In this ongoing Interview Series we will get to know great Hunters and Scouts. In this episode I am very happy to announce we have a famous wormhole huntress with us, Penny Ibramovic of http://www.tigerears.org/
Be sure to give her excellent Blog a visit, there is much to read and learn!
1. Tell us a bit about
yourself, your corporation.
I'm just another capsuleer. I was invited to join the corporation for industrial purposes, which soon became keen to go in to w-space. I found I couldn't say no when operations got dragged through a wormhole.
2. Why and when did you start EVE, what do you aim for?
I started EVE Online because a Mac client was made available. That may sound simplistic, but back in 2008 this was a big deal. And, really, it still is. That EVE Online was a sci-fi MMORPG set in space just made it sound sweeter.
My aim to was fly spaceships. I really didn't know much about the game to start with. I started in my frigate, ran the early missions, upgraded to a cruiser, then battlecruiser, and kept running missions. I'm not that social, so didn't look for a corporation or to engage with other players directly. That came from other people finding my blog.
3. The way of the hunter, what are your most basic tactics.
Gather information. Act on that information.
4. What has been your worst mistake while engaging people?
Nothing specific, but in general any time that I fail to draw on previous relevant experience or fail to take in to account any intelligence gathered then I would consider myself to have made a mistake.
5. Consequently, what was your best catch?
Piloting an interceptor that held a Tengu for my first T3 kill was pretty sweet. I'm also fond of the presence of mind I had in being able to hold down two Hulks with only a single warp disruptor fitted to my ship. I've managed to trap multiple miners in an Onyx's bubble a couple of times too, which ends up being a brutal massacre.
I think any catch where skill has played a strong part, either in intelligence gathering or scanning a site with a single attempt, makes for a good kill.
6. Any funny stories and weird things? I have had my fair share of odd stuff in wormholes, what did you encounter?
We found out how to move wormholes, maybe 18 months before it was fixed. We didn't do much with it for a long time, as moving a wormhole was fiddly and time-consuming without much opportunity for gain. We just thought it was a curiosity. But I eventually found the opportunity, and managed to shift a wormhole far enough to catch a hauler making a return trip. That was a bit underhand, though, and I'm glad the issue was fixed. In fact, it was left untouched for ages, then fixed maybe a few weeks after that kill. Coincidence? Probably.
7. A look back, how did you start and learn, what helped you?
I learnt by doing. I still have an old e-mail in a folder somewhere bewailing my pitiful scanning skills taking me ages to not even get out of our home w-space system. But with time, skill training, and plenty of practice you start to get good. Finding guides helps, and reading other people's experiences and paying attention to what colleagues are doing all help refine the skills you use.
8. Who is your role model, any hunter and scout you like most?
Kename Fin, Mick Straih, and Riyusone Haro have all been big influences. Fin brought me in to the corporation and has continued to be my guide. It was Riyu's enthusiasm to enter w-space shortly after Apocrypha hit that encouraged me to explore beyond my comfort zone. And after relying on Mick's excellent hunting skills for so long, when he was unavailable I had to either do it myself or go without, so I started doing it myself. All it takes is practice and not worrying about getting it wrong to start with. Sucking is just the first stage to being awesome at something, as Finn or Jake once said.
9. What are you favourite ships to hunt in?
Living in w-space and needing to scan to get anywhere has led me to rely mostly on ships that can scan and warp cloaked, particularly when wormholes can disappear behind you, unexpectedly stranding you in an unknown system. I used to scan in a Buzzard and roam in a Manticore, but the time taken to travel back to the home system to swap ships and the visibility of doing so wasn't ideal.
Taking the step to training for strategic cruisers opened up a much more flexible and powerful ship choice, letting me scan and engage many different targets, even if it means I only end up acting as glorified tackle for more specialized ships flying behind me.
By the same token, flying a T3 limits my ship choice by being flexible enough to make me forget I have ships that may be more suitable for a particular role. But even given that, as well as the skill point risk for losing and the cost of the T3 ships, being able to scan efficiently and ambush targets in the same ship has made the strategic cruiser my ship of choice. At the moment it's a Loki, but I can fly any of the T3s.
10. Any tips on fitting goals for those?
Nothing specific, which I hope is understandable given the flexibility of strategic cruisers. Just understand the role you want the ship to fulfill, understand the targets you'll be pitting yourself against, and understand the environment you'll be flying in, then fit for those circumstances.
11. Any secrets you want to share with the audience?
If you think the discovery scanner is a good idea, or want the directional scanner to update automatically, you don't belong in w-space.
12. Final shout-outs and greetings.
Come back, Mak! We didn't mean most of what we said about your truly enormous mass.
I'm just another capsuleer. I was invited to join the corporation for industrial purposes, which soon became keen to go in to w-space. I found I couldn't say no when operations got dragged through a wormhole.
2. Why and when did you start EVE, what do you aim for?
I started EVE Online because a Mac client was made available. That may sound simplistic, but back in 2008 this was a big deal. And, really, it still is. That EVE Online was a sci-fi MMORPG set in space just made it sound sweeter.
My aim to was fly spaceships. I really didn't know much about the game to start with. I started in my frigate, ran the early missions, upgraded to a cruiser, then battlecruiser, and kept running missions. I'm not that social, so didn't look for a corporation or to engage with other players directly. That came from other people finding my blog.
3. The way of the hunter, what are your most basic tactics.
Gather information. Act on that information.
4. What has been your worst mistake while engaging people?
Nothing specific, but in general any time that I fail to draw on previous relevant experience or fail to take in to account any intelligence gathered then I would consider myself to have made a mistake.
5. Consequently, what was your best catch?
Piloting an interceptor that held a Tengu for my first T3 kill was pretty sweet. I'm also fond of the presence of mind I had in being able to hold down two Hulks with only a single warp disruptor fitted to my ship. I've managed to trap multiple miners in an Onyx's bubble a couple of times too, which ends up being a brutal massacre.
I think any catch where skill has played a strong part, either in intelligence gathering or scanning a site with a single attempt, makes for a good kill.
6. Any funny stories and weird things? I have had my fair share of odd stuff in wormholes, what did you encounter?
We found out how to move wormholes, maybe 18 months before it was fixed. We didn't do much with it for a long time, as moving a wormhole was fiddly and time-consuming without much opportunity for gain. We just thought it was a curiosity. But I eventually found the opportunity, and managed to shift a wormhole far enough to catch a hauler making a return trip. That was a bit underhand, though, and I'm glad the issue was fixed. In fact, it was left untouched for ages, then fixed maybe a few weeks after that kill. Coincidence? Probably.
7. A look back, how did you start and learn, what helped you?
I learnt by doing. I still have an old e-mail in a folder somewhere bewailing my pitiful scanning skills taking me ages to not even get out of our home w-space system. But with time, skill training, and plenty of practice you start to get good. Finding guides helps, and reading other people's experiences and paying attention to what colleagues are doing all help refine the skills you use.
8. Who is your role model, any hunter and scout you like most?
Kename Fin, Mick Straih, and Riyusone Haro have all been big influences. Fin brought me in to the corporation and has continued to be my guide. It was Riyu's enthusiasm to enter w-space shortly after Apocrypha hit that encouraged me to explore beyond my comfort zone. And after relying on Mick's excellent hunting skills for so long, when he was unavailable I had to either do it myself or go without, so I started doing it myself. All it takes is practice and not worrying about getting it wrong to start with. Sucking is just the first stage to being awesome at something, as Finn or Jake once said.
9. What are you favourite ships to hunt in?
Living in w-space and needing to scan to get anywhere has led me to rely mostly on ships that can scan and warp cloaked, particularly when wormholes can disappear behind you, unexpectedly stranding you in an unknown system. I used to scan in a Buzzard and roam in a Manticore, but the time taken to travel back to the home system to swap ships and the visibility of doing so wasn't ideal.
Taking the step to training for strategic cruisers opened up a much more flexible and powerful ship choice, letting me scan and engage many different targets, even if it means I only end up acting as glorified tackle for more specialized ships flying behind me.
By the same token, flying a T3 limits my ship choice by being flexible enough to make me forget I have ships that may be more suitable for a particular role. But even given that, as well as the skill point risk for losing and the cost of the T3 ships, being able to scan efficiently and ambush targets in the same ship has made the strategic cruiser my ship of choice. At the moment it's a Loki, but I can fly any of the T3s.
10. Any tips on fitting goals for those?
Nothing specific, which I hope is understandable given the flexibility of strategic cruisers. Just understand the role you want the ship to fulfill, understand the targets you'll be pitting yourself against, and understand the environment you'll be flying in, then fit for those circumstances.
11. Any secrets you want to share with the audience?
If you think the discovery scanner is a good idea, or want the directional scanner to update automatically, you don't belong in w-space.
12. Final shout-outs and greetings.
Come back, Mak! We didn't mean most of what we said about your truly enormous mass.
I hope you enjoyed this episode with Penny, many thanks again to her for taking the time to answer my questions! If you have ideas for further people to interview or a great question you always wanted answered feel free to eve-mail me or comment here!
