I logged in last night ready to throw my carrier into the jaws of death for the alliance. I looked around and what did I see? An alliance mail telling me to relax and get ready for the action of tomorrow and the weekend.
Well shoot. I'm at work tomorrow and leaving for the weekend. I guess I'll see what I can do Sunday.
So with a clear schedule I got Derranna to get the first batch of Invulnerability fields to the market and put more materials in the oven for the second batch. Then I jump cloned her up to DIZ in Etherium Reach and prepared to bring the Nomad Jump Freighter back to Empire since it was quiet and I needed it for another load in the future.
While traveling in a jump-capable ship in space you hold sovereignty over you quickly realize that the most dangerous part of the journey is not in 0.0. You have access to jump bridges, cyno arrays, POS shields, intel channels... it all combines to make it pretty darn safe. That's not to say that there isn't danger from a well organized hostile fleet intent on getting you under the fire of the POS guns, its just not as dangerous as, say, a poorly executed jump into low sec. Which is what I was facing at the end of Etherium Reach after three jumps.
I could describe the foul denizens of low sec but there are plenty of blogs that do that. *wink* Suffice to say that the dangers of a low sec jump in the defenseless freighter haunt me every time. To make it worse, I can't easily jump from Intrepid Crossing space to a low sec system adjacent to high sec, OH NO! I have jump to a near low sec system and then make another jump or series of gate jumps to get to an adjacent low sec system to contiguous high sec space.
All the while watching out for war targets. What fun.
The first jump was easy as the low sec system was populated by a few blues. I put Derranna and the Nomad into a safe spot and once Kirith's cyno beacon was done (ug, ten minutes) I flew him to the next low sec system that was adjacent to high sec. I decided to do a jump instead of scouting through gates simply because the freighter is so slow to align and its so exposed after jumping through a gate.
Once in the target system, I checked all the stations for one with a good sized docking ring and a 5 km holllow sphere for a freighter jump into. A nice Caldari one will do I said, and soon thereafter I created the cyno and jumped the freighter in.
There was lots of neutrals so I hovered my pointer over the dock button but nothing of threat came to investigate. I aligned the beast to the high sec gate and made it to warp with no issues.
So now the jump freighter is back in high sec and I can start filling it up for another run in the future. This concludes our report on "jumping with empty freghters". Tune in next week when I describe how paint dries.
Friday, May 29, 2009
The Places He's Been
Shinzaan, who is without blog (collective gasp!), asked if I could post his Eve map pictures. Without further ado, here they are:
The whole map.
And Zoomed In.
This meme has been excellent for seeing all the differences and similarities. People tend to find one or two regions and live there for years at a time; most don't even go into other Empire space. I think my map is one of the most widespread.
Its also very eye opening to see how few 0.0 regions get visited with most having been in one or two 0.0 regions a lot and a few visits to others nearby.
But the best parts of these maps are the little yellow dots indicating a roam through a lot of unfamiliar territory once like Shinzann's romp through Kor-Azor, Aridia, Querious, Delve, and Period basis. It seems everyone at least once does that.
The whole map.
And Zoomed In.
This meme has been excellent for seeing all the differences and similarities. People tend to find one or two regions and live there for years at a time; most don't even go into other Empire space. I think my map is one of the most widespread.
Its also very eye opening to see how few 0.0 regions get visited with most having been in one or two 0.0 regions a lot and a few visits to others nearby.
But the best parts of these maps are the little yellow dots indicating a roam through a lot of unfamiliar territory once like Shinzann's romp through Kor-Azor, Aridia, Querious, Delve, and Period basis. It seems everyone at least once does that.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
One More Step On The Path To New Eden Domination
** WARNING: RAMBLING POST AHEAD **
I started blogging way back in 2005 as a way to keep all my personal forum posts about Warhammer 40K in a consolidated spot. My forums were popular and it made it hard to find a particular post from a year back, so the blog made sense. An actual web log.
In other words, it was an archive of my activities and not an activity in of itself.
That concept remained as I transitioned from Warhammer 40K player to Eve player. My blog was a record of what I did in Eve and not really that important to me beyond something to record thoughts. I wrote for me and the few foolish souls that ventured to it occasionally.
Then it all changed. I'm not sure exactly when, but I started to become interested in page views, driving traffic, and generating discussion. Blogging started to become an activity in addition to the activity in game, and I started to desire to have more than just a few friends and acquaintances reading it. It really became obvious to me when the Eve Blog Pack formed thanks to Crazy Kinux's efforts and I moved to a more consistent posting schedule.
I wanted readers and I worked to get them. I started networking more, writing more useful articles as opposed to "this is what I did last night" posts, and encouraging more discussion.
And then the E-ON Magazine award nominations came out at the beginning of 2009 and I was nominated for Writer of the Year. I so wanted to win that award. Very much so. I craved recognition, I wanted to be approached in game and asked "you that guy who writes on that blog/Tribune?" I wanted fame or infamy.
I strongly suspected I was not destined to win that award; I was up against some stiff competition and I vowed to simply make sure I was in the running again next year. I continued to try and do quality articles for the Tribune, continued to build readership for this blog, posting occasionally on the Eve Forums, commenting on the exploding number of Eve blogs where I can to increase networking, and just generally worked to improve the layout of this blog and its usefulness in the community. It seems to be working and I'm pleased with progress.
But what's the next step? My Fighting Spacecraft articles at the Tribune have worked well on generating name recognition for me in game, not surprising when the Eve Tribune gets hit numbers in the tens of thousands. I considered starting an Eve podcast but I fear my lack of free time in the evenings would doom such a project from the start (although I continue to refine the idea in my head and am considering it for a project 2010). And I'm contemplating a run for Council of Stellar Management next year and I've started considering what my platform would be (keyword: "Revisit!" Take that Obama!).
This is all to say that hard work pays off and chance favours the prepared. Last night I got an email asking for an article to be written that would could expand my efforts rather nicely. I won't go into details but suffice to say the deadline combined with topic is heart-attack inducing and I will be busting balls in all my free time next week to pull it off to a level of quality I am happy with.
The upshot is that next week blogging might suffer a bit. That's all, carry on.
I started blogging way back in 2005 as a way to keep all my personal forum posts about Warhammer 40K in a consolidated spot. My forums were popular and it made it hard to find a particular post from a year back, so the blog made sense. An actual web log.
In other words, it was an archive of my activities and not an activity in of itself.
That concept remained as I transitioned from Warhammer 40K player to Eve player. My blog was a record of what I did in Eve and not really that important to me beyond something to record thoughts. I wrote for me and the few foolish souls that ventured to it occasionally.
Then it all changed. I'm not sure exactly when, but I started to become interested in page views, driving traffic, and generating discussion. Blogging started to become an activity in addition to the activity in game, and I started to desire to have more than just a few friends and acquaintances reading it. It really became obvious to me when the Eve Blog Pack formed thanks to Crazy Kinux's efforts and I moved to a more consistent posting schedule.
I wanted readers and I worked to get them. I started networking more, writing more useful articles as opposed to "this is what I did last night" posts, and encouraging more discussion.
And then the E-ON Magazine award nominations came out at the beginning of 2009 and I was nominated for Writer of the Year. I so wanted to win that award. Very much so. I craved recognition, I wanted to be approached in game and asked "you that guy who writes on that blog/Tribune?" I wanted fame or infamy.
I strongly suspected I was not destined to win that award; I was up against some stiff competition and I vowed to simply make sure I was in the running again next year. I continued to try and do quality articles for the Tribune, continued to build readership for this blog, posting occasionally on the Eve Forums, commenting on the exploding number of Eve blogs where I can to increase networking, and just generally worked to improve the layout of this blog and its usefulness in the community. It seems to be working and I'm pleased with progress.
But what's the next step? My Fighting Spacecraft articles at the Tribune have worked well on generating name recognition for me in game, not surprising when the Eve Tribune gets hit numbers in the tens of thousands. I considered starting an Eve podcast but I fear my lack of free time in the evenings would doom such a project from the start (although I continue to refine the idea in my head and am considering it for a project 2010). And I'm contemplating a run for Council of Stellar Management next year and I've started considering what my platform would be (keyword: "Revisit!" Take that Obama!).
This is all to say that hard work pays off and chance favours the prepared. Last night I got an email asking for an article to be written that would could expand my efforts rather nicely. I won't go into details but suffice to say the deadline combined with topic is heart-attack inducing and I will be busting balls in all my free time next week to pull it off to a level of quality I am happy with.
The upshot is that next week blogging might suffer a bit. That's all, carry on.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Capital Crunch
No, no, not that kind of capital. This kind of capital.
After complaining last week of being broke, I made some money back by selling the carrier fuel to the corporation and alliance mates up in Etherium Reach. That gave me about 119 million ISK in the wallet to spend.
So I decided to convert the 230 Invulnerability Field II BPC runs I had in my hanger into items to sell. Alas, I could not do them all at once since it costs about 1.5 million each run, so I had to build the parts for 50 first, sell them, build more, sell them, and in a couple iterations get them all gone and build my wallet back up to around 350 million or so. Plus I'm writing an Eve Tribune article this week (Fighting Spacecraft for Gallente to end series four) for publication next week and that will help speed things up. Ideally I'll be sitting back over half a billion by the end of June.
First batch of 50 fields comes out in 2 days. Sigh.
After complaining last week of being broke, I made some money back by selling the carrier fuel to the corporation and alliance mates up in Etherium Reach. That gave me about 119 million ISK in the wallet to spend.
So I decided to convert the 230 Invulnerability Field II BPC runs I had in my hanger into items to sell. Alas, I could not do them all at once since it costs about 1.5 million each run, so I had to build the parts for 50 first, sell them, build more, sell them, and in a couple iterations get them all gone and build my wallet back up to around 350 million or so. Plus I'm writing an Eve Tribune article this week (Fighting Spacecraft for Gallente to end series four) for publication next week and that will help speed things up. Ideally I'll be sitting back over half a billion by the end of June.
First batch of 50 fields comes out in 2 days. Sigh.
Eve Meme! The Places I've Been...
I'm starting an Eve meme and if you are an Eve player reading this you are compelled, COMPELLED I SAY, to make a post to propagate the meme.
COMPELLED!
Ok, so here it is. Take a screenshot of your in game map showing the systems you have visited and post it on your blog. There, done. That's it. Real simple. You can talk about it if you want but its not necessary.
Here is mine (click to see full sized):
Small yellow means few number of vists to big red meaning tons of visits.
Over 2.5 years in game and I've visited less than half of known space. Of course, this feature didn't start working until mid 2007 so it doesn't include my time in Omen when we were in Dekelien region, or before that when I was in No Quarter and travelling into Tribute and Venal regions. Nor does it show my time in Strife 1.0 when we went down to Itrin in Genesis region and bombed around for a week or two. And my Placid region markers would be a lot brighter if it went back to 2006.
Andrew and I were talking about the boredom of travelling far in Eve and this map confirms a fact for me that when I move to an area, I tend to stay there. Hence I can map my corporate history on the map as groupings of visits:
That line of yellow dots through Delve and Querious? That was one time when I went to help a battle for our alliance's allies and then made my way back in an interceptor. The Minmatar space is so red due to the times I spent running level four missions and then the time I spent in Factional Warfare last summer.
Remember: COMPELLED!
COMPELLED!
Ok, so here it is. Take a screenshot of your in game map showing the systems you have visited and post it on your blog. There, done. That's it. Real simple. You can talk about it if you want but its not necessary.
Here is mine (click to see full sized):
Small yellow means few number of vists to big red meaning tons of visits.
Over 2.5 years in game and I've visited less than half of known space. Of course, this feature didn't start working until mid 2007 so it doesn't include my time in Omen when we were in Dekelien region, or before that when I was in No Quarter and travelling into Tribute and Venal regions. Nor does it show my time in Strife 1.0 when we went down to Itrin in Genesis region and bombed around for a week or two. And my Placid region markers would be a lot brighter if it went back to 2006.
Andrew and I were talking about the boredom of travelling far in Eve and this map confirms a fact for me that when I move to an area, I tend to stay there. Hence I can map my corporate history on the map as groupings of visits:
That line of yellow dots through Delve and Querious? That was one time when I went to help a battle for our alliance's allies and then made my way back in an interceptor. The Minmatar space is so red due to the times I spent running level four missions and then the time I spent in Factional Warfare last summer.
Remember: COMPELLED!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Pictures
Here are the promised pictures from last weekend's adventure. As usual, click to see full sized image.
Undocking in a Raptor to make some bookmarks at home, decided to take some shots of the Minmatar outpost:
Initial rally jump point in the target system:
Attacking Station:
Accidentally warped to a dreadnought gang attacking an enemy tower and got some damage for it. Nothing I couldn't handle though.
Ah, that's better. Shield repping carrier gang.
I realized the squad I was in had no commander so I promoted myself. Go Squad 13!
More shield repping:
Peek-a-boo with the local sun:
Looks like this tower is almost done and time to head home.
Jump to a cyno array and then approaching the jump bridge.
One last pose before docking, the Ninveah is eager for more action:
Cheers!
Undocking in a Raptor to make some bookmarks at home, decided to take some shots of the Minmatar outpost:
Initial rally jump point in the target system:
Attacking Station:
Accidentally warped to a dreadnought gang attacking an enemy tower and got some damage for it. Nothing I couldn't handle though.
Ah, that's better. Shield repping carrier gang.
I realized the squad I was in had no commander so I promoted myself. Go Squad 13!
More shield repping:
Peek-a-boo with the local sun:
Looks like this tower is almost done and time to head home.
Jump to a cyno array and then approaching the jump bridge.
One last pose before docking, the Ninveah is eager for more action:
Cheers!
Planets
Welcome to the eighth installment of the EVE Blog Banter , the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here . Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month's topic comes to us from me, Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks: "What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."* * * * *
Planets.
How can you have a space game without planets? You can't. A space game has three elements that are mandatory: space, stars, and planets orbiting stars.
And yet, Eve doesn't have planets.
Oh yeah sure, it has things called planets but all they do is provide a spot in space you can warp to. They could be replaced by beacons or nebulae or Dodge Caravans and no one would notice a difference in terms of gameplay. The "planets" in Eve are noninteracting and a space game should have planets as destinations, places you go to do something like trade, exploit, conquer, explore, etc.
Currently in Eve that role of destination is filled by Stations so Planets can be ignored. They are so ignored in fact that in a game with 5000 systems and upwards of 9 planets per system we can see that the total number of planets with actual names that are not
At least moons have resources to be scanned and mined. Planets need some love too!
So how do we integrate real planets into Eve? Well I have some ideas.
1) Some planets should have populations. These planets should be named something original but that is not mandatory, but they should stand out so people can tell at a glance which planets are populated with a colony or full blown society.
2) Planets with populations should generate resources that can be purchased by pilots and shipped to their hanger in the nearest station. The distance to the nearest station determines how long it takes the goods to get there. The resources could be minerals and moon materials but be at a base price much higher than usual market values. I realize this puts a possible price cap on items so maybe it could have a fluctuating price determined by demand.
3) In 0.0 planets with populations are the sources of the crews that operate and maintain the stargates and provide civilian crews for local stations and starbases. Hence, controlling the colony means control of the system. That is to say, I am proposing a replacement for the current sovereignty mechanics which are POS based. But how does one control a planet?
Enter a new ship class: Planetary Landers. They would have a new module called Landing Craft which represent armed troopers ready to go down and fight on the planet for control of it. Your PL ship would go to the planet, activate the Landing Craft, and a new window would give progress of the invasion based on how strong the opposition is and how many alliance PL ships are participating. Unclaimed planets would give a little bit of a fight, but claimed planets by other alliances could be upgraded with garrisons and defences meaning a solitary Planetary Lander ship would not be enough to take it over. You'd need a fleet and more time giving the owning alliance time to respond.
I picture Planetary Landers as ships similar in size and defenses to Industrials, with tech 2 versions having superior defenses and more utility slots. I would also have a timer on the Landing Craft module such that if the ship warps off or is destroyed before, say, 10 minutes has passed than the planetary assault for that ship's landing craft automatically fails (telementry from the ship in orbit is essential to coordinating the descent).
Furthermore, with ownership of 0.0 planets you can do more than defence upgrades (shields and defense turrets), you could make upgrades capable of producing more minerals/moon materials (mining crews), perhaps increase the population size (biodomes) for example. Hell, with established sovereignty in a system who's to say we can't move to creating more colonies to make the system harder to gain control of by enemies? Then with creating colonies we can look at destroying colonies (
Also, there could be new anchorable items that can only be anchored in orbit of controlled planets, items like sentry guns and corporate hanger arrays like at a POS but with internal power sources and fuel supplied directly from the planet. The size of the colony determines available CPU and Powergrid. These items wouldn't be protected by a POS shield so would require decent hitpoints but could be useful for helping to protect the planet and organize fleets for defense of it.
Of course, warping to a planet might not put you in the right position to see or attack these orbital assets. Currently a point on a single grid near a planet or moon is designated as the "warp to" point of that object. I would change it so that the warp to zero of a planet or moon put you in orbit at the point closest to where you came from, so that a pilot warping to a planet at zero would be on the completely opposite side of a pilot warping to zero from other direction. That would give combat near planets a very real feel and force probes to come out to locate the exact location of the enemy fleet. It could also open up feints and sneak attacks against the defenders as they rush to meet one attack on one side of the planet while another fleet sneaks in to invade the other side.
* * * *
Doing all this would accomplish several tasks. It would make sovereignty in 0.0 less reliant on POS spam and the mind numbing boredom that can entail (as well as being a completely unintuitive mechanic), it would make planets more than just a warp point and make combat more tactical away from gates, provide more resources for production at a higher price but with less direct effort making systems more valuable, and it would allow the expansion of the game into planetary combat.
- CrazyKinux's Musing, EVE Blog Banter #8: Care for a little game of SecWars?
- The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, Wow, that new thing is so shiny!!!
- I am Keith Nielson, EVE Blog Banter #8 - Return of the Top Gun
- Once More from the Beginning, 8th EVE Blog Banter May 2009 Edition
- A merry life and a short one, EVE Blog Banter #8: In the Year of Our Awesome
- Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Planets
- Helicity Boson, Bantering the blog
- Achernar, Unique adventures
- Ecliptic Rift, OOC: EVE Blog Banter 8: Standings and secondary factions
- The New Edener, EVE Blog Banter #8
- Journey to New Eden, Eve Blog Banter #8: What new mechanic should be added to Eve?
- Life, The Universe and Everything, Blog banter 8: mentorship
- EVE Guru, EBB 8: Yarr! Prepare to be boarded!
- The Ralpha Dogs, Greed Is Good, Greed Works
- Rifter Drifter, Blog Banter 8: Strategic Gunnery
- A Mule in EVE, Expanding EVE
- Letrange's EvE Blog, 8th Blog Banter
- Roc's Ramblings, Blog Banter #8
- The Nude Nerd, Blog Banter #8
- Scop's Log, Blog Banter #8: "We're caught in a tractor beam! It's pulling us in!"
- Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #8: Charisma Tanking
- Industrialist with Teeth, EVE Blog Banter #8: It’s Like Tetris for OCD People
- Diary of a Pod Pilot, EVE blog banter #8: Killing in the name of
- Talk Unfraid, Physical Communications
- More to come...
Monday, May 25, 2009
Corporate Histroy As Told By Forum Sigs
Back in Sept of 2007 I posted my list of signatures up to that point, so I thought a repost with signatures since then was called for. I do love forum signatures.
* * * * *
Then I left M3 and went back to Strife Mercenaries (aka Strife 2.0) and I had a signature professionally done. This is my all time favourite and I will probably go back to using it again someday when it evokes less bitter memories.
When I went back to M3 and their Blackwater Alliance, I tried my hand at making my own signature with the new Chimera as a focus and my better graphic skills. I like it because it actually looks half decent and not as crappy as some of my earlier attempts. I actually managed to properly integrate the Blackwater fishy.
But there is something to be said for a truly professional job. When M3 decided to join Intrepid Crossing I was tempted to commission a signature highlighting that fact but decided to be more selfish this time and have a corp/alliance agnostic signature created for me by Godless Wanderer of Articulated Sky.
I love the use of transparency in that one. From a simple little Merlin to might Chimera; from IPORC to M3.
* * * * *
Being a forum whore that I am, forum signatures are always on my mind. They define a poster visually and can create an instant link for a viewer between content and quality. They recognize a post immediately by the signature and will stop to read if they liked what you said before. As such, almost as soon as I started Eve and visiting various forums, I started collecting signatures of the corps I was engaged with at the time. So here is my signature history.Of course, that stint in Coreli Corp didn't last as the corp fractured and I said "the hell with this" and took off for high sec for a while. Then I join M3 corp at the end of 2007 for a couple months and modified my signature to accomodate:
1) Interstellar Privateers of Res Communis. Or IPORC as they liked to call themselves. I thought the ticker was a tad crude so I shortened it to IPRC as the game stored it. Ah my days of flying a Merlin.
2) After a month or so, I graduated up to destroyers and cruisers as you can tell by this sig. One version with the destroyer was for IPORC forums, the other for Eve Online forums which had more stringent requirements.
3) Strife Mercenaries was a merc / empire war corp made up of a lot of pilots from IPORC. I graduated to using railguns in a battleship and became quite proud of this monster until it died in a mission after warp scrambling NPCs were introduced. Still the favourite of my own created sigs.
4) Desiring access to 0.0, Strife merged into No Quarter and its Vae Victus alliance (my first!) and I went back to a Caracal in the sig. Then a corp member with Leet Skilz in photoshop made up the second sig there and although I left No Quarter for various reasons soon after, I still love that sig.
5) Needing to rebuild my assets after losing my Raven weeks after losing the Rokh, I worked for myself for a while and put together this sad signature. I eventually improved it by fixing the black areas that show my lack of abilities and it sufficed for a while.
6) I didn't make a sig for the short time I was with Omen in Storm Armada, but after we joined the Corelum Syndicate I tried to incorporate the alliance logo into the sig. Didn't work to my satisfaction.
7) After a while I wanted something new and decided my new and improved mission running Rokh that I perfected while in Kodachi Enterprises deserved a new sig. Hence this one. My second favourite and perhaps more classy. but the dithering from the conversion to JPG annoys me.
And that's it! Now I have to see about getting one now that I'm part of Coreli corp.
Then I left M3 and went back to Strife Mercenaries (aka Strife 2.0) and I had a signature professionally done. This is my all time favourite and I will probably go back to using it again someday when it evokes less bitter memories.
When I went back to M3 and their Blackwater Alliance, I tried my hand at making my own signature with the new Chimera as a focus and my better graphic skills. I like it because it actually looks half decent and not as crappy as some of my earlier attempts. I actually managed to properly integrate the Blackwater fishy.
But there is something to be said for a truly professional job. When M3 decided to join Intrepid Crossing I was tempted to commission a signature highlighting that fact but decided to be more selfish this time and have a corp/alliance agnostic signature created for me by Godless Wanderer of Articulated Sky.
I love the use of transparency in that one. From a simple little Merlin to might Chimera; from IPORC to M3.
Going For Dreadnought
Although I'm far from being able to buy a Dreadnought capital ship, my corp has an extra Phoenix looking for a pilot and I've promised my Director that I would train for it. So in order to properly pilot the Phoenix with Citadel torpedoes and Siege mode I need to train the following skills:
Caldari Dreadnought I - IV
Capital Hybrid Turret I - IV
Torpedoes IV - V
Citadel Torpedoes I - IV
Advanced Weapon Upgrades V
Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration I - IV
Skill cost of about 155 million which is not a lot (and I'm not even certain I need the Captial Hybrids skill... do Phoenix pilots put a hybrid weapon on that turret hardpoint ever?) and it will take about 80 days (~73 if no Cap Hybrid) of which over 32 days is for the Siege mode. That is to say, I could be in the Phoenix firing Citadel torpedoes in just over 40 days. Compared to the year of training for the Chimera, that's noise.
So I'll finish the Command ship training (~24 days now) and then get on the dreadnought bandwagon.
Caldari Dreadnought I - IV
Capital Hybrid Turret I - IV
Torpedoes IV - V
Citadel Torpedoes I - IV
Advanced Weapon Upgrades V
Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration I - IV
Skill cost of about 155 million which is not a lot (and I'm not even certain I need the Captial Hybrids skill... do Phoenix pilots put a hybrid weapon on that turret hardpoint ever?) and it will take about 80 days (~73 if no Cap Hybrid) of which over 32 days is for the Siege mode. That is to say, I could be in the Phoenix firing Citadel torpedoes in just over 40 days. Compared to the year of training for the Chimera, that's noise.
So I'll finish the Command ship training (~24 days now) and then get on the dreadnought bandwagon.
Ninveah Heads Into Action
Well, sort of.
I've owned my carrier for a long time, at least a year, and had it trained to a good point for at least 6 months. But I've never actually used it in an actual operation of any sort. My jump freighter has seen more action.
The problem is that a lone carrier is not all that great at small gang actions against hostiles and its not the best tool for running missions. Our life in the Sukanan constellation was based more around battleships, battlecruisers, HACs... anything really that could handle sentry gun fire and move at a good clip around the systems.
So with the move into Intrepid Crossing alliance I looked forward to the chance to actually field the carrier and this past Friday night was queued up with enough game time to actually attempt it. I logged in and I queried about any capital operations going on that required my carrier.
"We need dreads!"
"MOAR Dreads!"
"Can you fly a dreadnought?"
Hmmmm... ok. I guess the need for dreadnoughts it higher than carriers. It makes sense when you are involved in a POS territorial war: the ability to take down enemy towers is more highly valued than the slow process of repairing one's own. But I cannot fly a dreadnought yet (that's this summer's project) so I let them know I was carrier only and got assigned to the POS repair team.
For a veteran pilot of 0.0 wars such a task might seem onerous but for me it was perfect. A chance to use my carrier in a safe fleet action (it was out of the enemy's typical time zone) and get used to being in a large vent channel of 20-30 pilots with several groups doing different things. I also got to see how to assign fighters, try out my Capital Shield Transfer array, and listen in on Dreadnought operations as they attacked towers and station services.
I spent two hours doing my part to help the war effort and it went by fairly fast depsite the slow process of repairing large POS tower shields. I took a lot of pictures but forgot them at home this morning. Tomorrow I promise.
So the Ninveah has seen action, albeit slow action. Hopefully this is only the first step towards the Chimera carrier using its weapons in the heat of battle.
I've owned my carrier for a long time, at least a year, and had it trained to a good point for at least 6 months. But I've never actually used it in an actual operation of any sort. My jump freighter has seen more action.
The problem is that a lone carrier is not all that great at small gang actions against hostiles and its not the best tool for running missions. Our life in the Sukanan constellation was based more around battleships, battlecruisers, HACs... anything really that could handle sentry gun fire and move at a good clip around the systems.
So with the move into Intrepid Crossing alliance I looked forward to the chance to actually field the carrier and this past Friday night was queued up with enough game time to actually attempt it. I logged in and I queried about any capital operations going on that required my carrier.
"We need dreads!"
"MOAR Dreads!"
"Can you fly a dreadnought?"
Hmmmm... ok. I guess the need for dreadnoughts it higher than carriers. It makes sense when you are involved in a POS territorial war: the ability to take down enemy towers is more highly valued than the slow process of repairing one's own. But I cannot fly a dreadnought yet (that's this summer's project) so I let them know I was carrier only and got assigned to the POS repair team.
For a veteran pilot of 0.0 wars such a task might seem onerous but for me it was perfect. A chance to use my carrier in a safe fleet action (it was out of the enemy's typical time zone) and get used to being in a large vent channel of 20-30 pilots with several groups doing different things. I also got to see how to assign fighters, try out my Capital Shield Transfer array, and listen in on Dreadnought operations as they attacked towers and station services.
I spent two hours doing my part to help the war effort and it went by fairly fast depsite the slow process of repairing large POS tower shields. I took a lot of pictures but forgot them at home this morning. Tomorrow I promise.
So the Ninveah has seen action, albeit slow action. Hopefully this is only the first step towards the Chimera carrier using its weapons in the heat of battle.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Big Night Tonight
For the first time in a few weeks, I've got a good sized chunk of free time lined up. The Mother In law is coming up to watch the twins for the weekend while my wife and I go off and celebrate our 12th anniversary, but tonight its free time for me. At least two hours, maybe three. *rubs hands in glee*
In preparation of this momentous occasion, I logged in this morning for a bit before heading off to work to make sure my overview was up to snuff. Recent changes to the overview required me to alter some precedence orders so I didn't end up nailing a fleet mate or friendly who happened to have a bad standing.
It got me to thinking that the overview is such an important part of the game yet so poorly understood by the vast majority of the playerbase that I should write a 'Masterclass' article about it sometime. However, I count myself in the overview-noob category so I would have to do some serious research before I tackle it.
What's on tap for tonight? Well, it all depends on what is going on with the alliance and its current wars against Red Alliance. Expect reports with screenshots Monday.
In preparation of this momentous occasion, I logged in this morning for a bit before heading off to work to make sure my overview was up to snuff. Recent changes to the overview required me to alter some precedence orders so I didn't end up nailing a fleet mate or friendly who happened to have a bad standing.
It got me to thinking that the overview is such an important part of the game yet so poorly understood by the vast majority of the playerbase that I should write a 'Masterclass' article about it sometime. However, I count myself in the overview-noob category so I would have to do some serious research before I tackle it.
What's on tap for tonight? Well, it all depends on what is going on with the alliance and its current wars against Red Alliance. Expect reports with screenshots Monday.
Taking The Devs To Task
My latest Eve Tribune article, "Stealth Nerf / Un-nerf" was written last week before the patches had gone through so its a tad out of date, but it still chronicles the debacle that this last patch was in regards to the cloaking screwup.
And I got paid! I <3 Eve Tribune!
And I got paid! I <3 Eve Tribune!
Eve First Impressions
Andrew over at Of Teeth and Claws has been trying out Eve Online so he can understand what all the fuss is about. Its a good accurate review of his issues in the New Player Experience and his thoughts about Eve in general.
I hope he gets a chance for some good PvP before he stops playing so he can at least experience that part of the game. Maybe I'll go prod him towards Eve University again, they often have PvP classes.
I hope he gets a chance for some good PvP before he stops playing so he can at least experience that part of the game. Maybe I'll go prod him towards Eve University again, they often have PvP classes.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Ethics Of Can Flipping
I've seen and heard a couple people in the last few days give disparaging remarks about can flippers, along the lines of "those griefing losers who can't do anything better but try and get ganks on miners in high sec". For example:
Its a form of hunting. Just like hunters who get in their camouflaged blinds with high powered rifles are hunting relatively defenseless deer whose only protection is paranoia and speed, a can flipper patrols the belts of high sec looking for the "deer" who are not paranoid and fast enough.
Will the miner bite and fire or sick his drones on me? Will he warp out and come back to fight? Does he have buddies in his corp nearby, awaiting cloaked in a Stealth Bomber? Its a game of patience and daring and sometimes you are rewarded with simply nothing but some ore that you nick from a can; other times you can get into a battle with two or three accomplished combat pilots. You roll the dice and hope for sevens instead of snake eyes.
The sad part is that there are so many ways that a miner can avoid can flippers.
- Anchored cans, while smaller, are password secured.
- Mine with a friend in a hauler... or an Orca.
- Mine in a quiet out of the way system.
And most of all if someone does steal your ore from a jet can, ignore them! Let them have a bit of ore but don't give them the pleasure of a fight and/or kill. Or setup a trap with corp mates.
But whatever you do, don't write them off as incapable losers. That simply says more about your inabilities than theirs.
So in my home system we have a corp of griefers/can flippers who are fairly active with it. Ion Heavy has lost at least one ship to an over eager pilot taking the bait. This corp (The Unit) seems to enjoy can flipping and view it as a valid profession within EVE. This is a debatable topic, but I personally find it to be a lame cop out that shows you don’t have the ability to achieve anything else.Well, I've done a little can flipping back in the day and I've flown with people who did it a lot more than I did. While I don't think it is the most honourable of activities, I think you are very closed minded if you pass the people off who do it so quickly.
Its a form of hunting. Just like hunters who get in their camouflaged blinds with high powered rifles are hunting relatively defenseless deer whose only protection is paranoia and speed, a can flipper patrols the belts of high sec looking for the "deer" who are not paranoid and fast enough.
Will the miner bite and fire or sick his drones on me? Will he warp out and come back to fight? Does he have buddies in his corp nearby, awaiting cloaked in a Stealth Bomber? Its a game of patience and daring and sometimes you are rewarded with simply nothing but some ore that you nick from a can; other times you can get into a battle with two or three accomplished combat pilots. You roll the dice and hope for sevens instead of snake eyes.
The sad part is that there are so many ways that a miner can avoid can flippers.
- Anchored cans, while smaller, are password secured.
- Mine with a friend in a hauler... or an Orca.
- Mine in a quiet out of the way system.
And most of all if someone does steal your ore from a jet can, ignore them! Let them have a bit of ore but don't give them the pleasure of a fight and/or kill. Or setup a trap with corp mates.
But whatever you do, don't write them off as incapable losers. That simply says more about your inabilities than theirs.
Broke!
I'm broke. My combined wallet amounts to 15 million ISK or thereabouts.
My industry activities have been silent as I prepped Derranna for the sojourn into 0.0 and the Eve Tribune did not get released yet this week meaning my expected payment from that direction did not materialize. Not to mention I invested about 100 million in isotopes and liquid ozone for logistic operations in 0.0 that I hope to recover from the alliance / corp shortly.
Still, I need to get the offline money making going again. Once Derranna is settled in 0.o she will clone jump back to Empire and start working on those 230 Invulnerability fields I have BPCs for, and perhaps some more invention attempts. Going to need lots of ISK for my next set of skillbooks.
My industry activities have been silent as I prepped Derranna for the sojourn into 0.0 and the Eve Tribune did not get released yet this week meaning my expected payment from that direction did not materialize. Not to mention I invested about 100 million in isotopes and liquid ozone for logistic operations in 0.0 that I hope to recover from the alliance / corp shortly.
Still, I need to get the offline money making going again. Once Derranna is settled in 0.o she will clone jump back to Empire and start working on those 230 Invulnerability fields I have BPCs for, and perhaps some more invention attempts. Going to need lots of ISK for my next set of skillbooks.
Adventures In Jumping
I have a love/hate relationship with the Nomad Jump Freighter.
I love its massive cargo hold at 324,000 m3. I love its ability to make jumps to cyno beacons which makes low sec and 0.0 logistics a breeze in comparison to carriers or regular hauling.
I hate the absolute feeling of terror I get going into low sec or 0.0 with the damn thing. Its so expensive and vulnerable that I dread the thought of coming out into a jump and finding reds warping in on me. I think I would die from a heart attack. And god forbid the day I ever lose the thing... 4 billion ISK flushed away and that's not to mention the value of the stuff it was carrying!
But I believe that if you are too afraid to use a ship for fear of its destruction you might as well sell it and get something cheaper. So I decided I would use the Behemoth to accomplish three things at once: get Derranna set up into 0.0 with some ships, get some more ships for Kirith to use, and get some stuff for the corporation to use up like starbase and capital ship fuel.
I spent the last few days loading the freighter up and getting it into the jump off high sec system. I love the fact the Nomad can start in a high sec system as it relieves some pressure of that first jump. I couldn't get right to 0.0 and our cyno array / jump bridge networks from high sec as the drone regions are a bit distant from Empire and the Jump Freighter range is not as good as other capital ships, so I made a pit stop in a quiet low sec system and docked to recharge the capacitor.
Once ready, I undocked in the quiet system and locked on to the nearest jump cyno beacon at a friendly POS. No problems, I was back in 0.0 with the Nomad. However I miscalculated and saw there was not the jump bridge that I expected. I forgot that when I came this way in the carrier I needed to make a second jump to another 0.0 system and there I could pick up the jump bridge to base.
HOWEVER, the range of the Jump Freighter is lower and it could not make it to the jump bridge system in one jump. So I quickly checked the map and found a middle point cyno array, jumped to it, recharged, and then jumped to the system with the jump bridge. A quick password change and I was in our home system.
Whew! No close calls this time. I probably won't head back until I a load of salvage or something.
Next up: time to get fighting in the war.
I love its massive cargo hold at 324,000 m3. I love its ability to make jumps to cyno beacons which makes low sec and 0.0 logistics a breeze in comparison to carriers or regular hauling.
I hate the absolute feeling of terror I get going into low sec or 0.0 with the damn thing. Its so expensive and vulnerable that I dread the thought of coming out into a jump and finding reds warping in on me. I think I would die from a heart attack. And god forbid the day I ever lose the thing... 4 billion ISK flushed away and that's not to mention the value of the stuff it was carrying!
But I believe that if you are too afraid to use a ship for fear of its destruction you might as well sell it and get something cheaper. So I decided I would use the Behemoth to accomplish three things at once: get Derranna set up into 0.0 with some ships, get some more ships for Kirith to use, and get some stuff for the corporation to use up like starbase and capital ship fuel.
I spent the last few days loading the freighter up and getting it into the jump off high sec system. I love the fact the Nomad can start in a high sec system as it relieves some pressure of that first jump. I couldn't get right to 0.0 and our cyno array / jump bridge networks from high sec as the drone regions are a bit distant from Empire and the Jump Freighter range is not as good as other capital ships, so I made a pit stop in a quiet low sec system and docked to recharge the capacitor.
Once ready, I undocked in the quiet system and locked on to the nearest jump cyno beacon at a friendly POS. No problems, I was back in 0.0 with the Nomad. However I miscalculated and saw there was not the jump bridge that I expected. I forgot that when I came this way in the carrier I needed to make a second jump to another 0.0 system and there I could pick up the jump bridge to base.
HOWEVER, the range of the Jump Freighter is lower and it could not make it to the jump bridge system in one jump. So I quickly checked the map and found a middle point cyno array, jumped to it, recharged, and then jumped to the system with the jump bridge. A quick password change and I was in our home system.
Whew! No close calls this time. I probably won't head back until I a load of salvage or something.
Next up: time to get fighting in the war.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Death to Smoochy!
I loaded up Derranna's Jump Freighter last night with stuff I thought she would need out in 0.0: Prowler and Cheetah and respective mods. She's mostly preparing for when the alliance gets out of full war footing and back to regular quieter weeks.
The idea is that Derranna will assist Kirith with ratting / exploration by salvaging and looting wrecks, finding complexes, and providing scouting duties. Of course, Kirith does not have a good battleship in 0.0 for NPC work but that will come in due course. War is first and foremost; profit secondary.
So with the Freighter partially loaded I scouted Derranna to the jump off point and let the corp know she's ready for stuff to go to 0.0. I'll give them 24 hours or so and then hit the button.
The idea is that Derranna will assist Kirith with ratting / exploration by salvaging and looting wrecks, finding complexes, and providing scouting duties. Of course, Kirith does not have a good battleship in 0.0 for NPC work but that will come in due course. War is first and foremost; profit secondary.
So with the Freighter partially loaded I scouted Derranna to the jump off point and let the corp know she's ready for stuff to go to 0.0. I'll give them 24 hours or so and then hit the button.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Taking For Granted
As Andrew plunges into the Eve New New Player Experience in an effort to, I assume, experience the game so he can eviscerate from a position of authority as opposed to the position of outside drive bys with an AK47 and grenade launcher, I am struck by how much I take for granted as an Eve veteran.
Even the simple act of going four jumps, a quick and easy process done in my sleep, can be difficult for one that does not know how to setup the overview to show stargates, or operate the map to plan a route, etc but instead is told my the tutorial to set destination and then click on the autopilot.
Let me repeat that: the tutorial has him travelling around high sec with the autopilot. HOLY BATSHIT! No wonder so many new players quit in tears of boredom! Having to sit while the retarded AI ferries you to the gate a few times would drive me mental when I know I can do it manually and save minutes.
Then there is the questions of things like "where does the ammo go into my gun" and "can I see all my stuff regardless of the station it is in" and "why did it give me a skillbook to a skill I already have" and I can only hem and haw. Well, I can answer some questions obviously (like the station question: Assests Button for the win!) but others are two New Player Experiences beyond my experience.
He has also commented that combat feels really boring right now: orbit, activate weapon, prepare to flee if incoming damage is too much, and wait for red cross to blow up (which, when your using rookie equipment, takes a while despite the low level). All I could do is nod and say "yeah, early on that's about it." Later on missions get a little hairyer with more and tougher NPCs, and as you get into more powerful ships your damage dealing gets better, and tanking gets more involved, and managing transversal and ranges requires more thought, not to mention drones, but it will never be the combination of macros in particular orders and jamming on keys that is the combat in WoW (from what I hear).
However, that slower pace of combat in single player PvE situations belies the complexity of multiplayer combat where more than tanking and damage dealing is involved. The actions of the enemy and the ranges he fights at become crucial information instead of a trivia fact; electronic warfare of all the types come into play; battlefield intelligence/awareness and positional superiority; cooperation between your fleet members and disrupting the efforts to cooperate of your enemies; etc. PvE and PvP in Eve are just too different that to judge Eve based on missions/ratting alone is only half the story. The devs took a step with smarter Sleeper NPCs to try and improve that situation but regular missions still have the one dimensional combat NPCs... for now.
Despite my caveats / defenses in the previous paragraph, I am eager to hear what Andrew thinks of real missions as he progresses as I have nothing to solidly compare Eve to beyond time playing some PC games back in the day. Eve is my first MMO and I have no time for a second so I live vicariously through him and others to see what Eve looks like from the outside.
P.S. He picked Minmatar race so at least he won't contend with the mind dead boredom of Caldari missile ships running missions. :)
Even the simple act of going four jumps, a quick and easy process done in my sleep, can be difficult for one that does not know how to setup the overview to show stargates, or operate the map to plan a route, etc but instead is told my the tutorial to set destination and then click on the autopilot.
Let me repeat that: the tutorial has him travelling around high sec with the autopilot. HOLY BATSHIT! No wonder so many new players quit in tears of boredom! Having to sit while the retarded AI ferries you to the gate a few times would drive me mental when I know I can do it manually and save minutes.
Then there is the questions of things like "where does the ammo go into my gun" and "can I see all my stuff regardless of the station it is in" and "why did it give me a skillbook to a skill I already have" and I can only hem and haw. Well, I can answer some questions obviously (like the station question: Assests Button for the win!) but others are two New Player Experiences beyond my experience.
He has also commented that combat feels really boring right now: orbit, activate weapon, prepare to flee if incoming damage is too much, and wait for red cross to blow up (which, when your using rookie equipment, takes a while despite the low level). All I could do is nod and say "yeah, early on that's about it." Later on missions get a little hairyer with more and tougher NPCs, and as you get into more powerful ships your damage dealing gets better, and tanking gets more involved, and managing transversal and ranges requires more thought, not to mention drones, but it will never be the combination of macros in particular orders and jamming on keys that is the combat in WoW (from what I hear).
However, that slower pace of combat in single player PvE situations belies the complexity of multiplayer combat where more than tanking and damage dealing is involved. The actions of the enemy and the ranges he fights at become crucial information instead of a trivia fact; electronic warfare of all the types come into play; battlefield intelligence/awareness and positional superiority; cooperation between your fleet members and disrupting the efforts to cooperate of your enemies; etc. PvE and PvP in Eve are just too different that to judge Eve based on missions/ratting alone is only half the story. The devs took a step with smarter Sleeper NPCs to try and improve that situation but regular missions still have the one dimensional combat NPCs... for now.
Despite my caveats / defenses in the previous paragraph, I am eager to hear what Andrew thinks of real missions as he progresses as I have nothing to solidly compare Eve to beyond time playing some PC games back in the day. Eve is my first MMO and I have no time for a second so I live vicariously through him and others to see what Eve looks like from the outside.
P.S. He picked Minmatar race so at least he won't contend with the mind dead boredom of Caldari missile ships running missions. :)
Setting Up
After getting up to the station in Etherium Reach, the holiday weekend (Victoria Day Weekend in Canada) was upon me and I found my time for games severely depleted as I spent some time with the family and doing a lot of home chores that needed to be done. So Monday night (which felt like Sunday night to me) I finally had time to sit down and fire up the client.
I'm still getting used to being in a big alliance again, figuring out all the modes of communication and making sure I knew all the right channels. I've never been in an alliance big enough for its own capital pilots channel, that in of itself is something intimidating to get used to. So instead of throwing myself into the operation that was forming for a deep roam somewhere down south in unfriendly territory, I opted for the more prudent choice of getting familiar with my local system and making a ton of bookmarks for when bad guys come calling, like bookmarks to:
- the jump bridges
- 150 km off station off the plane to avoid bubbles
- 150 km off each gate off the plane to avoid bubbles
- undock warp to point from station
- and a plain old safe spot.
While I was doing that a corp mate wanted to bring some stuff in a Blockade runner from high sec to 0.0 so I jumped into Derranna and provided a scout for him in her Cheetah covert ops, making sure there was no bubbles. It was all clear but once again I was frustrated by having to check to see if a neutral in system was friendly or not the hard way. So once my friend was safe I moved to the nearest m3 corp office and applied to get Derranna into the corporation. She may not be able to run around high sec safely anymore but at least I can now set her up to go into 0.0 with some equipment and make my life more involved out there.
I'm still getting used to being in a big alliance again, figuring out all the modes of communication and making sure I knew all the right channels. I've never been in an alliance big enough for its own capital pilots channel, that in of itself is something intimidating to get used to. So instead of throwing myself into the operation that was forming for a deep roam somewhere down south in unfriendly territory, I opted for the more prudent choice of getting familiar with my local system and making a ton of bookmarks for when bad guys come calling, like bookmarks to:
- the jump bridges
- 150 km off station off the plane to avoid bubbles
- 150 km off each gate off the plane to avoid bubbles
- undock warp to point from station
- and a plain old safe spot.
While I was doing that a corp mate wanted to bring some stuff in a Blockade runner from high sec to 0.0 so I jumped into Derranna and provided a scout for him in her Cheetah covert ops, making sure there was no bubbles. It was all clear but once again I was frustrated by having to check to see if a neutral in system was friendly or not the hard way. So once my friend was safe I moved to the nearest m3 corp office and applied to get Derranna into the corporation. She may not be able to run around high sec safely anymore but at least I can now set her up to go into 0.0 with some equipment and make my life more involved out there.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Second Place!
Ok, out of three entries but still...
My fiction from last Friday earned me some isk and an invite to Gamescribe.
My fiction from last Friday earned me some isk and an invite to Gamescribe.
New Signature
Godlesswanderer from Articulated Sky once again did me some work:
Boy's got talent.
Coming to a forum near you soon. :)
Boy's got talent.
Coming to a forum near you soon. :)
Friday, May 15, 2009
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way”
This was written as a submission to Godlesswanderer's contest. Enjoy!
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Incoming transmission..." the ship's AI purred in Derranna's brain through the pod's neural uplink.
She shifted her attention from the controls of the massive frieghter as it glided into the warp tunnel and mentally acknowledged the new message. In her mind's ear a voice started without preamble: "We've got a problem."
"What is it now?"
"This system is full of capsuleers of ... questionable background," the voice of Kirith said.
In her pod fluids Derranna's face scowled to reflect her annoyance. "Its your job to find the right spot to do this, so get to it. Remember, its your cargo but its MY ship. I lose this one and we'll have issues."
Kirith gave a short laugh and disconnected. She turned her attention back to the massive ship, checking hull integrity, warp core stability, system information networks, and a hundred other things that the pod's connections fed directly to her cortex. She could see the warp tunnel with her eyes, smell the interstellar dust with her nose, feel the radiation of the star on her skin yet still physically ensconced in her silent world of the pod. Such was the wonders of the technology.
As the Nomad Jump Freighter tumbled out of the warp tunnel and back into realspace, Derranna checked the sensor for any other ships that could be a threat to her unarmed vessel. Despite its massive size and solid defenses, it lacked any capability to fight back or escape so even in the space protected by CONCORD she was always vigilant for possible trouble.
This time she was alone, only her ship and the planet below that she pushed the Nomad into orbit above. She sent warmed up the capacitors of the jump drive (which felt like flexing her legs thanks to the neural mapping) and activated automated messages to the crew to prepare for the transistion.
"Incoming transmission..."
"Ok, D, I'm in position. You ready?"
"Give the word."
"Cyno up. Jump now."
She flicked channels and gave the goahead to AI which began the count down for the crew. "Jumping in 3.... 2..... 1..... JUMP!"
Derranna hated jumping without stargates. She (her ship) became swathed in a bright white light and a thunderous shwooshing noice and it felt like her insides were turned inside out. After the jump was completed her ship was forced to sit there blind and deaf while she blinked her eyelids (recalibrated sensors) and shook herself (restarted real space engines).
As her vision cleared she saw the station loom above her, the cynosaural beacon being generated by Kirith's small Caldari frigate off her starboard bow... and warp trails wisping off a Dominix battleship ten kilometers away.
"SHIT!"
Her head still woozy from the jump, she punched up the thrusters and started to nudge the slow-turning Nomad towards the station's structure while simultaneously contacting the Docking Manager and activiating the red alert for her crew. The shields were powered up to maximum and internal bulkheads to nonvital areas slammed into position in case of decompression.
"Unidentified frieghter, this is VSIG-K Intaki Syndicate Bureau control tower. Please transmit your identification codes and docking access authorization."
"Control, this is the freighter Behemoth out of Pelille. We are transmitting now and there is a big tip in it for you if we can dock sooner rather than later!"
The Dominix had closed to 8 kilometers and was accelerating, indicators flashing as its targeting arrays quickly zeroed in on the Nomad's vulnerable propulsion systems and sensors.
"Come on, come on," Derranna pleaded with the unseen men or women in the station's docking control room.
"LOCKED" flashed before her eyes as the readoout listed the Dominix at just 5 kilometers, its weapons warming up and five Ogre heavy combat drones erupting from it bay.
"Behemoth, your authorization has been accepted. Please disengage your engines and sit back and enjoy the ride in to your berth. And welcome to VSIG-K!"
If Derranna had not been immersed in the pod fluids, she would have given a deep sigh. She felt the powerful shields of the station grow to encompass her and the massive tractor beams reach out to guide her into the gaping maw. She looked back at the beligeriant battleship only 1.5 kilometers away, wondering if it would try to shoot her anyways and feeling a shiver despite the station's powerful defenses.
But the Dominix pilot realized his quarry was out of reach and turned his wrath on the tiny and helpless Condor. Heavy blasters licked out and tore the ship in two with one volley. She wondered if Kirith died in the blast before seeing his pod accelerate out of the flaming wreckage and warp off.
A new message arrived in her inbox. She opened it and it read "Meet you inside later. K."
* * * * *
Derranna watched her crew unloading the crates of heavy ammunition and giving them to station personelle from a lounge overlooking the hanger deck. She had a warm drink of Gallentean spiced wine in her hand to sooth her frayed nerves. Losing any ship was bad enough, but the small fortune she invested into the jump freighter meant its loss would be almost unrecoverable. "We," she corrected herself with some bitterness, "we invested."
The door to the corridor opened in Kirith strode nonchalantly in with a datapad in his hand. Her fury rose and she turned on him, putting her glass on the table so she would have two hands free to poke or punch him as she deemed necessary.
"So much for a 'quick jump into Syndicate'!" she snarled. "'Perfectly safe,' you said. 'Quietest part of null sec,' you said! HA! I just about lost MY SHIP out there! What the hell were you thinking lighting a cyno with unknowns in the system? If you think you can just take chances with my ship and crew YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"
He said nothing. He merely smirked and handed the datapad to her. She snatched it from his outstretched hand. "What's this?" she asked tightly. She quickly read it and saw it was a transfer to her account for twice what was originally agreed.
"This doesn't make everything better."
"But I'm sure it doesn't hurt," he replied. He turned to leave. "Have our ship and crew ready to jump back to Pelille in 48 hours."
She considered throwing the datapad at his retreating back (or more accurately the back of his head) but before she could make up her mind the door was closed and she was alone with her wine again.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Incoming transmission..." the ship's AI purred in Derranna's brain through the pod's neural uplink.
She shifted her attention from the controls of the massive frieghter as it glided into the warp tunnel and mentally acknowledged the new message. In her mind's ear a voice started without preamble: "We've got a problem."
"What is it now?"
"This system is full of capsuleers of ... questionable background," the voice of Kirith said.
In her pod fluids Derranna's face scowled to reflect her annoyance. "Its your job to find the right spot to do this, so get to it. Remember, its your cargo but its MY ship. I lose this one and we'll have issues."
Kirith gave a short laugh and disconnected. She turned her attention back to the massive ship, checking hull integrity, warp core stability, system information networks, and a hundred other things that the pod's connections fed directly to her cortex. She could see the warp tunnel with her eyes, smell the interstellar dust with her nose, feel the radiation of the star on her skin yet still physically ensconced in her silent world of the pod. Such was the wonders of the technology.
As the Nomad Jump Freighter tumbled out of the warp tunnel and back into realspace, Derranna checked the sensor for any other ships that could be a threat to her unarmed vessel. Despite its massive size and solid defenses, it lacked any capability to fight back or escape so even in the space protected by CONCORD she was always vigilant for possible trouble.
This time she was alone, only her ship and the planet below that she pushed the Nomad into orbit above. She sent warmed up the capacitors of the jump drive (which felt like flexing her legs thanks to the neural mapping) and activated automated messages to the crew to prepare for the transistion.
"Incoming transmission..."
"Ok, D, I'm in position. You ready?"
"Give the word."
"Cyno up. Jump now."
She flicked channels and gave the goahead to AI which began the count down for the crew. "Jumping in 3.... 2..... 1..... JUMP!"
Derranna hated jumping without stargates. She (her ship) became swathed in a bright white light and a thunderous shwooshing noice and it felt like her insides were turned inside out. After the jump was completed her ship was forced to sit there blind and deaf while she blinked her eyelids (recalibrated sensors) and shook herself (restarted real space engines).
As her vision cleared she saw the station loom above her, the cynosaural beacon being generated by Kirith's small Caldari frigate off her starboard bow... and warp trails wisping off a Dominix battleship ten kilometers away.
"SHIT!"
Her head still woozy from the jump, she punched up the thrusters and started to nudge the slow-turning Nomad towards the station's structure while simultaneously contacting the Docking Manager and activiating the red alert for her crew. The shields were powered up to maximum and internal bulkheads to nonvital areas slammed into position in case of decompression.
"Unidentified frieghter, this is VSIG-K Intaki Syndicate Bureau control tower. Please transmit your identification codes and docking access authorization."
"Control, this is the freighter Behemoth out of Pelille. We are transmitting now and there is a big tip in it for you if we can dock sooner rather than later!"
The Dominix had closed to 8 kilometers and was accelerating, indicators flashing as its targeting arrays quickly zeroed in on the Nomad's vulnerable propulsion systems and sensors.
"Come on, come on," Derranna pleaded with the unseen men or women in the station's docking control room.
"LOCKED" flashed before her eyes as the readoout listed the Dominix at just 5 kilometers, its weapons warming up and five Ogre heavy combat drones erupting from it bay.
"Behemoth, your authorization has been accepted. Please disengage your engines and sit back and enjoy the ride in to your berth. And welcome to VSIG-K!"
If Derranna had not been immersed in the pod fluids, she would have given a deep sigh. She felt the powerful shields of the station grow to encompass her and the massive tractor beams reach out to guide her into the gaping maw. She looked back at the beligeriant battleship only 1.5 kilometers away, wondering if it would try to shoot her anyways and feeling a shiver despite the station's powerful defenses.
But the Dominix pilot realized his quarry was out of reach and turned his wrath on the tiny and helpless Condor. Heavy blasters licked out and tore the ship in two with one volley. She wondered if Kirith died in the blast before seeing his pod accelerate out of the flaming wreckage and warp off.
A new message arrived in her inbox. She opened it and it read "Meet you inside later. K."
* * * * *
Derranna watched her crew unloading the crates of heavy ammunition and giving them to station personelle from a lounge overlooking the hanger deck. She had a warm drink of Gallentean spiced wine in her hand to sooth her frayed nerves. Losing any ship was bad enough, but the small fortune she invested into the jump freighter meant its loss would be almost unrecoverable. "We," she corrected herself with some bitterness, "we invested."
The door to the corridor opened in Kirith strode nonchalantly in with a datapad in his hand. Her fury rose and she turned on him, putting her glass on the table so she would have two hands free to poke or punch him as she deemed necessary.
"So much for a 'quick jump into Syndicate'!" she snarled. "'Perfectly safe,' you said. 'Quietest part of null sec,' you said! HA! I just about lost MY SHIP out there! What the hell were you thinking lighting a cyno with unknowns in the system? If you think you can just take chances with my ship and crew YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"
He said nothing. He merely smirked and handed the datapad to her. She snatched it from his outstretched hand. "What's this?" she asked tightly. She quickly read it and saw it was a transfer to her account for twice what was originally agreed.
"This doesn't make everything better."
"But I'm sure it doesn't hurt," he replied. He turned to leave. "Have our ship and crew ready to jump back to Pelille in 48 hours."
She considered throwing the datapad at his retreating back (or more accurately the back of his head) but before she could make up her mind the door was closed and she was alone with her wine again.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Trip Down Memory Lane
All this talk of New Player Experiences in Eve got me thinking about my new player experience back in September of 2006.
This was pre-Revelations so I didn't start with ~800K skill points and the ability to fly a Merlin, oh no. Back before Revelations was released in late November '06 you started with 5000 ISK, and Ibis, and a tiny amount of skill points. Let the dev blog from that time describe it:
Running missions in an Ibis rookie ship was painful, but I managed. The tutorial was not short but it was all about basic operation of the ship and GUI; there was no help pages like there is now for every window you open and no rookie missions besides one to get you started with ISK and skill books.
Nor was there certificates to guide you on the best skills and weapons for ship types hence why I trained Small Energy Turret before Small Hybrid Turret or Standard missiles. As a Caldari character this is the height of foolishness but I didn't know and the game didn't tell me. I found out soon enough once I got into the New Citizens forum.
My first Caldari frigate I bought was the Heron and I used it for combat missions. I thought I was hot shit with my 75mm railgun and Standard Missile Launcher I. Of course flying a Heron frigate in missions is like take a research boat into combat against Somali pirates. A few level one missions later it was gone, along with the second and third Herons (Worlds Collide Level I in a Heron is not a good idea).
Note: its worth mentioning that back then the starter mission agent often sent you on missions into or through Jita and lag was a severe problem back then in that hole of a system. A few patches later and the jump from Kisigo to Jita was removed to alleviate that problem but until then the first thing a lot of new Caldari pilots noticed was the horrible lag in Jita space.
I just about quit at that point but fortunately I had friends that put me on the back on the good path with the Merlin (TWO missiles AND TWO railguns!?! *swoons*) and I never looked back.
This was pre-Revelations so I didn't start with ~800K skill points and the ability to fly a Merlin, oh no. Back before Revelations was released in late November '06 you started with 5000 ISK, and Ibis, and a tiny amount of skill points. Let the dev blog from that time describe it:
Until now, people have been able to create over 1.400 possible character combinations. Thereof, 126 characters yielded under 6000 SP, but a player who got lucky (or knew the game enough to know what to pick) could get over 303.000 with one of the combinations. Furthermore, hundreds of combinations resulted in less than 20.000 SP, while only about 20 resulted above 275.000 SP.Yeah, I think I started with around 50,000 but I can't be sure. I had zilch for combat skills though, I had to buy weapon and Caldari Frigate skill books.
Running missions in an Ibis rookie ship was painful, but I managed. The tutorial was not short but it was all about basic operation of the ship and GUI; there was no help pages like there is now for every window you open and no rookie missions besides one to get you started with ISK and skill books.
Nor was there certificates to guide you on the best skills and weapons for ship types hence why I trained Small Energy Turret before Small Hybrid Turret or Standard missiles. As a Caldari character this is the height of foolishness but I didn't know and the game didn't tell me. I found out soon enough once I got into the New Citizens forum.
My first Caldari frigate I bought was the Heron and I used it for combat missions. I thought I was hot shit with my 75mm railgun and Standard Missile Launcher I. Of course flying a Heron frigate in missions is like take a research boat into combat against Somali pirates. A few level one missions later it was gone, along with the second and third Herons (Worlds Collide Level I in a Heron is not a good idea).
Note: its worth mentioning that back then the starter mission agent often sent you on missions into or through Jita and lag was a severe problem back then in that hole of a system. A few patches later and the jump from Kisigo to Jita was removed to alleviate that problem but until then the first thing a lot of new Caldari pilots noticed was the horrible lag in Jita space.
I just about quit at that point but fortunately I had friends that put me on the back on the good path with the Merlin (TWO missiles AND TWO railguns!?! *swoons*) and I never looked back.
Fighting Spacecraft: Thrasher
Eve Tribune published my latest Fighting Spacecrafte, the Minmatar Thrasher Destroyer.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
The comments from yesterday's discussion post "I Call Bullshit" eventually seemed to go to the position of "yes there are many different and interesting ways to grind your ISK in Eve besides mining" but the question becomes how well does the game guide you to these alternate professions?
Since I have not run the New Player Experience (aka NPE) in over 2 years I cannot say how the current iteration does in terms of taking a new player without existing contacts to experienced players in game and who choose not to data-mine the forums and fan sites.
As Andrew last said:
So, how much "hand-holding" by the game and in-game documentation (*snicker*) is needed to allow new players to choose from the wide variety of careers in Eve without going too far and taking away Eve's "hard edge" and "uncaring galaxy" attitude?
Warning to Rabid Eve Fanboys and Fangirls: try to be more objective and remember the frustrations from when we first started and perhaps didn't have mentors to guide us to the promised land. If you don't I'll be forced to become grumpy.
Since I have not run the New Player Experience (aka NPE) in over 2 years I cannot say how the current iteration does in terms of taking a new player without existing contacts to experienced players in game and who choose not to data-mine the forums and fan sites.
As Andrew last said:
@Mashashige:The problem in Eve is that since a player can do ALL careers and professions from the start (with some skill training of course) and switch at any time, can a tutorial system be created with enough depth to introduce all careers in the game? I believe the answer the Eve game designers decided upon was no and hence why most (all?) new players end up mining, missioning (aka questing for fantasy MMO players), or belt ratting. Again, I have not done the NPE recently so perhaps more effort has gone into showing players simple manufacturing and trading than I am aware of.
"[T]rying to guide players to niches is problematic at best, due to curbing of imagination and creativity."
I completely disagree. Guiding players without forcing them into niches is exactly what a good tutorial system does. The two concepts are NOT mutually exclusive.
So, how much "hand-holding" by the game and in-game documentation (*snicker*) is needed to allow new players to choose from the wide variety of careers in Eve without going too far and taking away Eve's "hard edge" and "uncaring galaxy" attitude?
Warning to Rabid Eve Fanboys and Fangirls: try to be more objective and remember the frustrations from when we first started and perhaps didn't have mentors to guide us to the promised land. If you don't I'll be forced to become grumpy.
Missed The Convoy
Due to my incredibly sporadic schedule I missed the corporate capital convoys to our new 0.0 home in Etherium Reach region. I got myself to the low sec staging area last week but was too busy to log in on the weekend when everyone else made the trip.
So for the past couple days I've been trying to get myself up there safely. First time taking the Ninveah to 0.0 and I'd hate for it to end up in a killmail.
Since no one was in the alliance was in the first jump point I decided to sneak Derranna in there with her covert ops Cheetah to act as eyes for me. I did that a few days ago but every time I tried to make the jump the 0.0 system has either had a red in it, potentially ready to signal his gang one jump out to come in and gank a lone carrier outside POS shields, or the low sec staging system has had more reds than blues in it and the station I was in had a questionable undock ramp that could eject my carrier out of docking range before I can turn it around leaving it potentially vulnerable to a Heavy Interdictor. In other words, it carried risk coming or going.
Finally this morning the first jump system was clear and the low sec staging system had only two reds in it so I felt secure enough to undock and make the jump. HELLLLLLLLO 0.0! I secured the carrier and sent Derranna on to the next jump point to scout me there. It was 18 jumps through null sec space and all quiet except one system where there was only two gates and both had sucker bubbles on them with a Broadsword and Sacrilege hostile guarding them. My Covert Ops ship was uncloaked on the outgoing gate but I was agile enough and reacted fast enough to turn around and warp to safety. Then I warped to a nearby object and approached the gate at a right angle to avoid the bubble. All in a day's work I suppose.
The second jump system was clear and the Ninveah made the passage to it easily enough. After that it was a quick jump bridge to the home system where I docked with a feeling of accomplishment. Yes, I made three uneventful jumps and I feel like I really accomplished something. So sue me.
Next step: actually see action!
So for the past couple days I've been trying to get myself up there safely. First time taking the Ninveah to 0.0 and I'd hate for it to end up in a killmail.
Since no one was in the alliance was in the first jump point I decided to sneak Derranna in there with her covert ops Cheetah to act as eyes for me. I did that a few days ago but every time I tried to make the jump the 0.0 system has either had a red in it, potentially ready to signal his gang one jump out to come in and gank a lone carrier outside POS shields, or the low sec staging system has had more reds than blues in it and the station I was in had a questionable undock ramp that could eject my carrier out of docking range before I can turn it around leaving it potentially vulnerable to a Heavy Interdictor. In other words, it carried risk coming or going.
Finally this morning the first jump system was clear and the low sec staging system had only two reds in it so I felt secure enough to undock and make the jump. HELLLLLLLLO 0.0! I secured the carrier and sent Derranna on to the next jump point to scout me there. It was 18 jumps through null sec space and all quiet except one system where there was only two gates and both had sucker bubbles on them with a Broadsword and Sacrilege hostile guarding them. My Covert Ops ship was uncloaked on the outgoing gate but I was agile enough and reacted fast enough to turn around and warp to safety. Then I warped to a nearby object and approached the gate at a right angle to avoid the bubble. All in a day's work I suppose.
The second jump system was clear and the Ninveah made the passage to it easily enough. After that it was a quick jump bridge to the home system where I docked with a feeling of accomplishment. Yes, I made three uneventful jumps and I feel like I really accomplished something. So sue me.
Next step: actually see action!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I Call Bullshit
I had an interesting conversation with Andrew yesterday (I'm green, he is red):
Then we got into a discussion about the existence of grind in Eve and how there can be nothing to do at times. Apparently he heard that complaint from Eve players (either former or existing) in a podcast (until I hear it myself I will refrain from naming names ).
I'm not denying that there is a grind in Eve for ISK as nothing is for free (although you can have tons of fun in a Tech I frigate with cheap modules if you know where to go), but I took exception to the "viciously grindy" part and the "mine, mine, mine" part.
For one thing, there are a ton of activities in Eve to make the ISK you need for purchasing ships for PvP. Some are combat related like:
Missions
Ratting
Exploration - especially since wormhole space opened up
Salvaging
Piracy
Mercenary Work
Other ISK making careers are more about the "builder":
Asteroid Mining
Tech I Manufacturing
Rig Manufacturing
Invention & Tech II Manufacturing
Reverse Engineering & Tech III Manufacturing
Moon Mining
And then there are the market careers:
Station Trader (aka buy & reselling)
Commodities Trader (aka haul cheap items to lucrative markets)
And finally we have the meta-game services career:
Corp Creator
High Sec POS Anchorer
Alliance Creator
Freighter pilot
Character Farmer
PLEX purchaser (ok, not so much a career as a short cut)
Article Writer
Graphics Artist
Website Host
Kill Board Host
* * * * *
What I'm saying is that to me a grind is an activity you HAVE to do for an end goal but is not desirable to do. To say that all you do is mine between wars is extremely simplistic and simply untrue for the majority of the population. If that is someone's complaint than I think that is a failure of their imagination in a sandbox that does not direct you to the next task as much as some other games might do.
I myself have never mined for personal ISK although I have done a couple sessions for corp activities before. In fact, the only time I felt like I experienced grind in Eve is when trying to get good standings with corporations and factions.
Yes, I'm a fanboy. I have never played any other MMOs and I may be far to close to the subject to be objective. And perhaps Andrew misheard or misintrepreted the complaints, or maybe he heard correctly and the person making them has a point from that persepective. But "mine, mine, mine, mine" between wars is simply not true.
| Insightful post that applies to most mmos: http://playervsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2009/05/800lb-content-gorilla-attacks-middle.html | ||||
| (at least, that I've played) | ||||
| *reads* | ||||
| good post. | ||||
| Eve manages to avoid that pitfall by having other players be the end game content | ||||
| Sort of. All the major mmos have PvP as well | ||||
| Some wow players happily pvp their lives away | ||||
| WAR is all pvp, sieges, etc | ||||
| agreed. But Eve has no "raiding" culture to complian and burn through content | ||||
| Right..... so it doesn't avoid the pitfall so much as totally abdicate any notion of a PVE game | ||||
| Exactly! | ||||
| The major complaint I have heard is that it can be viciously grindy when not at war | ||||
| i.e. mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, ..... | ||||
| bullshit |
Then we got into a discussion about the existence of grind in Eve and how there can be nothing to do at times. Apparently he heard that complaint from Eve players (either former or existing) in a podcast (until I hear it myself I will refrain from naming names ).
I'm not denying that there is a grind in Eve for ISK as nothing is for free (although you can have tons of fun in a Tech I frigate with cheap modules if you know where to go), but I took exception to the "viciously grindy" part and the "mine, mine, mine" part.
For one thing, there are a ton of activities in Eve to make the ISK you need for purchasing ships for PvP. Some are combat related like:
Missions
Ratting
Exploration - especially since wormhole space opened up
Salvaging
Piracy
Mercenary Work
Other ISK making careers are more about the "builder":
Asteroid Mining
Tech I Manufacturing
Rig Manufacturing
Invention & Tech II Manufacturing
Reverse Engineering & Tech III Manufacturing
Moon Mining
And then there are the market careers:
Station Trader (aka buy & reselling)
Commodities Trader (aka haul cheap items to lucrative markets)
And finally we have the meta-game services career:
Corp Creator
High Sec POS Anchorer
Alliance Creator
Freighter pilot
Character Farmer
PLEX purchaser (ok, not so much a career as a short cut)
Article Writer
Graphics Artist
Website Host
Kill Board Host
* * * * *
What I'm saying is that to me a grind is an activity you HAVE to do for an end goal but is not desirable to do. To say that all you do is mine between wars is extremely simplistic and simply untrue for the majority of the population. If that is someone's complaint than I think that is a failure of their imagination in a sandbox that does not direct you to the next task as much as some other games might do.
I myself have never mined for personal ISK although I have done a couple sessions for corp activities before. In fact, the only time I felt like I experienced grind in Eve is when trying to get good standings with corporations and factions.
Yes, I'm a fanboy. I have never played any other MMOs and I may be far to close to the subject to be objective. And perhaps Andrew misheard or misintrepreted the complaints, or maybe he heard correctly and the person making them has a point from that persepective. But "mine, mine, mine, mine" between wars is simply not true.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Skill Training Update
While all this excitement with moving across New Eden and joining Intrepid Crossing was going on, Kirith faithfully kept training Battlecruiser V and now has 11.25 days left. Once that is complete its 6 days for Warfare Link Specialist I thru IV and then a week to get Command Ships to IV.
After that, I plan to spend the ~8 days for Long Range Targeting V so I can train Logistics skill up to IV giving me access to the Basilisk Logistics Ship AND the Vulture Fleet Command Ship.
After that? Haven't decided.
Meanwhile, Derranna is working on Tech III Reverse Engineering and Construction skills. She will finsih Jury Rigging V in a couple days, and then spend a month and a bit working on the Reverse Engineering and associated skills. Then she can go back to the Logistics ship training.
After that, I plan to spend the ~8 days for Long Range Targeting V so I can train Logistics skill up to IV giving me access to the Basilisk Logistics Ship AND the Vulture Fleet Command Ship.
After that? Haven't decided.
Meanwhile, Derranna is working on Tech III Reverse Engineering and Construction skills. She will finsih Jury Rigging V in a couple days, and then spend a month and a bit working on the Reverse Engineering and associated skills. Then she can go back to the Logistics ship training.
Eve Master Class - Jump Bridges and Cynosaural Arrays
To experienced pilots of 0.0, Jump Bridges and Cynosaural Arrays at POSes are standard fare of any major sovereignty holding alliance. To those that dwell in High Sec and Low Sec, you may have never heard of them before. This article takes an in depth look at these items.
Cyno Array, AKA Cynosaural Generator Array
The game database description of this POS structure is "Stationary Cynosural Generator, for rapid relocation of jump-capable vessels." In other words, its exactly like it sounds: a permament cyno beacon that is not generated by a pilot in a ship and does not use Liquid Ozone fuel.
In order to anchor it at your POS, your alliance requires Sovereignty Level of 2 or more. It takes 5 minutes to anchor and 5 minutes to put online (and one minute to unanchor). And most importantly, it has to be placed at least 15 kilometers from the starbase force field which means that anything that jumps to that cyno array is vulnerable. Indeed its not unheard of for lone capitals to be jumped by prepared remote repping battleship gangs outside their own POS shields.
Its pretty straightforward and only usable by ships with jump drives, i.e. Carriers, Dreadnoughts, Motherships, Titans, Jump Freighters, and Black Ops. To use it, when in space you right click on your ship and there is an option to Jump To with a list of available alliance cyno arrays.
NOTE: I can't confirm if a Cynosaural Jammer POS structure prevents the operation of the Cyno Array. I suspect it does (90% sure) but I hope a reader in the know can leave a comment confirming that suspicion.
Jump Bridge
Description:
In order to anchor it at your POS, your alliance requires Sovereignty Level of 3 or more. It takes 5 minutes to anchor and 30 minutes to put online (and one minute to unanchor). And like the Cyno Array it has to be placed at least 15 kilometers from the starbase force field with the same hazards that entails.
You are allowed up to 2 per system and jump bridges are twinned, i.e. when you setup a jump bridge you assign another jump bridge within range to be the other end and then it can only move ships to and from that other jump bridge.
To use the jump bridge: Approach Jump Bridge Right and get within 1500 meters so you can right click and select "Access Resources" to open the structures cargo hold. Put the right amount of Liquid Ozone fuel from your cargo into the hold.
Now right click on your ship and select on the option "Enter Starbase Forcefield Password" and enter the jump bridge password (since anyone can use the jump bridge it needs the password protection). With that done you can right click on jump bridge and you should see a destination option like "Jump through to [SYSTEM NAME]".
The amount of Liquid Ozone fuel required is determined by this formula:
(500 * Jump distance in LY) * (ship mass / 1,000,000,000))
So for a Rokh battleship jumping the full 5 light years it would require 264 units of Liquid Ozone. A heftier Fenrir freighter on the other hand would require 2050 units.
There you have it. A short article this time but on a topic that does not get a lot of discussion outside of alliance forums. Enjoy!
Cyno Array, AKA Cynosaural Generator Array
The game database description of this POS structure is "Stationary Cynosural Generator, for rapid relocation of jump-capable vessels." In other words, its exactly like it sounds: a permament cyno beacon that is not generated by a pilot in a ship and does not use Liquid Ozone fuel.
In order to anchor it at your POS, your alliance requires Sovereignty Level of 2 or more. It takes 5 minutes to anchor and 5 minutes to put online (and one minute to unanchor). And most importantly, it has to be placed at least 15 kilometers from the starbase force field which means that anything that jumps to that cyno array is vulnerable. Indeed its not unheard of for lone capitals to be jumped by prepared remote repping battleship gangs outside their own POS shields.
Its pretty straightforward and only usable by ships with jump drives, i.e. Carriers, Dreadnoughts, Motherships, Titans, Jump Freighters, and Black Ops. To use it, when in space you right click on your ship and there is an option to Jump To with a list of available alliance cyno arrays.
NOTE: I can't confirm if a Cynosaural Jammer POS structure prevents the operation of the Cyno Array. I suspect it does (90% sure) but I hope a reader in the know can leave a comment confirming that suspicion.
Jump Bridge
Description:
Jump Bridges allow corporations to link two Starbases in nearby systems and establish an artificial jump corridor, granting instantaneous transit capability between the two.In essence, jump bridges are like alliance owned stargates connecting two systems within 5 light years of one another. These POS structures can be used by any ship class and require enough liquid ozone fuel to be in Jump Bridge's cargo hold in order to function.
Jump Bridges have a defined maximum range and cannot link to other Bridges outside this range. It is recommended that corporations check that their intended anchoring locations are in range of each other before purchasing the necessary structures.
In order to anchor it at your POS, your alliance requires Sovereignty Level of 3 or more. It takes 5 minutes to anchor and 30 minutes to put online (and one minute to unanchor). And like the Cyno Array it has to be placed at least 15 kilometers from the starbase force field with the same hazards that entails.
You are allowed up to 2 per system and jump bridges are twinned, i.e. when you setup a jump bridge you assign another jump bridge within range to be the other end and then it can only move ships to and from that other jump bridge.
To use the jump bridge: Approach Jump Bridge Right and get within 1500 meters so you can right click and select "Access Resources" to open the structures cargo hold. Put the right amount of Liquid Ozone fuel from your cargo into the hold.
Now right click on your ship and select on the option "Enter Starbase Forcefield Password" and enter the jump bridge password (since anyone can use the jump bridge it needs the password protection). With that done you can right click on jump bridge and you should see a destination option like "Jump through to [SYSTEM NAME]".
The amount of Liquid Ozone fuel required is determined by this formula:
(500 * Jump distance in LY) * (ship mass / 1,000,000,000))
So for a Rokh battleship jumping the full 5 light years it would require 264 units of Liquid Ozone. A heftier Fenrir freighter on the other hand would require 2050 units.
There you have it. A short article this time but on a topic that does not get a lot of discussion outside of alliance forums. Enjoy!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Welcome to the Drone Regions
The Blackwater Alliance leadership decided we were stagnating and not making good progress towards our goal of becoming a force in 0.0 space. I'm not sure of the details about how it was decided or who talked to whom first, but essentially the decision was to put the Blackwater Alliance in mothballs and have the member corps (primarily M3 Corp and Raddick Explorations) join the Intrepid Crossings alliance.
The logistics of last week got us into position and late Friday night we were accepted into the alliance. My normal weekend routine kicked in and I didn't get in on the initial convoys into the Drone Regions but I hope to rectifiy that soon. In the meantime I made sure all my assets were in Empire close by and began the chore of moving industrial operations back to Minmatar space. I didn't have to, but I saw no reason to stay in Amarr space with Derranna et al.
One of the problems with the new Alliance is that we are joining it in the middle of a war, both 0.0 war and a declared empire war. So I have to be doubly careful. Rumours of login traps to catch lone capitals at jump bridges and cyno beacons abound.
So for now I'm sitting in my carrier, the good ship Ninveah, waiting for the all clear to head into action.
The logistics of last week got us into position and late Friday night we were accepted into the alliance. My normal weekend routine kicked in and I didn't get in on the initial convoys into the Drone Regions but I hope to rectifiy that soon. In the meantime I made sure all my assets were in Empire close by and began the chore of moving industrial operations back to Minmatar space. I didn't have to, but I saw no reason to stay in Amarr space with Derranna et al.
One of the problems with the new Alliance is that we are joining it in the middle of a war, both 0.0 war and a declared empire war. So I have to be doubly careful. Rumours of login traps to catch lone capitals at jump bridges and cyno beacons abound.
So for now I'm sitting in my carrier, the good ship Ninveah, waiting for the all clear to head into action.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Dream Ship
The first time I downloaded EveMON and browsed the ships available to me, I saw one ship that captured everything I wanted in a vessel and knew I had to have it.
No, not the Chimera. I settled for the Chimera after I realized that my dream ship was essentially completely out of reach for me. I'm talking about the Caldari Wyvern Mothership:
The price tag of 15 billion (at the time, not sure the going rate these days) scuttled any hope of owning one of those. Heck, spending 100 million on a battleship was inconceivable in those days. Later on as I learned that they could not be docked at stations and hearing stories of them being ganked when piloted by the unwary or even worse, stolen, I figured I would never own one.
Its ironic that I have the skills to pilot one now due to the Chimera training. Usually you don't have the skills to the fancy ships you want to fly. Maybe someday I'll be an alliance that lends me one to use for operations.
Of course, nowadays I spend a billion ISK on a ship I rarely fly. If I was patient, I could easily have 15 billion ISK to purchase my own mothership. Storing it would still be an issue, yes, but not an insurmountable one.
Hmmm... something to think about, no?
No, not the Chimera. I settled for the Chimera after I realized that my dream ship was essentially completely out of reach for me. I'm talking about the Caldari Wyvern Mothership:
The price tag of 15 billion (at the time, not sure the going rate these days) scuttled any hope of owning one of those. Heck, spending 100 million on a battleship was inconceivable in those days. Later on as I learned that they could not be docked at stations and hearing stories of them being ganked when piloted by the unwary or even worse, stolen, I figured I would never own one.
Its ironic that I have the skills to pilot one now due to the Chimera training. Usually you don't have the skills to the fancy ships you want to fly. Maybe someday I'll be an alliance that lends me one to use for operations.
Of course, nowadays I spend a billion ISK on a ship I rarely fly. If I was patient, I could easily have 15 billion ISK to purchase my own mothership. Storing it would still be an issue, yes, but not an insurmountable one.
Hmmm... something to think about, no?
Concerns
As we prepare for the jump back into 0.0 by joining an existing alliance that holds space and is in full war mode, I have concerns about my ability to contribute. I want to be on the front lines getting in on kill mails and suffering losses myself but I know my schedule won't lend itself to joining many 4-6 hour fleet operations (none would be more accurate). I worry that my presence will simply inflate corp numbers that I cannot be online enough to back up.
But dammit, I'm going to give it a try. I want to be back in 0.0, I want to be fighting those wars. I want something to blog about besides "oh look, more Invulnerability Field IIs to sell."
Note: 50 invention attempts on the fields, 23 successes this time which is down one from last time. Gah, I did it again!
This morning before work I made two more jumps by myself, no incidents other than I accidentally ran my Cyno generator for two cycles instead of one... really, auto-repeat should be off for that module by default. Come Monday I should be able to announce who we are joining.
But dammit, I'm going to give it a try. I want to be back in 0.0, I want to be fighting those wars. I want something to blog about besides "oh look, more Invulnerability Field IIs to sell."
Note: 50 invention attempts on the fields, 23 successes this time which is down one from last time. Gah, I did it again!
This morning before work I made two more jumps by myself, no incidents other than I accidentally ran my Cyno generator for two cycles instead of one... really, auto-repeat should be off for that module by default. Come Monday I should be able to announce who we are joining.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Congrats CCP
Eve now officially has over 300,000 active subscriptions.
This year has been very successful for EVE Online, thanks in large part to the Apocrypha expansion and a return to retail. We started out the year with around 244,000 subscribers and in five short months we've had a 22% growth in subscribers. In the past couple days we surpassed the impressive milestone of 300,000 active subscribers.Way to go CCP!
A Jump Too Far
So the marching orders came down and the plan for moving the capital fleet was announced. Everything looks good except the timing... I'm a father of 1 year old twins and on the weekends I'm on duty for late night and early morning wake ups, I can't set an alarm clock for a middle of the night operation when I most need my sleep. Perhaps I could squeeze in a mid week late night operation, but the weekends are family responsibilities.
So figuring that moving after everyone else would be problematic, I decided to be preemptive and do what I have done many, many times before (come to think of it, I don't think I've ever moved my current carrier to a cyno that was not generated by Derranna).
This morning before work, my favourite time for carrier jumps as the populations tend to be more sedate around downtime, I loaded up the Jump Range Planner and put in the information, picked some good waypoints, and sent Derranna in her little cyno ship to the first jump. Once she got there she picked a good spot, got Kirith in gang, lit the cyno, and I undocked the carrier.
"JUMP" I ordered in my best captain voice.
"Beacon is too far," the ship's AI informed me matter-of-factually. "The beacon is 14 light years away and your ship can only jump 13.6 light years."
I put in Jump Drive Calibration V instead of IV into the planner. I really should log in when doing plans as it has my stored info.
I scrambled to redock, and when safe I went back to Derranna to wait out the timer and then pick a new, correct jump waypoint and send her there. A nice empty system this time, I once again picked a good spot, lit the cyno, and this time the Ninveah jumped without complaint (although I swear the AI was using a mocking tone when informing me the jump was complete).
* * * * *
Follow up on the new header:
When soliciting comment from Andrew he mentioned that it would look better without the Blogger Bar at the time and the borders around the image. Alas, I said, there is no option to remove the Blogger Bar anymore. but one google search later he sent this address to me and a few seconds later it was removed. I was able to remove the division borders myself. He thinks it looks better but it looks so naked to me. However, I trust his colour judgement more than my own.
So figuring that moving after everyone else would be problematic, I decided to be preemptive and do what I have done many, many times before (come to think of it, I don't think I've ever moved my current carrier to a cyno that was not generated by Derranna).
This morning before work, my favourite time for carrier jumps as the populations tend to be more sedate around downtime, I loaded up the Jump Range Planner and put in the information, picked some good waypoints, and sent Derranna in her little cyno ship to the first jump. Once she got there she picked a good spot, got Kirith in gang, lit the cyno, and I undocked the carrier.
"JUMP" I ordered in my best captain voice.
"Beacon is too far," the ship's AI informed me matter-of-factually. "The beacon is 14 light years away and your ship can only jump 13.6 light years."
I put in Jump Drive Calibration V instead of IV into the planner. I really should log in when doing plans as it has my stored info.
I scrambled to redock, and when safe I went back to Derranna to wait out the timer and then pick a new, correct jump waypoint and send her there. A nice empty system this time, I once again picked a good spot, lit the cyno, and this time the Ninveah jumped without complaint (although I swear the AI was using a mocking tone when informing me the jump was complete).
* * * * *
Follow up on the new header:
When soliciting comment from Andrew he mentioned that it would look better without the Blogger Bar at the time and the borders around the image. Alas, I said, there is no option to remove the Blogger Bar anymore. but one google search later he sent this address to me and a few seconds later it was removed. I was able to remove the division borders myself. He thinks it looks better but it looks so naked to me. However, I trust his colour judgement more than my own.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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