The new patch notes are a long and detailed read, not necessarily a bad thing.
Three things stand out for me:
- Jackdaw T3 destroyer that I want to play with.
- Sentry drone downgrade in stats, so I'll be testing my Domi fit.
- New iconology
I guess it's a case of take the good with the bad and whatever the new icons end up being.
Lots of other things that will improve the "quality of life" for Eve gamers/players/pilots are listed (new textures) along with the usual fixes. I wonder how the Drifter storyline will go....
I'm still plugging away the odd time with Star Trek Online.
I've been keeping my ships crew busy doing assignments.
They have helped my character to level to 52 without much of a problem.
So all in all not much of a change since I last posted about STO.
I did get to do the weekly mission/event that is currently based around the current theme(season 10), the Iconian's.
Meet and greet with House Pegh.
It was interesting.
I did find myself woefully outclassed in it's ending space battle. With sheer will and enough self explosions I finally got to the end of it. I wont' be repeating it.
I needed to do it, I needed something new. Being stuck with that one mission in the Romulan "episode" that refuses to let me pass and progress to the next episode is annoying.
Maybe skipping it was a bad idea....
The story telling in this game is really good and carries the missions forward well. The new episode is not different. I'm a fan of Star Trek and to get the most out of a Star Trek game it does help by being one but in no way would a non fan be hindered in the game.
I've only glanced briefly at some youtube videos and some sites that go into detail about character progression, stats, ship and personnel, and as soon as I dig that little bit deeper I loose interest. I'm not that into the game. Many people with sites, blog's and video channels also spent a lot of money on the game, I don't. I bought the special edition at the start and payed for a few month's to see what it was about with a f for a change from wow. So for STO I really am a brief casual player just dipping a toe in every so often. In doing so I'm sure I'm doing things wrong and not doing things I should to make life in the game easier like joining a fleet(corp/guild).
The next stages for me in STO looks to be levelling up the low level characters I have, Romulan and Klingon, then maybe going back to my low level Starfleet dude.
Lots of storytelling left to see.
With such a massive patch I'm really tempted to get back playing it again.
The only thing stopping me from doing so is the xbox live gold subscription. I'll need to find more online reasons to play on a de-mothballed xbox to make it happen.
In an effort to understand my Dust 514 gaming I wrote down my Dust 514 activity over two day's.
This entry is more like me thinking aloud so bear with me (raaaar).
My main is an Amarian (not that that that makes a difference), that I created just over a year ago.
He has 15.5 Million SP. Spread around in area's that do not deserve SP and that I dont' use, but they seemed like a good choice at the time. I will not be spending Aurum to reset them.
Doing matches has gained him a colossal amount of assets (suits/weapons/modules/vehicles) as he has upgraded gear/suits on the fly, been given freebies with the newsletter and gotten salvaged end of match items. He also has the opposite of the obsolete gear, a heck of a lot of gear he is not skilled into yet. The only additional items I had at the start are the Templar armour/weapons from the Eve 10th Anniversary boxset.
From Strongbox's I've also gotten:
'Quafe' Sniper Rifle
'Quafe' Plasma Cannon
'Quafe' Nova Knives
'Kaalakiota' Scout C-I suit
The character info screen lists his lifetime WarPoints at 335263, Kills at 2441, Death's at 4062 giving him a ratio of 0.60
He has no standings with any faction as I only join into Public matches and have avoided FW due to not being in a corp with a lot of people so mainly play solo.
Loyalty rank is level 2 with 4098 points to go to level 3. Rank 2 means 2.0% addition isk per battle.
Although I have a lot of suits and fits the bulk of the matches are played with two suits more often than not.
Assault Fit:
Amarr Assault A/1-Series
- Enhanced LDM x2 in the mids
- CRD-9 Assault Scrambler Rifle
- GN-13 Flaylock Pistol
- M1 Locus Grenade
- Templar drop Uplink
- Enhanced Ferroscale Places x3
- Enhanced Armour Repper
Overall cost for this fit is 42,360 isk
Sniper Fit:
'Kaalakiota' Scout C-I
- Enhanced LDM x3
- NT-511Sniper Rifle
- Nanohive x1
Overall cost for this fit is 17,745 isk
LDM=Light Damage Modifier
I usually login, see the daily login SP reward screen and go collect the warbarge items.
My warbarge has all it's subsystems to level 2. I have recently stopped spending components to claim experimental weapons. (My skills wont' allow me to use most of those rewards).
I'll than scan down the daily mission list, take into account the overall reward for X amount of missions completed and be left with a "to do" list of what I need to accomplish that I consider a "doable" in a gaming session.
e.g. Complete 5 missions to get X reward; Missions = Win 1 Battle, Get 25 Kills, Hack 5 Installations, Win 3 Battle's, Get 13 kills.
Even with the overlap these are a very doable list for me.
Ones I'll avoid are:
Earn XX,XXX SP in a single day, Hack XX Primary Objectives, Get 150 Kills, Destroy XX installations etc.
I will make certain exceptions for strongbox key's and the new Aurum currency reward so I will try to complete those in a greater push than normal.
Of the Public matches I join I've selected Ambush, Domination and Acquisition, excluding Skirmish. (Way too many large corp squads that cream solo/small group players).
On day one I played 8 matches with my main.
TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE
Domination 0 0 0 0 4294 Joined at end, Loss
Domination 9 2 8 7083 141627 Minor Protostomping, Loss
Domination 3 0 5 3290 153102 Protostomping, Loss
Domination 3 1 6 3962 153634 Protostomping, Loss
Acquisition 2 1 4 2561 94845 Win
Domination 4 3 4 4784 155980 Loss
Acquisition 1 2 6 0 136685 Semi afk (phone), Loss
Domination 3 1 8 4990 104939 Stuck between 2 Proto teams,Win
On day two I played another 8 matches with my main. TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE
Domination 6 3 6 7316 169757 Loss
Domination 14 9 7 11772 251022 Loss
Domination 2 2 4 2790 160796 Loss
Domination 5 4 6 5803 156799 Loss
Domination 1 0 0 0 14023 Joined at end, Loss
Acquisition 6 2 3 5756 229042 Win
Domination 9 5 11 8342 205821 Loss
Domination 4 2 7 7891 220753 Loss
Overall between the two day's I only seem to have had one good game on each day, both were losses as a match overall and both were my second match of the day.
Day two has slightly better overall results per match.
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My Alt is a Caldari, I started this character to see what a complete noob experience was from scratch.
There had been changes to the starting suits given and I immediately zeroed in on the Minmatar fit that was given being the best for my playstyle.
This evolved form starter suit to a standard and I'm about halfway into the skills for the advanced suit's loadout. These suits being prefitted with weapons and modules is great.
Her Lifetime SP is 2.3 Million, WP = 106982, kills=523, Death's=1235 Raio = 0.42
Even with the bad ratio like that (not that my main is any good) I find I have more fun and less frustration in matches. I think I've said this before but killing a proto player with all their finery with a little cheap weapon is just hilarious in my book. Not to mention the attention that that proto and his/her friends give me after that that does end in some funny situations.
This alt has no special items whatsoever, it's all militia and standard fair. SP all being pointed towards the Advanced Min medium suit. So thinking that she is specialised wouldn't be unfair.
Like my main there is a lot of gear and suits I wont' touch again and lots I will never skill into.
I treat the gamplay of this alt the same as the main.
Public matches I join I've selected Ambush, Domination and Acquisition, excluding Skirmish. work out a "to do" list from the daily missions etc.
There may be less options to choose from when in game (the main drawback is the lack of skills for an effective sniper fit), but I treat this alt the same as when on the main.
On day one I played 3 matches with my alt (3 was the magic number to complete the todo list). TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE
Domination 2 7 4 6249 151873 Loss
Domination 0 4 6 4082 139367 Loss, late join,protostomped
Domination 2 2 9 3214 95129 Win
On day two I played 4 matches with my main. TYPE K KA D SP ISK NOTE Domination 4 4 12 7965 175590 Loss(in more ways than one)
Domination 0 0 1 0 43800 Wini (joined at end)
Domination 2 1 11 6899 121040 Loss(protostomped)
Domination 2 5 5 3425 126461 Win
In retrospect I think I should stop playing the Alt, those numbers are depressing.
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For my main the matchmaker system feels like it will lump me in with a lot of what I think are
20Mill plus players or at the very least are players that are specifically
skilled into their chosen suit's/weapon's. And those suits and weapons
are indeed prototype's. There is a lot of protostomping, it's
unavoidable. pretty much all matches are "it" to a degree. I've also encountered at least two matches that had my side
pushed back "redlined", which really is a supreme protostomping.
If
it wasnt' for the rewards on the daily missions I think I'd have
drifted away from the game, maybe not totally abandoning it but only
going back every "now and again".
I also think I'm among the lower % of the community and as such my gripes are going to be among the most unchanged aspects of the game.
My match annoyances are:
Jumping/running fast scout explosive planters. (Even with the changes to explosive throwing)
Shotgun backstabbers.
Overall game annoyances:
Protostomers that make it look like there was no matchmaking system at all.
Super protosomping redline barrel f**kover matches that make me turn the console off.
Given the random number of SP that each player has and the wide spread of skills that it could be used on it is very hard to have a matchmaking system based on it, the meta level on gear seems to be the better choice but in saying that my Alt can wear a suit with a high meta number with 2 mill skill points and still face a 15 mill sp character in the same meta suit and that is so not a match.
It makes things an unequal battlefield to rejoice in the upward struggle as you try to claw up the SP ladder to use the good gear effectively, enduring the 10,000 feet stomping on the way better be worth the it....
Of all the things listed in the 1.1.2 hotfix patch notes the only thing that conceres me is the
"Orbital Strike War Point cost has been reduced by 20% for all strikes", because as if they weren't bad enough to endure there will be more of them spammed about.
This game has so much promise and with a small dedicated team that is working with the community to make it better and deliver on the potential it should be reaching a spot better than expected. I have said in a post before that I fear when CCP starts to retake more interest as I think they will override decisions for a worse result.
So all in all despite the lack luster numbers from my matches I really enjoy it. The game has me going back for more. A feelings that go deeper than the numbers the game generates.
Yeap it's happened, the missus has resubbed my account via the loose coin jar. 3 month sub at least.
The happened last Sunday and I've already experienced the dullness of grinding, the frustration of pugs and the endless alt hopping that for me is going to be my wow gaming. Alts again... soooo many alts.
But I've been a bit more restrained and I'm not in any mood to let wow cover all of my gaming time.
We'll see if that restraint can be held when the next patch hits....
FEL PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow weekly has all the info on the 6.2 patch....... very interesting!
After whittling away what my characters have actually done it appears to be very little actual activity.
So a lot less to blog about.
Both my Minmatar and main alts had been grinding away at some level 4 missions. But during it my main alt had a whoopsie.
All seemed well on the undock.
However the mission was a little bit sticky, high dps, webbers and a lack of proper alignment meant failscade.
The SP loss that goes with a T3 explosion, guts of 3 days training. not as bad ad the loss of isk.
Needless to say I lost the feel for grinding the missions after that. I consolidated my losses and parked up both characters. Thankfully my null alt made the loss good by replenishing ship/isk.
My Amarrian alt after a few month's of PI with a lack if a customs office on most of the planets decided on a little venture (not the ship), researched some POCO info and went to buy the needed supplies to put up a POCO herself.
All was going well but on reaching the planet I was unable to start putting up the POCO as there was a gantry already in place. This surprised me. I added the gantry to my overview setting so I could see it in space and found that all the planets in the system that lacked a poco had a gantry from the same 1 player corp up. I hate that kind of blockading mechanic. You'd think that an unused gantry in space would "de-orbit" after a week.... sod it I'll have to keep an eye on things. Maybe put one up somewhere else. I can image a war dec pretty soon after putting it up. Not the opportunity I had thought it would be.
My Null alt has relocated to his alliances new holdings and is doing well. The lack of a high mining index in the system means that some materials for mining are lacking. That should increase in time. Most POCO's in the system are still held my a smaller corp that had residency beforehand, due to ongoing teething problems and a lot of roaming reds (I had said before I predicted a main thoroughfare situation with the system), it is taking time to get things established. My null alt no longer had any income. No market, no PI and no ratting. Time will tell if this will pan out.
I've spent a lot of time moving ships/mods/materials top the new system, as such I've don it with a blank/clean clone. Thankfully I've not lost anything I was concerned about, only some T1 pvp shitfit ships.
Goo in space.
On passing back through a system where I had just been killed and podded in (I wanted to reclaim my dropped fit and corpse), I found a Seeker parked right on top of my wreck and corpse. I got what I returned for :)
Both of my Main Main's are living the quiet station bound gather SP life. The only thing that all my Hi-sec carebear characters have in common is that they maintain their PI.
I think a reddit link sent me to this The retouched images are really great! Eve space never looked better!
The skins are still way too pricey to be anything other than an expensive fad. If they dont' come down in price or free Aurum isn't sent my way I wont' be doing much more with skins. Evehermit had a good post about it.
A post on reddit showed where the options for the opportunities were located.
My anality with the new opportunities options shows there are flaws to the way that it doesn't link previous activities and is as Spock would say " quiet illogical".
Yes my alt can Reprocess ore and complete a manufacturing job while also bypassing installing a blueprint and starting the manufacturing process!
Comparing the old tutorial system and this opportunities system there should be some happy medium, A pop up Aura with actual speech of her text bubble would be so much better. Eve isnt' wow you can't just dump people in the deep end and laugh at them, people have very different expectations and effectiveness.
I've ended up tuurning it all off.
I've seen in game a lot of newbies wandering around with no clue as to what to do. At least in the old tutorials the wall of text gave information. Eve is not lile wow's quest system, in wow you can accept a quest not read the text and go kill 10 npc's to complete it. Eve is nowhere near that simple. This new way does increase the level of player interaction but dear god CCP must want these Eve virgins take advantage of.
I dont' go onto the test server much... maybe twice in the last two years but I was glad to see that an experianced player found them to be a pain in the áss. I'll be sticking to skipping those missions.
The Scope news is ongoing, I hope that it continues once the current story line is fully exposed.
I'm really looking forward to the next T3 Destroyer, maybe because most of my characters are Caldari.
It still looks ridiculously like a TV aerial. It was taken a few steps too far in that design philosophy.
The new sov changes are still on the longer finger, I wish things were confirmed and released sooner rather than later as the anticipation is really screwing around with nullsec, at least in my view at the moment.
Info on it is interesting reading, some like a few of the forum posts are really tinfoil hat space cadet material in good and bad ways. In saying that here is a good read on it: https://www.themittani.com/content/opinionated-analysis-entosis-links
The best and most exciting news for me is the new structures! This Dev Post has the latest news. It should be a really great way for payers to claim their own little (or large) portion of space.
Along with the good is the worry that I'll have no npc stations to place my gear/ships etc in. if that were to happen, if everything was player owned and there was even the 0.0000000001% chance I could loose anything I'd leave the game. That at least for me is my hi-sec deal breaker. I can understand it for null where the combat is at it's height but hi-sec empires without their own stations... crazy.
Again Evehermit has a good post on his blog.
I usually screenshot a lot of things as I play, a way of keeping a record of events and happenings. It's handy then for me to go back to find stuff that I can blog about.
In going through the last bunch of screenies I seem to have taken a lot of non ui screen's while doing "stuffs". While some can be hit and miss there are some that are worthy of desktop wallpaper consideration. Not that most of those below are worthy but it's an interesting bunch of pics, mainly centred around my alts doing PI collection, null alt roaming and my Amarr alt doing other stuff.
As always click to make bigger.
