Fireside Chat Transcript 10 Oct 2k20

Did it start yet?
Or am I like...
I don't really care about doing the fireside.
It's not like, uh...
It's not like something I'm afraid of, but Merkle Chin has been spending the last, uh...
The last 15 minutes trying to psych me out.
Telling me to be incredibly inspiring and to really give a top performance.
So he's really trying to get me out of it and throw me off my game.
But it's not going to work, though.
I will Awe Chain for the rest of you, don't worry.
If this sucks.
Yeah.
I have to fight some of the top enemy FCs.
You know, people like...
Actually, I want to be unlike Mittens and not just shit-talk our enemies.
But I was going to compare some bad enemy FCs to Merkle Chin.
Some people are asking what Mittens is doing.
He's on a vacation.
I think, not confirmed, but keep this in mind for the next time you hear Mittens talking
about his support of the working man.
I believe he is in the wine country right now, enjoying the vineyards.
So just remember that part.
Who's a better FC, Merkle Chin or Norris Andee?
Definitely Merkle Chin.
Alright, I'm sorry I was mean.
Yeah, how do you feel now?
Killing him with kindness.
Alright, numbers starting to stabilize.
I probably should go.
I don't actually have a script or anything, so I'm just going to talk about what has happened
this week and what our plans are for the future.
I guess that annoys Mittens too, no future plans, right?
Okay, so this was a fantastic week for us.
I'm sure pretty much all you know, we killed two keep stars that they tried to drop in
our space.
We are definitely seeing the results.
Enemy numbers are way down.
This is the problem when you tell your pilots that wear a bunch of crabs, they're going
to cave in like a rotten pumpkin, that once they get to Delve, 30% of goons will be gone.
When we put up a fight like that, where we claw for every bit of our space, it's like
the people who have bought into that message wholeheartedly see that it's not true.
And when your whole thing is predicated on, we're going to choke them out and surround
them and go slow and the rats will flee the sinking ship.
That's their whole thing.
It hasn't worked.
It just hasn't worked.
And you guys showed up in incredible numbers, incredible stamina.
A lot of you guys were bombing the keep star for 13 hours, shooting the keep star, reshipping,
flying Dreads in to be Valhalla within five seconds of game time.
There was just an incredible outpouring of just intense goon-ness out there.
People in ratting ships, people in anything they had in their hangars, they were grabbing,
they were throwing into the keep star.
It was really something else, just FCing that was really incredibly fulfilling to me.
And then afterwards, I got to hang out with you guys in Elysium and chat with you.
That sort of afterglow of an awesome op like that, it's really something as an FC that
you live for.
So, I don't want to focus too much on our enemies.
Mittens likes to go at them.
I don't want to give them too much attention.
I don't think they deserve it.
I think that you've seen their reaction to us.
You've seen how they've reacted to what they've been told, which is that we are weak, we are
crabs, we are going to run, that they're going to shoot all the keep stars AFK.
And I think if you guys keep showing up, this invasion of theirs will be short-lived.
I hope it's not so short-lived that we don't get to have a chance to have that throw-down
super capital fight.
But I hope that's, I don't know, we can't force them to do it.
So far, they've been incredibly, well, let's generously call it patient.
There has been one fight that they took and that was not on one of our keep stars.
They still haven't hit any of our keep stars.
So, right now, what you guys can do is just keep showing up.
We had a fight earlier today.
We fought in SVM.
Numbers were fantastic from our side.
People who died, we shipped and went back at it and we won that fight.
And I imagine there's a lot of consideration on the other side about how they basically
form the same numbers as us.
Their entire strategy is to blob us, is to have more people than us.
And when the numbers are even, they tend to do very poorly.
So, if you guys keep showing up, if you guys keep coming to these fights, if you guys keep
reshipping, then this is a war that we can very easily win.
And I've been pretty sanguine about our chances in this war the whole time, but I'm more so
now than I have been in the last few months even.
So, I'm really happy to be with all you guys.
And I know I might sound a little sappy, but I have a lot of affection for you guys and
I'm really proud of all the work that everyone does from recon, like these guys watching
24/7, watching the systems we need, from GSOL, from our SRP guys getting people reshipped
before the fight's over.
Fantastic time.
Fantastic time.
So, I'm going to read a couple things that people have mentioned.
I'm going to tell you guys a couple things going on today and then I'll field questions
from you guys and then we'll call it.
Alright, so, someone says, "Stock the market and put contracts up.
Don't wait until things totally run out."
That's a good thing to say.
I've been trying to get 750 Feroxes ready for the next Keepsake fight.
I know we used a bunch for this fight today, so if you can get those on the markets, please
do so.
That brings me to another thing.
Minerals are changing this next patch, which I believe is Tuesday.
You need to get every compressed ore you have either sold in 1DQ or converted to minerals
in 1DQ before Tuesday.
Go check all your old Rorqual hulls, check the compressed ore in there.
Get everything you got.
Pretty much every alliance in the game is pinging this out in NullSec, so you need to
-- I guess we aren't changing Ochre.
Much people just said accept Ochre.
Okay.
And then don't do Ochre.
But everything else you want to convert, and you want to get that done.
There's a lot of spaceships dying, so we're always looking for minerals.
So we definitely want to encourage everyone to get as much minerals as we can on the market,
sold in 1Q.
Do not import it to Jita.
We've been saying this for months.
There turned out to be a very good reason for us to say it.
They made a huge change, and it's really important that we get those minerals done before Tuesday.
And then the next one was about ore, so I already handled that.
And then Pathfinders is recruiting.
You need an Alliance Corp. ore director vouch.
Cool.
And that's about it.
Questions?
And then -- oh, let me tell you guys one more thing before I answer questions.
We're going to be forming at 0000 tonight, so let's call it 2359 today for people who
get confused about time.
GSFOE is recruiting as well.
2359 today.
I expect some skirmishes before then, but everyone form up tonight at 2359.
We've got SVMI Hub, a very important, very, very important Delve I Hub to defend.
So I want to get everyone there for that one.
And if we get everyone on there, we should be able to have a good defense for that one.
So 2359 tonight.
Okay. Questions? And I'll see what you got.
Aerox, I saw -- yeah, they did permit me to 22nd, but I believe that Kendar showed up
yesterday, so I was immediately demoted back to 23rd.
ROM, latest they can drop Citadel is -- I think it's Monday.
If it comes online before the patch, then they won't have to core it.
I don't think coring is really a big issue.
It's not like, what is it, 30 bill for a Keapstar core or something like that?
So 30 bill for a Keapstar core.
I mean, when you're talking about the scale of these fights, I don't think it really is
an issue particularly.
So I don't think anyone's really worried about cores.
Ranch Doritos too hot? Yes.
That's spicy food for me.
Ethnic food.
I don't know if Kendar's back.
I just saw him say something in the channel, so I said hi to him.
I don't know anything about jaw surgery.
What is the secret to your smooth, sexy voice?
Probably all the smoking I did when I was 12 and 13.
Oh, so Kirkland protein bar samples.
All right.
So I was watching a K-pop video, you know, like for research purposes.
And the girl in it was holding Kirkland brand -- not protein -- Kirkland brand peanut butter
filled pretzels, which are very good, by the way, if you're looking for Kirkland brand
peanut butter filled pretzels.
But I was like, wow, this is like some sort of sign from the heavens that this K-pop girl
is wearing -- carrying Kirkland red peanut butter filled pretzels.
Yeah, back so I can find the link.
So --
Zero, when can I shoot things with my phone?
I'm not sure.
Yeah, back so I can find the link.
Zero, when can I shoot things with my brand new Titan?
First off, good for getting a Titan.
I'm glad you got one.
Secondly, it's sort of up to them, right?
We've got 60 Keepstars.
They have seen how long one Keepstar timer can be.
You know, that Keepstar went 13 hours.
I would say one of the interesting things about that -- one of the interesting things
about that fight was, you know, you looked in the channel, everyone was pretty super
excited.
And like our guys were very excited.
And I saw -- you know, you watch the other enemy channels, and I was watching one where
they had -- one of their leaders came in and was like -- was sort of morale chatting for
like two hours in a channel that I've never really seen him chatting before, sort of like
one of their Elysium-type channel.
So you definitely saw the morale effects of that.
And I know they've been trying to spend it like, oh, we killed so much, we're happy.
But if that's true, like if that was the case, if they were just as happy as us, they wouldn't
have needed to do this sort of morale chatting, talking about how valuable it was, blah, blah,
blah.
And there's a reason that I'm not having to say, hey, you know, this is what -- this is
like what was important about it.
You guys know what was important.
It's super obvious, right?
So that's like one thing I've -- it's one reason I felt like really good after the last
two Cube Starfights.
"How useful is importation at the moment?
I don't mind to build locally, but I can inject into a Rorqual JF to import if that will help."
I don't know enough about importing minerals.
I think after the patch it's going to be very important because getting Trit is going to
be something we'll need to bring in, I guess.
But I'm honestly really not the person equipped to answer that question.
Yeah, happy birthday, Mike Flood.
"Is it okay to name my ship Gamer Words in the main fleet?"
Actually, Gamer Words or like -- or Gamer Words.
I don't think you should call them actual Gamer Words, but if it's just quote Gamer
Words, then I think it's fine.
"Should we be turboing out MIRMs, like making them?"
Yeah, yeah, you should be routing them, too.
Like we do need to keep our ADMs up.
Like that is going to be one thing that will help, you know, the Alliance a lot is having
high ADMs makes it hard for them to hack, makes it easier for us to win timers.
All that stuff is really important.
I think that is like -- isn't that -- isn't exclamation point ADMs the command that will
tell you where you should hack -- or sorry, where you should rat?
Yeah, that's a nice one.
Daro, that's a great question.
"If we have our stuff in a GSF Citadel without a core, should we move it out before the patch?"
So pre-existing Citadels do not need to be cored until January.
Only new ones do.
So you don't need to worry about that at all until January.
"Will MIRMs be used for PvP again?"
Possibly.
That's future plans.
"Once we train into the T2 Dreads, what would you say to train into next?
What's the most in need these days?"
I mean, once you're in the T2 Dread, I'd probably go for Carrier and Super Carrier.
I think that you can either go T2 Dreads or you can go Super Carrier.
I think that you can either go T2 Dreads or you can go Super Carrier.
I think that you can either go T2 Dreads or you can go Super Carrier.
I think that you can either go T2 Dreads or you can go Super Carrier.
I think that you can either go T2 Dreads or you can go Super Carrier.
I think that you can either go T2 Dreads into a Titan or T2 Dreads into a Carrier is probably the easiest way to do it.
I think I've got a screen capture for the research purposes.
There you go, and there's the Kirkland brand peanut butter filled pretzels.
"Do we have any better ways to kill their keeps faster?"
Yeah, we'll be coming up with new strategies. That is sort of a future plans thing.
But yeah, you can be sure that we'll have new things to employ.
We won't be doing the exact same thing. That's all.
"If we want to FC some chill fleets, but we are worried that we have no idea what to do, what is a good fleet for a budding skirmish commander to do things and stuff?"
First off, let me please say, do not...
Whenever you ping, I don't know why this is a thing, but when new skirmish commanders do their hype ping and explain what the fleet's going to do,
they always call it "stuff and things." And I don't know why, but over the last five years, I've seen so many people write "stuff and things" as the description for their fleet.
I don't know why that is something, the default that people come up with, but I've seen it so many times. Do not write "stuff and things."
Anyway, it's a great question. Quorums are great. You can do scepters. Scepters are a little bit fast, but you can mess it up.
I think pharaohs are just fine. I think people often recommend smaller ships, but in smaller ships you actually have less time to adjust.
Take out some pharaohs. If you bump a pharaoh's fleet, no one cares.
But quorums are like, if that's too much, if that worries you, then do quorums. Do a small ship like that.
If you tell guys that you're new, no one's going to rip you. And if they do, let us know, because that's not a person we want in the Alliance.
But as a whole, goons are super supportive in UFCs, so don't worry about people getting mad at you.
They're not going to yell at you, and they'll help you out. There's lots of people who go on fleets and have been doing it for 5-10 years,
and they can help you. If you get frozen or whatever, they can tell you what to do.
But that's also an important thing. If you're a new FC, the most important thing to do is not to ever freeze up.
Just always be doing something. Always be doing something.
If you're doing something, guys will be fine with it. Even if you make a mistake, that's fine. Just always have a plan.
And if you don't have a plan, just come up with one quickly. That's all you've got to do to be an FC.
"Are Alpha Feroxes welcome with heat patches?" Yes, they are.
Heidi says, "And if you fuck up, own that shit with style." Exactly.
If you take responsibility, no one's going to give you a hard time.
If you're like, "Sorry, guys. I'm a new FC." You don't even have to be a new FC.
"Sorry, guys. I made a mistake. My bad. I've been there before. I was there last week, and I asked a bunch of you to stay up, and my bookmarks got deleted."
Everyone makes mistakes. If you own your mistakes, people will be fine with it.
Somebody once told me, "A bad decision is infinitely better than no decision at all."
Exactly.
"If it's a show fleet, can we do silly stuff like rifters?" Sure.
You can do whatever you want. I would just make sure that there's enough ships.
One thing you can do as a new FC, if you want to run your own fleet, if you have an idea, import the ships.
You can import a T1 Cruiser Doctrine or even a T1 Frigate Doctrine for a very low price.
You can bring in 20 Vexers or whatever you want to bring in, and just hand them out.
Then you're going to do whatever fleet concept you want.
"I'm a dumbass 6-year-retret with low SP. Hard to fly useful fleet stuff. Now I have 3 accounts because I make poor decisions."
I can empathize with that.
"How can I be most effective and useful with these resources?"
So, a Vigil. You can fly a Vigil after 3 hours, and a Vigil is extremely valuable on a fleet.
So you need 3 hours to become an extremely valuable fleet member.
E-War frigates are also very valuable. Crucifier, Maulus, those are pretty easy.
Training the Pharaoxes. Pharaoxes are fun a lot, and to get into them is not very hard.
So, those are things you can do to get going with your 3 accounts pretty easily.
Also, you can do T1 Logi. T1 Logi, if you like to do Logi, is very quick, and people will not turn away T1 Logi.
So there's lots of options for low SP players.
And I think Logi is a really fun thing, but if it's not your thing, you can do a Vigil in about 3 hours.
"Are Trianglemans Geats?"
I don't know anything about those. I don't know what they're going to do with Geats, it's hard to say.
But I doubt it will affect us.
"What about the news about the new gear?"
I mean, so, I don't want to give that guy any bugs.
I don't want to give that guy any notoriety or anything.
He's fine, whatever. He says some dumb things sometimes.
But there's lots of good clips of him saying really dumb stuff and complaining that they can't win when they have just 5,000 people.
It's pretty hilarious.
I mean, the thing is, when you have a group of, what do we have, 20,000 people, there's always going to be one person that can be dumb.
If they did that and that's actually true, then we're going to deal with it.
In some cases, it might be, like a lot of people have a very expansive view of what doxing is.
And I hope that whatever he said was done is not true and did not come from us.
"Any word on when we're bringing back Dictor training classes?"
I don't know who runs those, so I can't really answer.
But hopefully, yeah, that might be a while. We'll have to talk about that after.
The guy who runs those is in pretty serious shape in the hospital, so we're all pulling for Ranger right now.
So, yeah, I don't know. We'll try to figure something out. I hadn't thought about that in relation to that.
"After the patch, will we need to import the much-needed minerals to happen on the Alliance level or on an individual level?"
I think that as an Alliance, we try to empower people to do things themselves.
We don't try to do Alliance top-down programs that much.
So I'm hoping that it's something that can be addressed at an individual level.
But if we need to do it on an Alliance level, we'll probably organize that.
But I'm hoping people will take care of that individually.
All right, any other questions, or I'm going to call it if we don't have anything else?
"Any plans to do more gate camps?"
So there is an SGM gate camp. Carnival Fleet's doing one. ASCII's doing one.
I think there might be another Corp doing one.
I think organizing them on the Corp level is a really good way to do it.
So if you're a Corp CEO, that's one thing you can do.
If you are not a Corp CEO, you can talk to your guys about seeing if you can do it.
A lot of things is, if you wanted to do it, just organize it yourself.
Running a gate camp is not hard.
So if you can run a gate camp, that makes it easier for your Corp CEO to ping it up.
Rather than saying, "Hey, we should do this," say, "Hey, I can do this."
"Is it possible to cap Training Fleet?"
We have already done one. We'll probably do another one in a week or so, if it's not too crazy.
"I am going on the Meta Show. I am not doing a camera. I don't even own a webcam, so sorry Declorean."
I try to keep Real Life and EVE separate as much as I can.
I shared a picture once in 2013.
In 2018, someone shared that picture with me. A goon had saved it for five years.
I found that creepy. I was like, "No, thank you."
So, yeah, I was like, "No more pictures."
Zeltirak, if you come to America, you can lick my forehead.
There will be no pictures of it, but I'm happy to let you do it in person.
"Is there a particular demand for ship types in WinDQ, or are we well stocked now?"
That is a great question. We definitely need a lot of ships in WinDQ.
I think, certainly, it's pretty lacking.
I've been trying to stock up on Feroxes, but we use a lot of Feroxes today, so we probably need a lot more Feroxes.
I would really like to get to the point where we have 750 Feroxes on contract.
That would be fantastic. I think we use a lot today.
We definitely need a lot more stuff restocked in WinDQ.
We've been using them and not replacing them at the same rate.
And if you are an importer, stocking ships is a great way to make money.
There's something going on there. It's a good way to make money.
"What celebrity do I most look like?"
I look like Brad Pitt's uglier brother.
Too uglier.
Chad Pitt, yeah.
All right. We'll call it.
Okay, thanks so much for coming, guys. We'll see you later at 2359.
We have some other timers in between now and then, so there should be some action going on all day.
And I hope to see you guys in the fleet. Thanks for coming.
There should be some action going on all day.
And hope to see you guys in the fleet.