The Odd Angry Shot in Deklein

The war is sputtering out.

Fleets still form up.  A few systems appear to be in contention.

Raiden still poses some sort of threat, while White Noise remains a farce.

But the trend seems to be away from conflict and towards consolidation. The Mittani declared victory.  Sections of territory have been handed out to alliances allied with the Goons. (Which has caused a bit of internal friction... oh, hey, all the details about that out in the open now.)  The diretorbot on Jabber, which announces fleet operations, has been popping up more fun fleets and fewer fleets for vital defensive or offensive ops.

Todays map from the usual source.

State of the Game - Jan 18, 2012

Our corner of space has returned to normal.  The TNT alliance, of which I am a part, has convoyed ships back from the front lines and our base of operations is now at its pre-war location.

Gaff has started asteroid mining again, which is a big money maker.  I have to get the Hulk out at some point and join in if I want to be space rich.  And what is the point of null sec if you can’t be space rich?

Meanwhile I have restored my fortunes to their start point of approximately 1.4 billion ISK, mostly by running a Guristas Forsaken Hub every night.  That is worth about 25 million ISK in bounties, and with my Noctis now in null sec and fitted out, loot and salvage can add millions on top of that.

And in addition to cash reserves, my asset count is up as well.  I am starting to collect ships in null sec.  Gaff gave me a Drake when I came out.  I purchased two more Drakes, one of which I lost, the fittings for 3 more PvP Drakes, a Maelstrom battleship with tech I guns, and a Hurricane fitted with tech II guns that I will be able to actually shoot in a few days.

(I am going to be bummed when they nerf Drakes, since I have invested so many skill points in their operation, but that appears to be one of the things on which CCP and the CSM agreed.)

So I am clearly “up” when it comes to cash and assets and I have a training program in progress focused on guns and Minmatar ships.  I just need to find some time to do more actual null sec “stuff.”

Running an anomaly like a Foresaken Hub every night is rather like running a level 4 mission every night.  The prime difference is that there is really no plot except “kill Guristas until they stop spawning.”  Neither is there a reward, aside from bounties and drops.   Plus I have to keep a close eye on the local and regional intelligence channels to make sure nobody is out there ready to turn my Tengu into scrap.  But even that habit wasn’t hard to acquire.

And while the corp collects a 10% tax on bounties, I do not feel like I am actually helping out that much.

Such is the state of things for me in null sec at the moment.

Our corp is having a cruiser tournament this weekend.  It is even at a time slot I can manage.  Maybe I’ll give that a try.  While I am level V across the board for a Caracal, I am not sure that will be my best option.  And I have to find the hull and fit it out.  We shall see.