New Order Returning to Kamio this Sunday

The Abudban system has been our vacation home for a couple weeks now, and it couldn't have been more accommodating. Despite repeated threats against us, nothing has been able to stand in our way. You came to Abudban, and you brought change. When we first arrived, the system was one of the most popular mining locations in all EVE. No surprise, since it's next door to Rens.

With more Agents than ever before, we sold countless mining permits. Bad miners left the system, enabling a superior community to take root there for the first time.

Our vacation has been exciting, but now it's time for us to make our way back home: Kamio and its neighbor Halaima, at the heart of The Citadel. I have heard reports of Kamio's population reaching record levels. If what I've been hearing is true, it may have become the most popular mining location in the galaxy. There's no question that they miss us, and they need us.

You know what that means! A call to bumps!

WHEN: Sunday, December 2nd at 21:00 EVEtime (4:00pm Eastern)
WHERE: Abudban ice field

All Agents and aspiring Agents are invited. We will meet in Abudban and then head to Kamio. It's fitting, because we will be back in our homeland, ready for the Winter Expansion scheduled for release that week. There has been much interest in our future ganking operations. We will be in the Kamio/Halaima area for awhile, so that would be a good location to move gank alts and equipment.

EVE Fitting Tool and Ganker Training

I raised a few eyebrows the other day when I gave advance notice that the New Order will create an army of ganking alts. Some of you may have a lot of experience with suicide ganking miners in highsec. Many others have never ganked a miner before. In any case, I suspect quite a few of you have never created an alt specifically for the purpose. Personally, I haven't trained any skills in three years, so I'm a little rusty. I have possession of an old Gallente alt that I haven't used in a very long time. He had nothing trained, and basically never undocked in his nearly seven years of existence. He is now training to become a suicide ganker.

If you repeatedly gank targets in highsec, your security status will drop quickly--and far more quickly after the Winter Expansion (everyone who aggresses gets a penalty equivalent to destroying the target). After a few ganks, you won't be able to travel freely through highsec unless you go to nullsec and grind security status. That's a boring, time-intensive activity at best, and it sets a limit on gankers.

Our mission is to remove all limits on ganking miners. That's why our army will be comprised of Catalyst pilots who can operate with negative security status indefinitely. No grinding required. The alts we create will do nothing but kill miners, one after the other.

Hopefully you have heard of EVE Fitting Tool (EFT), which can be downloaded via that link. It's a simple program that allows you to see the stats for ships with different fittings, and see how skills change those stats. EFT is useful for preparing suicide ganks in two ways.

One way to use EFT to learn how many hitpoints your target may have. You can load up a Mackinaw, for example, and set the skills to "All Level V" and see a worst-case scenario. Pictured here, a Mackinaw has 14,625 hitpoints when taking resistances into account. I have set up a custom "hybrid" damage profile consisting of 50% thermic and 50% kinetic damage, since that's what our Catalysts' guns will inflict.

Potential gank targets should always be scanned to see if they have defense modules (like shield hardeners) fitted. If so, you can go to EFT and plug those in and see how they affect your target's hitpoints.

More importantly, EFT can help you plan and evaluate your new ganker alt. Pictured here is the most basic setup. It's as simple as it gets.

EFT shows you whether or not you can fit the modules with your current skills. You can easily import your current skills via an API, and you can also change skill levels manually to see what affect they would have. Here, the ganker alt has sufficient CPU and powergrid.

In the Winter Expansion, Catalysts will have more CPU and powergrid, so the above numbers will be out of date. Based on the figures released by CCP, you'll be able to create a new Gallente character and fit the basic setup after you train Destroyers I, Propulsion Jamming I, and Weapon Upgrades I, II, and III. That's right--less than a day of training! Currently Electronics IV is needed.

Sadly, the Babby Ganker has little firepower at his disposal. The top number is average damage per second (DPS). The bottom number is the average amount of damage of a single volley. Both figures are helpful. If you know how long Concord (or faction police) response time is, you can look at your guns' "duration", figure out how many volleys you fire (remember your first volley is fired immediately), and have a very good idea of how much damage you'll do.

DPS is not as accurate, but it's a decent measure of how powerful your ganker alt is. Fortunately, even fitting only tech I modules, your ganker can do much more damage with proper training.

Training Mechanics III, Jury Rigging I, II, and III, and Hybrid Weapon Rigging I will enable you to fit the small hybrid rigs (which are cheap). Currently you'll also need Engineering IV to make them fit, but it looks like that won't be the case after the Winter Expansion due to extra powergrid. For this demonstration, I also added Gunnery III and Rapid Firing I, II, and III. We've already made significant improvement without having trained any level IV skills.

If you're willing to put in additional training, you can steadily increase your damage. Pictured here, the ganker has trained Gunnery IV, which allows you to train Surgical Strike I, II, and III for 3% more damage per level. Small Hybrid Turret IV gives an additional 5%.

The flames next to each gun indicate overheating. The ability to overheat is the first real nuisance to train so far. It requires Engineering IV and V, Science IV, Energy Management I, II, and III, and Thermodynamics I. The good news is, overheating raises damage by about 15% at the press of a button (remember to press it).

With 317 DPS, we've improved by 70% on our freshly-minted ganker. More damage means fewer gankers are necessary to kill the target. Fewer gankers required means it's more likely you can scramble up the numbers. And that means more frequent gankings. But now we have approached the limits of what you can do without training toward tech II guns.

The tech II Magnetic Field Stabilizers require Weapon Upgrades IV. The guns require Small Hybrid Turret V, Motion Prediction I, II, and III, and Small Blaster Specialization I. I threw in Small Blaster Specialization II since it's a quick extra 2%, and Rapid Firing IV.

Note the big jump in DPS of 70% from the last picture. (Also note the use of tech II Void S ammo instead of Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S. Never forget the ammo.) This is nearly triple the 186 DPS that the Babby Ganker had.

The tech II ganker's kit is more expensive and requires more training time. Ideally you want to have enough tech I gankers in your gang to kill a Code-violating Mackinaw. But if you're short on DPS, or if you want a little extra certainty that your target is going to die, having a tech II ganker in your gang will be very useful. If your alt has the skills to fit tech II, it's a good idea to keep a set of both tech I and tech II modules in station so you can swap them out, depending on the needs of your ganker gang.

CCP Seeks Feedback Regarding Bumping

CCP Falcon has opened a special thread regarding bumping (presumably including freighter bumping in addition to miner bumping). You may find that thread at this link.

Here are some of the relevant bits of the OP:

The intention of this thread is to gather questions, opinions and feedback from the player base with regards to bumping, and present them to the Senior GMs for review and responses... In this thread I will be gathering questions, comments, feedback and opinions regarding bumping... This thread will run for one week, until 17:00 on Wednesday, December 5th, after which I will close it. I will then gather responses, opinions, questions and feedback from it, before forwarding it on to the Senior GMs for review, who will then provide a response...

Clearly, the power of the New Order has made all of highsec minerdom tremble with fear. The carebears have only one desire: To eliminate all obstacles to botting and bot-aspirant behavior in highec so they can continue their steady drip of risk-free isk. When carebears beg CCP to do something, CCP usually does it. However, carebears are not the only ones who have opinions about bumping. I believe readers of this blog also have an interest in the future of the bumping mechanic, and I believe those opinions should be represented in that thread.

CEO of the Year

Meet Jester John. Miner. Permit holder. Rebel.

Though he understood that he had to pay for the right to mine in Abudban, he hated the New Order. So he plotted against it. Like all other such plots, it failed because miners don't want to do things.

Why did this rebel miner pay in the first place? Because his employer, Zantiu-Braun Corporation, required it. Jester didn't like that.

Before you can leave your corporation, you must resign all of your corp roles, which takes 24 hours. Fellow rebel Racha Ni'Tar cheered Jester's decision to leave Zantiu.

The CEO of the corp, Aria Stane, returned to Abudban just in time to hear Jester's reckless talk in local. Jester had entrusted Aria with 10 billion isk worth of his blueprints, stored in the corp hangar. In light of Jester's treason, Aria confiscated them.

The rebels were displeased, as they always are when justice is done.

Members of the same corporation may attack each other freely, without Concord interference. This is often called "awoxing", but normally it refers to people who join a corp to attack others. Now Jester was threatened with a kind of reverse-awox.

Jester couldn't wait out the 24 hours to leave corp. He just had to get that sweet, sweet Abudban ice. True to her word, Aria attacked him. With her Orca.

Aria's Orca had a set of Hammerhead II drones, which methodically chewed through Jester's Mackinaw.

Racha was disgusted to watch the execution of her ideological companion. Yet it is the fate of all who oppose us.

Jester could have had a bright future. But there is no future outside the loving embrace of the New Order. As CEO, Aria enforced the law on a member of her corp. Is this the beginning of a new era of corporate responsibility?

In a hushed voice, Jester vowed revenge.

Step one in his revenge plot was to beg for the return of his blueprints.

Jester failed to confess and repent of his crimes, so Aria kept the blueprints. Bad publicity? That's for you to decide, dear reader.

Then Jester asked whether he could petition CCP for his ship to be returned. He claimed he was just considering all the options, but what about the most obvious option--obedience to the New Order?

Jester vowed revenge once more, and logged for the evening. I wouldn't count on his getting vengeance, though. I hear that costs a lot of credits.

Aria's leadership and commitment to the Code inspires us all. One day, every CEO in highsec will do likewise, to ensure the purity and fellowship of all their corp members. Won't that be splendid? Let us hasten the day.

Miner Bingo Goes Java

Not long ago, we updated the Miner Bingo card, swapping out some new squares and shuffling the board a bit. Typically players would print out the card or mark it up on a paint program. Now Maldric Del'TIrith has come along and programmed a Java-powered clickable Miner Bingo card!

You can find the clickable board here. And, of course, there will always be a link on our Bingo page.

As I'm sure you'll agree, that's some coding worthy of the U.S. Department of Defense.

New Permit, New Code, New Life!

Another fine day in Abudban system, but not everyone welcomed our change.

Taikos had an immediate dislike for the New Order.

It's always a troubling sign when someone is troubled by the joy of the New Order. Why begrudge the happiness of others, when that happiness is rooted in the Code? Much better to join the joy.

At first blush, Taikos might look like just another rebel miner who would "never" join us.

It would be easy to dismiss such a person. To give up.

But that's not the New Order's way. We have a "no miner left behind" policy.

The next day, Taikos reappeared in Abudban.

His countenance was dramatically different. Could it be?

Taikos had undergone radical change; he was a new man. What makes such a transformation possible?

It's the power of the New Order. We do the impossible in highsec every day!

Imagine if every last rebel miner in highsec experienced the same change of heart that Taikos did? Some people say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

After his initial resistance, Taikos' pledge of loyalty is a sight for sore eyes. And your eyes will get sore if you look at that blue-on-black text for very long. Still, it's a thing of beauty. Can anyone in highsec stop a movement that possesses power such as this?

Oversized Tears

Everyone on this planet has his own unique set of fingerprints, his own unique DNA, and judging by all those retina scanners I see on TV shows and movies, his own unique retinas. It's my belief that everyone creates unique tears, as well.

Some tears are small.

Some tears are big. Having trouble reading that? Don't worry, we'll take a closer look. Last month, a miner set the record for the longest EVEmail complaint. This one, which was forwarded to me by Agent Simon Lindsay, breaks the record, I think.

The carebear in question is Mark Anstian, who had a lot to say to our Agent. From what he wrote, it seems our friend Mark took a good look at our Code and didn't like what he saw.

The "good idea fairy" section is the only time Mark got it right. Yes, our Code has changed highsec. Before, it was every man for himself. Now we're all in it together, and that means following our agreed upon set of rules.

Mark went off the rails again, totally misinterpreting the Code. The miner bumping business is a business, and it seeks to make a profit on the mining permits sold. Since permits cost is nothing to make, it's easy to make a healthy profit. But we go far beyond that, in that we attempt to make a positive contribution to the community. Given the unhealthy state of highsec, it would be fair to say we're building that community from scratch. That's as responsible as a business can get.

If Mark can't get my name right, how can we trust him to improve upon the perfection that is our Code? I'd be happy to hear from him, though, because that's the kind of person I am.

The New Order is not a corporation. It transcends corporations. It even transcends alliances and coalitions. The New Order was founded upon universal principles, which means everyone in highsec can and must join us. Instead of writing lengthy EVEmail complaints, Mark should be thanking Agent Simon Lindsay for being the best friend he's ever met in this game.

Advance Notice of a Notable Project

Do you have an empty character slot on your account? Or do you have a character that you don't really use? Looking for an excuse to activate another account? Read on. These are exciting times to be part of the New Order.

If you have been in Abudban lately, you have probably heard stories of Agents suicide ganking miners. Emperor MTB lost a Mackinaw and a Capsule due to his lack of respect for the Code. His tears, as seen above, indicate he is in the process of rethinking his barbaric lifestyle.

I could play up some suspense and drama, but for the sake of convenience, I won't do that.The New Order is going to create a holy army of alts for suicide ganking Code violators. Don't consider this an official announcement or comprehensive guide; this post is just a heads-up so that people who want to get in some early skill training can do so.

Obviously there is much more to say, but that will come later, in a more organized form. If I got into everything now, you would feel like you're drinking from a firehose. For now I'll only provide a few basic details:

Killing the ships and pods of Code violators is fun, but grinding security status is not. Therefore, our army will be designed to operate with low (-5.0 and below) security status. That means you will want to have a character designated solely for the purpose of ganking.

If you absolutely cannot spare a character slot for such a purpose, don't worry, you can still help the gankers by finding targets, providing warp-ins, and scanning targets' fittings--often while bumping at the same time!

Finally, I will say that this project will not be something we put together in a weekend or even a week. It will be something that we build over the course of months, just as we have been building our bumping fleets. Bumpers, gankers, wardeccers, awoxers, and can-flippers are all valued members of the New Order family. In particular, I believe bumpers and gankers are like peanut butter and jelly (or peanut butter and chocolate, if you prefer), two great tastes that go great together.

Okay then, enough yakking. The following is a quick list of skills that ganker-aspirants can start training. Our army will be comprised of Catalysts, the Gallente destroyer. If your character slot is empty, create a Gallente character. The only Gallente-specific skills involved are Gallente Frigate III and Small Hybrid Turret (which also comes with Caldari characters). So if you're going to use an old, inactive character, check your skills and weigh the benefits of re-rolling Gallente or just getting those two skills trained.

First, the basic elements. Minimum skills for Light Ion Blaster I, Warp Scrambler I, Magnetic Field Stabilizer I, and the Catalyst itself. The standard gank-fit for a Catalyst is wonderfully simple, as many Light Ion Blasters and Magnetic Field Stabilizers as you can fit.

Catalyst
Spaceship Command III, Gallente Frigate III, Destroyers I

Light Ion Blaster I
Gunnery I, Small Hybrid Turret I

Warp Scrambler I
Navigation II, Electronics III, Propulsion Jamming I

Magnetic Field Stabilizer I
Gunnery II, Weapon Upgrades I

Several of the skills listed above will come pre-trained with a new Gallente character. You can now fit the modules, but you don't have enough CPU for all 8 LIBs and all 3 MFSs yet.

(fitting)
Weapon Upgrades III, Electronics IV

If you're done with all those, you can train the skills for the two small hybrid damage bonus rigs, the Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I and Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I. They're cheap, and act like MFSs.

(hybrid damage rigs)
Mechanics III, Jury Rigging III, Hybrid Weapon Rigging I

Sadly each rig will slightly shrink your ship's powergrid as its drawback. You can probably fit one of them along with your 8 guns, but to get the second in, you'll need to train Engineering.

(fitting)
Engineering IV

Now you've got a genuine Tech I suicide ganking ship. In small groups, they can annihilate Code violators whose Mackinaws (and implants) are worth far more. Don't be intimidated by the skills listed above; collectively, they can be trained in just a few days, since they're all low-ranked, and you get some of them pre-trained.

With all modules fit, you have the power to incrementally increase your damage output by taking additional steps. You can train a bunch of damage-enhancing skills to II or III (each is small, but they add up), and then train the ability to overheat your guns.

(damage skills)
Small Hybrid Turret (5% damage per level)
Rapid Firing (4% rate of fire per level)
Surgical Strike (3% damage per level)
Gunnery (2% rate of fire per level)

(overheating guns)
Engineering V, Science IV, Energy Management III, Thermodynamics I

Unlike the rest of what we've covered so far, training for overheating will take several days. If you still hunger for more skills to train, you can go Tech II with just a few more steps. The Tech II MFSs only require you to go up one more level on a skill you've already trained.

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Weapon Upgrades IV

If you wanted, you could have started using MFS IIs with your Tech I setup by training for it prior to training the skills needed to overheat your guns. But MFS IIs cost money, while overheating your guns is free. STILL want to train skills? Okay, one more. The guns.

Light Ion Blaster II
Motion Prediction III, Small Hybrid Turret V, Small Blaster Specialization I

You can also improve your guns' range and tracking with other skills (including Destroyer, which doesn't affect your damage or rate of fire).

That's all for now. I have already said far too much. My plan chiefly involves the use of Tech I gankers; I have included this long list of skills for those of you who like to plan ahead, or who already have many of the basic skills trained on a gank-suitable alt. For reasons which will be explained later, cost won't be an issue, so train Tech II if you like.

It will take time for us to get enough Agents with alts trained to organize round-the-clock ganking fun. Have patience. The New Order is not a fly-by-night operation--it's here to stay. Ganking, like bumping, is not a new concept. But as you know, it is only when things are done by the Code that they reach full bloom. Stick around.