Hello everyone! Black Claw is back.
I know, you didn't even know I was gone, did you. Well, I wasn't... I've just been vewy, vewy quiet. This post is a 'promotional post'. I'm going to be doing them every now and again, as part of my ongoing advertising and recruiting campaigns.
Catching up on past events
Over the past 6 months OUCH has experienced a lot of challenges and changes.
We started out with all the best intentions of making things easy for noobs and carebears to get involved in nullsec survival training. We even had trainers! Except that things went pear-shaped pretty quickly, when my primary trainer and partner decided he wanted to hijack OUCH for his own purposes and go do other things. Our 'breakup' was messy, and he manipulated a number of OUCH's members to follow him. My only joy was that after a month or two he quit playing Eve, and I'm still here.
*dances*
A highsec griefing corp wardec'd us and we ended up being at war for two months. At the end of it, I was happy that I still had about 130 members, having started with 140 members at the beginning of the war. Some had gone, some had joined, but stability and morale was maintained. A great achievement, as far as I was concerned, with a war that had gone for 2 months, even venturing into lowsec and nullsec. They ended up canceling their wardec when it became obvious that they were starting to get more significant losses because they had to follow us into lowsec and nullsec, where the war became more even and non-involved parties could join in and assist.
I fully believe they were paid by a 3rd party to destroy OUCH, and I'm happy they failed. Destruction of a corp or alliance comes from a loss of will at the leadership level. There's no way I'm EVER going to let anything or anyone destroy OUCH.
Highsec griefers are cowards. They wardec noobs and carebears who can't fight back, and then brag about how good they are based on their killboard. Pathetic. I despise such corps and pilots that enjoy that kind of thing. They're even worse than whinging carebears, and that's saying something!
Where we're at now
Some of the issues I've had over the past 6 months in is attaining and retaining trainers. I've found that a lot of qualified and experienced players either prefer training in highsec, which means they go to Eve-Uni, or if they're nullsec experienced, they prefer actually playing in major nullsec corps and alliances, rather than training a bunch of noobs and carebears.
And fair enough too. This is a game, after all, that they're paying to play, so I can understand that they might want to just play the nullsec game than teach others how to play it. People with my vision and enthusiasm seem to be few and far between.
But it's not stopping me. Instead, I've had to evolve the training methods so that OUCH can continue its goal of providing nullsec survival training to people that want to learn.
So this is how it works now. There's a lot of guides and tips that have been generated over the past 6 months, that provide detailed instructions on how to travel around and survive in nullsec, how to enhance skill training, how to fit ships, how to engage in combat, and how to make money. It's a wealth of information available in a single location, and accessible to all members of OUCH at all times of the day!
At the same time, as members practice what they're learning they can band together with other members who are online at the same time, and work together on practicing what they're learning. The more experienced members take on ad hoc training roles as they use their own experience and knowledge to help the newer members learn as well.
What's in it for members?
You're probably wondering what's so special about OUCH then, if all we do is provide written material that you can find elsewhere on the net. Well, apart from the fact that we make it easier to get that information by having it in one location for OUCH members, we don't JUST provide written material for people to read. We also provide:
- Friendly and supportive environment.
Our friendly and supportive members encourage new members to fleet up with them and get involved in nullsec survival training and PVP operations, as well as always be on hand to answer questions that new members might have.
- OUCH pays you to lose your ships!
We encourage PVP training and operations, and every time you lose a frigate, we'll pay you the ship loss value. Along with your insurance payout, this will allow you to keep buying new frigates and fittings for as long as you want.
- Graduation week.
Once a month we provide a nullsec survival test for students. This is starting 1st of August, and will be the 1st week of every month. If they pass the test, they graduate and receive a Graduate of OUCH decoration that lasts with their character forever. If they fail the test, they can do it again next month. If anyone gets 3 kills during their Graduation Test period, then they'll receive an Honours Graduate of OUCH decoration.
- Reimbursement policy for all members.
Students are reimbursed for their frigates lost during training and PVP. Graduates are reimbursed for lost cruisers, and Trainers are reimbursed for battlecruisers lost during fleet operations (eg. taking a small fleet out for training or PVP).
- Become a trainer.
All members who have graduated can have the opportunity to become Trainers. This means that not only will their destroyed cruisers be reimbursed (as a Graduate), but so will their battlecruisers if they take a fleet out for training or PVP. To be a trainer all you need to do is organise and host a training session once a week on whatever it is that you're good at. (You'll need to take me through a training session first for final approval.)
If you're interested in finding out more, join the public channel OUCH-UNI and say hi and ask all your questions. We welcome anyone and everyone.
The future for OUCH and the Art of War Alliance
For OUCH
We're only going to get bigger and better. We have about 120 members at the moment, after I recently culled a number of members who haven't logged in for over 3 months, and there's room for PLENTY more. The more people we get, the more opportunities there'll be for training and PVP action. OUCH will become a force to be reckoned with. Not only will its newer members be going "OUCH!" from the pain of losing their ships, but so will our targets!
Graduation Week is the first stage of providing reward and recognition for our graduates. As we develop this, we will also provide more advanced courses that include Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, Scouting, Fleet Command, etc etc. All course graduates will receive appropriate decorations that show all the galaxy that they've graduated their relevant courses.
For the alliance
The Art of War Alliance (AWA) will be a haven for corporations that want to be part of what OUCH stands for, to facilitate training or be involved in training, or to provide industrial support and PVE operations.
AWA welcomes any corp that wants to come onboard. We have no sovereignty or POS's at this stage, so there is no requirement for 'calls to arms' (CTA's) that many other alliances demand of their members. We're very casual, very friendly, and very supportive. Being in the alliance means that your corp's members can become involved in our nullsec survival training, PVP operations in lowsec and nullsec, and even involve themselves in PVE activities or industrial operations.
Any type of corp is welcome, we have no restrictions (except for mercenary corps or highsec griefers!). We want corps who are focused on manufacturing, wormholes, exploration and scouting, covert ops, even piracy. Everyone is welcome!
Contact us
Contact me if you want to talk about how your corp can be involved.
