49 replies to this topic

[Draelor]

No, Fassin's just plain South African.

[Dancing Ferret]

Lets not derail this anymore

[Deran]

Caldak was a great FC although with a tricky accent (is he french or something? )

Caldak definitely comes under the category labelled "Something"

[Kazuma Matsuki]

First off - I didn't know about you guys until I was watching the AT8 and they said you all do classes, glad I looked into it, it was a great experience.

Random Thoughts - (I'm mil, so I listen to the radio ALOT... thus most of my thoughts will be about comms)

Non-standard comm - Recon reports, while mostly standardized, had some unfamiliar terms in them at times (ex, XX gate is friendly) which unless I spaced it during the lecture wasn't covered.

Comm speed - I know Caldak was talking to scouts and whatnot, but at times I wasn't able to keep up with what was going on (see additional chat monkey thoughts). Part of this is just not being familiar with the systems, and how they link.

Chat Monkey (CM) - Thank you for both the verbal and posts saying what I was doing was helpful ... I know early on I was getting frustrated when folks weren't doing what Caldak said (and I chatted). That did get alot better as the night went on.

- CM brevity, if you all do this on a regular basis (the chat relay) some standardized brevity (which could be part of the reading materials) would be ideal. During the first lul - I quickly typed out what I was using, and later on started adding cold side / hot side to gates (cold would be approaching side / hot on the jump side).

Multiple voice channels -
- Not a Basic thought, just a thought -
If there are role based groups, one could make role based channels (for inter-group coord) while allowing less traffic on the main channel. I might be a freak of nature... but while in a hot and dusty land I could monitor three channels at a time (one left ear, one right, one center), and unless all three were active (at the same time) not lose track of anything. Again, not a basic topic, but something that came to mind.

If this would be better in the AAR - lemme know and I'll repost it over there.

Thanks, and I look forward to additional courses!

Kazuma Mastuki

[Othran]

Fassin and Caldak are both South African - different generations though. I like them both (accent-wise, and as plain-speaking lads) as the very first picture I have of myself going to school is with a boy that emigrated to SA 2 years later (1974). I remember his dad well, a journalist, lovely man. Tragically my friends' sister died in an all too common drunk truck driver incident way way out on the road going from Jo'burg to Harare. Truck driver just ploughed straight into her and her boyfriend who were on a motorbike, not a lot left of either of them sadly. Caldak is a lot more Afrikaans (dutch) than Fassin was with accents. I like both accents.

[Mangala Solaris]

Lol. Australian.

Isn't he a South African who moved to Australia?

I love that accent. I could listen to him talk all day. Just want to wrap that voice up in cotton wool

[Dancing Ferret]

I love that accent. I could listen to him talk all day. Just want to wrap that voice up in cotton wool

We will be sure to pass that on to him, verbatim, daily.

[[BDEAL] B1ade]

not sure who it was but someone described south african as someone winding a record player backwards lol! roam - epic, FC - Unbelieveable. im with melissa, do roams more often for small fee, im sure you will fill them.

[Sever Aldaria]

I'd happily cough up 10mil isk each time just to go on such a roam every weekend! (hint, hint)

im with melissa, do roams more often for small fee, im sure you will fill them.

Would love to even for free but you all need to remember that Agony is a pvp corp first and a public teaching organization second. We actually don't normally run frig gangs in Agony. We use all classes of ships in a variety of different themed gangs. It's hard enough for me to find a time to schedule triage carrier exercises between all the gangs the others plan much less the classes

TLDR; we're also busy doing our own stuff

[[BDEAL] B1ade]

Multiple voice channels -
- Not a Basic thought, just a thought -
If there are role based groups, one could make role based channels (for inter-group coord) while allowing less traffic on the main channel. I might be a freak of nature... but while in a hot and dusty land I could monitor three channels at a time (one left ear, one right, one center), and unless all three were active (at the same time) not lose track of anything. Again, not a basic topic, but something that came to mind.

Kazuma Mastuki


the class is called PVP-WOLFPACKS

[Vjorn]

A well thought out and put-together class!! I too was familiar with many of the things covered in the lecture, however I also learned quite a lot, too. Studying the reading materials before-hand is very important because the lecturer has so much to cover in so little time. I thought Azual did a fantastic job teaching the class I was in. One suggestion I have is to maybe insert into the reading materials a brief description and a step by step how-to on your nifty fleet tool; there was a bit of confusion and a time bog during that portion of the class. However, there were a couple other AU members there who straightened the confused souls up lol. I like very much the way ya'll divided the class portion into two different time zones, and then brought everyone together for the roam. It gives many people a better opportunity to attend; as well as possibly making it easier on the instructors, I imagine??? The roam......wow!!! Confusion, calm, highs, lows, chaos, rushes, leadership. We had it all! I think that Caldak and the Agony recons/skirmishers did a superb job keeping a blob of unskilled/inexperienced pilots together and turning us all into a force to be reckoned with. I would like to send out special kudos to Matt Andrews, for dealing with all the DC's (especially all of mine *damned philippine isp*). And also to Kazumo Matsuki, for relaying Caldak's commands into fleet chat. Although I have pvp'd before (I too live in a wormhole), there were many, many firsts for me. I think the most daunting aspect, and yet should be the most basic, was fleet ops/movement. This was my first time in a fleet of over 5-10. The other very daunting aspect was the sheer magnitude of 0.0, and the feeling of continuously being lost, even while I was with the fleet. And then hearing Caldak nonchallantly telling this scout go to that gate 5 systems away, while checking specific gates on the way. As retired military, I thought that Caldak's leadership....and sometimes his gruffness, was exactly what we needed. As time passed, and the blob started coalescing into a fleet, he loosened up some. His idea of a train, and our choo'ing in local, was the morale that we needed. In my mind, the battle in 6-OQJV with [LEGIO] was epic, and was the MOST fun I have had in EVE! Many thanks to those folks for bringing it on! Ok, ok....perhaps Caldak's goading in local egged them on a bit hehehe. Another first, using pods and/or mid-tacs to bounce in/out of fight. I am still analyzing in my mind what I did, how I flew, asking myself what I did right/wrong.... I will be recommending to my corpmates that they take the time for your classes, and I WILL be coming back. Again, thank you AU!! Vj Edit: As a missile boat pilot, the part of the lecture that I found most informative was the tracking portion, both for my offensive upcoming minnie pilot, as well as defensively. Edit 2: Reworded because poor word choice on my part. Apologies to Agony, and especially to Caldak, because AU are truly professional in local.

[Othran]

Multiple voice channels -
- Not a Basic thought, just a thought -
If there are role based groups, one could make role based channels (for inter-group coord) while allowing less traffic on the main channel. I might be a freak of nature... but while in a hot and dusty land I could monitor three channels at a time (one left ear, one right, one center), and unless all three were active (at the same time) not lose track of anything. Again, not a basic topic, but something that came to mind.

Kazuma Mastuki


the class is called PVP-WOLFPACKS

Wolfpacks is the most informative course for those that pay attention. Really, where basic is about launching you into PVP, Wolfpacks is the first stage in getting over the "wtf just happened" scenario. Lots of tacs stuff in there that will save your arse and make you look like a better PVPr. Its just another step on the ladder but for a lot of people this is the one that is enough for the odd wardec/etc.

Its also one of the hardest roams to run IMHO - running 10 Destroyers in a gang is OK and fun; you will usually all end up dead but you will have a few good fights.

Running 50+ Destroyers in a gang = where the hell do we get a good fight? By "good fight" I mean one where neither side has the ability to immediately overwhelm the other side. As such, some Wolfpacks classes have been inventive to say the least. NB - Inventive doesn't always mean "moar kills"

See when you next step up to PvP-Advanced then your FC knows you have a bit of a tank so he can plan accordingly. For example - he knows you can stick around longer so if he keeps the main force off it may draw a better fight. Do that with dessies and you're all picking up your pods

If I had to say just one thing about Agony, it would be not to forget Hydra. You will co-ordinate it as ships get larger but having a few ships with a single well-chosen ewar mod will make your gang much better than yet another shield mod.

For solo peeps - understand how to use tacs. It will be far more effective than fits in a lot of cases.

[Gavin]

Great class. I also knew most of the stuff covered in the lecture, but I learned a couple of things on the roam, and had loads of fun doing it. Unfortunately, it looked like I had to leave right before the big fight broke out in 6-O, but it sounds like one hell of a fight. I'll definitely be signing up for Wolfpacks as soon as you hold one on a weekend I can make it (HINT HINT: make it during the next 7-8 weeks!), and I'll also want to come along on more roams. I never thought about using fleet members as bounce points during a fight; I've always thought you had to prepare bookmarks ahead of time. One comment: nothing was mentioned in the lecture about the various timers (aggression preventing you from jumping/docking, combat keeping you in space if you log off, etc) that I recall. Does that get mentioned in a later class? I didn't realize until the roam that you were invulnerable while under the gate cloak.

[Caldak]

Right, my addons: 1 - Basic is Basic. How much do you add on in knowledge ect for people that there to do basic? 2 - If you think we were a group of people, never flown togther, don't know jack about the other persons skill, not use to the area, unsure of who is willing to engage, and all in flimsy Frigates that are really7 paper thin and not so much DPS on there own. 3 - Theme, used it this time to get everyone to gel togther, all the roams I've lead the first 2 - 3 hrs are tough. 4 - Pressure, loads of it, specially on ones self as we want to show you guys PVP and a "good" time. We don't pay someone to engage us in fights. Man we wiped almost 4 BILLION of isk out in that trip. 5 - Smack, something we don't really do in Agony. But seening people stay docked up ect because we were a few frigates. I can think of 10 ways off the top of my head to rip frigate fleets apart. 6 - Always know what ur fleet can do. And knowing that I can depend on people sticking in the fight and not running to save there 4M isk ship is top notch. 7 - Always have fun. Hard to rembemer always, but EVE is a game.

[Pip3r]

Fantastic class and roam! Could easy write a essay on my experience and enjoyment but I'll try to keep it short-ish. Only been in EVE around 4 or 5 months now, one of the things in my travels thus far I'd heard about was Agony and their pvp training. After visiting these forums, reading people's comments and experiences and also watching some of the fraps'ed roams I knew it was something I really wanted to do and turned out to be very glad I did. I picked up quite a number of things I didn't know before from the theory section in the first day. While like others mention much of the information was foundation stuff (as it should be in a basic class of course) there was still a lot of new tips and tricks I picked up on, using the D-scanner to actually narrow things down instead of a simple 360* check was new to me and I'll enjoy practicing that along with my spiral approaches - the excersise where we practiced those was really helpful. Props to Screwed and the Agony guys who helped out, a great intro to the class. Roam was amazing :heart: 8.5 hours of great gaming. I'd done a little roaming with faction war fleets recently to get my toes wet in PVP and found Caldak's FCing combined with the scouting and skirmishing by Agony staff and alumni was truly awesome. Caldak held a professional and disciplined roam, and while a few people made early mistakes (me included) the fleet seemed to really begin to 'gel' and get into a rythym after the first couple hours. Got on more kills in the roam than my entire time previously in EVE, contributed to almost 2b in destoyed ships and got on 23 kills for the loss of only 2 Merlins, didn't get podded once (which I couldn't believe considering the amount of time I spent in a bubble while in my pod/s). Fight in 6-OQJV was awesome :dodge: sadly I got asploded 5 mins into it, but it was well worth it and managed to contribute to a few kills before going down. Second battle saw my lil Merlin help put down two more targets before warping out in structure, returning a minute later to help kill another two targets before finally being asploded once more. Combined with all the smaller skirmishes we got involved in it was a fantastic roam, best day of EVE flying I've had so far. Endless thanks to Caldak, Screwedup and all the Agony guys and girls for a great experience which was also incredible value for ISK. Looking forward to future classes and alumni roams! TL;DR - It was freakin' awesome. If you're reading these posts thinking of doing the Agony classes then get on the mailing list and enrol to do it, even if just for the experience. Get your corp mates and friends to do it too, I know I'll be spreading the word.

[Pesets]

[quote name='Othran]Re squads : there's an AAR report that Caldak has done. The point of AARs is to get feedback as to what you feel could be done better' date=' what mistakes there were, etc.[/quote']

Well doh, so thats what those threads are... :@ I always assumed that "class feedback" threads are for feedback and "AAR report" threads are for FC recapping how much fun we had...

Gonna go ahead and crosspost over there i guess...

[BP]

Thanks Azual for a very good theory class! I especially liked your very practical demonstration of why midsafes are not really safe .

And the roam... well, what can I say. Got on 63 killmails in 8 hours, participated in a one hour long engagement without 'sploding, shot at Mynxee and learnt a lot about small ships, 0.0 and the power of confidence.
At the beginning, when I heard the FC say "I hate to repeat myself" with that tricky accent, I was a bit concerned (also because English is not my first language). But after a short while it was no big problem to adapt to it. And also the mood swings got better, the more we shot at things !lol.
Thank you Caldak for a great experience, your skills are amazing!

Greetings
BP

[Othran]

[quote=Pesets]
[quote name='Othran]Re squads : there's an AAR report that Caldak has done. The point of AARs is to get feedback as to what you feel could be done better' date=' what mistakes there were, etc.[/quote']

Well doh, so thats what those threads are... :@ I always assumed that "class feedback" threads are for feedback and "AAR report" threads are for FC recapping how much fun we had...

Gonna go ahead and crosspost over there i guess...
[/quote]

Class is class. Roam is roam. Not much killing (action) on class section

[Azual]

[quote=Pesets]
[quote name='Othran]Re squads : there's an AAR report that Caldak has done. The point of AARs is to get feedback as to what you feel could be done better' date=' what mistakes there were, etc.[/quote']

Well doh, so thats what those threads are... :@ I always assumed that "class feedback" threads are for feedback and "AAR report" threads are for FC recapping how much fun we had...
[/quote]

To clarify:

The class feedback threads are for feedback on the class in general. This generally means things that are in our control, that we might take into account when deciding how to develop the class in future. This could be from either day.

AARs are for discussion of the in-combat decisions, what the fleet did right/wrong and how they might have done things differently to achieve a better outcome.

[ashred]

If I had to give my impressions of the class in one word, I would say: "professional". (If i had to give my impression of the class in three words, I’d say "loads of fun"!) Everything from the way registration was handled, to the punctual starts of class and roam, was efficient and effective and really demonstrated attention to detail. For a basic class, the material was relevant, comprehensive, and well presented. The written wiki materials provided were also extremely useful in prepping for the class. I particularly found the overview setup piece helpful. As has been noted, the roam was epically entertaining. I don’t feel that Caldak was “harsh” per se; he was always professional though very straightforward in setting the expectations and then holding us accountable (in a respectful manner) where we failed. If I were to offer a critique of the basic curriculum, one suggestion would be to perhaps add a short piece on bubbles in terms of what they are/do and when they are typically used. We used them extensively on the roam and I had not much experience with them previously. In closing, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Skrewed, Caldak, and the multitude of Agony folks helping both in the class and behind the scenes for sharing their knowledge and experience (and not to mention giving up their own all-too-precious game time) to help me learn pvp. Learning from the pros is a fantastic opportunity and one that is most appreciated.

[Baka Lakadaka]

Thanks Azual for a very good theory class! I especially liked your very practical demonstration of why midsafes are not really safe .

And the roam... well, what can I say. Got on 63 killmails in 8 hours, participated in a one hour long engagement without 'sploding, shot at Mynxee and learnt a lot about small ships, 0.0 and the power of confidence.
At the beginning, when I heard the FC say "I hate to repeat myself" with that tricky accent, I was a bit concerned (also because English is not my first language). But after a short while it was no big problem to adapt to it. And also the mood swings got better, the more we shot at things !lol.
Thank you Caldak for a great experience, your skills are amazing!

Greetings
BP

Caldak always gets happier after he's shot something up and killed it. The more he kills the happier he gets. It'd be quite disturbing if it was all virtual.

[razgar]

The class was awesome. Can't wait until the next one. Thanks guys!

[Kerzack]

Thanks Azual for a very good theory class! I especially liked your very practical demonstration of why midsafes are not really safe .

And the roam... well, what can I say. Got on 63 killmails in 8 hours, participated in a one hour long engagement without 'sploding, shot at Mynxee and learnt a lot about small ships, 0.0 and the power of confidence.
At the beginning, when I heard the FC say "I hate to repeat myself" with that tricky accent, I was a bit concerned (also because English is not my first language). But after a short while it was no big problem to adapt to it. And also the mood swings got better, the more we shot at things !lol.
Thank you Caldak for a great experience, your skills are amazing!

Greetings
BP

Caldak always gets happier after he's shot something up and killed it. The more he kills the happier he gets. It'd be quite disturbing if it was all virtual.

Jeez i'm quite afraid to even join his gangs till he gets a few kills...

[Visaoni]

This will be the third time I type up my feedback. Odd things seem to happen to either my computer or browser while responding to this thread. Anyway, it was a great class. The amount of material was astounding, but it wasn't so much that I felt overwhelmed. One thing I did notice was that the material in class didn't go much beyond the reading material, although there were a few exceptions. While personally I would have liked for the instructors to briefly review the reading material and then expand on it, I understand not all of the students had a firm grasp of the reading material. Many people don't learn very well if they only read the material, and some students may have only skimmed. Overall all of the Agony personal involved did an amazing job. Azual's explanations were very clear and understandable, and he made the class fun and interesting without letting the students get out of hand. Caldak was a great FC who demonstrated a clear understanding of what we as students, and as a frigate gang, were capable of. He never demanded anything unreasonable of us, but he pushed us to perform to our best ability. Screwedup was also very generous to use a little of his spare time to organize all of us into a fleet before Caldak was able to login. All the other Agony pilots, as expected, did a great job with scouting, finding targets, bubbles, and whatever else they were doing.

[bcg]

the roam was epic. i got 12 killmails, awesomeness. as always, caldak is fantastic as fc. thanks caldak for being up at an ungodly hour. thanks to all agony members for the roam. looking forwrd to the next.