Gallente Battleship V

I noticed this little pop up notification a few minutes ago.

Any BS V skill is a bit of a milestone one.  I’ve just ingested the Gallente Carrier book, and am now travelling on autopilot to Gallente space to pick up their Racial Dread skill.  I can now fly the Sin and Kronos, and within a couple hours I will be able to fly the Thanatos and Moros.

Alt 1 is probably nervously looking at this Thanatos and wondering when it might be appropriated.  He need not be overly concerned just yet – where as he has all the carrier related skills to rank IV or V, my main is still at only rank III for most of them.

Three of four done – Minmatar Battleship V will probably be next just to finish them off.

Incarna 1.0.1

I had just been thinking there hadn’t been a full patch released for Incarna yet, when one popped up as being scheduled for tonight.  Patch notes:

http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=231

A couple items I had raised in a recent post appear to have already been addressed – namely a page counter being added to the Agent Finder, and that you will be able to search for Agents via Region and Solar System.

Some fixes are more bemusing – such as “Salvager modules will no longer receive bonuses meant for tractor beams.”  Do the T2 Salvagers fitted to my Noctis currently an extra long range?  I was almost inclined to log in and see, but work calls.

(Fake Edit – I logged in to check, and my Noctis Salvagers currently have a range of 20.4km!)

Incarna thoughts 05

I spent Sunday morning doing my weekly PI updates, a data core run for Alt 1 (which netted 120M), and made some adjustments to my Trade orders.  I even – shamefully, glanced through the contracts for any interesting “I am leaving EVE, here is all my stuff” sales, but they were all scams.

(The above image is a fraction of the hundreds of Shuttles dumped on Jita 4-4 undock by protestors this weekend, designed (and effective) in causing great lag)

With further use of Incarna I can say my favourite bit is actually the automatic sort done after you do a stack all.  What a great little change.  The new turret icons however could use some work – they need to be clearer and cleaner.

I also kept an eye on what has become the “I don’t trust CCP with MT” thread which I will link to again:

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536065It

It is up to over 11,400 posts in 3 days, most reporting dissatisfaction.  It is a little sad to watch to be honest – a sort of perfect storm of emotion that has its own momentum.

CCP (finally) released a new Dev Blog:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=934

It reiterated that there are still no plans for selling EVE boosts via MT.  They have organised an extraordinary (i.e. emergency) meeting with the CSM in several days to discuss and work out how to address the player’s main concerns.  They won’t be discussing it further until after the CSM meeting due to the volatility of the topic and not wanting errors in their communication to make things worse.

I am not a great fan of the current CSM, being Null-Sec / Veteran heavy, but it has been comforting to read posts from Seleene and Mittani which show they haven’t mindlessly climbed above the rage train, and are focused on the in game issues with Incarna.

It seems an overly safe approach however – it gives CCP a chance for things to settle down, and “looks” to be doing the right thing.  However – it comes at the risk of allowing the anti-CCP movement to cause irreparable and lasting damage.

While it is easy to be swept up in the drama, at the back of my mind there is one thing which keeps me grounded.  The goals of some of those involved in the protests, possibly even whoever released the internal CCP communications, do not appear to be entirely wholesome.  The inferred and sometimes stated goal of some is to hurt CCP.  While the majority of people want the same – for EVE online to continue, grow and improve, some calling for action actually want it to crash, burn and die.

So I will wait and see.  I hope that CCP doesn’t get all emo and butt hurt about the protests, that they continue with Captain Quarters but give us back our ship spinning so we can multi-client happily, and that they continue to only post Vanity items to their store.

Incarna thoughts 04

The rage continues unabated.  The EVE Forum thread I linked too last post is now up over 200 pages and 6,000 posts.  There are online player protests in the main trading hubs, and news that some of the most enraged EVE twitter and blog writers are being handed out in game bans for threatening behaviour.  CCP released a Dev Blog on the issue:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=932

It reads ok to me – but then again my issues with Incarna are only in game ones.  It can all get overwhelming however, so I’ve taken the proverbial Ostrich approach and stuck my head in the sand, and gone back to my original notes to myself.

. The new Amarr Maller hull is an improvement.

. The new Agent Finder – the response is a little slow, often requires two clicks to start it, the Agent Level hot spots are a little too small, and the Prev and Next options should only be shown if there are in fact pages to navigate to.  Also need an option to search by region.  Basic functionality however is good, and it is a useful addition to the game.

. The new Corporation Recruitment interface is much improved and actually nice.  Seem to be responsive and is another useful addition to the game.

. Planetary Interaction in Captain Quarters seems to basically just be a hot spot on screen which brings up the old interface.  Not really anything that should be considered a feature.

. Ship Fitting tools in Captain Quarters again is just two hot spots on screen which brings up the old interface.  Not really anything that should be considered a feature.

. The bit about all players must customize their characters – I did not see this prompt when I logged my toons in.  Obviously if you have previously suppressed the message this new requirement wasn’t demanded of you.

. I have docked and undocked from multiple different types of stations, and I just can’t see how it is now more visually appealing.

I’ve turned off Captain Quarters in my all clients now.  (Actually, it would be nice to have that setting be character based and not client install based.)  I’ll revisit it each time there is a patch or update to check for changes, but just at the moment any interest factor doesn’t overcome the cost of the performance hit.

Incarna thoughts 03

I haven’t played the game much the last couple days.  I know it is nonsensical, but docking with a static background is off-putting.  It doesn’t have the sense of relaxed familiarity.  I keep catching myself trying to double click to open a cargo hold or rotate my camera angle.  Having the fitting window open does however help.

The Tsunami (and I use that word deliberately) of angst and rage coming from the user base and directed at CCP is just, well, astounding.   CCP Pann made an official acknowledgement of the issue in the thread here:

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536065

In less than a day there were 4,000 replies and growing.  CCP Pann did however mess up (in my opinion) by suggesting the primary concern of people was the pricing in the Vanity store.  I literally slapped my forehead when I read that.

In itself, Incarna and the related issues do not warrant the huge backlash and people screaming about cancelling their accounts.  This however is not really just about Incarna anymore.  It’s like that argument your wife starts about something minor, which suddenly morphs into covering everything you have done wrong over the last 20 years that she hasn’t forgiven you for.  It comes down to that lack of forgiveness for past indiscretions, a loss of trust, and a feeling that CCP is losing touch and doesn’t understand the player base.

I hope this all ends up in good make up sex, and not irreparable damage to the relationship.  Anyone got the number of a good marriage counselor?

Incarna thoughts 02

Two posts in one day…

I was reminded by one of the recent “A Day in EVE” blog posts that Incarna was something I have been looking forward to for many years.  I think the concept is good and the approach is the right one for growing the user base of EVE.  This initial iteration, while a little limited, has promise and is heading in the right direction.

Why then if you read the EVE forums at the moment are you finding the majority of the feedback is full of bitterness and complaints, especially from older players?  After spending more time in the game with multiple accounts, I believe the problem is that while CCP might have moved the game forwards, they have moved the Game Client noticeably backwards.

I have one of the earlier i7 920 CPUs, a GeForce GTX 460, and run 32 bit Windows 7 (my rather expensive scanner doesn’t have 64 bit drivers).  It would probably be middle ranged now.  Looking at the systems load with the new client is rather illuminating:

Generally
. Running E-Mail, Browsers, Office Apps and Remote Desktop
. CPU Utilisation under 5%
. CPU Temps 40 to 45c
. ~1.7GB Ram Free

The following figures are with running the same set of applications, plus…

Two Incursion Clients
. CPU Utilisation under 9%
. CPU Temps 43 to 48c
. ~0.9GB Ram Free
. No performance issue with system or other applications

One Incarna Client – in Captain Quarters
. CPU Utilisation 12-14%
. CPU Temps 55 to 60c
. ~0.6GB Ram Free
. Some stuttering or refresh issues with other applications

Two Incarna Clients – both in Captain Quarters
. CPU Utilisation 22-30%
. CPU Temps 60 to 62c
. ~0.3GB Ram Free
. Noticeable delays swapping between applications, system nowhere near as sooth

Two Incarna Clients – One in Captain Quarters, 1 in Space
. CPU Utilisation 10-15%

Two Incarna Clients – 2 in Space
. CPU Utilisation 5-9%

Two Incarna Clients – Docked but with station environment turned off
. CPU Utilisation 6%
. CPU Temps drop to around 50c

So – I went from being able to run 3 EVE Clients without any impact on my desktop, to running 2 EVE clients and finding it running noticeably slower.  It impacts the way I can play the game – I can’t just leave an industry or price check alt logged in for hours while I work, playing 0.01ISK wars or watching a contract, as it impacts the desktop too much.  Oh – but I can turn off the station environment.  And then I find myself wondering how EVE’s latest upgrade has in fact turning out to be a downgrade.

There are also a growing list of annoyances and bugs – such as finding if I sit down on the couch, my character will then stand again, but will refuse to walk anywhere until you re-dock or re-log.  Or how if you are opening windows and moving assets around, you keep finding 3D menus jumping up in the background as the mouse crosses hot spots.  What I really want right now is the option to have my old station environment back – where I can see my ship, spin it around to my heart’s content, and not have it impact the running of my desktop.  I want to go into Incarna when I have a reason to – and not be forced to all the time.  If you ran multiple clients on an even lower spec’d computer, you would be screaming about now…

I’m not raging, I am not cancelling my accounts, I am not hating CCP.  I don’t however want to run the current Incarna Client.

 

Incarna thoughts 01

. Patch took longer than scheduled.  CCP, it looks better to quote a higher outage time and deliver early, than to do the opposite.

. The animated splash screen at login is rather odd.  The position of the cruiser as it does a flyby is down low on the screen and half obscured.  It is also somewhat slow as it crosses in front of you.

. I must admit I had a slight amount of trepidation as I put in my main characters password and pressed enter.

. The very first load time into the captain quarters was very slow.  Perception subsequently however is that it adds a maybe 4 or 5 seconds to your first log in, and maybe a second or two when re-docking.

. My first unexpected hurdle – after standing there and looking around for a few minutes, was how the hell do you move?  Turns out it is double click.

. Interacting with objects is kind of logical (you click on them or hover your mouse over them and options pop up) – but it seems to take into account distance, so I could click on the couch, select sit, and nothing would happen. I would have to move a bit closer and try again.

. It is not as immersive as I first thought – the station, hanger, ship, local overlays etc can make it seem just like an animated background.

. Too slow to move around – especially when you dock up and find yourself outside of the quarters.  It would be nice to have the option to walk fast instead of stroll.  Maybe even an option to run…

. The position of your character kind of makes sense – standing when you first log in, out on the hanger gantry when you re-dock.  Moving around however is so slow that I can see myself simply ignoring most of the features.  Would be nice to be able to select a default starting point – mine would be sitting on the couch.

. Character texture is rather unnatural and not as high quality as I expected, and the turn movement is too jerky.

. Is there a way to spin your ship in the hanger?

. It was a nice touch seeing your pod parked below the quarters, although you can’t seem to approach it.

. Last of all looked at the Noble Exchange and fell off my chair.  A PLEX costs around $17.50, or 320 to 420M ISK.  Each PLEX can be converted into 3,500 Aurum.  The items in the exchange cost between 1,000 and 12,000 Aurum, with most around the price of a PLEX.  The initial offerings were slim and frankly less than inspiring.  Who set such a ridiculous pricing point? Who would pay that much for a pretend skirt or Jacket!?  I had two PLEX put aside to buy some Aurum, but based on that initial view I cashed them out for ISK.

So – I am glad to see it finally here, and I look forward to when there are corporation and public areas to visit.  It seemed to work ok, although I suspect as I mentioned above, I will just regard it as an animated background and ignore it.  (Being able to start myself in a default location might change my view a little.)  This was of course just my initial view.  I’ll have to go back and look more closely at things over the coming weeks.

 

Incarna 1.0

Incarna has snuck up on me.  I quickly ran around my toons and ensured they have 3 days in their training queues.  The Incarna patch notes have now been released:

http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=230

A quick glance through and some notes to myself:

. Check out what the Amarr Maller looks like now.

. Look at the new Agent Finder, Corporation Recruitment, Planetary Interaction and Ship Fitting tools in the Captain Quarters.

. Try out the new Tutorial Missions

. Check out the EVE turrets – should keep me amused for 5 minutes.  I wonder how many people lose their ship for being zoomed in too closely watching it, and not what is going on around them.

Other things I haven’t noticed being talked about before:

. All players logging into Tranquility will now have to create an avatar. You will not be able to proceed into game without one

. All players must customize their characters – you will be prompted to do so prior to entering the game.  Seems odd – will it cost to do so later maybe?

. The transfer of Aurum between players will be initially prohibited.  I must remember that as I have a couple PLEX waiting to convert, just to try the features out.

. There are six new general PVE missions.

. Doing a “stack all” will also re-apply your sorting choice afterwards (good)

. More visually appealing undocking  (Huh?)

. It is no longer possible to set up a ship so that it can’t be scanned without a cloak

. All probes can contribute to scan results, instead of just 4

. NPC jamming has been adjusted again (I knew this already, but is deserves another mention)

By pure chance I managed to watch the Alliance Tournament IX final on live TV.  I turned it off several minutes in once it became apparent Outbreak had broken off its attack and we were not going to get a true match.  The Alliance Tournament website is still worth a look:

http://at.eve-ic.net/9/

No idea why Magnus Balteus reported on the final as being exciting – did he actually watch the same thing as the rest of EVE?  While Hydra Reloaded and Outbreak (the finalists) were in effect the same group of players, and deserve recognition for that effort, they really let themselves down at the end.  They could have dueled it out properly for bragging rights amongst themselves – or done something amusing like an Industrial or Frigate 10 vs 10.  Never mind – maybe next time…

Certificate Planner

I watched the EVE related Clear Skies 3 movie the other day.  Given this is basically from a fan who is not from within the media / film industry; it really is an impressive effort.

http://www.clearskiesthemovie.com/

I’ve been using the in-game Certificate Planner to check what skills I might be missing on Alt 2.  Normally I only open it to clear the messages you get when you log in (to claim all certificates) – so it was interesting to use it for purpose.

I like the fact you can add skills directly to your training queue, and it gives you one measure of progress for your characters.  It fails to be really useful however as you can’t (in game) create a list of skills you want to train beyond what starts within the 24 hour training queue.  As such it is easy to forget what you wanted to do next, or to get sidetracked.  I’m not talking about a longer queue time – I think 24 hours is reasonable and forces people to log in.  I’m just talking about a list you can add to, sort, move around etc within the game client, and right click on to add to the training queue when there is room.  (So somewhat like the excellent EVEMon application.)  I also don’t fully agree on some of the skill ranks it recommends, especially at the lower levels.

I made a handful of minor adjustments to my PI installations over the weekend.  Managing them once a week is working out well.  I still haven’t sold anything I have generated, but I will look to do that now as I have decided against re-anchoring the Empire POS any time soon.

CCP’s most recent DEV Blogs

CCP have released or updated several Dev Blogs over the last couple days.

 

Gridlock, monikers, and cpu-per-user

The first is a rather technical overview of a recent change they made to improve performance.  I think I have remarked before that I like these types of articles.  I’ve worked the last 17 odd years in IT Admin, with a focus of investigating performance issues.  (I just added that up today, I’m getting old.)  I assume CCP’s goal with such articles is to say “we are working on performance, but it is a difficult and complex process.”  I am sure there are plenty of IT Geeks and wannabe’s who pour over such posts and truly understand the significance of finding such a (relatively) large improvement.  I suspect however most people’s eyes just glaze over and they grumpily think of the last ship they lost due to lag.  While I suspect the articles don’t have the overall desired effect, keep them coming anyway CCP.

 

Forums are back up and open for testing

The new EVE Forums are back in test mode.  I was wondering when we would see them again.  The announcement comes with a warning that if you find exploits please just log them, because their use, even in jest, will be dealt with severely.  They have added a few extra features, like being able to ignore posts from individuals.  I truly hope things go better this time around.

 

Dev track feedback: monetizing your apps and services

CCP is looking to offer a license for third party developers to create commercial applications and services around the EVE Intellectual Property.   It is currently against the EVE Online Terms of Service (ToS) to charge or accept donations for tools that use the EVE Online IP.  Now some time in the next few months for $99 a year (a price set to cover administration costs, not to profit from) you can get rights with (apparently) minimal restrictions to profit from your efforts. If you provide a non-commercial service or application, you can instead enter a free license agreement with CCP.

I suspect CCP might be a little surprised at the vitriolic response to this Dev blog.  The reality is that there are many EVE related services that either charge directly (killboards) or accept donations (most of the tools I use) in breach of the ToS.  Instead of taking the view that this legitimises their efforts, there is a lot of complaining about CCP profiting from the efforts of 3rd parties (I wonder if they can see the hypocrisy), or why should they pay $99 to provide a service CCP should have done themselves, or argue they get less donated a year than $99 would give them through PLEX purchases, etc and so on.

There are individual concerns I can sympathise with, and it is not entirely clear what is classified as EVE IP and what is not.  There isn’t much of a debate on the issue at the moment however – anyone who is not vehemently against the proposals is tending to be neg-repped and shouted down in amongst a sea of anger and scaremongering.

The changes do not impact me or this blog – I am not offering a service, asking for donations or showing ads.  (And if WordPress starts to automatically insert them for anyone not actually logged in, let me know and I will pay whatever I need to so that they are not shown.)  What I hope – once the dust settles and adjustments and clarifications are made, is that this will formalise a relationship between CCP and some of the brilliant developers who have provided tools which – frankly, make EVE Online a much better place.

My Low Sec investigations haven’t quite gone to plan

My scouts Covert Ops had been setup for High Sec exploration, so I spent some time refitting it for use in Low Sec.  That took a bit of running around as I needed to use a specific mix of named T1 items for everything to fit.  I then flew to the gateway of my first target area and then… was disconnected.  Taking that as a hint I logged off and figured I would come back and try again later.

When I tried a second time, EVE wasn’t available.  It had been taken offline as a precaution after a Distributed Denial of Service attack.  (I assume this was related to hacking concerns – I would hope that a company like CCP that lives by its Internet access would have the infrastructure in place to handle the average DDoS attack.)

I waited for things to return to normal (it was down for 4+ hours), and finally logged back in again.  Things looked ok so I warped to the Low Sec Entrance gate, jumped, and… could see people in local, but had a blank overview and could not move or warp to anything.  After a period of time with nothing improving I had to log off.  Anyone with experience of EVE’s “Spatial Anomalies” knows they have a tendency to cause very unfair and rather expensive ship losses.

A couple hours later and I logged back in to try again.  Thankfully I am still in my Covert Ops.  I finally get started on bookmarking the system.  Half way through bookmarking a spot on the inbound gate I get disconnected again.  I try again later, getting a couple more bookmarks in before again being disconnected.  Still later, another disconnection, and finally an EVE emergency reboot.

I have finally finished scouting that first system – I have 8 hard earnt bookmarks, an idea of what Alliance uses the system for its 0.0 logistics, what pirate group also lives there, and who the pilot is who likes to sit cloaked in a Rapture on one of the station undocks.  All well and good – but it took a full day, and there were half a dozen times where I might have lost a ship due to no fault of my own.

I am cautious to a pedantic fault – but the whole process should have only taken an hour.  When EVE is unstable, it is a cow to play.  I’m in two minds if I bother to continue, or just focus on something else for the next month or so, until CCP stablise the 1.6 Patch and subsequently Incarna.

(I know CCP isn’t responsible for kiddies attacking their systems with a bot net, but still I would have hoped they would have been a little more robust in the face of it.)

Best Laid Plans

I had the day off work and the house to myself, so was planning an uninterrupted EVEathon.  My two year old daughter then woke up with a barking cough and a temperature, and my plans all died a horrible death.

Thankfully my wife took pity on me and has stayed home to take care of her for some of the day, so I managed to run a couple level 4 missions, catch up on some of the latest results from the EVE Alliance Tournament IX, and started the long overdue process of researching my local low sec areas.  This last item basically involves making gate, undock and safe spot bookmarks, keeping an eye on killboards, sitting around cloaked watching the comings and goings of the locals, and updating my Alt and Primary Corp standing lists to ensure I have the more active local pirates flagged.  I expect this task will continue on for some weeks.

It would be interesting to see what the agent quality changes have done to the population spread in Empire.  Antidotally it seems people have moved around – my lovely quiet little backwater commonly has more than a dozen pilots in it now – when before the changes there was normally only a couple.  I’ve noticed more people in general in the couple constellations I am most active across.

More playing around the peripherals of EVE

After working on the Celestis last weekend, I spent a fair amount of time today going over a fitting for my Dramiel.  This included a run to Jita and back to grab some Faction gear and a range of different Ammo to test.

I know the ship is meant to be nerfed soon – but to be frank it hasn’t really impressed me that much.  In the hands of a skilled pilot I can see it would be nasty – but then again, there are many ships like that in the game.  It doesn’t seem to be the “I win” button people allude to.

I’ve ended up with two fittings – both with 6.2K EHP and dual Gistii B Type propulsion, one 150dps with T2 150mm Autocannnon and Small Unstable Power Fluctuator, the other 170dps with T2 200mm Autocannon and a T2 Rocket Launcher.  It moves at 665ms, 2171ms with AB, and 5490ms with MWD.  Nice enough – but you would hope so after spending 100M on a Frigate and its fittings.

I tested it out against my travel fit / tanked Exequror, which at 23K EHP and a flight of four Vespa EC-600 drones rather easily made its escape whenever it wanted to.

Over the week I’ve finished my character shuffling and moving, and have what I want, where I want.

Account 1
. Main (79M SP)
. Ren’s Price Check

Account 2
. Alt 1 – Capital Pilot (73M SP)
. Jita Price Check
. Amarr Price Check

Account 3
. Alt 2 – PI / Trade / Cyno (9M SP)
. Alt 3 – Covert Ops / AF / Cyno (6M SP)
. Alt 4 – PI / Cyno (2M SP)

(While there are people who read this blog who know my character names, and I assume I will post screen captures with them left on, at the moment I don’t mention them directly to reduce the chance of any Corp or Ally I work with getting grief through this blog.)

 

Anti Frig Celestis v01

I spent 3 or 4 hours on the weekend engrossed in EVE. I had come across an anti-frigate Celestis fit that I quite liked the look of. I spent a long time in EFT (The EVE Fitting Tool) – making variations of it, coming up with two different tank options and 6 different weapon configurations, and then logged into the game to test them out on Alt number 1.

While many of these options were close on paper, some were far more effective in practise, so I further refined my fitting. I still had some doubts however, so I purchased a flavor of the month Dramiel, fitted it out with dual propulsion mods, and did further testing using it.

The goals of this fitting..

. Anti-Frigate
. Bait ship – generally need them to attack you (think more anti-pirate)
. Plausible for Solo use
. Cheap but effective

 

 

[Celestis, Anti Frig Beam]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Warp Scrambler II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive

Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Medium Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Warrior II x5
Warrior II x3

It is obviously a short range fit – and designed more to be a surprise package / bait ship. In practise the small beam turrets gave the most flexibility for tracking, damage and the option of range. (It is very effective on Frigates within 10km, but also possible to hit out to 30km if you need to scare away a Frigate Warp disrupting you from range.)

The CCC might seem odd – and on paper it doesn’t make much difference, but again in the field it seemed to make the ship easier and more flexible to fly.

In the end it kept me amused for hours and seemed to be nasty against any frigate that strayed within 10km.  It obviously is in trouble against frigates orbiting 13+ km away, but the beams and warriors will hopefully give you the chance of seeing such ships off before they take you down.  So I made up a couple ships and put them away for a rainy day.

 

PI.09

Incursion 1.6 fixes have so far included three client updates and two server side patches.  One part of these fixes has related to extraction rate bugs introduced into PI.

http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=227My

My first PI run after the original update had seen a drastic drop in available resources on my Empire planets.  I had just wondered if they had changed the sensitivity of the scan slider, but my extraction rates seemed to have had halved or worse.  Overnight the prospect of Empire PI went from amusing with a small profit, to being a pointless waste of time.  So it was with some interest that I did my PI runs today.  The resource levels still appear to have drop significantly on the survey scanner, but the extraction volumes were back to around where I was expecting.

I have been playing around with PI for around two and a half months now – just slowly building and adjusting the installations.  I am not too pedantic about keeping on top of things, and the processes can sit idle for days at a time.  Still – I’ve generated over 90M of PI materials at the moment.  While initial setup costs halve the profits on that – in the long term I can see it being worthwhile.  It is certainly a worthwhile endeavor for newer players.

I am scaling back the range of the items I am manufacturing and trading, cutting out those whose volumes are too low.  In fact my manufacturing has almost ground to a halt, with most supplies now coming from buy orders far cheaper than you can make things.  I can see I could turn over quite a profit in a trade centre, but I prefer the much slower .01 ISK games in this backwater.  In the same sort of period as I have been working on PI, I have made probably around 150M in profits.  Again – this is on relatively minimal effort.

These are miniscule profits compared to what I could achieve, if I wanted to invest a lot of time and energy into it.  That is not my goal at the moment however – which is instead to increase the relatively passive income on my accounts and keep active in multiple areas within the game.  I am not far off the point right now of having doubled my regular low effort income from 100M a to 200M a month – through Datacores, Empire PI and Empire backwater trading.

The winds of Change

While I haven’t spent much time in EVE since the last patch, there do not appear to have been the types of disasters reported for which I had feared.  Glad to see CCP.

The EVE interwebs are suggesting the NC has accepted that they cannot defeat the Supercaps of the DRF and Mercenary forces aligned against them.  I assume that is probably closer to fact than propaganda.  If the NC retreat or are pushed out of their holdings, the reality is it will directly impact many thousands of players.

Just consider that – plausibly more than 10,000 individual players moving into or out the NC’s old home lands.  Industry infrastructure, markets and supply chains collapsing, with new ones going in.  Trillions of ISK worth of ships and assets making hazardous journeys, or being left locked in now hostile stations.

Empire will feel the effect – on its markets, the supply of materials and goods, and from the influx of refugees.  I would even imagine CCP’s subscription count might take a bit of a hit as some of the losers take their bat and ball and leave the game, or even just shutdown down some of their alt accounts.

Is there any other MMO where the player lead, in game actions can have such an impact?

At the moment the question is how far with the DRF go.  In the past there have been times when it looked as a group of blue alliances might get to control the full Null Sec map, but it has never really come to pass.  I assume it won’t here – both due to the efforts and cost required to grind through and then maintain the infrastructure, and because one of the elements of the DRF success has been from Mercenaries that won’t always be on the pay roll.  It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.