The Realm Online

I recently been poking around in my cupboards looking for my Unreal Tournament disc (I need some old school shooter gaming in my life) and came across the Realm Online.  This game was my first foray into the world of MMOs and I loved it when I played it.
It reminded me of school and the shitty games I used to play that I will still maintain were fantastic (Dragonball Z rpg on the SNES for example), and with that memory in mind I have payed for an old account on this game to be reactivated so I can enjoy some old school MMO fun.

A bit of background on the Realm, it is dated....I mean it.  It came out in the early/mid 90s and was one of the first MMORPGs and since then its not really changed.  There still is very little in the way of graphics and it can be buggy as hell in places but it is a very simple game (not too dissimilar to WOW) and doesn't take a lot of memory/cpu/input whilst playing (I was ratting on it whilst on Eve last night).

The premise of the game is the standard fantasy storyline.  Evil/Good/Neutral Elf/Giant/Human/Orc Warriors/Thieves/Wizards/Adventurers go around killing monsters and collecting goods for NPCs.  Its simple and easy and doesn't require a lot to get good at, the community is also very nice (Hard not to be when there is only a couple of 100 people playing throughout the day).


The Flaws


There are flaws to the game other than its dated graphics, it doesn't have much in the way of PVP.  This is mostly due to there being an on/off switch for PVP, this hinders this side of the game as everyone just sets it to off so they cant get jumped.
It doesn't have a large population, this can mostly be attributed to its age (nearly 20 years old) but also due to its lack of updates, it might be nice that it hasn't changed from a nostalgia point of view but its also a little sad that a game I used to love as a kid is still floundering in its mid-90s type graphics/gameplay.

The largest flaw, at least in my eyes, is the market.  Most of the standard items are available from NPC markets and as the population is small pretty much everyone has all the special items they would need meaning there is very little in the way of player trading.  Inflation is also rife due to this, an item that used to be only a couple of 100k gold when I played is now sold for millions due to everyone having an ever increasing hoard of gold.  Like I said most items are available from NPCs but the items everyone uses are from dungeons and now that everyone has these, very few need the NPC market items meaning there is little in the way of a gold sink.  Obviously this coming from EvE bugs the crap out me, going from a game with lots of sinks and a free market to a game with pretty much zero sinks and a NPC market is quite a change.

Despite the flaws though I have started a new character and I am going to at least play through the month for a bit of fun.

Korg

Best Ship In Class (Cause I want to get in on the bandwagon)

So there have been plenty (two) blogs so far on the subject of best in class for each of the ship types in EvE.  Personally these sorts of lists will never be agreed on and are very dependant on the situation you find yourself in.  Although I thought I would get in on the act for the fun of it anyway, so here goes my list of the 'Best in Class'.

Frigates

T1 Frigate: There isn't much to choose between each of the races top combat frigates and on their day they can each defeat each other in a fight however, I am going to have to say the Rifter purely because it is the most forgiving to a young pilot and is ridiculously easy to fit.

Assault Frigate: Once again the Assault Class of Frigate is fairly even, there are some duds (Retribution) but most can be extremely competitive in the PVP field but again as above I will have to give this to Minmatar and their Jaguar as it is the most forgiving for the young pilot when they first get into t2 frigates.  Once on an even playing field (SP and experience wise) it is a toss up between the Ishkur, Jaguar and Hawk.  The Jaguar retains its greatness regardless of SP but the other to become exponentially better the more SP you have to invest.

Combat Interceptor: Although the Crusader is a great combat inty, the title will always go to the Taranis which is quite possibly one of the best non-faction solo frigates and give them a run for there money.  The AB+Rep fit feels more like a fast AF than an Inty.

Tackle Interceptor: As long as we forget the Raptor the others are fairly interchangeable in the tackle role however, the title goes to the Malediction because you have the option to use it solo.

Cov Ops(Combat): Not going to comment on there probing abilities as they can all probe equally well.  I will instead give my opinion on them as combat frigates, and although the Helios has the best tank/gank ratio in this role the Buzzard gets the nod as it can cloak and is nearly cap stable which adds a lot to survivability in long fights.

Cov Ops(Bomber): I haven't got huge amounts of experience with stealth bombers except in gangs, and Hounds seemed the bees knees there but Solo the Manticore is better due to having mid slots.

Navy Faction: This in my opinion is possibly one of the best balanced classes of Frigates, they are all good and all have there benefits.  The best though is either the Hookbill or the Slicer just because both melt/splode most frigates in most situations.

Pirate Faction: I would be panned through the floor if I didn't say the best is the Dramiel but I think it is dependent on the situation. The Dramiel is the best for a general solo roam where everything is fair game, purely because once shit hits the fan you can run however, if you are out aiming for frigate fights then the best changes and becomes the Daredevil (Rail or Blasters).  I will say overall the Dramiel wins due to its ability to be great or good in most situations.

Electronic Warfare Frigates: Sentinel, no discussion.

Destroyer: Not much to say about the Destroyers, they all kill most frigates well but the Thrasher does it best.
Interdictor: For the bubble dropping role, they are all good.  Solo however its the same as the Destroyer class the Sabre(t2 Thrasher) wins it.  Note that everyone knows this though and are unlikely to engage a solo sabre in a frigate.

T1 Cruiser: Its between the Rupture and Vexor in the t1 Cruiser class at least from a combat perspective.  I cant decide between them so I will go with the only other cruiser that is worthwhile outside of specialist gangs the Blackbird.

Heavy Assault Cruiser: HACs are a great class of ship, pretty much all at least someway workable to a decent combat ship but there are only two that stand out above the rest in pretty much every role.  The Vagabond and the Zealot.  The Vagabond is the better solo boat (Due to being able to run regularly), the Zealot is the better gang boat being able to join AHAC (well duh) and Nano gangs depending on the fit.

Combat Recons: The Curse is the best solo Recon (In my opinion) so it would stand to reason that its the best Combat Recon too.  Its also great at gang work.

Force Recons: Falcon wins it here, nothing causes more rage and turns the tides of fights better than a Falcon.

Logis: I personally have no experience of logistics cruisers other than being repped by them, but I have heard good things about all.

Navy Faction: The Stabber Fleet Issue wins it for me, its brilliantly versatile whether you want a buffer cruiser, nano shield cruiser or dual rep active cruiser this thing can pull it off well.  Also the tracking on this thing is insane and with its tiny sig (can get it as low as some frigates) it lasts ages.

Pirate Faction: Cynabal, great damage, speed and the agility of a frigate(ish) you cant go wrong with a Cynabal.

Battlecruiser: its a toss up between the Cane and the Drake, they both have great nano/kite fits and both have tank/gank fits.  Personally the Drake is my number one for PVP.  Not even going to make any points for PVE

Field Command Ships: Slepneir or Abso are both brilliant PVP ships but as people like to blob solo ships I will go with the slep because of its speed.

Fleet Command Ships: Fairly Interchangeable depending on gangs but Claymore sees most use in my world and wins it for me. Claymore also makes a fairly good combat ship in its own right.

T3s: Tengu

Battleship: On the battleship front, its a decision between the Tempest and the Abaddon for me.  Solo the Tempest wins out but in gangs the Abaddon is best (plus you can make pretty rainbows)

Marauders: Golem or Vargur but I have no experience so I'm not going to comment

Black Ops: Not going to bother, have no experience and only about 500 people fly them :)

Navy Faction BS: I have rarely seen these ships in a PVP role but in the PVE world the Raven Navy Issue wins so I will give the overall title to it.

Pirate Faction BS: Machariel wins completely due to its speed and the mentality of people when pirate faction comes on d-scan.

On the Capital front I have absolutely no experience as I never intend to fly one so instead will defer to the populace on that one and most seem to be split between Gallente and Amarr on the Carrier(both types) front.  I imagine its the same on the Titan front too due to there being slaves.

Now the easy ones

Industrial: Mammoth or Itty 5, this does depend on what you want to do with your industrial though.
Transport: Viator or Prowler, again dependent on role.
Mining Barge(lol): Cant be arsed to write something here oh wait
Freighter: I imagine these are fairly interchangeable they haul large amounts thats it.

So thats it my list of 'Best in Class'....dons flame retardant jacket.....flame on.

Korg

This one time at top belt...

.....I missed a whole bunch of kills because my corp mates were too efficient, oh and then this happened BP.

Its a little messed up but essentially it says that SithLord and Habah killed everyone all the time, so props to them.

I done did it again

I thought this month was going to be good, after last month where I killed alot and lost more than I should I thought I would do better this month but so far I have been introduced into the annoying part of being a pirate in lowsec.

Its been a strange month so far, some nights I will get some nice kills (Kill1 Kill2 Kill3) and then others I will do something stupid and die in a fire (Loss1 Loss2 Loss3).  In short I have lost far too much this month and it is really eating into my isk buffer (yes yes I will take donations :P), this has meant I have had to go back to what I hate on my alt, manufacturing.  Its going ok, minus the obvious problems with manufacturing and selling stuff in lowsec.

I have at least achieved some things this month though, I passed the 1000 kills mark (only if you total both my accounts) and have finally gotten into building bits and pieces of capital ships, which I have had the skills for since '09 but have never used.

In short though despite those minor achievements I need to stop doing stupid shit in my frigates and start becoming the 'efficient' solo pilot I was a couple of months ago.

Battle Reports???

Rifter vs. Rifter

It has been quite some time since I used a t1 frigate for a regular roam, rather than in 1v1 challenges, but I decided near the beginning of the month to fit up some shield rifters and go out to lose them.
As mentioned earlier though this happens to be one of the times I was feeling a little Pr0.
I jumped into Ofleim, seeing another Rifter on d-scan towards the Plex I warp to 0.  I cam out of warp 11km off of this other Rifter, quickly getting into range of each other I realised a problem.....he was armor fit.  This meant due to him having a web he would be able to dictate range on me.  Making matters worse I default to the high damage ammo in a shield rifter, I needed to close range fast, overheating my AB I tried to keep as close as possible but the web was causing me problems.
Eventually he was low armor but I was also just entering armor, quickly I started hemorrhaging armor then bleeding hull at roughly the same time he was.  Luckily the pew pew gods smiled on me and he popped with me at 20% structure.  Unfortunately another Rifter landed just as I finished looting, I bugged out to live another day....by warping to a gate with gcc and very little hp left.  My fight with the gate was quick and thanks to the 'rascist' gate guns not having tackle I was out with 5% structure. Derp.



All in all been a bit of an odd month on the pvp front, although the last couple of night have been alot better.

Korg

Music 

(Definitely not for the younger viewer)

So Far, So Good pt. 2

This is going to cover some of the best fights I have had over the last month or so.  Unfortunately ones I missed out on frapsing cause I'm a. a cheap git and didn't get a full version till recently and b. utter fail when it comes to switching on at the beginning of fights and this makes me sad.

Good Fights

Vengeance vs. Rifter, Thrasher, Tristan and Taranis

I was on a roam around the usual areas of Minnie Militia when I had finally gotten back to glorious Amamake with its new PL locals.  Warping to one of my usual spots of the top belt I see a thrasher and Tristan sitting around 20km off the centre with a Rifter I had been attempting to catch about 300km off the belt in another direction.  Fancying my chances to at least take one or two out I warped to the belt at 50km and tried to get the thrasher and tristan to split up.

This was working quite well, until the Tristan got within 20km he turned around and started to burn towards the belt again.  Now I was itching for a fight so I started to burn towards them as fast as my little ship could go....I soon realised my mistake when the Thrasher and Tristan were suddenly on me, I had been baited into a brawl.  Doing the only thing I could do I attempted to brawl them down.  I pointed up the thrasher and threw my scram and web on him pulling range in an attempt to lower his incoming dps whilst slowly working on his buffer.  With my tank taking a hit from both the ships, we were joined by the rifter pilot from earlier.  So what was a 2v1 was now a 3v1, I needed to get the incoming dps down sharpish.
Overheating my tank and rocket launchers the thrasher went into armor then popped, I pointed the tristan and using the same tactics as before I pulled range and started to chip at his ships buffer he also exploded.  This left just me and the rifter, my tank was holding as I pointed him and went through his tank.  He popped in a blue flash and gfs were exchanged with all in local.

As I began to loot the field a PL Taranis appeared 25km away from me, he pointed me and expecting the PL gang to appear as well or that I would get one shot by a titan I was resigned to my fate and started firing back.  He popped alot faster than I thought he would and the gang never came so I finished looting the field and warped off having enjoyed a great fight and a real vindication of my choice in ships.

Vengeance vs. Daredevil

This was quite possibly my favourite 1v1 for two reasons, firstly I had a gang 1 jump out that were going to jump in once I got tackle and secondly its a frigging daredevil, a well fit one.  So I will set the scene for this, the three of us were out on a roam, a thrasher, vengeance and slicer(honestly cant remember what the other guys were in just know they were small) when I spotted a Daredevil sitting on a gate in the system ahead.  Reporting as such over comms I warped to a belt to tempt him into shooting me with the plan being once  I had him tackled they would jump in and we would kill him.

He warped in and we proceeded to open fire, I knew I was never going to dictate range in this fight being in a slow ship being 90% webbed means its just not going to happen.  I still overheated my AB to try my best to mess up the Daredevils tracking as best I could whilst making my repper work harder than usual.  Giving the sign over the comms I was just trying to hold on long enough for the rest of the gang to arrive but then I noticed something...the Daredevil was in structure and I was still in my armor, no one else had arrived and suddenly a blue flash and the DD pilot was staring at me from his pod.

Stupid Losses

Minus the beginning of this month a lot of my losses so far have either come from great fights (My Vengeances attempt to tank two Dramiels for example) or stupid things (Losing a Battle Buzzard to gate guns), I need to cut out the stupid losses if I want to become efficient otherwise I am going to run low on isk fast even if it cost less than 100mil to stock my ships up for a month, based on current loss data.
I also should probably stop playing when drunk as I have lost a couple of really strangely fitted ships due to this and I could really do without it.  Even if waking up the next day to find some strange fraps you have no recollection of can be quite amusing.

Video

I am in the process of making a pvp video.  Its mostly frigate combat with some larger ship fights thrown in.  I warn you though I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to video editing software so be prepared for some badly edited video :).

Hopefully I will get the video finished this evening (6/10/2012) and I can get it uploaded, keep getting the problem that as soon as I think its done I get a fight that I want to put in it but ah well guess I will just have to be stricter with which fights get in there.

Korg

So Far, So Good pt. 1

I originally intended this post to be a summation of my first month in piracy but due to my laziness and Maths coursework it has been delayed and will now be a summation of my first two months in piracy.....roughly.
This will be quite a long post as I am going to try and be as detailed as I can be, but hopefully it will still be interesting and not at all waffly(Its a word).

Pirating So Far

Its been quite a transition and the first two months have been a success...I think.  I know killboard stats are fairly useless but I have managed to maintain a ~90% efficiency whilst getting over 120 kills in frigates which is nice only recently lost my 20th I believe.  So a 6:1 ratio.
That isn't to say I haven't done some really stupid things and alot of those losses reflect that.  Some lost through stupidity and others through getting used to the low sec mechanics again.  I will touch on these later.

At the moment I just want to write a little about the differences between low sec and NPC null in terms of the kind of PvP I have found.  The biggest and most obvious one is that lack of bubbles, I can't tell you how nice it has been not having to fit a MWD to all my frigates, it also makes escaping the inevitable gate camps easier.  Although with the militias tendency to fly frigates and my outlaw status that isn't always as easy as it looks and does require some knowledge of agro mechanics.
I have noticed a lack of larger gangs in Heimatar lowsec, minus the odd militia bait and blob fleet most pilots tend to be in <5 person gang category.  This is most likely due to my area of lowsec, being the main area for the Minmatar/Amarr militia, that there is a larger number of small corporations and the lack of cohesion in the militias mean that they tend to stay with each other.  That's not to say militia don't all fleet up together sometimes but it seems rare, largely due to how easy it is to get spies in the oppositions militia.
This all helps me as I love flying frigates and thanks to the above reasons I can get away with it around Amamake, they mean I can get plenty of kills (Militia Frigates and Destroyers) and still get around without getting popped by gate camps.  The transition hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows, getting used to having gate guns again hasn't been great and I have lost a couple of ships to them because I have forgotten about the GCC (Somehow all have been CovOps frigates).

The largest problem I have found since becoming a pirate again is the same problem all pirates face eventually, earning isk and logistics.  The adjustment to pirating has meant I have refocused my alt to making me some isk in high sec, this has meant ironically I had to rat that characters sec up so he could actually access high sec.  For some reason I chose the nice character to become the pirate and my old pirate character to become my high sec hauler/trader alt, strange that.  As far as loot and earning from piracy alone I think I am breaking even, maybe even in the black (Not by a lot mind) but as I only fly frigates and generally solo, big ransoms and loot drops haven't really come my way as of yet.
After two months of piracy and buying alot of frigates for my character I have roughly the same isk buffer I had when I started so I would say its working out well so far.

I am going to talk about the pvp parts of piracy life in my next post otherwise its going to take me months to finish a post.

Korg

How to fly Combat Cov-Ops ships pt. 2

This is the second part to my two part series on Combat Cov-Ops ships and how to fly them.  In this post I will be dealing with the rocket fitted cov-ops, the Buzzard and the Anathema.  They share most of the same traits as the turret cov-ops minus the obvious difference of weapon type.  Due to this they also generally use the same tactics during a fight.  Namely keeping to the edge of you scram range and using your webs and tracking disruptor to your advantage.

Buzzard

Firstly the Fit

[Buzzard, Combat]

Low Slots

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Damage Control II

Mid Slots

1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Tracking Disruptor II, Optimal Range Disruption

Hi Slots

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket

Rig Slots

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

Like with the previous Combat Ships mention in part 1, this fit can be done with meta items instead which improves the cap life greatly, however it is less useful as with good skills the above fit is cap stable.  Now you may be asking why its relevant about these fits being cap stable, the reason it becomes important is because the e-war is your life, once they switch off you lose your advantage.

Out of all the Cov-Ops, this is the most similar to the Helios when it comes to fighting, the five mid slots again giving it brilliant range dictation.  The largest problems with this when comparing it too the Helios however is the much lower hull hp which means this has the smallest ehp tank of all the combat cov-ops when fitted in this configuration.  It can mean that fighting in a battle buzzard can get rather hairy sometimes if you make a mistake early on, for example overshooting and getting to close to your opponent taking some large hits then not having enough time to get back to your ideal range again.
There are some great benefits to this fit however the obvious one being that it can fit a cloak and therefore can make its way around whatever area of space you want fairly undetected.  The other benefit, in my opinion, is that it has rockets fit.  Now not everyone will agree with me here but since the 'buff' rockets have been fantastic and at 8km-10km very few other close range frigate weapons match them for consistent dps on target.  What do I mean by consistent dps on target you say, well with the dual webs and orbit you still hit for near full dps whereas your opponent will have vastly reduced dps thanks to losses in tracking and fall off, even if they load barrage (projectile long range ammo) for example.

Secondly the Strategy

Although the tactics are fairly similar to the previous fits mention in part 1 the relative cap independence of the weapons and cloak allow you to engage in more circumstances and escape from others that wouldn't have been possible in the Helios.  If you haven't part 1 the general tactics for flying against turret frigates/destroyer/interdictors is orbit close to the edge of scram range and use the tracking disruptor to minimize the incoming dps whilst slowly wearing them down with your rail guns and drone damage. 

There are some exceptions to this rule, laser frigates can be problematic due to their high base range and in the likely event that they have scorch loaded, its sometimes better to use a tracking speed disruption module and script and get close. This is due to lasers having poor tracking up close. This can cause problem with your own tracking as well (rails being 'crap' and all).

The most dangerous frigate types I find whilst flying this ship is rocket frigates and kiting frigates. Rocket frigates as the tracking disruptor has no effect, it becomes a tank/gank race, which generally doesn’t work out in the Helios favour.

Kiting frigates because they can stay outside of tackle range and wear you down, although turret kiting frigates can be tracking disrupted to a point where they inflict little damage to your ship which may force them close enough to tackle.

Proof of Concept

Buzzard vs. Thrasher
Buzzard vs. Rifter
Buzzard vs. Punisher

Anathema

Now I will introduce the paragraph/section by saying I personally have never flown the Anathema in anger.  This isn't anything against the ship itself, it has a lovely hull, but is purely down to the fact that I already had Caldari Frigate V by the time I had trained Amarr Frigate V and seeing as the Buzzard (at least combat wise) is essentially the Anathema with an extra mid I never saw the point.

Do not be put off by that less than glowing endorsement, it can still be an effective Combat frigate (basically a rocket firing Cheetah) so it can still work fight.

The Fit


[Anathema, Combat Covops]

Low Slots

Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Mid Slots

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Tracking Disruptor II, Optimal Range Disruption

Hi Slots

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Rig Slots

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


As you can see it is basically the Cheetah fit, roughly the same ehp/speed and dps at your preferred range (8km).

Secondly the Strategy

Although once again the strategy is similar to those already mentioned, this fit as it is the slowest requires you to overheat alot more, it also has fairly low dps.  So if you are wanting to fly the Anathema get your Thermodynamics skill as high as possible first as it will help keep your ship alive a lot longer.
The other thing I will mention is that the Anathema is the only fit I could get to work without the micro auxillary power core fitted, this gave it an extra low slot for the second damage mod.  This improves your low dps to 72 now (yaye!!).

Proof of Concept

Unfortunately as mentioned I haven't flown an Anathema in combat but there is evidence in video form on youtube which I will link at the end that contains footage of the Anathema in acton.

The Difference and Details

There are some obvious difference and some not so obvious between the Buzzard and the Anathema.  The standout difference is the lack of a 5th mid on the Anathema, like I have already mentioned this lowers your ability to control the range of the fight quite alot which means overheating for as long as possible on your prop mod.  

The EHP tanks of the two frigates differ as well, due to the Amarr frigates larger HP it gets a larger benefit out of the damage control than the Buzzard which I have already mentioned as having the lowest EHP tank of any Cov-Ops in this type of fitting.
Although the Anathema has a larger cap/better recharge than the Buzzard, the benefit is largely irrelevant due to both still being stable.  The Anathema does get a larger powergrid which gives it greater flexibility in fitting, for example a change for the above fit could be adding another resist mod instead of the second damage mod, this would increase your EHP to nearer the helios level but greatly lowers the DPS.
The last difference is the DPS itself in the above 'Ganky' fits they both have similar EFT dps the Buzzard has the second web meaning it can use the Thorn Rage ammo if it needs to against other frigates, this would give it an advantage in raw damage.  Another less obvious difference between the two ships, is damage mitigation.  Although both have similar dps the Buzzard can hold its target at range for longer/permanently giving it the edge over the Anathema in fights as it lowers the incoming dps as well as making it easier to run when needed.

And thus concludes part 2. Hope anyone who has read this far has enjoyed it or at least gotten some interesting fits they now want to go try out and have fun in.

Korg

p.s. Please message any feedback or questions to me either here on the comments or feel free to message me in game if you want any more 'pointers'.
p.p.s I am finally getting around to making a pvp video, it has mostly been frigate combat but I will get that up on YouTube soon....

Combat Cov-Ops

Realised I actually linked vids for a different post and the above was the one that was meant to be on here.