Skill Point Distribution for Relicc

From yesterday's post's comment thread:

1. ReliccJan 23, 2012 07:38 PM

   How many SPs do you have?

2. Kirith KodachiJan 24, 2012 05:07 AM

   94,622,000 approximately.

3. ReliccJan 24, 2012 05:05 PM

   What in?!

   
   

Well, Kirith is a combat pilot that can fly all Tech I sub-capital combat ships and all Tech II combat ships except Tech II battleships that are not Caldari. As well, I can use Tech II versions of all weapon systems and can Tech II tank in any method. And I trained for a supercarrier. So with those capabilities, my skill distributions are fairly striaghtforward:

Now you know.

Fixing The CSM Voting

Depending on which definition of "Fixing" you apply, the title of this blog post is very ambiguous. And that's the point.

Ever since CSM 6 was voted in there been much discussion about how to ensure equal representation on the CSM. (In fact, there was discussion before that but the null sec takeover in the 6th iteration really prompted the panels to wax about it.) CSM 5 was primary devoid of a lot of null sec representation and some of the comments in the minutes there caused much consternation amoungst the alliance elites and caused the backlash and voting blocs to arise. This in turn caused hand-wringing and proclamations of doom.

The major concern of the talking heads is that as long as null sec alliances care about the CSM they will continue to dominate it and thus the conversation with CCP and its developers. There may be more pilots in high sec but they are splintered and/or apathetic. "How," they moan, "can we ensure that representation is equal?"

The most common refrain is that the CSM should have 2 representatives each from null sec, high sec, and low sec as well as a single rep from wormhole space. This is how it works in real life, right? However the comparison to meatspace politics quickly falls down when you realize the fundamental difference: Bill the player lives in a house in a town in a country; Kirith Kodachi lives wherever the fuck he wants.

Any scheme to divvy up seats on the CSM fails because while you can assign roles to seats you can with any certainty assign roles to players. A player may put himself forth as a High Sec Candidate while have four or five alts in a null sec alliance and the votes associated with that bloc. Or another candidate may live part time in wormhole space and part time in low sec; which seat is he up for? And if he chooses to run for one, what prevents his buddies in the other area from throwing their votes for him anyways?

You could try and limit votes by forcing pilots into specific arenas much politicians can only run for office in their home state (and that never gets gamed, right?!) but remember we get one vote per account, not pilot. An account with three characters all in different zones gets to vote where? In any of the three?

Furthermore, if you put yourself forward as a null sec candidate but during the election period your alliance gets booted out of null sec and you move into low sec, which seat are you running for? Can you still represent null sec interests if you spend the term in CSM as living in low sec?

Any effort to codify and legislate voting into specific roles or seats fails because pilots are plastic in their own careers and living environs and Eve players are rarely focused on a single style of game-play through a single character. And stringent restrictions will simply be gamed by savvy and organized voting blocs (e.g. null sec alliances) while the individuals will be left out in the cold regardless.

I say we let the process evolve organically. The null sec voting alliances came about as a response to the evolving CSM and if we let it I'm sure a counter-reaction to null sec dominance will come from the players, not over-engineering processes. But only if we let it.

Bang Bang You're Dead

In the fall I finished the training for the Proteus (got two in the hanger now) and was faced once more with the eternal Eve question: What Do I Train Next?

I decided it was time to do some polishing on useful combat skills and picked Gunnery as the category of choice since the few percentages picked up there on secondary skills applied equally to hybrid, projectile, and energy weapons.

It took a month and a half but I completed on the weekend and all secondary skills are up to level V.

Oh Yeah!

There is still all the tech II specialization skills to do but I decided to move on to Mechanic category where things were horribly untrained...

"Whadda mean my armour compensation skills are only at level III?!"

 

Yeah... its pretty rough. I'm going to take three weeks and get all those rigging skills and compensation skills up to IV and then re-evaluate. Sigh.

Shameless Plugging - Kadavr Black Guard, Eve Tribune, Tech 4 News

Kadavr Black Guard is recruiting! We're hanging out in Sinq Laison with the Shadow Cartel and want more pilots to give us more options for roams and picking fights.

KBG recruitmemt info

OK listen up grunts, we still have a few limited places available for the right people. 

If your attitude sucks, if you act like a hormonal teenager, then don't bother applying even if you have a "elite" killboard, you won't get in. 

We're not interested in Drama llama's.

There is a few specifics you will need to have, or be close to flying:

1 racial T2 cruiser hull, with full T2 weapons/modules and Tank. ie HAC/Recon/Logi

1 racial T2 frigate T2 Weapons/modules where required.

Battlecruiser trained to 4 minimum, with approriate fittings.

This means you will have a bare minimum of 10m skillpoints, and in the right areas.

We fly the following gangs, you will be expected to be able to have fitted and be able to fly something suitable from your hanger.

Frigate wolf pack

Shield Battlecruiser

Shield Nano Battlecruiser

Tier 3 Battlecruiser Alpha

Battleship, Dread / Carrier fleets - we do these, occasionaly.

Corp ops are non mandatory, however if you don't want to fly with a gang, why join a corp?

Combat experience is preferable, as is a positive kill / death ratio, however for the right people that are willing to listen, we can break your bad habit of dying and make you into a solid combat pilot.

We have solid logistics in place, with regular freighter runs to/from Jita, and lowsec/highsec hauling.

You will also need the following:

Working Mic, and audio. We use Mumble/Vent/TS3 depending on who we are flying with.

Self sufficent isk source. We can assist by providing Alt access to lvl4 missions, and to our WH for isk.

We are mainly EU/US timezone. Background checks may apply.

Contact Anabaric, Acute Dragonis, or Nashh Kadavr in game, or Join Kadavr Public for more information.

* * * * *


Eve Tribune is recruiting!

Share your experience
Write for the EVE Tribune

I'm gonna keep on plugging that phrase because I like it. I almost changed it to "Share your EVEsperience, write for the EVE Tribune". And sure it's a bit funny, building on the "EVE is real" slogan and so, but it's a it over the top really.

Share your experience
Write for the EVE Tribune

For those who don't know it the EVE Tribune is the longest running EVE Online eZine. We've been around since 2005-ish and until today we've published over 200 issues with articles spanning from news and pvp guides to philosophy, with a pinch of cookery in it. An unknown number of writers have shared their EVE Online experience with thousands upon thousand of readers.

So are you a writer? Or a sharer? Would you like your words to be read by thousands of people? Send me a mail at recruiting@eve-tribune.com and tell a bit of yourself. Who are you, what's your EVE experience, and what would you like to write about.

See you at the Tribune
/Mr M

* * * * *

Interested in Eve fiction in small digestible bites? Check out Tech 4 News!

WHAT IS TECH4 NEWS?

Welcome to Tech4 News; an independent media outlet dedicated to bringing news and current events concerning baseliners and capsuleers to the general population of New Eden.

Site Statistics and Blog Banter Archeology

For the curious, here is what my site statistics overview looks like:

Since I've been using Google Analytics in May 2009, I average below 20,000 page views per month with that spike in January 2011 coming from when I hosted the guest fiction from CCP Headfirst.

I also took a second to find the list of participants from the very first Blog Banter Crazy Kinux hosted back on October 29, 2008:

Participants:

• CrazyKinux's Musing: Exotic Dancers, Corporate Meetings & more
• The Wandering Druid of Tranquility: Ambulation - what I hope to see
• Semper EVE: Ambulation and Me
• Roc's Ramblings: Blog Banter #1 - Ambulation
• The Ralpha Dogs: Ambulation/Walking in Stations: A "Second Life" for EVE?
• Drunk in Space: Look at how much weight he put on…
• Diving into PsycheDiver's Psyche: Ambulation and Her
• Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah: Eve Blog Banter - Ambulation
• I am Keith Neilson: Going For A Stroll Through EVE
• Life in Low Sec: Ambulation Fantasies
• Shahirs Journey: Hopes for Ambulation
• A Mule in EVE: Ambulation
• Protosolus: EVE: Gawking in Stations
• One Man, One Ship: Ambulation
• Achernar: Avatars in a spaceships game
• The Shard: Ambulation
• Mad Rant: Saturday Night Fever
• I May Find Peace Within The Emptiness…: Walking Around…
• Ombeve: Ambulation
• A Merry Life and a Short One: Ambulation

The four bolded one are the blogs with posts since September 2011. Some blogs went silent just last summer and others are gone entirely or haven't posted in years.

Food for thought.

Fiction Friday: Series 4 - Part 16

Previously:
Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13
Part 14 Part 15

* * * * *

Max and I talked for a few hours and I got a good feel of what the corporation he represented, m3 Corp, was about. Essentially they were a multipurpose capsuleer corporation working out of a nearby constellation called Sukanan. Although ostensibly part of the Amarr empire, the patrols of the Navy and Ministry of Internal Order were sporadic at best and then only in force. Many Sansha Nation fleets and installations had broken down security in the pocket to the point where not even CONCORD could enforce security adequately.

That's where corporations like m3 came in. They were working for agents of the Imperial Navy in trying to blunt the Sansha presence, as well as trying to combat the rampant capsuleer criminal activity that began with the withdrawal of regular CONCORD patrols. Max's corporation was one of several working together in an official capacity as the BlackWater alliance (ticker: BWA). They weren't large like the null sec capsuleer alliances but they were large for a pocket like Sukanan and had some success improving security for lone pod pilots and some corporate fleet from Impro and Chemal Tech.

"Its not easy work," Max opined. "The automatic sentry guns run off a CONCORD database of who the pod pilot criminals are so we can engage them without interference, but we know of several pilots who are smart enough to keep off that list so we can't engage them first without taking sentry fire." He took a swig of his beer. "We've gotten pretty good at baiting some of them but they learn quick."

They weren't only a passive anti-pirate force. "We also do patrols in low sec space around Tash Murkon and Domain regions, and we've made friends in Providence so we're starting roams in there as well."

"Null sec space?" I said surprised. "You looking to move out there?"

"Yeah, that's the goal."

"But CVA, they're old school Amarr, right? Slaves, castes, etc?"

"They're conservative internally but they are still capsuleers and recognize the need for pragmatism like any good Caldari," he replied with a wink. "They don't interfere in allies internal policies as long as we continue to work towards securing Providence and Domain for the Empire."

"I've got a soft spot for the Republic," I said with a grimace, "I don't know if I like the idea of working against them with the enemy..."

"You mean the Ushra'Khan? A bunch of terrorists and pirates," he spat, "with more interest in the kill than fighting for the Republic. Hell, even the Thukkers are considered better upstanding citizens back in Pator."

I nodded and took a sip of my wine. "You've given a lot to think about, Max. I need to talk to my brother and see if he needs me but if not..." I left the question unfinished.

Max beamed his friendly smile and said enthusiastically, "Of course! I mean we'll need to run you by Grey and Darth, but I'm sure there won't be any problems!"

"Great," I said. "I could use fresh start." Another one, I added in my head.

Nerf The Drake

I admit I don't read the CSM minutes. Never have, probably never will. I let lots of other people with more time on their hands read them and post the summaries and relevant bits on the forums and blogs for me to comment on.

Case in point: Corelin over at Mad Haberdashers points out this:

Source:  http://www.eveonline.com/council/transcripts/2011/CSM_CCP_Mettings_7-9_12_2011.pdf
The Drake: The CSM and CCP both acknowledged the need to rebalance the Drake, which ‘does everything too well’. CCP is considering giving it a more offensive role like a Raven or Caracal where it would lose the shield resistance bonus and the 5% Kinetic damage bonus and instead gain a rate of fire bonus and a missile velocity bonus. The CSM vehemently approved of this idea. CCP and the CSM also agreed that this possible change to the Drake would help add more uniqueness to the Nighthawk, which is presently overshadowed entirely by the Drake.

[Emphasis mine]

If you study the Caldari lineup you know there is a pattern in the ships of the line: there is a missile based ship and a hybrids based ship (excluding Destroyer class). In all cases the missile ship gets two missile offensive bonuses, and the hybrid ship gets an optimal range bonus and a 5% shield resistances bonus per level.

Except the Drake. It gets one missile bonus and the 5% shield resistance bonus per level. The result is that the Ferox was doomed. You see, the pattern is that the missile ship is a varying degree of a glass cannon and the hybrid ship has a big passive shield tank and long range sniping. But the Drake breaks that rule with decent missile damage (7 bonuses hardpoints) and a shield tank superior to that of its sister ship. There became very little reason to select the Ferox over the Drake from that point forward.

This is all to say that I support getting rid of the Drake's resistance bonus and giving it another missile bonus (preferably one to missile velocity for more range). Combined with the hybrid boost and the 6 turrets it now has (one was added only a couple years back) the Ferox might even stage a comeback.

BB32: Say Yes To Reasonable Protection

This month's Blog Banter comes from Drackarn of Sand, Cider and Spaceships. He has foolishly chosen to poke the hornet's nest that is the non-consensual PvP debate. Whilst you read his question, I'll be finding a safe place to hide.

"A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons' Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an "opt out of PvP" option. 

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?"

* * * * *

How many subscriptions are lost because of suicide ganking, a practice in which players with so much ISK to afford to throw away ships on a constant basis "just for the tears"? How many new players quit in disgust when they are trying to mine to start out and a Thrasher comes in and pops them before CONCORD shows up?

Even without insurance payments if killed by CONCORD, suicide ganking in belts and at gates is rampant in Eve. We talk so proudly about how there is no levels in Eve and players can all mix together and even new players can contribute to a fleet, but then ignore how ISK creates a barrier between new and old where old can throw away ships in suicide ganks with nary a second thought while new players are devastated by the resulting loss.

So yes, I think there should be some minor for of protection from PvP in certain situations. 

Its not like CONCORD doesn't already impact what you can and cannot do. Your ship can't even activate bomb launchers or bubbles in low sec, you can't activate smart bombs near stations, you can't cloak when being chased by NPC police even when they are not on grid with you, etc. So it makes sense that they would build in some override commands to prevent your ship from targeting other ships with what I'm calling an Isolation Matrix. 

Here's how the Isolation Matrix works.

Its automatically installed on all Tech I sub-capital ships (i.e. not faction, Tech II, Tech III, or capital ships). Its on by default and can be manually turned off by right clicking on your ship and choosing Configure Ship, then a window comes up with a check box for activating or deactivating it.

While it is on, your ship cannot be targeted by any other player for any reason. Your row in other player's overview shows as grey to indicate you are not a valid target and anyone that tried to target you will get a message stating "You cannot target a ship with an Isolation Matrix active".

The isolation matrix will be deactivated if you perform one of the following actions:

- steal from someone's can or wreck

- target another player or player owned structure

- join a fleet

- activate smart bomb, ECM burst

- jump or undock or log on into a 0.5 security status or lower system

- launch scan probes

- are not in a NPC corporation1 

- your sec status is below zero
- fit faction or Tech II modules on the ship

Anytime an action will cause the Isolation Matrix to deactive is about to be performed, a message box will pop up informing the player of this fact and if they want to proceed, much like the loss of security status.

The idea is that the active Isolation Matrix will allow a player to experience Eve without the threat of immediate annihilation and that by the time you've started to branch out into fleets and player corps or lower sec space that you have learned enough to be aware of the threat of suicide ganks. At the same time, they don't have the ability to act as an invulnerable scout. At best they can mine or mission in relative peace, and because the restrictions on the Isolation Matrix are pretty severe for an experience player, it will be mainly new players with limited resources that will benefit.

1 - I considered limiting it to only the starting newbie NPC corporations. Also, idea for marking footnotes shamelessly stolen from Ripard Teg or one of his robots.

* * * * *

My knee jerk reaction when I read the blog banter topic was "hell no, your undock button is your pvp flag!" like a lot of other posts (heck, all of them?!) are going to be. I decided to actually sit down and think about the subject and try to play the devil's advocate and come up with something that prevents suicide ganking, a practice I find abhorrent from an immersion breaking perspective, from impacting the players least able to deal with its occurrence, especially when the suicide ganking is being done by the players most capable of absorbing losses (i.e. people with ISK to throw away ships).

If you read this post and are filled with consuming hatred of me, please don't bother commenting. If you disagree (or agree, but I doubt that) with my idea, please comment with your points.

Cool Kids

Over at Freebooted blog last week Seismic Stan wrote a post about the impending end of the Evebloggers.com portal and then he said:

Clique Favouritism?

Personally I have seen other signs that the community team may be operating under a siege mentality, with evidence of a lack of resources or understanding of some areas of EVE's complex society. Some examples that I have recently experienced suggest a bias toward the "cool kids".

For example, Mintchip produced a brief and awkward interview with Lead Designer CCP Soundwave at roughly the same time CCP Dropbear and CCP Headfirst gave an insightful and entertaining interview about EVE's storylines, live events and some exclusive DUST 514 info for Voices from the Void. Which interview got some CCP love in the December newsletter? Yep, you guessed it. The Mintchip/Soundwave non-event.

Another example of lop-sided favour concerns the recent podcast produced by one of CCP's favourite sons, Kil2 (of Alliance Tournament commentary fame). Along with Kovorix they have started a podcast focusing on solo combat. More power to them, however I felt for Arydanika who despondently pointed out the My EVE section of the official forums, where her thread which she regularly updated with the latest podcast episodes and information was vastly overshadowed by Kil2 and Kovarix's new effort. Which one had been tagged by both CCP developers and GMs? Yep, the new one by the cool kids.

[...]
Has anyone else noticed this change? Is the need to focus on the numbers forcing an understrength community team to leave some of us out in the cold? Or is being sensitive to these issues indicative of an over-inflated sense of entitlement?

Then last night there was the sudden and unexpected end of the awesome Starfleet Comms podcast:

As they say, all good things must come to an end and unfortunately this is true of the Starfleet Comms Podcast and Radio Show.
Those shows are on a hiatus. Once circumstance changes then maybe they will return either in the same format or in a different one, who knows?

In of itself it seems unrelated, right? Except this part near the end of Max torp's post:

I am appreciative of those podcasts, sites and individuals that supported, liked or mentioned us. Especially those that returned compliments and generally behaved in a courteous manner. The cliques can fuck off and die, you know who you are and a special place in hell is reserved for you, you miserable pieces of shit.

Whoa! That was a very jarring note of vehemence in an otherwise sanguine "hiatus" post.

In any community/society large enough, there are going to be groupings. These groupings will often have something in common that binds them together, something that can be small or quite significant. Individuals may belong to multiple groupings, or even to none.

In Eve's society there are a lot of different groups. Null sec'rs, low sec'rs, pirates, industrialists, pvpers, carebears, wormholers, goons, russians, griefers, botters, scammers, roleplayers, etc etc etc. The list goes on a long way with ever more distinct and smaller groups, some overlapping and some never coming close.

One of these groups can be call the celebrities of Eve, the glitterati, the 'cool kids'. They are the 'big names' in Eve that almost everyone recognizes, and they got there either through hard work or charm or luck or a combination of all three. This group (or possibly multiple groups with different levels of fame/recognizability) has special access to parts of CCP and the developers that has come about due to working with them in the past through special projects like the Alliance Tournament, CSM, forums, ISD, EON magazine, role playing, fanfest, etc. The upshot is that this special access results in a positive feedback loop: CCP is more likely to recognize and celebrate the efforts of this group because they know them, and the individuals get further fame and access as a result of the recognition. This has similar analogs in real life of course.

The down side to this phenomenon is that a small company like CCP with limited resources for community management, especially since the layoffs last month, can miss a larger but less visible group of people who are making efforts just as intensive and worthy of recognition as what was done by the glitterati. This is a fact of life in any similar situation and the best way to combat that is to work together to highlight the good work of all kinds done by everyone and do our best to get the word to CCP about how they should look further afield than the closest sources.

Regardless, it is not acceptable for anyone who has made it to the big leagues to look down upon others toiling in degrees of relative obscurity and disparage their efforts just because they don't happen to have the visibility and official support that others have. I don't know who did what to make Maxtorps so angry, but I know the feeling of frustration that can come from not being part of the "cool kids cliques".