Category: EVE

One Year Later…

On By HarbingerZeroIn Blogging, EVE, EVE Online1 Comment

Seriously. I cannot believe that last post was a year ago.

I found out the week after that post that nothing in the training I was doing was in any way, shape, or form useful. Other than maybe just the standard accruing time and learning from experience. I went into a live raid on Woods and realized (rather belatedly) that the engagement range in Tarkov is generally much more than 25m, and I don’t have terribly steady hands anymore.

Anyway, long story short that led to a decent amount of playtime with The Cycle: Frontier, which I did enjoy, other than the fact that their amateur coding made me redownload the game with every update in Steam. And that got old fast. So then I journeyed into Lost Light, which I also really enjoyed. But then it took off and I was get insta-capped in every match I logged in to. So began my journey in Marauders, where I have a regular group to play with and the the downtime between raids is much shorter. I really like it.

But then I had an itch a few weeks ago to jump into MMO’s again, after a long long break. I think part of it was losing TERA, which I had a decent history with, and then losing Elyon before I had even had a chance to explore it. Combined with the double disappointment of New World and Lost Ark, I was feeling a bit nostalgic.

In the last month I’ve cycled through play time in Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft both, and will probably log into a few more in the coming weeks.

And with that, I also got nostalgic for writing. I do a lot of writing these days, just not for fun. And I thought, since I’ve been experiencing some burnout and block in my vocational writing, maybe some recreational writing would help.

So I ducked into here, and its been a year to the day. You could say it was creepy, but I’ll call it a sign.

So expect more ramblings here in the future. And probably not just about games. We’re going to broaden our horizons some around here.

Until then, have a couple of stale screenshots from a game a) I played for one month last year and am debating another month of (but not to play) and b) my absolute favorite game over the last three years.

Image
A decade later and EVE still takes the darkest screenshots known to man.
Image
Don’t let Obi-Wan fool you. Cover > High Ground.

Carrier Strike Group

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE3 Comments

Yesterdays advice was fantastic, and I’ve started the process of putting together my first guide for EVE, though this is difficult since as a new player, I don’t have alot of insight into many of the games areas.  Still, I’ve found myself answering more questions than I’m asking on our Vent server these days, so I’m sure I can come up with something.

But first, I have been thinking about this one since my last fleet op.  My dad spent his entire career (and now his semi-retirement as a contractor) as a civilian doing R&D for the US Navy. (Sidenote: Its awesome to have a Dad who has worked on things we can all be proud of.)  And so thats in the back of my head during EVE.  And when we were out the other night, the image of our ships was vaguely….

Look familiar?
Look familiar?

 

Yeah, like that.  And I know that in EVE, alot of capital ships require support, especially those that cannot dock.  So I got to wondering if one could recreate in EVE the same protective fleet group that the US Navy uses, and whether or not it would be beneficial in EVE.  In the modern US CSG, there are alot of components that would be easy to translate over in to the game:

  • A Capital Ship:  Whether it was a Carrier, or back when we had then, a Battleship, escort was needed.  In EVE of course, this would probably be a true cap ship:  Mothership, Dreadnought, or Titan.  I exclude carriers because whether its typical or not, my experience is that every veteran player can manage to lay hold of a carrier on their own at some point.  The rest require help from corpmates and thus are shared resources and thus will have at least some escort like the type Navy CSG’s use.
  • A Carrier Air Wing:  Of course this one is hard to duplicate in EVE, unless its a Mothership you’ve got, which provides its own “air wing” in the form of Fighters.  But even then its not the same.  And lets face it: frigates = fighters in the world of New Eden.  So really this role is filled by your scouts and tacklers – in a large fleet op, probably Covert Ops ships, Stealth Bombers, and Interceptors, and if you’re large enough, some noobs in throwaway frigates to help tackle.
  • A Destroyer Squadron:  Heh, yeah, probably don’t need any destroyers in the group in EVE.  Unless they are interdictors.  Which is basically what this group does – screen the carrier.  Interdictors could (if I understand them right) put up bubbles in a defensive manner around the cap ship.  This might also be your midrange pilots with cruisers that help tackle and dps enemy ships.  Thoraxes, Stabbers, etc.  This might be the area for a neutralize ship as well.
  • Guided Missle Cruisers:  The CSG has only 1-2 of these, but in EVE you might want more.  This is your pure hard hitting DPS group.  This would probably be your offensive punch in the form of battlecruisers and battleships.  For RP points, Drakes work well here.  (-;
  • Guided Missle Destroyers:  These are DPS, but of a specialized nature – AAA/ASW – take out aircraft and subs, the lurking and far ranging threats.  In EVE, this might actually be destroyers, to get a handle on groups of tacklers.  It might also be hybrid EWAR target painter/sensor booster ships that also carry high tracking weapons.  Or Assault Ships.  Or, in one tactic I learned the other night, high volume drone carriers who drop drones like a poor man’s version of active sonar – anything that bumps a cloaked ship can get it visible from what I understand, and if a cloaked ship has to navigate around a few dozen moving drones…well, god help them.
  • Attack Submarines:  This is where the invaluable Combat and Force Recon ships earn their money.  Their job is to scout ahead and bring the CSG down on the head of opposing fleets.  And its why I really want to lear to fly a Curse.  Really sick and elite corps might be using Black Ops ships here as well.
  • Logistics:  This is where your Triage Carriers, T2 Logistics Cruisers, Command Ships, and other specialized ships of a group nature come in.  Their job is support and, if you will “healing.”

Like I said, I’ve not been around in EVE long enough to know if that would be viable.  Heck, as far as I know, this *is* the way such fleets are built in EVE.  Either way, its a fun mental exercise, isn’t it?

And you never know, maybe one day I’ll be a fleet commander (FC)…that’s the cool thing about EVE.

Tower, this is Ghostrider requesting a flyby.

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE

So, I got my assignment and training orders last night.

Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full.

Yep, its interceptor time in the world of EVE.

In talking to our PvP head and the head of my own corp, who is also the head of the alliance, this is what we came up with.  It wasn’t hard, given our fleet experience from the other night.  It was clear that there is a difference between kitting ships to tackle and having a tackler.  And we needed a tackler.  And since I was open to any role, and this will take me less than a month to train, and since I can afford the craft…

Its Taranis time baby.

The EVE Wiki entry on the ship says the tag line should be: 

You fly Taranis. A fight starts. Someone dies.

I like that.  And I also enjoyed that I will be doing what I did for the fleet the other night: hopping from belt to belt and planet to planet tracking down those in local that need whacking.  And since I’ll be flying Taranis’ (and Ares’) I’ll be able to put some serious firepower on them as well – more actually, than I had available to me on the Vexor the other night.

This will be a nice niche I think.  Drone carriers for my mission running, barge for mining, and interceptor for PvP work.  A nice little dichotomy.  A division of labor.

My only concern is that I’m still not sure how everyone is raking in the cash they are.  Is it high level missions?  The truth is that without industrial support, it would take me a good week or two to replace any interceptor I lost!  That can’t be right can it?

Meh.  Also, coming tomorrow, a look back on this little site’s nine month history, and a little more chance to be interactive with the posts here…

“Well, its pretty cool, but the pay sucks.”

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE

Yep, that’s what I had to say to my fleet as we were winding down my very first PvP op in EVE.

It started out good.  I was able to log in early last night, work done, kids in bed, wife sick (cold), house quiet.  Not five seconds after I log on comes a call from the head of our PvP corp for forming a fleet to clear the system we are trying to make our low-sec headquarters and some additional roving assault time.  I’ve been wanting to get my hands dirty for a while now, since my mining barge training finished up, so I immediately volunteered.   Despite having around 8 pilots ready to go, we had trouble filling the fleet roles.  So, two hours later…

We headed for our high-sec headquarters because there was no one left to clear out of the low-sec headquarters.  Which was good, because I had some doubts about our ability to take down a Chimaera. :-p

There we picked up a couple of more people, as we would continue to do through the next 3 hours.  I think we ended up with 3 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, 2 cruisers, and 2 frigates, including, bless him, a pilot from a corp we had good standings with who loaned us some of his time, and more importantly, his Buzzard, so we had a proper scout.  Previously our scout had been our only experience tackler, who had a cheap frigate apparently jury rigged with brass cajones who threw himself into low sec systems a jump in front of us!

Not that it mattered.  In three hours, we tracked a cloaked cruiser that we finally realized had taken refuge at a player owned station bigger than we could handle, an Orca who did the same in another system.  Just before we logged we did catch a blinky red Myrmidon coming the wrong way through a two gate system we were in, but with only one tackler…well, we got some shots in but he basically gate hopped us silly until we were so spread out we got worried he was doing it on purpose while he called his own fleet in to catch up strung out.

So my PvP statistics for the night:

Materials:  Expended 4 rounds of ammunition, gained…nothing

ISK: Spent 1.5 million insuring my Vexor, gained…nothing

Time spent:  5.5 hours

Verdict:  If this is PvP, I’ll pass.  It was cool doing the hunting and seeing our 10+ ships warping together, but I see more action from rats while mining, and at least then I can make a couple of million.

How the hell to PvP players even afford the ships they’re flying?

EVE: Turning Points

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE

Well last night was a watershed night for me in EVE.  A couple of things happened that really solidified my playing experience and my time with my corp.

As you might remember, I was pondering switching corps to a subsidary of my current one that was smaller and geared more towards new players.  I had held off on that until my – “handler” I’ll call him, the corp leader overwatching me could gives some feedback on that decision.  But last night Origin Systems showed their true colors and strength for one of their newest members. 

It all started with yet another courier mission.  I’ve been doing a few missions each night, which, when added to salvage, has been netting me about 1 million ISK a night.  I got yet another mission requiring a low sec jaunt, but by now I’m pretty used to those.  The Tristan, tough as it is, is still a frigate, and thus hard to target, agile, fast, and quick to warp.  Unfortunately, this mission took me to the wrong system.  As I warped in to the one station in the system, I found a pair of blinking reds on my screen.  Fortunately I had warped to dock.  In the split second there, I managed to sneak a “Look At” and so that one of them was a Thorax or one of its variants.  It appeared to be fighting the other vessel, which I did not look at, so I figured I was safe to dart back out again a few minutes later, esp. since one of them was engaged in casual local chit-chat.  Unfortunately, that Thorax was apparently a Vigilant, and he somehow managed to lock me and pin me even as I was warping away.   Anyway, then he began to light me up with missle and blaster shots.  I think he thought he could wax me before I could get the timer down to redock, but in the famous words of Ron White, he was wwrronngg.  Back in the station, he tells me in local chat “2m and you can leave.”  Being the noob I am, I thought that meant 2 minutes, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on that required an egg timer of that variety.  Once it clicked though, I laughed at him.  That was just south of half my wallet, and nobody can stay on forever…

Meanwhile in Alliance chat, people are complaining about the lack of pew pew (see, I’m not a total noob, I know what that means!) so I mention, hey, if you’re bored…and they were.  Within ten minutes, I had a pretty belligerent gang a half dozen strong inbound from the warp gate.  No questions, no hesitation about my noobish status in the corp.  Just hard burning cavalry to the rescue action.  I felt like I was playing the old PnP Shadowrun RPG and I had just utilized the badass “summong gang” contact ability.  But unfortunately, there was no happy ending here.

I had noticed in local chat that one other guy there also had piss poor security status, and sure enough, he was an alliance mate.  I warned my inbounds,  that I didn’t know where he was or what he was flying.  Cue noob moment two, when my alliance mate calls out:  two reds on station, second is in a Chimaera, and I respond, well, you have him pretty well outnumbered.  The next line was laughter followed by a hotlink text informing me that this was a carrier, and showing me how much pew pew capital ships can dish out, especially against the T1 cruisers in my rescue party.  Some strategy was discussed, including brining in our own capital ships, but it ended up being a moot point.  My captor warped off station without warning, in the middle of taunting me in local no less.  I made a break for it under the carriers nose, my alliance saying it should be fine, unless he had smart bombs (the last scrolled onto my screen as I’m exiting the station, soliciting a naughty word from me).  But it was fine, and we all cleared the system safely.  Color me impressed with their response and help.

But the evening was young and later in corp chat, chewing the cud, it apparently sinks in just how new I am when it comes out that I’m saving for Learning Skill Books.  And my corpmate 2lost immediately puts 9 million ISK in my wallet.  Just like that!  In the process of thanking him, he indicates he’s suprised at how little I have.  And the final curtain on my noobishness rises.  Hes astounded that I’ve been mining in a frigate and mission running, and spends the next half hour giving me great advice.

Long story short, use the money to buy a cruiser and the skill for it, fit it with mining lasers, use my mad drones skills for defense, and cut down considerably on the amount of time needed to raise the money for skill books.

Boy do I feel lame.  But he is as gracious as can be, asking only that I pass it on to other noobs in due time.  No problems there!  To cap it all off, he tells me he’ll haul a couple of T2 mining lasers from the corp hanger to me (my only remaining urk-point – I still have no access even to the rookie hanger).

So my skills are training, and tonight, it looks like I’ll have my very first shiny new cruiser.  The only question is….which one?

Thanks 2lost, Origin Systems, and my to my alliance mates.  You saved my bacon in more ways than one, and helped me to have more fun in the game than I was having.  Could a gamer ask for anything more?

Check the Rhythm of the Flavor I Wrote…

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE

ETA: And while I get a chance here…let me clear this up.  I realized when reading some blogs this evening that someone else had the same title for their same EVE blog entry on the same day.  So…I’m changing mine.  (-:

So anytime I get out of the rhythm of MMO’s, its hard to get back in.  And that was true of EVE this weekend.  Having been out except for minor check ins for nearly a week, I was starting to second guess myself.

My CoW approved Corporation was clearly much bigger and much deeper into the game than I was, especially in the realm of Alliances, PvP, and all that jazz.  I spent most of my minimal log in time catching up on Corp/Ally in game mails and learning what terms like “nrds” meant.  And at the time my Corp was basically on a weapons free policy – shoot it unless its blue (what is that in EVE terms:  siuib?).  I was starting to feel overwhelmed.  And then it dawned on me that my missions here would be in Minmatar space – and I saw my dreams of a Navy Issue Megathron start to crumble.  On top of that, I got sent three fairly general EveMon skill plans only to realize that all of them called for the second tier learning skills – all of which run 4-5 million a piece, money I didn’t have yet.  Should I put all my money to buying them?  Start training anyway?  How much time would I have to waste?  How long would it take me to get to the 15 million I would need, and what if I lost a ship between here and there?  Especially if my Corp expected me to be running low sec patrols in my Tristan.

Well, the good news is that I bought the game box locally so I have two months of  time.  So I figured I needed to see this through.  I started looking at the Minmatar faction ships and concluded they were uglier even than I had previously remembered.   But it did get me excited again.  I love the ships in EVE, even the ugly ones, for they have their place in the universe too.

And then once I logged in I see that the diplomatic ties have forced us into less aggressive, aforementioned “nrds” stance.  My first though was “whew!” and my second thought was, “oh man, Vasov is *not* going to be happy.”

And finally I see an email that one of my Corps subsidiary corporations is smaller, newer, looking for new people, and with a cherry on top, an RP corp.  I haven’t put in for a tranfser yet, but it gave me something to chew on, especially since they are based back in Gal space (with dreams of Megathrons dancing in my head…).

So, suitably encouraged, I began a multi hour romp of mission running.  I’m sure these will get old as I do them all repeatedly, and I’ll move into more PvP…errr “pew pew” play styles, along with a more aggressive industry stance, but it was fun.  The romp even included my first ever dip into low-sec space!

I took a screen shot (will post later) to commemorate the moment, and I realized how important one bit of advice I had been given was – never use a ship you can’t afford to replace completely.  I knew, noob as I was though, that I could replace the Tristan and its gear with ease from my still limited stash, and so I dove in head first.  I did encounter a blinky read battleship that put my heart in my throat, until I realized that he was 90km off in a staring contest with another battleship, this one bearing that familiar and comforting blue color.

I pulled a couple of courier missions and was starting to wonder if it was worth it when I got one about culling some Angel Cartel ships.   Well now, this was more my style.  I hopped one system over to the encounter…and promptly got my ass handed to me.  I warped out with about 40% of my hull intact.  Warping back to my home base, I did some research and realized that perhaps it was time to upgrade from Civilian Shield Boosters x2 in my medium slots.  Wow, haha, yeah….

I made some changes with what existing equipment I could grab and decided to give it one more go.  I had managed to drop a second frigate before I warped out, so the odds were down to like 6 or 7 to one.  There was really too much red to count.

I got back in and had a little more success, warping out this time at least with some armor shreds in place and 3 less frigates to worry about.  I began to wonder what kits I needed against Angels.  Anti EM?  That was really the only weak part of my scheme at the moment….anyway a few minutes along in a deadspace semi-safe (I gather they’re really only safe with a cloak) space repping my hull and armor, and I dove back in again.

2 more frigates and a…huh, I’ve never seen that before.  Right click, Look at.  Holy moses, how many turrets is that!  Is that a…?  Yes, that is what I think it is.  My very first encounter with a destroyer.  So I remember from Vasov’s blog where he took one on in PvP  a few weeks ago to stay calm, get in close, and stay close.  I also realized this was why those frigates had been hitting me so hard – this guy had been standing on the back line throttling me the whole time.

A few minutes of fancy manuevering and dumb AI later, I had taken out another frigate while keeping some space between me and the last two reds.  I decided to salvage the wrecks closest to me and see if I could draw the destroyer to me.  It worked.  I had him one on one now.  I sent the Tristan in full bore,  and watched with some suprise as my first Sabretooth blew a hefty chunk of his shield into nothingness.  I only later learned that the Thrasher was actually less well armored than my Tristan, even without the nanofiber plates I was packing.  I manage to get in to 1300m before he danced away, but he armor was already suffering at that point, and I stayed as close in as I could.  It was over quickly.

It took me awhile to get all the salvage together, despite having trained another level of my skill to hopefully reduce the number of sweeps needed.  But it was worth it.  When I docked up that night, I was a million ISK richer.

One down, fourteen or so to go!

When In Doubt, Buy a Bigger Ship

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE

At least, thats’ what I did.  I’ve been planning the move to a new system for about a week now, knowing I wanted to head near Corp offices to be more accessible to those who could provide help and to get away from the starter areas.  After a brief check with a fellow CoW  to make sure I had the right system, it was time to finally do the packing.

Originally I was going to pack my best frigate and whatever percentage of my best items I could fit into the Iteron that I got in the tutorial arcs, sell the rest, and be at peace.  But the problem is that I’ve got DMD.  Decision-making disorder.  I’m the guy that when you ask him, “hey, where you wanna eat at,” goes into fits and buries his head between his legs.  Yeah, I know, hell of a problem to have in a game like Eve. 

So I ran into problems almost immediately.  I wanted to haul the refined ore that I had since my guild (err…corporation) had said something about T1 ships at material cost/you-bring-the-materials deal.  And I wanted to hang on to my mining frigate, despite having a 5 run blueprint lying around for it.   And I had run a mining trip where the Iterons mere 3,000 m3 capacity was chafing me.  But Iterons have the advantage of coming in incremental marks, and a quick check showed me that I could be in a Mark III without too much trouble, and without much in the way of cost once I sold the two Mark I’s I would get from the tutorial arcs.

Course it  took me longer than I thought it would, in part because I had a DMD attack halfway through the 5 jump run to buy the Mark III, because I realized in scanning the market that the Mark IV wasn’t any more expensive.  I’d probably still be sitting out there in limbo space if I hadn’t finally realized that the armor and structure and shields of the IV are much lower than the III, and I’m not wily veteran enough to be doing that kinda stuff yet.

But by the time I had packed everything up (the Mark III + 3 Expanded Cargohold I = just shy of 10,000 m3) I had already drawn baby and wife aggro (in that order) and decided that I would have to make the 15 jump move to my new digs later on.  Soon, oh so soon, I will be ready to rock…by which I mean starting the procees to get my first cruiser.

Holy Moses!

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE

I was watching History channel the other day, that Battle 360 show about the Pacific Theatre (they are doing a Patton 360 this Friday, be sure to tune in if you dig that sort of thing, looks like it will be good), and they were talking about when US Navy pilots were issued the first High Velocity Aircraft Rockets for their Hellcats.   As I understand it, the 5 inch HVAR got its nickname from its initial use, wherein a pilot fired it off, saw it hit, and exclaimed “holy moses!”

And I had a kinship with that pilot, because that was about my reaction when I fired off my first missle in EVE the other night, from my brand new Tristan.

The Tristan, aka "Little Fat Man"
The Tristan, aka "Little Fat Man"

Now I thought the Punisher was a nice battle frigate, but it was worth every penny I spent to skill myself minimally on rockets and missles to put the Tristans launcher points to use.  I jumped out of my chair a little when the first missle leapt off its no-graphic launch point (note: personal pet peeve) and raced out towards the soon to be dead pirate.  And I swear the sound effect is sampled from the RPG launch effects in Red Dawn.

This student is clearly a fan of the passive shield tanking option.
This student is clearly a fan of passive tanking options.

I’m not entirely sure that I’m doing any more damage with that launcher than I would be with, say, another railgun, but it certainly *feels* more impressive. 

Anyway, I’ve finished the 30 mission arc that I was working my way through, since I activated my pre Apoc NPE character, and now its time to go join a corp and start making my way through that epic mission arc I suppose.

Oh, and I am insanely jealous of The Common Sense Gamer’s unexpected reception of a faction battleship!  Hey D, you wanna pay it forward to a rookie, here’s your chance!  (-;

Batter Up! Eve Splitter Incoming…

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE, MMO Design3 Comments

So I’ve been trying to decide whether to keep my pre-Apocrypha trial character or my post-Apocrypha one. 

First things first:  While most of the Apoc NPE changes were outstanding, overall it was a step backwards.  Putting the three tutorial mission arcs in one place was a good move for players to really have a chance to get their feet under them, as was the remaps, and extending characters free skill books for basic skills by completing tutorials.  Even changing the character background choices to have no impact was good because  it opens up the RP possibilities as your race and ancestry no long determine your particular attribute line up (Or at least, they did not for my new character, who started even across the board with 8’s and 9’s).  All of these were understandable.

What was not understandable was rolling back the starting skill count.  The offered reason was to help players ease into the game by giving them a less bewildering array of starting skills.  Of course the Dev announcing this fumbled by making a joke about not needing skill X since it was for action Y that only advanced players needed, only to have that do a 180 into his face like a Little Leaguer spitting Big League Chew upwind out the cheese wagon window on the highway.  Because skill X was in fact, not at all tied to action Y.  Strike 1, CCP!

Then CCP offers up that the drop in skills will be countered by a special speed boost that will allow skills to be trained at double speed until 1.6m SP.  Players point out that this is still slower than starting noobs with some basic learning skills to cut time down, as they had been doing before.  Strike 2, CCP.

Fawning fanboys quickly pull out their EVE calculators, and note that within certain parameters, players in both the old and new NPE will hit 1.6m SP within roughly the same time period.  CCP Devs rejoice that they have been bailed out, while astute players notice that CCP, who should have had that calculated from the get go, clearly had no idea that this was the case.  Strike 3…you’re out!

The bottom line is that this was not done for new players coming into the game.  I know this because I am that target audience, and it hindered my game experience!  Want to be Caldari?  Better learn the market early, because you will have a missle frigate, and guess what is not included in your 200k  50k(!) SP start up kit.  Want to be Gallente?  Better learng the market early, because every ship you get will rely in part on drone warfare, and guess what is not included in  your 200k 50k(!) SP start up kit.  Even more ridiculous?  The new tutorials, which supposedly hand out skill books to help make up that huge SP difference to start with, do not give out skill books for either of the above skills!  In fact, to even do the drone tutorial, one must first purchase the related skills and drones, fit them out, and only then can you even attempt the tutorial!

So its pretty clear that these chances were not meant for new players, or that if they were, the mark was missed.  Instead, it seems clear that CCP was addressing a different problem, as several other players pointed out: making alts and alt hopping less of a viable option by crippling these characters out of the gate.

What disease is it that makes game developers lie when they should tell the truth, and tell the truth when they should lie?

It’s like watching Roger Clemens desperately try to deny his steroid use – sometimes funny, sometimes angering, and mostly just downright sad.

So anyway, long story short, I can have a character with:

A) 950k SP (including 4 learning skills at 3+, and 2 skills at 5), 1.2m ISK, and 1 remap.

OR

B) 420k SP (including no learning skills, and no skills at 5), 5.6m ISK, and 2 remaps.

(Remember, they both have the 2x speed skill multiplier, since they are both under 1.6m SP.  And remember too, if I want anything other than balanced skills, I have to use 1 remap immediately on character B).

I’m leaning towards A pretty heavily, especially if I can find someone to hold the ISK on B before my trial time ends in 4 days or so…and even if I can’t, I still have 2 tutorial arcs on A, which is another 2+m ISK easy.

Pinch hitter time, which do you choose?

Found 'em! Does this mean I'm less of a noob now?
Found 'em! Does this mean I'm less of a noob now?

EVE has a new player.

On By HarbingerZeroIn EVE2 Comments

I'm so noob, I even screwed up the screenshots!
I'm so noob, I even screwed up the screenshots!

Seriously, I took tons of screenshots last night, and I have no idea where they are.  I assumed EVE would have its own folder for that kind of stuff, and I went to dig them out…but nope.  Suggestions welcome (you’ll probably hear that alot in my EVE posts).

But I’ve been having fun.  In truth I did it on a whim, in part because I’ve enjoyed reading The Ancient Gaming Noob’s posts about the game.  But I’ve been reading those for probably a year now.  I just got the itch one night to see how it worked.  I enjoyed PotBS, especially because it gave me a twitch to try my hand in virtual business, and EVE seemed like it was that, only alot more.  And it is.

I was fortunate.  I did a trial account just before Apocrypha, and then started a second one just after it landed.  The result is that I have gotten to see, in close order, both NPE’s.  And quite frankly, I prefer the former, even though that may not be the character I activate in the next week or so, when my second trial runs out. 

And in fact, I think the NPE will be a whole seperate post.  Mostly I want to say that the game in general has been alot of fun.  Taking the grind offline through the skill system has been a refreshing change of pace.  I’m free to set my own goals, achieve my own rewards, and I like that alot more than I thought I would.  Apparently I’m a “sandbox” kinda guy.

Current short term goal:  get the  cash and gear together to kit out an Arbitrator cruiser, and to run through the Epic mission arc.  Those two things may go hand in hand, though so far I’ve been able to pull in a million ISK a day between missions and the odd mining run in my tricked out Tormentor, “Dirty Business.”  Three x Expanded Cargo Hold ftw.

Long term goal: Upgrading the Arbitrator to a  T2 Curse class recon ship, which just looks like a lot of fun to play, between the transfers and being a drone carrier, and owning a Megathron (maybe Kronos, maybe Navy Issue, don’t know enough yet to have that nailed down).

Super long term goal:  Since I first heard about them being in the game last year, I have drooled over the possiblity of being a carrier pilot, launching waves of fighters.  Its been kind of a sci fi fantasy of mine outside of EVE too.  I spent plenty of time in MOO2 and GCII designing carrier-type spacecraft.  And I have no idea why, its just plain  *COOL* to me.

But that would probably mean some PvP stuff, and I mostly see myself being a mission runner and business type.

My first trial account I went Gallente, given my love of all things carrier, and their extensive use of drones.  But the second time, I went Amarr, and I’ve liked it better all around.  Visually I dig the ships more, they have the best drone carrier around south of a battleship (the Arbitrator mentioned above), and the tendency to be armor heavy is helpful given the amount of mistakes I’ll be making as a new player.  RP wise, I’d prefer the Gallante, but the Amarr aren’t bad for character hooks either.

Some random questions I still have:

1) Is there a way to look at the market for a particular station remotely?  Alot of times I will decide to sell something a system away, and it would be nice to have a short cut to seeing what other items would see better there, as opposed to just right clicking and skimming each of them individually.

2) When I go to upgrade my acount, should I pay the $20 online, or buy the $40 box?  And if I buy the box, should I convert one of the two months to a PLEX to get a good upfront cash infusion for my character?

3) Since carrier are a ways out, I’m going to be a drone guy for awhile.  Any drone tips or warnings?

4) Should I apply to EVE University?  Seems like a good starter corp for noobs like me.

And of course any other good advice you have, pass it my way.

And I’ll try to do a better job with the screenshots…

So if you get a chance, wave hello to Verhoff, son of some Wealthy Commoners in Amarr hi-sec space.

Current Mission Vessel:  Punisher

Current Mining Vessel: Tormentor