EON Magazine - Issue 20 is out!

I'm a subscriber of the EON Magazine, and as a blogger I get notified of the latest issue as it's published. The magazine's prettydamn good, so I recommend anyone that plays Eve Online to subscribe to it. It's worth it.

PEOPLE AND PLANETS

Tyrannis is here, and with it the feature they are calling Planetary Interaction. Inside the latest E-ON we have a guide to understanding how to make the most from New Eden's literal new landscape. ...But, hang on, where have all the people gone who live on all those surfaces (perhaps not so many on those lava ones)? How are we supposed to be benevolent or tyrannical when there are no insignificant proles to sell cheap electronics to in order to keep them in line? We ask whether as an attempt to breath new life into old New Eden, Tyrannis was an opportunity missed, or one soon to be realized.

STELLAR COUNCIL MATTERS

Keeping with the theme of people in EVE, we look at the work of the CSM, the volunteer body of EVE players who are elected to give CCP a players’ perspective of EVE. It's been more than two years since the first Council was sworn in, since which time our various representatives have canvassed and cajoled for important changes. We ask whether those changes have been significant enough and try to gauge the CSM from the view of those that might vote for them.

BIG SHIPS, BIG TESTFLIGHT

Motherships were once a ship to be left at home, but as the re-named and all-improved Supercarriers they have become one of EVE's most important front-line vessels. Able to provide massive support, or deal vast amounts of anti-capital damage by deploying fighter-bombers, they are almost as versatile as they are massive. Which is why we devote a massive number of pages to fitting and flying them properly.

FREE POSTER*

Free with E-ON issue #020, we are giving away another ship poster; this time it's the cruisers of the Gallente Federation that line up in a sexy pose. That's right, never again will you have to rely on 'show info' to tell the difference between a Vigilant or a Deimos, as you can see how all the hulls line up by faction or tech level, together with handy fitting and hit point information so you know just what you're up against.

*FREE for every subscriber (while stocks last). This poster is also available rolled on thicker stock.

PLUS

* ‘Fuel of your Creation’ - sequel to E-ON Issue #002 story ‘The Eighth Plague’

* The evolution of the Alliance Tournament

* How to get the best people into your corp – Insiders’ Guide to Corp Recruitment

* Interviews with CCP’s Art Director Asgeir Asgeirsson and video producer CCP Charlie

* Shar Tegral, Dianabolic and Zoolkhan are ‘In Character’

* 0.0 Report reports on 0.0 shenanigans

* Plus The Funnies, My Two Isk... …and all the latest news

Interview with a mercenary

In the past I've done a couple of interviews as Black Claw and probably my most popular post as Alexia Morgan was my interview with Duckeye. Well, it's time for another interview!

This one is with Noir Avlaa of the Sunset Jokers. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the read.

• You used to be pirates... what made you want to move away from piracy and become a mercenary?

Romeo Blakstorm and I have both been flying with The Tuskers for a while, and a pirate's life was the life for us for most of our EVE careers. But after a while we both just felt that piracy was not the way we wanted to spend our future. Romeo left a couple of months before me to join up in a 0.0 corp, whereas I left my account to go inactive, thinking a break might make me come back and become more enthusiastic to the Yarr.

When I did come back I still found myself spinning ships in station, and Romeo was finding 0.0 no to be to his liking. I looked at my options, spoke a bit to Romeo and decided Merc life was the best way to go. We both like the PVP side of piracy, but I'd like to have a bit more freedom with my movements through space, and be able to earn more than enough ISK than I really need without an alt character, whereas Romeo's been a pirate for a bit longer than me and as 0.0 isn't to his liking then merc work, while alot like piracy, would be much better. He still gets to shoot at people, but with a paycheck and access to empire space.

• So what made being a mercenary more desireable than other proffessions, say joining up with a lowsec alliance as muscle or even roaming 0.0?

Well as I said before, I want to get paid while I shoot at people. Joining up with a lowsec alliance would seem like a restriction after being in The Tuskers, and roaming in 0.0 just seems like a silly idea to me. There may well be as many targets as lowsec but there's also alot more risk. If possible I'll always stack the odds in my favour when it comes to PVP... there are no rules, only winning. I've had a look at a lot of mercs across EVE and they have the same sort of set up as The Tuskers, but without the pitfalls involved with being pirates.

• Now you've created Sunset Jokers, how do you plan to progress into merc work?

For now we're trying to create a core set of players with various sets of skills we can meld together to create a small, effective gang. We're going to learn how each pilot operates over a reasonable period of time with roams through lowsec, probably against pirates mainly, until we're confident enough to start out properly as mercenaries.

We're looking at between 25-40 members when we're fully running, and we'll start taking contracts at around 15 members against small corporations and alliances. We'll start taking most contracts at 25 members, and expand up to 40 members maximum. We want to keep the corp large enough to be effective, but small enough as to keep a tight-knit group of players.

• You mentioned you'd be shooting pirates... Any particular reason, considering your backgrounds?

Aha, yeah, we know how pirates operate, and they flash red in the overview. We're going to be weapons free anyways, but we'd prefer to shoot reds than neutrals, purely for sec status. And pirates bring more fun to the party, if we can learn to combat pirates, which are a bit more unpredictable than most corps I've seen, then we should be fine with alot of wardecs we'll be doing.

It'd also be fun to shoot some old corp-mates :D

• Have you got any ground rules to becoming a Sunset Joker?

Well we'd like to keep things professional. We want members to have at least 5 million Skill Points, and that would need to be mostly in combat skills and be able to fly something like a stealth bomber or an interceptor. We're mostly looking for older players, people who can bring some real punch to a party.

We're definately advocating a professional attitude. We don't want any smack talk from our side of the fence. If someone is giving us lip in local, we find it better to just not respond. After all, anyone is a potential client. If we act in a professional manner, stay courteous and don't get angry then people will see it and appreciate it.

Currently we want pilots who can fly a Recons, HACs, BCs and BSes, but by all means drop us an application no matter what you can fly and we'll see if we have space for you. All pilots must be self sufficient, as we have no corp fund at the moment, nor an industry alt corp ;)

Age limit is 16+

If you're interested check out our recruitment thread - http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1336398

Join "Sunset Public" chat in EVE-Online or EVE-Mail "Romeo Blakstorm" or "Noir Avlaa"

• Ok, thank you for the interview, Noir, and I wish you all the best in your mercenary endeavours!

Thanks for the interview. :)