August « 2009 « Our EvE

Upcoming EVE Expansion Details

In a recent press release, CCP has announced that they fully intend to add the ability to actually get IN spaceships and fly them around the New Eden galaxy. No longer will players be limited to walking around in stations or duking it out over planetary resources, but will have the opportunity to see uncharted realms of nebulae and stars, wormholes and anomalies. Finally, a space based MMO where you can assume the role of a slick combat pilot or a disenfranchised trader. You could be a great merchant tycoon, spreading your wares and influence over hundreds of systems or a puny, low-sec pirate, camping a lonely gate in Aunenen. . . .

Personally, I’m very excited to be able to fly spaceships. As I look back to why I started playing EVE in the first place, it was so that I could fly a spaceship. Science & Maths, PvP & PvE, Research & Industry were all just icing on the cake as I get to fly a spaceship. So maybe in my excitement and desire to fly a spaceship, I missed the memo that said I would like flying spaceships more if I could only get out of my spaceship and walk around in a station or shoot other people on a planet. Shoe-horning the sovereignty mechanic on top of this seems like a poor and somewhat tenuous connection to flying spaceships.

If I really wanted a walking avatar, I would have probably not chosen EVE and a game designed around flying spaceships. Maybe it’s just sour grapes and disenchantment over the lack of any real science and industry features being delivered in the Quantum Rise patch [hardly an expansion] or perhaps it is just “old-timers” disease whereby I cannot embrace the inevitable changes that happen to things you love [they grow old and die]? I just cannot ken the path CCP is charting and what I can see does not really impress nor intrigue me.

In reality, if I was really desirous of shooting people from a first person perspective, I would have stopped flying a spaceship some time ago and bought and played a first person shooter. Maybe even something like Dust 514 where I hear they are going to add “Flying In Space” [FiS] Soon™.

Drakes Done Again

In complement to Penny’s post about Drake fittings and changes, I thought I would post my own fit about how I have been flying it for maximum possible tanking. It currently tanks about 736 dps and it capacitor stable. There are other fittings that are also cap-stable with higher resists, but much lower dps tanks that I’m curious to try as well. I’ve dropped the Caldari Navy Launchers for the WH as I’m none to keen on replacing them.

High Slots:

7x Caldari Navy Heavy Missile Launcher (Scourge Heavy Missile)

Mid Slots:

Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Invulnerability Field II
3x Large Shield Extender II

Low Slots:

4x Shield Power Relay II

Rigs:

3x Core Defence Field Purger I

Drones:

5x Hobgoblin I

[Statistics]

Effective HP: 64,578
Tank Ability: 735.29 DPS
Damage Profile – (EM: 25.00%, Ex: 25.00%, Ki: 25.00%, Th: 25.00%)
Shield Resists – EM: 66.62%, Ex: 70.25%, Ki: 64.30%, Th: 72.35%Capacitor: Stable at 55%

Volley Damage: 1,539.62
DPS: 195.40

Where I Am

In a recent meme-sharing, eve-blog-wide, map-a-thon sharing session, many of us who post articles about their lives in the pilot’s pod, gave account of the places they’ve visited via the NeoCom map computer’s tracking of “Systems I’ve Visited“. For one reason or another, I skipped that part of my map and never managed to actually post anything about it. If you are interested in that still, you can look at the SIV link above and see the ground I’ve covered.

In an unrelated post, but similar theme, Godless Wanderer, recently posted a look at his skill training allocation in a graphical chart. This strikes me as a very similar meme. What are the skill breakdowns by size? Have you been spending your time in missiles or guns? Do you have support skills or just skimming along by the skin of your teeth? Where have you been?

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Where I've Been [Training"]“][/caption]I’ve used both EveHQ and EveMON to track skills in the past and don’t really have a preference. I would most prefer a native client solution for the Mac, but would settle for a platform agnostic web version or similar. Having said that, I’m posting my current skill pie for your perusal. I don’t have anything to gain by hiding the numbers, so like the maps, you know where I’ve been. The extremely high imbalance toward Science is directly related to our current activities in wormhole space and the desire to get Tech Three production up and running.

Regardless of what I managed to get trained, there is always something else I want to do and no less than 4-5 new skills [plus several that need raising] to get it. I only wish EVE gave you more choices on what to train!

So feel free to jump on the bandwagon and share some of your skill distributions. I would guess that most of you probably aren’t so wildly disproportionate in your skill sets, but I could be wrong.

Death of an Icon

This is one of those posts that doesn’t write itself. It doesn’t leap from your hands to the page [or fingers to the keys] with synaptic firing of ideas and thoughts that must be recorded quickly. It is quite frankly, the hardest post I think I have ever had to sit down and commit. It would be far easier to just walk away from it and try to ignore it, the pain and passion stuffed under the covers. Hot chocolate, ice cream and bon bons can only go so far before it must be dealt with. And dealt with is must be, or else there is no future and nothing more to move on to.

Lou Ferrigno died.

It was quick and painful. The Manticore uncloaked off the after impeller drives and locked and pointed my valiant Hulk. Almost immediately his friends were dropping out of warp, locking and firing. It was over before I could really do more than announce it on our com channels. Our hauler had just warped way, one other Hulk pilot lost his life as well as his boat and a third got back home easily.

A quick jump into a combat ship [any combat ship] and return warp, but they had already salvaged the wreck and cloaked or moved on. We chased the ghosts of combat past around the yard for an hour or so, never quite connecting or confronting our losses. It was probably for the best, as the taste of blood was fresh in my mouth [I bit my lip] and I was likely to have made even more mistakes and lost more ships. I am not, have never been, and likely won’t be a combat pilot of much renown.

And so it ends, the faithful friend of over a year, passing into the night of stars. There were many happy moments we shared together and I am choosing to remember them as well as the loss. I have already purchased and refit another ship in Lou’s absence. It’s not a replacement, but in time I will grow to love it just as much as I love my other children. I’ve been out and active in both the wormhole [WH] system we’ve set up in as well as flying around high security space. I’m coping and manage to contain my crying to the cargo hold of Luxury Yacht.

.On a related note, I’m learning Russian… Там будет кровь.

Freighter Fritters

I’ve been in the freighter a lot in the last couple of days, moving stuff from whatever place our wormhole [WH] system pops out at back to on of our main high security stations. It gives you a lot of time to think while your ship spends several minutes aligning and then a little bit longer getting up to speed and finally several minutes to actually warp across the solar system. I had always felt like it was the “align-and-warp” bit that took so long, but after several trips back and forth across the galaxy, I am becoming convinced it is the sheer distance to be covered at less than one AU per second.

While I’m speaking of time, the skills I’m training continue to accrue steadily, regardless of whether I’m in a combat ship or the Luxury Yacht. I bought the Mercoxit Refining skill and started training that up a bit as well. It was the only ore I didn’t know how to refine and honestly didn’t think I would ever be in a position to mine any of it. And here I am faced with regular deposits in our WH systems that need someone to give them some attention. I shall step up to the plate again I suppose and eat my fill.

Our EvE

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