Childsplay 2006 - a great way to support your local or not so local hospital.
We’re donating this year, and I’d love it if you guys could join in too.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Like their frigates, the Minmatar Cruisers feature a mix of abilities like drone bays and missle launchers. They favour their projectile weaponry and their shields. Most of them are also pretty fast for their class in comparison to the other factions.

Bellicose - This Cruiser is a multipurpose combat vessel. She has a good drone bay (40m3) a solid mix of launcher (3) and turret (3) slots, good slot layout (5,4,3) has a reasonable turn of speed (215m/s) good shields and average armour. At Minmatar Cruiser II and considering she gives bonuses to target painters and medium projectile turret rate of fire, she makes a good escort which is not too hard to fly.

Rupture - First off the Rupture is slow for a Minmatar vessel (200m/s) but considering how powerful this crusier is, thats ok. with superb slot layout (6,3,5), 3 launcher hardpoints, 4 turret hardpoints, a not insignificant 30m3 drone bay, excellent shields, average armour and bonuses to medium projectile turret firing speed and damage, this ship should lay waste to anything that gets too close. At Minmtara Cruiser II though it will take a bit of practice to get the hang of.

Scythe - The Scythe is the easiest Cruiser to fly (Minmatar Cruiser I) she’s also the multipurpose industrial cruiser. She should not be considered an easy target though. With small drone bay (5m3), 2 launcher hardpoints, 3 turret hardpoints and enough hislots (5) to fit them all, this ship can give most pirates a bloody nose. AT 215m/s she’s not exactly slow either. Her general slot layout of 5,3,3 gives her some flexibility and with bonuses to mining laser yield and tracking links (both in range and general bonus).

Stabber - The Stabber is the scaled up version of the Slasher. Fast for a cruiser (235m/s) with bonuses leaning towards Medium Projectile firing speed and max velocity. Slot layout is high heavy at 6,3,3 with 2 launcher and 4 turret hardpoints. She has a small drone bay as well (5m3) and pretty good shields and average armour. AT Minmatar Crusier II she’s also reasonable to fly!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Minmatar ships favour shields and projectile weaponry; they also hold the fastest ships in the game. Pretty much the diametric opposite of their arch-nemsis race, the Amarr, the Minmatar have their strongest ties with the Gallente Federation. As such, some of their ships have drone bays as well. The biggest bonus for the Minmatar ships though is the projectile guns, though highly inaccurate, they give the greatest flexibility in damage types that can be applied, combined with using no capacitor whenever they fire, this makes for a deadly combination.

Breacher - The Breacher was the Minmatar answer to accurate close to mid range high firepower. As such she’s a missle boat favouring the Minmatar designed explosive warheads. Whilst this ship does not have a drone bay, it is damned fast for a frigate it’s size (300m/s) and can equip 3 out of its 4 hislots with launchers, leaving the spare for a single turret if desired. The downside of this fast little spitting cobra is that you need a Minmatar Frigate skill of III to fly her and she is a little inflexible in that she only has 2 mid and 2 low slots.

Burst - The Burst is the Minmatar all purpose cargo/miner frigate; with similar abilities to its counterparts of cargo capacity, mining laser yield and mining laser capacitor use. This version though is the fastest but most lightly protected version. She comes with no drone bay, no launcher slots and sadly poor shields. Minmatar Frigates II to fly.

Probe - The probe is a fast cargo/scout. Her bonuses lean towards sensors and cargo space. She does however have 10m3 drone capacity, shich she badly needs. At only 2 hi slots and 2 turret mounts this ship is lacking in offensive capability in comparison to its other faction counterparts. However unlike its other faction counterparts, this vessel has, again an extremely fast max velocity (300m/s) and exceptionally good shields and surprisingly armour. At Minmatar Frigate II she’s not too hard to fly either.

Rifter - The Rifter is the main Minmatar combat frigate. With good slots (4,3,3), a good combination of weapon layouts (3 turret, 2 missle) a fast top speed (320m/s) and bonuses to turret damage and tracking speed mixed with very good shields. This ship is a challenge for any other tech I frigate available. She may not have a drone bay but her payload flexibility makes up for it in my opinion. At Minmatar Frigate II she’s a little tricky to fly, but worth it.

Slasher - Need a cheap, fast and versatile patrol ship? Look no further than the Slasher. As tech I frigates go she’s the fastest thing available, period. She can fit launchers (1) and turrets (2) on her 3 hislots. With 2 medslots and 1 lowslot she can also have that afterburner, a cap recharger and shield booster to keep her around even longer. Combined with her top speed of a whopping 410 m/s this ship should terrify most people. She has average shields and some armour but no drone bay and like the Rifter she comes with bonuses to projectile turret damage and tracking speed, meaning not only will you hit harder but you’ll be able to keep up on the targets location whilst orbitting it at stupidly high speeds. At Minmatar Frigate II, she’s a bargain to fly.

Vigil - Sensing a need for a ship with longer range capability (unlike the slasher), the Minmatar pulled this ship out of the works. With a good balance of slots (3,3,3), bonuses to turrets and target painters, a drone bay, missle (1) and turret (2) slots, average shields and armour and a fair turn of speed (320m/s) this vessel seems more than capable of not only keeping the enemy at a distance but really damaging them whilst they are there. Again at Minmatar Frigate II this ship is ideal for new players with an idea of how they want their combgat to work.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Since Revalations chapter 1 came online I’ve found that looting is a bit of a pain in the butt.

One of the minor problems they patched, straight away, is you couldn’t tag which wrecks you’d already investigated, but one of the bigger problems, and an issue I think will affect new players, is that the ‘drop rate’ of any loot is very low.

Alongside this, they’ve introduced ’salvage’. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Gallente Cruisers follow the same design principles as their Frigates, a good balance of slots, drone bays, heavy armour and a prediliction for blasters.

Celestis - The Celestis follows the same design principle as the Maulus frigate in form of its bonuses (sensor dampeners and medium hybrid turret damage). However, unlike the frigate this cruiser has a much larger drone bay, a massive 40m3; combined with a slot layout of 4,5,3 and a balance of 3 turret mounts and 2 missle mounts. Finally, with a skill requirement of Gallente Cruiser II its not hard to fly.

Exequror - Designed as a cargo cruiser, this ship was built with purpose of operating in less than friendly environments. With bonuses pushed towards cargo capacity and remote armour repair systems this ship can also support a fleet action at the front line level. It has the same drone capacity as the Celestis and has a slot layout of 4,4,3 giving it some flexibility. The Exequror can only fit turrets. This is the easiest Gallente Cruiser to fly with a skill require ment of Gallente Cruiser I.

Guardian-Vexor - This ship is no longer available on the open market, for the simple reason that it was hideous. A cruiser sized drone carrier with some truely terrifying bonuses. Notably allowing an extra drone to be controlled per cruiser level on top of the number you got with the drones skill and a bonus to medium sized hybrid turrets. Just think of it considering it has a drone capacity of 75m3. This ship has a slot layout of 5,3,4 with the fittings for 4 turrets and 1 launcher. Finally this ship has a cargo capacity of 480m3 and only required a Gallente Cruiser skill rating of II. No wonder this ship was decomissioned…

Thorax - This is the main combat cruiser design for the Gallente people; with bonuses to microwarpdrive capacitor use and a bonus to turret damage its easy to see how this ship is designed for close quarters combat. The ship has a reasonable drone bay of 50m3, good slots at 5,3,5. At Gallente Cruiser III this is the hardest cruiser to fly that the Gallente have.

Vexor - The Vexor was designed as a non-sepecific combat cruiser. Bonuses to drones in hitpoints, damage and mining yield is granted from this ship as well as bonuses to medium hybid turrets. WIth a slot layout of 5,3,4 and 4 turret hardpoints this ship can cause some chaos. She has the same drone and cargo capacity as the Guardian variant of the Vexor design as well as the same skill requirement but as replacements go, this ship is no where near as nice.

Popularity: 30% [?]

The defining feature of Gallente ship design is the drone bay; to the Gallente people drones are the way to conduct a war. Mixed in with that they also follow a system of utilising heavy armour and throwing themselves into the fray with a predeliction of blasters. With that in mind, lets have a look at their frigates and skills required to fly them.

Atron - This ship is mainly utilised as a combat vessel and its easy to understand why. First off its the fastest frigate the Gallente have, it has the capacity of a small drone bay - no other built for speed frigate has this feature. It has well balanced slots of 2,2,2 and is very cheap to buy, factor in a required skill level of Gallente Frigate II and you can see how a few of these could overwhelm most targets. It als provides bonus to the use of small hybrid turrets, both in damage and falloff range.

Imicus - This ship has the same slot layout as the Atron but unlike the Atron is slower, has a drone bay 3 times the size of the Atron and provides bonuses to the use of sensors and drone ranges. In many respects this ship is ideal as a scout. It has skill requirement of Gallente Frigate of II.

Incursus - The Incursus is the step up from the Atron, only marginally slower but with a similar drone bay size. This ship though has a more flexible slot layout of 3,3,2 and is a fair bit tougher to kill. As the upsize model of the Atron it has the same bonuses to turrets. Unlike the Atron though you need Gallente Frigates III to fly it.

Maulus - The primary role of this frigate is electronic warfare for fleetactions. With the bonuses to turrets and sensor dampeners mixed with the same slot layout as the Incursus, this ship has some serious uses. This ship also has a reasonable drone bay at 10m3. Unlike the Incursus though you only need a Gallente Frigate of II to fly this vessel.

Navitas - This frigate is the dedicated industry frigate of the fleet, with bonuses to mining laser yield, cargo capacity and a reduction in mining laser capacitor. She has a small drone bay and a large cargo hold and like almost all other ships of Gallente design her size a slot layout of 2,2,2. At skill level of Gallente Frigate of II she is easy to fly too.

Tristan - The Tristan or ‘Fat Man’ as it is known is a whole new class of Gallente Frigate. Aimed at a more multipurpose role but primarily for combat she is capable of handling a numerous targets. WIth a slot layout of 4,3,3 with launchers and turrets in equal numbers and with a small drone capacity, this vessel is certainly capable of handling itself. Her bonuses are heavily leaned towards hybrid turret damage and tracking speeds but she does need a pilot with Gallente Frigate III to fly her.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Blackmonday Media is now a Corporation.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]

Hi there - my name is Meridian Harper and I’ve been contracted by the BlackmondayEve Media corporation to write all about the life of a pilot.

Currently, I’ve got a slasher - which is a gorgeously fast ship - you could say, a bit too fast, but I’ve been enjoying flying around in it since my benefactor Lady Oephelia gave me it.

In the coming weeks I’ll try and file reports whenever I can. I’ve been told they want ALL of the gory details, including what happens if I ever get podded. I hope that’s not a jiinx.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tomorrow (Tuesday) between 11am and 3pm GMT Eve is performing extended downtime patching on Revalations. So if you feel like sharing your initial thoughts on it, comment here or come join our forum at blackmondayeve-forums

We’re also planning a Christmas competition in the near future - but for the moment - the first person to register and post 10 meaningful posts on our forum will recieve 1million ISK from me. So come on over and grab your chance at 1mil ISK

Popularity: 2% [?]

Caldari cruisers, like their frigates are heavy on the missles, ECM Warfare and shields. Again drone bays don’t feature heavily but are given some grudging space. So…what are the ships?

Blackbird - The Blackbird is a fairly new design in Caldari ships, she is designed more as an ECM Warefare specialist cruiser, and the ship’s bonus is featured heavily towards it, reducing ECM energy requirements whilst increasing ECM range. To further this support role, the Blackbird has a large number of mid level slots for a ship of it’s size and even though it only has 4 hislots you can have up to 3 launchers of 3 turrets or any combination of those. For all the support capability this ship has no drone bay but is one of the easiest to fly at Caldari Cruiser skill of 2.

Caracal - Another ship pushed towards what the Caldari race does best. This is a pure missle launching fiend of a cruiser. With 5 hislots and 5 launcher hardslots you can only imagine the devestation… the 2 turret hardpoints give you some flexibility if missles aren’t your cup of tea but given the ship specific bonuses to missles you’d be a fool to watse em on turrets. This ship also has some drone capacity (2 light or 1 medium drone can be equipted) but it does have a good sized cargo bay. With the added bonus of having a Caldari Cruiser minimum skill requirement of 2, this ship is just plain awesome to behold in action.

Moa - This is the Caldari answer to a combat frigate. Heavy shields, a good mix of turrets and launchers and an even bigger drone bay (3 light or 1 light and 1 medium). It is a bit light on the low and medium slots but is ok for hislots at 6. This ship is also a bit light on the cargo capacity considering it’s size. You will need a cruiser skill at 3 for this ship. The bonuses of this ship is the medium hybrid turret range and the shield resistances.

Osprey - This is the industrial cruiser for the Caldari people. Not to be confused with industrial ships but if there is a multipurpose ship needed and all you can fly is a Caldari cruiser then this is the ship for you. With bonuses pointing towards support roles such as shield energy transportation, shield recharge and mining laser yields. This ship is slow but has the largest drone bay of the Caldari cruisers, it also has the largest cargo capacity. It can fit up to 3 turrets or 2 launchers in its 4 hislots but has a good spread of slots overall. At Caldari Cruiser skill of 1 this is the easiest cruiser to fly.

Popularity: 5% [?]