Cat and mouse.

"Hostile in Kheram". That was the first thing I saw in corp channel when I logged. That was only one jump away, so I asked for a fleet invite as I was undocking with the Thorax. Immediately got in fleet and warped to gate. In less than 5 minutes we had a small fleet (4 or 5 pilots). We waited for a couple of minutes in Mista's gate to Kheram while our scout narrow down his location.

"Target located". We all warped in and the hunt began. For the next two hours we bounced all over the place. More hostile came and went. Still no engagement. At one point our FC with his Armageddon met the hostile in a gate and shot at him. Sentry guns hit the battleship, but our target was smarter than that. He didn't engage.

All night our target proved elusive. At some times he was so close (200k away), but yet not enough for any of us to engage. At no time I felt that our FC or any member in the fleet made a bad call or a mistake. Our target had a good set of bookmarks and really good instincts.

Nevertheless it was a lot of fun. Among other things I learned that this is definitely harder than it looks.

Thorax

As suggested by Kirith Kodachi I'm including here my Thorax setup for input. I'm also including Dante's profile as reference. I changed a bit my setup based on the experience, but I'm sure that things can be improved.

Gank Thorax

Lows:

- 2x Magnetic Field Stabilizers I

- 800 mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten

- Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I

- Damage Control II

Meds:

- Statis Webifier I

- Warp Scrambler I

- 10MN MicroWarpDrive I

Highs:

- 5 x Heavy Electron Blaster I (Thorium M)

Drones:

- 5x Hammerhead I

EHP: 17,593 (with DC on)

Firepower: 178 (including drones)

Speed: 204 m/s (1201 m/s with mwd)

Capacitor at 52% with all (except the mwd) on

Comments:

- Ammo... I know that Antimatter M provides the highest damage (219 in this setup), but the -50% range modifier is a big price for me to pay. With the current Thorium ammo I have an optimal of 2k with a fallout of 3k. The antimatter cuts that to 1k optimal with the fallout still at 3k. As I understand it I have to be at 1k for my dps to be the best, but that has proven difficult so far.

- I can fit mag stab II, but didn't do because of budget issues. I hope this changes once my alt is in a retriever and Dante is done with hacking.

The true EVE experience

I've been flying around New Eden for almost 3 months now. During that time I did missions, vaporized some roids and explored some sites (including worm holes). This has been fun, specially the exploration, but last night for the first time I feel I experienced what EVE is all about... PVP!

As I joined the corp channel last night I found out that a fleet was forming in the Misaba system. I immediately asked if there was room for one more. Only requirement was to bring a cruiser. I immediately jumped into the Thorax and went on my way. Another corpmate who was in Mista with me offered to scout for me (thanks!). We both made it safe to Mamet where we joined other corpmates. From there we made it to Mista to join the rest of the fleet.

The group was a good size. After some people changed ship to provide a better variety our FC got us going. This wasn't going to be a gate camping group (which I hear can be extremely boring) we were roaming. We set course for R3-K7K, then to X-R3NM. After that I honestly have no idea where were we or which direction we were going.

Our scouts reported red activity in the following system and my heart started pumping. As we warped my CEO helped me setup my Overview properly for PVP. As we got there the group had warped. After a couple of more jumps and some more scouting our FC was under the impression that they were trying to flank us, so we kept moving until a particular gate where we laid our trap.

I have never seen the "bubble" that I read so much about in other blogs. It was impressive when we jump thru the gate to meet some friendly forces and they had a bubble up. A couple of minutes passed and our enemy jumped.

Targets were called and the shooting began. With my short range and slow AB I was never close enough to get in the action, but still manage to show up in the KB for the night. At the end four of their ships were bye-bye while we only lost one. We roam for a bit more, but no targets were found. It was late at that time, so the roaming got called and we all returned to our bases.

Overall was a very short engagement, but I can't even start to describe how much fun it was. The last time I enjoyed an MMO this much was during those initial Onyxia and MC raids when half the raid was still in blues. Except this was better. Here anything could happen. There was no scripted "second stage". These were all players. Completely unpredictable.

Lessons learned...

- I need to get something better than an AB. The problem is that MWD requires skills I don't have. Need to work on that.

- I need to remember to get my stupid drones OUT!!! ZOMG! I'm a gallente with 4 Hammerheads in the drone bay and not even one saw action. With all the excitement I just forgot. I know, I know... LAME!

- The Overview is very powerful and it has multiple tabs!! LOL. For the longest time I was using only one tab and just changing the view in it. You can actually enabled up to 5 tabs.

- Scouts are very important. Our guys did an amazing job.

- The thorax is a really good ship, but I wonder if I should replace the cap recharger from the mid slot for some warp tackle. I currently only use web for tackle.

Can't wait to do it again!

Miner Anonymous

Dante: "Hi, My name is Dante and I enjoy mining. "

Everyone : "Hi Dante"

I doubt there is a Miners Anonymous support group, but if there was one I imagine the introduction would be something like that.

After gathering so many things in previous MMOs and knowing that this was not a requirement in EVE (I think the only requirement so far is to fly what you can afford) I was certain that I would never mine. I actually tried it for one of the introductory missions part of the NPE. It was awful. I almost felt like taking the power cord and strangle myself, but after talking to Ranzat (RL friend and also fellow capsuleer) I decided to give it another try with Armand. He was going to be my industrialist anyway, so it kind of made sense for him to mine while learning the skills to make him a T1/T2 production expert.

Once I got some of the basic skills out of the way (mining iv), got miners ii in the bantam and found a quiet belt without can flippers I actually found it relaxing. With the bantam there isn't much money to make, but while I was moving my stuff with Dante to the new system Armand managed to make a very nice 3M isk from his mining! Not bad for a night solely dedicated to hauler stuff from one system to another.

Now the next step is the retriever and ice harvesting. AF runs mining ops that I look forward to take part of plus during my solo times it is likely to produce some good steady income.

18 jumps

It definitely didn't look as much when I entered my destination in the map computer. Its only 18 jumps I thought to myself. I'm sure it can be worst.

Well... it can definitely be worst, but it wasn't an easy thing. After I sold all my stuff in Oursulaert I calculated a total of 7 total trips. First was the Iteron Mark II with all the non-ship stuff and the Incursus. I came back on my shuttle. The next step was to bring the Vexor. The way back to O I did in a pod. I thought of stopping in one of the stations and grab a shuttle, but I decided (without any data to back it up) that the time to warp to station / get in / purchase shuttle / make it active / dock out / warp to gate was greater than just going as a pod all the way back to O. The next one was the Thorax. All that was left was the Imicus and the shuttle. They both fit in the Iteron, so I flew that back.

That was a total of 126 jumps in one night. I'm sure that is no record (or even close to one), but for me felt like a lot. As it happens I decided to do this the night before the fix for the jumpgate/cloaking issue. I guess I was lucky to only hit it 6 times during all my trips. Definitely not bad.

I just hope I don't have to do that again any time soon. :)

Unexpected.

It is interesting how things work out on their own some times. Since I joined EVE I tried hard to find an active corp that welcomed new players. This is an MMO, so playing on my own was not an option. Out of nowhere my RL friend Gert pings me in IM to tell me that an old friend/raider from my WoW years was actually also a EVE player. That night (last Friday) I caught up with him and I joined the public channel of his corp.

I was happy to find a group to talk to during my EVE time. I was definitely not expecting to find a place to call home. After talking to the CEO, Mendolus, for multiple hours and interacting with the other members during the weekend I decided to pickup my stuff and relocate.

Last night I applied in the Aurelius Federation corp. I was happy to receive an invitation that night. Dante and Armand (no point hiding his name now) are in a corp! I look forward for pilots to become active and useful pilots in AF. The sky is the limit now! :)

CSM

If you haven't... what are you waiting for?!?! Head over to EVE Online and vote.

If you want to know more about the candidates head over to the A merry life and a short one blog. Hallan Turrek sent questions to all candidates and a good amount of them answered. See what they have to say about important subjects and why they feel they are the appropriate person for the job.

Wardecs all around me.

Getting in a corp has proven to be more difficult that I originally anticipated. I thought that the limiting factor was going to be my skill points, but instead has been wardecs. I really don't have a problem with the war or pvp itself. Even with my limited amount of ISK, I can afford to loose multiple Incursus (once No.2 provides a steady stream of cash I can upgrade to a Thorax for this!!). The idea of loosing ships is not the problem. The suck part is that all activities are outlaw. No missioning, no ratting, no exploring, etc. Get on and wait while dock. Looking at the EVE kilboards it is clear that this latest one hasn't been to exiting. Asking a new pilot to sit in and don't experience space is too much. Maybe ok for people that have been flying for years and can use the break, but not me.

Since they've been in wardecs back-to-back I decided to go and look for another place to call home. After an hour or so of reading thru corps descriptions I hit the jackpot. Rule of 5 which is part of the JUNTA alliance was hiring!! The description appealed to me for multiple reasons. A group of adults, RL > Internet spaceship and their divisions cover the stuff I'm looking for. I immediately join the JUNTA public channel and there it was "WE ARE AT WAR. Recruitment closed". NOOO!!!

Well... Training continues and I'm getting better at my exploration skills. :)

The industrialist life.

Two days ago a new pilot with big ambitions joined us in space. I will call this new pilot No.2. No, I'm not hiding his name because of some big plot to take over the world or to use it in some espionage master plan (I don't have the time or inclination for that even though I enjoy reading about it). The reason is very simple. A RL friend invited me to his corp. This is a very small corp (10-15 pilots) that only do mining ops. I don't want for any actions taken Dante to affect this small corp.

After a small donation of 1M from Dante he went on a small shopping spree. After buying a bantam and fitting them with 2x miner, 1x ab, 2x cargo expansions and a bunch of books I navigate to the corps home system and started mining in the belts. I have to say that I don't understand how people can do this every day. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that I'll be making money to fund Dante pvp experiments as well as working on Armand's production future.

The plan right now is to train enough to jump into a retriever with cargo rigs. At that point I'll do some extra training on drones to protect me from rats and then I'll be fully committed to a production training.

I'm currently reading thru the Production and Invention guides in EVE-Guides. The more I read the happier I am to have a second pilot doing this. The training is intense and it would have taken me REALLY long if I had queue those skills in Dante.

Joining a corp.

Last Friday I applied to EVE Univ. I had no luck scheduling an interview with an RO until Monday. The RO was Larry. If he is a good representation of the Uni members I can clearly see why so many people recommend this corp for those like me that are new in this universe.

They are currently at war with The Gummy Bear corp (or something like that). Since joining will tag me as red to anyone in that alliance/corp he suggested for me to move my asset to their system before joining the corp. He also explained to me all the Do/Don't of a war. Since a lot of seat/wait occurs during this time it gave me even more reason to start my alt-project.

Last night I sold must of the stuff I had scattered around 10 different stations, grabbed the stuff I deemed useful and started my trek to their system. All 20 jumps of it. After moving the Vexor I jumped out into my capsule and picked the Thorax. Tonight I'll move the Imicus and request their invite.

No.2

I'm about to do what I haven't done before in any previous MMO. Open a second account.

When I shared this with some of my RL friends they laughed. "Why?" they asked. After playing other MMOs I never felt the urge to do it, but now only after 2 months of EVE I have to do it.

Looking back only EVE has the depth that requires multiple accounts. FFXI allowed me to play any of the "jobs" available and since a secondary job is required for any character having a second account made you "weaker". The bigger the variety of jobs on your toon the better. In WoW a lot of people dual-box to help leveling, but I never had a problem with that. For the must part the game is solo-able. WoW also has a HUGE emphasis in reputation. Playing with another toon meant not gaining the so needed reputation.

EVE, as in FFXI, allows you to be anything you want to be. The limit is the time it takes to achieve that. From early on I knew what I wanted to do with Dante Styx. After reading different stories from Marlenus and Kirith I envision him on a HAC, part of a small fleet (2 or 3 other players) going to w-space and exploring all those hacking, archaeology and combat sites. I want him to be able to pilot an Eos for level-4 and 5 missions in regular space and a Kronos for fleet vs fleet battle. Yah, I know that I can probably do all this in one ship, but what fun is that? :)

Then I found Letrange's blog and got interested in Industry. Specifically the T2 production. The entire thing of reverse engineering, invention and production made me very curious of it. Since Dante's plan currently takes 200+ days to complete I was faced with two options. Either change the plan and introduce other skills to do some industry or have an alt.

I opted for the second. I installed the game last night on a second machine at home. I'll be buying the game from my local gamestop tonight.

For starters I'll be doing a miner skill plan. A RL friend started a month after me and has been doing only the mining side (just recently started the epic arc missions). My wallet has not seen more than 20M at one time, while he has seen 100M+. My idea is to have him do mining only while he trains for all the industry stuff that I plan to do after. I haven't done any EVEMon for him yet, but I think that after 2 weeks I should be in a Retriever.

A corporation.

Playing an online game without joining a clan, a guild or in this case a corporation would be consider "silly" by the twins. And I have to agree.

A big part of an online game, in particular an MMO, is interacting with the variety of people that makes up the community. This is why from the beginning I've been looking around for one. I didn't want to jump on one right away because I wanted to explore on my own for a while and I wasn't even sure if I was going to go "steady" with EVE. After the first month I knew I was here to stay so I seriously started to look around.

Many corporations/alliances caught my interest, but there is not much a player with 1.5-2M sp can offer. So I shifted my search for alliance that were looking for new players. It wasn't long before I found Eve University. The reference were many and the size big enough to probably guarantee people to roll with every night. Unfortunately they were at war, so I waited. Recently the war ended and I immediately applied. I'm looking forward to join some time this weekend.

Space Indiana Jones

Earlier this week I completed the archaeology training and was able to fit an analyzer on my Vexor. I immediately joined my partner in crime (and RL friend) Gert who had been using his exploration skills to Bookmark some sites.

After hitting a group of combat sites he was able to lock on a arch site. I have to say that I was surprise with the loot that came out of there. I'm not sure what I was suppose to get but I didn't think it would be a bunch of salvage loot. Besides the usual boards and the like there was also one rig skill book (which I didn't have) and a bpc for some gun i never seen. The bpc was only for 3 runs, so it wasn't very useful. I check the local market and there were no buy orders. I will check on a couple of surrounding regions to see how much I can get for it. From the description it appears to be some weapon for a POS.

Overall I was really happy with the loot. Approximately 2m isk on that site alone. Now that I have better exploration skills I plan to jump every night in my Imicus to scan down 2 or 3 systems and then go at it on the Vexor. It may not have been a huge income, but definitely a great start.

Skills, Exploration and Missions.

I finally broke the 2M SP mark. With Survey V just a bit over 1 day to go I'll be done with Hacking II by Wednesday night. I'll be increasing the Astrometric Acquisition, Pinpointing and Rangefinding to III to help me zero-in on those tough explorations sites. I've been frustrated a couple of times with spots that I can't get to 100%. After that I have a couple of drones skills to queue before the 11 days that it takes for Electronic Upgrades V needed for Hacking.

I've been reading about exploration lately. I was happy to find out that the spots randomly spawn across the EVE universe and is not the same spot every time. If the spots were the same on some predictable time table, I would probably would never see any since they would be likely taken by the time I log. Knowing that this is completely random made me really happy. So far I've been able to scan 2 w-holes and 3 rat areas. I've been frustrated by a couple of spots that I couldn't get to 100%. I think is a good start. My first w-space experience was nothing to write about since I was without a probe inside and didn't know how to use the D-Scanner at that time. The second experience was much *better*. I was able to find a very busy sleeper are, but unfortunately they weren't too happy to see me. I got destroyed in no time. The way that they react and attack is very different from the normal rats/drones I've found in my missions. I look forward to more w-space adventures in the future.

The missions have me a bit frustrated. I've found tons of good websites with info, but I still have plenty of questions about them. I keep doing some now and then since they are a steady income for a new player with almost no risk.

Catching up with RSS.

RL has hit me hard in the last 2 weeks. I've been busy at work as well as around the house, so the little time I have I spend playing EVE or researching about it. Today I caught up with the different blogs I follow. Let me point some of the interesting things (at least for me) that were posted in the last couple of weeks.

- EVE 6th year celebration. WOW! Six years. That is very impressive. You can't think of a lot of games that have been around this long that look as good and are as fun as this game. Yes you have EQ still around after 10 years, but it looks 10 years old. CCP has done an incredible job on keeping this game looking great after all this time. I hope that the time they are spending on the ambulation feature doesn't take from them putting out new ships and better gfx.

- 300K+ subscribers. Not only this game looks amazing after all these years, but it is still pulling new subscribers (like me!). CCP recently reported breaking the 300k mark making them the biggest MMO in America (just behind WoW). For it to be bigger than new titles (like WAR or AoC) is an accomplishment on its own. When you add to that the fact that this is a sci-fi title and not another fantasy MMO is even more impressive. Grats EVE!

- Kirith (from Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah) finally has his Nightmare class battleship. I've been following Kirith's blog for months now and I'm really happy for him. Its an amazing ship. Grats!

- The latest Blog Banter had CrazyKinux asking people what 3 things they haven't done in EVE which they would like to do in the future. The responses to the Banter along with Xiphos post title Will i ever be done training? made me think about my future in EVE. So many options!! I had a group of short-medium goals, but nothing on the long run. I played in EVEMon for a while and even after putting what I though was a LOT of stuff I ended up only with 10 Million or so skill points! LOL. The sky definitely sounds like the limit here.

Epic arc and its impact on missions.

Its been a while now since I finish the epic arc. I see the idea of an epic arc both as blessing and curse. The good part is pretty obvious, specially as a new player. You have an extremely long chain of missions (50 or so) that forces new players to fly across multiple systems while fighting those pesky pirates. At the same time getting a bunch of items and much needed isk. The bad is probably not obvious to the experienced capsuleer. I expected the missions offered by the other agents to be as entertaining and rewarding, but they aren't. I understand that the epic arc is call 'epic' for a reason, but didn't expect the Level 1 missions to offer so small amount of isk and be so repetitive.

Nevertheless, I've been doing missions now and then. It is too easy of an income to pass on it. From what I read the level 3 and level 4 missions are also profitable, so regardless of what I do in the future it seems a good idea to knock these low level missions now.

At first I didn't pay attention and missed the fact that by randomly picking up agents I was gaining standing with multiple NPC corporations instead of focusing on one. Recently I found the eve-agent website which I'll use to determine which corp to concentrate my efforts on. We'll see how that goes.