Join your fellow F13ers as militant deep-space warriors!

[Endie]

There has never been a better time to join your fellow F13ers in Eve Online!  We've reinvented ourselves as loathsome pirates declaring war on hapless, unsuspecting empire corporations and it is a blast.  You can download a free trial, jump into our corp and start griefing our enemies, all within a few hours.

F13 and Bat Country - Evil Pirate Scum Intolerant Militant Holy Warriors

Our first war-dec went brilliantly: we griefed the enemy's miners, blew up their capsules, harassed their mission-runners and after a week our targets paid us a hundred million ISK (quite a lot of money) just to leave them alone.

Now we have a new target.  They declared themselves to be some of the best PvPers in the game, and to be "aching" for some action.  They declared war on our main corp (F13), and brought in friends to wardec us as well.

We were outnumbered, out-gunned and out-tanked.  They had older characters, bigger ships and more of them.  We jumped into their camp anyway.  And we blew up one of their biggest ships, fitted at such expense that selling it would pay for almost two months' worth of subscriptions, as well as an advanced, high-tech assault ship, for the loss of only one throw-away craft.  They ran away and hid in a station for the rest of the evening, leaving us roaming the system.  They lost another battleship the same day, in a one-on-one fight, and now they can't play the game they enjoy, running missions or mining.

Here is the clincher: many of our characters are only weeks or months old.  Many of our enemies have been playing since 2004!  And if we had had another one or two newbie players in disposable frigates that we'll give you for free, we'd probably have taken down even more in that battle.  As time goes by, we're going to be less and less the plucky underdogs pulling off against-the-odds victories too...  Be part of that!

Why Eve?

Eve is that rarest of things: a full-on PvP game set in a sandbox, where your choices of what to do are vast.  You can pewpew, obviously.  But you can also run PvE missions, mine, hunt pirates, grief hapless Chinese macro-miners, scam, become a weapons-producing magnate do scientific research, make billions from arbitrage and margin-trading, haul vast cargoes to vital systems while eluding pirates, gank those haulers for huge profit when they get careless and much, much more.

All of these options are viable ways to play the game: you just choose the one that suits your playstyle best.  You can solo profitably for years using the F13 chat channel as your social hub, or you can join up with others for war or missions.  Joining up with us at the moment will mean war!

Ultimately, you can look to joining one of the major alliances in deep space, who can change the universe itself, creating vast stories unlike any other game in existence.  Remember, everyone is on a single server, with upwards of 40,000 people logging in at once, and the actions of each player, corporation or alliance having the potential to affect hundreds of thousands of others.  If you have ever read people talking about player-created content, this is it!  Here are videos by either side of the biggest ongoing conflict in the Eve universe.  Without exaggeration, this is the biggest conflict in gaming history.

You never need to poopsock in Eve. Training skills is done by telling the system what you want to learn next, then doing fun stuff while it improves in the background.  Almost all skills can be trained to a basic level in a few minutes.  Skills continue to train even when you are logged out.

And the game looks gorgeous. Here is a site with a trailer and screenshots for the latest expansion.  It really does look this good. You will fly your craft around ships kilometres long, and dock in space stations miles high.

What does it cost?

It costs nothing to try out Eve-Online.  You can download a free trial client from here.  This gives you fourteen days to try out the game, see whether it is for you.


What can I do?



This is why Eve is awesome.  This is not like WoW where a new player can do nothing at all against someone a month old.  In Eve, a new player with a few hours of training can lock down a vast battleship flown by someone with years of experience, and pin him there to be destroyed.  Or you can specialise in electronic warfare, and jam enemy ships out of the fight, all the time imagining them cursing as they see a twenty second counter til they can do anything at all.

Here is a video showing how you can lock down a target so the big ships can kill it.

There is nothing so sweet as knowing that your target is repeatedly jabbing at his warp button in an attempt to escape, and that he is hearing a calm voice saying "you are unable to warp because you are warp-scrambled."  He is cursing because he knows you have been playing for a week and he has invested four years of his life into this ship that he is about to lose.  You're the person who can make this happen.

Just by leaving yourself logged in when afk you are helping make our war-targets' lives more tense and miserable!  They see you in-system and don't know whether you are there or not: you might undock and jump them at any point.  After a few months, you can even fly ships that hide in space, so that your targets know you might uncloak right next to him at any moment, jam him, scramble him and kill him.  Imagine their paranoia!

Realistically?

Our current targets are now huddling in a couple of systems, coming out onto the station undock point and scurrying back in if they see too many of us in local.  But they will get careless or cocky again.  If we can get the numbers to engage them  at any given point we will.  Believe me, there are few things in MMO gaming as heart-poundingly fun as seeing your ships warping together towards a target, knowing you have to kill them or be killed, and that now you've pressed the warp button, you are committed.

We spend a lot of time hunting down enemies in distant systems where they are hiding.  We also spend a fair bit of time sitting around waiting for them to even undock, or for our numbers to rise.  But you can head off and explore the game pretty safely during that time: our enemies are only to be found in about 1% of the map.  And it is all worthwhile when you see those flashing red names on your ship's HUD, and when you hear your targetting computer getting a lock, the fleet commander calling out primary targets, and when you see their shields melting under fire.  This video, while skewed to one side's viewpoint, was made by F13 lurker Stahlregen, and gives some glimpses of the scale of PvP fleet actions in Eve.

The more people we get, the more often we can engage the enemy on our terms.  We're still learning how to do this, so join up and learn with us.



Do the targets care?

Oh boy do they care: their fluffy, pony-riding, carebear existences have been thrown into stark and jarring contrast.  They bluff and they bluster.  They whine and they complain.  They smack in system-wide chat and then they die.

How can you pass up the opportunity to cause grief to people like this:

[17:10:36] Emperor Dano > i find it funny though that out of everyone =) you chose the best
[17:10:56] Bhodii > So you *are* going to bring the heavy hitters then?
[17:11:18] Emperor Dano > there is no such thing as a unheavy hitter in our corp

Or

DEMONICUS 666 > ur in bed with this pvp corp that wardeced us so we are war deccing u
DEMONICUS 666 > so tell ur miners to get ready for a nice little party ull see our point soon enough
Nelke Cronspect > Wonderful.  I like parties. I hope there is cake. Anything else?

And even better:

[03:42:48] PHIONIX DARKANGEL > no whas hoping you wer awake and reddy to loose a ship
[03:43:37] PHIONIX DARKANGEL > we alredy set up to wardeck yore main corp
[03:45:43] PHIONIX DARKANGEL > well yore corp thinks it has a chance in bealsibob to win a war alredy i thawt you just had the same inteligence
[03:46:50] PHIONIX DARKANGEL > the corp yore corp war deckt

Strangely these people have been very silent since our victory on Sunday.

What does F13 need of me?

All we ask is that you are not a spy.  For most of you this is not an issue.  HaemishM, with his 14,000 posts, is clearly trying just a little too hard to prove he is not a spy.  If you've been a member for a month or so, and have a decent number of posts, then you're probably in.  Unless you have ever earnestly posted charts in a Trammel thread.  We don't need your sort.

Post here, and then apply at our office in Eram VIII - Moon 13 - Sebiester tribe Bureau.  You'll find yourself in the corporate chat channel: ask there for some cash for skillbooks, and some guidance on which ones to get: by training those you can multiply your effectiveness massively in a matter of hours, opening up ranges of weapons and equipment, and making you better at what you can use already.

If you follow this guide during character creation it is virtually impossible to gimp yourself at character creation in Eve.  If, later on, you decide that you wish you had chosen Gallente instead of Caldari, or anything instead of Amarr, then you can cross-train to start flying their ships in minutes, and most of your existing skills will still really help.

-------------

Update:

In an awesome move, Snee has donated 1,000,000,000 ISK to the corp.

To re-iterate, Snee just donated a billion ISK.  Nine zeros and everything: I checked.

[Endie]

PS apologies for the use of so many goonfleet videos, imagery and tutorial stuff: I used the only kinda-current Bob thing I could find (the Vacuum video), but GF just has a lot more publically-available stuff like the tackling videos, character creation guides etc.

[Rendakor]

Hmm...nice sales pitch, I'm in. Will download the trial when I get home and give the game a shot tomorrow night.

[Falconeer]

Fuk! I am so there! 

[Endie]

Thank fuck I worried it would just be my huge post followed by an uncomfortable silence.

When you get in, look for a button on the left bar that looks vaguely like a few people, about 3/4 of the way down the navbar.  Right-click on it, choose "create/join", enter "F13" (no quotes) and agree to join the existing channel.  It's our non-secure F13 channel for anyone who wants to chat to us, whether in F13, Bat Country or other corps.  Don't discuss war stuff there, as our enemies can easily eavesdrop.

Once there, say hi and that you're new and hope that someone rich is actually reading, so you can be showered with gold and kisses.

It is also totally worth running through the tutorial.  Really, seriously.

Falconeer, are you using the account you used before?

[Falconeer]

Falconeer, are you using the account you used before?

Yes, and I am downloading right now.

[Vedi]

If you join us, I'll pay you a million isk and provide a free cruiser of your choice to you when you can fly one. Just send an Eve-mail to Vedi with your f13.net name, and I'll deposit money to your account. A million is not a huge amount, but will cover basic costs of living for a bit.

I've spent more than a year making money in this game which is itself a kind of fun if you like spreadsheets. Now I want to spend it on you so that you can blow up heavy hitters.

[Nerf]

Meh, I really don't want to resub right now, but I've got a 7mil SP char I don't use that one of the longtime posters are free to use if they sub it.  PM me for info.

IIRC, it's outfitted with some half-crap gear and a drake that Slayerik gave me (Thanks Slayer!)

Caldari, missile spec, good drone skills, a week or so away from MWD I think..been awhile.

[Wolf]

Are there eu people other than Falc and Endie? I might be interested in jumping on a frig and dicking around in empire again... I'll have to check if my character is not involved into some heavy BoB bashing tho, as far as I know she's in Fountain.

[schild]

You know, this top post almost makes it not seem like a spreadsheet driven game. Almost.

[lamaros]

Can't afford to care (no time to spare!), but props on the hard sell.

[Raging Turtle]

I'm EU time but mainly playing on my non-f13 trader/builder character.  So you can hit me up for a little isk if you see me online.

I *am* fighting off the temptation to reactivate my combat guy for a little pew pew action.  Think someone with 30m skillpoints, nearly all combat, might be useful?   

[Slayerik]

Great post Endie.

There are some other ways to make money as well. My profession is Eve Online poker. Really, it is. I won around 350 million isk yesterday...so now I'll go buy a stupidly expensive command ship and get that blown up in a blaze o glory.

I just got my alt into the Bat Country corp, she is a rifter pilot that is very capable of flying very fast and tackling enemies, while doing some ok damage...and she is basically fresh out of the box.

I will say Eve is not for everyone, but there are a lot of niches it fills. For me its the PVP / looting niche. Some players love manipulating the market to make a profit.

Along with Vedi, PM me if you start up and I'll give you some advice / ISK to get you going. There are certain things (like modules advice) that sometimes you just need to talk to about. Hopefully see you in space soon.

[Mrbloodworth]

You know what i picked up last night for $9?










Freelancer.




I like eve, but the combat is what kills it for me, that, and i cant leave, or explore my ship.

[ajax34i]

Thinking of joining, too; I have a 5 mil SP character that can fly cruisers.  Have no PvP experience, would like to get some, and this looks like it could be fun for a while.

[Endie]

Are there eu people other than Falc and Endie? I might be interested in jumping on a frig and dicking around in empire again... I'll have to check if my character is not involved into some heavy BoB bashing tho, as far as I know she's in Fountain.

Our current targets are euro time, and we usually have four or five people logged on at this time, but there is enough of a crossover that can form up as we did on Sunday and take them on in their peak timezone.  Otherwise, we can hunt their uninvolved members (this takes patience but we got a few such ganks with the last target).

I also have another euro TZ mate who will be bringing one of his characters along, and maybe a couple of Americans whose playing hours tend to start 8ish our time.  All in all we should soon build up to a decent headcount in later euro hours.

I *am* fighting off the temptation to reactivate my combat guy for a little pew pew action.  Think someone with 30m skillpoints, nearly all combat, might be useful?  

You know perfectly well what the answer to that is.  Do it... join us...

Thinking of joining, too; I have a 5 mil SP character that can fly cruisers.  Have no PvP experience, would like to get some, and this looks like it could be fun for a while.

So far I've flown cruisers, got a few ganks, been blown up a couple of times when they should have been shooting our battleship (and so they lost) and generally had fun.  Bhodi's cruiser has sometimes been the difference between the sides, right back to our first roaming gang.  This is a great way to learn about small gang experience, especially since you have fresh ships sitting nearby for you to jump into when you lose one, as opposed to the awkwardness of the 0.0 equivalent.

[Draegan]

Damnit.  I've been just training skills for the last month and was gonna quit.  Now I might have to play again.  Except my weekends are locked up due to NFL Football.   

I'm interested though.  Shall I just catch up with you online?

[Endie]

Damnit.  I've been just training skills for the last month and was gonna quit.  Now I might have to play again.  Except my weekends are locked up due to NFL Football.   

I'm interested though.  Shall I just catch up with you online?

Yep, join the F13 channel and follow the golden thread from there.  What do you fly?

Re weekends, I am not around much tonight til later but I'd be keen to run some later evening ops if we get the numbers: later evening meaning eve time.  So it's not all Sundays.

[Thrawn]

I think one thing that I've really liked about EvE so far is that I can play it as casualy or heavily as I want.  I had just quit WoW recently because it ate too much time and was worried to try EvE, but with the skill training working the way it does I don't feel obligated to log in every waking moment just to grind/level/quest/whatever.  If I don't feel like playing one night, I just don't play!    But if I do decide to log in and play all day on a weekend or something I still have plenty to do.

[Falconeer]

Except my weekends are locked up due to NFL Football.

Only three wekends more, though 
And it's a long wait until NHL playoffs. *long sigh*

I am warping to Olo right now, by the way. Let a corp office be there or I'll quit at once permakilled by too much warpgating. Classic.

[Wolf]

Our current targets are euro time, and we usually have four or five people logged on at this time, but there is enough of a crossover that can form up as we did on Sunday and take them on in their peak timezone.  Otherwise, we can hunt their uninvolved members (this takes patience but we got a few such ganks with the last target).

I also have another euro TZ mate who will be bringing one of his characters along, and maybe a couple of Americans whose playing hours tend to start 8ish our time.  All in all we should soon build up to a decent headcount in later euro hours.

What are your active hours? I've had a pretty bad experience with EVE, because of my weird timezone (GMT/BST+2). I've always been around UK corps (RoA, KIA, etc) and by the time we get a gang together and find something to shoot at it gets about midnight and I either have to stay up late or drop out. That's why I'm tempted in this, 'cause in Empire I can drop out whenever I feel like. And I fucking love the dynamic of small gang PvP. I will now call my crazy friend and claim my character. Endie, I blame you for the countless hours I will have to listen about 0.0 warfare months and months after I quit again.

[Draegan]

Ah, you're playing EU time.  I'm EST time here in the US.

[Zetleft]

Really tempted to open my account back up.  My character was a few days training away from using cloaking ships last time I checked.  I'll think about it.

[Signe]

Very nicely done.  You should get them to pay you!  Unfortunately, even with such lovely opportunities to grief, this game puts me right to sleep. 

[amiable]

I think I have an 8-million SP mission-whore that I deactivated after the kugutsumen scandal.  Will we be running any ops EST, and if so, will you have me if I re-up?

I don't mind tackling and I think I have quite a few SP invest in AF's and regular frigs, if that helps (me loves me some rifters).

[Endie]

Ah, you're playing EU time.  I'm EST time here in the US.

We have more people in US timezones than in Euro ones.  We just have a nice crossover period sometimes, depending on who is up late and who got home early.

I think I have an 8-million SP mission-whore that I deactivated after the kugutsumen scandal.  Will we be running any ops EST, and if so, will you have me if I re-up?

I don't mind tackling and I think I have quite a few SP invest in AF's and regular frigs, if that helps (me loves me some rifters).

Even if you're totally focussed on mission skills it really only does take a few hours to make yourself pretty damn useful in PvP: if you can web, tackle and go fast you are there.  I think Vedi and Viin are both EST (correct me if I am wrong) and they've been kinda core to organising stuff.

Very nicely done.  You should get them to pay you!

At the moment I'd be very disappointed if we dopped the wardec.  These guys provide targets.
Edit or did you mean CCP?  If so I'd have to then pay Stahlregen whose GF recruitment drive posts inspired this.

[Falconeer]

Very nicely done.  You should get them to pay you!  Unfortunately, even with such lovely opportunities to grief, this game puts me right to sleep. 

Even with me Viklasing in voice chat?

[Falconeer]

Now I am confused Endie. Should I join F13 or Bat Country corp? (yes, there are both).

[Endie]

Bat Country.

And be sure and watch the local channel once you have been accepted, as from that point you are at war.  There is a list of all the members we know about in the Eve forum, which you can add to your buddy list so you know when they are online.

[bhodi]

This is gonna be great!

Small note:

If you want to PvP only, and don't care about being war'd all the time, you want to join Bat Country. You can still run missions, just have to be more careful and check local and mission away from the front lines. Joining Bat Country means it's open season on you and them - any time, any place.

For PvP Fun, please join Bat Country at either
Eram VIII - Moon 13 - Sebiester tribe Bureau
Sankkasen VII - Moon 6 - Science and trade shool

If you want to PvE/Mission run/Chat with us/Play station simulator/Skill up quietly and not have to worry about those people in local with stars on their name that say "This person is at war with you", Join F13 corp at Ibura, Akora, or Olo.

The downside to joining F13 over Bat Country is that if you want to PvP some, you will be UNABLE to fire first -- they will have to shoot you, personally, before you are allowed to shoot them. You WILL be flashing red to them, but if you are in a support ship, or far away, you may not be fired upon for the entire battle and will be unable to act.

[Endie]

Doh, I got mixed up about offices.

Best to apply at the Eram office, just in case you find yourself alone in a frigate with a whole bunch of the enemy (we based that Sankassen office where they were on purpose).

I think that F13 is wardecced by our enemy at the moment, so F13 members can also fire first.  Someone in F13 could correct me on this, though.

[SnakeCharmer]

This post is probably the best advertisement I've ever read for EvE, and almost...ALMOST...makes me want to sub up.

Wow.

Deja vu...

Anyway, good luck, and continue posting screenies of the whiners.  Always a good read.

[Der Helm]

Had I not so much fun playing WoW at the moment, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Keep the corp alive, so I can join you guys when I got the Diku-Virus out of my system. 

[AcidCat]

You know, this top post almost makes it not seem like a spreadsheet driven game. Almost.

Yeah I was fooled once too by a similar pitch.

Lesson learned.

[Snee]

I don't play anymore, but I have isk and ships I can donate... to whom shall I send them? 

I think I can fly command ships... where do I sign up?

Snee the Hibernating Reseller