F13 in EvE: Band of Brothers headshotted! Come help us in Delve!

[Endie]

As long as the patch doesn't mess it up, we're actually doing something at the moment that a newbie can contribute to with an alt, created on day one, that is massively strategically important.  It's called fighter-bombing, and if you create the right race of character it lets you do enough damage to our enemy in an hour that they have to devote a years-old character in a capital ship about four hours to fix.  If you die it costs you literally, absolutely nothing at all (thus the slight concern that Goonfleet may get nerfed in the patch, yet again).

[TripleDES]

Which reminds me that I should clonejump my alts into 0.0.

[Slayerik]

T is no noob ... you should twist his arm to resub!

It makes me sad to think his guy with Carrier 5 is just rotting away ;)

[Miasma]

I'm having a fair bit of fun here since I joined.  Goonfleet is definitely the place for a clueless newb like me, I like it so far.

I was in my first large scale fleet yesterday and it was my job to sit on a stargate and tackle (root) any enemy ship that zoned in.  You can do this right off the bat with a brand new character, you basically screw over a guy who probably has years worth of experience and let your friends blow him up.  At any rate I was a little jumpy and started wondering what would happen if I clicked on my warp scrambler (root) before the enemy came in, my hope was that as soon as I locked onto the enemy player they would automatically fire saving me the one second it would have taken to click on the module.  Well the gate opened and I immediately clicked on the pilot who came through, it turned out he was friendly and scouting ahead for the 60 man fleet who was just behind him.  Unfortunately, I learned that if you have pre-armed your guns you immediately lock on and fire even if you just click on the pilot...  My first large scale fleet action and I had just locked onto and warp scrambled the highly skilled covert ops pilot who was the vanguard of a five dozen strong fleet , he also couldn't cloak (which is his job) because I had him locked.  He called me a retard (fair enough!) then Nerf told him I was a newbie, then he actually apologized for calling me a retard because he didn't know I was new, and *then* he gave me twenty million credits just because I was a newbie and the rest of the fleet warped in behind him .

Today one of the directors lost an incredibly expensive ship and the alliance's boards are all just laughing about it and posting mock insults to the guy, I'm amazed at how well they took it.  They actually gave him a medal for losing it in such an absurd way .  I'm sure if that was any other corp there would be finger pointing, bitter recriminations and rage quiting.

I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing, but I'm learning.

[TripleDES]

Srsly, how do I get set up? There's no one in the F13 channel with pointers. I.e. LOVEU forums and Goonfleet Forum/Wiki access.

[Viin]

I need to get you access to the WAR forum, that has more info in it. But basically, go register on the forums. www.goonswarm.com.

[Llyse]

Just in case you don't have access the WAR forum:

Make sure you register on forums with the exact in game character name you're signing up with.

[Jayce]

Just in case you don't have access the WAR forum:

Make sure you register on forums with the exact in game character name you're signing up with.

He means GF forums.  I didn't get that right away.

[Nerf]

If you're still on the fence, now is the time to try out EvE or reactive and join us in.  We're fighting a war on multiple fronts against one of the largest enemies in the game.  Last night we several towers to defend and destroyed our enemy so badly in the first engagement they didn't even bother to bring out the big guns for the rest of the night.

THIS is the kind of shit that makes EvE fun, and even with a brand new fucking character you are immensely useful to us.  Newbies are roots in a game where running away is everything. If I had 2 or 3 more newbies hanging around I'd have racked up 50 kills in the last few days instead of 20.

PM me an email address if you want a 21 day trial instead of a 14 day.  Yes, I get a month free out of it.

[Sir T]

Sod it. I'll probably resub in the next few days. If you guys will have me, I'm in. Hell with my leadership bonuses I could be useful in a shuttle while I'm sitting afk...

{edit} 1001st post. Woo.

[Viin]

Congrats and welcome back! :) Shoot me a PM once you are in with your in-game name so I can get you access to the forum.

[Grim]

Nothing to see.

[Driakos]

I'd love to get involved in EVE.  I've tried.  Even have a near 30mil skill point character.  Just the barrier to fun (and knowledge) seems so daunting, I quit after a few weeks.  Also, earning ISK sucks.  Mining, missions, I get bored.  Hard to explain, but I never feel "comfortable" in the game.  Nothing clicks for me.  I just feel like a monkey mashing buttons.

Yet, I love reading about it.  The wars sound like serious fun.  I like fighting.

[Endie]

I'd love to get involved in EVE.  I've tried.  Even have a near 30mil skill point character.  Just the barrier to fun (and knowledge) seems so daunting, I quit after a few weeks.  Also, earning ISK sucks.  Mining, missions, I get bored.  Hard to explain, but I never feel "comfortable" in the game.  Nothing clicks for me.  I just feel like a monkey mashing buttons.

Yet, I love reading about it.  The wars sound like serious fun.  I like fighting.

It's that storyline, together with the unforced, natural co-operation that those stories promote that get me going.

Here, split up because it is a Jade-Constantine-style wall of text, is the story of the last couple of weeks.

For example, as I've mentioned in the War thread, our (the F13 group's) alliance was attacked by most of our neighbours on Thursday, with only a few hours' warning.  Our main enemy was widely considered to be the new elite of the game, with massive resources and fresh from the destruction of their northern neighbour.

There was a kind of shock on the boards, as people realised what we were facing.  The enemy rolled into our space with well-prepared fleets of hundreds of ships in several places at once.

Then people just started saying "this is about destroying as an alliance, and it's not time for us to die, yet."  People who had been whining and trolling for months started signing up for fleets.  Vets who'd not played for a year or more resubscribed.  Long-gone superstar fleet commanders suddenly appeared on Teamspeak with no warning, to organise people and get our defences going.  Newbies who had been forced to listen to the stories about Syndicate and the defence of Detorid had an epic story of their own to be part of.

[Endie]

Then, something wonderful started to happen.  First, little Zenith Affinity turn up in our space, and it turns out they want to help.  We've always been on good terms, but they owe us nothing beyond that and by backing us they know that they will lose their space unless we win.  They start jumping in in ones and twos throughout the night.  Their fleet is tiny, but they put their capital fleet in huge danger and the gamble helps F13 hold the line in our part of space for 36 hours or so when the rest of the alliance has to pull back.

Then, our neighbours UNL (despite being part of the same Russian-speaking community as our enemies) said "we were asked to stand aside, and told this was not our fight, but we're with you."  That's hundreds of combat pilots on our side at a critical moment.  I was, in all seriousness, reminded of this scene.

Things still look bleak: we're still outnumbered, and in capitals massively so.  In supercapitals we simply cannot compare.  But we face down the first few days of attack through our incomparable logistics, losing a little ground here and there, but holding firm.  Outlying systems are abandoned and overrun.  We shift to the defensive.

This leaves F13 massively exposed.  We were committed to the attack in the rear of our enemies.  Now we were alone for days.  Our enemies were the cause of the whole thing: a goldfarmer alliance who ebayed much of their massive profits taken from our alliance's space, and their morale was soaring.  They outnumbered us, and could turn their entire attention onto us.  Our assets were attacked round the clock, and we were faced with the decision of whether to save what we could - huge amounts of strategic assets - or gamble on the alliance holding firm long enough to re-establish contact.

We decide to go for it.  People log in for hours at a time, maintaining 23/7 presence (there is downtime every day) in our target system, harassing the enemy, forcing them to defend when we can, making life harder for them when we cannot.  Every now and then we'll get a marginal numerical advantage, and will deploy equipment in surprise ops.  Within 20 minutes we'll be outnumbered four to one and defending as well as we can.

[Endie]

Meanwhile, the main fleet is hard-pushed. But then we get a call: our French allies have pulled out of the north and are coming to help: they're a few jumps away, outnumbered, already engaged by the combined fleets of all our enemies.  But they think they can win, with our support.  At first a few, then dozens, scores and even hundreds of Goons start rushing to help.  The fight lasts for over two hours, and the enemy tries tactic after tactic, but soon we gain an advantage.  The momentum shifts and then, in the last twenty minutes, they shatter, flee and hide.  We've faced their combined fleet and won.

I've been vocal in this fight, calling targets when the commanders couldn't, and passing target info on when they could.  Now, I use this to mention that the F13 group, "LOVEU", are facing an overwhelming attack in twenty minutes.  If that attack succeeded, the enemy would move on to push harder against us: many of us were aware that we would almost certainly lose everything we had struggled for a fortnight to achieve, within days.

So a hundred bloodthirsty goons volunteer to jump through hostile space to help out F13/LOVEU.  The enemy fleet is already attacking, and we have literally minutes left before they can secure the moon from us.  Just as our installation becomes vulnerable, the hostile scout sees what is coming their way.  The enemies scatter.  Most leave the system.  Some just log out in disgust.  Amidst many "fofofos" in the system chat channel, Goons pour in and cause chaos.  Some help secure our assets.  Others camp the entrances to shoot latecomers.  More still start shooting the hostile installations in the system, reversing the momentum at once.

Of course, they don't stay there forever, but contact has been made again, after a dark few days.  Soon, we are outnumbered again, and the hostiles try to attack, but our people don't budge.  Some of us are running on 3, 4, 5 hours of sleep that night, but we have a second tower due to become vulnerable in 24 hours, and we know that we can pull through for another few days if we try.

Today, that second tower - which we frankly regarded as lost - was saved.  F13/LOVEU guys together with the Anzac and US West-coast Goons yet again secure the system, some staying up to 7am local time.  As a nice boost, they steal hundreds of ships from an unsecured installation that our enemies have used as their supply cache.  A swift line of supply to a nearby system is secured for the moment, and we take the chance to pour more of F13/LOVEU's resources into the attack.  Should be a long night for those of us taking over the Euro TZ shift, but we think we have a chance again.


Footnote: I can't believe that a bunch of F13 posters, mainly newbies who decided to try griefing miners a year ago, are now pushing hard to take space from some of the toughest enemies in the game.

[Sir T]

Why do I always join alliances when they are or are about to be under massive attack and outnumbered by enemies... 

[Thrawn]

Why do I always join alliances when they are or are about to be under massive attack and outnumbered by enemies... 

Because thats when you get the most action! 

[Sir T]

True true 

So accept my app dammit 

[Slayerik]

Christ, Endie, you almost have me joining :)

I am kinda sick of Euro TZ , euro alliances anyway. hehe

[Phildo]

App accepted Sir T, sorry I didn't see it amidst the pile of tower mail spams I got overnight.  Get down here and help us kick some ass.

[xorx]

I joined earlier this week; in this one week I've seen teamwork, leadership and camaraderie, frustration and worry, loss and joy, sacrifice and reward -- in short all the stuff you want from life -- and YOU GET TO TO IT FLYING A FUCKING SPACESHIP.

How much more do you want Captain Kirk?

In the past week, we've sniped, nipped, swatted, and occasionally punched our enemy - keeping them unstable and unhappy; soon they'll over-reach and we'll take a lot of pleasure kicking them in the balls over and over again; I joined because of the epic stories and amazing "War!" thread- but in my small 'oh crap, I'm in europe and I have to go to bed now or I'll get fired' way I feel that I've contributed to the team, the team's contributed to the alliance and the alliance has stood firm and re-energised the game.

Reactivate and rejoin the war -- there's no better game out there than Age of Internet Spaceship Empires Online.

[Comstar]

Endie, that story needs to go in the Goon-Wiki somewhere in the history section.

[Pax]

Asked a girl what I wanted to be,
She said, hon, can't you see?
You wanna be famous, a star of the ‘verse,
But you can do something that could be worse.

Or maybe you can fly my ship? Am I being a complete dip?
Maybe you could fly my ship? Or maybe it’s LOVEU?

I told that girl that my prospects were good,
She said, hon, it's understood,
Flying solo is always fine,
But I can show you a better time.

Or maybe you can fly my ship? Am I being a complete dip?
Maybe you could fly my ship? Or maybe it’s LOVEU?
Bee Bee Bee Bee Yeah!

I told that girl that I’d join right away,
And she said, listen hon, I've got something to say,
You’re a little bee that knows not a bit
Your gonna end up in some serious sh*t!

Or maybe you can fly my ship? Am I being a complete dip?
Maybe you could fly my ship? Or maybe it’s LOVEU?
Bee Bee Bee Bee Yeah!
Little Bee, Little Bee Yeah!

Yeah, that's what "Little Bees" does to people 

[Driakos]

Good read Endie.  Makes me want to play.

[FatuousTwat]

I know I was an ass earlier in the thread, but I'm about to serious the FUCK UP!...

OK, done.

I think one of the biggest things that makes me wary of PVP is losing my ship.

It's not the money, I don't ever buy/fit a ship that is worth more than about 1/10th my net worth, it's the tracking the shit down that I need to refit. It can take FOREVER.

What do you guys do to speed up this process, or can you just avoid it entirely? Just buy 2 or 3 ships and fit them out all at once?

[Comstar]

You can't spead it too much, but there's some things to do-

Joiin Goonswam and get access to a wiki with various fits for all ships and player levels.
Use Eve Fitting Tool to confirm it fits with YOUR skillbase.

[FatuousTwat]

Yeah, I was pretty proficient at fitting(I was using a thorax with t2 guns and mostly t2 everything else, I could fly a brutix pretty well, it was just a little to expensive to fly unless it was an emergency), it just got to the point where it felt like I was spending more time running around getting parts to refit after my ship got blown, than actual fighting.

[Nerf]

The goonswarm jews are really good about stocking the stations around the action full of shit you need for reimbursement fits, and if you're fighting a little ways away from a station, just fit 3 or 4 ships, insure them, and have them carrier jumped in (thats what I do).

Also, don't die as much, that helps.

[FatuousTwat]

So it seems like I just have had shitty corps in the past. Probably the basis to a lot of my problems.

[Nerf]

Yeah, I was no fan of goonswarm before I joined, in fact I was one of the most vocal against it and the last to join, but the alliance has been great so far, and our corp is getting a killer rep and even more from the alliance now that they've seen us in action.  This really is the best time and way to get into eve if you've been on the fence.

[FatuousTwat]

If I start back up, I'll definitely talk to you guys then!

[Jayce]

PM me an email address if you want a 21 day trial instead of a 14 day.  Yes, I get a month free out of it.

It just occurred to me that there should be no reason for anyone here to do a 14 day trial like the rest of the proletariat.  We have a lot of folks playing so anyone should be able to get a buddy system invite.  Just post here and someone will pick you up (or PM someone if you want a special buddy).

[bhodi]

Yeah, I was no fan of goonswarm before I joined, in fact I was one of the most vocal against it and the last to join, but the alliance has been great so far, and our corp is getting a killer rep and even more from the alliance now that they've seen us in action.  This really is the best time and way to get into eve if you've been on the fence.

It's called going native. It's more common than you think ;)

[Endie]

Incoming Goonfleet.Com Leaks - Spies start your recordings


Official F13 Zone

We're currently LOVEU - an old GF corp that was moribund with four actives until our arrival.  The last 24 hours have seen this said about us by the alliance on the goonfleet forums:

LOVEU is the best Love <3

You guys are doing great, keep up the good work. You're a shining example of what pubbie corps in GS should be.

you guys rock ^_^

You guys are amazing

awesome guys.

you guys are fucking awesome

mad props on the whole spacewar thing too, 0wnage

basically what I'm saying here is that LOVEU is quite possibly the most badass corp in goonswarm right now

Keep up the good work LOVEU, you guys rock and stuff yah!