When You Gank a Butterfly-Venture

Highsec miners are like a box of chocolates. You never really know what's inside until you tear the box open.

Ever since Agent Mack Poddington destroyed Zna4Ok's Venture, the poor miner has held a grudge against the mighty CODE. alliance. Zna4Ok formed Mad Mindless Miners corp as part of some kind of revenge plot. This led to his being featured in Highsec Miner Grab Bag #142.

Agent Yucie Van Burean heard through the grapevine that Zna4Ok lost another ship. It looked like the perfect opportunity to sell him a mining permit.

In spite of his difficulties in EVE thus far, Zna4Ok insisted that he didn't need the Code because he had a code of his own.

(Click the image for a magnified view.)

As is his wont, Zna4Ok worked himself up into a strange rant. Yet, for some reason, the miner felt he'd made a connection with Agent Yucie. Unlike most people in EVE, Yucie hadn't ignored the lowly miner. And so, when Zna4Ok needed help, Yucie was the one he turned to.

You see, Zna4Ok's bio ends with a link to the miner's own "code". Well, a rough draft of it anyway.

I need your help
From: Zna4Ok
Sent: 2017.10.25 07:06
To: Yucie Van Burean,

Greetings again.
If you have a couple of minutes of free time, I would like you to read this text, Noobs from Noob. The azes and basics. and also made an assessment of grammar, writing, content and usefulness for beginning players. If you want, you can write me notes and remarks to correct my mistakes and inaccuracies. Since our views on the actions of the players of CODE-alliance are likely to be little in what will be similar, then you can ignore the last paragraphs without comment.

Thanks in advance,
Zn4Ok,
The Maddest and Modest
of Mad Mindless Miners.

If you've got a manifesto and need a place to park it, the internet has a lot of options. You can write a blog, post it on a message board, or even upload it to Pastebin. Zna4Ok chose to use an Imgur album instead. Why? Because the format of his manifesto is a series of very low-quality image files.

The miner believed that his essay urgently needed to be improved. Lots of newbies rely on it, after all.

Zna4Ok's guide to EVE is fairly lengthy and contains some good advice. He encourages newbies to accept responsibility for their mistakes, rather than going into a blubbering rage each time they lose a ship.

Zna4Ok, who has been ganked while autopiloting himself, discourages newbies from using the feature--both because you can avoid ganks and because turtles.

Unfortunately, the miner goes completely off the rails as he transitions into the final third of his piece, which addresses the Code.

Actually, that's a good point about the Caribbean Sea.

Anyway, Zna4Ok is one of those "the Code was a good idea but then its supporters took things too far" types. I'm not entirely sure, but I think he calls our Agents monkeys.

Clearly, this miner has a beef with our Agents. But it's worth pointing out that the only person Zna4Ok could go to for help with revising his manifesto was one of those "sick and not incomplete teenagers".

In the end, though, behind all of the weirdness, we see that Zna4Ok is nothing more than a typical carebear who's upset about losing his Venture. When ganked, the madness of the butterfly was released into the world.

That's content.

Bob Goes Forth, Part 6

Previously, on MinerBumping... Things were looking up for Agent Bob the Fourth. After dealing with numerous unruly miners, Bob saw signs of real progress in the Solitude region. Miners started buying permits one after another. Before long, Bob's wallet was filling with righteous isk.

As we all know, a New Order mining permit is not a license to disobey the Code; just the opposite. So Bob knew he needed to come back and check in on the new permit owners.

A few days later, Bob spotted a permit-owning miner sitting AFK in an asteroid belt. She died, of course.

zozopetal Yazria didn't bother crying about reimbursement. She knew the Code, and she knew she'd broken it.

If zozopetal intended to continue mining, she would need to get better at obeying the Code. Until then, however, she recognized the importance of emergent content in keeping EVE alive.

Bob moved on to the next miner, who immediately offered him 10 million isk. He didn't need any convincing. This "Code" thing was catching on.

For a lot of EVE players, 10 million isk doesn't sound like a lot of money--and it isn't. But highsec miners earn isk very slowly, so the ease with which Bob was able to sell permits attracted attention. So many miners were buying permits that Bob's isk/hr ratio became the envy of everyone in Solitude.

Thanks to the Code, Agent Bob was becoming very powerful indeed. He pondered what to do next. While in a state of deep reflection, Bob noticed a repair cost of 315 isk when he prepared to sell a mining upgrade that he'd looted. Funny coincidence.

...Or was it? Bob noticed the number 315 appearing everywhere he went. This was pretty obviously a sign.

Armed with the wisdom that comes with seeing 315 in random places, Bob set his new course.

It began with a trip to the nearest trade hub. Bob had precisely 315 million isk to spend on equipment for his journey. He would need to choose his purchases carefully.

With effort and some clever negotiating, Bob managed to purchase all the gear he needed. Next stop: Adventure.

To be continued...

No One Can Force You to Cry

Whenever anything happens in highsec, our Agents probably caused it and definitely know about it.

Melissa Mardain reported the loss of an extraordinarily expensive jump freighter. What channel was this? You might guess Anti-Ganking or Gank Intel--but you'd be wrong. This was actually the corp chat for Center for Advanced Studies, one of the NPC corps.

Melissa's jump freighter was indeed a whale. It was highlighted in the most recent Kills of the Week post. The gank was executed by a large fleet from the Gate Tax Collection Agency, a member of the mighty CODE. alliance. More than a dozen Tornadoes were used to score the kill.

Not everyone in an NPC corp is a newbie; people use the unwardeccable NPC corps for all sorts of reasons. And not all NPC corp members are carebears, either. Bounty Bumper was obviously an Agent of the New Order.

The jump freighter gank sparked a productive conversation. Other players wanted to know how such a loss could be avoided. And rather than cursing CODE., Melissa expressed grudging admiration.

Several hours had passed since the gank took place. If Melissa had been enraged by the gank, she'd had plenty of time to cool off. Strangely, it seemed that others in the chat were more bitter about CODE. than Melissa was.

...Which raises an interesting question. How could Melissa, who'd lost over 23 billion isk, have a better attitude than these other carebears?

One of the principal beliefs of the rebels is that our Agents "force" carebears to shed tears. It's not the miners' fault they make inappropriate or EULA-violating comments; they're driven to it by the gankers. Anyone would act that way, they claim.

Agent Bounty knew better. A carebear's attitude is entirely dependent upon the carebear. If someone loses a 23.5 billion isk jump freighter, he can say "good fight"; someone who loses a Venture can scream death threats.

Bounty recognized that Melissa understood EVE far better than the bitter miners in the channel. Granted, Melissa had failed to obey the Code--and it cost her dearly. But in another way, she was far better off than her peers.

After the brief conversation in CAS chat, Melissa decided to write an EVEmail to her gankers:

The rebels scoff, "Do you really expect someone who lost a ship to congratulate their ganker?" Yeah, we do. We have every right to expect it.

As it happened, Bounty and Melissa's main character were in the same system, where Gate Tax Collection Agency member Australian Excellence was active.

The story of the epic gank spread. Melissa realized that although she'd lost a lot of isk, she gained more in content. The storm of Tornadoes was the most exciting thing she'd seen in EVE in a long time.

This incident should be a powerful example to those who lose a ship in the future. Carebears, if you're impolite to our Agents after you lose less than 23.5 billion isk, what's your excuse?

Code Ready Gelhan, Part 22

Previously, on MinerBumping... Mission Ready Mining's CEO, Gai Heiyuu, got into a debate about the Code with Agent Georgia B Dixie. When Gai was forced to admit he'd been taken in by fake news about the Saviour of Highsec being permabanned, it seemed as though nothing would be able to stop the New Order. Then, suddenly, a member of The Marmite Collective surfaced.

Apocriphia was a member of The Marmite Collective, a highsec mercenary alliance. Our Agents had already seen MRM attempt to hire a number of other mercenaries. Did MRM have a contract with every merc in highsec?

Apocriphia was hostile to the mighty CODE. alliance. Yet Gai somehow managed to put his foot in his mouth, insulting the Marmites' leader, Tora Bushido.

Some of the MRM members, such as Patrick Bick and Tyrax Iceheart, continued to sling insults at the New Order in local. Meanwhile, a rift was opening between Gai and the Marmite Collective line member.

When Agent Georgia noticed the squabble intensifying, she stepped back from local. Perhaps their argument would serve the interests of the Code.

Apocriphia made no attempt to hide his disdain for highsec miners. He felt the entire Mission Ready Mining corp was tainted by its association with highsec mining, despite its members' other activities. Gai was miffed. He'd built the sixth-largest corp in EVE but couldn't get any respect from the highsec wardeccer.

(Click to magnify image)

Gai let slip some intel in local: MRM had been forced to choose between hiring The Marmite Collective and its competitor, Vendetta Mercenary Group. MRM chose to go with Vendetta, which had previously tried and failed to stop our Agents from bumping miners in Gelhan.

Apocriphia had started talking in Gelhan local with the intent to throw some shade at CODE. Within minutes, Gai turned him into an enemy. So much for MRM diplomacy.

Now Apocriphia threatened to tell his leader about Gai's gaffe. It seemed that The Marmite Collective would not be helping MRM protect the Gelhan system from Code enforcers.

Apocriphia left Gelhan. After local chat cooled off, Agent Georgia returned to the ice anomaly to bump some miners who had assumed the coast was clear.

Bumping is a powerful method of Code enforcement--and often underestimated. Georgia's bumping was effective enough to make the miners wish our Agent was a ganker instead.

MRM's "defense fleet" was nowhere to be seen--nor were any of the mercs they'd hired. The miners of MRM could only wait for Georgia to leave the system. By their own admission, they were completely at Georgia's mercy.

It was a total defeat for Mission Ready Mining and its thousands of pilots. The siege of Gelhan would continue. And continue, and continue...

To be continued...