Kills of the Week

As the New Order continues its ridiculously noble crusade, we find carebears generating ridiculous killmails. Here are some of the more SMH-inducing carebear deaths from the week of November 17th @ 00:00 EVEtime through November 23rd @ 23:59 EVEtime.

KILLMAIL

Catallego lost a 1.2 billion isk Hulk when Agents Victor Von Vyvorant and Cholo Dejesus stopped by and reminded him to get Code-compliant. You might look at the screenshot above and think "Wow, that bot-aspirant had a terrible fit. But how did he lose over a billion isk?" Well, the answer is even more absurd than you might think. Behold, the carebear's cargo:

Catallego had three ORE Strip Miners, worth over 900 million isk, in his cargo. He was mining with tech I ice harvesters. That's because the ORE Strip Miners are for ore, not ice. So when Catallego got thirsty for some of that delicious Gallente ice, he just swapped them out, leaving the 900 million isk mods in his cargo instead of a station. Why? I can only assume he felt he was 100% safe in highsec. Disgusting, Catallego. I hope those 8 units of Blue Ice were worth it.

KILLMAIL

Magus Cao of Corporation of Righteous Judgment learned the true meaning of righteous judgment when Agents Arden Elenduil and Xuixien popped his 1.6 billion isk Raven Navy Issue. How in the world did this happen? Arden explains:

"I was out flying together with Psychotic Monk and some others (total a 7 man fleet or so) while Monk was streaming, and we stumbled across that CNR. Several of us were suspect, but Monk had given my Astero some armor damage because of earlier shenanigans, which is what I think made him target and shoot me."

Magus foolishly took the opportunity to attack Arden's faction frigate, which was suspect. This made combat between the two legal. If Magus thought he could defeat an Agent of the New Order in battle by using a billion and a half worth of battleship, he was sadly mistaken. Psychotic Monk's Twitch stream video, beginning at the 1 hour 24 minute mark, shows the nearly half-hour battle between Arden and Magus. Arden couldn't break the battleship's tank at first, but eventually they brought in an Orca so he could switch out some energy neutralizers and shut down Magus's active tank. Xuixien showed up at the last minute and yoinked the killing blow with 1.6% of the total damage.

KILLMAIL

Not to be outdone, Dracellon lost a Raven Navy Issue of his own worth 1.7 billion isk. It was popped by Agents Luck of-The-Irish, D400, loyalanon, chenshar, and Sophia Soprano. Dracellon's crime? According to loyalanon, Dracellon was AFK at the time. Suicide ganking his ship was the only way to get his attention.

KILLMAIL

Plenty of Orcas were killed this week. Archimedes Arkham takes the prize with his loss of a billion isk Orca, which was ganked by Agents captain sparro, loyalanon, Karbox Delacroix, D400, Krig Povelli, Sophia Soprano, Eranicus II, merrizon, and Zazz Razzamatazz. The bulk of the extra value on this Orca (before it blew up, that is) came from a Caldari Navy Adaptive Invulnerability Field. It dropped, leaving our Agents 400 million isk richer. That's quite an expensive fig leaf to cover up the carebear's crime of cargo-fitting his ship rather than using all available module slots for tank.

One thing I like about the Orca kill is the list of participants, which you can find broken down by corp/alliance on the Eve-Kill.net link. It's a veritable United Nations of gankdom: Of the 9 gankers, no two are members of the same corp or alliance. The New Order brings all the good people together for a common cause!

KILLMAIL

Finally, Romulas Thor lost the Pod of the Week, including 1.8 billion isk worth of implants. Agent Zane Arnolles got the kill. Along with Victor Von Vyvorant, he first popped the carebear's fail-fit Hulk. Quite the collection of Genolution Core Augmentation CA's he used to have there. But no set of implants is complete without an official New Order mining permit. No permit, no implants.

Shareholders Choose the CODEdot Alliance Logo

Several days ago, New Order shareholders went to the polls to vote on the CODEdot alliance logo. They were given two exciting options, both of which are my face. There was Rixx Javix's stunning stylized version, and Ophidia Black's smooth, refreshing black-and-white version. Once again the New Order was graced with an embarrassment of riches; both options were beautiful, so we couldn't lose.

Shareholders were told to vote, and vote they did! 51,399 out of 159,194 shares voted. Without further ado, the results...

RESULTS

Which style do you prefer for the CODEdot alliance logo?

Ophidia Black's BLACK-AND-WHITE style -- 44,146 votes (85.8%)
Rixx Javix's TECHNICOLOR style -- 7,253 votes (14.1%)
Abstain -- 0 votes

In the end, Ophidia's version won the day. The vote was more competitive than the total suggests. Early on, there was a torrent of votes for Ophidia's black-and-white version. Then the tide seemed to shift, and a lot of votes for Rixx Javix's version starting pouring in. Including the three shareholders who voted by EVEmail, the totals were 17 shareholders voting for Ophidia's and 20 voting for Rixx's. But the billionaire's club was on the side of Ophidia's, with 7 shareholders owning 1,000+ shares voting for her option, versus 2 for Rixx's.

Two more billionaires, oOReikaOo Michiko (1,000 shares) and Daltzi (13,000 shares), appear to have attempted to cast their votes for Ophidia's black-and-white version in the comments section of the MinerBumping post, but these votes could not be counted. The use of EVE-O or EVEmail is needed to confirm the identity of the voter. If those votes were genuine, then the share count was more lopsided in favor of the winner, but the shareholder count would come in at 19-20--almost an even split, by that measure.

Now, as we know, the great thing about our system is that even after a spirited campaign we all rally together and unite as one community. Let us look upon the winner of the vote, and imagine the miners of highsec seeing this image whenever they look at the banner of the CODEdot alliance:

Inspiring, no? I haven't been this inspired since I last looked at myself in the mirror.

A big thanks to all those who voted, and of course to all those who submitted artwork and ideas for the logo. I will shortly arrange to have a formatted copy of the image sent to the alliance executor, who will forward it to CCP for their review.

Once again, congratulations to everyone in the New Order for being such good, decent people.

One Hundred Fifty-Nine Billion in Shares Sold

My hat's gonna get frayed edges from all the wear and tear, people. But I love it! We've sold over 159 billion isk in New Order shares now. Shareholders, step up and receive your Supreme Protector's Tips of the Hat™, please! Here we go...

Jamie Gillis earns a Supreme Protector's Tip of the Hat™ for his purchase of 1,000 shares, which sent us over the 156 billion mark. Keisari Shi earns a Supreme Protector's Tip of the Hat™ for his purchase of 980 shares, which sent us over the 157 billion mark. probag Bear earns a Supreme Protector's Tip of the Hat™ for his purchase of 1,000 shares, which sent us over the 158 billion mark.

And last, but certainly not least, 290xanaots's well-timed purchase of an additional 250 shares earned him a Supreme Protector's Tip of the Hat™ for sending us over the 159 billion mark. Whew! Keep the isk flowing, and we'll keep the carebears crying (when they deserve it).

Highsec Miner Grab Bag #47

Have you been coming down with the flu? Well, you know what they say: Carebear tears are the best medicine. It's time for the forty-seventh edition of the Highsec Miner Grab Bag!

Agent Alyth Nerun is already making quite a name for himself, thanks to his excellent acts of Code enforcement. All of your Agent-aspirants out there, take notice: Enforce the Code in your local system and you'll make yourself indispensible to the community.

If the miners are making Hitler comparisons or Satan comparisons or both, you know to keep doing what you're doing.

Virophage wins the award for the most creative excuse for bot-aspirancy this week. "The ore's not mine, officer--I was just holding it for a friend!"

Some miners think they can prove they're not bots by interacting with you after you've ganked them. No dice. Bots are run by human players who eventually return to their keyboards. To prove you're not a bot, you need to make nice with an Agent before you die, not afterward.

Are our miners learning? We don't ask this question frequently enough. Some carebears of highsec have become unwilling to read good literature.

Literacy is incredibly important. I mean, come on... "Cacroaches"? Is that the best you can do?

Rebel miner and gank recipient Smalltalk Chelien doesn't exactly live up to his name. Smallvocabulary Chelien, maybe.

Stormrayje accused New Order Agents of failing to properly apply the Code. Guess if this space lawyer was any more successful than the rest?

Protip: If you're going to challenge us on the Code, you might want to read the Code first. And don't just rush through it like it's any other slab of HTML you shoved into your browser. Read it the way it deserves to be read: Carefully, with tenderness, with a sense of awe.

EVE is a spaceship combat sandbox. Unless you're flying an Invincible Stabber, you're going to lose some ships now and again. Luckily even some rebel miners like Cameela Charante know not to lose their sense of humor with their ship.

Agent Fawn Tailor's successful gank was "an akt of Piraterie", according to miner Insomiaa. Hardly. You could call it an akt of équité. Or perhaps an akt of charité, or amitié. But never piraterie.

One True Agent

Highsec carebear 1trublond was puttering around one day, gathering space rocks in an essentially untanked Hulk. If she wanted to do that in nullsec, fine. In lowsec, so much the better. But she chose to mine in highsec--without a permit, even--and that made her actions illegal. The consequences of her folly were predictable:

Agent Guybertini reported to the scene and tore her Hulk apart in seconds. Just like that, 227 million isk evaporated, and the New Order chalked up another impressive PvP victory.

Several minutes later, 1trublond finally returned to her keyboard. She was expecting some free AFK ore, but she got a free AFK lossmail instead. Guybertini's good deed was punished with a threatening EVEmail topped by a subject line that simply read, "DIE".

(On the other hand, 1trublond might be an Aryan-themed name. In which case, the subject line could be translated to read "THE".)

Most people would disregard a frothy-mouthed illegal miner like 1trublond, mentally assigning her to a steaming garbage heap of irrelevant carebears who aren't worth saving. But Guybertini isn't most people. He's an Agent of the New Order. That means he's not just elite at PvP; he's elite at compassion.

Guybertini stepped up to the plate in a big way. He sized up 1trublond's problems, devised a solution, offered it to her for (nearly) free, and prepared to welcome her to the New Order family.

...but 1trublond still needed some time to figure out where she belonged.

Perhaps 1trublond was in a place in her life where she needed to "find" herself. She could take some time off EVE to try backpacking through Europe, assuming she didn't already live there. The speedier alternative is to pay an Agent 10 million isk and follow the Code. This was the option Guybertini recommended, as he'd seen it work wonders on so many other troubled miners.

An hour and a half later, 1trublond worked up the courage to return to the asteroid belt and confront Guybertini. She found her own wreck, as well as the wreck of Guybertini's Catalyst. In her own precious way, 1trublond reached out with curiosity, inquiring about the methods of our Knights. She didn't understand why Guybertini blew up his own Catalyst during the suicide gank.

Guybertini was happy to explain everything, but decided against doing so. He knew there was plenty of time for 1trublond to read the Code at her own pace, after she'd forked over the money she owed.

Yet confusion reigned in the mind of 1trublond. A day after the righteous execution of her Hulk, she was still hurt and angry about it. Most people would look at Guybertini's kind face and mention of me in his bio, and they would deduce that he's one of the good guys. I suspect 1trublond understood this--she only treated him as an enemy because she didn't know that she could be one of the good guys, too. Perhaps if she loses more mining ships, she'll learn. The improvement of highsec continues.

Shareholder Vote on the CODEdot Logo

It's time, ladies and gentlemen. Time to make your voices heard. If you're a New Order shareholder, that is. Several days ago, I opened the floor for submissions for the CODE. (CODEdot) alliance logo.

By consensus of the highsec community (as articulated by me, since I have my finger on its pulse), the CODEdot logo will be some version of my in-game portrait. In other words, the alliance logo will be my face. As is appropriate.

An important question remained: In what manner should my face be presented? We received several samples. Now the style has been narrowed down, and it's time for the shareholders of the New Order to vote on it. We have two different styles for you to choose between. The order of the options was selected by coin toss.

First, we have Ophidia Black's black-and-white style:

(Originally, Ophidia had some text over the image, but I agreed with a suggestion in the comments that that image looked better without the text. when someone sees my face, they pretty much know what's up without having to be told, anyway.)

Next, we have Rixx Javix's style, which he explained as follows:

"Well I couldn't resist, so what I did was create an Icon of your face in a very recognizable and yet graphic propaganda 'Obey Giant' style. I've linked a bunch of color combinations in that style, but the color is really up to you and I can make it whatever you'd like."

A collection of potential colors for the design may be viewed here. This is one of them:

Note that for this one, since there are a lot of different possibilities for color schemes, you're voting for the style, as opposed to this particular color scheme. You get the idea.

So let's get to it. Shareholders have one vote for each share that they own. The number of shares is not locked during the voting period, since there are so many shares that no one person is likely to inflate their holdings too much during the voting period. There are over 155,000 shares, owned by more than 600 shareholders! Votes will be based on shareholder ownership at the end of the voting period.

The Vote

Which style do you prefer for the CODEdot alliance logo?

[ ] I prefer Ophidia Black's BLACK-AND-WHITE style. As seen in the Code, everything is either right or wrong, Goofus or Gallant, black or white.

[ ] I prefer Rixx Javix's TECHNICOLOR style. The New Order is the future, and the Saviour paints highsec in many vivid shades.

[ ] I ABSTAIN.

Shareholders may vote either BLACK-AND-WHITE, TECHNICOLOR, or ABSTAIN by replying in the vote thread on EVE-O, or by sending me an EVEmail (for those of you who are banned from EVE-O). For my convenience--but not as an opportunity for voter fraud on your part--please include the total number of the shares you own when you cast your vote(s).

The voting period will last from now until Sunday, November 24th at 01:00 EVEtime.

Good luck everyone.

Bump Van Winkle

You remember the story of Rip Van Winkle, don't you? In the years before the American Revolution, a man falls asleep for some twenty years, and awakens to a new world. Have you ever imagined what it might be like for a miner to have a similar experience, waking up to find highsec transformed by our own revolution?

Now's our chance to find out. I received an EVEmail from Smokey Sevier, who shared a remarkable tale.

Smokey was a resident of Halaima in the years before the advent of the New Order. Luckily, he stuck around long enough to witness the dawn of a new era.

Now is where the story gets interesting. Smokey had to leave EVE for whatever reason, just as the New Order was coming into existence. In those days, I would often tell the miners of Halaima that I intended to bring my vision to all empire space, and that one day every man, woman, and child in highsec would recognize me as their leader. Many miners expressed skepticism, since I was just a guy who bumped miners out of the local ice field.

Just recently, perhaps a bit over a year later, our own Bump Van Winkle returned to EVE. He was curious whether James 315 was still around, and was amazed and delighted by what had occurred during his slumber.

What a privilege to witness the striking before-and-after picture of highsec!

...and yet, the greater blessing belongs to those who worked as Agents all along our path to victory. Still, a wonderful and inspiring story. It leaves me with a question, though: What will miners say when they see what the New Order has managed to accomplish in two, five, or even ten years?