Lag and salting the earth

Somehow I get to do the kids morning routines and then watch them every weekend morning while my wife sleeps in. This might sound like I’m nice – but it is closer to being foolish given I watch the kids most mornings on work days, public holidays, when my wife has a day off, or when I have a day off. From what I understand when I dare raise this inequity, she has forevermore got the right to sleep in because she breastfed the kids overnight or something.

Anyway – on the weekend I will log into EVE, but I don’t tend to undock or do much until my wife finally gets up. Today was no different.

When I logged into my Null home there was another pilot in system who soon docked up.

They remained docked up for quite some time, but I paid them no attention while I busied myself with real life interjected with a quick check of contracts here, and shuffling some supplies there.

At some random point I decided I would undock in an Astero and sit cloaked in space, ready for when I could do something (which was to check for wormholes). The other pilot was still in station at the time. After clicking undock there was an abnormally long blank screen, during which I could hear some odd client noises then the low shield warning. The client finally returned to me and I was scrammed and quickly heading towards death. I clicked on dock, damage control and overheated my repairer, and was accepted back into the station with a slither of hull left.

I’m not sure if the guy was just lucky, or had sat there with his finger over the undock button for a considerable amount of time – but he had managed to undock his Svipul, lock and start shooting me, between the time I hit undock and saw space.

I had my Alt logged off in space in a Falcon and plenty of PVP ships in the station, however I was mindful of my son downloading a 6GB game off Steam – which I assume caused my long undock delay – so I remained in station.

Again – at some random and fairly long time later once my family had left for Church, I logged my Falcon Alt in. Within 30 seconds the other pilot had undocked in a Cynabal to sniff around.

Very lucky indeed.

I looked at his killboard and checked out the ships he usually flew. Most were actively tanked. I checked the motely mix of ships I had collected so far, but they were only stock standard buffer fits. I am not very good in PVP situations, especially if I am trying to dual box. My Alt is a get out of Jail Card, not a part of a hunting team. I could probably undock in one of my cruisers and drag him off station – then uncloak the Falcon. Given the speed of his ship (which he had kindly showed my Alt when flying around) and the fact he actively tanks, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that I could both tank and then kill him before he docked or managed to kill both of us off.

So I gave the guy game content – by leaving my accounts logged in while I started to wrap Christmas presents. He remained docked.

Later still I had to go Christmas shopping, so I logged my Alt off and left my main docked. Many hours later I returned and when I remembered I was still logged in, I found he was too. I left my account there and headed off to do housework. Now I am watching the cricket and running around on another Alt. My account is still logged in, as is his.

I can imagine some of the bloggers I read jumping up and down and saying here was a golden opportunity – someone willing to fight! I should have taken it – especially as I wouldn’t have known the outcome.  Instead I’ve gone the passive aggressive path.

I expect this is not the pilots normal pattern – and I assume like me, he is AFK thinking he might be impacting my play while – like me towards him, not doing so.  I suspect we will both still be docked when downtime comes around.

In the meanwhile I re-checked each of the carrier options and then  picked up a full set of BPC’s to make an Archon Carrier.  I’ll move them down to Null and very slowly over time make the bits and pieces as I get the materials.  I am not too convinced that I’ll succeed, but we shall see.

Tenuous

I finished bookmarking the entire Null Sec constellation, aside the belts outside of my home system. The place is quieter than expected, and I’ve had plenty of opportunity to be out in space doing things.

I grabbed a 6th Hull off contract – a PVE fit Cerberus. After the task of collecting it was done, I did some initial belt ratting. I don’t do that to earn billions, but just as something extra to fill time. I’m not sure how the Cerberus will handle the combat sites – I will have to experiment. I just need more appropriate ammo first.

Looks kind of cool with all its launchers

The system I grabbed it from housed a lot of pilots from one of the three main alliances I see moving around. It would appear to be their main constellation. It was a reminder again about how my position in my new home is tenuous. All it would take is some 500-man alliance to move in, and my fun will be over.

I should probably get a carrier down there – so that if forced to move, I can do so easier. I actually think the region should always hold quiet pockets, but I might at times have to move between constellations. I think Dotlan said my carriers are currently 8 or 9 jumps distance, including moving through some well-known choke points. I might buy something more local – or maybe even try to build one for myself.  I’ll have to think about it – that would keep me busy for a while.

After a recent comment I’ve taken to monitor the Thera Wormhole connections in case something opens up in the area. EVE Scout maintain a rather cool list and map here:

https://www.eve-scout.com/

So far there has been nothing. I wonder if it is camped as much as it was in the early days, or if it is “relative safe”.

I’m not sure what I will be able to get up to this weekend. I scanned down the entire constellation last night but only found 2 Wormholes (a c5 and a c6) and 2 combat sites. Not much to initially play with.

There were some locals actively out hunting the area last night – although not apparently aligned with the main groups. They (although it probably was one person) were flying a Daredevil and a Kitsune. That would be a frustrating combination!

A ship I am using in the pocket which will also frustrate some

There has been a hell of a lot of interesting things to link to or report on, but I’m not getting those posts finished. I’m spending more time playing than writing at the moment. CCP released another Scope video which advances the citadel storyline and was cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyYs4sdBTvk

There was another one the other day about the new destroyers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLV2ZNuJVug

They also outlined how the ships will get dirty and how you can clean them (plus the killmarks, which isn’t likely to inpact me, aside appearing on other player’s hulls). I think the technology is pretty cool.

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/dirt-killmarks-dirt-and-destruction-in-new-eden/

The last o7 Episode (11) is also available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQQQODMd0z8

It was an odd episode which said a lot but little at the same time. Best go over to the EVE Update sites for the quite substantial list of changes coming in December:

http://updates.eveonline.com/date/2015-12-08/

13 new hulls alone is notable, along with plenty of visual updates such hit and module effects, the kill marks and hull wear and rust as mentioned above, missile disruptors and more. The next iteration of the Crimson Harvest will also start – called Operation Frostline with new twists, more variety, and loot drops never seen before.

I read someone seriously complaining the other day about the lack of changes CCP is making to the game.

Power of the mind

A first cousin once removed of mine has gone into Hospital for the last week or three of her life.

I don’t recall meeting her in person, but I was aware of her cancer diagnosis and battle through news passed on by my father.

I certainly feel empathy for the young lady, her daughter, immediate family and friends, but I am not close enough to that part of the family to carry painful grief.

My father is quite depressed about it – but he wallows in how unfair life can be. I try to follow my Mother’s lead – the pragmatic view that life isn’t fair, and you just deal with what you are dealt to the best of your ability. She has practiced that mantra all her life. I don’t recall her ever complaining about her lot, even when she had her own battle with Breast Cancer. She just accepted and moved forward.

I was speaking to my father earlier on the phone and he gave me the latest update. The young lady in the final stages of her life has an intellectual disability, and has struggled to really comprehend the futile path her treatments had taken or her impending death. The view is that the only thing keeping her alive right now is her unadulterated fear of dying.

I’ve known terminally ill people who lived for special birthdays or events, then slipped away quickly afterwards. I’ve known a few elderly people who have simply decided they had had enough, gave up on life, and slip away after varying lengths of time. The power of the mind is amazing.

At the moment the lady is suffering lots of mini-strokes as her blood breaks down and clots. If one of these impacts the part of her brain linked to the fear she is gripped by, she will likely quickly die as her spirit relaxes.

Each time I’ve read something on the Goon / Endie / Xander / Truth or Troll topic, I keep coming back to thinking about that young lady. The noise of the EVE megalomaniacs is interesting and amusing, but it is just not important enough in life to get worked up over.

Double Clones

I ended up purchasing 5 hulls off contract, all in the same location 3 jumps from my Null Home. A couple Recon’s I collected the other day, a couple Cruisers, and a Mining Barge. I collected the two Cruisers a day or two later without mishap. The Barge will have to wait for me to be in the mood for such a move.

I then went about the task of getting the important second clone down into Null for my Main Toon. I clone jumped out to Hi-Sec. I had initially planned to use a Covert Ops, but instead decided to use a Viator. I worked out the fitting changes I would use for the 5 contract hulls, and threw in some extra ammo and such, and set about flying it all back to Null.

As I made my way through Hi-Sec I used Dotlan to check the statistics for the Low and Null Sec areas I would be passing through. Snuffed Out had a recent Black Ops drop in the pipe, and Rote Kapelle was noticeably active, although not specifically in the systems I would be using.

Feeling a little uneasy, I forged ahead anyway. While I have only completely bookmarked around a third of the route, most of the other systems had rough safes setup between the gates. Using these I was able to pause where required and D-Scan out-gates before warping on top of them, including for one system which was unexpectedly housing the Rote Kapelle gang I had noticed on the Killboard via Dotlan. It took longer than my previous trips, but in the end I managed to dock up safely.

I still need to grab that Barge. I also need a couple Covert Ops, an extra scouting interceptor, plus a handful of small PVP hulls, a PVE ship (probably two) capable of handling the local combat sites, some more supplies, and I also need to consider if it is worth getting a Carrier down here to help move stuff around. Should keep me busy for a while.

Work

I forgot how much work trying to do anything in Null-Sec is when you only have yourself to rely on.

I picked up a number of hulls off contract, including a couple recons. (After a conversation request from the seller, it turned out he was redeploying and not wanting to move all his assets.) They were not perfectly fit, but gave me options in how I might respond to hostility. They were located only 3 jumps away.

In High-Sec I would just undock in my Pod and fly over and collect them, or I might take an Orca to move them all in one go. I would then refit them from my spares or run over to the nearest trade hub and pick up what supplies I needed. The whole process would be quickly over and done with.

Flying around Null Sec in a Pod is not ideal so I figured I would use shuttles to reach the other station. There were no shuttles however for sale nearby. I managed to remotely buy some blueprints and a stock of Tritanium, and kick off manufacturing some in a neighbouring system.

While those jobs were running I went off in a cloaky ship to bookmark the route between my system and the purchased hull’s location. This involved at minimum a perch bookmark 200+km away from each inbound and outbound gate, and a safe or two carefully placed to cover as many of the gates in D-Scan as possible. This process took a while but allowed me to get a feel for what pilots were moving around the pipe, what they were flying, what their Killboard looked like, and so on. I don’t have an Intel channel to monitor and I can’t rely on pre-existing standings to tell friend from foe, so this sort of reconnaissance is important.

Finally, when all that was done and I was comfortable with how quiet the area was, I collected a shuttle then went and picked up one of the hulls. I rinsed and repeated the process to collect the second hull, but still have a few more to grab when I have time. (I actually needed to wait for more shuttles to come off the assembly line.)

Now I need to carefully consider their fittings, see if I can scrounge anything on the local markets, and then make a shopping list for what I need to bring down from Hi-Sec. Bringing those spares down will likely be an even bigger job.

Of course I could have just flown my pod over to pick up the ships, and I could just settle with how they are fitted. But that will mean I will be playing EVE relying on luck instead of skill, which frankly doesn’t sound appealing.

Something else I have noticed – aside the need to concentrate more, is that I now generally have both my accounts logged in at the same time again, and my Alts are getting a work out. I guess I don’t just have myself to rely on – I have some imaginary friends too.

Vibes

I finished bookmarking the Null Sec constellation I am basing out of, and started to make use of some of its resources, primarily (given the ships I have available) running Data and Relic sites

The Null Sec mini game requires a bit more concentration

The vibe of the place remains good. There are three main groups I’ve observed, none with strong PVP stats. I haven’t noticed any hunting for me yet, although from their Killboard histories they would take an easy kill if I offered one up to them. I don’t plan to “shit in my own backyard”, so to speak – so at this point any aggression from me will only be retaliatory.

I’ve seen a handful of traditional pirates checking the area over, but not many. I’ve also seen various enemies of the CFC / Imperium active in one of the pipes, and a few different pilots moving capitals through. Overall however it looks promising as being the quiet little corner of unsafe EVE I’ve been looking for.

I have been surprised at the number of Interceptors flying around. It means I am more likely going to get caught on a gate at some point or another, but it also means I’ll more likely be able to fend one of those off.

It may sound dumb – but I did find an issue with how I had set up the various windows on my EVE client. The Overview was on the far right side of the window, and the local chat channel on the far left. Running at 3000×1800, I found watch the overview closely meant I wasn’t seeing changes to local out of the corner of my eye.  That is dangerous in Null.  I’ve experimented with moving all the windows to the same side of my client. I’ll see how that works in practice.

 

Yet another change to my client layout

A short mad rush

The game client selects a route of 25 jumps from my Home system to the new Null Station I am basing out of. 17 jumps through Hi-Sec, and 8 jumps through Null.

Instead I’ve been taking a 34 jump route, with 21 jumps through Hi-sec, 6 through Low, and 7 through Null.

The longer route is – in theory, the somewhat safer option. It trades a couple dangerous bottle necks for statistically somewhat less dangerous bottlenecks, and has more systems with multiple entrance gates, making them somewhat less likely to be camped.

For as much as I might carefully consider these options, in the end the success of my travels comes down to a not insignificant proportion of luck. What other players are in the pipe, what are they flying, what are they doing, and where and how exactly our paths cross.

After getting my Alt into the new system in a scouting Interceptor, I poked around for a day or three getting a feel for the location. It appears that during certain time frames I will often have the place to myself. Even on weekends, with more care, I should be able to get out and about and do stuff. Deciding it looked good, I jump cloned back to Hi-Sec.

Next I grabbed a Probe Launcher fitted Stealth Bomber and flew it through the pipe to the new Station. This gave me the all-important second clone in the location.

Heading towards the pipe

I scanned down the signatures in the local system across a couple of days. On my third session I happened across a wormhole to a low sec system, only 10 jumps from my Home system, 2 Low-Sec and 8 Hi-Sec. This was a golden opportunity to move a few ships in.

First came my Main with an Asteo, then my Alt grabbed a Falcon (sorry ECM detesters, but when you only have yourself to rely on, ECM gives me bang for my Alt buck), and finally my Main returned with his Wormhole Loki. By this time, it was already well past my normally late bedtime, so I called it quits.

I don’t have proper PVE or Mining ships yet, and I need a cloaky hauler, but the variety of scouting and scanning ships I now have is a good start.

As with my travels up and down the pipe, my time in this location will very much be at the whim of other players. If a large corporation or alliance decided to move into the area there is nothing I can do about it. I was forced out of the home I tried to make for myself in Low Sec Genesis when a large pirate group active in my time zone relocated to the same systems. This new area is at the arse end of Null value, so with patience I think most groups of note will move onto better areas. I will just have to wait them out.

The solo beat

Sugar Kyle has been reflecting on some of the differences between her recent solo and previous group play in EVE. I’ve found it particularly interesting.

To selectively quote one bit from a recent post:

http://www.lowseclifestyle.com/2015/11/a-long-day-and-million-trit-short.html

“I did not expect my loneliness. I have spent so much time in the game doing things on my own. But on my own was not the same as alone. I always had the warm presence of a corporation at my back. I enjoy the co-op work tremendously.”

As I’ve moved cloaked around the new Null Sec pocket making bookmarks, I’ve felt a pang of envy at the various pilots I observe who are mostly flying under the banner of populated corporations and alliances. They probably have access to logistic services, stocked hangers, intel channels, standing fleets and advice. They have a (admittedly varied) level of safety which I do not.

I enjoyed the type of game that EVE can become when you are working with a group of players. It can generate stories and memories that you don’t tend to have access to when playing solo.

But then I remember how tiring I found it.

It is at this point I generally remark on the cost of having to meet the expectations of your corporation, ensuring you pull your weight, and possibly not being able to play the game like you want to.

As usual however Sugar’s post made me stop and reflect a little more deeply. If I was to be entirely honest, what tires me the most is the interaction with other players.

There are not many social situations I am entirely comfortable in. While I can be adept at interacting with a wide variety of people, I don’t look forward it, I generally look to finish it sooner rather than later, and I don’t tend to feel good about it afterwards. It is exhausting.

Having worked from home for more than 7 years now I know my capacity to cope with social situations has diminished. I expect whatever new job I find for myself next year won’t be so conducive to a hermit lifestyle. It will be interesting if being forced to socialise more in real life results in me socialising more in game.

Further afield

I pulled my Alt out of the Low Sec area I was watching. I don’t think I am going to find that elusive quiet pocket of space to play around in.

After returning to my Dotlan research I decided I would instead use Null Sec. I played around in EFT until I had an Interceptor that fit a probe launcher, cloak, tackle, a little DPS and tank. Yes, it does none of those roles well, but it allows me to scout around and gives me options if I happen across an industrial or explorer.

This will be my base of operations for a while.

It will be more problematic getting in and out of. I’ll probably need to wait for suitable wormholes to open up.

250 pages of notes

My company had another round of retrenchments last week. It happens more often than not at this time of year. Management are charming like that. There were two of us left with similar skill sets – down from I think five. My colleague concentrated more on installations, and I focused on monitoring and supporting productive systems. My colleague was one of those let go.

If I heard right, and it would follow previous form, the local management was ordered by the international management to remove certain people so that the utilisation reports would look better for the shareholders.

It didn’t matter that my colleague was required for the company to put together demo systems for prospective clients, or setup the landscape for any new projects we might win. We must make the international CEO look – temporarily, better.

There was an article doing the newspaper rounds recently about the Japanese Billionaire Kazuo Inamori, who was quoted as saying focusing on shareholders was wrong. Management should ensure their staff were happy, and that would in turn lead to shareholder profits. If you want eggs, take care of the hen,” Inamori says. “If you bully or kill the hen, it’s not going to work.”

I’ve known for most of this year that there was no future at the company, and that staying was damaging my career. It was however convenient – and well, change is scary. I’ve decided however enough is enough, and I should be resigning tomorrow. I plan to take 3 months off, then decide what to do next. I might start my own business doing the same sort of role, or buy a business, or try to get one of the rare jobs advertised in my area of expertise, or even re-skill to do something completely different. I may be out of work for a while. If I had a different personality I would be excited by the possibilities.

Because I am feeling out of my comfort zone, I’ve been cleaning, sorting and ordering things, as it helps me mentally. One of those mini tasks was to clean up some of my Blogging notes, which hit 250 pages! I started at the bottom and managed to remove 30 pages of notes and half-finished posts, which were from early 2011.

It was interesting how many topics are still being bantered about – such as the relationship between CCP and the players, why nerfing Hi-Sec would not fix Null-Sec, why Hi-Sec should have development time spent on it. The list goes on. There was what appeared to be a completed post which I am not sure I ever uploaded. It outlined what ships my characters had and where they were located. I thought I would copy in what I had to say about my Main Character back in early 2011:

“My Main is in a player Corp. He is just about to hit 90M SP. He has assets in 9 systems. One is in low sec, and contains a Helios, Cyno Ship, and spare fuel for his carrier. One jump across into Empire is where he stores equipment to move into low sec when it is safe. He keeps a Falcon there. He has two PVE bases, although they have not seen much use for a while. He has a Tengu, Rattlesnake, Noctis and Iteron V at one, and a Nighthawk, Noctis and Badger Mk II at the second. Almost forgotten he has a collection of Cosmos items in a faraway corner of space. In his Corp’s Empire base, he has an Exequror, Occator, and an Orca for hauling. He has a Basilisk, Scimitar and Megathron set up for Incursions, and a Covetor, Mackinaw and Hulk for joining mining ops. There is also an Anathema, Noctis, Drake, Dramiel, Nighthawk and Retribution there in either PVE or PVP fit. At his Corp’s NPC 0.0 base is a mass of ships. A couple Cyno ships, a Viator for Hauling, and a Cyclone and Ishtar for PVE. For PVP there are 2 Battlecruisers, a Combat Recon, 2 Covert Ops, 5 cruisers, 2 destroyers, 7 Force Recon, 3 Interceptors, 4 Interdictors, 2 Logistics and 3 Stealth Bombers. He also keeps his Archon there. His final base is where he keeps a large collection of spares and odds and ends collected over years of playing. There is a Buzzard, Raptor and Badger Mk II there at the moment.”

Jita Shortcut

I’ve had a play around with the new D-Scan / Probe window.

As I have said before, I prefer having the map and scan window separate. The D-Scan aspect of the tool is particularly good. I found it easier to use with much better visual ques.

Turning on the Scan Cone option shows you the D-Scan range – although the colour really should be different so as not to clash with signatures.

Turn on camera tracking on the HUD.

Lower the scan angle to 5%. Now you can click on objects in the Scan window or on a suitable Overview Tab, and if they are within range, you can very quickly and accurately D-Scan them. Finding ships in sites or POS around moons is a breeze.

I know that was possible before – but as I said, it just works better. I can imagine newer players finding the concept easier to grasp and quicker to master.

You can also use the option to “Align with Camera”, for a “look behind the cone” view of D-Scan. It is more useful where objects are above and below the horizon. If doesn’t work entirely as you might expect with Camera Tracking turned on. If you click on an object in the Scan window your ship view will swing around to align with it. If you just move the angle of your view around in the Scan window, your ship view will move, but will then keep trying to return to the last selected object. If you release your mouse, it will snap back. It doesn’t feel quite right.

The probing aspect of the window works pretty much as it did before. It does highlight the arrows on the movement box when you are hovering in the right position, and the option to save layouts seems easier. I do not however like how little the signatures are once you start to get a hit on them. Above you can see a tiny red dot and a tiny yellow dot. They should be much bigger.

This is in contrast to the strange large cones that appear as you are resizing and moving probes around.

There are some pretty specific bugs people have reported about the scan window. I found for general day to day use it worked, although with a caveat. It was at times glitchy. Sometimes I would go to click on a menu icon and it would not respond. I would have to click on something else and come back to find it working again. Sometimes the Directional Scan result window would update when you did not expect it to, and wouldn’t update when it should. You were not entirely able to trust the results – you basically had to re-scan every time you moved the camera angle.

Overall I am pleased, but it requires polish.

Otherwise, I spent a chunk of yesterday out in space. There was a Hi-Sec to Hi-Sec Wormhole in my home system. It had that telltale blue nebula colour. As luck would have it, when I poked my nose through I found a route to Jita half the length than usual, which also bypassed a couple of those more dangerous systems.

I then spent a lot of time ferrying loot, excess supplies, and a bunch of speculative items I had sat on for some time which were now well worth turning over for profit. My Alt’s Exequror hauler got quite a workout, often shuffling 1+B ISK worth at a time. It is likely that over its life that single hull has moved more than a Titan’s worth of value around space.

Lamp Posts

One of my favourite quotes (which I expect I have referenced before) goes something like – “Too often people use statistics as a drunk man uses a lamp post. More for support than illumination.”

Keep that in mind when you view the first graph on this glorious statistical porn CCP has released:

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/eve-economy-update-eve-vegas-2015-report/

This was interesting – what people are doing when they are logged in:

A figure I expect will be regularly bantered about is that only 1.5% of the player base is doing Incursions on any given day while logged in. Is this expected for top level “Raid” content in a game, or does this mean it is not accessible enough?

On a later graph on the ISK coming into and out of the game in September of this year, those 1.5% of players accumulated 13% of the ISK Faucet, not including the profits made on LP payouts.

So on any given day 40% of pilots joined a fleet, 29% warped around null, 24% warped around low sec, and 13% warped around Wormhole space.  Some will have done all that on the same day.  Almost 14% of pilots would also partake in PVP. There are just so many ways you can look at information like this.

I’ve only commented on the very first graphs. There is just a tremendous amount of information that you can use for good or evil. Now I need to go find where the quietest regions in the game are, and if I can get to them.

Best or worst of EVE

Manfred Sideous has been removed from CSM X by CCP

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=454087

CCP suggests the reasons shall remain confidential, although as one player remarked, “not if reddit has anything to say about it..”

In true EVE style, Manfred Sideous helped defuse the situation.

Sorry, did I say defuse?

The current bets are issues around non-disclosure breaches, but I personally have absolutely no idea.

I’m not sure if this sort of thing is an example of the best of EVE or its worst.  Drama and intrigue or deceitfulness and ineptitude?

More Parallax than expected

I wrote this earlier, but am a bit late posting as I put it aside to play a long session today.

The EVE Patch notes for the Parallax released have been available for a little while.

http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-parallax/

A few things stood out.

There’s an option to turn off camera bobbing – which is the “gentle animation” that occurs when you leave the camera view idle. I’ve been looking at this bobbing a lot the last couple days as I continue my Low-Sec bookmarking. The feature is for people who do video captures of the game. I’m going to turn it off for a short while to see – if as I suspect, it makes the game seem less dynamic and more flat.  (The camera shake during warp however seems to make the game a little too vigorous, so I leave that one off.)

Of interest they are applying stacking penalties with modules for the targeting speed bonus from the Leadership skill, the agility bonus from the Skirmish Warfare skill, and targeting range bonus from the Information Warfare skill. That can impact me a little when I fleet with my main alt. I will have to keep this in mind until EVEMon has been updated with what should be the new figures.

You will be able to scoop from space to the fleet hangar – which makes my Deep Space Transports more useful.

And there is this – “A character with a criminal flag in a high-sec system is no longer able to board/switch ships whilst in space.” Unless I am missing something, that seems like a nerf to ganking. While I have no problem with ganking existing in the game, I didn’t particularly like that players could in effect circumvent the 15 minute criminal flag.  I also didn’t like how gankers could make the process cheaper for themselves by – with the help of a bumping ship like a Machariel, attack the same target multiple times with cheap destroyers, instead of having to step up to a Battlecruiser gang to one-shot targets with more EHP.  I expect this will increase the animosity between the “Hi-Sec is too safe” and the “Hi-Sec is too dangerous” brigades.  I best keep clear of the forums.

Some of the Brain in a Box and Dogma changes will hit tranquility. This is CCP’s big rewrite of one of the core systems of EVE which should see some performance improvements. I can also see there being bugs, so I might just fly cheaper ships for a while after the patch goes in.

Crystal damage tooltip will now be shown as a percentage, which is nice.

The new probe and directional scanning interface will be available – it will be in beta but will default as on. I’ll have to spend some time with that. I’m particularly interested in the standalone solar system view. The current map just doesn’t really work for me as well as the old probe window, so I am hopefully this is an improvement.

Last of all I have installed the new EVE Launcher (Beta). It worked ok. On the plus side it is notably easier to manage multiple accounts. You can also resize it – which is lucky as some of the screen elements overlay each other awkwardly if the window is too small. I’m also not sure about the profile settings. I imported them ok from the old launcher, but you don’t seem to be able to edit them. I guess that functionality isn’t available yet, or maybe everything is available within the ESC menu.  I would really like to be able to have the client for each account open to a different location on my desktop – that would be nice.

Small – with adds behind notices

Larger (after clicking) with screen elements spaced better