much either.

4). Stockpiling is cheap.  One JF can hold ~60 thrashers plus fitting and ammo.  It can either be a 180m or 600m load.  Figure 50m for transportation costs and I can have 3 times as much fun with T1 fits over T2.

Now, it's one thing to do it for shits and giggles on my own.  When I was in militia driving off combat plexers where they had a clear numbers advantage was something I hesitated with when it was T2 fit ships and their associated costs.  With 3m thrashers that I can happily throw at plexers, through sheer attrition I can drive them off which is fulfilling the objective of keeping my system my own.

Objective Based PvP

I've been debating signing back up to the Minmatar militia.  Part of it is to have a reason to undock and engage.  Purposeless slaughter only goes so far, and by being a militia target, I give opposition even more reason to engage me.

I would, of course, bring my particular philosophy to objective engagements:  fly cheap, fly better, and bleed the enemy dry.  When I risk a 3m ship to destroy a 20-40m one, I demoralize the enemy when I win and give them no satisfaction when I lose.

AAR: Frerstorn 21Jan14

System:  Frerstorn

Time:  0100UTC 21Jan14

Location: Novice Plex
Battle Summary:  http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=21494702

The fit:

[Republic Fleet Firetail, Firetail]
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Shield Extender II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I

I'd located myself about 60km off the beacon inside the plex.  Petrus Blackshell and Basker Melkan warped in.  Questions about parental sexuality was exchanged in local.  I confirmed both had autocannons fitted.  I waited until both Rifters were confirmed to have MWDs as they burned towards me, Petrus about 20km ahead of Basker.

Petrus and I tackled each other nearly simultaneously and exchanged weapons fire.  In a few seconds Basker closed and applied his tackle to me.  As Basker closed to zero, Petrus pulled range.

I attempted to switch tackle and DPS to Basker, but I learned that right clicking and hit approach did not switch the active target, so when I hit F1-F4 I was still applying tackle and firing at Petrus.  This happened about two or three times before I actually switched my gunfire to Basker.  Within a few seconds of doing so, Basker pulled range and Petrus closed back in.  I was still comfortably above 50% shields.

I properly switched back to Petrus and destroyed his ship.  At this point I was low on shields and decided to make an attempt at the second Rifter, knowing I was going to be faster and almost certainy have more DPS.  I closed with Basker and overheated.  Baskers ship exploded as I was entering half structure.

Gf's were exchanged in local.  In the Rifterlings chat channel, Petrus lamented that he had selected Fusion ammo for the one time he ends up fighting a shield Firetail.

Their fits:

[Rifter, Petrus Blackshell's Rifter] Emergency Damage Control I Adaptive Nano Plating I 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I X5 Prototype Engine Enervator 200mm Light Gallium Machine Gun,Republic Fleet Fusion S 200mm Light Gallium Machine Gun,Republic Fleet Fusion S 200mm Light Gallium Machine Gun,Republic Fleet Fusion S 'Limos' Rocket Launcher I,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket Small Projectile Burst Aerator I Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

[Rifter, Basker Melkan's Rifter] Damage Control II Adaptive Nano Plating II 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I X5 Prototype Engine Enervator 200mm AutoCannon II,Barrage S 200mm AutoCannon II,Barrage S 200mm AutoCannon II,Barrage S 'Limos' Rocket Launcher I,Caldari Navy Nova Rocket [empty rig slot]

Notes:

1) I screwed up switching targets.  If I had done so properly the engagement would not have been as close.

2) I commend the two pilots for dipping in and out of close range as I switched targets to apply more DPS.  Though my target switching was bad, this might have actually contributed to destroying the two Rifters faster as I had DPS superiority up close.

3) I failed to bring Barrage ammo, though I do not believe I would have either used it or swapped to it mid engagement.

4) The two Rifters both had relatively low tanks.  When I remarked to Petrus that a 400mm plate would fit easily with downgraded guns and a mild fitting change, he scoffed at the notion of downgrading guns.

5) My EHP difference between Fusion and Phased Plasma ammo is not significant, a couple hundred EHP at most.  EMP on the other hand would've shaved off a significant chunk of EHP.  However given the Firetails potential to be either shield or armour fit, Phased Plasma should be the default short range ammunition choice unless killboard history suggests that I only fly one kind of fit.

6) An artillery shield Firetail achieves similar tank levels and better damage projection but has worse tracking and vulnerable to being out tracked if double webbed as this engagement played out.  Though speeds are significantly lower if it involves scrammed and webbed MWD frigates, I suspect the poorer tracking on artillery would still be an issue and therefore not a viable option.

You know you're a bitter vet when...

You read a dev post about new skills that allows a jump clone timer reduction and more jump clones, and your reaction flips between:

1)  Stockholm Syndrome:  Thank you CCP! Thank you!

2) Utter rage:  This game is 10 plus years old and ONLY NOW they're getting around to this?!

State Of The FPS

I used to be a hardcore FPS player in the days of Quake III and Unreal Tournament 1999, sadly I've been so spoiled by the UT99 movement system and weapons that nothing has come close since to the adrenaline rush I'd experienced during ladder matches.

Such a bout of nostalgia didn't come without warning.  A game that had looked promising, Payday 2, took a nosedive in my interest level once I found out a little bit more about the mechanics the developers had chosen to implement.

It has a leveling system which unlocks perks/talents, a reputation system for unlocking weapons, a random map/mission/difficulty system, and a random loot drop system for weapon mods.

The reason the above system for me thinking, and quite angry, is my very real concern that the unlock/leveling mechanic is there to prolong an otherwise shallow game.  That is, if everyone were max level, all weapon and mods to choose from, any map and difficulty to select, would anyone still be playing?

Take the Call of Duty experience:  I found that the prestige system prevented me from seriously trying to master a weapon beyond what would get me to the next prestige, and once I hit max prestige and everything was unlocked I found the game rather uninteresting.

The experience and unlock mechanic functioning as a Skinner Box to keep me playing rather than being genuinely interesting in its own right.

Nevermind the fact that I paid $X for a game and now I needed to play a considerable amount to simply have full access to all the options?  I thought I unlocked it when I paid for it?

Compared to the UT series or Quake where everyone was on (relatively) equal footing with regard to weapons/items from the get go and player skill expressed through said weapons without an artificial "reset" made for a competitive environment without leveling imposed restrains.

/end rant

Anatomy of an Engagment: Rifter versus Merlin

Pre-post Mini-rant: Autocannons suck. Relatively low DPS made even worse by almost certainly fighting in falloff. Selectable damage type is great until you realize other comparable ship fits do around 50% or better raw DPS and the raw DPS loss for that selectable damage type is not offset by the subsequent resist holes (less so if the resist hole is plugged as is often the case). So yeah, I'm lamenting autocannons, though these days of T1 vs T1 engagements has me wondering if they were ever really that strong in the first place.

Non-Minmatar ships suffered a great deal prior to the ship rebalance due to poor powergrid/CPU and mediocre ship bonuses. These have been "fixed" on the frigate/destroyer/cruiser level and will soon be addressed on the battlecruiser level on up.

So yeah, I'm not too enthused with autocannons at the moment. Artillery on the other hand...

/end rant

So, the fight.

First, the fits:

[Rifter, Bud Good's Rifter] Gyrostabilizer II Damage Control II 400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I Limited 1MN Afterburner I J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet EMP S 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet EMP S 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet EMP S Small Anti-Explosive Pump I Small Anti-Kinetic Pump I Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

and


[Merlin, Merlin]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I


First thing you should notice is the obvious disparity in propulsion mods. My Merlin is MWD fit, which almost certainly ensures that my prop mod will be off when it gets into a brawl. My reasoning is that as long as I can project damage out to scram range I can out brawl anything I encounter. Secondly, if the other ship is trying to escape I can overheat my scram and spam my MWD hoping that my opponent either hasn't overheated his scram or isn't aligned out, thus allowing me to get an MWD burst in to close the range.

So, how'd this play out? The Rifter was in a novice plex, I warped into the plex to find the Rifter 4km off the warp in and immediately scrammed and TD'd. Having anticipated the Rifter to kite, I had Null loaded and overheated. What I wasn't anticipating was the TD, this knocked my range to 5km with Null, all I could do at this point was hit approach and hope my TD'd DPS would be enough to destroy the Rifter before he destroyed me as I had no hope of disengaging (hence part of the point of MWDs, isn't it?).

To my surprise my base speed was enough to catch up to the AB fit Rifter and started getting some solid hits in at around 4km where he crumpled fairly quickly.

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16335332

I believed I shouldn't have won that fight unless I had an opportunity to get to 0 on him and apply enough DPS before he is able to pull range.  Warping into the plex where he gets to dictate the initial tackle range is a crapshoot at best.

The first thing I noticed on his fit? The 400mm plate and triple armor rigs.

Next? He left his TD unscripted which meant that only half as much range reduction was inflicted on my Merlin.

Finally, his fit had the smallest autocannons available which meant his optimal+falloff is somewhere around 5km, pretty short. Granted, he did have a gyro and burst rig, but those do nothing to extend your range when trying to kite.

Now, given the meta of lowsec FW AB short range frigates, I can't imagine that fit succeeding against my usual AB Merlin. Closing range and applying overheated CNAM DPS to the tune of 240 or so would have ended the fight that much sooner.

Some thoughts on range

Engagement Range

This is something that's been on my mind for a couple weeks now that I've been meaning to make into a blog post.

So there's a few ranges engagements tend to fall into. In order of distance, close to far (note that while this is frigate oriented, the criteria for cruisers and above is similar, the ranges adjust to meet the longer ranges on all cruiser/battleship modules save points and webs):

1) Roshambo Range: <500m stationary.

This is where you're attempting to get as close as possible to your target and apply as much DPS as possible, taking max DPS from your opponent, fingers crossed you can destroy your opponent before he can destroy you.

2) LOLtracking Range: Orbit <500m.

This is similar to Roshambo Range except where you're attempting to break the hit quality of your opponent by (preferably) manually orbiting as tight an orbit as you can. Most viable when you have superior tracking, a web and your opponent doesn't have a web. This is preferable for some active tank and nos fits.

3) Small Nos/Neut range: <6000m

This is the range where you're attempting to buy enough time for your nos/neut to do its thing while minimizing incoming turret based DPS, the idea being that if you're running a nos+rep, you lower incoming DPS and outlast your opponent. Similarly with neuts against cap using weapons (hybrids and lasers), turning off your opponents weapons or giving their active tank trouble.

4) Scram range kiting: 6600m-9000m.

Pretty straightforward. Outrange small Nos/Neuts while still being able to apply your own DPS.

5) Warp Disruptor Kiting: 13km-28.8km.

The range on this varies slightly (but significantly) based on the Warp Disruptor fitted. Meta Warp Disruptors are limited to 13-20km/24km (overheated), T2 Warp Disruptors to 13km-24km/28.8km (overheated). Imperial Navy Slicers tend to fall into this category as well as kiting cruisers such as the Shield Rupture and Shield Stabber/Stabber Fleet Issue.

Beyond 28.8km is a skirmish range that generally relies on long range weaponry up to sniper set ups that are at 70km+.

Range Control:

This article would be incomplete without a discussion on range control, or how ships are able to change the engagement range.

Generally speaking, the faster ship, properly flown, is able to dictate the engagement envelope. There are obvious exceptions: a kite fit Imperial Navy Slicer dictates range up to the point where it's scrammed and webbed.

Activating a gate into a FW plex is a crapshoot as to how far away your opponent is and therefore how many range control modules you could be subjected to, be it superior speed, scram, or web.

Now, that range control must be taken in context of your ships gank and tank. In other words, fit a point that suits your weapons engagement range. It's pointless (pun intended) to fit a 24km T2 Warp Disruptor if you're running small autocannons. The exception to this is where you're flying a long point MWD frigate attempted to hold point for your gang, with that fit the short range weapons are suitable for dealing with drones.

Piloting skill:

This is the wildcard factor. Tricks like slingshotting to scram or escape, flying in a straight line to minimize transversal/the effect of TDs, crashing to zero range with an overheated prop mod, all can play a significant role in how an engagement plays out.

I'll be covering the how's and whys in a later blog post.

Macro Level Invention

When I started out doing T2 invention/production I was looking at it from a micro point of view: What's my profit margin? How much will I make per hour? Etc.

As my T2 invention/production capable characters grow I run into a different set of questions: How many assembly lines can I keep going at full tilt? How many invention jobs can my POS support? And so on.

This isn't a basic T2 invention guide, so look for that stuff on the Eve wiki. It's complete and explains all the basics.

Also, if you're not using a POS for invention and production, you're missing out.

An important metric to consider is the copy/invention to production ratio: or, will my production time be lower than my time to produce the blueprint?

For all but the small frigate stuff this isn't a concern. T2 ships on the other hand typically have a 1:1 ratio or close to it.

Why is this important? There's a hard limit on BPC output. Mobile labs are fine by themselves for T2 ship invention as the single run BPC copy to invention time ratio is heavily skewed in favour of the BPCs, so it's a nonissue: You can keep as many assembly lines working full time as you have invention slots.

So for item BPCs, the source is Advanced Mobile Labs. Now, the output for a single Advanced Lab with a Science V character is approximately 650 max run BPCs per month.

Now, take the T2 items you're interested in and figure out how many runs a single line will require in order to be running full time. This is simply (24x30)/production time in hours. Multiply this number by the number of production lines you intend to keep running full time. For me this number is five for a given item.

Next factor in how many invention runs you'll need to do in order to have enough T2 BPCs. This is the above number divided by your invention success rate.

This final number is the number of BPCs you'll need to churn out each month to meet the production demand. This number can vary anywhere from 80 to over 600 depending on the T2 production time.

So, what does all this mean? There's a hard limit on the number of BPCs you can produce in a given month, which means that there's some planning involved with a POS (Advanced Labs, Assembly Arrays, etc) that goes hand in hand with the items you wish to churn out.

What should I fit my ship with?

"It depends".

Before fitting up a ship, or even buying the hull, the question "what am I trying to do with this?" needs to be answered. Purpose is the ultimate overriding factor in how you fit your ship, or if you should be using that ship at all.

For example, if I want to fly fast tackle for a small frigate gang, everything from the ship (Rifter, Atron, etc), to the mods I fit (Nos, TD, dual prop) must have its purpose in mind in order to be successful. Taking out a DCU tanked, speed fit, short point Rifter and trying to tackle any of the various kinds of Thrashers is probably not going to end well.

So, choose your ship and fittings based on what you intend to do with it.

This includes what you choose to fit over another module, be it tank, gank, E-war or fitting mods. Opportunity cost is very, very real and is most apparent in a 1v1 situation.

Consider the match up between a standard 200mm plate+SAR Rifter versus the cap boosted, dual rep Incursus, both afterburner fit. The Incursus has an amazing active tank, no added buffer, and moderate DPS. The Rifter has a fairly weak tank, some buffer thanks to the 200mm plate, and excellent range control with its combination of after, scram and web. Assuming equal pilot skill, there's really only two outcomes available to this encounter. The Rifter destroys the Incursus by causing enough structure bleed damage, or the Rifter successfully disengages from the fight because the Incursus has no web and cannot dictate range. Similar outcomes occur with a dual ASB Merlin versus anything with a web and/or is faster. The lack of range control is crippling versus anything that has equal or superior range control.

More on the subject of range control later on.

Sufficient to say there's a great deal of planning and thought, whether consciously or unconsciously, that goes into any pvp encounter.

Back to Basics

I'm a believer in efficiency of effort.

When someone asks how a FW plex works, my answers is "read the eve wiki".

When the question is "target painters, how do they work?", my answer is "read the eve wiki".

When the umpteenth newbie asks "how do I get standings with ?", my answer hasn't changed..."READ THE DAMN EVE WIKI".

The follow up to that sentence depends on the person asking and goes something like this "look, you're not the first person to ask this question so chances are the answers are on the Internet that can be found with a little google-fu. There's an Eve wiki that a lot of people have put a lot of effort into thr explains the basics of this game and how shit works. Don't waste the time of people around you by asking them to explain the basics of this game. The resources are there. Go find them".

A pragmatic reason for why I wouldn't bother with that last paragraph is the conservation of effort: I could spend fifteen minutes, thirty, an hour, explaining the basics to someone who might not become a part of the community of pilots I fly with. Why waste the effort?

Now, it occurs to me that if someone were to ask "can a Rifter take on a Thrasher and win?", the answer is a very definite "it depends". There's a lot of variables based on how the two pilots in that situation chose to fit their ships and pilot SP/competence. This is pretty obvious to anyone who has a solid grasp of the basic game mechanics and understands the principles of various E-War. Even then it may be a simple lack of experience and/or creativity.

So, one of the goals I have for this blog is to:

1) expand on the basics to application,

2) focus on more advanced subjects such as which TD script to use in a given situation, knowing ship types and capabilities,

3) Specific match ups and how the fight might progress based on ship fittings.

Chock full of good stuff to come.

Industry: Beginning

Last night Khori handed me a review of current industrial and research capability of my corp, Those Once Loyal.

I had chosen the corp name shortly after I left The Black Company a little over a year ago. The concept of loyalty had been an important one to me, however the betrayal of the Caldari command during my time as a ground pounder and subsequent disillusionment with Company direction had raised some fundamental questions to me. By tradition Company leadership had transferred from Captain Bloodpetal to...words escape me to describe him. A man who'd been at the founding of the Company during its incarnation in the space surrounding New Eden; had been Captain for a time; stepped down and assumed the role of Archivist; somehow, through ways I am not aware of, appointed as the Master Sergeant; then during a closed meeting was appointed the Captain. An appointment that stank of the betrayal of Company founding values and principles.

But that story is for another time.

Right now I was focused on the meager scientific and industrial capacity of my corp.

It didn't look good. A handful of production capability and twice that Tech II blueprint invention.

Enough to pay for Khori's pilot license and have some profit leftover.

I'd hired Khori sometime ago based on her sales pitch of industry work. She'd showed me that she was worth the investment and maintenance of her pilots license which was good enough for me to take her aboard.

I'd had a taste of what industry done right could do and I wanted more.

The cash wasn't easy. Half the time it was more of a logistical pain in the ass than any real difficulty in the manufacturing.

The other half of the time was dealing with the inevitable market hounds and competition. This was where I had a crash course in retailing and what return on investment really meant.

Early in Khori's career, she'd been manufacturing and retailing ship rigs. While rigs are easy to make, the margins weren't stellar and tended to move slow.

Having a couple hundred million sitting on the market did no good things for my mood. The best situation is where Khori was able to liquidate the entire stock in one bulk sale at a discount. Sure, it cut into margins but it also freed up that capital to reinvest.

Given my headquarters distance to Jita and current status fighting for the Minmatar Republic, relying on that trade hub for supplies was out of the question...until I heard about Push Industries.

Push was a relative newcomer to the courier market long dominated by Red Frog Freight. I'd given one of their lower rate specials a shot and never looked back. Outstanding service, reasonably fast, it's been nothing but a good experience.

This development led to the hiring of a sales and acquisition agent in Jita. One that has paid off extremely well. The ability to acquire certain, rarer materials in bulk quantities has easily justified my agents hiring.

For obvious reasons I will not divulge my agents name.

Back to those numbers. I'm going to be rapidly expanding my operations soon, upgrading the corp POS to a medium and acquiring more labs and manufacturing arrays as well as hiring more pilots and agents to keep said facilities running 24/7.

(Re)Introductions

Welp, time to give this blogging thang another try.  Goals?  Modest.  One well written post per week (maybe my horribad engrish might improve in the process).  I intend this to be a split between RP and informative posting with some theorycrafting tossed in for good measure.

I'll toss up a couple posts that I've been saving later on today.