Being a Capsuleer means one is forced to live by different rules. Capsuleers are, first and foremost, immortal. Punishments for crimes are severely limited in their effectiveness. Capsuleers also have much more mobility than humans have ever had in the past. Not only do they have access to faster-than-light ships and access to instant point-to-point jump gates at much higher rates than non-capsuleers, but they have access to jump clones. Capsuleers can literally move from one end of known space to the other at the speed it takes him to step into the medical facility.
All of this gives Capsuleers a level of untouchableness. They can exist above laws. However, this is not the end of it. Every Capsuleer may be tied to any number of capsuleers at a level that can not be tracked anywhere in New Eden outside of the super secret internal workings of the medical facilities. This means that any Capsuleer could potentially be willing to sacrifice himself to biomass reclamation, because he knows his mind can live on in a new Capsuleer. The only thing lost is the skill training, agent standing, and the scarlet letter of the crime they are seeking to absolve themselves of.
This makes Capsuleers paranoid.
This makes Capsuleers who are CEOs even more paranoid.
I live by a, "Don't trust me, and I won't trust you" motto. It is really is manifested in more of a trust, but verify manner.
When I was with Sturmgrenadier I rose to the position of Director of Industrial Logistics. I was in charge of all of the internal corporate manufacturing, mining, and POSes. The latter two had very dedicated assistant directors. This let me focus on the former. SG offered, for free to all regular members, all T1 frigates, cruisers, ammunition, and modules. We had battlecruisers, barges, industrials, and, occasionally, battleships, to loan to members. We had three offices that had to be stocked, and POS hangars.
We had thefts. The mechanics available to capsuleer corporations and station hangars is simply inadequate. We could not prevent the thefts without making everything entirely too cumbersome to maintain. The best we could do was set up firewalls. If someone did steal, audit trails made it obvious who stole. The limited amounts available at any time limited what could be stolen. This put more work on my team, but it was a balance. If anyone were to steal, they would have to do it on the way out, and they couldn't get but so much.
After leaving SG, I started a couple independent ventures. Odinsdagrting [ODNDT] is my most recent one, but I'll speak more on that in a moment.
One of them was Prydwen Technology Group [PRYD]. Even after leaving SG the corp, I was still in the syndicate, and still had close ties with them and their alliance, Fountain Alliance [FA]. I offered a limited stock purchase to SG and FA members, and paid modest dividends. I also offered small, unsecured loans to SG and FA members. This was all a bit risky, thus I limited it to people that I thought I could trust. In the end, I had no loans default.
But in the end, I burned out. I had one outstanding loan, and before anyone could ask for another, I paid off that loan from my own wallet and closed up shop. I liquidated the company, selling off all of the BPOs the corp had (manufacturing was one of the revenue streams). I then paid out the entire corp wallet as dividends. Because the corp was now worth more than it was when it started, those that bought stock now received their initial money back, plus some, on top of the dividends they had been receiving.
There was nothing that made me do that, though. I did that because I thought it was the right thing to do. There is no mechanic to enforce that. I had to ask people to trust me, and I don't like doing that.
There is also the matter of, what if I couldn't liquidate and repay? What if, instead of a burn out, it was 'hit by a bus'? I thought I had a solution for that with my latest venture, Odinsdagrting. I had a friend that I got into a capsule. I see him every week, and I've known him for years. I know I can trust him as a partner in a corp. If I get hit by a bus, then he can try to continue alone, or he can pull the plug and pay everyone back.
He is leaving the capsule, though. It just isn't for him. That is fair. It isn't for most people.
I have instructions for him, though. If I'm hit by a bus, it is my hope that he'll get into the capsule long enough to melt the company down and divide the capital up among the owners, the stock holders.
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
27 July 2010
23 June 2009
I Once Was in a Tournament
I had left SG, and was living in The Forge. I hadn't been there long, and was trying to find my place. There was a monthly 1v1, all tech-1 cruiser tournament held in a low-sec system nearby. It hadn't been running long and didn't have many entrants. I have never been an ace combat pilot, and have always preffered EW, fire support, or logistics roles in combat over being a ship-of-the-line. I figured this would be a controlled environment where I could get a little better.
The rules were simply that every capsuleer provided a cruiser that did not have any advanced, tech 2 fittings. There would be a jet can marking the center of the field, and we were not to stray more than a number of kilometers from that. Withdrawing from the fight was surrendering. Ships would likely be lost, but pods were off limits.
I expected there to be a great many Thoraxes. I, however, can not pilot Gallente cruisers, nor do I have any training in hybrid railguns. I turned to the Minmatar variant on the Gallente Thorax, the Stabber.
The Stabber is clearly built from Thorax plans. The hulls have nearly the same silhouette. The Stabber is just Minmatar, and with that it is faster than a Thorax. Minmatar projectiles have a better range than Gallente turrets, too. These two advantages determined my strategy.
Thorax's are fast, and use their speed to get close to their prey. They are devastating lethal at close range, and they can deploy drones to quickly augment their offensive capabilities. Thorax's rely on aggression, and that aggression easily conceals any weakness.
Since this tournament set the field, there was no need for warp disruption. That freed up a mid-slot in everyone's fitting. I decided that I was going to use my superior speed to set the range, and I was going to remain outside of his lethal range, and outside of the range of statis webifiers. This gave me another free mid-slot. I fit my ship as though I was going to fight a Thorax, so everything was measured in that regard. The Hypothetical Thorax pilot likely would equip a webifier, so this gave me a mid-slot over him.
I fit my ship so it would be as fast as possible, with the best range I could get out of the full compliment of named autocannons. My defenses suffered, but there was no amount of tank that I could put on a Stabber that could withstand a Thorax at close range.
I knew this was a risk. What if my opponent wasn't in a Thorax? I considered the likely alternatives, the Vexor, the Caracal, and the Rupture (did the Amarrs even make a cruiser?). The Vexor and the Rupture would both present the same challenge. They would have better range than the Thorax, but they would both be slower. I would be able to set the range, and could either close to try and outpace their turrets or move further away in the hopes of out-ranging them.
The Caracal presented a real problem. The Caracal didn't care about my range, and the Caracal could fit an impressive tank. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle things if I encountered a Caracal.
All of that was moot. My first opponent was a Thorax.
We began nearly 20 Km apart. My target range was outside of 9 Km. As the duel began, he lit up his MWD and burned straight for me (this was before warp scramblers would disrupt a MWD). I fired up my own, swung my bow to port, and cut an oblique. In my head was Sabre Dance. As our range fell below 12 Km, I turned on the ACs.
He continued to try and approach me, and I continued to move in obliques around him, careful to keep my orbits outside of 9 Kms, and always trying to move our dance toward the "center of the ring". The fight continued for many many minutes. All the while, my ACs were constantly hissing shot at him, his rails silent. I had no idea if this tactic would work. I was expecting it to be a smashing success or a smashing failure. Instead, it was a smashing stalemate.
I was doing measurable damage, but it wasn't enough to over-come is active defenses. There was a time-limit imposed by the rules on our fight. If we exceeded that, the organizer would call our fight and determine a winner. I was afraid I'd lose a judge's decision. From the outside, it appeared as though I was avoiding a fight by constantly staying away from him. I felt I needed to do something to avoid going to a judge's decision.
I risked moving closer. I didn't want to get within webifier range, but I wanted to get a little closer so my own turrets would land their shots more often. I lurched closer. He took that moment, and lurched closer too. I quickly found myself too close.
His webifier found me, and trapped me. I had now lost my speed advantage, and he quickly fell on me. My ACs were constantly fighting back, but the weren't enough to destroy him before his rails tore my ship to pieces.
I was now floating in my pod in a sea of the debris that once was a nearly successful Stabber.
After the fight he told me that he was down to his last few cap boosters. He didn't think he'd be able to hold out for too much longer.
If only I had.
The rules were simply that every capsuleer provided a cruiser that did not have any advanced, tech 2 fittings. There would be a jet can marking the center of the field, and we were not to stray more than a number of kilometers from that. Withdrawing from the fight was surrendering. Ships would likely be lost, but pods were off limits.
I expected there to be a great many Thoraxes. I, however, can not pilot Gallente cruisers, nor do I have any training in hybrid railguns. I turned to the Minmatar variant on the Gallente Thorax, the Stabber.
The Stabber is clearly built from Thorax plans. The hulls have nearly the same silhouette. The Stabber is just Minmatar, and with that it is faster than a Thorax. Minmatar projectiles have a better range than Gallente turrets, too. These two advantages determined my strategy.
Thorax's are fast, and use their speed to get close to their prey. They are devastating lethal at close range, and they can deploy drones to quickly augment their offensive capabilities. Thorax's rely on aggression, and that aggression easily conceals any weakness.
Since this tournament set the field, there was no need for warp disruption. That freed up a mid-slot in everyone's fitting. I decided that I was going to use my superior speed to set the range, and I was going to remain outside of his lethal range, and outside of the range of statis webifiers. This gave me another free mid-slot. I fit my ship as though I was going to fight a Thorax, so everything was measured in that regard. The Hypothetical Thorax pilot likely would equip a webifier, so this gave me a mid-slot over him.
I fit my ship so it would be as fast as possible, with the best range I could get out of the full compliment of named autocannons. My defenses suffered, but there was no amount of tank that I could put on a Stabber that could withstand a Thorax at close range.
I knew this was a risk. What if my opponent wasn't in a Thorax? I considered the likely alternatives, the Vexor, the Caracal, and the Rupture (did the Amarrs even make a cruiser?). The Vexor and the Rupture would both present the same challenge. They would have better range than the Thorax, but they would both be slower. I would be able to set the range, and could either close to try and outpace their turrets or move further away in the hopes of out-ranging them.
The Caracal presented a real problem. The Caracal didn't care about my range, and the Caracal could fit an impressive tank. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle things if I encountered a Caracal.
All of that was moot. My first opponent was a Thorax.
We began nearly 20 Km apart. My target range was outside of 9 Km. As the duel began, he lit up his MWD and burned straight for me (this was before warp scramblers would disrupt a MWD). I fired up my own, swung my bow to port, and cut an oblique. In my head was Sabre Dance. As our range fell below 12 Km, I turned on the ACs.
He continued to try and approach me, and I continued to move in obliques around him, careful to keep my orbits outside of 9 Kms, and always trying to move our dance toward the "center of the ring". The fight continued for many many minutes. All the while, my ACs were constantly hissing shot at him, his rails silent. I had no idea if this tactic would work. I was expecting it to be a smashing success or a smashing failure. Instead, it was a smashing stalemate.
I was doing measurable damage, but it wasn't enough to over-come is active defenses. There was a time-limit imposed by the rules on our fight. If we exceeded that, the organizer would call our fight and determine a winner. I was afraid I'd lose a judge's decision. From the outside, it appeared as though I was avoiding a fight by constantly staying away from him. I felt I needed to do something to avoid going to a judge's decision.
I risked moving closer. I didn't want to get within webifier range, but I wanted to get a little closer so my own turrets would land their shots more often. I lurched closer. He took that moment, and lurched closer too. I quickly found myself too close.
His webifier found me, and trapped me. I had now lost my speed advantage, and he quickly fell on me. My ACs were constantly fighting back, but the weren't enough to destroy him before his rails tore my ship to pieces.
I was now floating in my pod in a sea of the debris that once was a nearly successful Stabber.
After the fight he told me that he was down to his last few cap boosters. He didn't think he'd be able to hold out for too much longer.
If only I had.
29 May 2009
Places I've Been
After reading a post in Life in Low Sec, I was compelled to add this.
First, I should point out some errors in this map. I began my capsuleering in Placid. That does not appear to be represented here. From Placid, I moved to Delve, then to Fountain, then to Aridia, and then to Outer Ring. Again, there doesn't seem to be any indication of my time in Outer Ring.
Today I live in Metropolis and frequent Heimatar and The Bleak Lands.
18 May 2009
I Don't Mean to Be an Ass
I got my start as a capsuleer with Sturmgrenadier, before they joined Fountain Alliance. SG is a very disciplined organization, in New Eden and beyond. Discipline is a very dramatic force multiplier.
I am still trying to fit capsuleering back into my schedule, and still not sure if I want to get back into a serious corporation, yet. I have, in the meantime, enrolled in the Minmatar Militia, and that makes me want to hang out my "Looking for Corp" shingle.
Sometime after midnight on Saturday, I slip into my Hound to make my way out into the contested space. I ask about fleets, and Captain Vaguy is asking for frigate class ships. I assume for some harrying. I'm interested, since it means I will take out my Claw, Laxsfanis, instead of the Blackbird, Ctino Cipni.
We dock up in Dal, waiting as Vaguy has a lead on something. There is a 25+ fleet of Amarrian camping the gates around Auga and Amamake, of which we all are a little weary (Some intel suggested 45 ships). They outnumber us, and they are carrying more weight. We all trust that Vaguy will come up with some way that we can maybe annoy them and pick of a straggler or three.
The orders, instead, come to make best speed to a system nine jumps away. No more information is given. The militia isn't the most secure of places, so I don't question the silence. I've flown with Vaguy a few times now, so I don't suspect this to be a trap.
Our near two squads of small, fast ships rendevous with nearly a dozen battleships. We are going to escort them back to Dal. The battleships, under the command of THEDON1, will wait one or two jumps away, as we bait their trap.
Vaguy decided that he shouldn't be the fleet commander. This made sense, and so Don was going to be the overall fleet commander. But he didn't take the reigns as it were, so Vaguy really ran the show.
The move back toward Dal was very disorganzed at best. We ran across a few war targets. I missed the encounters (silly me, following orders and all), but I'm sure it was more than enough to alert the gate camps that we were coming. No surprise, they weren't there.
We were not only a loud, lumbering, easy-to-avoid fleet-o-doom, we were horrible unorganized. The voice chatter was incredible. I really got annoyed. Even with a mic, I very rarely have a reason to speak. But I did, and I am sure I came across as a complete ass. I openly talked back to command, mocked them a bit, and told them how to do their job. That would've been disciplined in SG.
The thing that really got to me was an engagement against some pirates after it was clear we weren't going to get to engage the Amarr.
Vaguy had the fleet wait just outside of Amamake, while he went in in a battleship with two frigates. The plan was simple, Vaguy was going to be the bait. The pirates were going to launch a few battleships of their own to take down Vaguy, we were going to jump in and ruin that.
Vaguy got excited when the patrol he ran across included a Bhaalgorn. He immediately gave the order and we all entered and warped to engage. The two frigates with him worked to keep the Bhaalgorn tackled. But present with the Bhaalgorn was a Falcon. The Falcon did his job and allowed the Bhaalgorn to escape.
The Bhaalgorn had already warped away by the time I had arrived. The Falcon did his job so well, he didn't even bother trying to warp out himself until it was too late.
That encounter didn't bother me. What bothered me was one of Don's crew telling us tacklers that we "fucking suck". The Bhaalgorn was gone before there were enough tacklers to overwhelm the Falcon. We did our job just fine.
I think perhaps Vaguy should've destroyed the Falcon before he called for the fleet (if he could do that before the rest of the pirates arrived), or just live with the fact that the Bhaalgorn wasn't going to be taken. I think perhaps that the harrier squads shouldn't've gone to escort the battleships. I think we should've, perhaps, played the role of the fox to the Amarrian hounds until the battleships arrived on their own. We could've baited the trap before it was set. That would've avoided give the Amarr quiet moments to cool down and get bored.
This is militia though, so I really know I shouldn't stress over simple, one-step tactics and noisy, unfocused fleets. At least Laxsfanis saw some action. The pirates were even willing to undock and fight next to the station, and were even stupid enough to forget to dock back up, so she got part of a second killmail.
I am still trying to fit capsuleering back into my schedule, and still not sure if I want to get back into a serious corporation, yet. I have, in the meantime, enrolled in the Minmatar Militia, and that makes me want to hang out my "Looking for Corp" shingle.
Sometime after midnight on Saturday, I slip into my Hound to make my way out into the contested space. I ask about fleets, and Captain Vaguy is asking for frigate class ships. I assume for some harrying. I'm interested, since it means I will take out my Claw, Laxsfanis, instead of the Blackbird, Ctino Cipni.
We dock up in Dal, waiting as Vaguy has a lead on something. There is a 25+ fleet of Amarrian camping the gates around Auga and Amamake, of which we all are a little weary (Some intel suggested 45 ships). They outnumber us, and they are carrying more weight. We all trust that Vaguy will come up with some way that we can maybe annoy them and pick of a straggler or three.
The orders, instead, come to make best speed to a system nine jumps away. No more information is given. The militia isn't the most secure of places, so I don't question the silence. I've flown with Vaguy a few times now, so I don't suspect this to be a trap.
Our near two squads of small, fast ships rendevous with nearly a dozen battleships. We are going to escort them back to Dal. The battleships, under the command of THEDON1, will wait one or two jumps away, as we bait their trap.
Vaguy decided that he shouldn't be the fleet commander. This made sense, and so Don was going to be the overall fleet commander. But he didn't take the reigns as it were, so Vaguy really ran the show.
The move back toward Dal was very disorganzed at best. We ran across a few war targets. I missed the encounters (silly me, following orders and all), but I'm sure it was more than enough to alert the gate camps that we were coming. No surprise, they weren't there.
We were not only a loud, lumbering, easy-to-avoid fleet-o-doom, we were horrible unorganized. The voice chatter was incredible. I really got annoyed. Even with a mic, I very rarely have a reason to speak. But I did, and I am sure I came across as a complete ass. I openly talked back to command, mocked them a bit, and told them how to do their job. That would've been disciplined in SG.
The thing that really got to me was an engagement against some pirates after it was clear we weren't going to get to engage the Amarr.
Vaguy had the fleet wait just outside of Amamake, while he went in in a battleship with two frigates. The plan was simple, Vaguy was going to be the bait. The pirates were going to launch a few battleships of their own to take down Vaguy, we were going to jump in and ruin that.
Vaguy got excited when the patrol he ran across included a Bhaalgorn. He immediately gave the order and we all entered and warped to engage. The two frigates with him worked to keep the Bhaalgorn tackled. But present with the Bhaalgorn was a Falcon. The Falcon did his job and allowed the Bhaalgorn to escape.
The Bhaalgorn had already warped away by the time I had arrived. The Falcon did his job so well, he didn't even bother trying to warp out himself until it was too late.
That encounter didn't bother me. What bothered me was one of Don's crew telling us tacklers that we "fucking suck". The Bhaalgorn was gone before there were enough tacklers to overwhelm the Falcon. We did our job just fine.
I think perhaps Vaguy should've destroyed the Falcon before he called for the fleet (if he could do that before the rest of the pirates arrived), or just live with the fact that the Bhaalgorn wasn't going to be taken. I think perhaps that the harrier squads shouldn't've gone to escort the battleships. I think we should've, perhaps, played the role of the fox to the Amarrian hounds until the battleships arrived on their own. We could've baited the trap before it was set. That would've avoided give the Amarr quiet moments to cool down and get bored.
This is militia though, so I really know I shouldn't stress over simple, one-step tactics and noisy, unfocused fleets. At least Laxsfanis saw some action. The pirates were even willing to undock and fight next to the station, and were even stupid enough to forget to dock back up, so she got part of a second killmail.
15 May 2009
The Return to Capsuleering
I've been back in a capsule now for a couple months, after being out for nearly a year. I cleaned up most of my junk and settled into Tuuriainas. I ran some missions for Core Complexions and picked up a third research agent and played around with producing some tech 2 BPCs.
Then, I was eager to get back into a warship.
I have been in 0.0. I have been in a war with and against some big alliances. I've lived in Delve, in Fountain, in Outer Ring. And I've lived in some low sec regions, such as Aridia.
I don't want to dive right in to that. I'm trying to fit capsuleering back into my schedule. So, I have moved to Elgoi, and I am experimenting some more with tech 2 production and with Faction Warfare.
We'll see how this turns out.
Then, I was eager to get back into a warship.
I have been in 0.0. I have been in a war with and against some big alliances. I've lived in Delve, in Fountain, in Outer Ring. And I've lived in some low sec regions, such as Aridia.
I don't want to dive right in to that. I'm trying to fit capsuleering back into my schedule. So, I have moved to Elgoi, and I am experimenting some more with tech 2 production and with Faction Warfare.
We'll see how this turns out.
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