I think that is the last of them

Just to prove I can finish a topic, I think these are the last of the current Dev Blogs that I wanted to remark on.

 

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73491

So CCP put some of the Faction Warfare changes in early and with minimal warning to Nerf income levels.

I’ve read the Dev Blog and various player blogs, but I have to admit I don’t really understand the expected incomes from a before and after perspective. I think the theoretical income levels are still high, but the reality is that they won’t be achieved on a regular basis.

Overall I’m glad CCP didn’t just let this continue until the next expansion. It would have seemed like they were asleep at the wheel if they had done that.

 

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73439

Players will have to build all the various container types and the last of the Quest, Discovery and Gaze Survey Probes themselves. That is a good thing.

I grabbed a couple Freighter loads of various containers to stockpile. This is not to make miraculous amounts of ISK since CCP tends to be on top of that sort of market speculation. It just allows me to seed my local markets going forward. All told it did not cost that much anyway.

 

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73448

There will be new rounded target overlays and various changes to locking signs and the like. Some look nice; others (on the Video clips I’ve seen) look messy. Overall, anything that improves the look of the overview is a step in the right direction. It might just not always be a step forwards.

 

Nothing much to report from within the game.  A few trade and PI runs, but otherwise RL has been my focus the last week or two.  My main is working on the last of the Shield Compensation skills to V.  My main Alt has 3.5 days left on Industrial Command Ships V, to finish off maximising his mining boosting.  My Empire Alt has just finished off training all the Ore processing skills to rank IV, to allow the use of all the T2 mining crystals.

Sounds Familiar

Worth a read:

http://aggressivelogistics.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/putdownability/

While not as busy in real life, it rings true for me. I have similar restrictions on the capacity in which I can play the game. (I often feel compelled to apologise here for not being able to play properly.) I also worry at the signals from CCP that suggest they want to nerf the play style I am restricted in having.

Yes, why are you here?

Today my blogging schedule has been interrupted by Jester’s Trek.  (It is probably my EVE blog of choice – for a variety of reasons.)

His well-known Alliance, Rote Kapelle, have declared that they are fed up with type of PVP being offered up by many of the residence of NPC 0.0 Syndicate, and that they are setting out to have a long campaign to eject anyone they don’t deem to be worthy.

http://jestertrek.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/why-are-you-here.html

I completely agree that Rote Kapelle are within their rights to ”..make absolutely miserable the lives of people who live in Syndicate..” They should also be – boredom aside, capable of being somewhat successful at it.

http://jestertrek.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/play-style.html

Ironically Jester had only just posted about his positive experiences in Guild Wars 2, and remarked on – quite rightly, how the Culture of EVE players can be even more off-putting to new players than the steep learning curve.

http://jestertrek.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/all-for-won.html

Rote Kapelle’s sense of entitlement and self-righteousness was a nice parallel to this, and elicited a good belly laugh from me.

I have to confess that Syndicate is the NPC 0.0 location I refer to in this blog. I expect my Alliance is one of those that Rote Kapelle would deem as undeserving. While I don’t tend to spend much time down there, I will ensure to jump down if Rote Kapelle come knocking to force us out.

I am happy to leave my characters either siting in station day after day, or cloaked up in deep space. See – I enjoy wasting the time of PVP Gods, denying them the kills and the sort of fun they want. I figure if I force them to spend minutes trying to scan me down, or troll my AFK butt into doing something silly, then I am in effect providing a community service. I spared some other poor unfortunate those wasted minutes.

See Jester, there are nice helpful people in EVE after all.

 

(I do suspect I will have to stay behind to perform this, given my Alliance would probably just get bored if put under pressure, and will likely just move to another location.)

Next…

I spent two hours doing Hi Sec exploration on the weekend, ending up with around 9M ISK in total rewards. Unlike Helena Khan the loot gods were not smiling.

I also updated my PI (a couple days late) and checked all my Trade Orders. Oddly, out of my relatively quiet 25 orders, only 2 needed adjustment. None of my competitors had updated their orders over the previous week.

My minor forays into the Implant market has worked out to be moderately profitable. (Yes, I read Greedy Goblin too. The low range items haven’t turned over, but there seems to be a sweat spot in the middle tier of implants. I will have to grab more stock, although will do so at buy order prices. It won’t make me a fortune in my current little backwater, but is mildly interesting.

 

On to the next DEV blogs:

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73413

CCP is updating the AI for all NPC’s, aside Incursion, Concord and Sleepers. They will switch targets, go after drones and have a preference for targeting their own hull type. The idea is to make PVE more engaging and close some exploits.

This could be a rather noticeable income nerf for some players. Gone (or modified) will be the pattern of warping in a tank to agro a pocket, then bring in glass cannon DPS ships to clear everything. Mining ops outside of Empire where you tank a belt will no longer be viable. The common tactic of inviting low SP Corp mates into L4 Missions to help with their standings grinds and income generation won’t work either. It should also hit AFK drone boat mission running. It probably won’t impact those who zerg certain missions, or make the PVE content any more interesting! I don’t see it impacting me on a personal level, aside from losing the occasional drone. I over tank my PVE ships anyway.

 

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73443

As is heavily being blogged about at the moment, CCP is updating the Crimewatch (Aggression) system.

I have two problems with the current aggression rules – they are unclear, and they are used to grief newer players. I’m not entirely enamored by the new icon based flagging system, but it should at least be somewhat clearer. There are basically 4 flags – Weapons (which prevents certain actions like docking and jumping), NPC (which prevents your ship from disappearing upon log off), PVP (prevents your ship from disappearing upon log off), and a dual Legality Flag – suspect, which allows anyone to attack you, and criminal, which will additionally see Concord attack you.

Reading through it made relative sense. There are a couple of tables linked to in the Dev Blog which stipulate actions and consequences, which is worth a read. Overall the changes make it more dangerous to get a Suspect flag – which could either see less people being aggressive (unlikely to my mind), or overall trigger more PVP (more likely). There will certainly be some game play changes, for logistic pilots, suicide gankers, can flippers and so on (even those trying to have supposed 1 on 1 frigate fights outside of trade hubs).

I then started to read about all the different grey scenarios, so I am left a little worried about the unexpected consequences and exploits we might start seeing on day 1 of its release.  Another one of those – needed to be done, but I wait with mild concern to see the outcome.

So unkind

Time to re-read some of the most recent DEV Blogs, starting with the Bounty and Kill-Right changes.

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73446

I remarked on the bounty system update previously. In summary – bounties can be placed on any individual, corporation or alliance, they don’t give kill rights, and payouts are based on the value of the damage done to the target.

I can see areas where it could be exploited and played, and in some ways it gives the rich an almost consequence free method of griefing people. As I’ve read in a number of blogs, it could also work as a replacement insurance payout for suicide gankers, just targeted against those with bounties. Despite the Carebear probably being more on the receiving end of this, I like the idea. EVE is meant to be a sandbox, and this mechanism promotes the generation of game content between players.

The blog also covers kill right changes – which has seen a whole heap of rage, tears and tantrums in the response from some quarters. Previously you got a kill right if someone illegally destroyed your ship. There are a lot of people who get kill rights who have no real practical way of exercising them – new players, low SP, purely industrialists and so on.

The changes mean that if someone illegally attacks you in Empire (successfully or not), or pods you in Low Sec, you will be able to sell the kill rights. (I assume you don’t get the ISK, and that it just goes to Concord.)

A player with available Kill rights shows up on the overview. Those rights can be purchased on the spot in space. Now here’s the odd thing – the rights are not just taken on by the purchaser, but instead the target is flagged as a suspect for the next 15 minutes, meaning anyone can attack them. If they are killed, the kill right is spent. If they escape, and continue to do so, they can be flagged again repeatedly until 30 days passes.

Now I must admit that surprises me. I’d have thought it would only be a one on one type basis. I can understand why people are upset by that. But then they open their mouth and vile Carebear hatred spews forth. *

Apparently this makes Empire too safe. The reality is the change does no such thing – you can still perform all the same actions as before, it is just that now there a notable consequence for doing so. If you can’t handle having to look over your shoulder for the next 30 days, then the problem lies with your risk aversion, not Empire.

The baser, more immature aspects of my personality are amused by the blubbering angst being generated. Apparently some want PVP, but only when the opponent is unaware they are about to partake in it, generally are flying ships that can’t fight back, and mostly can’t effectively seek revenge.

Now the truly badass pirate might in fact welcome these changes. Imagine all the ill-advised Empire dwellers trying to exercise kill rights on them. It could well generate a whole lot of extra PVP.

I also like the fact that the group of players who like to follow the Police / Sheriff type role now have a mechanism to do this within.

My main worry (again) is for the gaming and exploiting of this type of system, but overall I think it increases the options for player interactions, and is a good thing.

The blog goes on to say they will be adjusting the ASB modules, implementing the Micro Jump Drive previously suggested (just not sure about how useful those will be), and bring in Salvage drones.

So – Bounty and Kill right System changes- I’m happy with both concepts.  (Even if I end up on the receiving side of them!)

(* Oh – truth be told, I do think it seems too harsh for a kill right to be converted into a suspect flag for 15 minutes. I guess the difficulty is in how to make a kill right expensive enough to stop someone just buying it for themselves and using an Alt to remove it, but not so expensive as to stop anyone ever buying them.)

Raking in the Millions

I’ve been testing my theory on AFK Mining.

(Apparently I just can’t stop harping on it – or to put it in a better light, I wanted to put my own views to a practical test.)

I used a Retriever fitted with T1 Strip Miners, a T2 Survey Scanner, T2 Damage Control and two T2 Mining Laser Upgrades. EFT gives it a suggested yield of 1,002m3 per minute.

I stuck with T1 Strip Miners as this was meant to be as AFK as possible.

I solo mined in a 0.8 system with an Alt skilled enough to have maximum yield. The belts tend to get hammered, so the re-spawn size of the rocks wasn’t always great. I worked on full belts, using ideal bookmarks for maximizing the number of rocks in range, mining from the highest return rocks down, and warping back to a fresh position each time I have to dock to empty the Ore Hold.

I left the Strip Miner to deactivate on its own as each rock depleted about 80% of the time. The remainder I manually recycle to maximise yield.

I ignored D-Scan and Local, and would not have noticed someone trying to suicide gank me. Instead I worked on financial paper work, or read blogs and news sites, or watched downloaded shows. I even wrote a blog entry or two.

It wasn’t a comfortable AFK process, but I did go for periods of time where I would only glance at EVE when the voice prompts alerted me to an asteroid being depleted. The effort should however fit within the sphere of what people are calling AFK mining. I generally didn’t have to concentrate on it too hard.

So the end result over multiple sessions was that I earnt on average 7.4M ISK an hour.

I could have dropped the Damage Control for a third Mining Upgrade, which would have seen the income increase to around 8M an hour. Given I suspect I wasn’t as AFK as I should have been; I’ll stick with the original figure for what is relatively low risk, AFK mining in Empire.

Is that income level a problem?

Again – with real EVE examples, that is not the source of income nirvana that many people are crying so hard about.

I was however surprised by how relatively close the income was for AFK mining when compared to concentrating on the screen and optimising each mining cycle.  (See my notes here)  Basically I was getting around 80% of the return for about a third of the effort.  That didn’t sit entirely right with me.

Will this be my new form of mining?  Probably not.  Interestingly time did pass quicker with this approach, and it would be easier to mine for longer time periods.  However it wasn’t particularly satisfying, and I prefer my EVE sessions to be a little more immersive and distracting from real life.  I can see why others would do it however.

So maybe the result of this effort wasn’t quite as I expected after all.  Not silly income, but maybe not entire right either.

Moving NPC 0.0 homes

I thought I had finished all my asset shuffling and moving – but I was wrong.

The Corporation announced that it is relocating its NPC 0.0 staging system. In reality someone with more fighters and better ships wanted the old location, so it was somewhat compelled to move.

Since I played no part in trying to harass the new comers, I certainly can’t complain or point a finger about the outcome (unless it was to point it at myself).

The new home station looks to be in a rather busy spot that you can’t really defend. You are also easily camped in. However it does have medical services, so I can set my clone there. I’ve been watching the dotlan statistics, and the traffic volumes were surprisingly low. Hopefully it will work out ok.

While my assets in 0.0 can fit within my two carriers, those said carriers were resting in low sec. (I was forced to store them there as there were no medical facilities in the old station I was basing out of.)

To get the carriers back down to 0.0 and move everything into the new station required a rather convoluted chain of clone jumping, Cyno’s, flying and patience.

My Main and his Alt had a Jump Clone each in the old 0.0 Station. I started by Clone Jumping my Alt down to 0.0, and Clone Jumping my Main into his Wormhole Clone (both Clones being relatively cheap with +3 Implants). I grabbed a Shuttle for my Main and flew the 20 odd jumps to the Low Sec Station where his Carrier was stored.

As things were quiet my Alt was able to open a Cyno, and I jumped the Archon into 0.0. It only took a few minutes to load it up with most of my Assets.

I then flew my Alt across a number of hostile systems and into the new home.

I had to wait a while for visitors to the old and new homes to clear before being able to open a Cyno and jumping in my Main’s Archon.

The new station seems to have a large docking radius – or I get lucky on positioning the first Cyno. Soon after docking the system has more visitors, and I lose my first Cyno ship in over two years. That does not bode well. Never mind.

I don’t actually do much in 0.0. A bit of trade, a bit of NPC killing, a lot of Intel posting, so arguably I’m not much use to the 3 or 4 dozen odd of my Corp mates who do try making a home there. I had thought I would try to do a bit more PVP, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact I am just not that inclined to do solo PVP, and the few times a week I can play without much fear of being interrupted, the 0.0 home is very quiet and no group roams are run. I’ve thought long and hard about just pulling out of the area, but I do get a perverse pleasure of moving about and living there on occasion. At least I hope the Intel posts are of some value.

The next step was to get my Wormhole Clone back out to Empire, leaving the Carrier with my 0.0 Clone. This is not immediately possible as when I log in later the system has half a dozen neutrals active, and no one from my Alliance. I stay logged in until a few people leave the area, before slipping out of the station in a Helios.

I quickly make undock, station watch, and safe spot bookmarks, before heading back to empire space. I pass neutrals in a number of systems, but no one is camping any of the gates and I get back to empire unhindered.

I then Jump my Alt back to his Wormhole Clone in Empire, and make the same Journey to his Carrier in Low Sec.

While that is in progress, my Main grabs a new Falcon with an updated fit and a few spares, and trades it to my Alt, who stores them away in his Carrier. My main then flies all the way back to his Wormhole Loki, and Clone Jumps down to the old home in 0.0.

The system is too busy with Reds and Neuts, so I log for the night.

The following morning, just before the kids head off to school / childcare, my Main manages to open a Cyno for my Alt, and he jumps his Thanatos down to the old home in 0.0. My Main then trades the remainder of his assets to the Alt, who stores them in the Carrier, along with his own spares.

Later in the day I move my Main from the old home to the new, skirting around a couple of Red interceptors.

I notice a Corp mate asking for a Cyno in the new system. I Convo him to indicate he can use mine when I jump my Alt in. He had some extra ships to be moved from the old system, so my Alt spends 10 minutes ferrying them from another station and loading them up in his carrier.

After waiting for a number of Neuts and Reds to move through, I finally open a Cyno and both my Alt and Corp mate jump their Carriers into the new system and dock up. This time I don’t lose the frigate. Assets are returned to their rightful owners.

I log in later and get all the gear organised in the new home. I now had to fly my Alt’s Wormhole Clone back out to Empire. The only problem was I didn’t have any spare ship I wanted to take out, and there were no T1 frigates on the market. After going over the handful of spares I did have, and what was for sale in the system, I ended up buying and fitting (slightly strangely) a Claw interceptor.

 

My alt was then able to quickly fly out of 0.0, drop the claw off at my Central Storage, and return the Wormhole Clone to its rightful place.

All of this happened over a number of days (to allow for Jump Clone timers and for various systems to be quiet enough to move capitals). The end result is that I now have both Carriers and all my related assets in the new 0.0 staging system, along with a matching Jump Clone and my Medical Clone.

In future I will ensure I stick with NPC 0.0 stations with medical services, so that I don’t need to leave the carriers elsewhere.

Now if you have read this far, you might be wondering why on earth I documented this process. It just seemed to stand out for me – how many other MMO’s are there which require this sort of effort? I didn’t make money; I didn’t advance in XP or levels, I didn’t collect new loot. There is no acknowledgement for a job well done.

I was forced to move out of a home by other players. I had to move assets that if lost would not re-spawn, and would take some 200 hours of effort to replace. I had to think what if I died, where would my Clone end up, how could I ensure easy access to my assets? I had to plan, make calculated risks, put in place logistics for fuel and Cynos. Through the entire process you are testing yourself against other players – even if they don’t always realise that you are.

I have remarked many times that I think people are clueless when they think Empire is an AFK ISK maker’s paradise. But this is one example of where I do agree that Empire is living in AFK mode in comparison to Low Sec or 0.0. It answers my question above about if I should keep a presence in NPC 0.0 or not. I can’t play in hardcore mode; I can’t claim a patch of space for myself, instead having to slink around in places no one else can be bothered to take. But I can appreciate the seemingly unique nature of the environment. I can find a real reward in not dying and just watching the trials and tribulations of those around me who are more dedicated.

I even followed all this up by going on a roam, getting on a number of killmails, and not dying. But I might remark on that another time.

Fly safe.

Fire sale for Chump Change

I had had enough. I cancelled all the fire sale lots and moved the remainder to Jita. I gave them 24 hours on the market to clear before just selling to buy orders or refining. I could have persevered and eked out another 100M or so, but it just wasn’t worth the time or damage to my sanity.

The end result was 7.7B ISK – which is not that far off the client’s suggested value of the haul. For me it is a lot of ISK – literally a couple years of ISK generation. It won’t be used for any great money making scheme – it just allows me to play and experiment with most of what the game has to offer.

It is however small change in today’s EVE.

A quote from a recent Jester’s Trek post:

http://jestertrek.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/kill-of-week-black-death.html

“This is so stupid and game-breaking I don’t even know how to express how stupid and game-breaking it is. And it’s going to go on for another two months before it ends, making the pilots involved ridiculously, fabulously, ludicrously rich at the expense of players who aren’t doing it.”

He is of course talking about Faction Warfare plexing, and the income it is generating.

I’ve read blog posts about people making the sort of money I got from the asset sell off in less than a week in FW. I know I could just go and join them – but the concept is actually a game breaker for me.

It can be done with almost no skill, no training or investment, has no risk involved, and can be done with little concentration. You don’t need to PVP, or hold sovereignty, or protect a moon mining POS, or add any value to Faction Warfare. There are plenty of guides out there how to, in effect, print ISK. It can earn you so much ISK that for some time into the future you can play the game with no consequence.

You can only hope that because CCP isn’t in a rush to balance this, that the reports have all been exaggerated…

Rock Munching

The Corp thief, or thieves, are still at it. Initially the Hi Sec Corporate Hangers were raided. Sometime later it was the turn of the Null Sec hangers. Now it is the Wormhole POS, with expensive ships removed along with hangers and containers cleared.

There are a large number of people in the Corp, so it is difficult to guess at who the culprit might be. I imagine it will be someone who joined within the last 4 or 5 months, who has passed the initial probation period but doesn’t hold a senior rank. While there has been some effort to put all assets into audit containers and the like, I get the impression people just dump stuff in the open hangers, particularly donations, which can build up over time.

The ISK value is unlikely to be anything worth writing home about, but the impact is poisonous. Some have already suggested that they will be leaving the wormhole for good, and you can’t help but feel people are eyeing off those next to them, wondering if they are the culprit. In more hardcore Corps it tends to be the leadership who rob the coffers of large sums of ISK, but even these small value heists can be damaging for a Corps morale & trust.

It might be an individual who doesn’t have the fortitude to handle the temptation, or joined specifically for the purpose, or it might even be a spy, such as from the group currently working to oust the Alliance from its corner of NPC 0.0.

I don’t use any of the Corporation supplies, and don’t store anything in their hangers. My main concern (aside the damage to the fabric of the Corp) is if the thief decides to burn themselves in their last 24 hours with the Corp by awoxing.

The sell-off continues. It is a bit of a laborious struggle to be honest. The stuff left to go onto the market makes up just under 500 lots, which is a lot of orders still to be placed.

4.4B Sold / In the Bank
1.7B On the Market
2.0B Waiting to be put on Market
—–
8.1B New estimated value

Ok, time to log the main Toons in.

This is my one religious weekend of the year, where my wife keeps the kids out of my hair and the nagging to a somewhat lower level, and leaves me to my worship. I get to watch all the pre-race and full day race coverage for the Bathurst 1000 (an iconic car race in Australia which happens to be celebrating its 50th year anniversary).

I remember sitting down in the lounge room when I was around 11 or 12, and spending the entire day watching the race. Ever since then I have watched it religiously each year. I can’t explain what the allure is, and I certainly did not get it from anyone else in my family. It has just always captured my attention.

So I am not likely to be doing much that requires concentrating – so I jump to my +5 Mining Clone and decided to mine.

It took a little while to get the ships sorted, pointed in the right direction, set the station as a waypoint, boosts working (had to drop and recreate fleet), and finally get into the flow of changing crystals, scanning, moving ore etc.

The end result of maybe an hour’s effort was 19M ISK worth of minerals. Not too bad. It follows my osmosis approach of just earning bits and bobs here and there, and having it all add up to something worthwhile.

Garage Sale

My industry Alt was at a trade hub, in the earlier stages of selling off all that collected junk. The EVE client suggests I had 8B ISK worth. It will be interesting to see where reality lies. The whole process is going to take a while, particularly as I started mid-week while the market is slower. Still, I am relatively pleased so far:

2.0B Sold / In the Bank
1.3B On the Market
1.8B Waiting to be put on Market
3.1B Waiting to be transported to Market
—–
8.2B New estimated worth

At least we are tracking in the right direction. One last round of the 0.01 ISK game, throwing up an extra dozen lots, and I then steer the Alt back towards her home system.

A short update of her local trade orders, and then I run her full PI Cycle.

I then swap to the PI Alt and complete her PI Cycle.

I find if I concentrate, I can generally complete each planet’s update in between the time I hit warp to the customs office, and the time I actually land next to it. This means I spend very little time sitting around.

PI done and a bit over 20M of final profits made, I swap back to my Industry Alt. I load up her Orca with more stuff to sell and head back to the Trade hub. Downtime then interrupts me, and I notice the news box mention it will be an extra-long one. Damn you CCP, I was on a roll and had plans today. Plans!!

..

After DT I log in my main and his Alt, and do the last jump clone swap / implant plug-in. This is for the Wormhole roaming ships. It is getting too late to do much, but I again practice scanning. 3 Combat sites, 2 Magnetometric, and 2 wormholes. Each one takes around 2 minutes to find, which I am relatively pleased with.

While probing a Heavy Interdictor appears on scan, with a hull name and pilot Corp that suggests they are from a Wormhole. As my probes close in on one of the holes the ship leaves local. I am guessing he is waiting on the other side hoping I jump through. (Although frankly I have no proof of that, and am just overly paranoid.)

It is getting late, so I just run two of the Mag Sites. Just, well, because. They only take a couple minutes each, and I come away with 15M of loot.  (High Sec Exploration isn’t normally this rewarding.)

Of course that is not the role of these ships, so I drop the loot off and decide to explore the wormholes in the morning.

..

I wake with another headache, which makes something like 7 from the last 9 days. Damn allergies. I’m not in the best of shape, but when the wife and kids head out to visit friends, I take the opportunity to undock the Loki and supporting Falcon and go visit one of the Wormhole’s I found last night, in to a C3.

Scouting the system shows up one POS on the furthest planet with large bubbles, lots of containers and small weaponry. I don’t both warping to it. A low number of anomalies and quiet dotlan stats for the last 12 hours suggest no one is home, so I launch probes.

4 Signatures turn out to be a Grav, Ladar and 2 Wormholes. The new hole leads out to Cache in Null. I potter around out there but find no Signatures, and with my head screaming, I return back through the C3 and back to Empire to dock up.

It has been good to be so active in game over the last week.

The Loot Gods

I decided on the low sec area I would target, and moved the Orca to the closest high sec staging point. To test out the effectiveness of my Pilgrim fit, I scanned down a couple of sites in the local system. I wasn’t 100% sure on how effective it would be in comparison to my other scanning ships: (Probe Strength shown below)

Hi Sec, Buzzard – 130
Hi Sec, Legion – 118
Low Sec, Buzzard – 119
Low Sec, Pilgrim – 83

(It is fitted with a Sisters Core Probe Laucher, Sister Core Scanner Probe, two Gravity Capacitor Upgrade rigs, and the AP-602, AQ-702 and AR-802 implants.)

I scanned down a Drone 3 of 10 DED site and a moderately hard Gravimetric site fairly quickly and painlessly enough – so it should be workable. The combat site was called Rogue Drone Asteroid infestation. I ran that just because I had 15 minutes spare, and it seemed a good way to shake down the use of the ship. In the final room one of the containers dropped a Faction mod worth just shy of 100M.

EVE is like that – it has a strange sense of humor when it comes to rewarding your efforts.

I’ll take the Buzzard into Low Sec next and start the long process of bookmarking safes and scouting perches, and getting familiar with the locals.

Meanwhile I have made a start on the asset sell off. Once again I am back in amongst the trading bots and oddly incompetent humans. 1.6B has been sold in 12 hours, but I have more than 500 more lots to transport and post. That might take a while.

Time to take stock

 

There was another reason for me moving most of my assets into the one location and getting them sorted. I’ve been trying to decide if I would step away from EVE or not. The catalyst for this wasn’t really anything specific about the game itself – but the continued long term difficulties in finding uninterrupted free time in Real Life which often turn my EVE sessions into aggravation instead of fun.

I gathered all my assets together with the view of making them easily accessible for whenever I could return. The problem though (as the mouse hovered over the unsubscribe button) was my frame of mind – a mix of martyrdom and resentment.

So that was probably not the best of ideas then. Instead I am going to give up on the relatively small number of TV shows I still try to watch, read less online news, plus I hear sanity is over rated, so I can probably give that up too.

 

So where does that leave me in EVE?

I am happy with how the fitted out and self-contained mobile homes have been updated. There is one for Mission Running, one for Mining, one for Hi Sec Exploration and one for Low Sec Exploration (which is the new one). I’m just finishing up the process of moving them back into the right location with the right jump clones.

I am currently trying to work out which Low Sec pocket I will base myself out. I’ll stay clear of the Faction Warfare zones, and am looking for quieter back waters which won’t be permanently camped by pirates. The short list includes areas of Derelik, Khanid, Kor-Azor or Solitude.

I also have to decide if I stay with my current Corp. I’ve actually made no real connections with any of the other pilots, which is an embarrassing reflection on me given the amount of time I’ve been a member. It also gives me a level of angst that Real Life means I really can’t be that involved. I am active on their forums, appreciate most of the in channel banter, and if I am in the right place at the right time, I’ll help members out. But RL forces me to play a solo game most of the time where I have to be able to walk away at a moment’s notice.

I don’t really have any new and far reaching goals. I just want to be able to log in when I can, and appreciate the distraction that EVE is. I might well just concentrate on playing the game in the exact opposite way that CCP would like me to.  I’m spiteful like that.

Hold on, what if..

As I sit here manually piloting Orca’s to every corner of the Empire (literally), a possible problem with the new bounty system came to me.

Wealthy Pilots / Corps / Alliances could make the game unplayable for people they want to grief. Put a large enough bounty on a target (and keep it high), and they might not be able to undock again.

I wonder if there is a cost from Concord – such as 10% of the bounty is removed as a fee each week, so that over time it will reduce regardless if it is exercised or not?

Of course that is pure speculation. I have no idea how the system is going to work, and if there is a risk of this particular type of griefing or not.

More Undocking

My PI changes have at least temporarily worked – I’ve managed to be enthused enough to do 4 out of a possible 5 cycles over the last 10 days. It is certainly less bothersome. By tweaking the order of the planets I process I even managed to save a little extra time.

For as inane as the process looks on the outside, there is certainly something special in the PI system for the micro managers and perfectionists.

I have finished the Ship Refitting process and all of my roaming bases are ready to, well, roam. I am basically just stuck waiting for jump clone timers to run down to allow me to move each of the Orca’s out to their starting points.

I currently have 470,000m3 of stuff to sell off, EVE suggesting worth around 6.6B ISK – plus one Orca. I am down to 41,000m3 of stuff to sort through, worth apparently around 1.4B ISK. Most of that should go to be sold as well. The whole process should end up allowing me to do what I was before, but with an extra 6B ISK in the wallet. Packrat is probably an apt description of some who can collect so much unnecessary junk.

On the plus side my Trading Alt is able to manage 269 orders. On the negative side, there are some 600 individual items to organise the sale of.

I’ve had to adjust my training of my main for a few days. One of the mobile bases I am preparing is new – for Low Sec exploration and mining. I realised my main did not have the skills to use all the mining crystals required to cover off what you can find in low sec gravimetric sites, so I’ve added various Ore Processing Skills to the queue. Training for a specific purpose at least makes things more interesting.

I noticed my main passed 105M SP, with recent highlights being Astrometrics V, Achaeology V, and the Minmatar and Amarr Electronic T3 Subsystems V skills (all to help with exploration).

(I am not doing much in space at the moment – RL has continued with its cow moments.  This process has however kept me amused and distracted for a while.)

The next EVE expansion now has a name – retribution.

 

There are a few gaming websites which provide additional information, such as:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/29/ccp-unveils-eve-online-retribution-coming-this-winter/

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/14/feature/6763/Winter-Expansion-Retribution-Unveiled.html/page/1

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/9/29/3425080/eve-online-retribution-preview

I am pleased that they are looking at the Bounty area. The current system is so easily gamed that it is useless. Differences include being able to put bounties on any Player, Corporation or Alliance, without them having to of wronged you first. The bounty payout rates will now depend on how much loss the target suffers, including taking into account insurance payouts and the like. That could still be manipulated due to the errors in how CCP calculates the average value of things. (I still have that laser crystal that the game suggests is worth 200M, but sells in Jita for less than 1M.) It is an improvement though.

If it works like I assume, there seem to be some really interesting gaming elements in this change. If you want to grief a Hi Sec Corporation, you can put a Bounty of 1B ISK on them. Suicide Gankers could then target their haulers and miners, and in effect get paid for the kills – basically like a Mini Hulkageddon. I can imagine people will be crying about the pendulum swinging too far back into the Griefer’s ball court. However it adds new elements and complexity to how the game can be played. If you get it right CCP, this will be an excellent change.

You have a reiteration of the old ships, addition of new destroyers and a mining frigate, and the NPC AI changes which have been previously mentioned. They also mention a Salvaging Drone. Be interesting to see how effective those are.

You also have an update to Crimewatch – to make it easier to identify the effect of performing actions, and what flags you have and how long they have to run down. You can toggle the level of warnings you get, which is ideal for newer players. Assuming it is implemented well, I think this is a good thing for the game.