Me Ticket You Banned, Part 1

Our Agents improve highsec one miner at a time, a little each day. Upon being ganked in his Retriever, matth136 decided to take one more step toward Code-compliance.

However, after getting a new mining ship, matth136 began to act strangely. His arrogant and hostile demeanor quickly made him a target.

Agent Demolishar brought his trusty bumping Tengu into battle. He repeatedly bumped matth136 out of the ice anomaly. There's something unusual about this screencap--as we'll later.

Our Agent encouraged the miner to buy a permit, but he refused. matth136 railed against Demolishar's fellow Agents in local. He also insisted that Demolishar declare war. Apparently he was frustrated by the bumps.

matth136 felt confident that he would prevail in a wardec. But he had no idea how to win against an elite bumper. Obviously the miner was entirely unprepared for ice mining in highsec.

With each bump, matth136 became more agitated. He had no rational choice but to buy a mining permit and obey the Code.

matth136 wasn't in a rational mood, though.

The miner made a fateful decision: He petitioned CCP and begged them to stop the bumps.

Now the truth behind the screencap can be revealed. It was taken by matth136, not our Agent. The miner took screencaps to prove that Demolishar was indeed a miner bumper. matth136 then made the screencap public.

As a result of matth136's actions, Demolishar had a nice picture of his bumping Tengu in action. As seen here, a portion of the conversation in local was also immortalized by the screencap.

matth136 was absolutely confident that miner bumping is against the rules. Demolishar told him otherwise, but matth136 didn't waver. According to the miner, plenty of bumpers have been banned. And Demolishar was certainly a bumper. Would our hero be banned for helping to save highsec?

To be continued...

A Freighter's Peaceful Conclusion, Part 2

Previously, on MinerBumping... Star Doppeller committed an audacious crime: Moving his 9 billion isk freighter through highsec without a permit. He was familiar with the New Order, so when his freighter started getting bumped, he immediately surrendered to Agent Spryt3.

Our Agents now had in their possession one freighter, three packages containing a total of eight billion isk, and a five-pack of PLEX.

Spryt3 > okay now the packages
Spryt3 > what isk do you have on hand
Spryt3 > you have 315m?
Spryt3 > James 315 is our protector and savior
Star Doppeller > I could probably pay that.

As agreed, Spryt3 arranged for the safe return of the three packages. Despite receiving the contracted PLEX, our Agent required an additional 315 million isk.

Spryt3 > so a symbolic price for the packages would be 315m
Spryt3 > enter that into the trade window and il hit accept and you get the packages back
Spryt3 > zula will issue you a mining permit
Star Doppeller > Hold on... I'll have to transfer teh isk out of my corp.
Spryt3 > 314m it needs to be 315m sorry
Spryt3 > James 315

At the same time, Doppeller prepared to receive his very own mining permit--something he must've wished he'd purchased much earlier.

The trade was completed. Of course, before returning the packages, Spryt3 first removed any and all contraband that they contained. In his judgment, it was all contraband. But Spryt3 was as good as his word: He contributed one unit of ammo to each of the three packages and returned them. As for the freighter, it would remain in protective custody for the time being.

Spryt3 > okay now next thing would be blue status if you want to make sure we dont see you on out overviews
Star Doppeller > What do you mean exactly by see blues?
Zula Terra > i guess you are a little newer to eve
Zula Terra > so the way overviews the things you see other ships on can be set up is to exclude people with standings set to certain levels
Star Doppeller > I was just going to say something about standings.

Doppeller received the three packages, though he didn't see fit to inspect their contents. Now it was time to move forward and think about ways to prevent future incidents. Since Doppeller was being cooperative, Agent Zula Terra was willing to consider giving him good standings. At first, it seemed Doppeller was a new player who didn't know what those were, but no--his EVE life had simply been too isolated for him to know what "blue status" was.

Zula Terra > alliance has a maximum of 1024 standings that we can have total
Zula Terra > there is no way to exceed that so we have a 1.5 billion price tag for such service
Lulu Airuta > everyone who wants to function properly in highsec generally purchases standing from CODE. Even us in Archetype have do it so that we can go about our day to day bussiness.

To purchase blue standings from CODE., Doppeller would need to pay an additional 1.5 billion isk. A steep price tag, but well worth it.

Zula Terra > https://zkillboard.com/character/93159118/reset/group/513/losses/
Zula Terra > click on the link above if you want to see my profficiancy at killing freighters
Zula Terra > ive killed almost 500 of them
Star Doppeller > OK. well, it's a one man corporation, so just me will be fine.
Zula Terra > so now we need you to provide 1.5 billion worth of isk or assets and we will set you as blue so you can haul safely

CODE.'s gankers have killed thousands of freighters. Zula has personally participated on several hundred of those kills. Failing to purchase standings was an unacceptable risk.

An additional 1.5 billion isk was paid. In all--ship, cargo, PLEX, isk--Doppeller handed over more than 16 billion isk.

Star Doppeller > How's that?
Zula Terra > yeah that works
Zula Terra > okay the only thing we need to do now is go to uedama just leave courier packages here we will return for that later
Zula Terra > its just one jump out
Zula Terra > i see you in local
Star Doppeller > I have arrives, Zula

Doppeller was interested in seeing his freighter again. Zula suggested that they meet up in Uedama.

Zula Terra > if you undock from the station you will see a citadel right in front of you
Zula Terra > you will be going in its direction
Zula Terra > warp to it

Doppeller dutifully reported to the rendezvous point.

Doppeller received additional content in the form of a friendly pod-gank. The pod was cheap; it was all in good fun.

Zula Terra > thanks for your donations to the CODE.
Star Doppeller > IAll good.

Given Doppeller's new pledge of loyalty to the Code, Zula assumed that the carebear would want him to keep the 16 billion isk. After all, our Agents can do a lot more good with the money than some hauler pilot can. Doppeller's parting words seemed to confirm that he was fine with things as they stood.

The proud owner of a fresh New Order mining permit, Star Doppeller was ready to rebuild his career on a more solid footing.

However, after thinking about it overnight, Doppeller shed his mining permit in favor of a somewhat ambiguous manifesto.

Doppeller renounced his permit and seemed to defend the loss of his ship and assets. He also made some perplexing remarks about players not being able to hold in-game sovereignty in highsec (which we know is irrelevant, as most territorial claims in EVE do not correspond to in-game sov).

The carebear's true feelings about losing 16 billion isk were not totally clear from his bio. What was clear--clear as crystal--was that Star Doppeller had gained far more from his interaction with our Agents than the 16 billion isk he'd lost. For the first time in his life, Doppeller had experienced EVE and all the wonders it has to offer. A good time was had by all. A peaceful conclusion was reached indeed.

A Freighter's Peaceful Conclusion, Part 1

Reputation matters. And no alliance in EVE has a more impressive reputation than that of the mighty CODE.

According to zKillboard's API-verified alliance stats, CODE. has destroyed thousands of freighters and hundreds of jump freighters. So when a freighter starts getting bumped by a member of the New Order, the freighter pilot knows his goose is cooked.

Spryt3 > were forming a fleet to kill you but its a bit of a pain in the ass
Spryt3 > you have 8b in cargo
Star Doppeller > Yeah. How did you figure that out?
Spryt3 > we scanned you
Spryt3 > anyways the way we handle ransoms is they have to go to one of the directors
Spryt3 > Zula Terra in this case
Star Doppeller > OK. Wany my to eject it?

Charon pilot Star Doppeller was triple-anti-tanked, but taking him down still would've required a number of gankers to rally. However, upon being bumped, Doppeller was ready to throw in the towel. There was no purpose in requiring our Agents to actually execute the gank.

Spryt3 > that works
Spryt3 > let me get the hauler here
Spryt3 > hmm thats a lot of m3
Spryt3 > you know what
Spryt3 > just eject from freighter and we will take 1/3 of it out in station
Spryt3 > and trade you the rest back
Spryt3 > along with freighter

Doppeller agreed to eject his cargo as a ransom payment, but that would've required our Agents to recover the cargo with a freighter of their own. As an alternative, Agent Spryt3 suggested Doppeller simply eject himself from the freighter.

Spryt3 > otherwise i can get a freighter here but its gona take longer
Spryt3 > you can pay ransom in isk but im guessing you dont have much
Star Doppeller > Just trying to figure out how to eject.
Spryt3 > right click on capacitor
Spryt3 > and eject from ship

Our Agents never stop teaching carebears how to play the game. Though Doppeller had been in EVE for more than three years, he'd never ejected from a ship before. This would be his first opportunity.

After Doppeller ejected from the freighter, Spryt3 sent his own freighter pilot to board the ship and return to station.

Our Agent confirmed the contents of the freighter. Including the freighter itself, more than 9 billion isk worth of assets had been recovered. All of it unlicensed.

Spryt3 > ok now warp top station
Spryt3 > we will trade it back to you there
Star Doppeller > Well, this is quite a loss. But everybody loses once in a while.
Spryt3 > were not done yet

It had already been quite a victory for the New Order. However, our Agents are known for putting in that extra little bit of effort. Highsec is at stake.

Spryt3 > we have secured the contents of your freighter
Spryt3 > now we have a bit complicated proceedure
Spryt3 > you know about mining permits?
Star Doppeller > yes.
Spryt3 > you dont have one
Spryt3 > so to make things work we need you to first have a mining permit

Doppeller had suffered the consequences of engaging in highsec PvE without owning a New Order permit. Given Doppeller's good conduct thus far--Code violations notwithstanding--Spryt3 was confident that he could reform the carebear.

Spryt3 > let me just get my director on
Zula Terra > hello
Star Doppeller > Hello Zula.
Zula Terra > i was busy trying to get the people to kill you together
Zula Terra > but apparently we have reached a peaceful conclusion
Star Doppeller > I see.
Zula Terra > which is cool with me
Zula Terra > so now we need to get just a few things into order

Although the New Order has the best, most elite combat pilots in EVE, we don't always rely upon violence. If we can achieve our goals peacefully, we're sometimes willing to go that route.

Zula Terra > okay so first of all if you check my bio you can see that i have my permit holders listed there
Zula Terra > SwiftxFate Codie SwiftxFate Codie Pandorath Aynamka Overdose The Specter
Zula Terra > people like these
Zula Terra > to get privileges that members of CODE. community are entitled to you need to have one of these permits or be an agent of James 315
Zula Terra > http://www.minerbumping.com/ this is our website and we are quite a big group
Zula Terra > we own all of highsec

Earlier, Doppeller admitted that he was aware of mining permits. Agent Zula Terra filled him in on the New Order in more detail, just in case the carebear's understanding of our community was only surface-deep.

Zula Terra > for confiscated freighters and goods to give the previous owner back the belongings he needs to pay an official fee of 1 billion per 3 billion value
Zula Terra > spryt3 can you verify the value of contents?
Spryt3 > yeah, sure
Spryt3 > http://evepraisal.com/e/12549472

Zula was willing to return the confiscated assets to Doppeller, but only if he paid one-third of the value as a gesture of good faith.

Zula Terra > so now to get you sorted you need to provide 9.25b divided by 3 which amounts to 3.08 billion
Zula Terra > do you have liquid isk or assets amounting to that value?
Star Doppeller > I would imagine that I have assets in that value, but not liquid isk.
Star Doppeller > Hold on...
Star Doppeller > Yeah, I'll have to give you the assets.

Unfortunately, Doppeller didn't have 3 billion in isk. Though it would be less convenient, our Agents were willing to accommodate the carebear by taking his assets instead.

Star Doppeller > How much does a plex go for nowadays?
Spryt3 > 1b
Star Doppeller > I have a bundle of five plex. I can't split it from here, so I'll have to contract you the whole thing.
Spryt3 > okay

Once again an obstacle presented itself. For some reason, Doppeller was hoarding PLEX in a station elsewhere in highsec. The carebear's greed for PLEX was so great that he'd purchased them in batches of five. Our Agent wanted three of them. Because Doppeller wasn't in the station with the PLEX, he couldn't take three from the stack. Thus, the only way to speedily accomplish the transaction was for Doppeller to contract over all five PLEX.

Once again our Agent was willing to accommodate Doppeller's special needs. But their business was not yet concluded.

To be continued...

Kills of the Week

I think everyone in EVE can agree on one thing: There are some terrible crimes being committed in highsec. People disagree on what to do about it. For the New Order, the answer is simple--the Code. The rebels and skeptics, on the other hand, think the solution is to have more carebearism and bot-aspirancy. With this in mind, take a look at some ships flown by bot-aspirants during the week of September 25th @ 00:00 EVEtime through October 1st @ 23:59 EVEtime. And then ask yourself whether the pilots of such ships can save highsec.

KILLMAIL

Sin Murasame's sinfully decadent Mackinaw was worth nearly a billion isk, mostly thanks to its set of Crapo--I mean 'Carpo'--mining laser upgrades. Agents Eva Mavas, Lucia, and Snapcase made short work of its paltry defenses. Oh, and in case you were curious, that special sensor booster is called a "Sentient Sensor Booster". It was probably more sentient than the bot or bot-aspirant at the Mackinaw's helm.

The Anti-Gankers always complain that I don't give them enough credit for the ships they save. They say I never highlight their successes, only their failures. MinerBumping is nothing if not fair, so I'd like to take this opportunity to draw attention to one of the Anti-Gankers' greatest achievements over the past few years.

KILLMAIL

...But let's be honest, the Anti-Gankers don't make it easy. Their continuous nonstop daily failures don't provide many opportunities for praise. The reports of Kaila Cassels' Bowhead's demise were not exaggerated. Agents ThatOleSerpent, Kblickens, Sex K1tten, KoHfeTHbIu TpoLLb, Chapo Muerte, Aaaarrgg, Winnie Po0h, Pod-Goo RepoWoman, Allise Soprano, loyal anon, and Scanner Montana gave it a good, solid gank.

Congratulations, Anti-Gankers. You saved a phantom Bowhead that got away while our Agents were busy ganking an actual Bowhead.

KILLMAIL

Craten Destro wanted to see how blingy he could make his prized faction battleship. He spent 2.8 billion isk spiffing it up. But then he drove it into the wrong neighborhood--Uedama. In no time at all, Agents holdmybeer, Sex K1tten, KoHfeTHbIu TpoLLb, ThatOleSerpent, John E Normus, Fiddly Pop, Milkmypigeon, Jason Kusion, Justin Kusion, Jayson Kusion, Jake Kusion, Kblickens, Jayden Kusion, Ron Chi, Chapo Muerte, Joel Kusion, Joseph Kusion, Australian Excellence, Johnathan Kusion, Jackson Kusion, Joshua Kusion, Jeremiah Kusion, Tax Collector Kittens, Winnie Po0h, Allise Soprano, Tax Collector Bismark, and Pod Destroyer Molly formed a task force and delivered justice.

KILLMAIL

Sometimes a killmail is worth a thousand words. Alexis Mayavaltar was spotted in an asteroid belt with this... thing. Despite its impressive capacitor tank, the thing was no match for Agents Get Well Soon, Serpentis Safeguard (a surprisingly strong performance for a belt rat), Salah ad-Din al-Jawahiri, Beau Filcher, and Blyat Man. What was the thing doing in an asteroid belt, anyway?

Incredibly, it was attempting to mine with drones. Illegally!

KILLMAIL

Mauro Wynter had an Epithal. Like other industrial ships, it needed a bunch of tank mods to be its best self. Mauro was only interested in anti-tank mods, though--to the extent he had any interest in modules at all. But Mauro was in luck: Agent Salah ad-Din al-Jawahiri loves to teach carebears how to properly fit their ships. "Here, I'll make it easier for you," Salah says as he removes the their ship from EVE and allows them to rebuild it in their imagination.

Mauro's ship was carrying a pair of PLEX. No wonder he defended it with nearly 2,000 hitpoints.

KILLMAIL

AbyssFlames had a nice meeting with Agent Winnie Po0h, but he got off on the wrong foot by using a pod with 2.48 billion isk worth of implants. Whenever you have an encounter with one of our Agents, it's important to make a good first impression. AbyssFlames forgot that.

Our eagle-eyed readers will have already noticed that a Fenrir was listed in the "related" entry for this killmail. AbyssFlames' pod appeared after he lost a 2.8 billion isk freighter. I suppose that means AbyssFlames made a poor first and second impression. Meanwhile, Anti-Gankers were busy helping a Fenrir escape at the very moment AbyssFlames' Fenrir was being ganked.

It's About Making an Impact

Miners complain that ganking is too simple, that it's too easy to master. Highsec mining, of course, is infinitely more simple. That fact on its own would be enough to damn the miner as worse than a hypocrite. But even that would be too kind, because miners don't master highsec mining.

While on patrol in Lonetrek, Agent Duvaindes Fireleaf executed a flawless gank of Matthew Strenkowski. Though mining in highsec is easier than ganking, Matthew couldn't get that right. One look at his Retriever gives it away.

Nearly an hour later, Matthew was still steamed. By name-dropping me, he at least signaled that he wouldn't bother with the tiresome "nobody warned me about the Code" routine so many miners use.

After the most gentle probing of the miner's psyche, Duvaindes already detected signs of nihilism.

Our Agent's suspicions were quickly confirmed. Matthew was a poster child for learned helplessness. Duvaindes was overcome with compassion for the miner.

The Code encourages EVE players to take responsibility and exercise control over their own gameplay experience. Duvaindes tried to show the nihilistic miner that there was a whole world of options open to him. He could find happiness in the Code.

The more Duvaindes investigated Matthew's case, the more pathetic it appeared. Matthew had become a leech on his own corporation. Interestingly, he was willing to take one Retriever after another from his corp, but he wasn't willing to ask for some isk for basic fittings or a basic New Order permit.

A new door opened for Matthew. Duvaindes offered him the most exciting opportunity he'd ever get in his life.

Duvaindes was astonished by the miner. It was as though Matthew sought out misery.

Matthew's attitude was puzzling. He seemed to understand that EVE offered a depth that other games don't, but he wasn't willing to take advantage of it.

The miner claimed to enjoy the occasional PvP, but our Agent doubted him.

It was time for Duvaindes to deploy the Truth Bomb.

Some carebears find our Agents' lectures to be harsh and condescending. Wrong on both counts. Our Agents live in reality, a vibrant place with bright lights that only sting the deadened eyes of those cocooned in bot-aspirancy. If you catch my drift.

Matthew hated the idea of watching local chat; it distracted him from watching television. He never had any interest in fully engaging in EVE.

Though Duvaindes' heart continued to swell with compassion for Matthew Strenkowski, it was time to move on. So many other miners needed her to make an impact on their game.

Top Supporters for September 2016

Each month, MinerBumping immortalizes its top isk contributors in a hall of fame post. The "Month's Top Supporters" sidebar will begin showing the current month's supporters in a few days. You can view the August 2012, September, October, November, December, January 2013, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January 2014, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January 2015, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January 2016, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August top 10 lists at the appropriate links.

Here are our top isk contributors for September 2016:

TOP SUPPORTERS
September 2016


#1. United Ganker College Fund
5,315,000,000 isk


#2. Super Perforator
2,000,000,000 isk


#3. Dom Arkaral
630,000,000 isk


#4. Furion Sjet
500,000,000 isk


#4. Macgyver 5000
500,000,000 isk


#6. Caco De'mon
350,000,000 isk


#7. Big Gradner Painhaus
315,000,000 isk


#7. Permabanned Heroes of the Code
315,000,000 isk


#9. Fiona Lacroix
210,000,000 isk


#10. Attila Flagelumdei
50,000,000 isk
In the final analysis, EVE doesn't belong to every player who's ever logged time in the game. If it did, EVE would belong, in part, to the tens of thousands of bots and countless trial accounts who unsubbed after an hour of gameplay--and the multitude of carebears who contributed little more. No, EVE belongs to those who molded it and shaped it into the game that it has become--the game that EVE has emerged as. To put it bluntly, EVE belongs to the New Order. Look at those ten fine contributors and you'll see owners of EVE.