15/05/11 08:39 AM
| Arkonor | 285 |
| Bistot | 217 |
| Mercoxit | 192 |
| Crokite | 187 |
| Hedbergite | 171 |
| Hemorphite | 168 |
| Jaspet | 152 |
| Dark Ochre | 147 |
| Pyroxeres | 118 |
| Kernite | 106 |
| Veldspar | 99 |
| Scordite | 93 |
| Gneiss | 90 |
| Plagioclase | 88 |
| Spodumain | 82 |
| Omber | 81 |
COPYRIGHT NOTICE EVE Online and the EVE logo are the registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights are reserved worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EVE Online, the EVE logo, EVE and all associated logos and designs are the intellectual property of CCP hf. All artwork, screenshots, characters, vehicles, storylines, world facts or other recognizable features of the intellectual property relating to these trademarks are likewise the intellectual property of CCP hf. CCP hf. has granted permission to Our EVE to use EVE Online and all associated logos and designs for promotional and information purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not in any way affiliated with, Our EVE. CCP is in no way responsible for the content on or functioning of this website, nor can it be liable for any damage arising from the use of this website. |
On Making More Mining
There is a certain need felt by many profession miners to be able to get more ore from their rock collections than the next guy. The thought of not having the very best possible set-up for ore extraction is nearly unbearable and they will risk gang and gank for a maximum yield mining boat. I have known more than a few pilots who have fit their ships to mine more ore in a cycle than they can hold at one time in their cargohold. And yet, there is still more ore to be had, more cubic meters of matter to collect. To scramble some popular culture, let’s see how deep the rabbit can mine.
The hardwirings for a miner are much more limited and are likely to see the pilot either leaving slots empty or putting semi-unrelated things in her head. The main hardwiring is the slot 10 ‘Highwall’ HX-series of mining yield improvements. Given that mining is done over time [for some pilots, any time mining is mind-numbing, stupor inducing, interminable hours/days/weeks/month/years], even the 1% boost can be significant. If you are an ice miner, then you will fill slot 10 with a ‘Yeti’ BX-series hardwire which reduces ice miner cycle time. There is an additional implant for slot 10, the ‘Highwall’ HY-series which reduce the CPU need for mining upgrades, but this is more easily accomplished with the CPU implant ‘Gypsy’ KMB-series which keeps slot 10 open for either mining or ice implant upgrades. Using the KMB-series of implants will also be beneficial while flying other ships.
As mentioned in other posts, the capacitor implants, namely the ‘Squire’ CC2/4/8 and the ‘Squire’ CR2/4/8, for increased capacitor and faster capacitor recharge will benefit the miner just as much as the PVP and PVE pilots as well as being just as useful for jumping in other ships and maintaining capacitor while flying.
The last hardwiring implant for a miner to consider is the slot 10, Mining Foreman Mindlink. This is an advanced hardwiring [requiring Cybernetics V] that improves the effect of the pilot as a mining booster on his or her fleet. This is almost essential for a corporate mining leader and the cost quickly recovered by an Orca pilot who is boosting a fleet of Hulks. For a Rorqual pilot, it should be a minimum requirement as it creates a set of insane yield boosts for the rest of the miners.
On how to make your escape easier
So there I am shooting a couple of Hulks, but with only a single point fitted to my Manticore. I have a Tengu about to breathe down my neck, so I am not expecting to destroy both exhumers, but I am still trying to put the fear of Penny in them. I do this by cycling my disruptor between the two ships, exploiting the peculiarities of warp engines. When a ship is trying to enter warp but is prevented from doing so the engines will return to their previous mode of operation. What I am relying on is that the pilots went from being stationary to trying to enter warp directly, which when disrupted will cause the ship to ‘stall’.
Cycling the point between the two ships is a risky tactic, as it theoretically shouldn’t work. Either pilot should recognise when the engines are being disrupted and when they are not, and align manually to their escape route, engaging warp drive as soon as the point drops. But the stalling problem is compounded by another quirk, in that the escape route in w-space will often be your tower (or a wormhole, which suffers the same way), and warping to a bookmark is controlled by a context menu. Having to navigate the menu is rather more involved than rapidly punching the warp button on the overview.
Essentially, unless the pilots know exactly what’s happening and take care to align manually, their slow Hulks will never be able to get up to three-quarter speed in order to enter warp. Trying to enter warp directly and stalling the ship will reduce the Hulk’s velocity such that accelerating from zero takes longer than the cycle time of my warp disruption module. Of course, selecting a celestial object will open up the possibility of spamming the warp button, which is right next to ‘align’, another convenient button, but this is a risky move for the defender. The attacker could follow, and soft targets generally warp more slowly than pointy ships. As the defender still has to enter warp again once the celestial object has been reached, in order to get back home safely, all he has done is move the encounter.
Thinking further, using a celestial object to avoid using a bookmark to warp to could be effective if the celestial object is the moon where your tower is anchored. You still need to warp again once the moon is reached, the short distance to the tower, but anyone following will be at the mercy of the tower’s defences, making it a safer position to warp to. And you get to align easily and spam the warp button. At least, you could, if it were possible to add a single moon to the overview. Adding moons in general only makes the specific moon awkward to single out and clutters up the overview. But maybe you can add that single moon to the overview, just indirectly.
I’ve encountered a solution to adding the tower’s moon to the overview before, I just haven’t recognised it. Of course, it may not have been used as such a solution, but it occurs to me that anchoring a territorial claim unit to your moon creates a superior escape route. The TCU appears on the overview from anywhere in the system. It can be warped to, aligned to, and placed on the same grid as the tower. There will be no need to navigate relatively fiddly context menus to align or warp to a bookmark in a panic, and even though you won’t be inside the tower’s shields arriving at the TCU will provide covering fire from the active defences.
Maybe the TCUs I’ve so far encountered have nothing to do with providing a better escape route, and are anchored for completely different reasons. But it seems like a good idea to me to anchor one to provide a convenient point visible from anywhere in the system that can be accessed by standard navigation tools. The TCU may advertise the location of your tower, but that is far from a secret anyway. I’m wondering if a territorial claim unit may just save your clone.
On Adding, Subtracting and Finding Yourself Happy
 Some things are easily quantified and measured. They can be numbered, totalled, divided, analysed and reported. This is basic maths and accounting, in that you know how much of something there is and how much it is worth in time, effort, profit, etc. These are the things that most people aim for and are more than happy pursuing. More and better ships, profit, ore, isk, research, production, flying, etc.
On the other hand, there are the unquantifiables. The things that defy counting and spurn attempts to wrangle them into mathematical formulae. The time spent teaching a new corporation member the way things are done or walking a newbie through basic scanning 101 can be really hard to put a number on/in/by. How do we assign a value to the logistics pilot that kept several millions or even billions of isk on the field longer in a fight? Is there any quantitative measure for the time spent making sure the POS was set up efficiently so that arrays were easily accessed without flying back and forth all over the bubble? How about the amount of energy and resources put into manning a gate camp?
Still another thing to consider is how much isk is enough? The answer ranges from the PVP pilot who like heroin addicts, just wants enough for the next fix, er, ship to the full-on industrialist/trader who needs all of the isk to be satisfied. Most of us fall somewhere in between where we have a comfortable point, varying slightly by our preferred hulls and fittings. We could all use more and could survive on less.
Orakkus recently wrote about what it takes to be a Solid Pilot, and I think it is just as applicable to the discussion of value [and worth a plug as well]. There is a certain value to a pilot that can fully fit a sniper battleship and the one that knows she needs to stick to something else. It is often immeasurably valuable for fleet commanders to know that the the people in the fleet know their roles and can adequately fill them. I am afraid of only two things in EVE: 1) Logging in and finding that my friends have decided to pack it up and move to some other venue; 2) Idiots.
The first is mitigated by the communication channels that friends share in and outside of New Eden but the second is something that shatters dreams in fits of screaming nightmares. This is another item of value that is hard to quantify. How long do you invest in people that seem to be unable to learn or at least very slow to pick things up? Almost every cost/benefit analysis argument generally boils down into either a he-said-she-said situation or becomes so subjective as to be meaningless.
On Scanning, Shooting, Salvaging, Harvesting, Hauling and Helping
In a whirlwind rush, the list of things to get done piles up and begins to look like a impending avalanche. There may be fields of ore just floating out in our system patiently waiting to hear from our barges. There are definitely wormholes that have yet to be found, surveyed, catalogued and stored. There are gases dispersing, hoping to be harvested and stored until processing. There planetary resources to extract, refine, process and export. There are reaction to be run, research to be installed, POS arrays to be unanchored, moved, anchored, onlined and utilised. There are resources to be exported, sold, contracted and traded. There are fuels, modules, ships, ammo and skills to be imported. There are possibly neighbours that would like us to alleviate their shields, scour their armour and generally remove their hulls from them.
And none of that even begins to include the number of people that need to be thanked, congratulated, hailed, ignored, watched, befriended, shot, reshipped, berated and/or bereaved. Throw in some ongoing conversations about the nature of the universe, whether ships really fly in space or swim through it, who did what to whom and where to go to get some good, hard spiked Quafe.
The world we live and fly and fight and engineer in is rich, deep and very, very personal. It takes more than just a passing interest in spaceships and spreadsheets to appreciate it fully. This is not to say it’s perfect. The interface confounds me on a regular basis, my ship seems to occasionally have a mind of its own, the drones only respond 100% correctly on the second Tuesday of each week and occasionally my overview tells me I’m somewhere else.
We are busy little Wormhole Engineers. We like our part and the jobs we do. If you are looking for a stable source of income and relaxed, arm-chair piloting – keep flying. There is none of that out here.
On Friends Coming To Join Us
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="Bandits In The Hole"]  [/caption]
This last week or so has seen our good friends and alliance-mates the Fearless Bandits come out to play. They are mainly the Greater Realms’ highsec mission and PVE corporation but they are looking for some diversion and adventure so they have trundled out to the wormhole to set up shop. They have already proven their worth on multiple occasions previously, have been a part of the alliance planning and development from the beginning and we are thrilled to have them along for the ride. It is always a good thing to have more friends around.
While they are primarily focused on mission running in high security, Empire space, they have very quickly adapted to life out in the ‘holes. There are still questions to be considered and answers to deliver, but it’s still a pleasant addition. They now have their own tower up and happily living from it as they join us for several combined operations. Initially they packed light and so we’ve loaned out a few of our now standard fits for them to use. It has helped to know exactly what they are flying and how it should perform in integrating them into our “well-oiled machine” [insert laughter here].
In addition to FEARL coming out to play, we’ve added several new faces who are old faces come round again. Some former corp-mates from long before have finally rejoined us and really stepped out mining/refining game. Hats off to them for helping to capitalise on the resources we just had floating around for lack of more barge pilots.
On Scanning For Wormhole Space
So you are reading all of the wonderful posts about living the adventurous life out on the edges of uncharted space. You might have heard some enticing tales about the bountiful harvests to be had from slaying Sleepers and easy access to high end ores. The main thing is, you’ve heard about all the inherently cool things about living in a wormhole, now you’re ready to make it a reality. In order to help you, here is some information from the Wormhole Engineers [né Dark Star Galactic Engineers - Wormhole Division] as we learn from our wormhole operations.
The decision to explore in wormholes has a very low barrier to entry. Skill-wise, all you’ll need [theoretically] is Astrometrics trained to level 3, an astrometrics frigate [Heron, Magnate, Imicus, Probe], an Expanded Probe Launcher and some Core Scanner Probes. While these are the minimums really for finding a wormhole, you’ll likely benefit from training [should go without saying]
- Your racial frigate skill higher or a Covert Ops Frigate [Tech 2 astrometrics frigate]
- Astrometrics to level 5 and picking up a couple of additional scanning support skills
- Astrometric Rangefinding will increase your probes scan strength which is essential to finding the harder sites
- Astrometric Pinpointing reduces your scan deviation which makes your scans more accurate
- Finally, Astrometric Acquisition lowers the amount of time each scan takes which adds up when locating a specific site will take 4-7 scans
You are looking for ‘Cosmic Signatures’ in general and specifically the ones of type, “Unknown”. These represent the wormholes that you are going to kill you later. I’ll skip explaining exploration because it’s been done several times over by better scanners than I. For a start, check out CCP’s own video on the process. You’ll learn how to better position your probes with time and experience, but it will get you started. Google is your friend for finding some other videos and tutorials on scanning, so I’m not going to bother trying to explain it.
Before I go any farther, let me recommend that you go read miningzen’s post about how to survive in a wormhole. It doesn’t do you any good to find the wormhole only to turn around and have it beat you senseless multiple times. Never mind, strike that. If you spend any time at all in wormhole space, you ARE going to die. Repeatedly. It is still a good idea to read the above post. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything, you will come to understand it as you wake up in your clone the next couple of times. While you are at it, update your clone.
Take some time and get to know the scanning interface and it’s quirks and foibles. You are going to be spending a lot of time using it and won’t want to have to learn it while under fire in an emergency. Get in the habit of cloaking to scan. I’ve seen way too many people out scanning in wormholes in an uncloaked ship and most of them managed to get popped. If you survive, you will hopefully be left with a set of warp-able points that you can bookmark and explore. Sleepers love to uncloak ships and they will vaporise astro-frigates faster than you can click a target to warp out. I’ll try to put together a rough look at various ships and how they perform in wormholes in another post.
I once had a dream of a gleam, of a gleam in my eye
And I’ll have it till the day I die
I had a thought bubble of trouble, of trouble and strife
And I’ll have it for the rest of my life -(TMBG)
- It Sucks
The warm fluid surrounds me. The merest thought engenders actions that serve only to indulge the slightest whim of my fancy. The only thing missing is euphoria of human contact – and that is easily overlooked in lieu of the near omnipotent control available via my synaptic pathways. I am the capsuleer. I am immortal.
And good thing too – when a capsuleer falls asleep in their pod, bad things™ happen. Take for instance the most recent escapades while harvesting gas. It’s not a difficult job and sometimes your mind wanders. This time it hasn’t just wandered, my mind has set out on full scale expedition to calculate the inertial energy involved in blinking. My mind was gone, Gas Gone, as it were. Fortunately, my partner, the estimable scanner extraordinaire and EFT mogul, Mick was along with me, happily sucking in his own share of gas. [With his Tech 2 harvesters and the ability to mount 5 of them, his share is larger than my share.] So at least one of us is on guard, paying attention to d-scan, watching for probes/ships and generally preparing for anything.
Um, no.
Ripping a hole in fabric of time and space, two cocky jockeys in significantly powerful ships step appear right next to us, locking us down and shredding what little is left of our ships, pods and dignity. I know they had to have cheated because sure an alarm would have went off in my head [if I had been paying attention] and no one can sneak up on Mick. Unless of course we happen to be mining gas. I am more convinced that some of the fullerenes either leaked from the cargoholds into our pods, or messed with our sensors.
In a heart and frankly hull pounding few seconds, I am relieved of a small Gallente cruiser with 4 gas harvesters and some expanded cargo modules. Mick is in a similarly equipped Dominix and well insured. In the interminable few seconds that it takes for the foes BS to lock our pods, we are desperately and simultaneously trying to exit the warp disruption bubble the Onyx has thrown up, spamming the ‘warp to’ button and praying that something would go horribly wrong with their systems in the meantime.
The last thing I happened to see before waking up somewhere else is my pod flying through Mick’s wreck and thinking, “It should be bigger for a battleship”. I honestly feel a bit dazed and confused, not unlike waking in an unfamiliar room after traveling and having to remember that you even made a trip. It begins to filter back in bits and pieces. Gas. Exequror. Onyx. Domi. Megathron. Pods. Flash. At first it seems strange to be in a station, having flown so long without docking. And where is my ship? My pod? “Oh, look, someone left a selection of ships for me to chose from. How thought of her.”
So now I get to start over. The ship and modules were relatively cheap and no great loss. I have other. I lost some expensive implants, but frankly I considered them lost soon after I plugged them. If I was worried about losing them, I would have never undocked, let alone fly around in a wormhole. I managed to somehow remember that I had a jump clone somewhere in the universe with some old ‘plants in her head and after running into every conceivable error managed to repeat the whole unpleasant wake up in an unfamiliar place routine of a few minutes ago.
This station turns out to actually be quite far away from anything, which I think maybe why the clone was out here to begin with. I have also neglected to leave a ship in the hangar resulting in a hurried search of the market for an appropriate shuttle or frigate to get out of the system in. A few moments later I am busy flying a Gallente shuttle across seventeen jumps back home, 11 through low-sec. Why choose the low-sec route? Well, I just lost my ship and several million in implants, who really cares if I lose a few more low level implants. Besides, the 29 jumps through high-sec was more likely to kill me.
In a final twist of irony, I had been trying to get out of the wormhole for a couple of days to get some manufacturing jobs installed for some of my corp-mates. Using this fortuitous depodification, I zip over, put the job in the oven to bake. Carpé Diem.
Sensing that enough adrenaline has finally burned off to allow an attempt at sleep, I decide to call an end to flying and dock up for interim. I am immortal, yes, sleepless, no.
When the hands that operate the motor lose control of the lever
When the mind of its own in the wheel puts two and two together
When the indicator says you’re out of oil should you continue driving anyway? -(TMBG)
[caption id="attachment_441" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Turkish Gas Rooster"]  [/caption]
I’m not sure what to make of the fullerene gasses that we harvest in the wormholes. They are by and large fairly low revenue items, plentiful to locate and annoyingly mundane. I have to admit upfront that I am a compulsive miner. I didn’t start mining because it was a “quick revenue stream” early in a missioning or PVP career. I’m a miner because I really hate rocks. Or because I am good at it and like to keep track of rocks and what is going on with all the systems in and with my ship.
Gas on the other hand in mundane. Even for an especially hardcore mining carebear. The cycles are blessedly short, but so is the yield and the satisfaction of filling your cargo hull is just not the same. The effect is compounded by the amorphous cloud that you are working it that varies from too bright to look at to obscuring your view of the heavens around you. I feel like a waitress at a very stodgy gentleman’s club full of cigar smoke and nearly dead investment bankers hoping to die before they have to go home.
Having said all this, I’ll continue to harvest gas and clear out ladar cosmic signatures.
[caption id="attachment_418" align="alignleft" width="64" caption="I Am Your New Master"]  [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_421" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Bistot Is Primary!"]  [/caption]
Quick note: It looks like Bistot has edged Arkonor out as the mineral of highest refined value. Due in large part to the fact that Zydrine hasn’t fallen in price as much as Megacyte.
Which describes how you’re feeling all the time
Which describes how you’re feeling all the
Feeling all the time – (TMBG)
Who knew, but apparently the lack of postings has something to do with CCP and the immanent release of the newest expansion Dominion for EVE. We’re all on pins and needles wanting to know what is going on and how it will affect us and where it will all lead. This fascination/ apprehension over the coming changes is responsible at least in part for the lack of verbage being generated by yours truly.
Or it could simply be, we’ve been busy with our projects and are trying to keep them all afloat. On the training front, the pursuit of Amarr Command Ships continues apace, but my arch-nemesis has managed to beat me there. I’ll have to settle for being the gal who keeps her alive when the DPS pilots all get ganked. Of course that is assuming my Guardian isn’t the primary anyway. 
Probably needless-to-say, but the coming changes have people screaming their heads off on the forums about gimping this and nerfing that or buffing the other guys stuff at the expense of ignoring their own personal needs. Let’s just be honest with each other, what we all really want to see are faction Destroyers and Battlecruisers.
|
|
