13 Days

It took a little longer to reach the shores of Australia, but my Collector’s Edition arrived today.

As I’ve remarked on before, this purchase was mostly to acknowledge the long time I have spent playing this game.  I was particularly keen on getting the book, which looks great, and on first review does a great job outlining the history of the game so far.  As I flipped through I kept having “Oh, I remember that” moments.  The Rifter model was more flimsy than I expected and a little roughly put together.  I’ve put it on my bookcase where it looks much better from a distance.  I redeemed the various digital items – implanted the not so Golden Pod on my Main Toon, stored the collector’s items away, and put a handful of items that I am never going to use up on the market.   Now I’m listening to the CD.

EVE Forum Threads worth a look

A couple months ago CCP Rise asked for one line suggestions for EVE related changes (bad, funny, good).  There were 81 pages when last I checked.  I did not read them all, but I did scan through maybe a quarter over a couple of sessions.  There are a few witty suggestions that are worth a laugh, and every so often something that makes you stop and thing, now that would be cool…

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=272809

Recently a player somewhat well known for having around 100 accounts lost 14B ISK worth of Mackninaw and Pods to a smartbombing gank.  I’ve seen his fleet a few times in my travels – with a mix of horror and awe.  This thread was one of many started by an observer, with  page 8 showing the result.  An “EVE” type thing.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=288476

EVE To Do List

Two days into my leave, and the only thing achieved have been two very nasty headaches. In the hope day three might be better, it’s time to sit down and put my EVE To-Do list in the one location. (This post is just for my own record.)

Odyssey

. Review the new Industrial Hulls [DONE]
. Sell prepared stock of industrials [DONE]
. Review Medium LR turrets (Rails, Beams & Artillery) [PART]
. Review Active Tanks after Armor Repair & Shield Boost increases [PART]
. Consider T2 Mindlink Purchases [PART]
. Buy & train Informorph Synchronizing skill – all Toons [DONE]
. Buy & train Advanced Infomorph Psychology skill – Main & Main Alt [DONE]
. Review new HACs and Command Ships [PART]

Rubicon

. Prepare 2 High DPS ships and ingredients for 3 POCO [DONE]
. Identify Target Planets for POCO
. Anchor 1-3 POCO for Corp (No goal, just amusement value)
. Revisit the fittings on the Interceptors I use as Shuttles
. Buy Rapid Launcher BPO
. Review Rattlesnake Fitting to see if Rapid Launcher an option
. Source / Stock some Depots (how do you manufacture?)
. Source / Stock some Siphons (how do you manufacture?)
. Buy and fit a number of SoE Frigates
. Buy and fit a number of SoE Cruisers

General

. Run L4 Missions for SoE in Osmon? [PREPARED]
. Review all Clone Implant sets [PART]
. Source / Stock some Personal Hangers (is there a BPO?)
. Check what BPO I am missing
. Look into manufacturing Nanite Repair Paste
. Set up a Low Sec base of operations [Picked location, now preparing]
. Continue Wormhole Trip
. Continue Exploration
. Continue Trade
. Keep an eye on the skills missing on the Main Toon
. Think about trying some of the other race Cosmos Sites

So far away

I went away for the weekend with the family, so aside updating market orders there was not much done in EVE or Dust.

I received notification 10 days ago that my EVE Collector’s Edition had shipped. That was unexpectedly early, and dare I say it, even a touch exciting. Within 17 hours it had been picked up, moved through a couple parcel centers, and processed ready for transportation from Germany to Australia. Since then the tracking details have remained unchanged, so I am still waiting for my not so golden Pod.

I now have the week off – and while I will mostly be tackling a ridiculously long To-Do List, I hope to spend some time in and around EVE.

Dual tanking…

I logged into Dust again – you seem to get rewarded for doing that daily.

I wasn’t interested in joining a battle – I had set myself just one goal.  Find some skills to train.

I read a few forum and blog posts about what I should start focusing on first.  I can’t say I was left particularly confident with any of the suggestions.  Why advise a player to get to rank 5 on one particular skill ASAP?  Surely there are a dozen other core skills which you should aim to get to rank 3 or 4 before getting your first rank 5 skill?  That seemed to be tone of the advice – it wasn’t really about what new players should do, it was what a min/max player should do on their second or third dust toon.  If I found something that seemed to make sense, the comment section was full of conflicting advice.

So what was the first problem I had to address?  I was dying too quickly in game to get a chance to work out the controls.  Answer?  Try to improve my tank.

While there are core skills to increase your shield and armour, they influence the base statistics of your drop suit in small incremental lots.  I had very little ISK to play around with, so the best bang for my training buck at this point seemed to be just to wear a heavier dropsuit with more HP.  ISK and SP spent, I can now wear medium dropsuits.

I purchased a small number of them and used the rather inaccurate feeling fitting window to set up some Militia gear load outs.  By my calculation I have a couple battles worth of these fit outs which – if I dual tank, give me about double the HP I had in my first battle.  I should last 4 seconds instead of 2, which might just let me learn a little more.  However – dual tanking.  Is that as horrible in Dust as it is in EVE?  Do people look or scan your fitting, or see it on a killboard, and laugh loudly while quickly putting you on their ban list?  Or can you get away with this while you are fumbling around trying to learn things?

Dusted

For a couple of years I caught up with a bunch of work colleagues for LAN days. We probably had a dozen such sessions, which occurred more than a decade ago. The only title I can remember we played with certainty was Halo, but there were others of the same genre.

The days were generally amusing, but I wasn’t really a fan of FPS. I was no good in close range where I had to be moving around erratically – but I was normally effective enough at longer ranges where I was either stationary or moving in a constant direction and just having to give appropriate lead.

Today I downloaded and installed Dust 514 on my PS3.

I’m not entirely sure why. I had recently read a suggestion that even if you don’t play, you should create a character just to start the passive training. To be honest the catalyst was more likely me doubling my monthly quota with my ISP and having lots of extra capacity to do so.

Regardless the reason, for the very first time in my life I played an Online FPS today.

Actually, let me rephrase that. I spent a period of time with a deep frown on my face being confused and dying half a dozen times before being disconnected and putting the controller down feeling most unsatisfied.

The game had an EVE like feel to it, and I got the basic concepts fine. I didn’t train anything, I didn’t buy anything, and I didn’t play around with fits. I just looked through all the menu options to get an overview of what was there, and then I follow the client suggestion to look for a battle.

I’ve never played a FPS on the PS3 before, so had no idea what the standard buttons would do. What I wanted was some sort of tutorial in combat / moving around / shooting. Just an empty training ground where I could practice with the basic mechanics of the game. There didn’t seem to be that option, and one miss-clicked button later I was being asked to select a location to deploy.

So – my first ever online FPS match was spent just trying to work out the very basics. For example, it took me a minute before I knew how to fire the gun. The first opponent I encountered resulted in me reloading my gun a number of times instead of firing a shot, and I was quickly killed. As I tried to aim at the second opponent my view arched up to the sky and I was summarily executed. The aim seems to work in the opposite way to what my instinct says to do. My third and fourth deaths saw me shooting in circles around the opponents. I thought I might get my first kill on my fifth death – I actually hit the opponent multiple times while managing to move and dodge his incoming fire. However while I seemed to hit them multiple times, once he finally got his bead on me I died almost instantly. My sixth death was from a sniper I did not see soon after deploying. Then I was kicked from the game because apparently I was no longer logged into the Play Station network. It took a couple of attempts before it allowed me to log back in, by which point the battle had finished (at least I assume that was the case, since I was not given any option to reconnect to one.)

Visually the game seemed ok and responded ok. I could generally work out where the enemies were, although not really the objectives.  I struggled with the coordination of the movement and aim – and know that is going to take me a long time to improve.

I didn’t try a second battle – I’m just not the sort of person who likes to be a burden on others.  I just left my character doing its passive learning thing.  I got a Call of Duty game with the PS3 – so am contemplating installing that in the hope it gives me some familiarity with the PS3 controller and using it to shoot things.

Information not to share with someone you are romantically interested in

Just a quick one.

tgl3 from http://throughnewbeyes.com/ mentioned on twitter (@TG_3) today how many days he had spent logged into the game.  It is a fun statistic, although should probably be kept away from anyone you have a romantic interest in.  (Unless they too play EVE I guess.)

There are a couple ways of getting this information.  I grabbed mine from EVEMon.  Just go to Tools > API Tester…, and select the API Method “AccountStatus”.  It reports the number of times the characters on an account have logged in, and for how many minutes in total.

I have three accounts, which have had 10,708 log ins and 504 days of logged in time between then.  For a computer game.  Pretty sure my wife could find grounds for divorce in that, even if just as proof of my insanity.  Thankfully I can’t calculate the amount of extra time I have spent reading, writing or thinking about EVE…

Undock

I’m in my home system for what seems the first time in weeks, so I decide to ignore the EVE To Do List and all the peripheral stuff, and just do a “standard” EVE session.

I log in my first Industry Alt and update my Trade orders. There were a couple more expensive hulls picked up over the previous 24 hours, so I check their locations, decide they will sell ok, remotely deliver them from Corp to my Alt and put them up for re-sale. Trade competition has been heavier these last few weeks, so there are lots of orders to update. The actual market itself however seems extra slow.

I then undock the Alt and run through the first half of my PI Cycle.

Once done I log that Toon off, and log in my Second industry Alt. I undock and complete the second half of my PI cycle.

Next I change over to my Main and undock in my Exploration Tengu. There were only two anomalies and one signature in system. I run the anomalies, getting a True Sansha spawn at the end of the second that unfortunately drops nothing of value. While salvaging its wreck I scanned down the Signature, which turned out to be a minor Combat site.

I dock and swap into a T1 Pirate Cruiser and run the site. It also spawns a True Sansha at the end, which also drops nothing of value. 0 from 2. While salvaging that wreck I notice there are some asteroids in the pocket, and I get a sudden urge to be recalcitrant.

I open up a second EVE Client and log my Main Alt in. I check he’s in the right clone, and board his Orca and ensure it is correctly fit. I then fleet the two characters, undock the Alt, and warp into the Combat Site. While he holds it / stops it from despawning, I warp my Main back and swap the Cruiser for my dust and cobweb covered Hulk.

Somewhere in space Gevlon had an involuntary shudder as my max yield barge with minimal tank slipped out into space. I can almost hear dramatic music. I make my way to the Orca, survey the roids and start to lock up targets.  Then I turn around, warp back to the station and re-dock to grab the mining crystals I need.  A minute later I start the process all over again.

I mine away for 30 or 40 minutes, hitting D-Scan every so often to check for Combat probes (the only way I will be found), and Catalysts. (There is one, but he is a local mission runner I am familiar with.)

This session was a little more than just a quite finger to Gevlon. It was one of those personal moments in EVE. My Main is a maxed skilled miner. My Alt is a maxed skilled Orca boosting pilot. They are using every T2 module, drone and implant available to them. This was the first time in 7 years of playing that I have mined at the maximum yield possible in Empire.

Well – not quite.

I don’t have absolute bragging rights. My Main does not have the Michi’s Excavation Augmentor implant, and I am using T2 Mining Drones instead of Harvester Mining Drones. The implant goes for 1.3B at the moment, and the Harvester Drones 1.2B for a flight of five. I just don’t see myself ever spending that much for mining once every other month.

So I am as maxed as I am ever going to be maxed.  Regardless the technicalities, it leaves me feeling a little warm and fuzzy. I also use Salvager and T2 mining drones for the first time, which is also cool.

Mining Drone love – great crackling noise if you look close

Finally I dock, gather everything together and check the bounty rewards, and find I earn a touch under 60M ISK, plus whatever my Trading might earn.  A successful standard EVE session.

Slurp

Numbers relating to the first small Siphon Unit are up in a Dev blog.

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/stop-the-thief-siphon-units-in-rubicon/

I don’t know enough about what they are designed to steal to understand where they might be profitable, and how long it will take to get back your 10M ISK investment. You can’t shift them once anchored, so they are there until shot down or (I assume) left un-accessed for long enough to expire.

It’s an interesting mechanic.

I could imagine it impacting those large Alliances with cheery picked moons spread across multiple regions, that they only visit once a week or so. This seems a good thing.

For POS in your own Sovereignty space, you might just need to do a D-Scan once a day in each system to find if any have been anchored, clean out what they have stolen, and then remove them. This would be easier for those who live out of a constellation compared to those who own multiple regions. This also seems a good thing.

For smaller operators who live and work around their POS they should be able to notice and address them fairly quickly.

For those more combative groups in nature, and given you can anchor more than one on each POS, it could be used to wage economic warfare, or even provide an income source. (So maybe it can be put down as a form of tax on an area of Low Sec / NPC 0.0 you are able to partially control.)

As I said – an interesting mechanic that adds more dynamics to the sand pit.

So how do they work out for the Solo Player?

They are small and easily anchored, so available for anyone to make use of from a solo capacity. You might annoy your neighbours or some far away large alliance, but it is not as if they wouldn’t kill you at any opportunity you gave them anyway.

The issue will be for the small POS operators in Low Sec and NPC 0.0 who already have little margin on their endeavours (which is why they were able to use those moons without someone bigger kicking them off in the first place). Having said that, if you live around your POS you should be able to identify these quicker than the average group, and use some anchored POS weapons to remove them safely.

Not ideal maybe, and certainly an annoyance, but not horrible for the average solo player.  In fact, the more active you are in your local space, the less negatives there are from these things.

Solo

I remark regularly that I play the game solo.

Some quarters speak of such a trait with spite and derision. They do not feel such players bring value to the game and they don’t want CCP to waste resources catering for them. Sometimes it seems CCP listens.

I don’t believe there is anything wrong with solo players in EVE Online, and I’ve not understood the disdain. I am guessing that they mistakenly assume we approach EVE like a single player game.

That would rightfully attract scorn.

If you have followed my blog at all, you will know I am constantly taking into consideration the fact there are tens of thousands of people playing the game at the exact same moment I am. What I do, where I do it, what and how I fly, are all impacted by my very strong awareness of this being an MMO. I am interacting with other players continually, through trading, competing for exploration and mining resources, avoiding scams and ganks, from previously run POS, my trips through wormhole space, the blog I maintain here and so on.

The only difference to my game is I don’t often have anyone else around to support what I am doing, and there are aspects of the game that I am excluded from by their design and the fact I don’t have 1,000 acquaintances with me.

Some like the lone shark approach, some dislike having to interact socially, and others like me play that way through necessity. We are content creators – just on a very small scale, and with the necessity of having to fly under the radar. Does Doctrine Ship Flyer number #635, who rats in Null with no enemies within 20 jumps, and once or twice a month joins a fleet and presses F1 when asked, generate more in game content? Would the game be better off if I became pilot #636?

I think we just add an extra and worthwhile element to the game, and CCP should occasionally throw a bone our way in recognition of the play style. At a minimum, at least you don’t need to be worried about being blobbed by us.

Twitish Twitter and the Bee

My blog updates continue – the About Page has been rewritten, and I (finally) created a twitter account for Evehermit.

I’m not sure how I will be using it – but I figured it would be a good idea to pay more attention to the EVE community there. First impressions though were not that great. What is up with the Facebook style – we will tell you want you want to see, Trends list? Worse, there does not seem to be a built in way to follow hash tags. I’d have thought that was such an obvious thing!? It might take me a little longer to get used to than expected.

I still have some page prettying to do on this blog (pictures), and I need to add some links back to CCP/the game site, but things are not far off where I wanted them to be.

There has been a catalyst for these changes. I’ve had a bee in my bonnet since the SOMER Blink and Ishukone Watch Scorpion sagas arose. I was disappointed CCP’s clumsy attempts at supporting the EVE Community had backfired and caused them such grief. As such, in my own small way, I am making a little more effort to be part of that community.

I’ve even formalised the focus for the blog – EVE for the Solo, Risk adverse, Empire Dwelling, constantly interrupted older player. I didn’t say I was aiming to be a vibrant and successful part of the community…

A Freshen Up

I’ve changed the blog theme. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I find it clean and neat.

I’ve checked my Blogroll, removing a couple entries that are no longer updated, and added some new ones like Sugar Kyle’s excellent Low Sec Lifestyle and MoxNix’s interesting Merchant Monarchy.

I’ve added the CCP Copyright notice, which should allow me to use more of their Fansite resources on this blog in the future.

A little while ago I registered the www.evehermit.com domain – just because.

I am also just putting the finishing touches on the blog’s manifesto, which is in effect being a stated focus on Solo play for the often interrupted.

If you come across any issues, let me know.

Day 6

I’m back in Junsen.

[The Bleak Lands]
Junsen – 6 (2 WH to Unknown)

I don’t have the house to myself, but the kids are distracted by tablets and laptops, so I take the risk and undock. I find two Wormholes in the system, both to unknown space.  A good start.

The first has two Augoror cruisers sitting on it. One jumps in after a while, but the other one stays put. I think I’ll ignore that hole and check the second one out instead.

J152737 – 7+1 (WH to Hi Sec, WH to Unknown, …)

This has a Spatial anomaly which impacts (from memory) locking range and missiles. There is activity on D-Scan and I find it at an Online Tower, where two pilots are swapping ships around, including a Drake, Catalyst, Probe and Ferox. I watch them a while but they don’t do anything more of interest, and some noise from the kids remind me that my time is limited.

Two of the signatures in the system are out of range of this tower, so I warp away and start by scanning those down.  Both resolve to Wormholes. While I find them quickly a Capsule blips on scan just as I click “recall” on my probes. Damn – someone likely knows I am here.

I check the first wormhole out, which links to Hi-Sec.

[Essence]
Allebin – 2+1

The system is miles from anywhere. I don’t bother scanning; just let my polerisation timer clear before returning to J152737. I then go check out the second Wormhole.

J210458 0+1
This C4 also has a spatial anomaly, but it is rather nasty with 27% off resists to shields. I can see one active tower, no ships, and no other signatures but the one I came in by. This is a dead end. I don’t bother hanging around and step back into J152737 again.

There are still 5 more signatures to scan down, but given I didn’t know where the Capsule came or went to, I decide to head back to Allebin and continue my scanning from there.

[Essence]
Allebin – 2+1 (WH to Unknown, Data)

I quickly identify the two signatures, finding one leading back to Unknown space.  It’s been a good day for finding wormholes.

J113919 – 4+1 (WH, Gas, Gas, Relic)

This is a C1. I note the Custom Offices are owned by a 2 person Corp, which seems brave of them. The two closest Towers are online and have drug labs. Warping around I find further online towers with Reactions running. (Run by larger Corps.)  A busy little hole, but with no obvious pilot activity it is back to scanning.  That highlights one more wormhole to check out.

J135245 – 11+1 (Relic, Gas, Gas, Gas, Gas, WH to unknown, WH to Low Sec, WH to C2, WH to C2, Relic, Relic)

This looks interesting – I see wrecks on scan, along with 3 POS and no force fields. I bookmark the hole and warp off feeling a touch of excitement.  I keep a close eye on D-Scan, where I watch as the wrecks disappear one by one. There are no ships visible, so obviously they are expiring.  When does that happened, after 2 hours?  So the hole is not so interesting after all.

I find the POS just for practice – very pleased that my 5% scan calibrations have worked a treat. That greatly speeds up things.  I then set about scanning through the 11 signatures.  Unlike Penny, I don’t get any sort of spidery sense of what they might be before they are labelled in my overview.  Although having said that, some of the Relic sites seem to take more effort than normal to find.  Again another good system for Wormholes, with 4 to explore.

[Genesis]
Shapisin – 5+1

The first hole I check leads to Genesis. I’m by myself in the system. With more interesting things to explore, I return to J135245.

J124526 – 5+1

This hole is a C2. There is a Domi on scan when I first step into the system, with 3 online towers. I warp across to a far planet and find 3 more online towers, and another offline. There is also a Harbinger. The 5% D-Scan makes it relatively quick to find the Tower the piloted Harb is in, and the Tower without a Force Field. I might revisit, but for now I return to J135245 and try the next wormhole.

J162159 – 5+1 (Relic, Gas, Gas, WH to Hi-Sec, Relic)

A C2 this time which is also active – it seems to pay to do these trips on the weekends. I see an Iteron V on scan, then a Crusader, then ship swapping continues with a Catalyst, and an Anathema, and then – nothing. I warp around the system and find two online towers, but no ships and no further activity. I scan down the sites, finding one wormhole to Empire.

I still have plenty to explore and some signs of activity, but my kids have lost interest in their screens at this point and are starting to make noise.  Time to look for a place to dock, so I use the Wormhole to High Sec.

[Khanid]
Reteka – 1+1

My fourth Region for the session and I am in Khanid, not far from Amarr. There are no stations here however so I look up the map and then step across one system.

Palas – 0

Where I dock.

Latest Trip Count –7 sessions, 32 Empire Systems, 23 Wormholes, 2 Null Systems, 1 Low Sec System, 1 kill

It might not be obvious – but I am actually finding value from this process.

When I started it took me a couple minutes to scan down each signature – now they are done in a quarter of the time. I am able to use D-Scan to quickly paint a picture in my mind of what activity is going on around me, and pin point the location of things of interest. I’ve crisscrossed the Map of EVE, visiting systems I’ve never been in before. I’ve hunted other players, and been hunted by them. I’ve also grown more comfortable moving around in dangerous space.

It might not be riveting reading, but what I like about this is it is available to solo players. I just clone jump to my Loki once a month or so for a change of scenery, and get the chance to work on improving my piloting skills. When my Loki meets its demise I think I will continue this journey, although I might just go in a Covert Ops Frigate. The checking / hunting other player part slows things down lots!

Thanks on hold

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=285492

Well, until CCP and its player base can come to some carefully constructed and agreeable framework for hand-outs to those who provide benefit to the game and its community.

 

I then went over and read some of the feedback on the Hi-Sec POCO changes:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=282800

I was excited by the POCO changes when they were first flagged. I was then deflated when I learnt the NPC tax would still stand. Now I am left unsure how my own small PI infrastructure and plans for a POCO or three will play out in the long term. I am just going to have to wait and see how it turns out, and adjust my game play accordingly.

 

Reading these two threads, I felt they both had the same annoying undertones. I am seeing it more and more over time. It wasn’t the trolls – who were certainly plying their trade. No – it was the evangelists.

Evangelism is the practice of relaying information about a set of beliefs with the object of conversion. You do not have a debate with them. They are not interested in hearing your opinion, just converting you to theirs.

The first thread has a lot of opportunistic evangelists. They leap on anything with relevance to push their claim that CCP is a corrupt and repulsive game wrecking entity.

The second thread has a lot of black and white evangelists. They can only see the game from a very restricted point of view, which ignores the fact that EVE is full of colour.

In some way the Evangelist is more dangerous than the Troll. They can have an air of legitimacy about them, yet they stifle the debate just the same.

So where do I come in? What’s my angle? Am I a voice of reason? No – my focus is very much on the longevity of the game, and how I can maintain a worthwhile and relatively solo niche within it. As such I would prefer both the topics above were not being derailed.

Day 5

The good news is my wife has to attend a Funeral.

No – that didn’t sound right. The bad news is my wife has to attend a Funeral; the good news is it is a couple of hours away and she is taking our daughter. Even better news, my Son is spending the day at one of his mate’s place.

That means an uninterrupted Wormhole exploring session!

This might be the last trip for a bit (it was, this is an old entry), so let’s get into it.

[The Bleak Lands]
Junsen – 1

I undock to see only 1 Signature. In 2 scans I pin point a wormhole.

(If you are wondering why I am mentioning how many scans I am taking to find signatures, it is reflecting that I am concentrating on being braver with my scanning. Instead of more gradually stepping down my probe sizes, I am being far more aggressive. It is paying dividends, and makes me wonder why I didn’t do this earlier.)

 

J144153 8+1 (Gas, Data, Data, Data, Gas, WH to C3, Data, Data)

I jump through in to my first wormhole of the session. There is nothing on scan and no apparent recent activity. I warp off to the distant planet and pick up 1 tower on Scan. I am soon sitting cloaked looking at it. It has an Extra Large Ship Maintenance Array anchored, which just looks very silly. I don’t tend to see many of those in my travels.

I move to a quiet corner of the system and launch probes. The 9 Signatures are in 3 separate clusters.

Scan
1 – Inbound Wormhole
2 – Gas ignored
3
4 – Data ignored
5
6 – Data ignored
7
8 – Data ignored
9
10 – Gas ignored
11
12 – Wormhole Identified
13
14 – Wormhole to C3 Bookmarked
15
16 – Data ignored
17 – Data ignored

There is still no activity on scan, and only one path to follow, so I step through into the C3.

 

J114010 10+1 (Gas, WH to Unknown, Data, Data, Gas, Relic, WH to 0.0, Relic, Gas, Gas)

There are no ships on scan and the Wormhole has no recent activity. I find 4 towers in system, none with force fields. Two have incapacitated modules suggesting a violent end to this occupation. There is nothing of worth to scrounge.

With everything still looking clear it is time to Scan. The Signatures are all over the place, which slows the process down.

Scan
1 – Inbound Wormhole
2
3 – Gas ignored
4
5 – Wormhole to unknown Bookmarked
6
7 – Data ignored
8 – Data ignored
9
10 – Gas ignored
11 – Relic ignored
12
13
14 – Wormhole to Null Bookmarked
15
16
17 – Relic ignored
18 – Gas ignored

I’ve noticed nothing new on scan, and I have two paths to check out. I start with the Null Sec hole.

 

[Cobalt Edge]
M-VACR– 0+1

There is only the inbound wormhole in system, so that ends my travel unless I use a gate. I see a Thanatos on scan with fighters out and wrecks. A ratting carrier in an anomaly. I should be able to work out which one he is in quickly, warp in and point him to give him a heart attack, then warp out. But I don’t. Instead I step back through into the Wormhole.

 

J114010

I warp across to the second wormhole to explore. I look away while in warp and am not paying attention when I land. I hear the distinct sound of a wormhole being activated. I scurry back to find myself decloaked and sitting on a wormhole. So much for warping to 30km.  Did I do something foolish like jumping on contact? No – I am still in the same wormhole. So someone has just either jumped out as I landed, or is in a session change cloak with me. I turn on the damage control and sensor booster, but no one appears.

Arrggg – not paying close enough attention and I miss something again. I warp out, wait a short period, then warp back and jump through, half expecting an ambush.

 

J144135 10+1

This is a C4 with no recent activity and 30+ Anomalies.

I warp around and identify 2 POS with no Force fields. They have some anchored weaponry but nothing of value. A Badger then appears on scan – and from the direction I am guessing it is on the Wormhole. I warp in at distance to see it sitting there.

As I watch it goes through. Maybe that is what jumped past me before? Maybe it is going through to Hi-Sec, although it seems a silly path to follow?  As I ponder this, the Badger jumps back through into this system again, polarised, and sits unmoving on the hole. I am too far away to do anything about it, plus it smacks of being a trap.

 

I ignore it and warp off to identify the location of the extra 2 POS with no Force Fields. Again there is nothing of value to loot, but it seems to be worth paying attention to.

The Badger disappears and reappears on scan, and I get one blip of a Proteus.

I return to the wormhole to see the Badger sitting a couple hundred K off the hole, moving slowly away. It has been renamed “Loki Destroyer”.

After a while a Tengu appears, and then the badger warps off, followed by the Tengu. They disappear from scan, then a Falcon blips on one cycle.

That wouldn’t have been a fair fight. It also isn’t something I want to run into – so I give scanning down this system a miss.

I return the way I came without incident, and park in the same Station I started out from.

 

Latest Trip Count – 6 sessions, 29 Empire Systems, 17 Wormholes, 2 Null System, 1 kill

Irritating

Daylight Savings started here on the weekend and that effectively moved the daily EVE downtime from 9pm to 10pm.

I had gotten into a pattern each evening of catching up on a recorded TV show with my wife, then coming into my study at around 9:30pm ready to play EVE for an uninterrupted hour or two. Now I am sitting down in my study knowing EVE will be going down shortly, and ending up getting nothing done.

But that is not what I am referring to in the subject of this post.

I do tend to have time to do my Trade Updates.

I question why I comment on my trading in this blog. It seems if I ever remark on things being quiet or profitable, I am immediately flooded in game with competition. Since the start of the month nearly every area I operate in has had 1 to 4 new traders join. It is the most I think I have ever seen.

I don’t blame this blog. It is not because people are responding to what they have read here. Frankly there are not all that many of you! No – it is Murphy’s Law, which tends to be very cruel.

But that is not what I am referring to in the subject of this post.

No – the thing that I find irritating is that a number of the new traders use a tactic that SHITS ME TO TEARS.

So you have a buy order up

1,000,000.01

The competition comes along and puts in

1,008,000.02

Because of the game font, you don’t always pick up on the 8 being there instead of a 0.

I am happy to admit I fall for this and variations of it every so often – particularly on some of the bigger buy orders with 8+ digits in them. However, I ALWAYS refresh the Buyers list after I update my orders and immediately notice if I have not moved up on the list to where I expected. I then note the item down, and return 5 minutes later to update it properly. Usually I will spitefully cut out 10% of the profit when I do so.

1,100,000.03

Sometimes I get sick of the constant daily grind of updating my trade orders.

Except for when people are using that trick.

Then I feel compelled to update those orders at least daily, so that the annoying shits don’t win.

So it doesn’t have to be Osmon after all

This was a nice surprise.

http://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/world-news/sisters-of-eve-temporarily-promote-two-agents/

There are two temporary upgrades of Sisters Of EVE Agents to L4 Security in Lanngisi and Apanake (Empire Systems).  One may be considered for permanent upgrade down the track.

I had decided to give Osmon a try, but now might use one of these alternatives instead.  I will wait a week however for things to settle down a bit.

Usain Bolt

There are a large number of EVE commentators who seem giddy with excitement for the Warp Speed / Interceptor changes coming with Rubicon. That should be a warning flag for CCP.

These 4 YouTube videos (3 of which I saw via http://spindensity.wordpress.com and http://eveoganda.blogspot.com.au/) both show how cool this change is, and also just how much they will likely change the game from a PVP point of view.

I’m still in support of them – but then again, I don’t tend to fly anything big in Low or Null Sec.

(I’ve had to edit this post a couple of times – the process of imbedding Youtube videos has a first quirks.)

The cost of free

A couple weeks back I remarked on the outrage from some quarters of the EVE community about CCP providing support for SOMER Blink.

My suggestion was that while I understood the concerns, it was an overreaction that would likely leave CCP less inclined to support community events.

By now the average EVE player who pays attention will be aware of the new furor – that CCP has been handing out the occasional gift to players / groups / fan sites who have been generating in game content. These can include the enigma that is the Ishukone Watch Scorpion and Rookie Pirate ships.

I applaud what CCP is trying to do.

I understand why they would tend to do it more on the quiet. It was easier to do it that way – they don’t want to set an expectation that everyone who organises something in Game will receive a reward, or that CCP shows public favoritism more to one group than another.

I don’t understand why they took that easier approach. It was bound to become public knowledge, and it is such obvious cannon fodder for the conspiracy theorists. CCP should have said up front that on occasion they plan to give out free ships, and the framework around that process.

The players rewarded by CCP would not have expected it. It would not have been the goal of their efforts. I am not sure how best to describe the situation – but I think the acknowledgement was very cool.

Disappointingly I suspect CCP will be less inclined to this sort of well-meaning action going forward.

..

As I said last time, the rage from some of the player base seems disproportionate and far too angry. I understood this during Incarna where the very future of the game seemed to be at stake. Now however it seems every CCP slip up – real or perceived, is leapt upon with such vitriolic. It is also no longer just CCP who is targeted, but anyone who is perceived to support them. Is this sort of PvD (Player verses Developer) animosity common elsewhere? Are some of these people just trolls? Are some Bitter Vets who want to leave the game, but feel stuck here as they have invested too much into it? What’s the motivation to react in this way to what is meant to be a form of entertainment and fun?

Dad….

Normally I have a few hours to myself on Saturday morning to Play EVE. It has become a bit of a ritual that I look forward to.

With it being school holidays however the kids’ activities are on hiatus, so my wife, son and daughter are not out. They are all here. In the house. With me.

I decided to keep things simple, and just aimed to get my Scout Alt over to Osmon to sit in local for a while to get a feel for the place.

Undock, Warp, Jump, Warp..

“Dad, can you help me brush my teeth?”
“Where’s your mother?”
“I don’t know.”

Dock..

Brush, Brush, Brush..

Undock, Warp, Jump..

“Dad, can you brush my hair?”
“Where’s your mother?”
“I don’t know.”

Dock..

Brush, Brush, Brush..

Undock, Warp, Jump, Warp, Jump..

“Dad, I really want this new texture pack for Minecraft.”
“Where’s your.. oh, never mind.”

Dock..

Download and save away new Texture pack. Feign interest for a few minutes.

Undock, Warp, Jump, Warp, Jump

“Dad, I need to do my words.”
“Where’s your mother?”
“She’s in the Toilet.”

Dock..

Go through my daughters Speech Therapist exercises.

Undock, Warp, Jump, Warp, Jump..

“Dad..”

ARRRGHHHHH

 

(Before anyone points out Autopilot – I dock because I simply don’t know how long each interruption will be. I’ve left a hauler full of goods on a gate for 6+ hours once after just stepping away from the screen for a 30 second task.)

 

So what do I think of Osmon?

I’m not sure. The first time I watched local it was full of chat in Russian, which I can’t read. The second time it was mainly a conversation between a new player and someone trying to be helpful. Although looking at the agents in the system and the tone of the conversation, my vote was for one or both of them being Awoxer’s. Another time there was a good example of inane baiting and obnoxiousness. I only noticed evidence of a couple of suicide ganks while I was watching, I suspect in the Ice belts.  I did wonder what was up with the Noctis sitting 300+ km off the station?  They had the effect of deforming the grid, but do they have any other purpose?  They were there every time I logged in.