Erebus SilentKill is a well-known roaming FC in Guardians of the Galaxy. He is particularly adept at securing kills under an enemy supercap umbrella. EN24 sat down with him to find out his thoughts on FC’ing, supercapital umbrellas and content.
What’s your background in EVE? How long have you been playing and what have you gotten up to?
I started playing EVE in 2009 when I was working as a design engineer. One of my subordinates was an EVE player. I think he was trying to sabotage my career by getting me hooked on EVE. I tried it for a few months and ended up unhappy with it. I could not find the right community of players, and all I wanted to do was blow up spaceships. I pecked at it here and there and then in 2012 I met a small group of highsec friends and convinced them to move to lowsec with me. We ended up in the Honey Badger Coalition living in M-O. When that fell apart I was looking or something more and a MOA corp leader plucked me from the in-game recruitment channel of all places. I started doing a little FC’ing where I could get away with it, mostly flying Cormorants and frigates. Over time I got better at FC’ing, my team got better too and we began to form into a real weapon of destruction.
I had no idea how long and brutal the forging process would be. Over the years I have made many friends in MOA, and learned so much from them. Many friends moved on to other alliances and more recently I was able to coordinate with some of them in a mass attack in Delve. The result of our combined effort was roughly 4 trillion ISK in damages during the Goon assault in 9-4. We GOTG, Horde, MC etc were forming 150+ man blops fleets and killing rorquals and supers by the dozens, and with the goon super cap fleet away, it was a buffet extraordinaire.
Do you have an interest in FC’ing larger stuff, or is your main thing destroyers/bombers/frigates etc.?
I have FC’ed quite a variety of spaceships. I like the destroyers and frigates due to their mobility. However, I do fly other subcap fleets as well and I try to keep fleets and ship types evolving to suit our needs. I do not fly caps at all; my goals involve becoming an effective sub cap FC and more importantly to be the players’ FC.
“The players’ FC” – What does this mean?
I try and put myself in the shoes of the players. How would I like to be treated? What would I look for in a fleet/FC? The years of FC’ing have refined much more than just game play, but also understanding how to deal with other people. That’s really the fundamentals of being a good FC, respecting other players and your community. I am not above telling someone to shut the fuck up if they are causing a problem, but generally speaking, I try to take the softer approach.
I have learned that if you are an asshole, pilots won’t want to come on your fleets. Staying humble for me means coming back to these core concepts: respect players, praise talent, build friendships, be the players’ FC.
Sort Dragon* recently banned roaming in Delve for members of his alliance. Do you think that roaming in Delve is kind of pointless, or do you think that it’s good, but just very difficult?
I can’t speak for Sort Dragon or his reasons/intentions. However, from my perspective it would appear he was trying to prevent a massive pancake event with the return of the Goon super fleet. There is no need to mindlessly feed our opponents. We lost a few fleets of bombers to smart bombing titans, inconsequential in the overall ISK/kill/fun ratio. I recently took a 50+ man armor VNI (Vexor Navy Issue) fleet to Delve and was met with an equal number of titans and supers. Goons want to say I am “Terrible”, but then up-ship to damn near an equal number of titans to fight cruisers.
What advice would you give to FCs or groups trying to do damage under an enemy supercap umbrella?
As far as I can tell, the only effective ships to take to Delve are disposable. Destroyers, frigs, and disposable dreads. My advice to other FCs would be to avoid taking anything into Delve you don’t want bosoned or pancaked. Bombers and dread bombs can work but require more effort and planning than I am willing to commit. With a good FC, you will most likely die, if you are clever you can kill more than your value in ISK losses and deaths, and provide players with some content at the Goons expense.
That makes sense – but do you think that killing isolated ratters/miners and then getting pancaked is good content for players?
I guess that’s up to the players. I listen to my fleet members and try to achieve harmony amongst the masses. They seem to like harassing Goons in Delve with disposable ships. In most fleet losses its one or two players getting all the kills, which makes me wonder what it’s like to be the average Goon line member. Yesterday, for instance, the Goons had formed a 50+ man Jackdaw fleet and then dropped smart bombing Lokis on our 50 man Cormorant fleet. This is not unusual or a big deal for us we had just killed 12 billion ISK worth of ships and losing a cormorant fleet is of little consequence. More importantly though is the fact that the Lokis screwed the Jackdaw fleet out of a good fight. I don’t think Goons realise the long term effect that’s going to have for them; people won’t bring nice things to play if you are a shitlord. Come to Deklein with your fleets, I will fight you straight up.
