34 replies to this topic

[Mohawk]

I believe this had to be worst lag I've seen on any of the class roams. So for the new students, don't let that discourage you from any future class/roams. Gizznitt, props to you for show us a new exitement in the game, "How to get your pod out of 0.0 101" LOL thanks for the fun !lol

[Crazed Wombat]

First, creds: E-Uni grad, so have had some basic stuff. Many months in WHs and some time in 0.0. My RL creds include teaching, and teaching teachers. I am older than dirt, so I have a little perspective. Some of your Core folks may recognise me by the name Conal Orion. Feedback: 1. Overall, I enjoyed the weekend. 2. I was impressed by the aura of calm professionalism projected by the instructors. When you look at the website, it occasionally comes across as "shut up, die, and like it, noob" a bit. Perhaps that's the "initiation rite". Suffice it to say that there was no such attitude during the class or among the instructors. 3. When Hammereds took over, it sounded like there may have been a bit of uncertainty regarding what was covered in the Basic curriculum, in that he expected that we knew something that hadn't been done-- I am afraid that I do not recall the item, just the exchange between Agony instructors. Not sure if this might have been due to revision or a need for a last-minute change. Nonetheless, Hammereds took over with confidence and clarity. General feedback: I had no problem figuring out the Fleet tool, but that may be because I am used to parsing and remembering instructions quickly. Since CCP's changes have resulted in the need to open a "malfunctioning" page to get the paste-in URL, you may wish to slow down the fleet tool instruction on the very first occasion, and walk folks through it. Azual: Kudos for getting across something that you may have had to repeat many, many times, while keeping it sounding like you were having a good time doing the theory. Despite having done a lot of courses and practical, I still found some useful nuggets of information. Dancing Ferret: I thought you did fine. One bit of constructive (I hope) feedback-- I noticed, occasionally, that you sped up the rate of your speech when explaining something, and at the same time your voice got a little bit quieter-- this is often the case with instructors, not just yourself. I compensated for the volume by using specials in Vent, but you may wish to slow a bit and be more deliberate, when giving a long block of instruction. There is a natural tendency with most teachers, to wish to speed up any long explanation, but that usually just means it gets done twice. Hammereds: as above. Well done, thanks. Regarding Intel/class explanations of what's up. I am *very* used to fleet ops where everyone but command is on a "need-to-know" basis, and your point regarding possible spies in what is essentially a public class is very well taken. E-Uni is, of course, rife with spies so any Uni grads will doubtless be nodding. Anything "not perfect"? If I had to express any particular query, it might be the following. Note that I brought what I could afford to lose, and that getting popped once did not make me any less aggressive in tackling when the calls were given-- so this is not a complaint, but an observation. 1. I am used to hearing the philosophy that "we win if we destroyed more isks worth than we lost"-- and that is my measure as well, rather than simple number of ships. However, the final big fight of the afternoon, which may have been taken on just because the roam had been so quiet to that point, seemed a bit choppy. There can be many good reasons to deliberately dive into such an engagement-- eyes wide open, definitely-- and one that netted, I am sure, a far greater amount of isk killed than what was lost. It might have been good to indicate what the rationale was: was the class learning not to fear popping/podding, making a simple grab for a few last killmails, or learning any particular strategy? 2. The thing that I missed most was evidence that the Hydra strategy of spreading EWAR actually worked (versus simply having a few dedicated EWAR frigates, with extras). I gather that this was an atypical roam, but in the two "major actions"-- the one where we got bubbled and bombed and the one at the end of the official time slot-- it seemed a tad more chaotic than the advertising led me to expect. "Point and scram what you can." Certainly primaries, secondaries and even tertiaries were called out, but I am not sure how many got the feeling that they were in a coordinated attack. I am guessing that the idea is that a few losses don't kill the EWAR on a long roam, plus you deprive the enemy of the intel that there are obvious EWAR ship classes. However, we tended to lose so many ships at a time that we had to stop and re-ship-- at which time EWAR could have been replaced, too-- so the differences in EWAR philosophy were not very clear. Certainly, though, for anyone that had not seen much PvP to this point, I am sure that the "Gee whiz!" factor must have been a great rush. I am eagerly anticipating the Thrasher Wolfpack. Thanks to all the instructors, support staff, and the Alumni who also aided, scouted and so forth. O7

[Alistone Malikite]

One item to consider including in basic that some students may not know.....is the using of the selected item window for warping and such. It is much faster than right clicking something in overview, especially if overview is changing alot due to gate transitions, etc.

^^ In laggy situations, this is many times more effective than right clicking & using a dropdown menu. This is also the box that allows you to quickly set warp-to and orbit ranges.

It is something that is usually covered more in wolfpacks because it is usually the only reliable way to spam warp fast enough to "cap dump" in a small ship. Sign up for Wolfpacks/Advanced to learn more

Another little tip; if you are jumping into a system and warping to a fleet member you can right click on them in your watch list and initiate warp to them while you're still in black screen (before you've even loaded grid.) Because every second counts, & in a laggy situation it is even more important because your black screen usually lasts for longer...

[Nuttz25]

Thanks a lot to Agony for the class and roam, I enjoyed it. Can't wait to get in to Wolfpacks to see what advanced tactics you have in store! Shout out to Grigg Grrete for convoing me during the class for random questions I had.

[bcg]

hte roam was alright, we did kill more isk than we lost, and had some fun doing it. never thought i'd lose a frigate to bombs though. gizznit makes an excellent pod fleet commander. hands down the most fun i've had in a pod ever. that sabre pilot wasn't that good though, i jumped through after we had been warned and i still got away. thanks to gizz for the (mostly) safe flight back to empire, thanks to agony for having the roam.

[Esbear]

1. I am used to hearing the philosophy that "we win if we destroyed more isks worth than we lost"-- and that is my measure as well, rather than simple number of ships. However, the final big fight of the afternoon, which may have been taken on just because the roam had been so quiet to that point, seemed a bit choppy. There can be many good reasons to deliberately dive into such an engagement-- eyes wide open, definitely-- and one that netted, I am sure, a far greater amount of isk killed than what was lost. It might have been good to indicate what the rationale was: was the class learning not to fear popping/podding, making a simple grab for a few last killmails, or learning any particular strategy?

2. The thing that I missed most was evidence that the Hydra strategy of spreading EWAR actually worked (versus simply having a few dedicated EWAR frigates, with extras). I gather that this was an atypical roam, but in the two "major actions"-- the one where we got bubbled and bombed and the one at the end of the official time slot-- it seemed a tad more chaotic than the advertising led me to expect. "Point and scram what you can." Certainly primaries, secondaries and even tertiaries were called out, but I am not sure how many got the feeling that they were in a coordinated attack. I am guessing that the idea is that a few losses don't kill the EWAR on a long roam, plus you deprive the enemy of the intel that there are obvious EWAR ship classes. However, we tended to lose so many ships at a time that we had to stop and re-ship-- at which time EWAR could have been replaced, too-- so the differences in EWAR philosophy were not very clear.

1. Some people who have never experience pvp or are afraid of it sometimes need a bit of encouragement to take risks. Just diving into a fight you apparently have no chance of surviving and then surviving can be an incredible adrenaline rush. Eventually you will learn to concentrate on flying, selecting the right target and surviving. On the other hand losing your ship, maybe your pod and learning not to care too much is a good learning experience as well. This roam the reason for the last fight was "let's get in and see what we can kill, frigates are cheap."

2. Doing the hydra principle right during a fight takes a lot of practice, a very experienced and skilled fc and a not too sizable group of opponents to use it against. When your gang is experienced enough of it's own you don't even need to call for e-war targets. People will pick the right targets themselves. The main lesson of the concept is that you don't all need scram + web fits with a fleet. A gang is much stronger if you take a little time choosing the right balance in e-war with or without dedicated ships to use them. We set track and damp groups to make it easier for students to pick their targets. You can rest assured opponents will be hurt a lot by your e-war once your gang learns to spread it around.

Winning a battle begins by fitting your ship and your fleet.

[Dancing Ferret]

Dancing Ferret: I thought you did fine. One bit of constructive (I hope) feedback-- I noticed, occasionally, that you sped up the rate of your speech when explaining something, and at the same time your voice got a little bit quieter-- this is often the case with instructors, not just yourself. I compensated for the volume by using specials in Vent, but you may wish to slow a bit and be more deliberate, when giving a long block of instruction. There is a natural tendency with most teachers, to wish to speed up any long explanation, but that usually just means it gets done twice.

Will try to keep it in mind, but it's probably something I do without thinking about it. Thanks though!

On the topic of hard to understand, I hope none of you had trouble understanding me outside of those situations. English isn't my first language and I can get a bit mumbly sometimes so I know I have to repeat myself a lot in other situations.

[Lex Striker]

I felt it was a good class. I learned a lot from the readings and the lectures. My only suggestion would be to have some sort of visual presentation [like Powerpoint slides, but perhaps on a Wiki Webpage] that one could follow along with the audio presentations. After listening to a lecture for so long, people tend to start to fade off. Having something in front of them on the computer screen that is expanding on the lecture may be a way to get around that. The second day was good and very professionally done. Again, I learned a lot from just following what was going on around me while in fleet. Thank you for your time and efforts on this AU... very much appreciated. Well worth the ISK. I wish You all well; Lex Striker/Nordac SunStriker House of Sun Striker

[Crazed Wombat]

Will try to keep it in mind, but it's probably something I do without thinking about it. Thanks though!

On the topic of hard to understand, I hope none of you had trouble understanding me outside of those situations. English isn't my first language and I can get a bit mumbly sometimes so I know I have to repeat myself a lot in other situations.

If English is not your first language, then the simplest compliment I can pay is: I did not realise it from your speech. Well done, indeed.

[paauggie]

Wanted to say a huge thankyou to the Agony instructors for a priceless course. I've been playing for several months but only dabbled in PVP, and on the roam a series of technical problems meant I had to leave early before I was able to join on any KM's. Irrespective of that though, what I learnt gave me the confidence to enter 0.0 and low sek and enjoy the experience, and I've been on solo roams on a daily basis since then, which has increased my enjoyment of Eve enormously. The quality of the instruction was excellent and the course materials first class - well done guys.