Consequence Management

Editor’s Note: This week we’re featuring an in character story by Vladimir Korff. – Katia Sae


Reposted from Vladimir Korff’s blog, ENCAPSULATED, Consequence Management.


GENESIS REGION – MIH CONSTELLATION
ZOOHEN SYSTEM – PLANET III
THEOLOGY COUNCIL TRIBUNAL

8 June YC 122

SuperCacher Vladimir Korff

After my lucky escape I spent two days attending to my tending and avoiding more exciting activity like hacking relics in an uncloaked Buzzard in the middle of J-Space. While I was calming my nerves by methodically opening small secure containers, I suddenly received an urgent invitation to a corporate meeting in Zoohen. Wondering what it was all about I found a hi-sec exit and made my way to the corp base at Theology Council Tribunal Station.

I wasn’t sure what the dress code was but decided it would be a good opportunity to wear my Polar Aurora Exploration Suit. Having washed off the pod goo in a shower I headed straight to my item hangar where I still kept all prizes from Tender Games. Passing a young female mechanic I noticed that she gave me a strange look. She then turned to her teammate and surreptitiously, or so she thought, pointed at me. Her companion shrugged, muttered “Capsuleers” and impassively turned away. At first I thought that the girl somehow noticed the neural interface slots on my body but then I realised that it was the body itself that attracted her attention. It was naked!

Can’t say I was embarrassed – I was never shy about my skin – but I was shocked to discover how twisted my mind became. While I carefully planned what I was going to wear at the corporate meeting, I didn’t give any thought to putting anything on in order to walk a hundred metres to my item hangar through public space. Was it a result of spending too much time floating nude in a capsule? Was I developing that infamous capsuleer’s disregard for baseliners? I don’t know. I just pretended that everything was perfectly normal, made a snooty face and walked past the dock crew. If I had to choose between looking like a snob and looking like an idiot… well, the choice was obvious. The rest of the way I walked with a straight back, eyes looking above other people’s heads. Having reached the hangar I closed the door and hastily put my new suit on. Feeling myself much more comfortable, I headed to the Signal Cartel office.

The conference hall was full and buzzing; people were talking to each other and didn’t pay any attention to the newcomer. I looked around and realised that I hardly knew anyone in the audience. Well, I could put names to faces since I saw photos in forums but I never met those people in person. It was an awkward situation – I knew that I knew them but I didn’t know if they knew me. Suddenly, I heard someone calling my name. Having turned in the direction of the voice I saw Maxwell Kurvora wave his hand at me.

“Hey, Vlad. Come here, we have a free seat.”

Maxwell was one of the corp members who would definitely know me as he was a reader of this very blog. Grateful for the invitation I squeezed myself past other Signaleers and dropped into the chair.

Max shook my hand and then, nodding at his neighbour on the other side, asked, “By the way, have you, guys, met before?”

I looked at the blonde lady with a cybernetic arm who sat next to Maxwell and said, rather formally, “I don’t think I had the pleasure, but I know who you are, Ms Tamayo.”

“I can say the same about you Vladimir,” replied Tamayo and shook my hand. I noticed that the artificial arm had a strong but measured grip and wondered whether it was power-capped or Tamayo had such fine control of her prosthetic appendage – those things were strong enough to crack coconuts.

“And please no honorifics,” added Tamayo, “in Signal Cartel we call each other just by name regardless of a person’s position.”

“Works for me,” smiled I, “in fact I thought about addressing you by your full title but couldn’t decide whether it should be Recruiter Tamayo or Anoikis Division Manager Tamayo.”

Tamayo frowned, “That would be quite a mouthful, huh? By the way, would you be interested in joining Anoikis Division? We always look for new members. You seem to spend a lot of time in J-space so this may be a good choice for you.”

“I thought about joining AD but it requires a C2 title, and I don’t even have C1. And to be honest, I am not sure if I am eligible for it. One needs to show participation in corp programs and I don’t know what kind of proof is required.”

“Maybe this man can help you with that,” said Tamayo with a faint smile, nodding at a person who was talking to Thrice Hapus, our CEO.

That person was Igaze, Eve-Scout Rescue Director, who oversaw Eve-Scout Rescue Cache and Search and Rescue operations.

“What do you mean…” I started asking but was interrupted by a loud clap.

That was Thrice Hapus clapping his hands to attract attention of the audience. The room went quiet and everyone looked at him.

“Dear Signaleers, thank you for finding time to attend our corporate meeting. As you know, we have a full agenda, but first we need to deal with some very serious matters. I’ll let Igaze explain.”

Igaze took the stage and looked sternly at the assembly.

“It has happened again,” said he in a grave voice. “In fact, with the recent influx of new corp members, we’ve noticed an uptick in such activity. Signal Cartel management quickly responded to this development and dealt with it accordingly. We are not making a secret of it and we would like all Signaleers to know about the consequences that their actions may have.”

Igaze made a pause to let his words sink in, looked around and suddenly stopped his eyes on me.

“Signaleer Vladimir Korff, would you please make your way to the front?”

My heart sank. Was it about that ill-fated starbase theft? But I returned the bloody thing to the owners! Maybe that was not enough. Maybe management didn’t want me to get off that easy. With all those thoughts racing through my mind, I stood up and walked on wooden legs past the fellow corp members who stared at me coldly.

When I approached Igaze, he gave me a quick look and turned to the audience, “Everyone, look at this man. This is Vladimir Korff and I want every Signaleer to know what he has done. And, as our surveillance showed, done not once, not twice, but a hundred times!”

I was totally bewildered. That couldn’t be about the starbase, I stole only one!

Igaze continued, “This could not go on unnoticed anymore, and today on behalf of Signal Cartel management I announce that Vladimir Korff…”

I cringed.

“…has become our newest SuperCacher! He has sown and tended one hundred caches! Please congratulate him on this significant achievement.”

Suddenly everyone was smiling and clapping and cheering. With an idiotic smile I watched Igaze attach a medal to my suit, shook his hand and returned to my seat.

“Congratulations, Vladimir,” said Max. “I must say you handled it really well. Some people actually fainted when they got their first medal in such manner.”

I had a lot to say about that ‘manner’ but that required some coherence which I was badly lacking at the moment. All I could manage to croak through my constricted throat was “Thanks, Max. I think I need a drink.”

“Oh, there will be plenty of drinks after the meeting. And don’t worry, it won’t take long. Despite what Thrice said, we actually aren’t big on management reporting. As you should’ve guessed by now, we are big on fun!”

Signal Cartel EVE Echoes Chapter

Katia Sae in EVE Echoes

With the official launch of EVE Echoes (EE) this week and in the spirit of our Signal Cartel (SC) motto of “Be the content you wish to see”, we had enough members to express interest in representing us in this new universe. So, we’ve created a new chapter of Signal Cartel in EVE Echoes with the same name, but a different ticker of “I420”. That’s actually the letter “i” and 420, since it had to contain a letter and was limited to 4 characters.

[I420] Signal Cartel

With no current exploration gameplay in Echoes as of yet other than sight seeing, what can you expect of us there? We’ll be fully embracing the core tenants of our Credo, so you can expect us to be neutral and friendly to all capsuleers in our travels in this New Eden as you would expect of us in EVE Online (EO). With no wormholes and no Thera at the moment, our rescue and Thera scanning services are not available. We’ll have to see how that develops in the future, but we will be engaging in PVE and other peaceful endeavors in a family friendly environment together like we do in EO.

Can you join? We’re currently limiting our EVE Echoes membership to only current, active, in good standing Signaleers of our EVE Online community. We wish to protect our reputation that we’ve spent years in developing and this chapter was created in response to our members wishing to represent SC in EVE Echoes. We’ll be watching and evaluating this as we go to see if it grows and where to take it in the future.

Fly clever in whichever universe you find yourself in!

Captain Crinkle and Xalyar Reach 100 Rescues Together!

Editor’s Note: There are as many measures of success as there are corporations in New Eden. Some measure in profits, some measure in kills, but for me there is no greater measure than service to the community. I’m honored to fly with a corporation that measures success in Capsuleers rescued. – Katia Sae

The following is an AAR (After Action Report) submitted by Signaleer Sydney Selket.

Sydney Selket

Today I got to unwittingly participate in an historic event in the Eve-Scout Rescue program. Long-time Rescue Coordinators Xalyar and Captain Crinkle have been racing each other to 100 rescues for a while now, and when they recently both landed at 99, we started to think, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they happened to do their next rescue together so they both won the race?”

I had forgotten all about this, and maybe they had too, when we received a ping that a Search and Rescue system (J103924) had been located by Renek Dallocort. Xalyar was first to answer the call. I was trying to step away for a shower, but mentioned that I was available if needed. The chain provided to us by ALLISON was what we would call “ugly”: many jumps through a web of C4s and C5s before any high-sec or low-sec exit. The system itself, that Renek was just beginning to scan, had only a null static. With this challenge in mind, Xalyar asked for backup and I began logging in, with Captain Crinkle also chiming in that he was coming.

Renek Dallocort

Xalyar had actually been the 911 dispatcher on this rescue when the call came in 3 days earlier, so he was the obvious person to reach out to the pilot. Normally we won’t contact the pilot until the system is secured by rescue personnel and we have a way out, because we don’t want an over-anxious pilot to log in before the system is safe and ready for quick rescue. However in this case Xalyar’s notes from the dispatch indicated that the pilot was wavering on whether it was worth waiting for rescue, so we made an exception just to make sure they didn’t choose the next half hour or so to give up. Xaylar was able to reach the pilot on Discord before we even made it to the system, and we knew the pilot would be available for immediate rescue when we were ready.

We entered the chain from different directions and eventually met up in the middle where the chains converged, providing bookmarks for each other to follow, while Renek fed us the next sig in the chain to speed our scanning. Once I got into the SAR system, Renek was able to take off to continue exploring, and I held the system while Xalyar and Crinkle split off scanning more promising routes out, as the way we came in was very long and unstable.

Now that enough time has passed for this not to be active intel, here’s a pic of the chain as it looked as we were arriving (the SAR system is in green). I came from Pelkia, Xalyar came from New Caldari, and after checking out some options from Thera, Crinkle also came from New Caldari.

Chain as provided by ALLISON

Xalyar and Crinkle ended up finding a C1 and a C3 which each had a low-sec static and either would make a better exit than the way we came in. Crinkle, with his 99 rescues of wisdom, was the first to point out that depending on what kind of ship the pilot had, a C1 could only take up to medium ships, and might be too small (we knew based on the fact that the pilot was lost in a C2, they couldn’t have a capital, but it could be a battleship). Xalyar reached out to the pilot to confirm, and found out it was a Drake. A C1 is indeed one of the places you can bring your Drake, so we decided on that as the first option for exit, with the C3 as a backup in case the end-of-life hole to the C1 collapsed.

Captain Crinkle

We organized ourselves for a 4-jump exit to low sec. I would be the warp-in point for the pilot to the wormhole out of the SAR system, as I was already there, and then I would sprint ahead to get what I thought was the final exit to low sec, but we ended up improvising on the way and I held up to take the 3rd jump instead, as Crinkle took the 2nd jump and Xalyar followed with the pilot. After the pilot made the jump past me into the C1 I ran ahead again into low sec to see what things looked like in local. Crinkle had found 2 in local a few minutes earlier, but when I splashed in it was deserted. Xalyar, with his 99 rescues of wisdom, immediately asked if there was a station there for the pilot to dock in, which there was not. I quickly checked that the next system in the direction of high sec had a station, and that’s the direction we pointed our pilot in when he reached the safety of K-space.

It was at this point after we waved o7 to the pilot, and were commenting on how smoothly that extraction had gone, when we realized Xalyar and Crinkle had done their 100th rescue together. And I was overcome with honor to have accompanied them, especially on a rescue that had benefited so much from teamwork and experience. Surely this deserved some more acknowledgement beyond the glittering Beacon of Anoikis Medal they will be receiving for their incredible achievement, so here I am to tell you more about them.

Xalyar

From the time I joined Signal Cartel it was my dream to be a rescuer, and Xalyar and Crinkle took me under their respective wings and answered my questions and included me when my explorations crossed paths with rescues. Crinkle taught the class I took on rescue cache placement shortly after I joined the corp, and while he didn’t teach my class, I have had the privilege to sit in on Xalyar’s 911 operator training course to see the guidance he gives our new trainees. During my time as a 911 operator Crinkle and Xalyar were always around to provide guidance on those trickier calls, and to make sure rescues were running smoothly. Even when I became a rescue coordinator with them, I’ve always looked to them to have the definitive answer to the even trickier questions. They’ve just recently been promoted to the title of ESR Manager, to reflect their seniority among the coordinators and the special role they’ve taken over time to help ESR Director Igaze handle the increasing workload as our rescue program grows.

How fitting that despite their constant friendly competitiveness to one-up each other, they arrive at the most prestigious of rescue milestones at exactly the same time. Congratulations to two amazing mentors! I’m sure the race to 200 has already begun!

TripTik’s and Preserving the Rich History of EVE

Editor’s Note: You’ve likely heard of our two main services that we offer, EvE-Scout Thera Connections and EvE-Scout Rescue, but you’ve probably not heard about another service we offer and that would be our Expedition TripTik’s. Our former CEO, Mynxee, started this effort that follows in the footsteps of our friend and fellow explorer Mark726 as a complement to EvE Travel, but it’s certainly not meant to be a replacement. Sadly, over the years we’ve not kept it going, but in her honor and in the spirit of our motto of “Be the content you wish to see”, I set about to fix that by rebooting the service with an in corp event over the last couple of months called TripTik’s 2.0.

I had one goal and two hopes. First, it was my goal and hope we would double the size of our library, which I’m happy to report we did! Second, it was my hope that someone would be a “star”, rising to the occasion, and embracing the spirit of our Expeditions. I’m thrilled to report that we did indeed have someone step up. Please welcome Yankee Sullivan as our newly appointed TripTik Historian, who in real life is a Public Historian. I’m excited to see where he takes this new service. – Katia Sae

Following is his post on TripTik’s and Preserving the Rich History of EVE


The Set Up

Yankee Sullivan

Recently, like so many other players, I returned to EVE online. This time before jumping in I decided I wanted to find a Corporation to join first. Already half knowing in my mind what I wanted, I found my way to the Signal Cartel website. I wanted to brave J-Space and rescue other capsuleers. Partially because I’m a nice guy, but more so because I wanted a service-based approach to the sandbox, a focus… a duty.

Well it’s been almost two months and I haven’t rescued a single person or tended a single cache. Why? Because I’ve been acting as a historian for EVE Online along with several other members of the Signal Cartel. You see, just a week or two after I joined, while I was getting myself sorted out and figuring out why I had left assets randomly scattered across the galaxy, the famous Katia Sae announced a new program to revitalize SC’s “TripTik” program.

TripTiks are lore- and player history-based guided tours throughout New Eden. Offered by the lesser known Expeditionary Division of the Signal Cartel. When I was initially snooping around the website, I saw them and noticed that they were a nice idea that were unevenly and non-uniformly done and had a feeling of having been abandoned. At the time I thought to myself, “Aw neat, maybe at some point I’ll put one or two of those together”. Well, Katia aimed to change that by providing an ISK incentive for Signaleers to create new, more fleshed-out TripTiks to coincide with the launch of “TripTik 2.0”.

I gave it a bit of thought and realized that this wasn’t just something I wanted to do. In a way, it was something I was ideally suited to do.

A Brief Bit About Me

Once upon time, freshly returned from 8 years of military service, I determined I wanted to become a Historian. So, I went to college and earned my degree and then took on a specialized certificate program to become a Public Historian. While in the process of earning that degree, I helped create an educational program about maritime history that included a kids and young adult program for Library settings, several lectures, and a walking tour. Later I took on a job at a local Living History Farm Museum and quickly found myself in the role of Program Director. It was then that I pivoted into working in Human services in general and truly I have never been happier.

But I’ve never lost my love of history, and even now I study it avidly and systematically and try often to find time to volunteer at historic sites. Then suddenly, I was being offered a chance to make ISK at something I used to love to do, researching and organizing a history into easily digestible tours…

EVE’s Two Histories and Why they are a Treasure

EVE is just recently seventeen years old and at its core it is a game from a different era that still fundamentally has a different design philosophy. Harder, unforgiving, and often inscrutable. Though, as the Bitter Vets and Doom Sayers will often point out: perhaps not as hard as it once was. But EVE is also a game from an era when games were just bigger. Don’t get me wrong, many modern games are certainly grander. But few are “game worlds” quite the same way that the early first and second generation MMOs were. Even those MMOs that remain no longer focus on the world as much.

But EVE is still a game world (technically a Galaxy) not only filled with planets, jump-gates, stations, and Jita scammers. But also a game with sites of cultural significance, forgotten and remembered battle fields, strange artifacts, and so much more. All of these things lovingly placed there by CCP. These things are in support of the EVE Universe and its rich lore, which has been the subject of countless web articles written by CCP, a bunch of novels, at least one magnificent source book, and of course a handful of other games aside from EVE. It’s eons of lore made manifest in the current game world and the weight and scars of its violent history can be found throughout the galaxy.

Then there’s the player history, the emergent history. More battlefields (naturally). Monuments to the player based efforts to aid real life science. There was a monument created to celebrate a group of players solving a galaxy spanning riddle, and then that monument had its model updated to a “destroyed state” after the player base spent a few weeks shooting it one summer in reaction to a change in direction to the game. There’s a cemetery maintained by a player that’s a monument to the corpses of dead in game characters, but has also become a place for players to memorialize other players who have passed on in real life and sometimes their loved ones or friends who didn’t play their game at all. There’s even been a history book written by a historian about the titanic player wars that have taken place in Null Sec. And a really big statue of Katia Sae.

EVE lore goes back before the game began, and since it launched 17 years ago, both the players have created history, as have the non-player characters controlled by CCP. EVE has changed a lot since it launched. Not only is this an incredibly unique thing in gaming, but it’s a powerful thing as well.

Most players get lured into EVE, typically by a friend talking up the game’s deep complexity, merciless player base, brilliant player driven complexity, or giant record-breaking battles. But I know many players stay or keep coming back because of the sense of history and lore the EVE universe has. That and the way that the players can have a very real impact on that history. It was players who destroyed the Caldari titan over Caldari Prime and right now it is players determining how many systems in Empire space the Triglavians will control. It is that sense of history that helps to mark EVE players for life and, even if they do eventually “win EVE” and never come back, the game will always have a deep place in their heart.

The Problem that TripTiks Help Solve

The greatest issue EVE faces has long been accessibility, and while CCP have made strides to fix the new player experience, this remains true of the Lore and History. There are disparate and unevenly written articles across the internet, there is a source book that is a bit expensive (and I think out of print). There are player blogs and almost two decades of Reddit and other forum posts. But most of these things require you to know where you look or to possess a patience and investment that not necessarily everybody has.

Nor should they have to. EVE can do better at revealing its secrets. As is so often the case, the solution to this (at least for now) is left to the players. So here at the Signal Cartel we have decided to try and help.

TripTiks help to fix this, in one of the best formats possible. The 2.0 TripTik system takes players to the most important and unique locations in the game and then provides carefully written summaries of their importance. Then, they offer links to further information and reading. TripTiks offer a guided way in which players can learn the lore and history of the game by flying their spaceships instead of trudging through google searches and wiki stubs.

TripTik 2.0 includes in-game lore, such as the ancient races of EVE, tours of at least two wars between the Empires, and the aftermath of the Seyllin incident. On the player-created side, you’ll find out where the Capsuleer cemetery is, monuments to player accomplishments, a tour recording the state of Null Sec in YC122, and the location of one of the largest players battles ever. All TripTiks include publicly available bookmarks to help players find the critical locations, travel tips, and other helpful notes.

TripTik 2.0 certainly doesn’t include everything in EVE. In fact, it’s just a drop in the ocean. But hopefully it can inspire other projects, or perhaps even help CCP realize that the player base does care passionately about its lore and shared history, just as much as we do about sweet new zappyboi ships (Well, maybe not as much as new ships, but a close second or third).

It’s my genuine hope as a historian of the EVE sandbox that these TripTiks help preserve this lore and history and that you’ll enjoy experiencing them as much as I enjoyed researching them.