State of the Signal #15

Where has the time gone? We try to do these every six months, but it’s been a little bit longer coming this time around. Check out our last State of the Signal #14 if you missed it and are interested to see how we’ve come along. Since we just recently had our leadership transition and I posted our updated organizational chart with those thoughts as well, I won’t repeat myself here. For those reading this on our public blog, you’ll just have to wonder.

I will say just how proud Aldar and I are to be part of the Signal Cartel team and we can’t do this without each and everyone of you. It’s an honor to serve you and to represent Signal Cartel on your behalf. We’re all ambassadors and your success is the success for us all.

The following divisions are a reflection of our motto: “Be the content you wish to see.”

((See if you can figure out all the SciFi movie/show images 😉 ))

THE ANOIKIS DIVISION

Manager: Tamayo

General Information

As of 24 March 2021, I am pleased to report that the division is very active and operationally sound.

The Anoikis Division has a great core group of excellent and enthusiastic pilots. Many of which contribute to the success of the division, whether it be through donations, hauling, organizing events and activities, advice, and intel.

ENGINEERING

Managers: A Dead Parrot and Sky Diamond

Your Engineering Division (also known as the friendliest IT department on the planet [admittedly a low bar]) continues to function in the background quietly supporting all of our in-house IT needs including Corporate Buyback, our Member Management Application, the 911 service, the Eve Scout Rescue division, Thera Scanning, Allison in all of her forms, and generally trying to keep Xalyar from pinging people too often in Discord.

The division is run by myself, A Dead Parrot, and Sky Diamond.

Most recently, we created the tracking feature in Allison for the Katia Sae Anniversary Event. As a reminder, if you participated in that event and would like to download a record of all the systems you visited and when, you can do that here.

Since the last State of the Signal report we released a new application aimed at helping inexperienced 911 operators as they learn the ropes. The application was the brainchild of Jehan Dante and is an interactive flow-chart application that guides the proper handling of a 911 call to our rescue service.

And… Sky is always tweaking Allison on Discord with new and useful capabilities, and some just for fun. In case you don’t know, you can issue requests to Allison (note I used the word requests, and not commands) by starting your request with the exclamation point. So next time you are on our Discord with no one to talk to, try some of these commands out:

!info Astero
!coffee (or !tea)
!roles
!wiki
!time
!credo
or just try !dii

Volunteers? We are still looking to complete an application to support the Signal Cartel Academy’s (SCA) offer and acceptance program for live instruction. This is envisioned as a single location where members can request a live class on an Eve topic they would like to learn about, or advertise a class they are willing to teach and other members can sign up. The program would automate and organize the current system taking place manually in the forums now. The back-end REST API for this is already written and we would welcome any volunteers who feel they might have the time to help produce the front-end for the ever-helpful SCA.

(I would also like to mention that I have not forgotten about you Sir Fiddle Sticks )

Finally, if you ever have questions or suggestions about our projects, or you just think of something funny that Allison should be saying, and would like to see it become a part of her programming, look us up in the #developers channel on Discord. Don’t be shy. Remember, we are the friendliest IT department on the planet!

EVE SCOUT RESCUE

Manager: Igaze
Asst. Managers: Captain Crinkle and Xalyar

Over the last seven months, since the last SotS, the ESR program has shown its resilience. While there has been some fall off in participation we’ve still maintained strong numbers (rescues and caches) due the dedication of the team and the strength of the processes they’ve developed. 

The ESR Coordinator Team is relatively the same with one change as Triffton Ambraelle has won EVE so we brought the incredibly capable Tekufah in to fill the spot. The current team consists of  Xalyar, Sydney Selket, Dagmar Maulerant, miruxa, Catbriar Chelien, Angel Lafisques, Captain Crinkle, Ace Rimmer Midumulf, and Tekufah. 

The 911 program is now at 26 operators, down from 36 seven months ago but is still handling a substantial number of calls. In the period from July 1st, 2020 until March 26th, 2021 there were 1007 successful rescues, 780 from rescue caches, and 227 from SAR. One of our big successes this past year has been the addition of filaments to our caches as fully 60% of our cache rescues now use filaments. 

Our cache coverage has varied a bit over the last number of months ranging from a low of 86.7% coverage to a high of 96.8%. We’re currently at 92.9% coverage and trending up. 

Our stats since we started recording them four years ago are:

RESCUES:  2418 (ESRC:  1598, SAR:  820) (As of March 26th, 2021)

Medals of Note since the last State of the Signal

  • Master Dispatchers (over 100 pilots aided) – Xavec, Tekufah, Captain Crinkle, Vanessa Pacht Feng, Reynauld Lachapelle, Timea Aldeland, Sydney Selket
  • Heroic Cachers ( 3000 sows/tends) – Tekufah, Nac Audene, Palis Airuta
  • Insane Cacher (5000 sows/tends) – Aldar Roanaok, Troubled Watters
  • Crinkle Crown (10000 sows/tends) – Renek Dallocort and Tamayo
  • SAR Gold ( 50 rescues) – Tekufah, Catbriar Chelien
  • Beacon of Anoikis ( 100 rescues) – Xalyar, Captain Crinkle

And as always a huge thanks to A Dead Parrot and Allison. They are the linchpin to this division. Allison’s continued growth is incredibly important to the success of ESR!

FLEET OPS DIVISION

Managers: Katherine Skysong and Xavec

Since the last State of the Signal, there has been a change of management in the Fleet Operations Division (FOD). The FOD is now co-led by Katherine Skysong and Xavec. The focus of the FOD is to support Signaleers who wish to undertake [credo compliant] fleet flying, organizing their own fleets within Signal Cartel.  We both want to emphasize that FOD is here to both offer fleets as well as sponsoring fleets.  We did not corner the market on FCs and fleet ideas!

Such help can come in the form of:

  • Hulls and fits for doctrine fleets
  • SRP for doctrine fleets
  • Advice & Troubleshooting
  • Event promotion
  • Fleet ideas
  • Expertise eg FCs
  • Skill plans and skillbooks as usual
  • Education alongside the SCA
  • Asking ALLISON nicely to find the right wormhole for your fleet type

Current SC Doctrines include: 

  • A-BC: Armor Battle Cruiser – for running combat sites in wormholes.
  • S-BC: Shield Battle Cruiser – not taken out for a spin in over 18 months.
  • Hugs: Funs ways to die lobbing fireworks at folk in all kinds of situations.
  • Abyssal: We have a few abyssal doctrine fits and can facilitate entry level mini fleets.

Current Financials:

  • Roughly 10B ISK in operating capital.
  • Roughly 10 each of the various A-BC and S-BC ships, mainly Alpha fit, some Omega (T2) fit.
  • SRP for doctrine fleets sponsored by FOD.

You have a fleet idea, it falls within a supported doctrine, ask and we can sponsor so you can have more pilots.

For fighting/logi ships that we can loan – Destroyers, Cruisers, Battle Cruisers, Logi: Harbinger, Hurricane, Brutix, Augoror, Caracal, Corax, Drake, Ferox, Moa, Osprey, a handful of others.

We have a few ideas for fleets coming up which include challenges and competitions as well as good old fashioned kabooming wormhole rats.

When Xavec finally starts his new job properly there will be some SCA sessions on Wormholes in general, fleet flying, how to fly logistics (“logi”) FC’ing, and much more.

We are also keen to help and advise any capsuleers who wish to undertake other forms of PvE fleet flying with other groups such as Vulfpeck. 

Please feel free to ping @Fod-Admin or Xavec/Katherine personally with your questions or suggestions. We will answer when able and are only too happy to help. We look forward to seeing you in the #fod-general discord channel.

SIGNAL CARTEL ACADEMY

Division Manager: Xalyar
Admin Team: Dagmar Maulerant and Sloopy Noopers

I would like to welcome you  all to the Signal Cartel Academy section of this year’s State Of the Signal. This is the second I have had to write since the SCA became a thing following the announcement of its creation on the 23rd of November Y121 (2019), and while a lot of things have changed since then, a lot have luckily stayed the same.

The will to share knowledge within the Corporation, and to help each other learn the game, has been one of those immutated things we still carry with us within the ranks of Signal Cartel and of the SCA. It is good to see that this driving force has not faltered.

Compared to last year, I will not come to you with hard numbers.

Our weekly class average is just hovering around 1 per week, and while we saw a resurgence of offerings during the first six months of the year, mostly due to a lot of availability due to various forms of lockdown we were all subject to, we have now stabilized around what could be called the “SCA holding pattern”.

Sessions covering the basics of the game pop up on the semi-regular, in response to a new influx of people joining, or a particular request. So do SCA session covering all things EvE-Scout Rescue Cache Program and Search and Rescue.

Just recently we came back to the Singularity Test server for some more advanced HAT (Hunter Avoidance Training), and for some deep dives into the amazing world of the “EvE Overview”. 

In general, the SCA is functioning on cruise control and quite able to respond to request made on the Forums, directly picked up from DISCORD, or picked up from a direct interaction with someone asking for help.

Like I have highlighted last year, there seems to be a stable need for certain topics to be covered with a somewhat regular schedule, but in general, we have managed to avoid creating a rigid curriculum/class plan and we are still widely enjoying free-flowing and offering knowledge on a per-need basis.

Once again, I will send out my usual call. Both for you all to offer your help, while also not being shy in asking for help when needed.

While the game is still as unforgiving as it always has been (perhaps, even more so), our wealth of knowledge does nothing but grow, and it would surely be a waste to let that go untapped.

“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” – Mister Fred Rogers (well, his mother, really 😉 )

SPLUNKWORKS

Manager: Null Flare

Splunkworks… Where to begin? It’s been what? Over a year from when I was handed (thrown) division head and have to say, I’m enjoying it a lot! Was always interested in Fitting, but never in my early days figured I’d be in one of the servers top corps, fitting for a whole corp. 

I don’t have any fancy numbers and stats like my fellow colleagues (that’s not how I work to be honest) but I will say, on average I help out at least once a day (sometimes a lot more) with fits and/or fitting questions on our discord. It’s a massive subject (fitting) and even I get stumped sometimes. But that’s also what makes it fun for me.

On a side note, as everyone knows, always here to help, whether it’s a forum post asking about a Stratios fitting, a discord chat about fitting festival launchers on a stealth bomber (DO IT!) or a fitting 101 class, we are here to help! “`

RECRUITERS

Manager: Aldar Roanaok

A lot has happened since the last State of the Signal: Wanderlust led Quinn Valerii to step down as head of recruitment and dive into EVE with the Anoikis Division. I stepped up to try to fill the role with the great support of Tamayo, Sky Diamond, and Quinn Valerii in their advisory capacity.

Recruitment had a particularly busy year with the pandemic leading many old and new pilots to New Eden. The huge wave of applications kept the team busy checking applicants’ understanding of our playstyle, expectations, and Credo. Our recruiters tend to be online daily, and the shop is running well though we may be considering trying to broaden our time zone coverage.

So again, many thanks to the recruiting team! And thanks to all of those friendly Signal Cartel pilots in our public channels that direct people to our Joining FAQ and online application when the recruiting team is unavailable. 

CENTRAL SERVICES

Manager: Asa Kansene

Station Quartermasters

StationQuartermaster
Thera XII – The Sanctuary Institute of Paleocyberneticsmiruxa
Zoohen III – Theology Council TribunalAsa Kansene; Billie Idol (QM Helper
Saisio VIII – Moon 4 – Perkone FactoryAsa Kansene
Gelhan V – Moon 10 – DED Logistic SupportSuperTomy

Following earlier trends, the Quartermasters provide free supplies mostly in the form of corporation contracts related mainly to our main activity, which is exploring. Starter exploration frigates, fireworks (or “hugs”), ESRC caches are the items that have usually greater demand. There are also regularly available shuttles, anchoring skill books and station containers.

In case any activity is planned that requires que access to other ships or materials, Quartermasters try to provide those supplies too.

With the change of leadership, Asa Kansene became the central services manager.

Big thanks for the work of Billie Idol that keeps the most important headquarters, Zoohen, working no matter what. Also, miruxa, who has the ability to keep Thera supplied, with the obvious difficulties that it presents.

Signal Cartel Group Blog

Katia Sae

Our 2020 post have been indexed which you can check out here. We had 26 post in the following categories: Announcements (3), 1420 Life (4), Art (4), EvE-Scout Rescue (5), In Character Roleplay (5), Science & Exploration (1), Signaleers (3), and State of the Signal (1)

We’re evaluating what to do with the blog going forward. Content has been difficult to drum up over the last six months or so. Blogs in general had their peak many years ago and have been on the decline for a while now. We may just continue to use it for public Corp oriented announcements.

TripTiks

Mynxee

Stay tuned for upcoming changes to our TripTik service as Mynxee takes over the position of our Historian!

SCRUBS and SCRAMS

Xavec

Continue to go from strength to strength.

Since the last State of the signal figures at the end of June last year SCRUBS has paid out a whopping *REDACTED* to Signaleers for their blueprints I had to check those numbers twice. SCRUBS continues to break-even when taking into account costs of manufacture, haulage, sales, and donations of hulls for FOD. 

We have completed 25 SCRAMS contracts – relocating new members from their old homes to their new ones in SC offices. The average number of jumps per contract is 12 jumps and the average value of each shipment is around *REDACTED*.  

We have opened a new channel on the Signal Cartel Discord – #SC-Support-Services to help with all queries relating to central services including Quartermasters, SCRUBS, and SCRAMS. 

THERA SCANNING

Manager: Johnny Splunk
Thera Liaison: Captain Crinkle

Since the formation of Eve-Scout more than five years ago, our Thera scanning service has provided up-to-date details of connections across the cluster. This is done in accordance with our Credo; that is open to all pilots equally regardless of playstyle or affiliation. The service is headed by Johnny Splunk, our head of alliance, and I serve as a liaison for Signal Cartel.

Since the last State of the Signal, we have made a significant change in how our scouts will be paid for their contributions for Thera scanning. As discussed at our most recent fireside chat, contributors will now be paid weekly on Mondays, with these payments made on the basis of activity taken between the previous Monday and Sunday. The formula for these payments has not changed, only their frequency, to ensure our pilots are rewarded for the efforts as quickly as possible.

If you have any questions drop me a line. I’m easily contacted through Discord or Eve mail. Our forums have a dedicated section for Thera scanning which should answer most common questions.