The Bastards (Player corporation)

**Corporation Details**
Overwhelming DPS then GTFO!
Name	The Bastards
Ticker	[BSTRD]
Alliance	The Bastards.
CEO	Flashfresh
Founded	YC 109 07 10 (10th July 2007)
Status	Active
Headquarters	Undisclosed
Public Channel	INDEPENDENCE
Website	Links to forums, killboard, and info
History
Alliances	The Tusker Bastards; The Bastards.
Former CEOs	Silvetrys, RoninData

Overview

Please note: Unofficial motto is: Overwhelming DPS...then GTFO!

'bas·tard'

-noun

1. slang. a. a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person: some bastard ransomed my battleship. b. a person, esp. a man: the dirty bastard blew up our spaceship!

-adjective

2. something irregular, inferior, spurious, or unusual: what is this bastard thing?

3. of abnormal or irregular shape or size; of unusual make or proportions: bastard sized 425mm AC; bastard blasters; bastard pewpew lasers.

4. having the appearance of; resembling in some degree: a bastard pirate; bastard eye patch; a bastard parrot; a bastard pegleg; bastard grog.

The Bastards are low-sec pirate corporation. Typical activities have been observed to include solo pirating, small roaming gangs, ransoming and preying on targets found in mission/plex/exploration sites.

The Bastards have no desire to be the next big 0.0 alliance or gate-camping 23/7 or high-sec war declarations , even if they had the security status to allow them into High-sec! They do no sov' wars; little gate camping (time is too precious to waste) or station camping.

What The Bastards do is encourage solo piracy and small to medium fleets of between 5-15 ships racing around low-sec.

In addition, The Bastards run fun activities such as themed roams, Bushkazi, and treasure hunts. They are active in the Euro and US time zones. They aim to have fun and no, they are not elite PvP-pilots, they're pirates and aim to build camaraderie and have fun while doing it. When asked about this, they replied:

Leave the l33t pee-vee-pee to others, now where's the loot?

Recruitment

The Bastards are always on the look out for like minded pirates. Not pilots who want to 'try piracy' but those whom have already made that decision and are just looking for the right corporation. The Bastards recruitment details are on their web-site though direct recruitment is now closed.

Prospective members are directed to apply to the entry corporation, Meatshield Bastards by submitting a detailed application. Details are here [1]. Those that pass this check are interviewed by one of The Bastards recruitment officers who ascertain whether the prospect is a good fit. Answers will be required to fill in any gaps and anomalies The Bastards have discovered through investigating EVE-O forums, analysing skill distributions and checking employment history.

Those that pass the first stage will be invited to fly with The Bastards for a period of time so that they can get to know the corp and their fit with low-security piracy. This period can be two weeks or more. It is up to the applicant to impress and for both parties to discover a good fit.

If the prospect is invited to submit an in-game application, they are accepted for a probationary period. All members are required to maintain an ongoing presence in the corporation forums and the corporation ventrilo server.

Interested applicants should review the FAQ [2], then email The Bastards out-of-game with questions or the application. Details on the website.

Everyone is invited to join the The Bastards' in-game semi-public channel "Independence". You might not get access or if you do and you act like an idiot in there; The Bastards will boot you out. Sometimes they just lock the doors. It isn't personal. However, the famous Kane Rizzel and Lady Shaniqua are resident in there too. So beware.

The Bastards History (Part 1 )

Dastardly Bastards - The very beginning.

It started with few guys in RMS chat coming up with the idea of going on a rifter-death type roam, and a young pod pilot called Silvetrys decided to join. His intention had always been to start pirating. So he formed up a gang with Ard Unjiigo, Midgard, Mr Bodacious, a French guy called Thibaud and some random yank who nobody now seems to remember. The gang roamed around the Amamake area for an hour or two and didn't get any kills, and lost a rifter or two to a Myrmidon. All good clean fun. After a while, with Silvetrys even having the time to step away and have dinner, they decided to go roam in 0.0, near Egbinger. On the way there they decided everyone was so much fun they needed a corp for it. Silvetrys burnt to the Concord Academy in Egbinger and informed everyone that he'd found them a corporation. After a while Silvetry, Middy and Mr Bodacious came up with the name 'Dastardly Bastards' with the ticker being 'SPNKD', which apparently was Middy's idea. Everyone in the roaming gang joined this new corp and the ticker still shiny and new, off they went to roam The Great Wildlands for a bit. They all got killed pretty fast according to surviving reports.

Cooch.

Silvetrys remembers that the very next day, the corp decided that they should build ammunition for everyone, and that mining the mineral rich belts in the system would help them achieve this. The very first mining op began for this pirate group. Silvetrys flew a Hoarder and they also had a Scythe with them. Mining pirates indeed! Due to this group's near total lack of experience at scanning, a pod pilot called 'General Coochie' managed to jump the operation and killed Silvetrys. Immediately Boda decided the corp should grab Rifters and kill General Coochie if he stayed around long enough. So the Dastardly Bastards quickly grabbed their Rifters, raced into space and they were delighted to find out that General Coochie was waiting for them. The battle was quite uneventful, Silvetrys died and so did Cooch. 'GFs' were had and everyone was exhilarated to find such a great pirate. The next day Cooch had posted about the Dastardly Bastards on the EVE-O forums and everyone thought that they were now the coolest new pirate corp in New Eden.

Recruitment and Ard Unjiigo.

It took a week or even two before the Dastardly Bastards got even a single recruit. Though Ard brought in huge loads of recruits, none of them quite signed up. The Dastardly Bastards had this US marine corp sniper called 'Nikon', but apparently he chickened out after he found out that the Dastardly Bastards operated in low sec! Despite the disappointments no-one even considered closing down because they couldn't recruit anyone, simply because Ard proved incredible at it. The Dastardly Bastards readily acknowledge that they would not have gotten anywhere without that man.

Then, out of the blue, a pod pilot called 'Pardit Lastor' joined. He proved to be a strange guy, always wanting to mine in an Omen and expecting everyone else to die for him. Also, Pardit constantly tried to convince Silvetrys to move to China and become an English teacher. It was safe to that he didn't last very long.

The thread.

Ard started his low sec advice thread, which he would recall as a PR trick. It worked quite nicely too. No-one is entirely sure if Mahn joined before or after this thread, but a new pilot called Ronindata clearly joined right after the thread's publication on the EVE-O forums. The first thing the Dastardly Bastards did as a corp with RoninData was a mining op in Muttokon!

RoninData was drunk the entire time as everyone was laughing their collective asses off for the entire op. Probably it was just the usual first day at the office thing. Then after Mahn and RoninData, a new pilot joined by the name of Alan. Strange guy this Alan it turned out: a 14 year-old cos player. As expected, things didn't work out and they parted company. Johny Magellan might then have joined but the history is unclear and no-one at the Bastards is sure anymore.

The first war.

Directorate's alt corp of sorts, the name of which has been lost in the mist of time, declared war on the Dastardly Bastards. They had a Vexor and other cruisers, and though Kali Jav, the Directorat CEO, assisted them with his sniper Rokh. it is not entirely sure if Kali actually killed any of the Dastardly Bastards. In return, the Dastardly Bastards killed a war-target Vexor with a few Thrashers. In fact, the Dastardly Bastards did not lose any ships to the war target. Eventually, it was clear somebody could not be bothered to pay two million isk a week for the declaration since the war ended after the first week with a decisive victory of one Vexor!

The corp Cane.

Someone wanted a hurricane. So the Dastardly Bastards mined and mined. Oh how much they mined for a pirate corp! It paid out though, as they did get to build their first Hurricane. Not entirely clear who started the legendary build job, probably either silvetrys or Midard. Once built, it promptly sold it for 35m on the market. Such a proud day for the Dastardly Bastards. No one realised that they'd be throwing them out like candy later on. Much later down the line Boda started flying strange plated Canes that could, at least according to him, permatank sentries.

The second war, and the first ransom.

Cetatech industries, a small corp were stupid enough to send one pilot to rat in Egbinger in a hurricane. The Dastardly Bastards promptly killed the hurricane and decided to war dec those who defiled the holy Egbinger. Once the war dec was posted the Dastardly Bastards contacted the Cetatech CEO to secure a ransom. After some negotiations with Silvetrys, they decided to surrender before the the war had even started! The ransom was all of Cetatech's assets derived through ratting and everything they had in low sec. Quite a ransom one would think, but turned out they had sod all in low sec and the loot was worth maybe 15m.

Still, it was a ransom and the Dastardly Bastards ended up ransoming them for a second time later on.

The third, and final war.

Silvetrys logged in one day and found out that the Dastardly Bastards had a war dec going on, against a corp nobody had ever heard of, 'SVPP'. Turned out Boda had decided they were weak targets and were worth killing.

Also, these f*ckers lived in Rens.

Great! However, Boda was -10, Mahn was a criminal and so were Ronin and Ard. It was up to Silvetrys and a corp member called 'Johny' to kick the crap out of them. The deadly duo took their mighty fleet consisting of Silvetrys' Rifter and Johny's Arbitrator out to Rens to kill them. Well, it turned out the war targets were all 10 days old and flew hurricanes, and had some strange agenda of griefing some guy out of the game. No-one quite understood it, but apparently they were stupid as hell. Silvetrys managed to solo one of the SVPP hurricanes in his rifter, albeit that a friendly Scimitar pilot was kind enough to help turned the tide of the battle with Silvetrys tanking two SVPP hurricanes in a lowly rifter. Johny still lost his Arbitrator though and that was the last time anyone ever saw him. It was such a shame to lose a great pilot without ever getting to know why he disappeared. Apparently it still rankles some.

The alliance and the theft.

Midgard had a vision and with it, there was a great push to get the Dastardly Bastards to 0.0, and they eventually joined Veritas Immortalis. No-one at the time were entirely sure that it was such a great idea as the Dastardly Bastards were the noobs of the alliance. Nonetheless, they were bold and ready for anything, and one step closer to getting a POS in 0.0 - a long term dream. They had already figured out the fit, were considering buying the parts and felt totally ready for it. Turned out somebody wasn't such a huge fan of the idea. On one faithful day, that will live on in infamy, Boda swiped the corp hangars and dropped all roles.

Everyone should have known that he would do it sooner than later as Boda was a scammer through and through. Everyone crapped their pants believing this would be the end of the young corporation. Quickly, plans were made to re-found the corp anew. A day later Boda logged back in and returned most of the stuff back, regardless of the obvious hostility towards him. Everyone then said their farewells and Boda left. Was it a joke that backfired? Who knows?

It was up to Silvetrys to tell their new-found friends in Veritas Immortalis that the Dastardly Bastards would be leaving them right after joining the alliance. They proved surprisingly cool about it, and a day later, the Dastardly Bastards were out of their first null-sec alliance. In an effort to renew themselves and find themselves a new area, the remnants of the Dastardly Bastards were to create a new corporation.

Otosela.

The new corp was to be founded in Otosela. An area everyone decided was superior to Egbinger in piratyness. Once they get there the first thing Silvetrys heard (being nominated as the new CEO) is that everyone was complaining about the rats being too damn hard on them! The corp was eventually founded but after a great many complaints, Silvetry decided Otosela was just not for the new corporation. It then merged with another corp called 'Poetic Genocide' (bringing in another legend: VB Sarge) and Futzchag was to be the new home and from now on they were to be known as The Bastards [BSTRD].

Based on the recollection of Silvetrys, the first CEO - covering the first few years that preceded the formation of The Bastards. A fair few of the originals are are still around and the next chapter should follow soon.

The Bastards History (Part 2 )

The first year in The Bastards by RoninData

This story overlaps then continues Silvetrys' story. It is based on recollections, notes and conversations with another infamous pirate, 'RoninData' (still one of the coolest names around) - who eventually became the second CEO of The Bastards.

RoninData had been in The Bastards for a year now, sometimes he swore it was longer and if he included the time spent in the Dastardly Bastards, it would have been well over a year of yarr and fun and low-sec piracy.

He remembered talking to Ard Unjiigo after signing up right after graduating from pod school, RoninData read Ard's nub guide (best nub guide evar!) on the EVE-O forums http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=568675 and thought low sec pirates and piracy was just the ticket for RoninData, the budding pirate.

So after providing a screenshot of his account (to this day he has no idea why he had to), RoninData flew down to Egbinger (checking the starmap for pods killed as advised by Ard) and set up shop in the Dastardly Bastards HQ.

A special mention goes to 'Jonny Magellan', both him and Silvetrys had helped RoninData a lot in the first few months of New Eden, for that RoninData is very grateful. The corp was new, they were real nub pirates and were trying to ransom and blow the shit out of everything. They even tried their hand at mining ore one day to build the first ever corporation battlecruiser - the awesome Hurricane that could really tank sentry guns! The Dastardly Bastards sold it as soon as it was built and the money went towards building the pirates even more rifters. The Dastardly Bastards never did mine again after that day. The Bastards were lucky they had good neighbours such as the ever-so-sexy AntonioBanderas who would always come out for a good fight against us in our > 1mil sp Rifters. There was also a bunch of French monkey-fuckers (Directorate) who loved to camp the B-VIP9 gate all day. They even got their alt corp to war dec The Dastardly Bastards one week (to this day, no-one knows why?) which led to the death of one of their battlecruisers; 1-0 to The Bastards!

Molden Heath and NMZT

Time was spent roaming Molden Heath (MH) looking for ransoms, any opportunity of extortion, the good fight and lots of juicy 'lewts'. RoninData fully fitted all of his Rifters (including ammunition) from the smouldering wrecks of his victims for the first few months. Everything was going sweet, The Dastardly Bastards even had easy 0.0 access.

One day Silv was roaming MH when he got a chat invite from a Namtz'aar K'in member that went something like this:

http://the-bastards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49&highlight=nmtz

One of the best lines RoninData had ever read came from this very conversation:

Pacal Balan > [/emote nods slowly] ... " Tell my matari brother...do you walk on the light or dark side of the path ? " Silvetrys > I believe it would be the dark side...

which led to:

Pacal Balan > I would suggest you don't seek to pirate within MH..any acts such as this will place you as an instant RED and KOS. Pacal Balan > [/emote bows] ... " We will be keeping an eye on your activities, good day sir, "

Now from what RoninData could recall, the Dastardly Bastards tried sticking it to them as best as they could, some of the Dastardly Bastards even had cruisers by then but they (NMTZ) wiped the floor with the Dastardly Bastards: they would camp the stations, probe them out in missions and generally cause the fledging pirate corporation major hassle.

BODA and the birth of The Bastards

Then one day RoninData got an evemail from one of the members.

RONINDATA REMOVE FORUM ACCESS FOR BODA!

He was soon to find out that one of the founding members of the pirate corporation had wiped the hanger of most of the corporation's mods and the corp wallet. What a clown, thought RoninData bitterly.

After the shitstorm had blown over, the young corporation decided to setup a new corp with a new name, one that didn't have the corp ticker SPNKD and it took a lot of thought to come up with the new name "The Bastards". With this new corp name came a switch of location. RoninData himself scouted a bit in his Rifter and decided Futzchag (footshag) was the ideal pirate heaven. He bought 10 rifters for 150k each and told everyone that they had made it, they had found their home. However, they soon found out it was shit and moved a few jumps to Uzistoon, everyone thought that this system sounded a bit more gangster. So bonus.

Uzistoon was an ideal place for the Dastardly Bastards to gather their thoughts, hone their skills, train the new guys and relax for a bit whilst still keeping their roams on. The market was considered a bit shit and after a while it got to some of the Caldari and Amarr pilots; targets were also a bit thin on the ground and morale was at a low. A badly planned move can do that to people.

Dark Tornado aka 'Arsefeltchers'

Then came the arsefeltchers that were Dark Tornado.

Now these weren't your normal run-of-the-mill arsefeltchers, these were the real deal, they'd suck the sh** fresh out of an infants nappy. [Editor's note: Ronin's very words]

In retrospect, 1 or 2 of them were actually alright. Domin X was an okay bloke but as soon as Jackolena came online, they’d turn into rim-ticklers. Dark Tornado would camp The Bastards in their faction battleships: Navy Megas and other such ships used to sit outside the Dastardly Bastards station on a daily basis, causing morale to sink to an all time low, especially when the newer pilots did not have a clue on what to do; Dark Tornado were just wiping them out. RoninData also went off on holiday for a few weeks, which didn't seem to help much either.

When RoninData came back over half the corp had left, though the core were still there with Silv, Ard and Mahn but corp chat seemed empty most days. Then they had the great idea of asking their good friends in the Rifter Death channel, a corporation called 'Poetic Genocide', to merge with The Bastards. They would get the cool name 'The Bastards' and they would get some cool pvp’ers. Soon people like RnProphet and VB Sarge were giving RoninData and his pilots some sound advice on how to kick arse in cruisers and what the hell 'locator agents' were.

Something else changed and was a great morale booster for everyone - Silv got a Cheetah, RoninData remembered seeing that ship and thinking ‘shit, wish *I* could cloak’. Soon the amount of targets they could take on had more than doubled overnight. Mission runners were now great ransom earners due to the time they had to negotiate in relative safety. The captured ships also carried some nasty lewts if they didn’t play ball and went pop. The Bastards continued to roam, ransom and fine-tune their skills, but the Dark Tornado guys had taken to waiting for them to come back from roams in The Bastards home system and giving then a 'welcome home' party.

It was decided that it was time for a move.

Relocating to Brin

One great man called Bryant (Old Poetic Genocide Director) decided The Bastards should move about 42 jumps away to a dead end system and mine to make ships. He really did not 'get' The Bastards and instead, The Bastards went with VBSarge’s and RnProphet’s suggestion of Brin in Metropolis because it was a ‘pirate hotspot’. They soon moved to Brin and not a moment too soon - the targets were rife.

Bryant was soon kicked out for being an anal douche but retained his shares due to his directorship position. Everyone was pissed about that as Bryant could see all The Bastards' votes but after a few weeks of being chased and stressed being applied, he biomassed his character and forgot to move the shares. Score for The Bastards!

By now The Bastards had a pretty decent force in Brin, with BCs, cruisers and frigates at the ready, the killboard was starting to a look a lot bloody nicer. Everyone found Evati and surrounding systems was a great place to catch juicy mission runners and soon their wallets were flashing with ransoms, they even got 2 freighter ransoms in the space of a month! The Bastards were living the pimp life!

They also said hello to their new neighbours, 'The Asshats', by shooting at them whenever they got a chance, they replied hello in the same way and, eventually, a friendship was founded.

M34N corp War-dec

By now The Bastards had killed quite a few people and were becoming noticed in Metropolis, they had a few more wardecs but they passed as soon as they started until one day, The Bastards got an evemail telling them that M34N Corp had wardecced them. Ohnoes!!! Not the M34N Corp! Everyone waited to see what would happen, still puzzled why anyone would wardec a -10 pirate corp. One of their pilots (and director?) 'General Dogzbody' showed up the next day in a Deimos and from fragmented historical records, he lost it about 30 minutes later, only to return the next day and lose a second ship, again. This obviously struck a chord with him so he went and got a Typhoon, which in turn went down in a ball of flames, rinse and repeat this for the next 2-3 weeks and one can get an idea of how it all eventually panned out. The killboard statistics were something like 80% / 20% to The Bastards, causing around 1.5 billion isk in damage before the war-declaration expired. The Bastards had defeated the well established M34N Corp, so The Bastards were now real pirates!

Later on, the directors found out that it wasn’t really M34N Corp that was behind it all, it was mostly a one man (and his alts) on a mission to try and fight the new pirate on the block, and failed.

Moving to Evati and Black Flag makes their appearance

Christmas passed and The Bastards decided to move to Evati as the 3 jumps to get there from Brin was a pain for logistics. Around this same time The Bastards noticed a new corp in the area, 'Black Flag'. These guys were a bit different to the other corps The Bastards had met: they were well organised and had some serious firepower in battlecruisers. Later on, it was discovered that they too used the gank shield tank Hurricane but with a twist – shield transfer arrays. These guys were serious. Things came to head when The Bastards tried to organise a battle in Evati (Belt 3 – 1, where all the cool kids hang out). They saw Black Flag assemble a force and The Bastards were really looking forward to a good fight. Unfortunately Black Flag brought along a bunch of their mates from M34N and promptly kicked The Bastards' arses. However through mutual respect more than anything The Bastards and Black Flag became allies.

Kwitch & the corp theft

Around this time a new member by the name of 'Kwitch' joined the corporation. This guy proved to be very disruptive and was regarded as a general asshole. In the end he decided to wipe out The Bastards T1 Mods and Ammo hanger, stole around 25 T2 Warp disruptors and around 40mil in probes – ‘for his troubles’. He eventually gave back a good part of the mods but kept anything worthwhile. The Bastards has vowed never to deal with this character again.

So The Bastards settled into Evati, became the kings of the area, spanking people like Captain Lawdogg on a daily basis and recruiting one of the finest pvp’ers in eve, the great General Coochie. That guy taught RoninData and everyone else, almost everything about probing, and well, nearly everything else.

Don’t forget to watch his brilliant video The Vigil and the Caracal: (link please)

The Asshats depart

So all was gravy, The Bastards were still bringing in the ransoms and blowing up those that refused, even T2 ships started appearing in the gangs and things looked sweet, until a few months later The Bastards allies, 'The Asshats' decided to leave for 0.0 and half of The Bastards corp decided to follow. A lot of the people that left (though not all) probably had to go anyway but their departure pushed The Bastards to a real low, reminding RoninData and everyone else of the time in Uzistoon when everyone thought that they were going to disband. Everyone was close to jumping ship and asked Black Flag if The Bastards could work out a deal. The only thing that stopped The Bastards from caving in was their distinctive identity that everyone (but mainly RoninData, Silv, Mahn and Ard) had worked hard for the past 12 months. After a long talk, it was eventually decided to try one last push at recruiting – and it worked!

After another nine months the KB looked a hell of a lot better now and The Bastards had some quality applications from some great people. RoninData, now CEO also had a rival in the killer stakes, someone he likes to think as his protégé (but probably not) the killer that is ‘Team Dave’ – z0de. [Ninja edit: let's also not forget the sexbomb - 'bandy'.]

After a while everyone noticed that Evati was starting to look a little bleak once more, this obviously came from the over-fishing that low sec pirates tend to do. Even MEAN and BF were asking if there any targets about. The Bastards decided to move to the Placid/Verge Vendor area and found mission runners plenty. However, some of the pilots didn’t like the area, others loved it but after a month or so The Bastards found themselves moving back to the Evati area, their home. No doubt, The Bastards will return to Placid ‘sometime soon’™.

Since returning from Placid, The Bastards had gone from strength to strength, with the core unit (plus some new additions, Sarge, Proph, z0de) still ransoming, killing and looting on a daily basis. They have lost some great members who will hopefully be coming back sometime soon - The Cooch and Silv being the two biggest losses but RL always comes before EVE and afterall, it is just a game, just a bloody good one. [Edit: Silv is back now].

Some other people that deserve a mention having helped The Bastards along the way, and will always be Bastards no matter what corp they are in, are Pacifist Priest and Klymaxx. Both had helped The Bastards out in one way or another and know they are always welcome back anytime they like. Another mention goes to Azi, he motivated the nub pilots to learn how to fly and built Caracals when Dark Tornado appeared, he joined the corp, then promptly got drunk for two months. When he finally came back he seemed to have some kind of ever lasting hangover and proceeded to suicide a sh*t load of T2 ships and BS, the killboard is still reeling over that short but explosive period, thank you Azi!

The French POS

One other memorable time is when The Bastards went to attack the French POS in Brin. They offered them the option to pay a ransom but the Frenchies wouldn’t have it, so Kulmid put their POS into reinforced with his Moros. The next day The Bastards were all set, they had a fleet made up with hurricanes, around 8-9 of the feckers. They also had a fleet of cruisers and assorted ships as well as a few carriers and a dread, oh yeah, The Bastards were the shit!

All started well:

“WARP TO ME FLEET 1” was called by RoninData, just at that critical moment he saw 5 or 6 cynos and whilst still in warp RoninData counted at least 5 Dreads and 10 Carriers, by the time his warp had finished that number had doubled. RoninData managed to get his Hurricane out in time but just before he docked he saw at least 40-50 Cap ships on scan and when he had actually docked there was 139 people in Brin. This is a system that had 10-20 people in it at best with most of local being friendly 99% of the time. Over half of the ships in the system were cap ships, it was obvious that these Frenchies weren’t fucking around. No doubt, there's a moral in there somewhere.

So that is pretty much the short version of the earlier history of The Bastards, overlapping a bit from where Silv finished, as recounted by RoninData, the second CEO of The Bastards.

The 'originals' that are still with The Bastards (as of YC 108) are:

RoninData, Mahn AlNouhm & Silvetrys

The Bastards History (Part 3 )

(To be completed)

Piracy and Making Isk

Many people claim that piracy is not a viable life-style. That one needs a L4 mission running character in high-security space to pay for the pirate life-style. Or one needs to pay for GTC and exchange them for isk. Or some other form of income to sustain the pirate life-style.

At The Bastards we want to dispute this misconception every day and attempt to live on what we 'earn' from piracy exclusively.

Piracy for The Bastards in low-sec is a hard life, it is feast or famine - more of the latter and there are some days where you're down to your last million and you're thinking: I have been in EVE for two years, why am I broke? We all want to fly the latest T3 ships or capitals but with a skinny wallet, these opportunities are slim.

Most of the time we have to be very isk efficient both in our ship choices and how we play.Each ship loss, even a T1 rifter can and does, sting.

However, such a life style *is* sustainable - with dedication, some support and a little bit of luck and you can not only survive but thrive and have a great feeling of satisfaction that every isk in your wallet was through piracy. It is a great feeling. With the availability of PLEXs, piracy for some of us even pays for the subscription.

So how is this possible, how can piracy at The Bastards be sustainable?

We earn isk through the following:

[Ransoms]

[Pass-holders]

[Loot sharing programme]

The Bastards, Ransoms and the Ransom board

http://www.the-bastards.com/ransom/

The Bastards have tried hard to maintain a solid reputation in carrying out ransoms and (importantly) letting the pilot and/or their ship leave intact once the monies have been exchanged.

It forms an integral part of the life style of most pirate corporations and The Bastards are no different.

What separates The Bastards from most other pirates corps is their ransom-board. It is a purpose built application, every bit as important as the forum or kill board. It keeps track of all successful ransoms including those of a non-monetary nature such as a song or haiku.

The idea of a ransom board is NOT unique to The Bastards - there was the beginnings of a ransom board service hosted by someone from the Python Cartel (another pirate corp) but the pilot who owned the code went AWOL and the service, regrettably, went into hibernation. This forced The Bastards to go it alone and after a few months of work, the first version is available. Still under long-term development, The Bastards are keen to hear from anyone would like to work on this project long-term for little gain and horrible hours.

The Bastards will attempt a ransom if they deem it worthwhile. Also, in the middle of a mass ship fight, the effort in starting a conversation, holding fire and entering negotiations simply isn't possible!

If a ransom is entered then simple rules apply: make it quick and once agreed, pay up. The Bastards can be trusted to maintain their word (provided both sides are clear during the negotiation terms) in releasing the ransomed ship on successful conclusion of the negotiation.

Generally, the terms are thus (though make sure they are covered during the ransom negotiation):

1. Ransomed ship can leave, with cargo intact through nearest exit gate or to dock up at the nearest station.

2. A pilot and his ship, after paying a ransom fee is general left alone for 15 minutes. This is very general. If he or she comes back to the belt or a mission in a faction fitted Kronos just to 'finish' up the rats - expect a second, substantially higher ransom!

3. Ransoms will be reasonable based on the age of the pilot, the ship he is flying, the fittings on the ship and the cargo carried. The latter two can easily be ascertained by using ship and cargo scanners. The Bastards will not simple pick a number and add six billion to it. We, as pirates need to get paid! A high figure will result in non-payment and ship destruction.

4. If a ransom is NOT agreed or the pilot simply ignores our attempts to contact them during the hi-jack/kidnap then The Bastards have no qualms in applying sufficient destructive power to pulverise ship. The Bastards will always attempt to capture and ransom the pod once it has been freed from the confines of the ship.

5. If any Bastard pilot is proven to have been breaking his word on a ransom; then the said pilot will be ejected out of the nearest air-lock and booted.

Isk and Bastard Pass

(Details to follow)

Loot and Loot sharing

Due to the volume of loot generated through roams and random acts of piracy, The Bastards had to develop an application where it would track all loot drops between any given date and/or kill mail id through an API to the The Bastards' killboard. This would then generate a spreadsheet of all the kills, with an isk value per loot item dropped per kill. This spreadsheet will also have a tally of every involved pilot cross-linked to each loot item through the kill mail id.

For those pilots not on a kill mail but involved, they can be manually added to the spreadsheet.

The loot is then sold at one of several trade hubs in New Eden via trusted third parties. The wallet transactions of the sellers are then linked back to the spreadsheet to update the actual sell value of each loot item in each kill.

Once all the loot has been sold and the isk banked, the application then splits up the final isk pot between all available pilots according to their contribution to each kill.

Examples of previous loot sales payout can be found below:

Loot split (batch 27/08/09)

Pilot Final

Pirate 1 7,327,894 - Held in escrow

Pirate 2 101,881,217 (PAID)

Pirate 3 12,000,000 (PAID)

Pirate 4 1,441,334 (PAID)

Pirate 5 72,030,021 (PAID)

Pirate 6 397,451 (PAID)

Pirate 7 21,115,032 - left corp and sold char?

Pirate 8 49,874,508 (PAID)

Pirate 9 113,977,529 (PAID)

etc...

More details are here:

The View from the floor: Loot sales

Pure Sex

Notable Bastards, past and present