Sparks

As I remarked recently, there isn’t anything particularly compelling that I feel like doing in EVE at the moment. I’ve been pondering that a bit lately, and wanting to mull over a few thoughts here. Don’t worry (or sorry), but this is not a bitter vet exit post.

For quite a while now I have used Exploration as the catalyst to get me undocked and interacting with the environment. It doesn’t matter if that part of my session lasts for 5 minutes or an hour, that first step normally gets me in the zone to make the most of my EVE time.

It seems obvious, but undocking in EVE is important. The other week I undocked to pick up some researched BPO from my POS. While in flight I noticed a Covert Research Facility site in local. After finishing my task I swapped to a Stratios to run the site. Once finished that I figured I would scan down the signatures in the system. There wasn’t much of interest, but I did find a Hi-Sec to Hi-Sec wormhole that I peered through, checking if the other end was anywhere near Jita or some of the assets or my Datacore sites that I have spread around the place. It wasn’t, but I had gone from logging in to do a simple task and ended up “playing” EVE. I have lost count of the number of times that has happened.

While I still like the unknown aspect of what you are going to find during exploration – I am getting tired of doing the same stuff over and over and over again. My EVE sessions are suffering from that lack of ignition. Working through my BPO research has helped a little, as shown above, but it is not as effective. I’m not sure what there is to replace it.

Getting bored of aspects of the game is of course nothing new. There are many areas that I have investigated, skilled up and tooled up for, played, then put aside as they became more of a chore than fun. Missions, Trading, PI, Mining and so on. For all the focus on EVE being a sandpit MMO, in the end it does have an underlying reliance on theme park mechanisms, especially for those of us who play solo.

In most regards it is impressive the game has kept my interest for so long.

So while I am in a bit of a rut, I need to go back to ticking off items on my EVE to-do list.

. I am thinking of buying a totally unnecessary and expensive hull to celebrate my 8th year in game

. I really need to fit and undock that Rorqual I purchased a while ago. I want to use a Clone Vat Bay for the first time. (I might have to fight through my inclination to park Capitals while playing solo.)

. I got a Worm and Garmur for the new burner missions, but I can’t force myself to grind Level 4 missions to get one. I might start by fitting them out.