Sweet Merciful Crap!

Found via many sources including CCP itself (but damn them for not having a link to the post without requiring log in):

Ever since I first laid eyes on one of EVE's ship, I've wanted to have a scale model version of one. That was over 5 years ago, but today, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Today, the EVE Online Store is being shutdown to make place for a new and improved store, and in the process, CCP will finally be introducing Collectible Battleship Models for each of the 4 races.

Oh very nice. The close up pics are even nicer and I so want one of those Golem models. Except on little detail... They are $124.99 USD for the Tech 1 versions, and a lot more for the Marauders. EGADS!

At that price I'm not buying a Raven or Golem. If they offered a Rokh, maybe....

Darn Real Life

I didn't get a chance to log in much last night as real life was hitting me square in the eyes. Which is a shame as when I did log in to change a skill, three FINEG members were logged in. I was itching to look for them but alas could not.

In other news, I needed a fresh breath of air so I switched to Carrier training again so I can actually get some use out of it.

Preparations

So I had Derranna ferry some ships down to Derelik for me (thus avoiding the overzealous Ammatar Navy) and a clone with less expensive implants for flying around in. Of course, every night I logged in this past week I didn't see any of the FINEG pilots online and if that trend continues, I could be in for some boring sessions.

I've nailed down the identies of 10 of the 12 current members and a few ex-members that I will keep an eye on. Next step is to find a good location agent in the region so I can do quick checks when they are spotted online.

They are also announcing a recruitment drive!

As of the end of this week, FineG will begin recruiting members for its low sec base. We will be looking for guys who enjoy running some missions as a means of income along with the occasional gate camp. The requirements will be:

Minimum SP 5 mil - Must fly a Battle Cruiser or Battleship at a decent level.
Age 18 years or older , exceptions will be made but basically we don't want anyone who is easily offended.
Smack Resistant - We need people who can resist the urge to splurge info in local. (Smack is just a dumb way to give the enemy info about yourself).
PVP orientated - We don't need miners, mining is bad...
Must be able to enjoy the taste of care bear tears. - If you can't drink down a glass of care bear tears, this corp isn't for you.
A microphone for ops is mandatory.


I know we have been lacking in recruitment so I ask you guys if I'm missing anything?

*nods* Pretty standard stuff (as a side note, Lemage, if you are reading my blog: I'd add minimum activity levels, like say 5-7 hours a week. Nothing worse than a pilot with all the skills but never online). If I had a combat alt that they didn't know about, I'd consider trying to infiltrate their squad and get inside intel. But I don't. And the thought occurred to me that the post, since its in the public forum on their website, is a surripetous attempt to get me or a friend to try to join to bilk us out of ISK or gank the ships we fly with them. I mean, if they read this blog they know I'm checking them out and its worth a try, right?

But alas its only me in this operation and while I meet the basic requirements to join I doubt that they would be so inclined.

Boosters Part 1

My latest Eve Tribune article on Boosters - How to Use Them.

Me = Idiot

Last night I got some time online and I was heading to a destination in my trusty Covert Ops. My route was many jumps and I was cruising along, chatting in channels and such. Then my wife called me to help with one of the twins and I put on the autopilot since I was in high sec space only and the "war dec" was over.

I came back a few minutes later and found myself at my destination system... in my pod.

What the hell? Was I suicide ganked? Did FINEG find me and kill me with a cheap cruiser? What happened?

I brought up the combat records and looked at my ship loss. Killing blow.... Ammatar Navy Colonel.

Right. I forgot.

In my effort to raise my standings with Minmatar through factional warfare, I completely trashed my Amarr and Ammatar standings in the process. I'm shoot on site in their high sec territories now despite having left the militia. I haven't been in Amarr space since leaving the militia and completely forgot about the danger from the navies when going through their space.

And when I started autopiloting I was an easy target for them to web and quickly destroy.

To make the loss even sting a bit more, I got this evemail this morning from a pilot I did not know:

2008.08.27 02:45
Thanks for the free recon probe launcher, that 30 mill will really help my wallet! I found it on the XXXXX gate in XXXXX.

Sigh. It was a Sisters Recon Probe Launcher by the way. Fortunately not a more expensive and useful Sisters Scan Probe Launcher. So yeah that sucked but it was my own fault and a lesson I'll not soon forgot. Man, new readers to this blog must think I'm a really idiot right about now.

Fortunately my wallet can takes these blows easily and I rarely make the same mistake twice.

After that drama I jump cloned out to Syndicate and brought my Cerberus home with its loot; after all, if I'm going to be shadowing FINEG I won't have time to hang out in Syndicate and I'll need all my jump clones ready to go.

Hopefully next week is better than this week.

Skills Update

Kirith is almost finished the 12 days for Shield Management V and the desired Tech II Shield Boost Amps I'm gunning for. I've trimmed down the summer break training plan (as summer is almost over!) and got Shield Upgrades V and Shield Compensation IV lined up for the next 8 days. Then its 6 and a half days of Large Blaster Specialization II through IV for big blaster boat goodness.

That takes me to mid September when I shall start the last skill, Advanced Weapon Upgrades V, 27+ days of training that will make fitting some ships easier and open the way for a Golem Marauder battleship.

Derranna is finishing up Covert Ops V this week and then is going to get some Hacking and Archaeology skills going to assist in exploration if needed.

New Project

Well, I've spent some time thinking about what to do next, and about FINEG. This morning when I logged in I found this evemail:

2008.08.25 17:19
As you have noticed we have been keeping an eye on former strife members,
We once again offer you a way for us to forget about you.

Package A - 500 Mil

I will remove you and your alts from my addressbook and we will never bother you again.

Package B - 600 mil

I will remove you and your alts from my addressbook and we will never bother you again.

I will also instruct our pos expert to give you vital pos defense tips.

Package C - 1 Bil

Same deal as before this will include all former strife members.

-Lemage

One thing I have to give FINEG, they keep the smack down. Straight forward, to the point, and they back it up. Although this line here: "I will also instruct our pos expert to give you vital pos defense tips", that stings. I mean, Ouch. LOL

I tried to think of some witty or defiant reply but really it would sound like the rantings of a pissed off player and I know I have very little in the way of ability to back it up right now. My PvP skills (especially solo) are nothing special and I don't have the allies to call in for a protracted campaign.

So I'm going to play to my strengths. I'm good at research and information gathering so I've decided that in lieu of production at my POS, my new project will be to find out everything there is to know about FINEG and its pilots. Where they go, what they fly, and what they do when they get there.

Then we'll see what I can do.

Of course I'll post it all here starting with the current location of Lemage: Faspera I - Ammatar Fleet Testing Facilities station in the Faspera system, Ananah constellation of Derelik region.

They're Baaaaaaack!!!

Back in the spring while in Strife I was involved in a war with a corporation called Fine Goods for Fine Gentlemen (aka FINEG). The war was started because we accepted a former member of their corp into our ranks and he parted on poor terms with them apparently. During that war Strife was basically imploding and I was CEO for a time and had some evemails back and forth with the CEO of FINEG. He made some ransom demands which we refused, and made it clear he intended war dec any corps we ran to.

So when I left Strife to start Katana Securities at the beginning of June and Derranna went to Razor Technologies, I awaited their reaction. Nothing. Not a peep.

After two and a half months of no war declarations from FINEG, I figured that they had moved on. Well it turns out I was wrong.

I got back last night from my weekend away to find a war declaration in my inbox and notifications of my newly anchored tower being attacked. A quick warp out confirmed it was 24 hours into reinforced and 17 hours to go, coming out in the middle of the day today. F*ck.

I've already written the tower off. Being at work I can't log in to try and defend it and I have no allies to call upon to defend it in my place in time (not that it worked out last time). And I highly doubt FINEG will not make an effort to destroy it as soon as reinforced expires; they are many things but easily distracted is not one of them. Hell, I won't be able to log in until later this evening and the tower should be long dead before then.

I made several mistakes this time:
- I underestimated the determination of FINEG to take down any tower I put up.
- I anchored the tower before going away for 3 days.
- I tried to play Eve as a single player game. If I had an associate to log in and tear down the tower as soon as the 24 hour warning of war was noticed, I could have avoided any losses whatsoever besides time.

I also wonder if my blog is being used as an intelligence gathering tool against me. Not the locations so much (as locator agents make finding people easy) but the fact I had anchored a tower and that I was gone for the weekend making it easy pickings for the observant. I like talking about what I am doing but perhaps it cost me this time.

Anyways, I'm not quite sure what to do next. The POS effort was my project and now that's down the tubes, and I'm sure any other towers I anchor will be similarily hunted. Perhaps its time to stop flying solo and get into a corporation or alliance I can count on for backup or support. Any corp I join though will have to be made aware of these guys with a vendetta against me for no apparent reason. (EDIT: well, no reason other than to annoy me and drink my carebear tears LOL )

Ah Eve, sometimes you are a cruel mistress.

Damn Freighters

A former corp mate asked for my assistance in moving his stuff across high sec in my freighter and I agreed. He set up the courier contracts and I prepared the Galactica Fenrir-class ship for transport.

Ouch. The packages are up in the Citadel region and 27 jumps from where my freighter was. Then 10 jumps from pickup to drop off site one in Lonetrek. And then 34(!) jumps to the second drop off point. Finally 15 jumps back home.

Considering the freighter gets about 10-15 jumps per hour when autopiloting, I had a long night ahead. I finished the second drop off this morning after autopiloting all evening and giving Derranna a rest overnight; she still needs to make the 15 jumps home tonight.

Meanwhile, Kirith was doing drugs.

No, no, not recreational drugs. Combat Boosters. He was experimenting with them for an article I'm writing. I figured I needed to experience them directly to make sure the information I had gathered was accurate.

We are travelling out of town this weekend, taking tomorrow off and coming back Sunday. Thus no posting tomorrow.

Ah Memories

A comment over on post on PotShot about Eve Newb guides posted by Crazy Kinux reads:

I started Eve up last night, saw the neverending blackness of space, and almost cried.
This link should help.

That brings back memories about when I first started Eve back in Sept 06.

I started in Kisogo in The Citadel. This was before the jump to Jita was removed so I had my first ferw missions in the area including some frustrating stops in "The Black Hole". I remember upgrading from my Ibis to a Heron and feeling like big shit. This was after a few days training since I started with 5000 skill points and not the 800K new players get today.

Well I took my combat Heron (I cringe to think about this now) into missions and soon lost it in Worlds Collide. And then lost another. And then a Merlin which I thought should be indestructible. Man, did I have a lot to learn.

Later on I was moving to join friends in Placid. I was going to meet an escort in a 0.5 system and I felt so nervous while there. Wow, 0.5! Danger lurks everywhere, right? My heart beat wildly in my chest just flying around anc checking the belts before getting scared off by tough rats. When my friend arrived I took my Merlin which had all of my Eve possessions and followed him through low sec into Placid where I joined his corp and began to really learn the game. That same night the corp was out for an exercise and one of my friends undocked in his Megathron. I spent a few minutes belting it with antimatter and rockets to great fun if not great effect. It was so huge and invincible.

Ah good times. Man I wish Merlins had a third turret hardpoint.

POS Profit

Alex asked in a comment yesterday:

I imagine you have some idea, but I'd be interested in seeing any calculations (even rough ones) of how you expect this POS operation of yours to be profitable in the long run.

Short answer: cloaking devices.

Long answer: The Prototype Cloaking Device blueprint is difficult to make copies of. It requires more than the base skills, some research databases, and reports (or datasheets, I can never remember which). Even then, to make a single full run BPC it takes just over 9 days in a copy slot and you need a max run BPC for useful invention.

Once you get a BPC, you try to invent an Improved Cloaking Device or Covert Op Cloaking Device BPC from it which will have 10 runs. Assuming you are successful (about a 50% success rate) it takes another 2.5 or 4.5 days to build all the modules from it at about a cost of 2-3 million ISK per module and requiring extensive manufacturing skills.

Then you can sell them. The Covert Ops cloaks go for about 7-8 million ISK right now, the Improved ones for about 6 million. So rough ballpark estimate of 4 million ISK per unit, or 40 million ISK per invented BPC.

Now I own two Prototype Cloaking Device BPOs and plan to set them up for constant copying so every 18.5 days I get 4 max run BPCs and then invention usually gives me 2 Tech II BPCs for 20 units at 4 million ISK profit each, or 80 million ISK.

Now the POS will cost about 30-60 million ISK per month in fuel so you can see most of the profit from the cloaks will be eaten up but there will be some left over and all the other slots on the mobile labs are still free for other projects like Invulnerability Field invention, Ship invention, and BPO research.

While I could make as much or more ISK by using publicly available laboratories, the wait queues make the process more onerous and less flexible to change than I like. If I need an Osprey BPC for an invention attempt or something, waiting 20 days for the next free slot is not an attractive option. The POS gives me the flexibility to respond to request while still being profitable.

And the work it takes is kind of fun, like a hobby or something.

Love At First Bite

While waiting for role timers to expire so Korannon and Derranna could join Insisto Armamentarium I jumped Kirith out to 0.0 to do some more ratting in his Cerberus. I've talked about how the Drake is the better choice over the Cerberus before but I'm really loving this Heavy Assault Cruiser.

When equipped with the Heavy Assault Missile the DPS is decent at around 352 for my skills. I can definitely get more for the Drake not even including the drones, but for ratting its more than enough. As a bonus the Cerberus has the range bonus so he can sling the missiles out to 34 km, considerably farther than the Drake's 17.5 km.

The Cerberus' speed is also nice. With the 10mn Afterburner II the HAC can fly 531 m/s compared to the 399 m/s of the battlecruiser. And it takes over half as much time to align to warp as the bigger ship does, very important for quick escapes in 0.0. In addition its cargohold is 300m3 larger which helps to hold more ammo and loot if need be.

Finally, although the Drake is not a bad looking ship, the elegance of the Carcal hull has always been attractive to me and the Cerberus variation is no exception. It looks sleek and sexy and mean all at the same time, like a beautiful woman with a gun.

Another Reason I Will Never Play WoW

Inside jokes and subtle humour are one thing, outright silliness is another.

This Station is Fully Operational

Last night I began the Consolidation of Alts. Derranna packed up all of her and Razor Technology's assets into her freighters (really all of it could fit in the Fenrir but I like carrying the more expensive stuff in the Nomad with its greater defenses) and then headed to Tongofur with two stops, one to pick up a new Advanced Mobile Lab and the other to drop off an Onyx, Flycatcher, and Buzzard for Korannon to sell.

Once she arrived at Tongofur she contracted the POS tower and supplies to Kirith so he could log in and begin the anchoring process. Soon thereafter the tower was online, force field active, and ready for business.

The next steps are a bit of a shuffle. Derranna can't join Insisto Armamentarium to use the labs yet because Kirith as CEO lacks the skills for non-Caldari members. So Korannon resigned as CEO of Katana Securities Inc and put Sun Tomah in charge for now. Tomorrow morning Korannon can join INSAR, Kirith can resign as CEO and assign Korannon the top stop and he can update the corp with his better skills. Then immediately after Derranna can join and begin work.

With Korannon as CEO and Derranna as Director, Kirith will be free to go his own way, probably back to KATAN so he can relieve Sun Tomah and let her go to INSAR to help with the research.

Denied

There I was cruising in my house, trying to make my way to the computer when as I jumped into the study I was startled to see a big red flashy in my overview.

"Damn! The Shadow Serpentis Wife Officer Spawn! I can't beat that in my Husband class cruiser!" Before I could warp I was scrammed, jammed, and taking heavy damage. I tried my best defenses but it was not to be, and my best salvos were easily tanked by her 99% across board resistances.

In moments I was venting gases through hull breaches and with no support on the way I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

* * * * *

On the upside, the Minmatar standing for Insisto Armamentarium was over 6 on Sunday so operations are in place to move the POS supplies to Tongofur and get to work on anchoring that tower this week.

Big Heavy Bitch

So there I was, trying to sneak my Nomad Jump Freighter out of low sec into high sec this morning. I was in a quiet dead end low sec pocket, local was empty, and 2 minutes to go on the timer until downtime.

I jump clone to the station and wait for the session timer to complete so I can get into the ship (named Pegasus BTW). Then I click undock and wait for space to come into my vision. Then I choose the gate and click warp to zero. Damn, gotta turn this boat, c'mon baby, turn... turn...

By this time there is like 15 seconds left before the great switch in the sky is flipped and Eve goes lights out.

C'mon you heavy pig, get into warp! WARP!

Five seconds left. GET INTO WARP NOW!

"Warp Drive Active"

Good. As the connection is severed, I was pleased to know I might actually be off grid of the station when I logged in again. If the server takes a few seconds before shutting down, I might even be on the gate!

Sure enough, I logged in after downtime and found myself warping to the gate. Sweet. Moments later, the Pegasus is returned to the relative safety of high sec space.

I really need to plan these operations out better.

* * * *

In other news, last night Kirith was logging in only to find other pilots in local in his chosen system, so I moved a couple jumps deeper into 0.0 and found a system that seems unoccupied. Several random logons later and its still empty. Good sign, here's hoping to lots of good ratting. Also, he finished Energy Management V today and is starting on a 12 day skill called Shield Management V which will give my ships slightly more shields AND access to Tech II Shield Amplifiers which is high on my list of modules I need.

Jackpot!

Last week I talked about options for Kirith while I waited for my lifestyle with the twins to catch up and decided to try some 0.0 ratting for a while. It would be fairly easy to jump in and out of, help raise my security status, and even make some easy ISK.

The first question was where? I looked at NPC 0.0 space:
- Great Wildlands was close but only a couple NPC stations to hide in when locals came knocking and I really wanted to be able to dock sometimes.
- Curse was also close and lots of stations, but I wasn't overly familiar with it and the rats were Angels... I hate Angels, I much prefer Serpentis.
- Fountain is where a friend is ratting a couple billion ISK. Good low true security systems, some NPC stations... but its a popular destination as sovereignty can be claimed and its a little out of the way from high sec.
- Syndicate is familiar space, lots of NPC stations, close to high sec, and has easy to kill Serpentis rats. Downside is low quality ratting space but I'm not in it for the money.

We have a winner! Once again, I return to Syndicate, my first 0.0 experience.

Next the question is what ship to use? This is a harder question.

In friendly 0.0 space a solid battleship or battlecruiser would be the obvious answer; lots of DPS, and solid tank. But in hostile space a big bulky ship that takes some time to align and warp when enemy ships are bearing down on you is not a good idea. Plus I needed to smuggle this ship into 0.0, a little mobility goes a long way.

So I looked at smaller options, an Assault Ship or a Heavy Assault Ship. The Harpy has some attractive qualities in that its fast, small, relatively agile, can mount a mean tank, and with blasters have decent DPS. My only concern was that it wouldn't have a lot of DPS and ratting might become a slog rather than a breeze. On the other hand, an Eagle can produce more DPS and have a solid tank as well but I didn't have one in my Hanger.

I did have a Cerberus. Outfitted with 5 Heavy Assault Missile Launcher IIs, a cloaking device, afterburner, three hardeners, a large shield extender, and 3 ballistic control units I had a ship that could shoot and tank like a battlecruiser but with better range and agility of a cruiser. Expensive though.

So last night I found myself in Placid preparing to head into the lion's den. I got Derranna in her Cheetah Covert Ops to scout for me and made my way into low sec and then into 0.0. Just after I got into the first 0.0 system I was forced to safe spot while some neutrals passed through, and the next system I docked up while Derranna scouted for me, but soon I was in the target system with no one else in local and I still had 15 minutes left in which to start ratting.

First handful of belts were empty or populated with battlecruiser and cruisers which the HAMs tore through with incredible ease. I didn't even bother with turning the hardeners on. I was getting into a rhythm and was pleased when I warped into a belt and saw two fat battleship icons and one cruiser icon.

"Oh good," I thought, "Serpentis Barons." Only 500K ISK but still some sport. I set to orbit and was about to press F1 when I did a doubletake. The cruiser's name started with the words "Shadow Serpentis". Faction spawn!

I immediately changed targets and lit into the cruiser whose bounty was 825K isk, a reflection of its importance. I nervously watched local for fear of now being the time someone would stroll in and force me to choose between my own ship and the juicy faction rat. My HAMs tore into the enemy and he was no match for the firepower. Ignoring the battleships I checked the wreck and was delirious to find a BPC along with other loot which I quickly scooped into my hold. Since local was still clear, I destroyed the two battleships and then docked with my prize to inspect it more closely.


That's right, a 1 run Shadow Medium tower BPC. Not Serpentis, but Shadow. SWEET! There are contracts for this item around 300 million right now although I don't know if they are actually moving at that price, but the fact remains its an amazing find. Assuming I can get it back to High Sec safely, it alone pays for the entire trip. JACKPOT.

Somedays it is good to be me.

Nerve Wracking

Jumping the Nomad is almost always a nerve wracking experience.

A couple weeks ago I jumped a mission running battleship and tons of supplies into low sec for a friend whose security status made it difficult for him to get that stuff himself. I wanted to get the Jump Freighter back to high sec but the low sec border systems in the region were always busy and hence made the risk of a jump in high.

I finally got tired of waiting for an opportunity in those systems and looked to see what else was in range. Eventually I located a good low sec border system that was part of a pocket of low sec as opposed to contiguous low sec which means fewer roaming pirates and less traffic.

This morning I got everyone into position and successfully made the jump. But it was not without heart palpations. There was a couple in local when I set off the cyno beacon with Kirith and switched to Derranna. By the time she had undocked and cleared the moorings and then jumped, several other pilots had entered the target system and I suddenly felt very exposed. Plus my overview was set to show gates only and I couldn't tell if there was ships around to threaten the 4.5 billion ISK ship.

Fortunately, only Iterons were nearby and I docked safely. Some other time I'll actually make the run from station to gate. Some time when my heart stops beating so loud. I never got this nervous with the carrier I had with Barak Vorn because at least the carrier has some defence and offence to protect itself; the Jump Freighter is one target lock away from wreckage.

Salvage Rights

Another Eve Tribune article, this week on Salvaging Rights especially in regards to mission runners and the ninja salvagers that probe them out.

There Is Too Many Of Me!

Ah Jump Clones and Implants. Alone you are nothing special but together you are a confusing combination of excellent utility and frustrating inconvenience. Who hasn't wanted to join their buddies in 0.0 but still had 3 hours to go on their 24 hour jump clone timer? Or can only fit that battlecruiser to perfection with certain implants plugged in? You know what I'm talking about, we've all been there.

If there was one little thing I would like the Devs to add to Eve tomorrow, it would be the ability to name our clones and have that prominently displayed on the character sheet: "Currently in PvP Clone" or "Currently in +4 Mission Clone". That would be swell. Then I wouldn't have to realize this morning that my mission clone has been flown out to Caldari low sec territory to babysit the Ninveah while my plain +3 implant clone is sitting at my base.

I've got three clones:
- My main with all +4 implants and the 10% scanning time improvement hardwiring,
- My mission clone with +3 implants and two +3% damage hardwirings for turrets (Eifyr and Co 'Gunslinger' CX-1 and Zainou 'Deadeye' ZGL100 to be exact),
- My extra clone with just +3 implants.

The reason all the clones have skill improvement implants? I don't PvP much and the +3s are relatively cheap.

The current clone setup is not very effective. If I want to spend a lot of time in safe space, I should be in my +4 clone but then I'm not as good if I decite to run a mission. So I think I need to buy a couple hardwirings like my mission clone has to improve his damage in the Rokh. Then my mission clone can be used for PvP as the extra damage is always welcome.

My extra clone is not in the best position to become a carrier pilot. I really should have specialized implants for the carrier like a full set of Crystal implants so I might make a new jump clone (19H for another level of Infomorph Psychology) and prep him for the job. Of course all of that will cost significant amounts of ISK but we knew this going in.

Industrial Long Term Goals

Alex asked in yesterday's comments:

"Grats on your successes in the manufacturing industry. I am a bit curious what your long term goals are with this.

I am also a long time reader and I do not seem to recall many (or any) such plans laid out. It'd be interesting to read about."

Well the answer to that is a rambling post of its own so sit back, grab a beer, and read on.

*Old Man Rambling Turned On*

It all started in September '06. No, check that: it really started in the previous summer when my warhammer friends were talking in the local Games Workshop store about some adventures they were having in this game called Eve Online. I like spaceships, I thought to myself, and I like computers. Maybe there is something in this for me.

So I signed up in September and created Kirith Kodachi, back in the days when new players started with a few thousand skill points and it took a month to get to the heady heights of 800K - 1 million. I knew I wanted a combat pilot right from the start so I trained him in missiles, frigates, cruisers... all good times.

What does this have to do with long term industrial plans, you ask? Well, I'm getting there.

As time passed I figured I wanted to make money in other ways besides 0.0 ratting in Syndicate which was slightly dangerous to an inexperience Carcal pilot (ah, Arcane Vendetta, how we had such good times... remember when I bought Heavy Missile Launchers but didn't have the skills for the missiles themselves? Heh) so I bought a couple small BPOs and decided to try manufacturing for profit. I quickly discovered that many skills were needed to produce effectively and reduce waste and I didn't want to divert Kirith from combat training. So in October Derranna Elkadar was born.

The long term goal evolved over the next month to be this: have Derranna research BPOs and produce items for selling to make the ISK Kirith needs to buy combat ships and fittings so I don't have to rat or mission all the time to afford my shitty PvP abilities. Pretty straight forward, right?

Of course, any experienced industrialist will tell you that making gobs of money off of Tech I BPOs is not very easy as margins are slim and demand is mediocre at best. I eventually moved in ammunition production as I came to realize that the demand and margins were higher there due to them being a perishable item so to speak. But moving a few hundred thousand missile a week didn't make a lot of money as competition was steady.

So I moved on and founded Kodachi Enterprises (KODA) with the goal of running a BPO research business. I did the math, set up the low sec POS, and worked on renting out my research skills and lab slots to those who needed improved BPOs. It was barely profitable and my old computer couldn't hack two accounts so I couldn't scout my loads of fuel into low sec and it became a costly hassle.

However, by this time invention had been released and I decided to investigate what was needed to get into it. I stumbled onto the right combination and was soon producing Invulnerability Field IIs which sold very huge margins and made me relatively rich off of industrial activities for the first time. Those invulnerability fields funded my purchase of Razor Technologies and its high standings for a high sec POS and eventual purchase of a Cloaking Device BPO for cloaking invention. Finally Derranna was making the kind of ISK I needed to support my lifestyle.

And it has continued from there. Now Derranna can build most non-capital Caldari ships (Transports being the exception) and invent most Caldari based items. She can make the money as evidenced by the recent posts about my wallet but she has no more long term industrial goals, so I'm pushing her into combat-utility roles now by training her up in Covert Ops frigs and someday into Recon and Logistics cruisers.

The thought has occurred to me that I should train her up for constructing capital ships, but I haven't felt the need for that yet and she is ready to train the Capital Construction skill today (side note: she is also ready to train Outpost Construction skill! Wow, yay Anchoring V!).

So there you have it. The TL;DR version: my long term industrial goal is to just make money through invention, manufacturing, and selling.

1,022,244,813.36 ISK

"Welcome to the Billionaires Club sir, care for a drink?"

I was away all weekend and was pleased as punch when I logged in last night after getting home and found my wallet swelled to over one billion ISK. The second Widow had sold along with the 7 Kitsunes I had. This morning I got three Harpy Assault Frigs out of the oven and sold them as well so my wallet is actually higher than the post title now. And I'm still not done.

I have a Buzzard and Flycatcher to produce, and then a number of Cerberus and Basilisk BPCs to process, and finally a few more Widows. Its possible that when I'm done all of these tech II invented BPCs I could have close to 1.5 billion or more. Fun times.

In other industry news, I created a new corporation to replace Razor Technologies called Insisto Armamentarium, a sister corp to Insisto Oblivium. I'm a sucker for pseudo latin names. Kirith is in the process of transfering his standings over now (a long drawn out process that causes me to curse CCP) and once he gets the standings to 6.0 we can anchor the new POS in my chosen system of Tongofur in the Heimatar region. Its not as close to Rens as I wanted but the price is right.

I'll be using the POS to invent more cloaking devices and perhaps more Tech II Caldari ships. Maybe Invulnerability Fields again if the market has stabilized.

In skill training news, Derranna is finishing Advanced Mass Production V today so she can use 10 factory slots while Kirith is polishing off Accerealtion IV for a boost in speed (he finished his Thermodynanics IV late Friday). Derranna will then spend a couple weeks getting Covert Ops V for better piloting of her Cheetah and Kirith will continue his summer improvement plan with Energy Systems Operation V for better cap recharge.

Crossroads

With my quest for standings complete, the process of creating a new corp (current working name Insisto Armamentarium with a ticker of INSAR) and anchoring a tower for future R&D endeavours will take a few days. Then Derranna can continue to build my bank account with invention and manufacturing for the forseeable future.

But what about my main character, Kirith? What is he to do?

There are lots of options that I am interested in, the main difficultly is time. While my game time has increased slightly, it tends to be in bits and pieces, 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there sort of thing. I can't commit to Factional Warfare PvP as part of fleets because they tend to require that much time to get setup, and joining a real corp and moving out to 0.0 is unfeasible for the same reason. Even running missions is next to impossible without a solid hour online at a time.

So I'm left with few options for poor Kirith:
- Stay in the militia but doing solo hunting; dangerous but something I can jump in and out of.
- Ninja salvaging in the warzones of tech II wrecks.
- Fly a ship out to some 0.0 region and try to ninja rat.
- Park Kirith in Rens and work the markets.

I can't wait until I can play longer stretches at a time again and get back into corp & alliance life. As annoying as it can be, its still the best part of the game.

To Anchor A Tower

With the promotion out of the way, I have the standings I need to anchor a high sec POS again but I first need to transfer them to a corporation as its the corp's standings. The question is, what corporation?

The first choice would be to just stay in Katana Securities Incorporated as its standings should equal mine own, right? Well, no. I let a friend join the corp so he could partake in Factional Warfare when he logged in and his standings are not high enough to join the militia directly. So my 5.16 is averaged with his 0.39... needless to say that is not resulting over 5.0 for the corp. And do I want to consolidate my industrial characters into the same corp as my combat character? Somehow it seems unattractive.

My next obvious choice to to go over to Razor Technologies and bump its standings up. The downside to that plan is that Derranna would have to leave because she has a minuscule Minmatar standing from when she was running research agent missions and got a storyline once. Although the storyline was for Caldari the small derived standing decrease of 0.01 is enough to make her count against the overall corp average. Very annoying, but doable.

Third choice is to have Kirith jump into Insisto Oblivium corp. No one would have to leave and it would take only the time to raise the corp average to over 5. But that corp is for my long term alliance plans and not an industrial corp. The name is pseudo latin for "To Make Destroyed", not a good name for an indy corp.

The last choice is to make a whole new corp and transfer into it once the standings are complete. This is most attractive to me because Razor Tech is a bought corp and not my own invention; a new corp could have the standings quickly and the name I desire. So this is what I'm going to do.

Now to determine a good name and ticker...

Promotion (FINALLY!)

Last night I had about 20 minutes to play so I thought I would see if I could slip through Wolf Tactical Solution's net and secure that complex I needed for a promotion. Sure enough I did and I am now officially a Venge Captain in the Minmatar militia.

I checked my standings and saw that the Minmatar faction standing was well over what I need at 5.16. Sweet! My complex running days are over, its time to move on. I repackaged the Vexor and Cormorant and made a courier contract for Derranna to pick up, and I hopped in my little Crow and prepared to move out back to friendly space.

New URL For My Blog

Deciding that ninveah.blogspot.com was sooooooooo amateurish, I paid out the money to register a new domain www.ninveah.com and the transfer process of the blog is occuring as I type this.

RSS subscribers should delete the old feed and pick up the new one here. The old feed should be redirected for a while, maybe indefinitely, but who knows?

Caldari Hybrid Ships

New article of mine in the Eve Tribune today, an overview of Caldari Hybrid Ships.

If You Can't Stand The Heat...

I was able to log in for a little while last night but since my jump clone was not ready, I had to stay in safe space. I didn't have time for a mission, so I opted to check out the Data Centre and turn in some Angel Copper Tags to see what kind of standing bonus I got. It took me from 4.62 to 4.69, not a huge jump but nice to know I have the option. I might try a higher level tag agent some time to see if it gives more bang for the buck.

I also finished training Motion Prediction V last night but instead of going for the first level of Large Blaster Specialization, I started into Thermodynamics so I could play with overheating. Once the first level was trained, I wasted no time in seeing what my little Raptor could do.

Wow. By overheating the 10mn MWD II I went from going ~5700m/s to over 8200m/s! That is quite the increase. Of course, I incurred damage on my MWD and other two mid slot modules, so I decided to get some Nanite Repair Paste and play with that as well. I need more practice with overheating to get the hang of how fast damage occurs and how hard I can push it, but it seems like a nice option for when you need that extra boost in efficiency.

Dev Blog: Serious Security

This morning in Google Reader there was a new entry in the Dev Blogs. I opened it up and read through on the changes. Pretty minor stuff: faster response times, more security penalties for higher sec systems, scaling penalties based on respective sec statuses, all mundane and reasonable changes that should really offend no one.

Except one line at the bottom.

In addition, the highly requested feature of removal of insurance in CONCORD related events will be implemented in the near future.

I swear if you listen closely you can hear heads explode all around the world. This would be f*cking awesome if really implemented. I always found it immersion breaking when people would get insurance payouts if CONCORD destroyed you; I mean, you did a criminal act and you get your insurance payment? WTF!

This change will completely nuke the suicide gank for profit crowd to my everlasting approval. Suicide ganks = OK, suicide ganks with no penalty beyond sec status != OK.

Wow, CCP is sure showing some balls lately.

Whoops

By the way, Graviton Pulse Generators are NOT Graviton Reactor Units. One is used for cloaking devices, the other for ships.

In completely and totally unrelated news, the seven Kitsunes will be delayed for a couple days.

They're Out To Get Me

Last night I had another short session so I thought I would try to capture that last complex I need for my promotion.

I logged in and got out of the dead end system with no station safely. The next system over had a minor complex beacon up so I decided to check it out. I warped in and found all 5 or 6 spawns activated but the capture point up for grabs. Looks like someone started but then left or was chased off. I sprung into action.

With all the spawns there I had to kite the edges and only get aggression for a few at a time or my shields would be overwhelmed. A few hit and runs later and I had the numbers back on my side and I went for the beacon killing the rest as I went. That was tough, I thought, but at least no more spawns to worry about as I complete the timer.

At about 5 minutes left one of the pilots from the night before showed up in local. I popped the scanner open and watched for activity. Soon a Rifter appeared and I aligned to station, debating whether I should try and fight or not. Although my Cormorant Destroyer is set up for PvE and not PvP, part of me felt I should at least try.

But then another corp mate of his arrived in local and I had a bad feeling. Sure enough a Griffin appeared on scan. I'm tempted to try and take on a combat frig with my Destroyer, but an ECM frig? No chance. As soon as the red and white starred icon appeared in the overview I hit the warp button and docked.

Part of me wants to engage and see what I can do but getting jammed by a Griffin is not a good way to die today.

I decided to take a break from the area and jump cloned back to Minmatar space where I went shopping for a new skill book for Thermodynamics. Overheating, here I come.

P.S. The guys from the last two nights are part of a corporation called Wolf Tactical Solutions. Whether they are on complex patrol or its just coincidence, they are doing a great job frustrating my plans. Hats off to you, sirs.

Holiday Monday

Its the August Civic holiday here in Canada (or just Ontario?) and I'm off from work. I'm planning to go see the new Batman movie this afternoon, we'll see if the twins behave enough to leave them behind with Grandma.

Anywho, I did get some Eve time in the past couple days. A quick outline:

- Widows on the market. Someone else is selling a Widow as well and is competing with me for the lowest regional price in Heimatar. Have to keep on my toes and keep checking those orders.

- I bought materials for 7 Kitsune builds, should be ready this week for the market along with the covert ops cloaks.

- I got three more complexes captured bringing me to standing of 2.98 with Tribal Liberation Force. Only one more to go for a promotion. I was looking for my last one in a dead end system when a bunch of wartargets showed up in tech I frigates and cruisers. I might have risked engaging the frigates for fun, but one of them was a Griffin ECM boat which equals certain death for me, and the cruisers also were too much tonnage to take on. I opted for discretion and stayed in safe spots until they left. I scanned the system again for a minor plex to run but none to be found so I safely logged.

If I'm lucky I might have a chance to get a complex tonight.

Action Report! FINALLY

After a week of no action, I finally squeezed in some Eve time last night. Of course, it was three separate sessions of about 15-30 minutes each but its more than I've seen in weeks so it was exciting for me.

Session #1

She Who Must Be Obeyed was off to the Walmart with Twin A and Twin B was asleep. I could have cleaned up from dinner, but I can do that later when the boy is awake so I can ignore him for housework as opposed to ignoring him to play games. Trust me, one is better than the other; its all in the semantics.

Anywhoo, I logged in to find my Vexor in open space which was not surprising considering what happened the night before. So I popped up the on-board scanner Hal and began searching for a complex. After a few tries I found one and it was even a Level 2, ready for my cruiser.

I warped in and set to work with the 5 Hammerhead II drones and my Dual 150mm Railgun IIs. The Vexor performed adequately. It wasn't awe-inspiring but it seemed to have no problem with the NPCs and I chewed through the spawns fast enough so that I never had more than one and a half spawns aggressed at once. After fifteen quiet minutes I had secured the location and I logged off to go clean the kitchen.

Session #2
*Gasp* More free time?! I had about 20 minutes so I logged in and quickly searched for a complex. None in this system, what about the next. I materialzed at the jump gate in the next low sec warzone system and saw about 6 or 7 complex beacons on the overview but no militia of either side in local. Perhaps an Amarr defender looking for a Minmatar complex to retake? I would know something about that. There was mostly level 1 complexes (too small to allow my cruiser in) and fortunately one level 2. I warped to it and began to work on it.

It seems that there is varying difficulty to the complexes even within the levels. While the last level 2 I did was easy, this one was much harder with lots of Tech II rats coming at me. While my tank was ok at absorbing the damage in the short term, my drones were not able to break the tank very fast on some of the rats and couldn't do it at all for others.

I was trying to reduce incoming damage by keeping a high transversal up and some distance between me and them but that meant my guns were doing anemic damage. I had to warp out for repair and it was time to log off.

Session #3
Before bed I was determined to have another go at that complex. I logged and and found my complex was untouched, but the rest of the spawns had arrived so I had a hairy and wooly time killing them while trying to avoid as much incoming fire as possible.

It took a while and I had to warp out to repair near the end one more time, but eventually I was able to tank the damage long enough from the HAC rats I couldn't easily kill to secure the comlex and get my standing increase. I'm now at 2.71 with Tribal Liberation Force, probably another 4 complexes to go to get my next promotion and (hopefully) get over 5.0 with Minmatar.

As for the Vexor, I might have to play around and see if I can up the DPS from the railguns in order to deal with those nasty Tech II rats.

About the Eve Blog Pack

In mid June Crazy Kinux created the Eve Blog Pack:

As you already know, blogging and EVE Online are two passions of mine. I read a lot of blogs - last time I checked I had 149 subscriptions in Google Reader, and that's after a spring cleaning. Under the "eve-online" tag I have 37 subscriptions. Of those, there are about 18 which I follow closely.

Ever since I came across a post on the concept of a "Blog Pack", I've been thinking about setting one up for our community of EVE bloggers. Basically, a Blog Pack is a group of bloggers that agree to help each other out by reading, subscribing, commenting, digging, stumbling, etc, each others blog and posts. The idea is to build our readership by building our community.

I've debated about applying to get my blog on the Pack list. I think it is a great idea but I wasn't sure if my blog was good enough to be included as I always felt I was talking mostly to myself here. But recently I've been actively trying to build up traffic by following my own advice and it seems to be working as more visitors are dropping by and I'm up to 24 subscribers in Google Reader (forgot to add that to the last post about July in Review... I blame Andrew). And most importantly of all, people have said I'm a decent writer. Huge boost to the ego... until you realize that people that don't like your blog are not likely to bother to post a comment saying so!

So all that is to say I'm submitting my request to get added. If I do get accepted (and I'm confident despite my waffling above) I'll have to update my template again to get it in there. Hmmmm, could be time for a professional to make me a real template?

UPDATE: I was accepted, and have added the feed to the sidebar. Also, I updated my template and banner at the same time.
WOOT!

July In Review

Everyone else is doing it, so why not me?

My Extreme Tracker widget which I've used for years to track vistors stopped working on June 26-28th, right when I changed my template. Fortunatley I noticed on July 18th and got a new tracker from StatCounter.com which reports 751 unique visits since then. Of those, 195 visits were by returning visitors (based on a browser cookie). Not sure how those compared to Extreme Tracker's counting so I'll assume it means nothing.

My most popular post was The Long Awaited Carrier due to a link from Crazy Kinux and his popular blog (thanks!).

The most popular search key words were "ninveah" and "eve can flipping" but since its only been ~13 days its not enough time to get a real statistic yet. As a side note, yes my blog comes up first when you google "ninveah" even though its an obscure biblical name spelling variation.