Lixiana’s Journey

Editor’s Note: Signaleer Lixiana Vor’shan shares with us this week their experience during the recent Journey of Katia Sae Anniversary Event. I really enjoyed this write-up and I hope you do as well.

Two years ago, Katia Sae completed her epic journey to visit every possible solar system. To mark the anniversary of this legendary achievement, Katia challenged the capsuleers of Signal Cartel to travel the length and breadth of New Eden, recording their travels as they went.

Lixiana Vor’shan

The Journey will be forever Katia’s, but this journey is mine.

My name is Lixiana Vor’shan – and I am a Signaleer.

It began with Solitaire, my beautiful companion for this adventure. I’d watched over her construction, and had only recently seen her finished out in Firewatch red and black. Pacifier-class, swift and agile, she was the perfect choice to carry me across the heavens. With Allison installed and spare towel stowed, I was ready to depart…

Following Katia’s own star charts, I crossed our Caldari homelands with carefree ease. My moment of truth came when I realized that to get into Otsasai I would have to run the gauntlet of capsuleers camping the exit side of the star gate. I’d always avoided these situations before, but this time there was no going around. I opened comms to my fellow Signaleers for advice, and encouragement flowed across the ether to me. Emboldened by the wisdom of my peers, I gave Allison the nod and activated the gate-jump sequence. In a blur I was there, the menacing shapes of hostile ships lighting up my display in a sea of red icons. Remembering my training, I slowed my racing heartbeat and took stock of the situation. There! An avenue of escape – in a single fluid motion I fired up the warp drives and engaged the cloaking device. Solitaire leapt away like lightning, leaving any possible pursuers far behind.

Solitaire at the Katia Sae Monument

Speed and stealth served me well in that escape, but did not come to my rescue in Sotrenzur. I arrived at the ninth planet, and set up my bookmark and image capture of the planet. In doing so, I noticed some Triglavian cruisers and a couple of the big Leshak-class battleships about one hundred klicks away. Interesting to see them here, I thought to myself, but no risk to me sitting cloaked this far away. Hang on, incoming target lock?! That’s impossible! I’m cloaked… wait… no I’m not!!! Beams of ruby light sizzle across my vision, my brave Solitaire coming apart and with it my quest lies in ruins. Death and destruction are a heartbeat away… wait… I’m not dead yet? That’s impossible! A quick glance at my instruments reveals my shield is still at full capacity – the Trigs are somehow missing with every shot. Resignation turns to blind panic, I’m punching every system I have: cloak (no good, still locked up); MWD (no good, they’re still blazing away at me); Allison (she reminds me that I’m a Rocket Man, but that doesn’t help either). Or does it? In a glorious moment of golden revelation I realize my warp drive is still online! “GO!!!” I screamed, a split second later Solitaire answered with a howl of her own as the drive kicked in and we roared our way to safety.

Fallen Capsuller Memorial – Credit: Sensa Skyward

Many, many jumps were to follow, step by step, system by system. Not to say that I didn’t take the occasional detour, such as making a trip to the Fallen Capsuleer Memorial in Molea to help a friend of a fellow Signaleer. I’d never seen it before, but the scale of it was breathtaking, not just the memorial itself, but the sheer number of tributes anchored there too. I read some of the messages as we drifted past, from groups and individuals, some long and some short, some funny and some utterly heartbreaking. All of them poignant reminders of those we have lost, but not forgotten.

A different diversion came late in my journey, when word filtered across the GalNet that a route had been mapped to the wormhole containing the planet Eyjafjallajökull (an important but elusive waypoint on Katia’s challenge). What’s more, the K-Space entry point was only 11 jumps away! I asked Allison to purge our current route and recalculate for our new target. My nerves mounted the closer we got, passing through systems showing signs of recent rapacious activity. After so long in Empire space, the silence of Anoikis was ominous as I imagined cloaked hunters closing in on all sides, ready to kill. As I orbited the burning cinder of the volcanic planet, I was sure the predators could have tracked me by the sound of my heartbeat alone! Thank Bob, today was not my day to die, and before long I was back carving my way towards Hahyil, the one thousand, eight hundred and eightieth star to light my path.

Eyjafjallajökull – Credit: Aldar Roanaok

My list was complete and my logs full. But the journey was not quite complete. Saisio, start point and home system of Katia Sae herself, was calling. After a month of wandering, weary and weather beaten but unbowed and unbroken, Solitaire returned to the light of Katia’s star. My last command on that voyage was perhaps the most simple, yet certainly the most heartfelt: “Home”.

Hugs for a Fellow Capsuleer

Mona Liena

Editor’s Note: Signaleer Mona Liena shares their story this week on a recent visit to the Molea Cemetery. It’s an experience that humbles even the most hardened Capsuleers. I really appreciate the story and hope you will as well. For those that have gone before us… o7

Signal Cartel is not an alt warehouse, so in order to graduate to a full member, one is expected to write an application which shows how you’re engaged in exploration and the corporation. As I started summing up how I took part in corp life in my second month, one event stood above the rest: My first visit to Molea.

Credit: Gillian Venari

One afternoon as I was exploring Triglavian space in order to farm neutral standings, a fellow Signal Cartel member called for a hugs fleet in chat. The goal was to fly a ship fitted with a festival launcher in order to try and cheer up a fellow pilot. Often I have a hard time changing my plans, but ever since joining Signal Cartel I’ve been trying to live more in the moment. Unfortunately, having just used a filament to get into Trig space, I had a fifteen minute timer before I could use an exit filament. Then I’d still need to find my way from a random system to a ship with a festival launcher and actually get to the target system.

Credit: Sensa Skyward

Even if the event sounded like a great experience, I wouldn’t make it in time. Or could I if I really tried? I realized that since I had a clean clone I could take the pod express to Zoohen, grab a free T1 exploration frigate from our Corp contracts, some festive gear provided by our Quartermasters, and use the Gatecamp Check to plan the route to have a fighting chance to make it there in one piece and on time.

Credit: Sensa Skyward

I managed to reach Molea in time and I waited for our hugs target in space along with a fellow Signaleer. I had never been in the system, so I had no idea what to expect. I only knew that I was there to try and cheer up a person who had lost someone dear to them in real life. When our target arrived in system, we fleet warped to greet them – The Capsuleer Cemetery. My first reaction: It’s HUGE. Then I realized it’s made out of mostly hundreds of different containers. As we bombarded our target with hugs (fireworks), I read through some of the messages on the containers. There were plenty of funny or random messages, but there were also a ton of messages dedicated to real life people who were dear to the capsuleers who had anchored the containers.

Credit: Sensa Skyward

Reading all those messages made me feel connected to people I had never met in real life, and I grasped why our fellow member wanted to bring our target here. Being there, trying to cheer our target up in that location, felt like one of those once in the lifetime experiences, and I was glad to take part in it.

Around a week later, I noticed a new corp mail. We get them quite often, as it’s the policy of the Corporation to commend our active members for their efforts including e.g. Thera scanning and wormhole rescue team. This time around, I noticed the mail was about the event I had attended myself. The Signaleer member who called for the hugs fleet had let our leadership know what had happened. All the pilots who answered the call for the hugs fleet and managed to make it to Molea received a medal that said “For actions exemplifying our ideals of friendship.”

I love Signal Cartel.

Credit: Sensa Skyward

Journey of Katia Sae Anniversary Event

Henrique Arnolles

March 9th marked the two year anniversary for completing my journey to explore all of New Eden, both known and wormhole space, all done without a single ship loss. Signal Cartel, my New Eden family, played a big part in that towards the end of my trek. To celebrate the occasion this year, I decided to run an event for my fellow Signaleers having no idea if anyone would really be interested in participating or not. The event would be based around recreating portions (or all) of my journey for the known space systems as well as finding the only named planet in wormhole space, Eyjafjallajökull. Points would be earned for each system visited based on difficulty with bonus points awarded for doing systems within regions in the same sequence I had done, taking screenshots, completing a region, and not losing a ship along the way.

Prizes ranged from fitted ships based on what I had flown during my journey, ship skins both common and rare, iskies with bonuses to be the first for reaching a tier, and a chance for some Signal Cartel swag in the form of a few challenge coins that I had left over from the Great Hunt two years ago. The prize offerings came out to over 10 billion isk and that doesn’t even include the skins of which some I have no price for.

Aeterna Noctis

To say I wasn’t prepared for the response is an understatement! You’ll see from the statistics I’m about to show just how well it went over. For a Corp that runs around 400 active members (we do keep our roster clean), I think the results are astounding. Signaleers were asked to enable event tracking via Allison our Signal Cartel co-pilot which is where most of these stats come from. The event ran from February 1st to March 9th and I had five tiers for different prize packages that were handed out.

Aldar Roanaok

We had 102 Signaleers that had Allison enabled for event tracking, of those there were 24 that submitted entries for the event for prizes. Together they had visited over 26,000 unique pilot/system entries, covering 97 regions, 7,141 systems, flying 305 unique ships of 64 different types, and capturing over 11,000 images!!! They covered 100% of known space and even though wormhole space wasn’t entirely part of the event other than trying to find Eyjafjallajökull for big bonus points, they covered 78% of wormhole space. Did they find the only named planet in wormhole space? Yes, multiple times and I think just about everyone that wanted to find it for the bonus points were able to get it.

Hanto Karobi

Now for some event highlights. On day one, February 1st, tiers 1 and 2 were reached by one Signaleer. Remember there was a bonus for being the first to reach a tier. On February 2nd a different Signaleer was the first to reach tier 3 and went on to reach tier 4 on February 3rd, and went on to be the first to reach tier 5 on February 6th. I’ll brag on this particular Signaleer in a bit, but let’s see how the tiers broke out. So, within the first week of the event, all tiers had been reached. I wasn’t sure what to expect, like I had mentioned, I didn’t know if there’d be any interest. Now I was thinking I didn’t make it hard enough, lol. In the end, we had eight Signaleers earn tier 2, four that reached tier 3, eight that reached tier 4, and lastly four that made the final tier 5. (Not the final frontier 😉 )

Kyew Mohc

So I’m going to brag for a moment on one particular Signaleer. Total possible points that could be earned were 20,243. That’s if you maxed out the bonus points, which I felt was asking too much and not many, if any, would go for it. The highest tier, 5, I had set at 5,000 points which seemed difficult, but achievable by the most dedicated and as it turns out with four reaching that tier, it turned out about right. I think I had tiers 1 and 2 too close to each other, as everyone nailed both quickly and easily. Three of the four that reached the highest tier were between 5 and 6 thousand points.

Qifara Raholan

“Speedy”, as I have nicknamed him now, hit over 17,000 points! He visited every system in known space, a fair number of the systems within the regions in the same sequence I had done them, taking a screenshot in a fair number of systems as well, and didn’t lose a single ship!!! He also found and secured the bonus points for Eyjafjallajökull in wormhole space. All of this in 15 days, which has to be a known space, no ship loss, record. Never did I think someone would rise to the challenge to this extent and I’m just blown away and honored to see this Signaleer rise to the occasion. Amazing work, well done!!!

Sparkler Cadelanne

Unrelated to the event, but certainly in the same spirit, we had an end of event celebration and hugs fleet. As part of that, we visited system Motsu on our way to Saisio. Motus is the last system one of our Signaleers needed for his alt character Rhysio Typho to complete their journey of navigating ALL of New Eden, known and wormhole space, all on their own!!! Unfortunately ship losses were suffered along the way, but still an amazing journey, especially with no corp support. A request was submitted to CCP to validate their effort and we’re waiting to hear back, so hopefully that can be validated and confirmed. It all started in the system Cistuvaert  in March of 2015 and finished today, March 14th, 2021! Just amazing to see others take on this journey of exploration. Congratulations to Rhysio and so glad we could share in the celebration of visiting your last system.

Rhysio Typho

Of course, this event would not have been possible without the generous support and contributions made by the following:

  • Signal Cartel, Zelden Aurilen, and indirectly CCP – EVE-Scout and Signal Cartel won the EVE Awards 2020 Best Alliance and we were rewarded with a generous supply of the EVE Partner skins which were the “mystery” skins from the drawings for each tier.
  • Signaleer Igaze for skins, and various ship hulls.
  • Signaleer Sloopy Noopers for the Stratios, Stratios Skin, and various ship hulls.
  • Signaleer Tamayo for “FIRST” isk donations, skins, and selected rare skins.
  • Our Celebration Fleet FC and Scouts:
    • Bernard Lachapelle
    • Captain Crinkle
    • Katherine Skysong
    • Null Flare

Lastly, I wanted to share this highlight, Signaleer Dr Strike produced a video of their journey in the event. This is really awesome to see and mesmerizing to watch. Check it out.

Quotes

Tamayo

“Thank you for this great opportunity to participate in the event!”

“Thank you again for coming up with such a wonderful idea as this contest. I am running around in the brand new Buzzard that you gave me, it fly’s so well!”

“I loved this event because it gave me back the feeling of excitement I had missed for a long while. Felt so weird when I realized that I played this game for so long and never took the time to appreciate the beauty of it.”

“Thank you again for creating this, it was fun and exciting!”

Troubled Watters

“Was great fun and illuminating. The distractions, rigor to hit every planet/system and then general hostilities bubbling everywhere puts your run into a new light.”

“Thank you so much for running this event, it’s been a very special experience taking part.”

Lixiana Vor’shan

The Fedo Liberation Army Needs You!

Editor’s Note: Every once in a while we like to post some of our fleet AAR’s (After Action Report) so folks can get a glimpse of life in Signal Cartel. This one had a bit of a fun twist brought to us by Sir Fiddle Sticks. I hope you enjoy reading his call to action and after action report! – Katia Sae

Call to Action!

Sir Fiddle Sticks

We have been very fortunate to have some exiting content provided to us over the years by the residents of Ienakkamon, they have provided many of us with spectacular rapid disassembly of hulls big and small! I for one will be forever grateful to them for all their selfless effort!

However this has resulted in innumerable Fedoes being stuck on the Solitaire with no prospect of rescue. This is an intolerable state of affairs that must be corrected, we can no longer standby knowing that hundreds of little Bobs family and friends are left marooned.

Fedo

To remedy this situation and thank the residents of Ienakkamon I propose, dare I say, an ingenious rescue plan, a plan of singular genius, audacity and cunning!

But for even the most brilliant plan to have a chance of success, I will need the assistance of all the dedicated, talented, and daring Signal Cartel pilots. Failure will result in the brilliant destruction of the fleet, while success will guarantee the glorious destruction of the fleet and the possible liberation of a great many Fedoes now and in the future.


After Action Report

War plans can be formed in many different ways, ways which embrace a myriad of tactics and philosophies. But however brilliant the plan , however great the genius forming a plan of war, they have one thing in common. They are all just destined to justify the phrase: “No Plan survives the first shot !

It was thus with our endeavor, no sooner had our brave cohort assembled and the plan was launched, that we ran into our first and greatest obstacle. One which was absolutely beyond our control, but for a few disinterested locals partaking in factional warfare, the field of battle was deserted. How were we to pay our respects and light up the antagonists of our little fable? How were we to impress upon them our great appreciation for their tireless toil to keep New Eden a vibrant colorful place that it is? We could not and as such had to change our approach to an alternate tack.

Refitting all available ships with entosis links we set to the task of freeing as many Fedoes as time allowed. Some of our fleet had difficulty in snagging Fedoes and mostly collected junk, but others managed to pull Fedoes to safety with the greatest of skill. To which end, the rescue of thirty Fedoes was achieved! A number which far exceeded our greatest expectations.

My personal thanks to all who assisted in this worthiest of causes!

But wait, that is not all! While we would have been happy to pack up after our allotted time and head back with a justified sense of accomplishment, lo and behold like specters out of the night, our “friends” appeared on d-scan and before we could react they landed on grid to perform their celebrated duties as the Guardians of the Solitaire.

Springing into action, every remaining Fedo was rushed to safety and then the fun began. All possible launchers were targeted and a spectacular pyrotechnic barrage was implemented! Implemented so successfully that after our loss of a mere six ships our new friends could do nothing more than recall their drones, admire the show, and after a time departed the system. Departed with what I imagine a shake of their heads and a newly found appreciation of the uniqueness of the sandbox that we all fly in.

For those who are new to Signal Cartel, this is one of the best examples I can offer to the effectiveness of our credo and its inspiration and guidance in approaching seemingly impossible situations.

Hail the Mighty Hugs Fleet!

Sir Fiddle Sticks

Shout out and thanks to Knoerp N’beekie for the video below!

Promotion

Editor’s Note: Signal Cartel (SC) is an EvE Online counter-culture in more ways than one. One of our motto’s is “be the content you wish to see”. In other words, leadership is not expected to provide content for its members, but rather members are expected to step up if there’s something they’d like to see. Likewise, members are expected to request promotions, training, and other needs as they qualify or want. I should also mention that Signal Cartel takes advantage of the in game medals nominated by members for members as well as awarded by leadership to members for their efforts and hard work.

In this particular request for promotion, a new member of Signal Cartel – Geek Explo, who’s an executive of a large healthcare company in the US in real life, shared how SC has impacted him since joining. Talking with him in Alliance chat, he mentioned he’s used SC as an example in a doctorate paper about organizational leadership. Basically saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, having a strong culture around behavioral expectations drives success. In the case of Signal Cartel, the Credo really helps to drive the mission. So, from an organizational leadership perspective, holding people accountable to behavior, giving them the tools, and mentorship to be successful will lead to better outcomes toward the mission.

Also, what’s not to like in his bio! 😉 “Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that’s life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever.” – Ray Bradbury

Note: Some wording edited for clarity of terms and what not’s. 😉


Promotion
From: Geek Explo
Sent: 2020.07.04 13:07
To: Thrice Hapus,

Thrice o7,

Geek Explo

I’ve been with Signal Cartel now for over a month. I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with the culture of the entire SC community. I’ve played Eve for several years, and in a past life have been in Null Sec, Wormhole, and High Sec corps. None of them felt the way that SC does. It might just be because I’m partial to the exploration life and that was never a focus in those corps, but I think part of it is also that SC really tries to make a difference for good in Eve.

I mentioned in Discord last week that I have played MMO games for over 20 years. Not once have I ever been publicly awarded for the time and effort I have put into the game. Something as simple as a medal for sowing is an incredibly powerful recognition for effort and dedication (and more satisfying than ISK). I really appreciate you having that be a part of what SC is about. One last thing on that: I run a large healthcare company in the US, and while I understand the value of culture and recognition, I often times lose focus on this. Because of my experience this month with SC, I have put a renewed focus with my team on employee engagement and recognition.

Last thing: I have sown 7 rescue caches and tended 263 others since joining. I love this activity and want to be a part of its growth and leadership moving forward. I am available for whatever Igaze needs with this division of SC.

I’m asking for a promotion not because I need access to hangars and free ships, but I want to get my hauler alt into the alt corp to start helping with running things. I’ve been very fortunate to not have to worry about ISK, I just like to do activities that help others.

Thanks again for leading a great online community, I know how hard that is and the time it takes to manage all this stuff (and you aren’t getting paid to do it). Thanks for being awesome and making a difference.

Geek


From: Thrice Hapus
Sent: Jul 5, 2020, 10:27:00 AM
To: Geek Explo
Subject: Re: Promotion

Thrice Hapus

Your application for C1 is technically a day early, but I think we can let that slide. 🙂

This is a terrific email and I am very moved to learn that your time in SC is having some real-world impact. It has been the same for me in so many ways. I am by far a better human being today than I was 4-5 years ago, and my time in SC has played a role in that development.

Would you mind if I shared your email to me on our blog and/or the EVE forums? This is the sort of thing that I love to share with the world and our wider EVE community: This game makes a difference IRL, all the time. It is far more than a mere escape from reality for a few hours each week. it is more of a hobby, at least, and an actual life-changing experience, at best!

Thanks again for being part of Signal Cartel. And welcome to C1!

Thrice


Of course permission was given and here we are! Thanks Geek Explo for sharing your story, it’s great to see how EvE is Real. <3

Zoohen Fireworks

Editor’s Note: This is an after action report (AAR) by Signaleer Sloopy Noopers for an in corp Fireworks event held on March 28th, 2020.

Sloopy Noopers

When times are dark the best defense we have is each other, and what better way to celebrate this than to get together and make a proper racket! This was the idea at the core of the fireworks in Zoohen on the 28th of March. No one was getting a send off, there was no national holiday or historical event to mark, it was simply a celebration of the companionship we can offer through this unique community.

I started my day by stocking up on supplies and purchasing a ship for the finale of the event. Using a number of alts to haul these through High Security space, a chore which took considerably longer than expected (more on that later), I deposited the required goods at our offices in Zoohen.

The plan was to make a ship go boom towards the end of the event. With this in mind the ship in question had to be of appropriate size and pretty enough to mark this particular celebration. I’d decided that this should be a battleship, what with these being the biggest ships available in High Sec, so I opted for an Armageddon. These are, in my opinion, a very attractive looking ship and I had a couple of swanky skins knocking about in my hanger.

What this button? Sporting the Lava Core skin!
Katherine Skysong

Having not flown anything larger than a cruiser since my mission running days, long before I joined Signal Cartel, I’d forgotten how slow and cumbersome these ships were, a situation made worse by my decision to haul this through over twenty systems using a very, very low skilled alpha alt. The journey was painful!

Having extracted myself from J-Space for the first time in eight weeks, I clone jumped to Zoohen, and prepared for the festivities. I always enjoy the build up to an event, watching corp members slowly filling up local and the last minute planning is strangely exciting. Katherine Skysong was good enough to set up a fleet for the event. After begging up some extra supplies from some lovely Signaleers, it was time to go!

As I undocked I saw my overview was already populated with a number of eager Signaleers who were getting the show started. Eager to get into the thick of it myself, I set a course to orbit my corp mates. However, having completely forgotten how slow an unfitted battleship actual was, I started my crawl towards the party at a speed comparable to an asthmatic slug and promptly got caught in the station structure. After some off-comms, family unfriendly language, I managed to cajole my lead footed ride free of the station and headed out with all launchers blazing!

It wasn’t long before my overview was a sea of purple fleet-mates and the fireworks were coming thick and fast. As I crawled my way further out into space more and more Signaleers appeared and I quickly found myself targeted multiple times. Someone decided to web my ship, as if I needed slowing down any further! Effectively immobile I took the opportunity to take my time getting images.

After around an hour of bangs, whizzes, and chatting in comms, it seemed time to blow my Armageddon and free myself into a more agile ship. I jettisoned what was left of my fireworks, set the two minute timer, and readied myself to pop out in the Navitas I’d stowed in my frigate escape bay. Sadly I didn’t catch the exact moment my ship blew, but below is the last photo as the explosions started.

Finally as the celebrations came to a conclusion and people started signing off from comms, I headed for home and fired off a few final pretties.

This gathering was a massive amount of fun and a very welcome distraction from the events currently consuming everyday life. It was a pleasure to see so many fellow Signaleers together, a rare event due to the nature of exploration. Hopefully more events will come in the near future to bring us all together again!

Lowsec Incident and Its Associated Diplomacy: A Noob’s Perspective

Editor’s Note: This week we’re featuring Signaleer peike with a noob’s perspective on our Credo and a Lowsec incident.

peike

Hello fellow Signal Cartel members! I wanted to take some time (out of the game?) to share a recent experience I had in the low security system of Vecamia; a 0.4 system. But first, a little bit about my EvE background.

I began playing EvE Online back in 2010. My first encounter with an aggressive force was with two Aussie gankers. As it turned out, we became fast friends, both in game and in real life. I was a miner by both trade and race and they weren’t, simple as that. However, I soon discovered I loved being a ‘Care Bear’ and yet, I had this overwhelming desire to explore our galaxy. So, being the Noob that I was, I decided to take my nice Navitas into the unknown.

Navitas

The date was 2010 June 14 and after a wonderful and delightful trip, I ended up in a ‘wonderful’ little system called 8KE-YS, a -0.05 system in Etherium Reach. Needless to say, as soon as I emerged from the gate, I was vaporized in a flash. We all know the routine; warp scrambled, followed by endless pounding until there was, quite simply, nothing left. Even my capsule was destroyed, all in under a minute; like that, in a flash, I was gone, only to re-spawn in my home base of Cistuvaert in Verge Vendor. That was my last adventure into the unknown for a very long time.

Fast forward to today, on a routine cargo run to pick up 100 new core probe launchers from Tarta in Concord Territory to Shera, which is part of the Amarr Empire. The route would take 18 jumps via Highsec, but I decided to take the short route by way of Vecamia, only 4 jumps. As I laid in my course and clicked the jump button I thought how cool it was that I’m restocking my supply of probe launchers for stranded pilots in the unknown sections of wormhole space. Moreover, how wonderful it was to be part of an organization with such a rich history as Signal Cartel and EvE-Scout.

As I approached the Vecamia gate I noticed a ship with a solid-red colored box containing a little pirate banner inside of it, sitting not too far from the gate. It was then that I was beginning to realize that this trip might not have a very pleasant outcome. Indeed, I had already selected the jump button as I left the DED facility at Tarta, so there was no way to abort the jump, even though I attempted in vain to do so. This is the point when your mind begins to accelerate and a million thoughts run simultaneously. Indeed, I thought it was one of MECH 1000‘s crew (Vecamia pretty much belongs to them) and MECH and I go back a bit; he often doesn’t bother me unless I do something stupid. I often test ship fittings and weapons in ‘his’ system by Ratting the NPC pirates that live there.

On the other side of the Vecamia gate I did a quick D-Scan. There were ships that I did not recognize as belonging to MECH 1000’s crew and a quick look at Local comms indicated others were in the system. I realized that I only had one shot at getting through – hit the jump button for the next gate and hope that I can cloak before they target me. However, the campers were strategically placed around me and I had little hope. Indeed my Viator, the USC Shadow Fox, met its fate. Perhaps miraculously, my little pod did not. Indeed, the pod seemingly executed my last command to jump to the gate that leads to the 0.5 system of Cleyd. Upon entering the system, I realized that there was no reason to proceed with the mission since the Shadow Fox had been reduced to a pile of twisted aluminum and composite fragments. So, I limped back through the Cleyd/Vecamia gate and docked up at the nearest station; back into the system that I lost my beloved Shadow Fox.

Viator

I sat in the station, pondering my options and feeling a bit sorry for myself for losing my ship while also feeling a certain self-loathing for trying to save time by jumping through Lowsec during a high-risk time frame, I knew better. In any event, I began plotting my next course of action; how to get back to Tarta without getting killed. There were two possibilities, the first, cross back through the Vecamia/Tarta gate and hope that the campers had left (they hadn’t). The second option would be to plot and execute a course that would take me from Vecamia to Jita to Tarta. This route would take approximately 30 jumps and with Signal Cartel’s current War-Dec status this could be as perilous as simply attempting to jump back though the Vecamia/Tarta gate. There was also a third option, one that doesn’t seem as realistic as the other options; namely, to shut down for the day and remain docked until I could safely get out. While I was contemplating these options, it was then that the first strange event happened.

Suddenly, A private comm sprang to life, ‘would you like to accept a private conversation’ or whatever it states. Figuring that this was my killer’s chance to gloat and taunt me about his victory, I decided to accept figuring that I might be able to plead with him to let me pass through the gate unscathed. Pleading is something that I don’t relish in the slightest, however in the world of diplomacy, sometimes it’s the only sane option. I reluctantly clicked ‘Accept.’

Surprisingly, (I was truly shocked) the following message lit up my screen (names have been redacted for security and privacy reasons):

XXXX > Hey we didn’t realize you were EVE-Scout until after you popped. I have nothing but respect for you guys. Would you allow me to SRP a portion of your ship as a way of showing respect?

peike > Thanks! No partial needed. If you want you can make a donation to Eve-Scout. It was a good fight. And remember, if you ever get trapped in Wormhole space, give us a shout.

XXXX > I insist man, I make it a point to NOT shoot you guys.

XXXX > I feel pretty terrible about it tbh

Johnny-Splunk

At this point, I wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand, I was amazed that this pilot, a pilot who destroyed my ship and almost killed me, was apologizing, let along offering to help rebuild the Shadow Fox through a reparation, I thought WOW! On the other hand, are EvE-Scouts even allowed to accept such a reparation? There seems to be a very narrow interpretation between what is, and isn’t, allowed with regard to the Credo on many issues. Thus, I decided to reach out on the Alliance comm to Eve-Scout’s seniors to confer with them and see what is, or is not, allowed. To my amazement, the person who responded to my hail was none other than, Johnny Splunk. He replied, ‘yep’ it’s okay to accept such a reparation.

However, when I returned to accept the offer, my terminator was gone and the comm channel closed. I thought to myself, wow, if only I had accepted, or at the very least, asked him to please hold on a second while I checked. I wondered if I had angered him or, as we sometimes say in America, ‘dissed’ (street slang for disrespecting someone) him for not accepting. Had I made a new enemy? My answer would quickly be answered, at least in part.

Suddenly, my private comm sprang to life once again, this time though, it wasn’t from my terminator, rather it was from MECH 1000:

MECH 1000 > o/
MECH 1000 > Kill: * (Ashimmu)

peike > Hello Mech 1000

MECH 1000 > Kill: * (Loki)
MECH 1000 > hello
MECH 1000 > after they killed you

peike > They didn’t get the pod. Only the ship, this time.
peike > it was a good fight.

MECH 1000 > well, you can feel redeemed ! lol they lost a lot more
MECH 1000 > o/
MECH 1000 > GL

peike > I wondered what happened to them. They disappeared.

After an analysis of the situation via zKillboard, it became clear that MECH 1000 hadn’t actually killed my terminator, rather, he killed part of my terminator’s alliance team. This actually made me rather sad. In a strange sense, I am appreciative of MECH 1000’s revenge on my behalf, but it was unsolicited. Of course our universe is a very dog eat dog world. Nevertheless, I am very sorry for what happened to my terminator. In other, respects, I feel that I was indirectly responsible for part of his alliance’s demise.

Why you ask? Well, this is where diplomacy comes into play and why we must very carefully attempt to study all variables. Indeed, this is one reason our Credo is written in the manner that it is. Every decision that we make has multiple possible outcomes; it is as though our lives are but one stop in a massive algorithm through which all flows. Consider the following questions:

  • Did my returning to Vecamia have any bearing on the outcome?
  • Did the conversation that was initiated between my terminator and myself create the opportunity for his alliance’s partial demise?
  • Did my delay in answering him, while I was checking with Johnny allow for the attack?

The answer is, maybe to some extent. It’s true that he initiated the conversation between he and I. It’s also true that MECH 1000’s crew doesn’t play favorites with anyone, including me. One could argue that my terminator was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just as I was shortly before. The moral of this story is that for every action there is a consequence. This is one of the main reasons why Signal Cartel remains neutral in the galaxy.

Fly Safe Everyone.

Pax,
~peike

Signal Cartel/EvE-Scout

A Note from a Former Signaleer

Editor’s Note: Thrice Hapus, our CEO, received this email and wanted to share it (with Felippe’s permission). This served as an excellent reminder of the long-term impact a corporation can have on its members, even after they move on to experience other parts of New Eden.

To all who help train and mentor new players within this great game, We salute you! o7

Dear Thrice,

I write to share my joy. This evening I completed my first Silent Battleground.

Felippe en Distel

I’ve been jumping into wormholes for quite a while, and I wondered whether I’d ever see one, but now I have. It was in a Class 5 shattered system ( J004998 ) that I entered from Syndicate space, and I just barely scanned it down with a probe strength of 104.2. Actually, I almost didn’t try. As I was scanning down the hole, I saw a Buzzard and then a Draugur on d-scan, and having never even known the Trigs have a command Dessie, I had resigned myself to moving on to the next hole. Probably those folks are running the Silent Battleground, let them do their thing. But… I had my probes out already, might as well see if I can get the Battleground to 100%, right?

So using a cube arrangement and after some fine adjustment of the probes, I managed to scan it down. And since I scanned it down, I figured I might as well warp in cloaked, take a look. I had never even seen the thing before. So I warped in cloaked… and there were all the cans, untouched. Now I get paranoid. What about those other ships on dscan? Are they hunting explorers? The Buzzard is probably paper tanked, but I’m worried about the Dessie. Do I take the chance? I looked at my empty hold, and that made my decision easier. Worst case, I’ve got a spare Blackglass and Zeugma waiting for me in GE-8JV. If I get ambushed, at least I gave it a shot.

And for the next 35 minutes, I was wired, hacking cans and spamming d-scan, just waiting for the ambush. What I didn’t know beforehand is that some of the loot is bulky, 10m3 a piece. Around 15 minutes in, I had to start making decisions about what I could fit in my hold, and Kenny Rogers starts singing in my head (“you never count your money while you’re sittin at the table / there’ll be time enough for counting when the dealin’s done”). And I keep chugging through the cans. I remember the wiki page saying that 3 explorers can finish the site before it despawns, and I’ll be proud if I can finish half. My phone buzzes, I turn it over so I don’t get distracted, and I keep spamming d-scan.

Maybe these are the kind of explorer hunters that let you finish a site, and then blap you. Maybe I should leave a can unhacked and warp off. But what kind of twisted person waits 35 minutes for someone to finish the site? And if they had the skills to scan it down, they would probably be running it themselves. So I hack the last can, then go back and grab a few more datacores I had jettisoned, so that my hold is completely full now. Before I warp off, I cloak up, pump up my graphics settings and snap a few pictures and decide I need to share my joy.

And I know that I would have never been able to do this if not for my time in Signal Cartel. Here I am with proper skills, experience, and equipment to pull this off. So I must express my profound gratitude to you and the other Signaleers with whom I’ve exchanged knowledge and with whom I share the spirit of exploration.

As I write, I’m still cloaked up in the wormhole, my fear that someone is camping one or more of the exits (only 3 ways out) gradually fading. Maybe I’ll try the Low Sec exit and hope it’s something pleasant like Vecamia. I suppose you’ll be able to tell the outcome from my killboard in the morning.

Yours in space,

Felippe en Distel

How Coasters became Content in EvE

It was sometime in late February 2018 when I sat in my office at work and got annoyed by the coffee circles on my desk and on papers scattered there. I started to search the web for coasters but could not find any which satisfied my special needs and suddenly I got an idea.

I wanted coasters with the Signal Cartel Alliance logo on it.

So I started another search to see how I could get custom coasters printed. There were not so many hits when I narrowed the search down to custom shaped coasters, but I finally found a print shop which offered them made out of mousepad material at a reasonable rate. In the next few days I asked Mynxee about the copyright situation of our logo, and a friend of mine helped me to meet the requirements of the print shop since I am really bad with Photoshop stuff and the requirement was to have a 1pt pink line along the cutting border.

After a few days I had everything in place and had to decide about the number of coasters to order. The costs were roughly 10€ for a professional checking my image for problems (which was really necessary because I needed three tries to get it right), 10€ for cleaning the machine after printing, and 0.7€ for each coaster. With the basic costs in mind, I decided to order 50 pieces so the price for a single one was in a reasonable range.

Now came the next thing – what would I do with 50 coasters where I needed just a few myself? A Signal Cartel event where these coasters could be handed out to my fellow corpmates!

I thought about what kind of event I would like to see myself and maybe even something different as well. Since we are Signal Cartel and do things differently, I thought about creating a group event where nobody can really win but everybody can participate, like our ESRC and SAR division. Since we already have some ESRC competitions and events, I focused on SAR and came up with the idea of an orchestrated rescue of somebody. Later it turned out that this somebody was me, and I would be kind of locked out of my own story most of the time – haha!

I reached out to Thrice Hapus since my favorite Signal Cartel video is the one about our ESRC division. (It’s so exciting to hear „Base, this is Thrice checking in…“) I only asked who did all the sound and video bits and pieces and wondered if I could get some help from that end. But as soon as I told Thrice about the idea, he explained that the one year anniversary of ESRC was about to come up in March and he was looking for an event to be held at that time. We pulled A Dead Parrot into the story a few days after first contact, and from then on, we chatted daily on Discord, had a few voice calls, and started to work out the story together.

So that’s how content gets created in EvE!

Happy Third Birthday, Signal Cartel!

Signal Cartel turns three years old in a few days. To my delight and amazement, we are not just surviving but thriving despite playing EVE in a very different way from most everyone else.

A Brief History. Johnny Splunk and G8keeper, who co-founded the EvE-Scout corp when Thera was introduced to the game, approached me about serving as CEO for an exploration corp based on the principles of peaceful exploration and what is now our Credo. Looking for something different to do in New Eden and knowing them from having worked as a Thera scout for a short time, I said yes. After a lot of intense preliminary work to get our ducks in a row, Signal Cartel was founded on 2015.01.20 and officially open for business on 2015.01.31. Our alliance, EvE-Scout Enclave, was formed on 2015.01.23 to house the two corps and our logistics corp, EvE-Scout Logistics. In the interest of administrative simplicity, we are a closed alliance which does not accept other corps.

This past weekend, we enjoyed our Third Birthday Fleet, planned and FC’d by the remarkable Johnny Splunk (watch his Twitch channel for exploration adventures, quirky humor, and a great community) on his well known alt Carrie Frog. About 50 of us formed up in Thera, then departed in our signature swarm of Griffins, fitted with hugs (festival launchers and fireworks/snowballs) and ECM (for self defense). Destination: Lanngisi, with the FC expertly guiding our new players about fleet protocols and mechanics along the way.

Photo by Lucas Ballard

Of course, we announced ourselves and our birthday messages in Local at every jump, and when we could, “hugged” folks on the gate with our fireworks and snowballs. I was kept busy during the entire fleet doing random draws of fleet member names to give away many excellent items donated by our members. Among the items were Asteros, implants, Geckos, ISK, Stratioses, Spectral Shift and other SKINs, exploration modules, a fitted Tengu, and even a fully fitted Chimera!!!

Once in Lanngisi, we were instructed to entosis the new Project Discovery monument there. This yielded various items and our FC assisted folks as they puzzled out what the information we gleaned from these items could mean. (Some of us already knew what this was about, but no spoilers ruined it for those who didn’t.)

Photo by Lucas Ballard

Eventually the puzzle revealed our next destination. Being in low sec and requiring a route of several low sec systems, scouts were deployed and travel was much more tightly managed by our FC to ensure that everyone arrived safely. As  often happens to our fleets, it appeared we were being tailed by someone, presumably to inform a gate camp further along our route. We did encounter a few gate camps, but our FC provided calm guidance to our nervous newer players. We arrived at our destination relatively intact (I think we lost one or two people to campers but those folks soon reshipped and caught back up with us).

Upon our arrival, the FC warped us to a landmark and directed us to entosis the structure there. As we landed on grid, we were delighted to see an Astrahus bearing our alliance logo, which factored into a strategy for entosising relatively safely in this low sec system. Those who could not entosis spent the time regaling us with fireworks and snowballs,  checking out our Astrahus, and taking pictures.

Photo by Razorien

But our FC had something even more exciting planned. When our entosising tasks were done, he hinted at next steps in solving the puzzle we were working on. Then everyone’s attention was directed to our freeported Astrahus, where Johnny Splunk himself undocked in an Erebus, a Titan class ship. There was shock and awe on comms, especially among our many new players who’d never seen such a thing in game before. The Erebus had been donated by our long-time member Dinic, who amazingly revealed later that he had earned the entire cost of the ship from exploration activities! Such beautiful synergy!

Photo by Aamish MacTavish

Our FC informed us we would be bridged to another system, then explained how bridging works and instructed everyone in what to do when the bridge went up. The bridging went fairly smoothly, with most of the fleet getting through on the first go. One or two people had glitches but finally made it through subsequent bridges. Once we were all in the destination system — at yet another EvE-Scout Enclave Astrahus! — our FC provided more hints and guidance for solving the next step in the puzzle. At that point the fleet had been going for about three hours so it was decided to call it and leave everyone to finish up the rest of the puzzle on their own. If they manage to do so, they will be have everything they need to build their own Neural Lace ‘Blackglass’ Net Intrusion 920-40 implant (spoiler alert; don’t click the link if you want to solve the puzzle for yourself!), which offers substantial buffs when used in conjunction with a ‘Zeugma’ Integrated Analyzer.

We celebrated with a mass display of hugs on the Astrahus, while several of us shared on comms their feelings about the day’s fleet experience and their experience in Signal Cartel. For myself and Johnny as leaders of Signal Cartel, these comments were so heart-warming. It is extremely fulfilling to make an idea real in EVE and to grow a community of like-minded pilots who have both a sustaining mission and a cultural focus. As I tell my members, though: we are all torchbearers for the Signal Cartel way of life. Our light is burning brighter than ever and I am humbled and honored every day by the good work and solidarity of our dedicated pilots. So, to them I say thank you and here’s to another three years!

Enjoy more fabulous fleet pictures captured by Aamish MacTavish,  Lucas Ballard, Razorien, and Tamayo.