Plans within Plans

Logistics.

I hate them.

It is a pain in the ass trying to figure out how to move goods 20 odd jumps from highsec--> lowsec when the route is through an area I'm KOS in. And that's just for Varn. Geaux Tiger has to move 30+ jumps through 0.0 and lowsec to get there. Or 25+ jumps through highsec then lowsec which means not moving anything but his Claw and leaving the rest for Varn to try and move.

Total I'm looking to move roughly 22,ooom3 in ships and goods right now. Enough to get me started and to have a back-up or two incase/when stuff gets blown up. I thought about just using a couple of T3 cruisers, but that is a bit much for an initial investment in the area right now. Want to see if it will be worth moving more assets out there before putting too much ISK on the line.

Looks like I'll be training up for a DST, 16 days total all told to be able to move goods safer to my new FoB. The area looks promising though. Very low sec rating means a good chance at finding good ores in grav sites and better loots in the radar and mag sites. Not to mention it seemed a lot of the belts in the area had battleship spawns. And with such a low sec rating, even the BC spawns had ok bounties. The main selling point though was the low population. Over a week of scouting all I mainly saw was other explorers with very low sightings of pirates. So far everything is looking good.

My plan until my DST is ready will be to get out there in an AF (0.0 ratting setup with cloak). My initial scouting was mainly just system hopping at various times of the day to see how the population was. A lengthier stay ratting in the area and running anoms will give me a better feel for the ebb and flow of the locals and allow me to become familiar with the corps. They will also get used to seeing me. Hopefully, I can make a couple of good contacts and build up a little trust.

"What?! This isn't a single player game?!?!"

"So Brain, what are we doing tonight?"
"The same thing we do every night Pinky...Take over the world!"

Quite a bit has been going on since I posted the Gila mission fit. I have scrapped Operation Wayland for those who were wondering what was going on with that. No static wormholes in any systems in my area of operations. The few I did find were C3, C4 and already occupied by quite large corps active during my timezone.

As great as the Gila is at missioning, it just can't compare to the Raven. So I went ahead and got a Raven and fitted it quite well with a pretty standard gank fit and some faction mods. Managed to increase my mission completion time by about a third. Its been over a year since I flew a Raven or CNR and my skills are much better now for those ships. Isk/hr saw a nice increase as a result.

Varn and GT are back again in Tigris Cleptum Gaza (GOTGR) (my personal corp). Initially it was just to avoid the npc corp tax rate, but has evolved a bit. I was looking to join a corp but was finding it difficult to find one which had all the elements I was looking for. I mentioned this in the blogger channel and Escoce approached me about joining his alliance. After some Q and A, I submitted an application and joined up United Trade Syndicate (TRAMP). It is a perfect fit for me. I already knew alot of the members as they are bloggers themselves and we all seem to have similar thoughts on projects and future plans. I have high hopes for the alliance once the infancy stage is over.

Along those lines, Tigris Cleptum Gaza looking to make a move into lowsec on a more permanent basis. I had my eye on a certain region for a while, but logistics of moving there made it daunting going solo. Being in an Alliance now though makes the task a bit easier and it will hopefully be happening in the next couple weeks. Not sure if setting up a POS out there would be feasible given my limited resources or even if it will be needed. It's something I'm looking into currently. Though the lack of stations friendly to me in the area might make it a necessity. If anyone is looking for a laid back corp in a friendly alliance who does a bit of everything, drop me a line ingame. Recruitment is open for Tigris Cleptum Gaza, though I make no claims to being either organized or driven per se. Its all about having fun.

This is a pretty big step for me. I had been in a couple of other corps, but was never that active with the other members. I figured it was about time to partake in the MMO portion of this game and see where it would lead me. Who knows, before long I might be organizing ops; growing my corp to more than me, myself, and alts; and become a player within the larger politics of the game. One can only wait and see.

Lvl 4 Mission Gila

Been spending quite a bit of time since Dominion playing with the revamped Gila. This thing is awesome. I have a passive shield Ishtar already and wanted to see how the Gila compared to it in missions. In EFT, the Ishtar had more tank (obviously) but the Gila is able to fit an AB and be a decent cap stable passive fit. The HAMs I fitted gave me 70 DPS compared to the Ishtar's 75 DPS from 150mm Rails.

Tried it out in SE, AE, Vengance, etc. You know all the ones that can test your tank. Though Blockade has yet to appear for me. Did full room aggro/popped triggers in each and had no problems. Never had to warp out. Key was dropping a can and orbiting at 15km with AB running. Dropped sentries once I was in orbit and had removed the webbing frigs. Concentrated on cruisers/BCs first to remove dps and then let the drones self-target the BSs with me adding HAMs.

Here's my fit: (edited to reflect current use Dec 9, 2009)

[Gila, Mission copy 1]
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Flux Coil II
Shield Flux Coil II
Shield Flux Coil II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Domination Invulnerability Field
Dread Guristas Invulnerability Field
Domination 10MN Afterburner

Arbalest Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile Range: <24.6km
Arbalest Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Arbalest Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Drone Link Augmentor I
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I

Garde II x5


538 Omni tank, 681 Angel, 549 Serp
479 dps with my skills
554 m/s
cap stable at 47%

HAMs will be upgraded as skills and funds allow. Heavy Missile Launchers could be fitted if you want for increased range at the expense of about 10-20 EFT dps. I actually tried this at first, but found that the defender missiles fired by the BCs and BSs made it so you consistently lost 1 out of 3 missiles you fired. Making the loss of dps more in the range of 35-45. With the speed of the Assault Missiles and decreased range of use, the loss of DPS from rat defender missiles is almost non-existant.

The 400m3 drone bay allows for anything you want and plenty of replacements. I use the DLA instead of tractor/salvager due to having a dedicated salvage boat and it allows for the drones to target stuff farther away when I get damped.

Now some people might go for more of a nano fit. And that's not a bad idea. But I tend to do mostly Serp and Angel missions which have quite a few webbing frigs. Hence a bit more tank with the SFC II x3 and SPR II. This allows me more time to take out the webbing frigs while moving at glacier speeds.

The Domination Invul Field along with the Domination AB are key to cap stability for me while the DG Invul Field gives me that extra oomph to the resist. They also allow for the fitting of the HAMs over regular Assault Missile Launchers as with this fit the Gila is a bit tight on CPU.

The Gila has become my ship of choice for any mission that involves mostly close range BSs or long distances between gates. I still use my Domi with 350mm rails for missions where rats start out or maintain long distances. Nothing like insta-popping frigs/dessies at 80+km. Even then though, I have used the Gila to good affect with the increased maneuverability making up for the Domi's range. I might end up using the Gila exclusively though once I get my missile skills above the level 3s and 4s I have now.