There's one group that will always be loyal, that will never betray you, that you can count on for money, ships or whatever else you need, that will check prices for you when you need it, that will always agree with your decisions. You won't find them on any ticker. They're the metacorp.
The metacorp, short for metagame corp, is all of the characters in all of the accounts that you own. I know a lot of people who at least dual window, keeping a miner, trader or shuttle scout in the secondary window. In some ways, this metacorp matters even more for the spy than it does for the PVPer who funds ship replacement with mining. But even for the non-infiltrator plaeyr, it can be useful to consider how your various toon interact with each other. Who makes the money? Who does the scouting?
Let me give an example:
I've got two accounts. ABC's entire account is essentially "burned" since any big alliance will want an API key that shows all characters. His alts will stand up to casual inspection but if someone really starts digging, there's a body hopping Gallente Reborn staring back at him saying "hi, I'm a spy". So right off, this is the home of my trader alt. . .who, through a weird twist of fate is part of a nullsec alliance. My essential, day to day ISK making will probably always come from this account.
My second account is currently training for Covops and cyno for an amusing side project I have in mind. He might make some money at it, might form a corp or any number of other things. He won't be doing it soon, though. In some ways he's the most amusing of my current "bodies" or "toons" or whatever you want to call them but he's not going to be PLEXing my accounts in the near future and he needs time to grow into my goals for him.
OK, so that's three out of six slots on two accounts. Both of them have training queues that will last months. So what to do with the other slots? Well first, each account has an NPC corp, totally unskilled shuttle pilot. Each exists for price checks or advance scouting for the opposite account. If I ever get a third account, though, it won't need a shuttler. I can use one of the other two. So to recap we have:
Account 1:
ABC - the public face of the spy operation
Trader/explorer: who makes the money
Shuttle pilot
Account 2:
Secret project X guy
shuttle pilot
?????
The ????? spot is spoken for, too. This will be my first real infiltrator, a bought character. Checking all the characters on his account won't "burn" him, in fact it'll reduce suspicion. He'll be on the "good guy" account while the money to purchase him came from the "bad guy" account. The only downside to this is that I'll have to pick whether the bought infiltrator or Project X gets to train. So all of this may necessitate a THIRD account. Considering I'll be 1bil a month in PLEX and 10-30bil to buy and outfit a good PVP toon, it may be a bit before I really have to deal with this. It might be interesting, though, to look at your own accounts and see what the lineup on each account says about the characters in it. Since I don't know how other people think about these things, I'd love to see an example of how your metacorp is laid out.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Quick Update
Well, the real world gig worked out so well that all of this week has been taken up with planning and executing for other things. However, I did start an "invite a friend" account. My new alt is making a beeline for cloaky ships and covops cyno. If anyone needs a cloaked propaganda officer to drop on the enemy and commence psyops, drop me an EVEmail. The basic plan goes like this:
Step 1. Infiltrate enemy system.
Step 2. Hide out and cloak up.
Step 3. Stay online 23/7. Make occasional posts in local/region/constellation designed to annoy and/or demoralize (don't want to give away too many details. Suffice it to say I'm a good demotivational speaker)
Step 4. Watch frustration mount.
Step 5. Profit!
Step 1. Infiltrate enemy system.
Step 2. Hide out and cloak up.
Step 3. Stay online 23/7. Make occasional posts in local/region/constellation designed to annoy and/or demoralize (don't want to give away too many details. Suffice it to say I'm a good demotivational speaker)
Step 4. Watch frustration mount.
Step 5. Profit!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Just a quick update
Got my account issues fixed, so that's a good thing at least. Looks like the war in Delve is heating up. I see a few systems have changed hands but that doesn't tell me how many are under siege. FAIL&company are doing the requisite round of chest thumping. After all, you have to keep morale high to keep ships in the air. I'm almost sad that I don't have a bomber pilot ready to go. I've been amusing myself with following this one from the sidelines. EVE more than any other MMO is a long term game and I'm thinking accordingly. Rather than try to jump into this unprepared I'm looking at where I can be in six months to a year and where my spies will be two years after that.
I'll be out for the weekend, most likely. If anyone really interested in my offline theatrical madness, I'll post photos.
Here's your fun quote of the day:
Good evening Failers.
I write to you not as FAIL's CEO, but every part a member like any of you.
It was not so long ago that a joined FAIL as part of paragon fury (a newly formed supercorp of 300 members). I remember only too well the feeling that i could make something of myself here defending the south's borders from any FOE.
Today A Southern Coalition Loki fleet undocked from 319- to face an already larger TIDI fleet. 170 v 500, you would think that was enough...... think again a further 200 bridged in.
It will not take some but all to win this war, every last ship will be needed.
"FAIL will never backstab, lie, cheat or otherwise use dishonesty as a way to win, We will face all enemy's with pride knowing that if we win, we won because we were better" (emphasis mine)
Never underestimate what they are capable of Archie, the war will occur likely long after i have gone, but remember this, you are only as strong as the people around you - Ballistix
This is not just an enemy they are an insult to everything we are and hope to be, stand with me, and together we will fight them until death or glory.
-Archie
I predict FAIL is going to suffer a massive defeat at the hands of espionage. If I had a vested interest, I'd be working on propaganda. After all, if winning proves you're better, losing proves you're not. Lose one battle and expect to have the membership challanges your presumptions of superiority.
I'll be out for the weekend, most likely. If anyone really interested in my offline theatrical madness, I'll post photos.
Here's your fun quote of the day:
Good evening Failers.
I write to you not as FAIL's CEO, but every part a member like any of you.
It was not so long ago that a joined FAIL as part of paragon fury (a newly formed supercorp of 300 members). I remember only too well the feeling that i could make something of myself here defending the south's borders from any FOE.
Today A Southern Coalition Loki fleet undocked from 319- to face an already larger TIDI fleet. 170 v 500, you would think that was enough...... think again a further 200 bridged in.
It will not take some but all to win this war, every last ship will be needed.
"FAIL will never backstab, lie, cheat or otherwise use dishonesty as a way to win, We will face all enemy's with pride knowing that if we win, we won because we were better" (emphasis mine)
Never underestimate what they are capable of Archie, the war will occur likely long after i have gone, but remember this, you are only as strong as the people around you - Ballistix
This is not just an enemy they are an insult to everything we are and hope to be, stand with me, and together we will fight them until death or glory.
-Archie
I predict FAIL is going to suffer a massive defeat at the hands of espionage. If I had a vested interest, I'd be working on propaganda. After all, if winning proves you're better, losing proves you're not. Lose one battle and expect to have the membership challanges your presumptions of superiority.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Stupid real life problems!
OK, so this deadline coming up is leaving me completely drained. I probably won't have time to really work ABC until next week. Worse yet, I had to get my debit card replaced and my trial accounts ends today. So I'm going to have to let it go idle for a few days until the new card comes in and I can get a month of game time.
Current plan:
work through Saturday
sleep through Monday
update bio, EVElopedia page, maybe set up a page for a charity to give new pilots a mining shuttle (this idea probably won't work but amuses me).
reactivate primary account
"invite a friend" and start working my second account on a PVP pilot for my first major op.
Current plan:
work through Saturday
sleep through Monday
update bio, EVElopedia page, maybe set up a page for a charity to give new pilots a mining shuttle (this idea probably won't work but amuses me).
reactivate primary account
"invite a friend" and start working my second account on a PVP pilot for my first major op.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Infrastructure
Busy weekend ahead of me outside of EVE. Looks like most of my time will be devoted to infrastructure. To-do list:
Appropriate voice chat software and voice morphing. Yes, it will be possible to talk to ABC soon, but hearing the voice won't help you spot an infiltrator.
Bio. I need something appropriately impressive. I have in mind something like "if this character is in your alliance, you're boned. Get out now!"
Evelopedia page. While my individual projects/assignments won't be public, ABC needs as high a profile as possible. After all, people need to know who to contact with tips and tears.
Start a charity. No one wants to send money to a spy but they might want to support a poor Minmatar urchin and make sure they get fresh food, clean water and a decent education. Other options include Save The Ether Whales and Amarr's Witnesses. There might just be a corp in all this. Of course that would require its own infrastructure of an alt, a web site, Evelopedia page etc. Could be fun, though. "Excuse me, do you have a few minutes to talk about our lord and savior?"
Appropriate voice chat software and voice morphing. Yes, it will be possible to talk to ABC soon, but hearing the voice won't help you spot an infiltrator.
Bio. I need something appropriately impressive. I have in mind something like "if this character is in your alliance, you're boned. Get out now!"
Evelopedia page. While my individual projects/assignments won't be public, ABC needs as high a profile as possible. After all, people need to know who to contact with tips and tears.
Start a charity. No one wants to send money to a spy but they might want to support a poor Minmatar urchin and make sure they get fresh food, clean water and a decent education. Other options include Save The Ether Whales and Amarr's Witnesses. There might just be a corp in all this. Of course that would require its own infrastructure of an alt, a web site, Evelopedia page etc. Could be fun, though. "Excuse me, do you have a few minutes to talk about our lord and savior?"
I've still got a lot of work ahead of me before the infiltrator plan is up and running. Agent Black Cat (ABC) needs a bio and a page on Evelopedia. I'm going to have to start a second, clean account to hold characters bought and sold for infiltration projects. The cost of the accounts and character purchases means I'll need a budget of somewhere between 10 and 20 billion per month. I'll cover each of these in detail later. For now i'm going to do something most intelligence agents would be loathe to do and share some of my sources. I go over each one every day looking for leads, changes in the balance of power in nulsec and so forth. This is how I locate low hanging fruit (this concept will be expanded on in a future post).
Eveskunk - automatically aggregates alliance-wide mails from its members. Most of it is worthless to outsiders or refers to forum posts that you don't have access to. Every now and then, though, you'll see signs of hate and discontent or details about upcoming ops. These are ripe for exploitation. If I had a fleet at my beck and call, I could probably ambush several alliances per weekend just with this information.
Dotlan - has up to date Sov maps and tracks the top 100 alliances based on how many outposts they run. This is a great place to do some research. Pick an alliance that you found elsewhere and see what systems they control and what corps are members. Remember, the bigger an alliance and the more members, the more likely that they have a corp with weak security to join somewhere in the mix.
Battle Clinic - All the killmail that's fit to print. Look someone up and you can tell if they're a hopelessly incompetent industrialist, a seasoned PVP veteran or a pirate ganker. Its also got lots of fittings, which are useful for a relative newb trying to pass of as a semi-competent pilot.
EVE News 24 - A good look at marco-politics and also a great way to spot who's on the ropes and desperate for someone to help.
Similarly, Eve Radio may be a bit news light but you never know what you'll hear on their show. They're still growing, too. So expect them to become more news-focused once someone realizes their strategic propaganda value. The music's not bad, either.
Kungustuman - established by a legendary alleged forum hacker who was permanently banned from EVE. The fact that the word Kungutsuman used to be in the bad language filter for EVE's forums should tell you all that you need to know. I admit I haven't looked too deeply into this yet but I'm definitely looking forward to having the time to put it to use.
Any other news/intel sources that anyone may know of would be greatly appreciated. The more you know, the better you can tailor your actions to maximum benefit.
Speaking of which, The Mittani kindly answered an EVEmail I sent him asking for tips on being a spy. Most of it was fairly bland, but one thing in particular stuck out. He recommended scamming as the best way to raise the amounts of money I need. To paraphrase, since I don't have the EVEmail open, he said that it is the only game in town that's not rigged in the house's favor. Since infiltration is basically scamming on the macro scale, this sounds like a good idea. I've been doing some reading up on that, too. Once I have the time to really put a few good ones together, I'll be doing some testing. This weekend will be too busy outside of EVE but next week should be my entry into scammerdom. In the meantime, here's some more fun reading:
Eve Princessbride - Not updated often but it has a nice overview of some of her scams as well as chat logs and screen shots. I'm already using her "big sell" technique on a couple of standing market orders.
Eve Evolved and ISK Watch each have a nice article on scams to avoid. These should also get your creative juices flowing.
Obviously, these should be taken only as a guide. Sure, these scams keep being reused because they produce results. If you've got a winning personality and can appeal to people's greed, though, you may want to come up with your own. Sure, it'll be stolen eventually. In the meantime, giving the fish something they haven't seen before makes them more likely to bite.
For example, I have high hopes for this one posted as a link in my trader alt's bio:
Eveskunk - automatically aggregates alliance-wide mails from its members. Most of it is worthless to outsiders or refers to forum posts that you don't have access to. Every now and then, though, you'll see signs of hate and discontent or details about upcoming ops. These are ripe for exploitation. If I had a fleet at my beck and call, I could probably ambush several alliances per weekend just with this information.
Dotlan - has up to date Sov maps and tracks the top 100 alliances based on how many outposts they run. This is a great place to do some research. Pick an alliance that you found elsewhere and see what systems they control and what corps are members. Remember, the bigger an alliance and the more members, the more likely that they have a corp with weak security to join somewhere in the mix.
Battle Clinic - All the killmail that's fit to print. Look someone up and you can tell if they're a hopelessly incompetent industrialist, a seasoned PVP veteran or a pirate ganker. Its also got lots of fittings, which are useful for a relative newb trying to pass of as a semi-competent pilot.
EVE News 24 - A good look at marco-politics and also a great way to spot who's on the ropes and desperate for someone to help.
Similarly, Eve Radio may be a bit news light but you never know what you'll hear on their show. They're still growing, too. So expect them to become more news-focused once someone realizes their strategic propaganda value. The music's not bad, either.
Kungustuman - established by a legendary alleged forum hacker who was permanently banned from EVE. The fact that the word Kungutsuman used to be in the bad language filter for EVE's forums should tell you all that you need to know. I admit I haven't looked too deeply into this yet but I'm definitely looking forward to having the time to put it to use.
Any other news/intel sources that anyone may know of would be greatly appreciated. The more you know, the better you can tailor your actions to maximum benefit.
Speaking of which, The Mittani kindly answered an EVEmail I sent him asking for tips on being a spy. Most of it was fairly bland, but one thing in particular stuck out. He recommended scamming as the best way to raise the amounts of money I need. To paraphrase, since I don't have the EVEmail open, he said that it is the only game in town that's not rigged in the house's favor. Since infiltration is basically scamming on the macro scale, this sounds like a good idea. I've been doing some reading up on that, too. Once I have the time to really put a few good ones together, I'll be doing some testing. This weekend will be too busy outside of EVE but next week should be my entry into scammerdom. In the meantime, here's some more fun reading:
Eve Princessbride - Not updated often but it has a nice overview of some of her scams as well as chat logs and screen shots. I'm already using her "big sell" technique on a couple of standing market orders.
Eve Evolved and ISK Watch each have a nice article on scams to avoid. These should also get your creative juices flowing.
Obviously, these should be taken only as a guide. Sure, these scams keep being reused because they produce results. If you've got a winning personality and can appeal to people's greed, though, you may want to come up with your own. Sure, it'll be stolen eventually. In the meantime, giving the fish something they haven't seen before makes them more likely to bite.
For example, I have high hopes for this one posted as a link in my trader alt's bio:
Yes, someone might eventually connect me to "her" but I'm not especially worried. Market orders are blind and the kind of people who fall for scams in Jita local aren't likely to have read this blog. By the way, yes I do have some other pics to go with it. Yes, if you send ABC enough money, I'll really send you links. No, I will not introduce you to her.
Random Intel of the day: from DICE
"Now that H-FOYG is secure with it's POSes and such, we're onlining the first super arrays. Yes yes I know, we store them there but we're finally building them too. We have a line up for the first Nyx but we've already decided who gets it. The next few are lined up and will go into production within 2 weeks"
Friday, June 22, 2012
War, war never changes.
EVE Online, just the name is enough to derail a conversation for gamers. Depending on who you ask its the only truly challenging MMO or a special place for neckbeards, griefers, basement dwellers and accounting geeks to keep them away from more popular MMO's. The fact that you're reading this and that I'm writing it probably means we're both in the former camp.
I've played EVE on and off for a few years under various accounts. I've always had a problem, which I think of as "hitting the wall". Its common to PVEers. After a while, CCP's content starts to get a bit repetitive. You find yourself grinding out missions or wormholes or whatever with your friends more for the sake of hanging out with them than for EVE itself. Maybe you make enough for a PLEX so your play is "free" but then you're playing a game you've lost interest in to make virtual spacebucks to pay for a game you're not interested in.
Still, year after year and account after account, EVE kept drawing me back. The single shard design, the depth of the game system and just the fact that I like spaceships and transhumanism kept calling to me. So what makes this time different? Well, first I started reading Gevlon's blog. I liked his dispassionate view of maximizing his returns from the game. Love him or hate him, Gevlon knows what's fun for him and pursues it in the game without apology. I don't really see ISK as a goal, or even a way to keep score. Its just a means to an end. On the other hand, if Gevlon's advice helps me get those monthly PLEX's with a minimum effort, then great.
The important thing is that Gevlon got me thinking. Aside from the nebulous concept of fun, what's my personal way of keeping score in EVE? The answer is Sov, short for Sovreignty for the two of you who aren't familiar with the term. If an Alliance could conquer every 0.0 sec system in EVE and hold it against all comers they could be said to have won EVE Online. Gevlon refers to this in his own blog as The One Alliance.
Now I don't have anything like enough time for running a small alliance, let alone The One Alliance. On the other hand, if score is kept by Sov, then there are still things I can do to compete on that level. Joining an Alliance and helping them keep or expand their Sov is one option, of course. That seems to me a lot like having a day job. I log onto my recreational activity and some guy tells me what the schedule is for fleet actions, or mining operations or whatever.
That's when I discovered The Mittani's column on Ten Ton Hammer. I highly recommend reading the whole thing if you want an overview of espionage in EVE and its history. Its quite fascinating both on that level and to see The Mittani writing in a distinctly non-Goonish style. Now spying, that sounded like fun. I'd go into it not for the tears, just to pit my wits against the top players of EVE, the Sov holders, and do my best to come out on top. It was an approach that didn't require 20 hours a week of grinding or waiting six months for my skills to finish training. Keeping score would not be a matter of taking Sov but breaking it. Every system that my infiltrators set up to fall from the inside would be a victory. Every alliance destroyed would be a mark on the scorecard. The moment the idea crystallized in my mind, I knew this was my hook. This, THIS was what could hold my interest in EVE. I've done my share of theater work and fancy myself a pretty convincing actor. How hard could it be to get started?
Harder than you might think. I had a few hurdles to overcome. First, to infiltrate a corp I was going to need a headset since every damn corp uses Teamspeak or equivalent these days. Quick run to the local Supermegabigblockmart after dinner took care of that. Next, I couldn't risk my cover so I would need a permanent character on a clean account. That's Agent Black Cat. He'll never train a skill, never leave the rookie school, never fly a ship. He's just an EVEmail box.
Then there's this blog, of course. Its another visibility tool, a way for you to find me. In it I'll share some of the background details on my life as a spy, interesting tidbits of intel I come across independent of my undercover work and the like. I'll also be happy to take intel, suggestions of who to infiltrate and even just plain ISK. Along the way I'll be laying out the sources of intel I use, how I hide my identity from my targets, how I use the psychology of other players to my benefit.
At the same time I hope those of you who have experience in the spy game, or the counter-spy game will step up to demonstrate how much more you know about all of this than I do. I have no illusions about being an elite, alliance killing spy (yet), so feel free to point out the errors in my thinking so that I can get better at it. Then everyone will know from your comments how much better you are and how incompetent I am.
Tomorrow: How to make an infiltrator toon and associated expenses.
Total characters in action as of 6/22: 1 (Agent Black Cat)
Total ISK: 500
Random intel tip for the day: FCON fleet forming up directly before downtime 6/23 for an op to follow downtime. Staging area is K-8SQS inside the station. Ship types - Drakes, Scimitars, Recon, HICs and Hurricanes. Op will run 60-90 minutes.
I've played EVE on and off for a few years under various accounts. I've always had a problem, which I think of as "hitting the wall". Its common to PVEers. After a while, CCP's content starts to get a bit repetitive. You find yourself grinding out missions or wormholes or whatever with your friends more for the sake of hanging out with them than for EVE itself. Maybe you make enough for a PLEX so your play is "free" but then you're playing a game you've lost interest in to make virtual spacebucks to pay for a game you're not interested in.
Still, year after year and account after account, EVE kept drawing me back. The single shard design, the depth of the game system and just the fact that I like spaceships and transhumanism kept calling to me. So what makes this time different? Well, first I started reading Gevlon's blog. I liked his dispassionate view of maximizing his returns from the game. Love him or hate him, Gevlon knows what's fun for him and pursues it in the game without apology. I don't really see ISK as a goal, or even a way to keep score. Its just a means to an end. On the other hand, if Gevlon's advice helps me get those monthly PLEX's with a minimum effort, then great.
The important thing is that Gevlon got me thinking. Aside from the nebulous concept of fun, what's my personal way of keeping score in EVE? The answer is Sov, short for Sovreignty for the two of you who aren't familiar with the term. If an Alliance could conquer every 0.0 sec system in EVE and hold it against all comers they could be said to have won EVE Online. Gevlon refers to this in his own blog as The One Alliance.
Now I don't have anything like enough time for running a small alliance, let alone The One Alliance. On the other hand, if score is kept by Sov, then there are still things I can do to compete on that level. Joining an Alliance and helping them keep or expand their Sov is one option, of course. That seems to me a lot like having a day job. I log onto my recreational activity and some guy tells me what the schedule is for fleet actions, or mining operations or whatever.
That's when I discovered The Mittani's column on Ten Ton Hammer. I highly recommend reading the whole thing if you want an overview of espionage in EVE and its history. Its quite fascinating both on that level and to see The Mittani writing in a distinctly non-Goonish style. Now spying, that sounded like fun. I'd go into it not for the tears, just to pit my wits against the top players of EVE, the Sov holders, and do my best to come out on top. It was an approach that didn't require 20 hours a week of grinding or waiting six months for my skills to finish training. Keeping score would not be a matter of taking Sov but breaking it. Every system that my infiltrators set up to fall from the inside would be a victory. Every alliance destroyed would be a mark on the scorecard. The moment the idea crystallized in my mind, I knew this was my hook. This, THIS was what could hold my interest in EVE. I've done my share of theater work and fancy myself a pretty convincing actor. How hard could it be to get started?
Harder than you might think. I had a few hurdles to overcome. First, to infiltrate a corp I was going to need a headset since every damn corp uses Teamspeak or equivalent these days. Quick run to the local Supermegabigblockmart after dinner took care of that. Next, I couldn't risk my cover so I would need a permanent character on a clean account. That's Agent Black Cat. He'll never train a skill, never leave the rookie school, never fly a ship. He's just an EVEmail box.
Then there's this blog, of course. Its another visibility tool, a way for you to find me. In it I'll share some of the background details on my life as a spy, interesting tidbits of intel I come across independent of my undercover work and the like. I'll also be happy to take intel, suggestions of who to infiltrate and even just plain ISK. Along the way I'll be laying out the sources of intel I use, how I hide my identity from my targets, how I use the psychology of other players to my benefit.
At the same time I hope those of you who have experience in the spy game, or the counter-spy game will step up to demonstrate how much more you know about all of this than I do. I have no illusions about being an elite, alliance killing spy (yet), so feel free to point out the errors in my thinking so that I can get better at it. Then everyone will know from your comments how much better you are and how incompetent I am.
Tomorrow: How to make an infiltrator toon and associated expenses.
Total characters in action as of 6/22: 1 (Agent Black Cat)
Total ISK: 500
Random intel tip for the day: FCON fleet forming up directly before downtime 6/23 for an op to follow downtime. Staging area is K-8SQS inside the station. Ship types - Drakes, Scimitars, Recon, HICs and Hurricanes. Op will run 60-90 minutes.
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