Lead, Follow, or GTFO

Sorry so for the lack of posting, but RL has been....difficult to say the least, and with the recent patch to Eve, and what this post is about has got me going and 100mph.

This is what was bred into me for 4 years, and something that sticks with me to this day.  We have great people in my Alliance, but getting someone to take charge during a fight at times became an issue.

I am still new to the game, and with only a year in I still feel unqualified to be CEO, and now a FC (Fleet Commander).  My first try of it was a nasty one, and I welped about 600mil worth of ships against a Snails and Frogs gang.  If you do not know who Snails and Frogs are they a Worm Hole group that can give you a nasty fight if you do not respond quickly, and fight on your terms.

LEAD:

Taking charge is key, and setting the tone of who you are going to be as a FC/Leader in general has to be first and foremost.  Do you want zero chatter? Loose and free comms?  Whatever you decide make sure everyone knows as soon as you take control so there is no confusion.  DO NOT! tell your fleet (we are all going to die).... I do not understand why you would do that, even if you know you are going into a fight that you will lose.  Take the fight like you are going to win always, and the reason for this is you'd be surprised how people react even in the face of a losing fight, and what can be accomplished.  Even if you are unsure about a command or what you are about to do act like it's something you've done a 100 times.  Confidence like that even if it does not work out helps show that you are not second guessing yourself.  As soon as you do that they will start to second guess you.

FOLLOW:

This is really the hard part in my opinion as getting people to follow you, is not easy especially in Eve Online.  As trust is worth more than PLEX at any given point, and once gained is a powerful tool.  To you all fleet members follow if you have questions ask just make sure its not during an active part of a fleet.  Educate yourself if your FC, Corp, Alliance, and so on are not so you can be a better asset to the group.  If you do not like the way the FC is running a fleet wait till after or just bow out early if you can.  Disrupting a fleet can get everyone killed and/or kill the moral of the fleet.

GTFO:

Like it says get out if you are not willing to do either.  If you want to be a solo pilot thats great nothing wrong with that, but in a corp/alliance you've got to be able to do one of the above.  If you cant your not helping anyone.  Eve is all about helping helping each other....or helping destroy one another..

Orion

Little Victories

Being a CEO or really just being a player in Eve is the little victories.  

For me it's the little victories in Eve, and they in turn keep me doing what I am doing.  Trying to run a corporation, keep members logging in, putting together content, and making sure folks do what is asked of them can be difficult at its best.

Getting new members!

Teaching a new member the basics of living in Null Sec, and them earning more isk than I do!

Catching that pirate that's killed some of your members this CODE. you take that, and take a small victory lap.

Getting your first good loot drop from a Rat.  Got this little guy Rogue Drone 42-X Nexus Chip!  Which you can turn into a Sisters of Eve LP store to get a Nestor BPC, and then build a Nestor from that.

To the point Eve is a harsh place that can be as dark as space itself.  Taking the bad with the good is the only way to survive, and keep playing Eve.  

CEO: what can I do?

For me it's providing the enviroment to be able to get those little victories.  

Letting your directors handle their areas.  This seems straight forward, but you have to be vigilant and make sure what they do, and intend to do falls inline with your vision.  Guide, and set paramiters so they know where to stop, and how far they can go.  Have them or yourself set up goals you'd like them to attain or see what theirs are.  Start small getting those little victories early and often will only help to do bigger and better things.

Set up awards and/or medals to give out to members.  A little recognition can go a long way for moral.

Set up small corp events that will test them, and have a payoff.  Example would be a mining fleet night with with goal of mining enough for a Carrier.

These are my little victories, but what are yours?

Finding new members

Hello can I tell you about the word Bob?



Recruiting in Eve Online is one of the most interesting, and possibly one of the more frustrating things in the game.  I'll try to cover Recruiting in Eve as best I can, and from how I started to where I am.

So you've started a Corp. and now you are looking to fill it?  Well there are a lot of options out there to you, and as a new CEO you may not even know some of these exist!  These are not rated in any kind of order of which is better than the other.


1.  Corp. Advert:  If you are looking for new members using this is a must especially when looking for new players.  Setting this up I feel is pretty important as it's a direct representation of your Corp. and how you do business.  Filling this out with what you can do, and what you do not do is key to finding the right people you are looking for.  Put your own flair to it, and you would be surprised how many members you can pick up from it.  That being said it tends to run in spurts when you hit milestones like the sliding scale; 10, 50, 100, and etc.  Once you hit those you'll see a marked increase in applications when you hit those numbers as your advert tends to populate more on the recruiting page.  Be sure to set it up with a recruiting chat channel, and throw some people in there that can be good at talking, and helping people through your recruiting process.

2.  New Player Help:  You remember being new to Eve right?  Well there is a Rookie help channel you join when you first start a new character, and if you have time sitting in there and helping can bring people to you.  After helping a couple of people in that chat they later asked me if they could join win win I say!

3.  Gate to Gate:  Hitting the Stations, belts, and mission areas looking for people I find the best luck in myself.  If looking for miners I'll grab an Orca with some ships, and make my way to the systems around a starter system.  Normally I start at a .5 and make my way up to the 1.0 area hitting all the belts in a Procurer, or my Orca depending.  Then I just chat up any player not in a Corp. or those who started there own, but they are the only one in there.  If they are not interested I'll see if they need any help, and hang out for a bit.  If I have done any mining I jet can the Ore, and abandon it next to him on my way out.  Mission running is a bit different I'll run some missions, and look for players in need of advice or help, and try to do my best.  These tend to be the ones that are not in a Corp., and are needing some guidance on fitting or finishing off a room etc...  PvP is a bit tougher as normally you just popped your potential recruit!  But all is not lost saying Good Fight in local, and paying for his ship loss ( within reason), or starting a convo talking to him about things he could have done better could get you a new member.

4.  Forums:  I haven't had any luck on forums, but it is a tool none the less!  If I could suggest a site its Eve University's.  They have a Work Fair thread where you can put up your recruiting information once you register.

5.  Real Life:  You'd be surprised who plays video games, and telling people you play one like Eve isn't near as looked down on as it used to be.  So talk about Eve to others wouldn't you want someone you actually know flying the ship next to you?


The Interview

 



Every Corp. is different, and they should be!  Stay Frosty. is a totally open PvP Pirate corp for example.  The key is letting them know what you expect/want, and ask questions to better figure out who you have that wants to join.  I normally ask things like what do they want to do in Eve?  Do you have Team Speak?  What are your play times? Etc. Etc.  I've found out this way that English may not be the person's first language which is important as a lot of things can be lost in translation.  I do not tell them everything till I have checked out their API (more to follow on that), and kind of got a better of idea of who I have been typing at.

Background Check:  Like with the Interview this is subject to how you do things.  Our Alliance requires a Account Wide non-expiry API in order to join.  This may seem intrusive and in regards it can be, but it's a check that everyone uses to prove you are who say you are.  I use Evemon a free program to check the API's I get submitted.  I also check sites like;  Eve Who and zKillboard these help me get a different look at their information.

I am sure there is more that you or your group does, but Eve is back on line and I need to get in!

-Orion

Mob Mentality

While playing Eve I try to be as easy going as I can be.  Not try to jump to anger, and be understanding to;  issues, complaints, problems, he said/she said, drama, etc...  I try to remind myself not to troll people as you never know how your words may affect someone else.  I'm human though and fail a lot in things I try to do, and this brings me to the Mob Mentality.

I say Mob Mentality as if a group starts to troll another even though you're not the type to, you very well may troll those people in return.  This normally seems to start in Eve with a bit of trash talking from one side or the other.  Nothing hard hitting just thinking like; 'come out and play' 'aww dont run', 'dont be scared of us', and etc....



The turning point normally in Eve is when side starts taking major ship losses, losing the fight, or losing a war.  These can be amplified if the two sides have bad blood to begin with which doubles the chance of things like cursing, personal assaults, and hate speech.  Like the fight itself it progressively escalates it burns itself out like your prop mod in a low sec fight.

I try my best to not do these things, and seeing personally how words have a real way of hurting or helping someone.  I'm human though, and if one of my corp members get caught out I'm out for spaceship blood.  I'll taunt in local to see if I can get him to slip up, to break his focus, and give me or my gang a opening to get retribution.  In the Mob though things can go do far, and get out of control so it takes strong minded people with influence to stop the cycle. As a leader you have to see the point where your mob mentality has turned in the wrong way, and stop it cold if possible.  This may not be possible depending on how intense the situation is, so you may just need to help guide it the right way before mistakes are made in game, and to someones mental health.


You may not care, and Eve does not care that is for sure, so why should you?  I can type till my hands bleed with reasons you shouldnt, but like in RL its all up to you.

Using the Mob Mentality for good:

It can be used for good though, and applied the right way it can do lots of good.  Your corp/alliance is a 'Mob', like mine I, and my awesome members do my best to train new players and help them as much as we can.  The Angel Project is a great 'Mob' doing great things in Eve Online, and I am sure there is more support, but that is a known group that assist hard up pilots.  Eve University is another 'Mob' that does so much I can put everything that mob can do!  Is there more?  Well that's for you to find out...

Orion

Real Life and Eve

When this blog goes dark, and like even Eve itself it will go dark eventually.  I wanted to say why I really started this blog.  I needed an outlet something to help me express my feelings.  Channel the varied emotions, trials, and tribulations that is this wonderful game.   That and Real life which dictates when or if we can even undock……

My RL

Though what this blog really is, is something hopefully that will help me figure out myself, my real life (RL).  I've mentioned I am a soldier with 11 years active service.  These last 2 years have been the worst for me mentally and physically.   I'm currently seeing a psychiatrist, and going to other medical appointments to see what is wrong with me.   As it stands it's all in my head which in its own way seems worse to me.   Either way those are my burdens to bare, and thankfully I have good people around me to help deal with them, and a loving family.  I count myself lucky to have that, as others may not, and if that's the case I hope I could help someone in need.

Eve & RL

I use Eve as an escape from RL, but....

I had both collide in a way I wasn't prepared for.  We picked up a new member who was a soldier as well.  Soon after we picked up a WarDec, out of the blue.  So I reached out to them, and found out they were after our new member.  Not unheard of, but they wanted us to kick him, and or have him undock to get attacked.   Sadly as a CEO I didn't have this knowledge and this was our 4 WarDec and would keep my guys docked and I'd lose more members.  So I kicked him and immediately regretted it. Come to find out they were other soldiers who he'd had a disagreement/fight (not a lot of details) with and they were harassing him in game.  This violates some rules CCP has in place, so my diplo filed the ticket to have it stopped.  This places me in a odd place I ask for RL numbers as a leader bullying, and harrasment like this in game, is likely a lesser of what he is getting on RL.   Once I confirmed I out ranked all parties against my corp mate by several ranks sufficed to say they stopped the in game stuff.  I also knew the people to call on the RL side were they were stationed that'd stopped it cold.  In the end I invited him back, as soon as I found out the full information, but he declined making feel even worse for what I had done.  

Loss

Sadly even we cannot fully escape death of those close to us by logging into Eve.  People like Vile Rat, Uber pain, and many others have passed on avid players of Eve Online.  How this impacts everyone is different, but all are a huge blow to someone.  Vile Rat touched many and by far the most notable loss to the community as a whole.   Such a high profile person in his RL won't go unnoticed when something as tragic as what happen come to pass. Their losses have RL effects that we cannot begin to fully emotionally rationalize, and leaves holes that will remain hollow.  I didn't know Vile Rat in game, but he was a patriot in RL as am I.  So I'll call him brother, and mourn him like I would a fellow soldier as he should be.    

Uber is what everyone called him, was a pilot from our alliance, and had a huge effect on some our members.  I didn't know him either, but regardless he was in our Alliance, and one of us... so I undocked.  I flew my Gila on my main, and my Skiff on my Alt, orbited a lone can that said RIP Uber.  The Alliance head, and other leadership and orbited the can shooting fireworks, and snowballs.  It stop me cold it felt like I was looking at a combat memorial in Iraq.  

Excerpt from Alliance mail:

Today we gather to recognize the loss of a brother; Uber’s time on Earth and in New Eden came to an end in March 2014. 

Kel Gallnt, uber pain, over medicated, black, vicodin

Uber was a great man and a valued pilot who will be missed. His bluntness made him a man we loved to hate at times but loved him all the same. I remember spending many late nights having a good laugh at the jokes he would tell. He would keep us entertained with his life stories and blunt jokes.

 

He was always willing to lay his pod down for his EVE friends and family. Regardless of the odds he was always there. If there was an event he was there to support his friends and family.

Eve is Real

This is when Eve isn't a game anymore it becomes a community.  A group of brothers, sisters, friends, and enemies.  We laugh, and cry with one another, and in this instance grieve for those we've lost.  It touched me they did this for Uber, and what struck me more was others from my corp that undocked.  They never knew him, but I felt as leadership I needed to attend either way.   They fired all their Fireworks, and snowballs, then we undocked larger ships, and repped the can with drones.  Some were related a story, and talk about taking a roam to an area he had wanted to go to.  One by one people docked up, and like RL the pain is there, and the memory brought forward to deal with.  

Tomorrow we undock like any other, but hopefully with the purpose of enjoying the time we have in game and out with the people we care about. 

Fly safe

RIP Uber

This blog was for you all at C5, members who knew him, and Sara 

Skill Training for new Pilots and my Procurer

This is one of the hardest things for a new pilot to figure out.  Lots of options, and normally when you first fire up Eve it can be over whelming looking at everything.  So the TL:DR (too long didnt read) pick a ship you'd like fly and skill toward it.

High end corps/alliance/coalitions tell you what you will skill toward.  That's even if you make their SP (skill point) requirement!  

I take on brand a lot new pilots still in trial or just getting their first 30 days in.  I've been lucky some have stayed, and grown with us!  So the leadership will get asked what they should skill toward, to get better.   I ask what do they think they'd like to do.   Because at the end of the day if they aren't happy then they don't log in or work toward your goals at all. 

If I do make a suggestion I start with mining, or PvE especially with very new players.  Why? Because ask anyone PvP doesn't pay out for new pilots, and getting ISK early on is the name of the game.  My first suggestion is to create a goal, pick a ship you like that fits that role and start skilling to sit in it.  

We'll go with mining in this instance, and my suggestion as a goal for new members to skill towards.

The mighty Procurer!

Mining Barge bonuses (per skill level):

5% bonus to ship shield hitpoints

2% reduction in Strip Miner and Ice Harvester duration

Role Bonus:

150% bonus to Strip Miner yield

60% reduction in Ice Harvester duration and activation cost

50% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints

This is by far the ship for newer members.

Source of information from Eve Uni:

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Procurer

I am in the minority in fitting these or any mining ship, because I choose tank over all things.
So do not loose your mind when you see the fits I suggest!  That being said the below fit is optimized against ganking ships like the often used Catalyst, so Kinetic and Thermal damage is what we are tanking against in HiSec.  

Sub any T2 mod you cannot fit with a T1.

Hisec Procurer Ore/Ice Miner

High Slot - Ice or Ore Strip miner T1 or T2

Mid Slot -Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot -Kinetic Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot - Thermal Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot - Medium Shield Extender II

Low Slot - Damage Control Unit II
Low Slot - Ice Harvester Upgrade II or Ore Harvester Upgrade II

Drones: 5xHobgoblins

             5xSalvager drone*

*I like to collect salvage so I can build rigs with them.

Null Sec miner

High Slot - Ice or Ore Strip miner T1 or T2

Mid Slot -Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot -EM Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot - User's choice
Mid Slot - Medium Shield Extender II

Low Slot - Damage Control Unit II
Low Slot - Ice Harvester Upgrade II or Ore Harvester Upgrade II

Drones:  5xWarriors *1

              5xEC-300 *2

*1 Warriors because are the fastest drone out there, and the best with keeping up with frigates, and Interceptors
*2 EC-300 If you are looking for a way out this is possibility if you are not looking for a fight and just getting out.

I am sure you can make all kinds of arguments as to why not to use these ships for mining, and you are right in a lot of instances.  The reality is if you want to minimize your chances of death from be it Neuts, or Suicide gankers.

How I do skilling has evolved, and will most likely cause the Eve L33t people to have a seizure.  I skill toward what I need or want at a given time, but it Alliance/Corp need or a ship I'd like to try out crazy I know!  Though I do it a bit differently I work week to week (does not work so well once you get to the longer skills) I work toward say flying a Gila.  I'll start working the requirements for that for a week, and once I finish that week I work toward Core skills following .

Core skills:  These vary just about everyone you talk to, but Eve University has a great list here:  http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Core_Skills

Basic top 5 skills:

Mechanics
Shield Management
Capacitor Management
CPU Management
Power Grid Management

Again the basic skills here, and only the beginning!

Anything after that, and skilling core skills on the Eve Uni list is a great start to helping you on your way with your path.

Basically go with whatever you want, but have a goal and work towards that.  Skill "core" skills as you can as they'll help you across the board.

Orion

How I came to Eve, and was told to be a CEO part 2

*Note please remember I am a former Infantry grunt be happy you get words in somewhat the right order alright?

Now to continue....

Recruiting:  From a very funny web comic you should check out if you're a nerd like me Ctrl+Alt+Del:
                                http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20120625

It's not as bad as all that, but it's not far off either....

Remember that recruiting channel I said you should have started? Well to do that you need to do a few things first.  Open the chat channels button on the left,and click Channels.  Once done I'd type something along the lines (Corp Name) Recruiting Channel.  I'd suggest only use this channel for recruiting do not make it a hangout so you can see if a new person joins immediately.  Click Create *We will come back to this later

Now take all the things I suggested earlier and be ready to put them in a recruiting advert.

Go to your corp tab on the NEOCOM on the left.  Click on the Recruitment tab, then Corporation Ads.

On the bottom left first thing you want to do if you want to be able to screen applicants is check the "Membership application enabled" box.

Now click on the Create Advert button it'll bring up another window.  Put a snazzy Ad title like Free Beer!  No not really unless you can then good on ya!  Put something on there you'd be looking for when joining or interest you.  Reason being you'd people that would join liking the same thing you do right?

Looking For 
On the Details tab on the right you'll see "Looking for and a drop down.  Click that arrow and you'll see at the time of this posting 3 areas.  PvE, PvP, Trade & Industry, and Other.  Choose the things you do or will do in the very near future.  Reason being is false advertising sucks, well unless that's what you are going for...

Area of Operations
Check the appropiate boxes and go to the next area " Area of Operations " or AO to us military folks.

Pretty straight forward on this selection check the area's you operate in.  I take it as where we run operations out of not to, meaning I do not claim low sec as an operating area if I only do a roam once in awhile.  If we had a station there we worked of or POS (player owned station) sure.

Languages
Select what applies to you, and your group.

Primary Time Zone
Use the sliding bar to mark out in Eve time when you, and your group are primarily on doing group stuff.

Secondary Time Zone
This is where I'd put your guys who are on later at night or earlier due to work or school.

Duration
Go ahead and go the full length of 28 days, and pay up the 7.5mil for the Ad.

Now the block I avoided the Message to Recruits
This is where I'd put your Purpose, Direction, and Motivation bit in.

State short term goals, long term goals, and Tax rate.

What you can provide to new or old players SRP (Ship Replacement Program)  Ore Buy back program, and so on.

If you are going to require API put the link to set one up in there, and if you do not know what an API is yourself.  Check out the link below, and also look up EveMon.  A great tool to check API's its not a catch all as there are ways to look innocent, but its something at least. I am sure there are other 3rd party programs, and please check them out I've only used this one so it's my base.  *If I can remember I'll post on checking people's API's via Evemon.

https://community.eveonline.com/support/api-key/

Put what you like on the message, but leaving it blank seems a waste.

Now to the next tab Recruiters!

Pick people you can trust, who know how the corp operations run, and who do not mind talking to people who may literally be 1 day old in game.

Pick them out hitting the Add button below your corp member list.  Next is Recruitment Channel (see told you we'd get back to it) use the drop down and pick the channel you created earlier.

Review for error's typos and such, and when ready click submit!

This what a potential recruit will see when looking for a corp through the search function.

What I have noticed when you hit membership milestones is when you start seeing more people put in applications or join your recruiting channel.  These normally are 10 50 and 100 respectively.

There are a ton of things in between, and around this I know I have missed, but if all else fails check out Eve University's Wiki There is no site for educating yourself on Eve Online out there.

If you'd like me to go back and cover something else when starting a corp. please let me know in the comments.  (sets rocks in front of crowd)....

Orion

How I came to Eve, and was told to be a CEO part 1

My uncle said I needed to try a space ship game he'd been playing....

  I was playing whatever iteration of FPS shooter at the time, and League of Legends (LoL), but being super competitive it went from fun gaming into anger/rage inducing moods. I needed a change of pace, RL was really getting to me (still is) at the time. My uncle had been bugging me for days to try Eve Online, and after the first 2 hours I do not think I'll stop playing till the servers shut down.  If you have not tried it give it a try:  https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=f9371051-e6cb-4b5d-97db-b5ba10f92922&action=buddy

So I hopped on the phone with my uncle, and his friend (Current mining director) talking about what we wanted to do in the game.  I would not join them till I finished all the tutorials, as I was just in awe at how open things seemed.   I highly suggest you do the same! Check them out and learn all the little bits of information, get some free stuff to!  

Having no idea we started skilling toward mining as a way to relax, and earn some isk. Paid for my subscription, and then was told I was going to start a corp 3 weeks into Eve......damn it....

Starting up:

I was told to start a corp as a 3 week old toon which took me a week to do since I had to do a few skills, and read up on it.  

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Corporation_Mechanics_101

Without the above Eve Uni Wiki it would have never happen!  Also checkout all their things out as their information is far better than a few Billion isk in your wallet. So I learned enough to get us started, but sadly sometimes even they leave things out that I had to learn the hard way.  I'll save some of those for another post for another date as I am still learning a lot of do not's. 

Things you'll want to think about are;  Purpose, Direction, and Motivation...  These things you'll want to think about even before you really even put a name to your corp.

Purpose:  What is your corp?  Pirate? Miners/Industry (really one is tied to the other), PvP, etc?

Direction:  This one is tough and was for me at first, but it was to grow into a support corp for a larger alliance that is going to do something note worthy.  So find a direction, and go for it, but do not be afraid to bend and reshape as things go on.  Not being able to adapt will leave your corp empty, and you looking for something else to do.

Motivation:  Take your motivation and project it to others.  Seems simple, but some don't respond the same way to whatever motivational tactic you are using.  Ore buy back program, Ship Replacement Program, and Fleet nights (or roams or whatever you call your gathering of members) are all good ways to motivate.  Contests if you are able to manage rewards and tracking for are also great to do.

Tips:

 Somethings I would suggest is save up your first 100 million isk so you can have options as you may want to rent your first office at a station, that may cost more than you would normally think.

Start off in a .7-.8 system.  This gets you away from the starting systems, and access to a better assortment of Ore's, and asteroid fields if you are looking to start off mining.  This will also in most cases from the area's I've visited have a better assortment of agents.  

Get off the pipe!  Meaning look for a low key system with little activity this helps as being seen a lot is not always a good thing for a very new corp starting out without veteran members to help guide your hand.  This will give you more time to get your feet wet so to speak, and really learning eve.  

Recruiting:

At first we just peer pressured all our friends, family, and co-workers to come play.  99% saw it as to hard, slow, boring, expensive, or to time consuming.  Which it can be all those things, and a lot worse, but it's so much more.  It has awe inspiring moments where you see your first Titan on field (still have not) or going to see the Titanomachy in B-R5RB.

                                                           Check that block!

Though we hit the jackpot for a new corporation, and that was having a member join with a Rl friend of a friend who had been playing for 6 years!  That in of itself is like someone giving you 100 million isk when you first start playing Eve (Love ya T).  Without him I would not have a 130 member corp with some of the best people I've come to know in a game.  

Grab up new players warp to belts in the starter systems, and adjacent ones.  Talk to them get them involved, or just give them advice from what you have learned so far.  I probably met more than half of my members in a belt and spent time mining with them chatting away.

Talk to them get to know them, and help them.  This can be in whatever form your corp is like PvP for example.  You blow up that 3 day old toon in the venture TALK TO HIM ya ASS!  Why?  Because that's all he knows is he got blow up not his new ship is toast, and now he is most likely lost.  If nothing else tell him what he did wrong or right so he is not clueless to what happen just that alone could go a long way.

                                                       Mining Frigate - ORE

What you do after that is your call it is Eve so there is a harshness that some just have to learn to figure it out fully sadly enough.

End Part 1

Orion

 

Bad day in the neighborhood

So here I am starting a Blog.....about Eve, about my trials, and tribulations that is being a CEO of a Corporation in Eve Online.   That being said this post will be terrible just warning you!

What the hell am I thinking!  I blame you Rixx!!!!

I wont start from the beginning yet because well tonight was a shit day RL and game wise.   Got a call of a spike in our home system so I undock my Gila and make speed there with 2 corpies.  We are new to the Null PvP game so for us its undock and defend our area for us.  Does not matter what, but if a Purple is tackled I, and those of us who can undock and roll.

                                                          (Gila-Faction- Cruiser)
                                                          Freaking love this ship

Sadly an Alliance member lost his ratting ship, and due to inexperience , and lack of leadership one of my corp mates drifted off stations and got his Hurricane popped.

                                             (Minmatar - Hurricane - Battle Cruiser)

So what I am to do?  He knows he made a mistake, but at the heart of lays a serious issue we are out of our depth without solid leadership on the PvP field.  I am still learning the game, and sadly due to my RL profession of being in the military that makes it tough to give a lot of time to this game that is rich and fulfilling in its own way.  It's bred into me to try an lead, but that's not my place in the Alliance yet...., but I do my best when on field with my guys to take charge and see what we can do for better or worse.

What happen after that you may ask?  Nothing my corp member logged upset at the loss, and the PvP director stood everyone down, and I did warped back bitter and angry. "Hurr tell him to HTFU!" I bet is what you hard line L33T PvP folks are thinking, but most of you all who will troll me most likely don't remember (or care to) the times where you had little to no isk.  Grinding to get the minerals or isk to buy your new ships, mods, and rigs.  So its a bitter taste for me and my guys to lose without gaining any kind of retribution, Kill Mail, or anything past one less ship.

So I will put a fresh Hurricane in his hanger that I had brought out, and go from there

So it was a bad day in the neighborhood, but just like Eve it's about learning from these mistakes then working through them.  I just hope I am up to the task of keeping my guys undocking even though it seems we lose more than we gain.

Orion.