Fireside Chat Transcript 16 Dec 2k23
Asher Elias:
All right, let's get rolling. I still have some people getting on. It's fine. We'll just get started. I think we're settling down right about now. All right, so I got a lot of things on my agenda to talk about, and then a couple things to riff on and then I'll ask some questions. This is going to be the last fireside of the year as far as like, we have nothing planned for the 23rd.
On the 30th I've been trying to like come up with a funny idea, either we're going to just let every director talk or the one, the idea that I'm pushing, the directorate is sort of against it because they're like, it's too chaotic, but the idea I'm pushing is that anyone who wants to talk and get 30 seconds of mic time and so we'll just unmute your mic. You get 30 seconds to say something and then we will re-mute you after 30 seconds. So that's something we, that's something I'm pushing for. I'm a bit more impish than the average director. The average director wants to run like smooth sailing. I enjoy a little bit of chaos. So it's it's a tug of war here.
All right. Either way. Let me, the first I want to talk about Control-Alt-Delves that is our mandatory alphas. Basically it is a Ferox fleet that is on an alpha account that's separate from your regular account, so we can defend Delve when we deploy. If you are new, you haven't made one yet, please go ahead and do that.
Can someone link the Control-Alt-Delve thread for new people? But that's something that we haven't talked about for a little bit. There you go, thank you Beyond. And everyone needs to have one of these. So if you're new, please go ahead and make one. It is very free.
https://goonfleet.com/index.php/topic/330166-control-alt-delve-alpha-clones-to-defend-delve/
Something actually really cool that Ankh Lai is is pushing. We did this last year. It is the Ask a Director Gatecamp. Let me get that linked in Elysium. The Ask A Director Gatecamp is going to be going on, basically directly after the fireside. And there's a chance to get to know a lot of the directors who you might not know what they do on their day to day.
https://goonfleet.com/index.php/calendar/event/9604-ask-a-director-gatecamp-beehive-edition/
We're just going to be doing a fun gatecamp. So you can join and then each director is going to be coming in and get about 20 minutes to talk about what they do. And you can learn a lot about, you know, the guys who help keep this place running and who help keep this place fun for everyone. So this should be a lot of fun. That'll be starting, I believe, directly after the fireside.
And then after that wraps up, this is this is unfortunately a more somber thing. And it's something that we have to talk about, more than I'd like to these days but we are doing a cyno vigil at 0200 for Zedz Dead he sadly passed away a few days ago, so at 0200 tonight or tomorrow for you, EVE time we will be doing a cyno vigil for him to remember him, so 0200, be there if you can.
https://goonfleet.com/index.php/calendar/event/9633-0200-cyno-vigil-for-zedz-dead/
Alright I've got some stuff I wanted to talk about as far as Beehive. We have a lot of new corps, a lot of new corps in GSF. And Beehive is where you rat with your capitals. You may not have be used to it. You may not have done that previously. So this is just a reminder that if you are in a new corp, you should check out beehive. It is the safe way to rat and the only way to rat with capitals in Goonswarm Federation. There is a link right there. Thank you very much for putting that in there.
https://goonfleet.com/index.php/calendar/event/9639-beehive-fundamentals/
We've got a new doctrine that we brought up. Was it last week or week before? Anyway, Dakka fleet, which is Sleipnir's trained for that. That's going to be a a much used skirmish fleet.
And then one, one thing that we are seeing is we are seeing sort of a slippage in battleship participation in our battleship fleets. And in some ways it's like, wow, we really like to have 60 logi. Our battleship numbers have been a bit low.
So remember that if you have your amulet pod, you have the escape bay ship, they are fully SRP'd. So we want to get our battleship numbers improved. That means for Rokhs, for Leshaks and for TFIs, please stock up on battleships, please get those ready. That is something we've been noticing. And if a big fight comes, we do not want to be caught with our pants down. It's a really important thing.
Aeb_raven says, all the logi, 250 man logi fleet. I have thought about doing a 250 man monitor fleet. I don't know that you could kill that fleet. I don't know how much it would accomplish other than that, but it'd be hard to kill.
Apple Pear:
I once had a logi fleet. Like on my, I had a cane fleet and all the canes were dead, but the logi survived and they couldn't kill a logi, so.
Asher Elias:
That's pretty fun.
Apple Pear:
I had a logi fleet.
Unknown Speaker:
Also, guys, please watch out. There's lots of fake contracts for battleships on the market. Some lack the ships, some are way overpriced, so always pay a due diligence and check the contracts before you accept.
Asher Elias:
Yeah, that's always a thing to watch out for and in wartime, that'll get more. If you guys have missed a major sort of hell war having, you know A Megathron skin with all the modules is a popular one. So if you search for Megathron, it shows up and it looks like a contract, especially if you're trying to do you know a real fast reship. That's something that's a classic. So you do have to put a watchful eye to contracts. As someone said, use the exact type match checkbox.
Alright, so Diplo updates coming out soon. Diplo updates are really cool. I always enjoyed reading them. It's been a long time tradition for our Diplos to write basically a state of the galaxy. And it's a good way to learn what's happening throughout the galaxy, how we're seeing things. That'll be coming out pretty soon, so just keep your eye out for that. They're actually really enjoyable to read.
And we've got two days, only two days left to sign up for Secret Santa. If you are in a giving mood, you should sign up. It's always very fun. We have two days left for the Secret Santa sign up. And if you want to be part of it, you got two days to join. It's that simple. Have fun. Go ahead and join up. I can link this to you. Give me a second. There we go. Beautiful. All right.
https://goonfleet.com/index.php/topic/349171-2023-imperium-secret-santa/
And the last thing I wanted to talk about on my agenda, at least is the winter event. There you go. There's some links. That's a guide to how to make money. These things always print money, guys. So if you're looking for a quick way to fill up your wallets, the winter event is a good way to do it. Those things almost always print money for people.
So one thing I did want to talk about was, we've had a lot of FCs going to Horde space, and we've seen, we've seen their response has been very worried. They've had a lot of, they've spent a lot of time trying to counter it, and our guys are still doing really well, even with the limits that these wormholes impose on us. So if you guys have not been following what's been happening, we've been getting a lot of awesome kills. In their space. And I can tell you from what I can see from their command level they're very concerned about it. They're very worried. They're spending a lot of time making adjustments. So and our guys are having a lot of fun. If you've been enjoying going into their space and shooting things, please X up, let's see how many X's we get here. There you go. We aren't like especially designating these fleets, you know, just make sure that you are joining fleets that are going out if you want to be part of this.
And as I mentioned, this is the last fireside of the year that we're going to be doing in a serious manner. The 23rd, there's going to be no fireside at all. And the 30th, we're going to figure out something fun to do. So but come new years, we'll get back at it.
I told you guys a couple of months ago that we were going to be taking off essentially through the end of the year, as far as no major appointments. And that's what we've done, but we've actually had a lot of fun stuff that we've come up with and a lot of enjoyable fights that we've taken. So that's that's been pretty good for us, I'd say. But come the new year anything is possible. No future plans, but it's certainly something that after the new years we'll be looking at any ideas.
Okay. If you guys have any questions, please go ahead and ask them and I will answer as best as I can.
Can we get StratPaps for these horde attacks? Yes, you can. Yeah.
Southeast agreement news. When it expires, it won't be re renewed. That's the only news.
Astrid has been. Trying to get me to do a rickroll for a long time, so I'll just read it, never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and eat dessert without you. There you go. You're welcome.
Aoife asked if we're still best friends. Yeah.
CFI fleets, why no strat level SRP? Because CFI fleets are not a supported doctrine. That's like an FC choice, so that would explain it.
Is the Imperial still buying ESS keys? No, we are not right now.
Zuri wants an Apoc Doctrine. They're just not that good. I'm sorry, Zuri, unfortunately.
Barghest fleet when? Barghest are really good. They're probably not something we're going to be doing in the near future. But, never say never. I love Barghest. I did a Barghest fleet probably five years ago now. It was really awesome. They've become really popular in the last six months.
Apple Pear:
Make sure you don't forget Nestor's.
Asher Elias:
That was a jab at me personally. My Nestor collided with an asteroid. And people have not let me forget it five years after the fact. Don't become a meme.
Is Santa really fake? I have my doubts. No, Santa is real, dude. Santa's the spirit of love. I don't know, like, did your parents not tell you?
I really need Asher's body to get in line.
How many more dreads do we need? That's a great question. As many as you can take. Like, we, we want as many dreads as possible.
Do you want to build a snowman? I, I live in Miami. There's really no snow here.
How many more Leshaks do we need? A ton. Like, we're always, seem to be a little short on Leshaks. We've been using them a lot more. It's something that we want you guys to have with them.
What's happening in Catch right now? That's a good question. So Basically, Horde has a Zealot fleet they can jump clone to, and FRT can come through Zarzak so in Chinese time zone, they have an advantage in catch that space though is sort of beyond our you know, tantrum radius, it's, it's not space that we actually see. So, yeah. particularly care about. And when it was taken, this was known, you know, this wasn't like, it's not a surprise to anyone who holds that space. We have like a red line that we care about. And that's really, that's really the important part. We are getting some fights out there. So we'll take them when they come up.
There is snow in Miami. Yes, there is indeed.
Why is the Zirn so good as a Dread Alt? Sure. The reason the Zirn is so good is for a few reasons, but one of them is it actually doesn't take that long to train compared to other Dreads. It only uses one gun, which is useful as far as cost compared to the Navy dreads. It's actually cheaper to get a Zirn. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of things to recommend to Zirn.
Someone messaged me it's a Brave guy, says, where are these questions being asked? It's in Elysium, on Jabber. Join the channel, Elysium. That is the general chat channel. Generally we don't answer questions in Mumble, but I saw that one. Join the channel Elysium.
Is the Zirn a possible future crab option?. I don't think there'd be that good, but I could be wrong. He did not ask if you could ask me a question.
What other games do you play? I play League of Legends. That's about the only other game I play.
Super Anom ratting? Don't do it.
I am not a Yasuo main. I am a support main. I am a diamond support main. I do play yumean but it's not my main. How toxic am I? Not really toxic. I, it's no good. Eve is good for like learning psychology of helping people win and so that's a good way to apply that to other games too. I'm trying to find like actual questions to read guys. I main Trundle. That makes sense doc, you're a bit of a troll.
Zirn skill books. I don't think we have a program anymore. I think we gave out all the ones that we had. That was a, that was a Zintage thing.
There is no Bane doctrine coming right now.
What do you see as the goals for 2024? So that very much is a future plans thing. But it's something that we're discussing in the directorate a lot. Like how do we plan to address in 2024? What's the big deal? I think the truth is that anyone who says there's a plan for, you know, 12 months from now, outside of a very generalized thing is lying. You can't tell the lay of the land. It's sort of like the Churchill quote planning is useless, but it's also essential. The, the act of planning is good, but the plans that you make are probably generally not that valuable. You've heard it expressed as no plan survives first contact with the enemy, right? It's the same thing. The actual act of planning this out has extreme value, but the plans you make are only relatively useful. And they will lose value as time goes out.
What kind of dog do I have? It's it's a half Irish Wolfhound and half Poodle.
Nice chesty puller quote there, Moab.
Is there a plan to keep EU FCs down? We are trying our best to oppress them, but they keep doing stuff. It's so frustrating. We just spent an hour in the Illum planning meeting about oppressing EU FCs and they're still, they're still forming fleets. Disgust me.
Couple people asking for US time zone stuff. Yeah, it's been, I'd say US time zone hasn't had too much in the last month or so. I agree. There have been like Arcadios have been doing a lot of stuff in US time zone, so it's not like there's no, no stuff going on then.
AU time zone needs some love? There have been a lot of fights in AU time zone, my friend.
Do we need more EU FC applicants? Yeah, we would love to have I mean, just take more FCs in general. FCing is something that we always would like more of. So if you're interested in trying it, please join Skirmish Commanders. Give it a go. FCing is a very rewarding thing. I just started doing it because there was a need. I never planned to become an FC. I didn't join this game being like, Oh yeah, I'm gonna be an FC. But I just saw a need and filled it. And that's how I ended up being one. And then, you know, it turned out. That I had some talent at it and people just kept saying, Hey, why don't you do a little bit more of this? And that's how I ended up ending up being an FC, right? That could be you generally as a good rule is if you see a need and you fill it, you'll probably have more success than having a plan to be anything at all. In my opinion, that's how most good things happen. If you listen to the stories of successful people, they saw a need, they filled it. They didn't really have a plan for it. And then they ended up doing it and it became their thing right. In my experience most FC's who... well, let me say most people who join with the intent of being a great FC, I've never seen that work. Like, for instance, I've seen a lot of ex military guys who have come in with sort of, let's say, an attitude of entitlement because of their past work, and I've never seen success from them in that front. I've seen a lot of failures in that. So, the nice thing about playing for as long as I have is I've seen a lot of examples, right? So, if you are trying to succeed, and this is like about anything in life, but certainly in EVE filling a need is, is a much better way than having a desire to do it without actually knowing how to.
Apple Pear:
And if you join the beehive scouting when I'm on, I will tell you how I became an FC.
Asher Elias:
Accept my control, alt, del, alt, alt, alt, sure yeah, I don't, I'm not like pushing the button personally.
I was not attacking Altarari and Klexos. I actually had a person in mind, he does not play Eve anymore, but that, like, this particular person had a real sense of entitlement and was never a good FC. And I've seen that many times. Generally, it's, generally it's, the problem is the sense of entitlement, it's like not your background. It's the idea that there's something that, about you that is more worthy than other people.
If you want to practice FCing, try and take command during engagements in your standing fleet. I mean, I think that's a good idea if you're out on a roam uh, Riddenghost. That's literally what I was just talking about, seeing and eating and filling it.
Lord Trenchard, I am not ignoring you, I just didn't see a question.
Apple Pear:
Also, if you want to start FCing, just start FCing. Don't like read everything, just take a fleet out. Like, when you accept it in Skirmish Commanders, fill in the form, take a fleet out. That's the, that's how you learn. Yeah, like the longer you wait, the longer you wait.
Asher Elias:
There's no good guide on FCing. There's only, like you could read 30 guides that other FCs have written and it might give you a little help, but the only way to do it is to actually just go out there and do it. That's, that's pretty much it.
Shameless plug, Reng is a fantastic dude. Be like Reng. I don't know Reng, but I'm glad he's getting the shoutout.
Apple Pear:
Reng is cool. I love Reng.
Asher Elias:
Cool, good. What is a good F2 in today's meta? That's like a really good, really good question, Victor. I would say a Crucifier is really good. Those are, those are really strong. If I had to pick one, I'd say that. A Dictor is another one, or a tackle ceptor. Those are all things that are good F2s.
Apple Pear:
If you're capable, command destroyers.
Asher Elias:
Yeah, that's also good. Anything but a hyena vigil. The hyena is fine. The vigil, probably less so.
Illidan is giving advice about going to hostile stages to get a fight. Yeah. The thing to remember about FCing and this is just for anyone who's going to try it is that it's, you're never going to get a fair fight, right? Don't, don't obsess over that in any way. Don't, like, don't worry about that if, if you're concerned, and this is, this is something for everyone. I know a lot of you guys are, have been on fleets with a new person. If someone's taking out their first fleet, definitely go in their fleet you know, be patient, be willing to give them a hand. But the best experience, and this is something I believe really strongly, and it's also something that our enemies don't believe in, the best experience is being blobbed, right? Best way to learn is to fight against the odds. If you want to get better at anything you want to, you want to do it against someone who's better than you be that sports or anything else, right? Competing against someone who's better than you will, will make you much better. So always, always, you know, cherish and relish the fact that you're going to be able to be able to, you know, fight outnumbered.
Lord Trenchard says, Goonswarm is the most fantastic online community I've ever encountered. We have banter, love, and humanity. Please keep it up. Merry Christmas all. That's very nice, Trenchard.
Apple Pear:
I think this is a great end, because apparently Officer Cat should already be talking in the Beehive director's chat.
Asher Elias:
Alright, well, guys Merry Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful time if you're able to be with your family. If not come around and say hi to us. Have a wonderful Christmas. Have a wonderful time. I will talk to you all next year. See ya.
