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."

Sisters of Eve Epic Arc ....tidy and alt wrap-up.

With the epic arc finished there were only a few bits to clear up and I could then park up the alt.

There was a lot less loot dropped from missions since I had done it last.

Of these bits I sold anything worth over 50K (not much). Anything else I wasn't keeping got refined and sold the materials.

I tend to hold onto the odd stuff that drops in missions, like the scientists, so the sum total of the arc loot was this:

Not a lot to show - isk made probably came in at just over 11 million.

I got the opportunity to do the story line mission.
Docked up and accepted the mission, purchased the ore in the same station at 156% above regional average, or something less than 40k isk.

Than sold the reward implant.

I just wanted it done and dusted there and then.


It boosted the alt's standings.

 

And is still in the good books with everyone.

I ended up using some of the isk to buy skills books and update the skill q.
I can easily see this being trained over some weekend to get the new small skills done.

Once that was done I got the alt back in station with the rest of the ships/gear. Parked up safe and sound.
Just need to see whats next on the agenda.... alts.... mains.... time will tell :)

Out of interest these are the ships and fits the alt has, not perfect but everyone is different, even this 1.5 mill SP alt:

Ye olde salvager

Scanning Ship

Level 1, 2/Epic arc Mission running Navy Slicer of goodness.

Hauler 1

Hauler 2

Mining Venture

Sisters of Eve Epic Arc ....Finalé

 

Last weekend saw me finish off the last part of the Sisters of Eve Epic arc.


This long post was written up twice but blogger seemed to not like it and kept deleting it! Very frustrating.
I'm sure I've missed some details. Third time lucky!



While I may have thought things were getting too easy, the missions that followed on were a lot harder. And even the "easy" one was fiddly.

I started back into things with this mission. The easy one.

It seemed like it would be ok, kill npc's grab loot and hand-in.


But no, to get the loot you needed to use an analyser on it.
As I said before I hadn't been able to upgrade the ship as I had wanted. A low skill character means compromises. So to fit and online the mission module, I needed to offline something else. The only thing I could really do was to offline the afterburner.





But on second guessing myself and wanting to keep my speed tank together I turned off the module I needed for the lot.






So with all the NPC's dead I offlined the AB and tried to online the module...

Ouch that was a no go... so had to see about getting the other modules offline!

yes, it then went online and I spent the next 10 cycles of the module getting this fail message.

Until finally it worked...

...and I got the mission loot.

Thank crunchy that was over!


After the recovery of the artifact I got a quick npc kill mission.
 

 Moving from one agent to the next can be a minor reward for little effort.

But at 23 jumps it takes the biscuit!

It did pass me through an area that had an incursion in progress. That was a change of scenery for a few jumps. Not a cause for concern, even if on autopilot.

About 8 jumps into the journey I got a mail for a story line mission. You get these every 15 to 20 missions... at level 4 I recall getting them every 10. On hand-in they give a gain to the faction they are for. I convo'd the agent and got this mission.

I'll deal with that after the arc is done.


The Next mission was a tough one.

The "boss" of the npc's had both a high repair rate and an energy drain. And was quiet a smack in the face.

I needed to be around the 5KM mark to effectively fire on him. That had a good point of being under his effective range so he would fire and miss me often, but a bad point in that it was within his energy neutralising range. All in all I had a very limited time to keep my modules online, repair damage and also fire on him.
This caused me to warp out of the mission several times.

Despite me trying to brute force attack and maintain range outside the neut to try to kill the boss, it wasnt' happening.

So I took out the "boss's" wing men, and the reinforcement wave.
Docked the ship and logged on another account.

This is the worst case scenario.
There is no way I could have done it alone. This was the very worse enemy I could have faced. he targeted my primary weakness as an Amarrian. My capacitor powers everything. Weapons, afterburner, repper, damage control. With no power I may as well be sitting in a pod or shuttle.

Logging the second alt defeats the purpose of this lil project. Maybe its a combination of bad luck and circumstance.
But it is what it is. Had the Alt been in an active corp I could have asked for help there.

I logged another alt that was Caldari, flying a Hookbill with t2 light missiles. 

Fleeting them up I took both into the mission.
What a joy the Hookbill was to fly on the other alt. This new alt helped to kill while staying at a 40 KM range. With the feeling of almost being detached from the mission.

With the target dead I dropped the Hookbill alt from fleet and set autopilot to get him home.
While the alt whose arc this is went to the hand-in.

The 4 way split was the next mission. Choose the faction you need rep with I suppose is the best way to describe it.

Choosing the alts home faction was my choice.
This lead me to see the agent for that choice. Not in a station but in her ship.

She gave the last combat mission of the Arc.

And it was only then that I remembered the problem I had always had with the last "boss".
If this alt had problems getting thought the tank of the last fight, this one would also need a helping hand to take down. I alt tabbed to the other alt, re-fleeted and headed to the mission.

The arc alt had no problem with killing the other npc's in mission. and was able to kite the "boss" with a close in speed tanking orbit.

This "boss" only had a target painter as a bonus effect, and it did little to increase his dps.

The second alt by this time had joined the fray and started to apply dps.

It still took a while to kill the "boss" but he finally exploded. the alts parted ways again.
Mission completed and with a warp back to the agents ship I completed the mission hand-in.

Last part is to get the "prisoner" and dump him in a cargo ship.

Once the cargo is swapped, its all done and dusted.

Now just to clean up some loot, complete the story line mission and dock up the alt.....