Highsec Miner Grab Bag #150

In the Code era, every day is a nice day. Welcome to the 150th edition (so many editions--will the miners ever stop crying?) of the Highsec Miner Grab Bag!

My Russian is a little rusty, but I'm pretty sure Bob the Fourth is the good guy in the story being told here.

From one of the newbie help channels. First, we see a "helpful" veteran spreading anti-Code propaganda. But then...

It's official: CCP says highsec ganking requires you to "have a lot of skill". CCP has all but admitted that highsec ganking is elite PvP!

jenna watkins was killed by a "code squad". Actually, 31 gankers from the mighty CODE. alliance isn't just a squad; it's an armada. To answer your question, jenna, it appears your Obelisk was triple-anti-tanked. Meditate on the Code as you come up with a better way to transport your stuff.

"If you use a Procurer, they can't gank you."

It's funny to hear miners like Jaroslavka complain about gankers not working hard enough. As if AFK mining in highsec takes a lot of effort. Then again, these are the same guys who complain about ganking not being risky enough, all while shooting defenseless asteroids under the umbrella of CONCORD's protection.

Once we create a perfect highsec, even the dullest miners will see it was for their own good. Therefore, the faster we kill them, the sooner they'll like us.

People have been trying to impersonate me for many years now. You know how you can tell if someone is the real Saviour of Highsec? Watch him closely, and see what effect he's having on highsec. If he's saving highsec, then he's the real thing.

Someone named Cochise Chiricahua was caught distributing mass EVEmails to people killed by the mighty CODE. alliance. Was Cochise sending them valuable information about how to obey the Code? Uh, not exactly:

It must suck to be ganked by CODE. First you lose your ship, and then you get a bunch of spam from the Anti-Gankers. Strangely, Cochise talked about an "epic war" taking place between the gankers and his carebear militia. The gankers killed 2 trillion isk last month. What did the carebear militia do, other than fail? Sounds more like a massacre than a war.

James 315 is alive.

We have one of these: The Code

If You're Lyin' You're Dyin'

In the New Order era, highsec carebears are required to be honest. But Carlos SirAHno hoped that he could save his hauler with lies.

In the New Order era, only the Code can save your ship. Carlos and his fail-fit Wreathe experienced Agent Ralliana's judgment.

And as you can see from the Wreathe's cargo, Ralliana's was a righteous judgment.

It was good that Carlos wasn't AFK, even if he used his keyboard for telling lies. It meant he was able to escape with his pod--so the busy Poinen system got a chance to banter with Carlos a bit. Rock star that she is, Ralliana played to the crowd.

Then our Agent began to test the miner. She wanted to see whether Carlos was willing to change his ways--or if he was an inveterate liar, incapable of telling the truth.

Carlos had a perfect opening to lie about being someone important in EVE. He could've talked about his powerful friends, or his deadly alts. Instead, he admitted that he was a nobody. Good for him.

Carlos inspected his lossmail and discovered that Ralliana had been assisted on the gank by one Luna Nightblood. He reached the dramatic conclusion that they were both members of the mighty CODE. alliance!

At this stage, it's unclear how Luna's cover was blown.

Must be Military Intelligence, then.

After his encounter with CODE., Carlos was a changed man. Having realized that he himself had lied when the pressure was on, Carlos now suspected everyone around him of harboring secrets.

Carlos did not attempt to enlist the aid of random passersby. Anyone could be an Agent. Half of highsec could be working for the New Order! One day, though, in highsec's glorious future, people won't need to lie or worry about undercover Agents. Because when the day of Final Victory comes, everyone will be working for the Code.

The Million Dollar Battle

In case you've been living under a chunk of Veldspar these days, the mighty CODE. alliance reached another amazing milestone this month. In January 2018, CODE. broke its all-time record for the most isk destroyed in a single month.

For the first time, CODE. incinerated 2 trillion isk worth of non-compliants. Actually, you probably would've heard about this even if you were living under a chunk of Veldspar, because you would've been ganked for loitering. Nobody was able to escape our Agents this month.

Where's the "CODE. is dead" crowd today? Most likely heading to Jita to buy a replacement ship. I suspect many of them are taking the pod express.

It seems that every year, some dizzy rebel is out there spreading rumors about the decline and fall of CODE. Yet we only grow stronger and more powerful. Two trillion isk ganked in a month...! That's a lot of dead carebears. As usual, Anti-Ganking was nowhere to be seen.

You might be curious to know which kill put us over the top. Well, there's some debate about that. As CODE. approached the 2 trillion mark, Agent Aaaarrgg was watching the killboards very closely. He identified two kills, which took place one minute apart, as potential contenders:

Fragbox's triple-anti-tanked 13.8 billion isk Anshar may be the most likely candidate. The other contender occurred a minute earlier:

Gro'Pa's fail-fit bling Skiff. (What were the rebels saying about Skiffs being invulnerable to ganks?)

How did CODE. destroy so much isk in so little time? A lot of it had to do with the bot-aspirant freighters and jump freighters, which were dropping like flies all month long. In all, 159 freighters and an astonishing 49 jump freighters were killed. Nothing short of extraordinary.

(By comparison, the notorious 2012 ganking event "Burn Jita"--which sparked international headlines, public statements by CCP's senior developers, and a special launch screen--resulted in the destruction of 53 freighters and 12 jump freighters.)

Since December 2012, CODE. has vaporized over 55 trillion isk worth of illegal equipment. As the record-breaking month of January demonstrated, we're only getting warmed up.

The fight for highsec is truly the Million Dollar Battle.

And we're winning.

Because the CODE always wins. Always!

Top Supporters for January 2018

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, August, September, October, November, December, January 2017, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December top 10 lists at the appropriate links.

Here are our top isk contributors for January 2018:

TOP SUPPORTERS
January 2018


#1. Florian Foxheart
1,315,000,000 isk


#2. Bi-Polar Tendencies
1,000,000,000 isk


#3. Permabanned Heroes of the Code
875,000,000 isk


#4. Zane Arnolles
600,000,000 isk


#5. Woods Rogers
510,000,000 isk


#6. Tarth Mikakka
500,000,000 isk


#7. Viirilithizu Ward
400,000,000 isk


#8. gargars
315,000,000 isk


#8. Minx Mattel
315,000,000 isk


#8. Reid Hershel
315,000,000 isk
However you slice it, 2018 got off to great start--you might say it started with a bang. Though there are a still a handful of pro-carebear and pro-bot voices out there in highsec, the people have spoken, loudly, in favor of the New Order and its ideals. Bottom line? The Code is ascendant. Well done.

The Orcas of Nakugard, Part 8

Previously, on MinerBumping... The Nakugard system was crawling with Orca mining bots. Then Agent Alt 00 came to town and wiped them out with her newly formed Talos gank fleets. Some miners cheered, though others were filled with anxiety. Whenever a miner spoke up to question Alt's pro-Code policies, she ganked them. But could she win their love?

The beauty of the Code was on full display in Nakugard. You'd have to be really uncultured not to appreciate a sight like this.

It would be an understatement to say that Majura KIseki picked the wrong day to bring a freighter into Nakugard.

As luck would have it, a Thanksgiving ganking contest was running in the MinerBumping channel at the time. Alt 00 submitted the freighter gank and won a prize. She was thrilled--but realized that the Nakugard miners might not be happy for her.

A day had passed without any sign of Orca miners in the system. Just when our Agent started to think the Orcas might be gone for good, she detected two on her scanner. And one of them was fielding 'Augmented' Mining Drones, forbidden by the Code.

Alt 00 rushed to Nakugard's defense. She destroyed the fail-fit Orca; the other quickly left the system in a panic.

The ganked Orca belonged to the same corporation as Djsky, another Russian Orca pilot. Djsky and company had been chased out of the system five days earlier. They were very foolish to return to the scene of the crime.

Alt 00 wasn't expecting to kill the Orca's pod, but she did...

...Because it was still sitting there, 12 minutes later. Our Agent dispatched one of her alts that didn't have a criminal timer and cracked the egg.

Now even the most bot-aspirant of miners got the message. Nakugard was officially clean, with nary an Orca in sight. For the rest of the day, Alt 00 kept watch, but no Orca botters dared enter Nakugard. The next day, the system continued to be a no-Orca zone.

Another day passed, and Nakugard's new era of peace continued. Alt 00's scans detected no Orcas.

There was no denying Alt 00's power, but some miners had "concerns" about what our Agent was doing. One of them, Katherine Altol, vocalized a heretical point of view. To support her position, Katherine quoted an anarchist. Whoever said that quote, it wasn't me--which means it was probably wrong.

Katherine's unauthorized opinions threatened to make the other carebears grow restless, so Alt 00 put her to death and podded her out of the system. Nakugard belonged to the Code, and only the Code.

To be continued...

Your Responsibility to Read the Code

We all know that everyone in highsec is required to obey the Code. Even the worst of the rebels understand this, though they choose--for now, at least--not to live up to their obligations. There are, perhaps, some in the "resistance" who still fail to realize that the Code is their law. But even they are aware that disobeying the Code results in the destruction of their ships.

So we know that all of highsec must follow the Code. And to follow the Code, you've got to read the Code. This responsibility can't be delegated to others; everyone has to read it. Some carebears struggle to read the Code at all. Many others struggle to give it a proper reading: Casually scrolling to the bottom like it's an update to the EULA and clicking "accept" simply won't do.

I'd like to spend a bit of time talking about one's duty to read the Code. I think this conversation will be enlightening for a lot of folks.

The responsibility to read the Code, to read it well, and to read it often, is a responsibility that falls heavily upon the highsec carebear. Before we dig any deeper, though, I'd like to address something that the more mischievous rebels will undoubtedly want to raise--the old "you don't follow your own Code" chestnut.

Agents of the New Order are experts in the Code. Alt 00, for example, is famous for pulling quotes from the Code (and MinerBumping posts) like arrows from her quiver: Fire arrows, poison-tipped arrows, boxing glove arrows, or whatever the situation calls for. It's an impressive talent.

Yet an uppity miner may be inclined to ask, "Don't Agents need to read the Code? Shouldn't they be required to memorize it, and prove it to a rebellious carebear's satisfaction--or else they're breaking their own Code?" This is nonsense. It is not an Agent's job to answer to carebears. Agents, in fact, are the Code; they embody it. The Code manifests itself in them. A carebear trying to quiz an Agent about the Code would be like a man demanding that a gust of wind read books about aerodynamics.

No, like the other aspects of the Code, it is up to the carebear to obey. And the carebear must do so to the Agent's satisfaction.

When confronted with his responsibilities, a highsec miner may wail. They so often do. Yet the requirement to read the Code is probably one of the easiest and most enjoyable tasks a carebear will be called upon to carry out. It's a lot more pleasant than being ganked, or engaging in PvE. It's not depressing or toxic like talking to an Anti-Ganker. The Code is short, and it's so well written. And it's in seven(!) languages. How does a carebear flunk the "Read the Code" test?

The Code, as I said, is brief--fewer than 2,300 words. According to Google, the average adult reads about 200 words per minute. We can assume that the average highsec PvE'er reads at about half that speed. In less than 23 minutes, then, they can train "Code" to level I. Compared to other EVE tasks, that's not so bad, right?

It should go without saying that reading the Code once is a good start, but it's only a start. A carebear should read the Code slowly and carefully enough to comprehend it, too. We don't want all of those beautiful words bouncing off the miner's thick skull, do we? Since the Code is so profound, so deep, and so layered, it's important for a miner to read the Code more than once. And, owing to the frailties of the human memory, a miner needs to read the Code on a regular basis.

It's not a lot to ask. Carebears, think about how much time you spend playing EVE overall. Now do the math on how many times you could read the Code if you spent just 5% of your EVE time reading the Code. Just five percent! The other 95% you could do whatever you want (within the boundaries of the Code, of course). Just as an example, consider the miner who spends around an hour per day playing EVE, five days per week. That comes out to 260 hours a year, 5% of which is 13 hours. Within that space of time, a carebear can easily read the Code more than 30 times. Someone who devotes twice as much time to EVE could read the Code 60+ times per year.

So, carebear, how many times did you read the Code last year? I'm guessing many of you came up short, even with 95% of your EVE hours being open to activities other than reading the Code.

(And before you ask, no, you can't multitask. If you're reading the Code while mining, you're considered AFK. Dock up, log out, and then read the Code.)

So, carebear, what's your excuse? We've proven that it isn't a lack of time. "But James 315," you say. "I'm a rebel miner. I don't agree with the Code. I don't believe in it."

That's an exceptionally bad reason not to read the Code. First of all, you live in highsec. Even if you reject the Code, it's the cornerstone of the culture and civilization in which you live. That alone makes it worth reading, for compliant and non-compliant miners alike.

Then there's the fact that there are so many powerful Agents out there, and they do embrace the Code. If you're a rebel, you have every reason to read the Code, if only to better understand your enemy. If you were a terrorist and you had a copy of the counter-terrorism manual being used by the people hunting you down, wouldn't you read it? And carefully?

No, rejecting the Code isn't a reason to avoid reading it. It's in the rebel's self-interest to read the Code. Rebellion isn't his motive, then. If he fails to read the Code, he can only be motivated by pure, unbridled bot-aspirancy.

I'd like to conclude this post with a suggestion for CCP, since they can never have too many good ideas: Incorporate the reading of the Code into the new player experience. However, as we saw with the example of EULA/ToS getting scrolled through, it needs to be implemented in the right way. I think the most obviously reasonable way to do this would be to display the text of the Code one phrase at a time, and then have the player click to go to the next phrase, and keep on going until the Code has been fully read. Have each player do this when he creates a new account, and maybe once every month after that. Agents of the New Order would be exempt from this requirement.

Also, the player should be required to enter a Captcha each time to unlock the next phrase. I know it's a pain, but unfortunately we've seen how people have used macros to automate things in EVE. The bots and bot-aspirants need the Code most of all. Let's give it to them.