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. :)

An interview with an anti-pirate

I've had an interview with a pirate before, and it's only fair to have an interview with an anti-pirate.

One of the most feared and respected pilots in Molden Heath (among pirates, that is) is a fellow called Debes Sparre, who flies with Electus Matari, an anti-pirate alliance.  

I've personally had the misfortune in meeting him in combat, and won't be doing that again in a hurry!  However, he's been following my blog, and we've had a bit of a chat, and the result? An interview!  

Thanks Debes!  

So Debes, how long have you been playing Eve?

9 days shy of my three year mark.  

Well, actually a few days less than that. I rerolled (and soon almost wished I hadn't!) before my 14 days were up. That character hardly counts, though.

And you've been an antipirate all that time?

No, I went pirate for a little over 3 months starting about a month in. I was sticking to frigates and between my low skills and the way my corp pirated (shoutout to V-H-I, you're all carebears!), it ended up not working out too well.  I actually pirated one or two of my alliancemates-to-be.

What are your future goals?  I mean, what do you want to achieve in your 'career'?

Skillwise, finish off all my remaining skills for minmatar T1 and T2 cruisers and frigates. Best estimate is that this will take me about two and a half years, before we put T3 into the picture.

In-game wise, I run a bar and I want to get that back up after it goiing to waste when I left eve for 6 months recently, as well as kicking pirates out of Molden Heath. Again.

And how do you run a bar? Is that a chat room in the game?

Yes. Sheasbar&grill, located in Istodard IX - M5 - RFAP. I have a full holo suite, so you can visit without being there, but don't expect to get drunk.

One question that's on my mind is, how do you make money? Do you get it from the pirate wrecks you loot, ratting, missions or trading?

I wish I made it from the pirate wrecks. You people are cheapskates. I make the majority of my money from ratting, though I do run the odd mission in Istodard so I can get RF ammo without market markup.

It's our job to make it hard for you, just like it's your job to make it hard for us.  But anyway, what is it that drives you to be an antipirate?

My character, as is for many people, a bit of a larger-than-life extension of me. It's just how it worked out, once I decided where to go with him. And that's just how I am. I have a bit of a history of getting into scraps so that someone else who can't deal with it as well can make it out.  I'm just too nice for my own good, in the end.

Do you prefer solo combat or fleet combat? And why?

I really actually prefer small gang work, though solo is fun too. Small gang work, especially if you can work with the same (good) group of people day in and day out is amazing.

And what is your favourite ship?

Muninn, though it's hard to pick. As I'm poor, I actually end up not flying it too much. Its' little brother the Rupture is easily my most flown ship, but I'm no stranger to the Jag or Wolf (or Rifter!). Never bought a Vaga, though, and my Stiletto and Hyena don't get too much work in low sec.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your 'career'?

So far, watching Molden Heath pirates leave in droves back when I was in NMTZ, and coming back in EM to find out how few pirates are even there. Really feels like I helped do something, even if a look at the sov map doesn't tell you that.

Is there anything that sticks in your memory as one of the most enjoyable experiences you've had?

Most enjoyable experience... If I say anything I'll remember something later that was even beter. I can't say anything does.  Most memorable is likely arranging the tracking of every PIE wartarget back in the NMTZ days. Getting people to run traces every 15 minutes on the right people..crazy, but fun. We had some great intel considering how few covops pilots we had back then.

So what would you say to those people who want you dead because of your career choice?

Get in line.

Hehehe. So is there anything else you would like to add to those who will be reading this?

Come to Molden Heath!  I need pirates to blow up, and people to help me blow them up! Bait is useful too...

Well, thank you so much for your time Debes.  I appreciate it

No problem. Thanks for the chance to do the interview.

An interview with a pirate

I was flying along in my Taranis interceptor, minding my own business... well, ok, I wasn't. I was flying along, looking for some trouble. I almost found it too, in the flashy red presence of Jalif, flying a Huginn at a gate I'd just come through. Luckily for me there was an asteroid belt directly in front of me.

I warped to it, getting away from his probable 'gate camp'. However, I knew that if he was after me, I wouldn't be safe, as there was no other objects in that direction, so he'd be directly on my tail. As soon as I dropped out of warp, I selected my safe spot and warped to it straight away.

Just as I entered warp, Jalif arrived at the belt too, and was just in time to see me warping away. I chuckled, and we struck up a brief conversation in local. He said something about how some people are stupid enough to sit in the asteroid belt.

Let that be a tip to you, my fellow pilots. When you warp to an object to get away from someone, IMMEDIATELY warp to yet another location, preferably a safe spot if you have one, or a jump gate if you don't. NEVER think you're going to be safe.

Anyway, he seemed like a nice fella, for a pirate. And I'm always happy to chat with nice fella's. He also had a read of my blog, and wanted to chat a bit about that. One thing led to another, and before you know it, I was interviewing him for the blog.

Please enjoy my first impromptu interview with a pirate. May there be many more. (Maybe I can become some kind of space-faring journalist or something....)

So Jalif, how long have you been engaging in pure PVP?

The last few days... before that I took a break of 2/3 months... before that I did it around 3 months straight without a break.

What were you focused on before that?

A bit of mission running, ratting & visiting forums to complain about CCP's balancing... the things that an average carebare does...

So what is your goal with your PVP?

To have a lot of fun & know new people who do the same as I do. Eventually it's to become the mastermind of piracy, of course ^^

Would you say you're a pirate?

To a surtain extent yes... how else would I explain my criminal actions then? (I do like a bit of roleplaying too)

Do you make a living from Piracy, or from some other means?

I'm trying too. But its very hard. Piracy probably has the worst balanced risk vs reward in the game, but that doesn't stop me from doing it.

What would you say drives you to be a pirate?

The freedom mostly. I can't stand corporations/alliances with their oppression. Everything that I want to do is better then being in that kind of organisations.

Why are you a solo fighter?

Because when I fly with others, I get easily irritated how they PVP. It's also often when you are in a group, stuff goes slow... which makes me more impatient.

What's your favourite ship?

At the moment, a Rupture - but that is probably going to change when the speed balance hits.

What will it be then?

Not sure, but one thing I know, its not going to be bigger then a cruiser

Why is that?

As a pirate you need to choose your battles. In a battleship you are forced to join every battle & before you know it, they blob you. So I fly small ships to increase my risk vs reward, ISK & the ability to choose my own battles. This specially counts when you are doing solo PVP

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your 'career'?

Pride & joy when I kill a "victim" who should/could be potentially stronger then me

Is there anything that sticks in your memory as one of the most enjoyable experiences you've had?

Well yeah, one of my good pvp-days when I got into Molden Heath. Tackled a Typhoon on a gate & called for backup... I still did 75% of the damage & got out with 40% hull left. That was a great day

What made it great?

The guy was a year older, bigger ship, I was in the "worst" conditions...

Nice. So what would you say to those people who want you dead because of your career choice?

That they will have to come & get me. An eye for a eye.

Is there anything else you would like to add for those who are reading this?

"I hate blobbing!"

Thank you for your time :)

You're welcome.