So since you all missed out on your bi-weekly dose of between 2 keepstars, I thought I would make an extra effort and produce another one of my try hard articles. As promised I continue my series of conversations with various different victims of my social media DM’s
So for our lovely audience, let’s cover some introductions.
So who are you, and why are you here?
I’m Phantomite, I’ve been here for a long unbroken time and I’m here to make the game stronger through encouraging CCP to tailor the game to support multiple pvp styles rather than leaning heavily upon one large scale type.
So what is it you usually do in Eve Online?
I live and breathe combat and lowsec. I enjoy solo pvp in frigates up to battlecruisers, T1 faction and T2 – I enjoy small gang skirmishing and more than anything I love small/medium fleet heavy brawling, something that is getting rarer by the day. I spend a lot of time when I’m not undocked trying to find optimal fits and try out new ideas. Something that has been a great passion of mine is PvP video editing, which has unfortunately become rare for me now due to the assault on non-bloc playstyles that make my favourite types of combat much rarer.
So continuing the theme of metas, throughout the years you have been playing has there been any phases of evolution or growth that you enjoyed the most?
My golden age of rapid activity was in the growth of the corporation ‘Snuff Box’, the original core that would one day become Snuffed Out. The years spent in Snuff Box were characterized with many heavy-brawling fights in expensive ships, highlighted by the fact that we were hugely outnumbered sometimes to a ridiculous extent. The key to Snuff Box’s early success was something that still lacks in most of the playerbase today: a recklessly aggressive attitude. Confidence and a daring attitude are key to punching upwards. This entire period was a groundbreaking time for me, many of my friends and for the rest of the game.
Ever since the end of Snuff Box, I’ve found the same attitude in very few groups. I’m happy to say that the last couple of years with my current corp mates have mirrored the same attitude.
I am a big fan of Snuffed Out and their attitude actually, I’ve mentioned a few times that they are excellent at being annoying. Which I appreciate. So in terms of gameplay, personally I have tasted various different kinds of game play with varying levels of enjoyment (none of which included mining) what has been your experiences and gameplay?
I’ve always been almost exclusively about PVP. The money making activities I have selected were chosen to be as un-boring as humanly possible – always a means to pvp rather than the main focus for me.
Every time I have engaged in very large scale combat, it’s been briefly interesting and then boring very quickly. I need to be able to have a greater personal effect to get the rush.
So obviously you have been involved in the CSM and I understand you are putting in for another term, what exactly do you do when you aren’t CSM’ing?
I work in IT, troubleshooting and deploying equipment. Certainly not an unusual line of work for an eve player. Aside from Eve online I play games that would normally make more sense as a game for an industrialist to play – games by Zachtronics, Tycoon style games and Factorio.
Going back to Eve itself, as you well know pilots are well known to have a passionate opinion on what potential direction to take the game. Being in the position of CSM what are your thoughts on ideal changes to the game?
-Limitations on citadel placement locations – like moons used to do with POSes. Bring back real estate!
-Income opportunities worth pursuing in lowsec that are not Rorqual mining. Rorq mining is an activity that REQUIRES you join a large group. I believe that giving further opportunities to play the game with smaller groups is key to helping Eve recover.
-A replacement for the mechanics and rewards that passive moon mining once gave. Since their removal, lowsec objectives are largely narrative based – which as we’ve seen with the four year run-up to WWB2, promote a cold-war mentality among large groups.
-FW revamp to have much greater interaction with navy NPC fleets
-Much greater commitment and action from CCP regarding monitoring and fixing new features quickly after release
-Complete reversal of the resistance nerfs that came with surgical strike. The main issue with close range weapons is the effectiveness of long range medium sized weapons – they should have lost some damage.
So in my opinion Eve Online has very much a love hate relationship with its pilots. How did your love story begin?
My story of coming to eve is the same as many players from my era – a 5-page article about the Ubiqua Seraph infiltration by GHSC drew me in, as no game before or since has offered this much freedom in no-limits pvp. I set up my first character and set out into space, learning (slowly) about the options for progression. It may come as a surprise to hear that after a couple of days I set my heart upon… hauling! In that short time I knew that I was going to become a hauling mogul, managing the best logistical network in all of new Eden,
One day later after joining with some fellow forum members, I knew I was entirely wrong and I was going to be addicted to player combat. Funny how eve can take you on totally unexpected paths with no notice…
Very true, so considering you have been very much combat focused in your gameplay, can you offer up an interesting killmail that stands out to you?
https://zkillboard.com/kill/36246950/
January the 27th, 2014 – a date where eve online hit news websites across the world for the unprecedented battle of B-R5RB. We played a part. We successfully stalked, hunted and caught a titan that was screaming across the galaxy to join in the fray. Lowsec is for the pirates – and Kasuki learned this the hard way.
So, I had alot more questions in mind but I figured by now you are bored to tears so we shall conclude for now, big thank you to phantomite for taking the time to listen and answer my questions and I think I speak for everyone in wishing him the best of luck in his run for CSM 16.
If you are interested in being a victim of my boring writing, please do not be scared to get in touch and I can share some questions and see what we can come up with.
Until next time.