Thursday, April 8, 2010

So... joining carebears is harder than it should be

I have been scanning marauders and faction battleships for quite awhile and trying to join likely looking corporations. I'm amazed by the number of Russian / Asian corporations there are out there.

I'm thinking the standard 'Someone in rookie chat told me to join a corporation to whore corp / faction standings with an agent' won't be as believable if I don't speak the language.

I found one likely corp to join where the CEO flies a faction fitted Golem with gist-x xl booster and faction tank that had a pubby channel but they want me to hang out in the channel and chat with them for forever before they'll let me join.

There is only so much chatting I can handle with guys who cream their pants because there is 40k of Nocxium to be mined in the mission they're doing right now...

To top it off, their sister corporation is apparently big into Faction Warfare and the guy gushed all over me about how important they were in the big scheme of Faction Warfare. They're a 14 man corp but they always turn the tide of the battle etc. Apparently they are important behind the scenes as well and I should be impressed.

When I asked what they did behind the scenes he clammed up and acted like I was a spy trying to blow up his CEOs Marauder or something. It was insulting!

I'm still hoping they'll let me in some time so I was polite but I REALLY wanted to ask him what happens when they win fights in faction warfare? And if his corporation is so good then how come Caldari recently completely wiped the field and took all Gallente systems etc? But I think that was supposedly before my time so I just kept my mouth shut and acted impressed.

Eventually I decided I was just going to have to be less picky... So... instead of scanning on my alt, I took my new pilot to the target system and starting convo'ing likely targets as they undocked to go to their missions.

The third guy I convo'd had just undocked in a Golem and was in a 1 man corporation. This seemed promising. One man corporation pilots traditionally have some of the most expensive fits I've seen when scanning.

This guy seemed amiable enough to having me tag along and showing me the ropes and.... BINGO! he asked me to turn in an application!

I'm currently running my second mission with him while I pump him for information about his fit. Unfortunately, he doesn't use faction hardeners... it seems he's got a dual Pithii B-Type Small Shield Booster tank and faction BCUs. He also uses a CN Shield Boost Amp. All in all, only about a 600 - 700m potential....

His main apparently flies a paladin that is much more expensive but is in another corporation. I am tempted to go ahead and take this guy down and maybe try and ransom him for more than his loot could possibly be worth. He may pay 750m or so to save his ship.

That being said, I'm not sure if I wouldn't rather have the killmail. Either way I'll probably get the same amount of carebear tears so that's a positive.

So... here's what we know... he tells me his Golem will perma-tank 600 dps. He uses torps but has velocity / flight time rigs. I intend to fit dual neuts, ECM drones and a faction specific ECM.

The main question for me will be timing to make sure I have Mission Rat DPS to help with the take down. Hopefully the combination of ECM and the WTF factor will let me get him pretty far down before it's too late.

Regardless, he's a nice enough guy and the standings increases are coming quickly so it's not a bad thing to hang out with him for awhile to support my 'image' when I try and do this to the next corporation. I don't want to appear like I joined a corporation and left it within days too often. :)

Plus... he's talking about selling the Paladin so he might beef up his Golem tank in the interim. :)

So... here are the questions I need help with...

1. Do I go ahead and take him in a BC or wait 2 - 3 days until I can be in a BS and be sure he goes down? (I'll have a REALLY hard time waiting for this training to occur - it's hard not to take him down even as I'm typing this)

1a) Do I bring my main into this with a Guardian / Basilisk to make sure I accomplish my task or do I risk blowing it but going for max glory by getting the solo kill (or ransom)?

2. Do I try and ransom or go straight for the kill and the glory of being ~20 days old and killing a marauder?

3. He mentioned Teamspeak and I have FRAPS ready to go... how important is it that I wait for the opportunity to hear (and record) the tears for the few of you that actually read this stuff?