Karma

I warped into Kel'en's mission but before I was able to loot anything he started shooting his own wrecks and calling me names in local. Then he jumped through the gate into the next room of his mission. I left, thinking I'd wait a few minutes for him to produce some new wrecks first. When I came back five minutes later I saw this:


Bad Karma? I could't resist and left a can for him, then I looted his stuff.

Of ransoms and bad luck

I haven't been to amarrian space for ages so I decided to pack my stuff and go on a roam through Domain. My very first newbie toon was an Amarr so going there is almost like coming home. Systems like Ashab, Youl, Penirgman, and so on remind me on my early attemts on can-flipping and running starter missions. Clueless as I was in my very first frigate even some level 1 missions were tricky.

Arriving at my first waypoint, Chaven, I started scanning a bit and found a Paladin Marauder in a mission. A quick ship scan revealed this:


Jackpot? I looted a few small wrecks and this guy locked me and opened fire. It is quite hard to get aggro from Marauders. These beasts are so expensive, and they have everything they need to loot and salvage while they go, so the pilots either don't shoot, or there are no wrecks to loot and salvage for the ninja. Anyway, he shot and off I warped to get some bigger ship.

When I got back to the mission gate, the directional scanner indicated the missionrunner left his mission. I was pondering what to do when all of a sudden he came back out of nowhere and bumped into the gate right next to me. I quickly engaged and went into a close orbit.
Just to be safe I also asked a friend in a logistic ship to come and provide repairs, but as it turned out the battleship's guns didn't manage to track me anyway. He launched a flight of medium ECM drones, but luckily they never managed to jam me until my own drones killed all of them.

I was slowly grinding through the Paladin's heavy armor tank when all of a sudden one of his alliance mates showed up. This guy was not allowed to shoot me, but he started to repair his trapped friend's ship. With remote shield repairs.
Had he used remote armor repair modules I would have had a hard time dealing enough damage. When the Marauder entered structure the enemy pilot tried to start a conversation, but with all those faction and deadspace modules right under my nose I didn't want to talk! In a shiny ball of fire his ship exploded, and I quickly set my disruptor on his friend and shot his repair cruiser as well.
Then I looted the wreck and found... almost nothing. Checking the killmail I noticed the guy in the repair ship looted the most valuable loot from the Marauder (worth several hundred million) and everything he took was destroyed when I blew up his repair cruiser.

Talk about bad luck. I am sure had I accepted his chat request earlier I could have negotiated a ransom.


The next day I met another trigger happy missionrunner. He was doing a mission in an Apocalypse battleship and when he blew up the structure with the mission objective I quickly zoomed to the can and looted it. It didn't take long until the battleship locked me and opened fire. Here is the conversation in local:

TheSoulOfTheSith > why did u steal it?
TheSoulOfTheSith > u want isk?
Scopique > it was just some random loot, wasn't it?
TheSoulOfTheSith > ni i needed to complete the mission i was on
TheSoulOfTheSith > no*
TheSoulOfTheSith > so are you gonna give it back?
Scopique > oh, damn, i didn't even know that sorry :)
TheSoulOfTheSith > ah, so could we meet in an astroid belt and you give it back?
Scopique > i ejected it at your mission gate, sorry again
TheSoulOfTheSith > ah ok

Heh, you guessed it right?

TheSoulOfTheSith > douche
TheSoulOfTheSith > wtf
TheSoulOfTheSith > i give u isk
Scopique > 50 mil 30 sec
TheSoulOfTheSith > there
TheSoulOfTheSith > stop plz
Scopique > here you go
dukeinator > scopique give soul the item back for free or ill make u
Scopique > i really ejected the mission item at his gate
Scopique > i keep my word after all

I often forget to ask for a ransom, but it's easy money indeed. Loot from t2 fit battleships isn't that good most of the time and I don't even need to bother with hauling and selling the stuff.

A bit later it worked again, this time even faster:

Scopique > 50 mil and i go
Scopique > 30 sec
Alhor'Ek'Tabar > fine
Scopique > ok, here you go

This guy was so cool when he paid and I turned off my warp disruptor he didn't leave but went on with his mission as if nothing happened. I know many pirates and also ninjas do not honor ransom but kill the ships anyway but I prefer it like this. Maybe I can work on a reputation. If they are willing to pay, then they may leave or go on with what they do.

In corp chat:

Schmetterflug > Do you let them live after they payed u?
Scopique > yes. i am the nice guy :)
Saint Lucifer > wierdo

Field Trip

Aiden Mourn, Director of Salvage Operations is notorious for organizing highly amusing ninja shenanigans where a bunch of pilots in cheap frigates armed with beer and salvagers rush through missions for hours, grabbing salvage, loot, mission items, and most of all local tears which often come along. Usually we harass our home system of Dodixie but this time we wanted to spread the love and went on a trip to Fricoure. Fricoure is not a main mission hub like Dodixie and thus people are not used to getting blobbed by salvagers.

We met at a hidden spot deep in space. Dedicated scanners looked for missionrunners, and using advanced scanning techniques generated bookmarks to battlecruisers, commandships, battleships, and marauders by the minute. A small fleet of support ships (including Herr Wilkus in his Vargur marauder) was standing by to move and store large piles of loot.

Of course salvage and loot is nice on its own, but getting in touch with the locals is where the most fun is.

This guy for example was doing a mission. Turned out he had trouble completing it so he asked for help in local. Sure enough we came and helped:

Scop's alt > o/
Ryuujinn Jakka > wut happened ?
Scop's alt > help is on the way
Ryuujinn Jakka > kewl
Ryuujinn Jakka > oh there you are. sweet
Ryuujinn Jakka > mmmm
Ryuujinn Jakka > why are you hostile against me here ?
Aiden Mourn > Good question
Scop's alt > we're here helping you salvage. no worries, we're professionals
Scop's alt > just kill rats, we deal with the loot
Aiden Mourn > yeah dont you worry your pretty little head
Aiden Mourn > first time service is free

Some missionrunners did not approve and decided to shoot back. Cookietag for example shot my Vigil with a Maelstrom, then warped off, and docked. I changed my salvaging boat for something cloaky, went back into his mission, and waited. And waited. And waited a bit longer. Ninjas have patience. Eventually he came back in a Hurricane so I locked and scrambled him. Unfortunately he had a passive shield buffer on his battlecruiser so my drones were not able to break it. To make it even worse three of his corpmates warped in with a Drake, a Brutix, and an Exequror to remote repair him. With remote armor repairs. Nice idea guys, but next time bring repairs that actually match the tank of those you want to repair.

Scopique > hey Cookie, you cannot hit me and i can't kill you with this shitload of rr. 10mil and i'll bugger off?
Stealnutz > its a good deal

In the meantime the other ninjas swapped their ships as well. Aiden managed to get shot at by Cookie, and with the combined firepower of Aiden's Rupture and my Pilgrim the Hurricane melted within seconds.

Kelewan > what's he flying cookie?
Cookietag > Good fight pirates
Cookietag > Force recon
Cookietag > A rupture
Cookietag > ANd a dramiel
Cookietag > Didn't really care about that hurri:)
Scopique > me neither :P
Cookietag > lol
Cookietag > I'd like a rematch someday
Scopique > yeah, tell me when mate
Scopique > I'll be there
Cookietag > Lol I bet

Don Colesterole > scorpiq are u always weaky like that... I invite u to sydicate where we can shoot at will
Don Colesterole > not some babytalk here
Scopique > hey, it's the old "come to lowsec" \o/
Don Colesterole > lowsec is for girls
Don Colesterole > come to 0.0 where we can use bubbles and do real fight
Don Colesterole > and no hidden friends
Don Colesterole > real man fight
Aiden Mourn > i wasnt too hidden
Scopique > haha, your corpmate brought 3 friends vs. me
Velocity Prime > did someone just get pwnt?
Aiden Mourn > i was the guy sitting in front of your mate shooting him in the face
Aiden Mourn > =)
Don Colesterole > we couldnt shoot
Scopique > yeah, that's the trick
Don Colesterole > so u admit u are coward :)
Scopique > here we use brains instead of brute force. you'll get there eventually
Aiden Mourn > well theres some roundabout logic
Don Colesterole > ah going to dock

A bit later fellow ninja Karma Bad was attacked when salvaging with a Dramiel. A Dramiel without weapons unfortunately. The attackers, a Taranis, another Dramiel, and some other ship (a Tristan?) shot once but for some reason didn't dare fighting Karma's unarmed ship. A few of us came to watch but could not help until the Taranis pilot dropped a jetcan. Aiden quickly picked it up, and the Taranis opened fire. I don't recall what happened exactly, but somehow Aiden managed to tackle the interceptor in his cruiser and almost instantly popped it.

On the other hand we also lost two ships, a salvage Stabber, and a Vigil. Kayden Kelso tried to honor tackle a Raven in it until the rest of us could come to repair him but lacking a tank he went down to the battleship's drones.

In conclusion we had a very good time again. We gathered some good loot including several mission items that sell for 10+ million isk each on contracts. More important than the loot is the fun though. Ninja ops are laid-back, and we had a lot of fun both on voice comms, and with the locals.

Ninja Ships - The Vigil

This is the first installment of postings about ship fittings I intend to write. Some of them are not like the typical pvp fittings but tailored to special needs of pilots teasing other capsuleers in highsec. Since we are ninja salvagers in the first place the first post will be about salvaging ships.

Salvaging is not rocket science. You don't need a special tank, you don't need to worry about range, damage types, and so on. Fit as many salvagers as you want to your ship and you're good to go.
However, there are some things worth mentioning that seperate the professionals from the crowd.

The basic ninja salvaging ship meets three requirements: It's cheap, it's fast, and it has enough mid-slots for some utility modules. This is where the Vigil shines.


The ship without modules costs around 250.000isk. Loot one large gun in a mission and you can almost buy two Vigils. It's the fastest non faction t1 frigate in the game (Minmatar frigate skill bonus: +5% velocity per skill level), has a very well balanced slot layout (3/3/3), and can use one small drone.

So far, so good. This is common knowledge. Let's have a look at the fitting:

[Vigil, Salvager]
Overdrive Injector System I
Nanofiber Internal Structure I
Nanofiber Internal Structure I

1MN Afterburner I
Ship Scanner I
Target Painter I

Salvager I
Salvager I
Small Tractor Beam I

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Although you can fit three salvagers in the high-slots I prefer two and a tractor beam. You cannot tractor wrecks and cans that do not belong to you. What you can do though is eject some loot and drag the can like a trailer, extending the Vigil's small cargo bay to 27.500m3. This is useful when you have a large number of battleship modules (a large gun is worth around 500.000 isk) and you have a hauler ready to pick up the loot. Looting everything in addition to salvaging will add several million isk to your profit.
Missionrunners tend to hate it when you drag a can with their stuff in it all over the place, and often shoot or try to loot it. This is your ticket to go and grab a combat ship to teach them a lesson.

You probably noticed there is no tank in the mid-slots. You hardly ever need it, speed is your tank. You usually don't need to bother with mission npc since that's the missionrunner's job. He should be usefull for something after all. The afterburner is obvious. More speed to zip from wreck to wreck and to race against the missionrunner when the last npc dropped the mission item 50km away. Always loot mission items! You might need them later.
Next module to take note of is the ship scanner. By scanning a missionrunner's ship you'll get a lot of usefull information:

-First of all what does his tank look like? If you intend to shoot that guy later you want to know everything about his tank. Is there a resist hole? Is it an active or a shield buffer tank?
-What weapons is he using?
-Does he know how to fit a ship well? Some fittings suggest the pilot is likely to fall for funny tricks. Maybe even two times in a row.

Last but not least a target painter. Target painters on salvage ships are awesome. Whenever you hop into a mission use it on a mission npc with a bounty. The bigger the better. You need to activate the painter just once in order to get credit for the kill. You won't get the bounty but most of the time you will get the security increase awarded by CONCORD for killing the npc as long as the missionrunner kills it (and he will, sooner or later). This is a very easy method of gaining security standing in highsec. Read this handy guide for more information on fast highsec status grinding. You can use this standing for lowsec roams every now and then or to suicide gank miners if you feel like it.

The low-slots are more or less standard. Overdrives provide more speed in exchange for cargo space, nanofibers improve agility but lower your hitpoints. I won't fit armor plates or cargo expanders since they lower your speed.

Usually I don't take a drone with me. A single light combat drone hardly does any damage, and a t2 combat drone is more expensive than the entire ship. Some ninjas tell tales about using a single light ecm drone to jam npc ships so they don't shoot the afk missionrunner but his combat drones, leaving him unable to kill the npc but this will take very long, is highly dependent on luck, and usually isn't worth the trouble.

Of course other frigates also work but in my opinion the Vigil is among the best. Make sure you have at least three high- and mid-slots when you intend to use the modules listed above.

Remember to always keep moving when you're in a mission with angry missionrunners and npc. You do not have a tank. If there are small npc left warp out as soon as they target you and come back immediately. Do not fly directly towards bigger ships that shoot you, always try to move in circles or transversely to their weapons. Make sure you do not bump into structures or asteroids. If you're warping into a mission and you're landing in a green cloud immediately select any celestial in the overview and warp to it. This green gas cloud will destroy your ship within seconds. I learned this the hard way. More than once. If you're in a mission and the missionrunner starts shooting a structure called 'pleasure hub', keep your distance from it. It's going to explode with a big shockwave that will most likely smash your ship. Yes, I learned this the hard way as well.

That's about it. Now go and buy a Vigil, and loot a mission or two.
And always remember to have fun. Internet spaceships are not serious business!

More links to salvage ships:
Aiden Mourn's blog
Velocity Prime's blog

Pendulum of LOL

Pendulum of Doom Declares War Against Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2010.02.07 16:21

Pendulum of Doom has declared war on Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service. Within 24 hours fighting can legally occur between those involved.

People declare war on us quite often. This might be related to some not so happy customers but in this particular case I suppose Pendulum of Doom just wanted to collect some trophies for their killboard. They are a mercenary alliance consisting of one corporation - The Filthy Few.
Being brave ninjas we did what we often do. We shrugged and went on stealing other people's stuff anyway. Unfortunately (from their point of view) many ninjas like a nomadic way of life. We often stay in a region for some time and move on as soon as the missionrunners get used to us. Furthermore we like cloaky ships and use safespots and anchored caches for ammo and loot in space so when those guys finally brought themselves to come over to our headquarter and camped a station for some hours, they didn't see much action.

However, during the following days they roamed New Eden tryinig to find ninjas but as it turned out they hardly ever found one. A corpmate encountered a small group of wartargets at a gate once while hauling loot to Jita but for some reason they didn't manage to catch his t1 hauler nor did they follow him.

Props for the funny campaign name though. ("Tears for Queers", looks like they deleted the campaign from their killboard since no ship has been destroyed during this war)


Alliance mate Sal Pheebu had some nice conversations with one of them when he was checking his contracts before heading off to work in the morning.

Yuller > well Sal where is that big bad pvp alt?
Sal Pheebu > We're ninjas. If I told you, it would defeat the purpose.
Yuller > what ever cupcakes
Sal Pheebu > Of course, you aggressed us, so we should be asking where your big bad PvP fleet of very expensive T2 ships is, and whether we're ever going to see it in Dodi.
Yuller > if all your gonna do is sit here shit stick i guess you'llmiss the fight
Sal Pheebu > I'm not sitting. I'm checking trades. :) I do that standing up. Better for the circulation.
Yuller > planet 1 shit stick
Yuller > me and you
Sal Pheebu > Typical merc. One size fits all. If your name calling didn't get me to undock in my battle-iteron yesterday, what are the odds that approach will work this time?

For me it was business as usual most of the time. Wartargets showed up in different regions every now and then but were offline during my (EU timezone) hours for the most part.

It was a rather uneventful evening in HEK. I was in my salvage Vigil zipping through missions picking up loot when I met Aromoro in his Brutix. Level 4 missions with battleships usually provide better loot but missionrunners in battlecruisers often like to shoot me which is always a welcome change.
So I grab loot from the very first small wreck, and sure enough the Brutix locks my frigate, opens fire, and launches a flight of mixed drones. Taking heavy damage I warp off to a celestial. Once out of warp I immediately turn round and head back into the mission. The Brutix is still here and locks me again. He shoots. I warp off. Out of warp, turn round, warp to him. Lock. Shooting. Warp off but this time I change ships. When I come back he again starts shooting but this time I am in a Sleipnir command ship.

Poof!

Aromoro > WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?
enterap > wow
Cineva > hm... you can get bamed for that languege, you know that?
Aromoro > FUCKING SCopquie jumped my mission and blew up my SHIP
Scopique > Sad story
Aromoro > IDC IF I GET BANNED YOU FUCK JACKASS
Aromoro > fuck you takes a great player to trounce a newb faggot
Aromoro > if you were any good you would be flying real mishes instead stealing for me
Scopique > A newb? Your char is older than me. Or did you ebay him?
Aromoro > you ass is ours now
enterap > wow
Scopique > yeah sure
enterap > guys no fighing
Aromoro > no I went offline due to the faggot gate camping
enterap > show some love
Aromoro > just restarted a week ago
enterap > we got to love to live people
SpyS1mon > rofl
Fuldi > lol
Cineva > is a E bay guy clearly

Only half an hour later. The loot is salvaged, my Vigil repaired, and I got myself a cool beer from the kitchen. I warp into the next mission with a Hurricane. Another battlecruiser. Is he going to shoot also?
When I arrive there are a lot of wrecks but only one that hasn't been looted yet. Zooooooooooooooom! Overheating my afterburner I arrive just in time to grab 100 light missiles (worth almost nothing) from the small wreck.

Lock
Shooting
Warp off
Warp back
Kaboom!


No tears unfortunately, but all the salvage from his wrecks adds to my pile.

Wartarget Yuller jumped into HEK several times and searched the stations for me. I never had to dock though so after a while he gave up and left. After four days they retracted the war. I hope no one actually paid them for hindering us from salvaging.

Pendulum of Doom Retracts War Against Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2010.02.11 01:21

The war between Pendulum of Doom and Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service is coming to an end. Pendulum of Doom has retracted the war against Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service. The war will be declared as being over after approximately 24 hours.

Suddenly Ninjas

Since Suddenly Ninjas (SN) is currently recruiting it might be a good idea to write a bit about who we are and what we do.

SN is a highsec based corporation for thieves, racketeers, and ne'er-do-wells. Ore floating in space, unpiloted Orcas in mining OPs, highsec POS structures, mission loot and salvage... if it isn't nailed down, we take it and (quoting a former alliance mate) if we can pry it up, it’s not nailed down!

Although there are all kinds of areas of operation the main activity is to pillage missions. Many ninjas are experts on scanning down several level 4 missions in a few minutes and while it may take a missionrunner an hour or longer to kill all the NPC in a high level mission, it sometimes only takes minutes for a bunch of ninjas to swoop in, grab everything, and rush out again. Bonus points if the missionrunner decides to shoot at us since some ninjas have teeth and may decide to shoot back. Sometimes at a good profit!

Salvaging and looting of other people's mission is easy. It provides a very good income, especially for young pilots. All you need is a cheap ship and some skills everyone is able to acquire within a day or two.

Suddenly Ninjas is also the founder of the Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service [TEARS] alliance. There is even a new industrial wing to support our shenanigans, for more information contact Sal Pheebu ingame. The main base of operations is Dodixie, a popular mission hub in Gallente space, but some members also work in Amarr, Caldari, and Minmatar space, spreading the love all over New Eden.

If you're interested or just want to say "hi", join "The Ninja Alliance" channel ingame.
Recruitment applications go here.









Finally, there are several other Ninja blogs out there:
VelociLogic by our CEO Velocity Prime

Finders and Keepers by Aiden Mourn

Clockwork Scream by Bass Indy

Random Drivel by Rana Marrello

Suddenly News by Max Hatter

My loot, your tears by Paul clavet and Khalia Nestune

Hands Off, My Loot by Cyberin (discontinued)

Bitter online vet

Reports
From: Scopique
Sent: 2010.01.31 00:12
To: SoulPyre,

hi mate,

I just noticed I looted reports in your mission. I only want loot to sell but this looks like a mission item. I do not want to ruin your mission so I left it in a can. Sorry again.

o/

Obvious trap is obvious. SoulPyre is 8 months old and still in his starter corp. He just finished his mission when I warped in and there was also another guy in a Dramiel salvaging. When I arrived SoulPyre left and the Dramiel locked me. A salvaging alt? I didn't bother with the wrecks but took the mission item instead.

Re: Reports
From: SoulPyre
Sent: 2010.01.31 00:15
To: Scopique,


i left b/c giantjack also warped in and he has a habit of griefing people by holding their ships hostage. thx for leaving the reports

Uuh. Griefing people in missions is mean. Don't do that!

Some minutes later, he returns.

SoulPyre > i came to pick up my mission reports
Scopique > yes
SoulPyre > would you please just let me go?
SoulPyre > iave already had a bad day with people attacking me
Scopique > for 20mil i will
SoulPyre > fine


Scopique > here you go o/
SoulPyre > pleave just leave me alone from now on, i just want to do missions in peace

Scopique > why don't you join a corp? there are so many corps out there for missions. being all alone all the time must be boring?
SoulPyre > ive played a few other mmo's and ive gotten sick of guild/corp drama's
SoulPyre > im just taking a lil break from people i guess? =X

Poor guy. But why is he playing a multiplayer game for 8 months if he can't stand other people in the first place?