L4 missions.

This past week I also had the opportunity to experience a bit of the PVE-endgame. I know there are L5 missions in the game, but this is as close to PVE-endgame content as a new player can wish for.

The senior pilots in the group (Psycro, Mendolus, Noldevin) were more than capable to do any of these by themselves, but they were graceful to let us tag along so we could experience the L4 missions while making some nice ISK.

This has been the closest experience to a regular MMO (WoW, WAR) that I had in EVE so far. All the normal stuff was explained : aggro, killing order, which NPCs to immediately kill if they show up, which one to not even look at and who to assist.

I thought that the little 0.0 ratting I've done in Providence was enough to take on these. I was dead wrong. The amount of NPCs per wave in some of these encounters is incredible. Four BS, 4+ cruisers and a laundry list of frigates. It was a really crazy night. Of course the waves were no match to the Battleships that our senior pilots were flying. They were never in any real trouble. Felt like some level-80/25Nax-geared player was helping me clearing out a level-70 dungeon.

I look forward to try these on my own. I ran multiple missions for the Sarum Family during the weekend to start my path to L4. Hopefully by the time I reach that level of standing with them I'll have the necessary skills to take on those.

Shortcuts.

Its always a big gamble to start as a new player in an old MMO. In many MMOs it usually means you'll have very little to zero interaction with other players in your first months while you level up thru empty "newbie" zones/areas. It also means that you are unlikely to see any of the new content since it may require level, gear and/or reputation/faction standing that you lack in your 1-2 month old toon.

That is something that EVE doesn't suffer from. It is probably the most complicated MMO available and requires a lot reading, studying and planning to be successful, but EVE allows you to jump into the action really early in your capsuleer life. With limited SP (still under 4M) I've been able to assist in PVP fleet fights in low sec, ratting in null sec, exploration in a variety of systems and L4 missions (more about that in another post).

It goes without saying that all these activities were possible thanks to a very active and helpful corporation/alliance. I don't consider that cheating. It is an MMO, so playing in a group is part of the experience (no offense to those of you who want to play this as a 1-player game). I see it more as a shortcut to overcome years of SP I lack.

This past week another amazing opportunity was offered. Two corpmates, Rayth and Ajax, with the assistance of our CEO, Mendolus, brought online a POS in w-space!!! Following all the stories I see about w-space, besides the money to be made there, I've been playing with EVEMon to see the shortest route for me to venture there. The best plan had me there around Christmas 2009. Well... not anymore. Armand is permanently in w-space mining and on Friday got all the skills he needed to do gas harvesting in a battlecruiser. Dante visited, but is still lacking the skills to be helpful. There are plenty of explorers and others with the hacking and archaeology skills that Dante has.

The good news is that after talking to Rayth on Saturday I put together an EVEMon plan to fill the gap needed in the w-space group. Only 20 more days to go for Dante to be w-space ready!! Looking forward to be a productive part of the w-space project.

Via Massively.

Going thru the Massively RSS feed I found two very interesting articles about EVE.

First there was this article about a bank (didn't know such thing existed) in EVE that is in the middle of an embezzlement scandal when the CEO stole ~200 billion ISK from the bank.

The second was this picture which depicts a huge fleet ready for battle. The article claims that this is a picture of a fleet from the Northern Coalition as they were getting ready to engage Triumvirate/White Noise on E-7U8U (Venal Region). There were over 750 in local which prohibited this pilot from participating since the grid would not load.

I can't even imagine the logistics involved in an operation that big.

NER. E3 comments.

NER=Non EVE Related. Yes, I came up with a new acronym. I haven't seen it before, so I'm saying "copyright"! :)

As a video game fan I always keep an eye on whats coming soon. I was really happy with the games showcased in this year E3.

The top two games of the show (at least for me) were:

• Star Wars : The Old Republic
• Final Fantasy XIV Online

Not that they needed more hype, but Bioware commissioned Blur Studios to make this amazing cinematic trailer. I haven't played any Star Wars game in any console or PC, but this may change in the future.

The FFXIV took me completely by surprise. I know that a project named Rapture was in the works and knew about this concept video, but I was definitely not expecting this trailer from SquareEnix. FFXI was great, but it had tons of limitations and problems. If SE delivers properly this could be a game that can pull me back to the world of fantasy. We'll see.

I'm also a Rock Band fan, so I was happy to see Rock Band Beatles trailer. Now if Jimmy Page would change his mind and negotiate with Harmonix. :)

A future EVE competitor was there, but I really don't care for Jumpgate at all. Click if you care to see the E3 trailer.

There were tons of other games, but I really don't play anything else that isn't an MMO these days (Rock Band being the exception). I was a bit disappointed that there were no updates for Lego Universe.

You are doing it wrong! Part 3

Part 3. The Miner.

After what seemed was an eternity, Armand finally stepped out of the Bantam and is enjoying the high-life in a Retriever. He is currently based in Mista and with a group of 3 drones (soon to be 4) defending him from the pesky rats life is good. Or so I thought...

Armand for the must part is a loner. He undocks, flies to a belt and does his thing quietly. Its been like this for a long time since the Bantam was no good for any corp ops. With the very limited amount of skills he was forced to dock after filling up his cargo hold since there was no bigger ship to fly all that ore back to the station. Everyone that has been in a retriever knows how painful that is. The thing takes FOREVER to align and warp.

Things got better when Gallante Industrial III completed and a Mark III was added to the hangar. After warping to a full belt on a quiet system I could mine with multiple jet cans and then go back for the Mark to quickly pick up all the ore. This combined with an improvement in my refining skills gave me unprecedented amount of income. I started to *see* what mining was all about... TONS of ISK! But is there more to this...

That answer to that question came to me in two separate nights. On Monday, as I was doing missions with Dante (I just now realized I forgot about that in my PVE update), I entered a system with multiple blues including corpmates. They had a mining op in low sec for profit. I was in system anyway, so accepted their fleet invitation. I would kill the spawns in their belt and then go around clearing other belts until the spawns came back to them. At the end of the night besides a very generous tip for my assistance I had gained 2 more valuable things. First was a new group of friends and second a group to mine with. I'm in the process of getting a second retriever to have it available to me in low/null sec so I can join them. Mining solo got to be the worst profession in EVE.

Then on Tuesday I had my first ice mining op with the corp. After fitting my ice harvesters and making my way to the system I joined them in an ice belt. It was the first time I was working with an Orca. WOW! That thing is big. I wasn't there as long as I wished I had (next time I have to logout the night before in the op's system to save the flight time), so I don't know how profitable it will be for me. Nevertheless it was very rewarding. I felt that I was helping my corp/alliance in a positive way.

With the incredible income potential and the type of people I've met during these operations I'm considering re-arranging my skill schedule to drop or post-pone some skills in favor of those needed for a Hulk and a Mackinaw. This doesn't mean that I wont be doing production/invention. That is still the end goal, but it may be longer than originally planned. The good thing is that I don't see a need to go beyond those 2 ORE ships. Once there I can go full force to my production goals (t2 ships, t2 drones, t2 repairs and t2 ammo and guns).

I'm also keeping an eye on the T3 stuff. It is likely for this to take me at least another year. Who know how many other changes there will be to this by that time?

Here I'm including two pics from the ice ops. The mining op (including Orca) and my new retriever.

You are doing it wrong! Part 2

Part 2. PVE

Shortly after my move to Domain I selected Misaba as my base of operations for everything PVP related. Unfortunately I was still not certain (read that as afraid) to me living full time in low-null sec, so I left the majority of my stuff in Mista. I'm glad to report that this has changed and I'm currently completely setup in Misaba.

Having all the exploration/ratting/mission in Misaba was a big step for me and I'm proud of it.

The first thing I did after finishing the move was to jump into my Imicus and put to use all those skills I had learned to iii just before my move. My first trip out rewarded me with 3 sites. Two of those were combat and one hacking (still training electronic upgrades to V, so no luck there). The first combat site I visited was empty. Someone already cleared it, but left all the wrecks there. I waited 10 mins and decided to salvage all the stuff there. I was tempted to loot the ships also (after 20 mins I thought noone would come back), but since they belonged to a friendly alliance I decided against it and went back to station to unload all the yummy salvage loot.

The second combat site (which was called a dirt site, don't recall seeing that before) was full of NPCs. There were two groups. One had 4 cruiser and the other one had 2 cruisers and 4 frigates. I hit the group with frigates first and tried to pull the little guys first, but the cruisers soon joined and I was forced to fly away (after killing the frigates that were scrambling me). I tried it later with a corpmate, but no luck either. Our cruisers were no match to these rats and we were only in the first room!

It was clear to me immediately that I was doing it wrong. I didn't have the skill or the ship for this type of encounters. I decided to forget about those exploration sites and instead went ratting on the asteroid belts. Those with multiple BS or 4+ cruisers are still out of my reach, but a spawn of all frigate or some combination of cruiser/frigate or even 1 BS and few frigates proved profitable (from a new guy point of view).

My CEO, Mendolus, has a great post in our private forums with a thorough explanation of how to make money by "chain ratting" in 0.0 belts. After being his salvager one night I can't wait to have the skill/ship/fitting to do this. There is really some income to have. Plus the presence of reds in/out of system always make things more interesting.

At the end of the month I hope to be flying a Myrmidon as my ratting/mission ship. For now I'll continue on my good old friend the Vexor. Armed with 5x hammerhead, 1x 200mm carbide railgun (which recently got changed to a blaster), 2x salvagers and 2x tractor beams it has proven a good ship . The lows provide me with good tank. I have 1x MAR, 1x EANM, 1x Armor EM Harderner and 1x 800mm Rolled Tungsten Plate. I'm thinking of replacing the plate for a thermal hardener because of the damage the Sansha do.

Here are two pictures of me and Gertimus fighting a Sansha's Slave Lord :

You are doing it wrong! Part 1

Wow! 10 days since my last post. I need to make time for these updates in my game-time schedule. RL allows me only 3-4 hours per night for anything EVE related. I've been spending those either playing the game, tweaking my ships with EFT or planning my future with EVEMon.

I'm breaking this update in 3 parts to cover all the things I've done properly, so I don't fall into that category of blogs. :)

Part 1. PVP

The amount of red activity in the Providence and Domain regions have increased considerably in the last week. We have seen a new group (at least new to me) called Balls Deep Inc. roaming a lot in the area. That with the regular -A- fleet always looking for trouble has made the PVP interesting. I really like this extra activity in our area. Every night that I felt like PVPing there was always a fleet to get into. The extra activity also makes me pay more attention when not in fleet and makes the game feel more *alive*.

I'm still flying the Thorax. I followed some of the advice given by Kirith Kodachi in a previous post and ended up with a better tank (1400+ more EHP) and better dps (+15) than before. Basically I changed one of the MFS I for a MFS II and the second MFS for a second EANM I. By next Wednesday I'll be done with Gallente drone skills which will finally unlock Hammerhead II which will increase my dps. In some near future I'll add Hull Upgrades V to open up the EANM II option.

I still think I'm doing something wrong. I originally thought it was just *luck*, but I now think there is more to it. Let me explain...

After our scouts spot some reds and their direction we would either wait for them at the other side of a gate or set up a trap with some tasty bait on their side of the gate. Once the bad guys are locked the fights usually go down really quick. Unfortunately I feel that I'm a universe away to be part of the fight. With my new ammo selection (antimatter) my optimal is almost 1k. Even with the mwd engaged it takes me an eternity to get to a distance where my blasters can do any damage. Usually my drones are the only contribution to the fleet.

I felt that luck had to do a lot with this because I would be at ~10k from the gate waiting for the incoming target, but it will pop at 10k from the gate at the COMPLETE OPPOSITE position from mine. In other words I have been always 15-20K away from my target. By the time I get there I'm lucky if I shoot once. Then I read this really good post by Xiphos83 and I think that my problem is not having the Thermodynamic skills for overheating my mwd (and maybe web and scramble as needed). If I understand the post and skills correctly, this should give me enough push for me to get in order quicker and use my tackle earlier. I'm adding these to my July training schedule. I thought about adding it earlier, but I'm in track for flying a Brutix by the end of the month!!

I'm really excited about the Brutix. I'm a sucker for Gallente spaceships. It is a really easy ship for me to slip into since it uses a lot of the skills I currently use for the Thorax. If all goes as planed I will have BC skills up to iv with a bunch of related skills to iv also. I saw one of those in action in one of the fleets I joined and I was really impressed.

PVE update.

Since joining AU-F I've been spending a good amount of time in PVP gangs learning how to work in a fleet and experimenting with my Thorax setup. This has been really fun, but really not profitable. During the weekend I went back to some ratting to get a much needed boost on my wallet.

The rats in the low sec areas are definitely harder than those that I've found in the empire space, but still no match to my cruiser + drones. I made a good amount of ISK between bounties and loot.

On Sunday I joined a group of corp mates on a ratting op deep in null sec. Only one thing comes to mind... WOW!! I wasn't involved on the killing itself, just the looting and salvaging. In less than 2 hours of help I was up around 16M in my wallet. I know that is not a lot for many experience pilots, but for me was an enormous figure. I've never made that much money in one night.

I still haven't started to run any missions in the new region. I did some research and I think I have narrow the list down to 3 different corporations. I'll see about starting soon on them. I think it will be a good isk generator in the future (level 4 and 5 missions).

I haven't done any exploration since the move. I hope to do that this week. Tomorrow I start Electronic Upgrades V which should be finish by some time next week allowing to get Hacking!

First Kill Mail!!

With my excitement you'll think I recently melted away some big ship's hull while flying a much smaller ship. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. As I was ratting in one of the Kheram's asteroid belts a neutral ship caught me off guard and scrambled me. My Vexor ratting setup was no match for this pirate's Crow. Since I couldn't go anywhere I sent my drones and shot him with my railguns, but I couldn't get pass his shields. After what seemed an eternity my Vexor was no more and I was warping to the Mamet gate.

2009.05.31 02:28:00

Victim: Dante Styx

Corp: Aurelius Federation

Alliance: Apotheosis of Virtue

Faction: NONE

Destroyed: Vexor

System: Kheram

Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 11781

Involved parties:

Name: Joseph Dreadloch (laid the final blow)

Security: -8.9

Corp: Dark Dominion

Alliance: NONE

Faction: NONE

Ship: Crow

Weapon: Caldari Navy Thorn Rocketa

Damage Done: 11316

Name: Sansha's Cannibal / True Power

Damage Done: 465

Destroyed items:

Armor EM Hardener I

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I

Cap Recharger I

Thorium Charge M, Qty: 64

Small Tractor Beam I

Dual 150mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon

10MN Afterburner I

Analyzer I

Thorium Charge M, Qty: 2899 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Medium Armor Repairer I

Thorium Charge M, Qty: 64

Salvager I, Qty: 2

Dual 150mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon

After exchanging "gj" in local, Joseph pointed out that he spent an incredible amount of rockets on me. I was actually really impress on how good my armor tank was. I can't wait to fit tech 2 in those low slots. But I think Joseph was more surprise when he saw the crap that dropped. :)

It was definitely a good experience. I learned to pay more attention to people flying around the system. I also changed a bit the fit on my ship and the ammo I use to be a better match to pirates I encounter.

The places I've been.

A bit late, but here is my contribution to the meme that Kirith Kodachi started last week.

Not bad I think. The beginning of my pod life was in the Gallente empire, but recently I've covered a lot of Domain and Providence with my new corp/alliance. It will be fun to compare this picture with one 6 and 12 months from now.