Eve Online....

Well, well, well, a freebie worth claiming on the in game store. 7 days of free Omega game time.

Who'd have thunk it! Akin to the way Star Trek Online does some giveaways, but this is one of the few times something of actual value has been given free on the in game store in Eve. I can't really think of anything else that springs to mind. It's a precedent for sure, both for Eve and the store never mind it being of 'real' value. CCP has a hard time of doing things like giveaways of value, real value.... So fair dues to them.... That it coincides with the expansion launch and a week of login 'gifts' is also no real coincidence but it's good for gamers. Or should I say better for gamers. Either way I don't get to say that often at all in regards to Eve and CCP.....  

So once I'd seen the news the first thing I did was to confirm on my main that it was real. It was(It's CCP, you never know what the 'catch' is)! The next thing was to contact two friends, old Eve veterans. One returned within an hour of contact; The other not so much. By'the'by for anyone who reads this blog long-term, the guy who did come back is the guy I mention more for loosing ships and isk than anything else. I contacted him at 11PM his time(we're still on opposite sides of the globe), we stayed online chatting etc for about 30 mins... That's to say I then logged off... He stayed online for another 4 hours reworking his P.I. and production chains. When Eve hooks you it hooks you.

Not sure he'll spend cash on any more game-time, neither will I but I can see why CCP would want to give the freebie etc. It's just so strange that there should be a hint of good will along with the blatant 'pay for our overpriced subscription'(something else to be bitter over). It'll take a lot more 'good will' for my CCP Gripes to be alleviated... But I wont drone on about those I've enough past posts bemoaning CCP actions etc(here, here, here, here, here and here).

So I've 12 Alt accounts from a verity of times(old trials etc etc that I've also blogged about a long time ago) and my 2 main accounts means that 14 accounts are now active. I'm sure that will help with the CCP statistical skew. Of course I have an unhealthy dose of skepticism. Presedence may be set but CCP has a history of not being consistent. This is a freebie that may never be seen again(odds are more in favour of that).

So what am I going to do with my mains and alts with this gift of game-time.... Nothing. CCP has not learned form what STO knows about keeping players active. CCP may mimic in store freebies to get players into the game, claiming from that store and seeing what they could buy; But Eve is a passive skill point game. STO takes active play and gives freebies to boost and be used! Yes that's a very simplified version of 'things'. But for CCP to have meaningful giveaways to draw players AND keep them will take more than just a valuable claimable store item. I'm waffling and it's all very off the cuff; But CCP need to come up with more to make it more meaningful for players long-term. Something like what Star Trek Online's Lifetime sub does. Oh wait! CCP did.... Mystery code(FFS)! I'm gonna stop now before I really rant and link all my old ranting blog posts. With the games third decade on the horizon I'll just leave this here:

"This is just the beginning of what the Mystery Code will unlock.  In the future, whenever we have big things happening—not just across the EVE Universe but across all CCP games—you will find a Mystery Code element to enjoy.
There’s much more planned we can’t discuss right now, but you can rest assured that as we continue our journey into the Second Decade with you, the Mystery Code will be your perfect traveling companion."

So it begins pt2.... Update 10 - Finale

Both Trials were decommissioned last night. Isk was used to buy some ships and modules. All modules, ships and other items were handed over to my "main alt".

We didn't end up doing anything else with the trials. It's been a bad week to try gaming together. That's they way the cookie crumbles. I'll try another trial in a week or so with a true purpose. This time around wasn't enough to convince herself of the Eve experience, it was all too much to get her head around. She knows a lot more than she did before. It's like this for a lot of people. Maybe if the starter experience is updated soon I'll persuade her to try it again so "see what's changed". Good thing she doesn't read my blog ;-p

So it begins pt2.... Update 9

What has happened are a few more missions in the epic arc. Unfortunately when doing a mission solo she lost her Catalyst in a combination of too much incoming fire, slight panic, attempts to react and attempts to recover. It ended in her exploding. her first lose. I traded over my Catalyst so she could go on while I went 10 jumps back to collect the Atron frig I had setup. Isk was tight so no new Cata for me just yet. We went on and cleared a few more missions.

The Eve trials have been the same since, very much on the back burner.
They only have about 4 day's left but I can't see them being used as RL circumstances wont' allow.

It's been RL circumstances that have curbed my gaming and is going to continue until the weekend.
So for these alts its the end of the road unless we get some game time together in the next two day's.

On an up note the ships and gear we have will be passed onto the next iteration of my trial alt.

So it begins pt2.... Update 6, 7 & 8

We did some skill updates on both our trial's but did not undock. I went to my mains rather than do anything in the ninja loot arena.... Some nights are like that... That's two in a row.... now three....

So it begins pt2.... Update 5

Day's 6 to 9


There isn't much that has changed. At this time my other half has finished her career agents. She has purchased the rest of the skill books that she needs and is busy skilling them up.
With about 2 weeks of trial time left the epic arc for the Sisters of Eve is now in the crosshairs.

While helping her out with the aspects of the game as we go it does show how quickly I can get through the "starting area" and career agents. It's the same in every game, until you know how to get around and understand the game you will be slower, it takes time.
Eve's tutorials and career agents do not lend themselves well to it.
She's asked me to "look at this", "how do I do this" and "where do I go now" a lot, naturally. Even I have been caught out a few times with how the game works trying to explain things. That type of thing doesn't give a good impression of Eve to the new, really genuine starters to Eve. Like the agent conversation not updating properly to recognise that you have item X in station Y. I've found that I open a new convo with an agent to see this without even thinking about it, subconscious workaround.

My idea of equating wow practises to something similar in Eve has unsurprisingly failed, mining asteroids does not in any way shape of form seem to compete with a female goblin mining an ore node all the while delicately holding a pick axe between her index and thumb with her little finger in the air.
What was I thinking!

I've recently updated Star Trek Online and logged into it for a moment, in that moment it showed me a conversation that was better than any current tutorial in Eve. It opened a com link to my character showing the mission giver, having him talk through what needed to be done. Even leaving out the moving head, voice acting is not to be under-rated. The older Eve Aura voice tutorials should be brought back, and edited to be more like an engaging conversation. They are one thing I really missed between my original starting trials when I was first getting into the game.

I've said before that it took three tries to get into the game myself. I'm sure my other half considers Eve to be my game alone. She can't see herself continuing after the trial.
She is getting some insight into what I've been doing (or obsessing?!? about) for years.
I think I've exploited her curiosity. Good timing!
The future may hold another trial. She has some insight and can be quicker off the bat to get into it in another trial. Maybe her second or third time will be the one, only time will tell.


Otherwise I've been doing things on my null alt with mining and production....

Ready.... Steady.... Mine!!!!

A replacement in the making..... No I didn't lose one.... Just being prepared....

So it begins pt2.... Update 3 & 4

Day 4
The night started with the usual rounds of PI/skill updates for me before moving onto the trial alt #2. This worked out as my other half had logged onto her trial at about the same time.
We finished off the rest of her military agent missions, visited the main trade hub and picked up some modules, chatting about fittings a little as we went.
Besides a bit of skill book buying and learning there wasn't that much else done. It was a light enough night.

I got to take my alt and scan out a BS in a mission, warp in with my salvage ship and looted and salvaged a few mill worth. That replenished the coffers.

 

Day 5

Day 5 only saw minor game time for her, skill updates and general station spinning for a little bit.
I was similar, taking the opportunity to mine on my null rather then use the trial alt#2.

By the time the system became "unsafe" to mine in I relogged as trial alt #2 and tried to scan down a mission again. No so much luck. I think I'm running into the same problem as the first alt had. Better scan skills = not being able to scan people down any better. In fact it seems to be a lot worse. I tried it for a bit but tiredness at 2 a.m. won out.

So it begins pt2.... Update 2

Day 3 turned out to be a log in and update the skill queue kind of night.
There was a quick new skills check, a brief look at what the next mission was. General checking out of some settings, ships and module/fittings.
I did a small intro to show her info on ships and modules, and the dont' mix gun types as well as the don't duel tank unwritten rule.
There was some checking on market "things" and I talked about the main trade hub for the faction. She got a GM convo who was asking how things were going, it's a nice touch for a game.
She was also lucky to get a random 1 Mill isk donation. I dont' know if the GM and the random isk donation are related but they happened around the same time and she was very happy. All in all a good night.

Plans are for her to finish off the career agents and then both of us to move onto the Epic arc. I might slip in some ninja salvaging while I wait.

That first trial alt experiance....

Linked here for convenience.

So it begins.....

So it begins..... 2

So it begins..... 3

So it begins..... 4

So it begins..... 5

So it begins..... 6

So it begins..... 7

So it begins..... Update 8

So it begins..... Update 9

So it begins..... Update 10

So it begins..... Update 11

So it begins..... Update 12 - Finale

Eve Weekend.... So it begins pt2.... The Intro

I've been doing the rounds of the usual Eve housekeeping over the weekend, PI, skills and some ship/gear clearing and sorting.

My Null alt has been doing the same and updating market orders. His time in null is still being hampered by the large amount of reds and neuts in systems. The alliance despite it's pvp nature could only manage token resistance and a half arsed mail sayin
g go mine/rat in other systems not experiencing so much "attention". Charming.
I'll not be reseating myself. I've got PI chains that I'll not be able to shift. I'll wait things out (again) and get the PI done when I can.
 
Most of my Eve time was taken up with a new trial alt. And my wife created her's! I was surprised. Very surprised.
Her mmo background, less the facebook games is Wow, Rift some Guild Wars 2 and more Wow. Did I mention Wow. Yea she is a big Wow'er.
The transition from Wow to Eve was an interesting one. Her desire to play Eve was not borne of a lust to see internet spaceships, but because I wanted her to "try it out", so perhaps a little curiosity mixed with a bit of "better do it to shut him up about it".

I dont' think that Eve itself will have any great draw on her playing or maintaining an interest in the game. Wow has such an accessible gravitational pull I'd be surprised if she play's past a week. I'd be exceptionally surprised if she played it on her own.

Day one was last Saturday, late afternoon after a break from a wow session she tried it, she clicked the link I had sent a while ago for a 21 day trial. we both created a character at the same time.
She liked the character creation screen a lot, the features and the look and feel were a great start to the Eve introduction. As was the starting movie, heavy in content and idea's but a good start.
Her pc is not a mean gaming beast and it took a moment to load the game, while waiting we talked about the captains quarter's, the button for hanger was clicked and the quarter's were never seen. Pity as I'd say if she saw her character walk about her quarter's it would have drawn her in more. I'd say a lot of people are like that. I do hope the future holds an extension to the "walking in stations" mode.
We went through the Aura starter missions. The large amount of text on screen for the help/explanation's was quickly ignored or clicked through without reading in favour of as she put it "you can tell me what to do", so I did. This lead to me trying to not use words and phrasing that are common to any Eve player, comical on my part, frustrating on hers when I did start to get "technical", especially while in npc combat where there was a sense of urgency even with no imminent danger.

From there we did the first 5 of the combat career agent. Progression and learning as she went was good.  In my view the biggest problem for her was the concept of only using the mouse and a few keys on the keyboard. I could see her hand instinctively float over the WASD keys. I also found my bad practise's in eve highlighted to me even more so now. I am a mouse clicker. I rarely use the F keys or shortcut keys. I "may" need to do better but this old dog and that trick is a hard thing to change.

Day two on Sunday evening saw no real recap, just a few words to remind what to do. Some more career agent missions were done. The military agent was completed on her own and I suggested the business agent next, which she also started into and completed. I think she enjoyed those missions better then the pure combat. She saw and learned more about what happens in Eve and gained more isk, loot, skill books and did a lot more skill queue planning.

The next stage is to see how the week goes and see how she gets on with the other agents. I'm sure she will be fine but if there is no real hook then it wont' keep her past the free 21 day's dabble.
I've been pleasantly surprised so far. She knows the next step after the career agents is a thing called the Sisters of Eve Epic arc.  I'll team up with her to get through that and try to share knowledge and fun as much possible.

Other than that all I can do is try to point her towards the area's of eve that are similar to area's in Wow. She likes the auction house, I'll introduce her to the market properly in Eve. She likes to gather items and use them, salvage, loot and asteroids beware.
The big hook would be to see if there is an active corp that she can get into that is like her own in Wow, that will not be easy. If that were to happen I'd take my new trial alt and ruin a players day by being a ninja looter MTU destroying wad. Let the good times roll. 

I might see if she will put a few typed words together and I'll share them here.....

So it begins..... Update 12 - Finale

Last Saturday saw the last use of the trial alt. I had traded / handed over 99% of the gear/ships and items bought with isk that needed to be handed over. He just had the scan ship, salvage ship and a dps (if that's what I could call it) ship for killing MTU's.

I got to scan down and collect a good lot form a level 4. Even with the missioner seeing me he only got to salvage one room of 4 from the mission. The rest got me just over 14 million in salvage and loot. So that was good.

Later that day I scanned down an mtu of a mission in progress, seemed like a small level 4 or maybe a level 3 mission. With the missioner still in the pocket I decided to shoot the mtu, this went on for a while, they said nothing in local and didn't try to collect the mtu, they just sat there. I was sure they were talking to either corp members of friends about the asshat shooting their mtu and true enough a crop member landed on grid.
LML Condor, now a 500k SP character isn't a match for any pilot in pvp, I wasn't bothered to really do anything other then orbit and fire back. He blew my ship away in short order, then called me a moron in local, in Russian no less. I responded with a \o/. In response I decided to set a bounty on both the missioner and their corp mate. That really got their attention. The missioner set a 100k bounty and the pvp corp mate set 500k back on me.  Received with thanks. There was a little perverse joy about sullying a squeaky clean 5.0 sec status missioner with a big wanted sticker on their name. I lost an atron and t1 fit worth 2 mill. Seems that I didnt' need to troll to get a bounty after all. With that all done I sold/traded or destroyed the last bits the alt had and logged for the last time.

A trial alt can really fúck about with the normal player base with no consequences. I may not be doing this on a rolling basis but I think I'll return to this form of play again in the future.

I think I appreciate my mains a lot more now. It's a lot harder then it seems to be an unsullied member of the carebear/missioning/indy community. There seems to be an endless supply of ninja ganking players constantly picking away at the carebears. A few nudges and that perfect character that you do so much to protect and shape can fall and fall hard. That tipping point is a fine line and can cause rage quits or retaliation. It all seems to be pointed one way in this game, interplayer conflict, pity, as it's not the game most carebears want to play.

So it begins..... Update 11

Scanning is still driving me a little nuts. Last night I did 2 scanning sweeps, each time I would close range on a "blip" it would disappear. I switched from scanning ships to looking for MTU's only to get a hit on a ship. Hows that possible with a filter only looking for structures. Charming.

I looked up the kill's for the system I've been mainly in and I'm shocked at the number of MTU's that have been killed.... about 4 to 6 a day. That's a lot of lost/forgotten MTU's.

Despite not spending that much time on the trial alt last night I eventually found some salvage and loot.

First was this MTU.

Meh

Then I found a mission that was abandoned by it's owner. So I took full advantage of it.

Loot it all!!!!!!!!

Haul 1

Haul 2

I added on some more skills to the skill queue, it just seems a shame to leave it empty.
Here is a pic of the current skills and the history of skills that have been done in the last while.

I've now traded off a lot of the gear the trail alt has gathered and used his isk to buy some ships and other random "bits'n'bobs". It's been a profitable little venture, but I would have made a lot more isk running two characters in level 4's.

Maybe a return to this in the future will be on the cards. This really is a trial run of a trial and what it can do, which is a lot.

This weekend will be the last time I'll have a good amount of time to devote to this alt. I'll see what luck brings.

So it begins..... Update 10

Scanning despite faffing about with settings has proved to be a royal pain in the áss.
I was only able to get a fix on a another MTU but I wasn't in the mood to bash it.
I think this alt will fizzle out as me heart isn't into it any more. It's become too frustrating.
The alt will probably end up doing some quick scanning runs to see if anything shows up. With one night of selling and trading to get rid of the gear and isk he has.

While I was trying to scan a ship down I also had my main alt logged into my laptop on autopilot to get him near the trial alt. He was ganked and killed, in the time it took to move my hand between the pc mouse and the laptop he was podded.  Kill mail listed a very undervalue kill, I had to repurchase the implants and it cost a pretty penny.
Actions in game like that annoy me. People doing it are worse then any ninja shit. They act as the chaotic choir of the universe, doing things just because they can be done. A sea of lemmings, all trolling the party line. Bunch of asbo's without any rules to regulate them. Like being a dick in the game is a good thing. It's annoying because of the lack of action, you can't act back at the perpetrators. Not in a meaningful way.

So it begins..... Update 9

I think the scanning problems were due to the filter I had in place. It specified BS's / marauders / Tech III's and MTU's. I think if I have the ships separate from the MTU then it will work as it was a week ago.... Up to a week ago I was only using my laptop to play this trial alt and on getting it on my pc I had to resetup the interface and also the scanning profile so I added everything..... I'll change that later today.

Last night saw the usual lack of ship sites and an odd MTU experience. I scanned down two mtu's close to each other. I destroyed one and didnt' get much loot. I warped to the other and it belonged to the same person, odd again but it happens. on destroying it it didn't even leave a wreck.... like it was never there. Ghost MTU.......... wwwwwwuuuuuuuuuu !!!!!! Hahahaha ;-p

Both those MTU's wasted enough time to make me not want to do anything else so I docked up in Jita and purchased a few ships and some gear. I'll have to buy a lot more stuff and trade it in space but will see....

I've had a nudging feeling that I wont' continue the trail alt to another trial alt. I've got paid accounts I can make a lot more isk with. The trial alt was fun and different but I'm better served by my mains and normal alts.

7 Days still to go.......

So it begins..... Update 8

So with the last of the scanning skills trained and having not logged the trial alt on in a day or two I decided to go looking for loot.
Scanning with these extra skills and modules has however decreased my scanning abilities!
I really had no hassle getting players pinpointed and scanned down when the trail was a few days old.
For example yesterday, I scanned the system, probes out at 64 AU, I hit on a BS at 70% scan strength. I lower the probes to 32 AU and move them to be closer to the scanned blob of this BS only to rescan and get the same BS hit at 25% ..... it's wtf frustrating. 
It's the type of thing that's been happening to be a lot of late and its been bad. Scan after scan either removes all hits on moving in tighter on locations lessens the signal strength. It has severely hampered by scanning.

This is the dedicated scanning ship I'm using now:

I was able to scan out two abandoned MTU's yesterday and took them both out. One had loot the other ... not so much lol. At least I can scratch that off the list.

On scanning out a mission in progress I warped into find an MTU with some medium wrecks by it, I orbit the mtu and salvage away. During this the missioner arrives back into the mission, his tank was probably not able to hold the incoming dps as the mission BS's are fast and do a huge amount of damage when close. I'm sure he was surprised to see me with aggro orbiting the mtu, salvaging away. Once I'd salvaged what was there I left ... returning a while later but he had cleared up as he went.

I'll need to recheck the way scanning is done as I think I'm missing something. It can't go from easy to scan ships down to being very hard, not after upgrading skills and gaining better modules to help.

Really not sure if I will get a bounty... I'm not enough of a troll to be annoying enough people get something like that. Besides the bounty really does nothing. I may take him to null to see "what happens".



Aims:
        Scan out MTU's (blow them up and loot)
        Ninja Salvage (make 12 + Million)

        Get a bounty placed on me. (may be harder then it seems)

Music randomness....

I usually listen to a large spectrum of music when gaming, "eclectic" some would say ;-p
Here is a list of music that has been to the fore when on my trail alt.


In no particular order (band-track / track-band, youtube will find them either way).

Conway - The Growl
Device - Villify
Far Cry 3 ( Flamethrower Song )
God Module - Darkness Is
Jamiroquai - Feels Just Like It Should
Mind n A Box - Stalkers
Kryptic Minds - Six Degrees
Nine Inch Nails - Satellite.
Otep - Head
Rammstein - Ich Will
Son Lux - Weapons
Slipknot - Psychosocial (Filth Dubstep Remix)
Stateless - Bluetrace
Lords Of Acid - The Crablouse
TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
Woodkid - Iron (Mystery Jets Remix)
Zack Hemsey - Vengeance
Beck - E-Pro
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
Madcon - Beggin'
Martina Topley-Bird - Sandpaper kisses
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand
Rammstein - Engel
Skyfall Soundtrack - Quartermaster
Soul Coughing - Unmarked Helicopters
Tricky - Evolution Revolution
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know
The Toxic Avenger - Angst Two
Gesaffelstein - Pursuit
Mirwais – Spoutnik (Crazy Horse Music from 3 Days To Kill)
Robin Hood 2010 Original Soundtrack  - Godfrey
Korn - System
Combichrist - Maggots At The Party
If I had a heart - Fever Ray
nightwish - planet hell
Lacuna Coil - Unchained
Lies - Evanescence

So it begins..... 7

11 Days left on the trail, with luck it'll be fruitful over the weekend.
Nothing new to report as I didn't do anything on the trail alt.

Last night was a return to the carebearing mains and teaming up with a friend for some missions for iskies.


I did take some screenies of my trail alts skills/skill points. One more skill to learn and then on to drones 5 but that's not really needed. It could be a lot more streamlined but not bad considering.

Ninja's and carebears.....

There have been some thoughts in my head about the new trial alt experiment I’ve been running.

Grab the syrup I’m gonna waffle.

I can see why the trial is there and used to hook a player into Eve. Every game has a demo or trial, that’s just good marketing.

But the more time I spent on this trial the more reason I see to go back to use trial alts in an ALTernative manner with no comeback on main/paid/plexed accounts.  Am sure there are players that see how far they can push during a trial, EULA or not.

I have been using this alt to be a ninja salvager, I am no troll, I don’t say anything in local, I don’t hunt for tears. There are people that relish the tears caused and do hunt that way.
During my early missioning day’s I’ve been on the more frustrated side of missioning when a ninja showed up. I have to say that I always accepted it.
As a missioner today I salvage and loot as I go, most of my ships have a tractor and salvager and a set of salvage drones. I may use an MTU but that really does attract attention as it is easy to scan down. 

Source

Source

While I’m doing the Ninja salvaging to shake up my normal carebear playing it really boils down to common sense when missioning and  to avoid the majority of ninja attention.

Dedicated Ninja’s are organised and roll in their own inter corp/alliance groups trial or not, they have support and usually logi support to rep them, they will up-ship and they will tear a player a new one if they can, usually after a missioners wrong move or after a missioner has succumb to trolling.

Ninja alts like my one are no real threat, I impact the isk/hour ratio. I don’t’ have the backup to push the experiment further… I don’t think I would want too. Others with support or a bigger player base of friends/groupies probably wouldn’t think twice about it.

I once saw a Ninja in local replying to a missioner they were salvaging from. The missioner was upset and was very verbal in local. The Ninja was playing it or was genuinely surprised in a “just going about the game as it allows me too” fashion. In that way the missioner was the abuse giving player disturbing the salvager. Perspectives are interesting.

Eve online is what it is. It is the open universe sandbox with few rules. As CCP has said the player is the content.

In a game like that, players will do what they want, they will use the rules or lack of them to push their chosen activity as far as possible.

If it can be done in eve, players, solo or in groups will do it.

Advice for the mission runner:

Keep your safety on Green.  

Loot and salvage as you go.

Use an mtu if there are not too many people in system and even fewer actively flashing amber. (I’ve compiled a list as I’ve been missioning over my time in Eve and know the ninja corp’s/individuals, am sure you will have compiled a list too….. it’s not hard to do.) 

If there are a lot of ninja’s showing in local then expect to get a visit.

If one shows up, scoop your mtu (if you have one out), then dock and make a cup of tea.coffee, kiss the wife or have a 5 minute small talk with someone, use of the time better than raging about something you can't change..

Be conscious and self-aware.

In the last day’s of my alts trial life I intend to make another, trade off the current ships/assets and isk and start the process over again. It's turned into it's own version of playing Eve online.

Trial’s are something that can be used by anyone. It’s free and it’s accessible even if you don’t upgrade to a full account. 

Grab a 21 day trail here and see what you can do ALTernatively. 

So it begins..... 6

Despite spending a bit of time scanning I was unlucky in getting solid fixes last night.
I wasn't in the best of humour for it either and only stayed in the one system. I found a lot of missioners salvaging as they went so there was nothing to loot/salvage.
I did find one Battleship in a mission that seemed like a level 3.... only cruisers and frig rats and no BS wrecks. I left him to it.
On more fruitless scanning I decided to head back to the bookmark of this level 3 and found only a few can's in space.... I checked them out and looted a mill.... Not much at all for a night scanning. It happens I suppose.