Good weekend... Bad Monday...

Yesterday saw me going to the dentist… half day from work….. things went downhill fast and ended up having a surgical extraction, with some minor bone loss on the jaw, needless to say the pain and swelling is huge. But the tablets are helping, even if it is making me somewhat sleepy, have to go back next Monday to get the stitches out. Charming! So work today is an effort.

Last weekend saw the usual on eve – character skill checks. 

Last Friday night saw my main alt do a few level 4's with a m8 for SOE LP's. He was on an alt as well so I didnt' get to see his main in his new shiny Paladin... next time!!

My Null sec alt had reds in every system throughout the weekend, but I was surprised to see some people went about their business as normal, undocking haulers. Silly people imho.  

When things were clear I did a good bit of ratting over the weekend, good PI processing as well but no mining. I also got to move and sell off some stuff from the null haul, so much so that the alt has well covered the cost of ships and gear moved out to null. From here its all profit! ;)

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Over the weekend I also got a chance to play more Xcom-Enemy Within. Am glad its proving to be a better game than the original. I am taking my time with it, trying to get as much research done and to produce a good base. I've not gone back to my old ways of replaying when I loose a soldier. I'm looking to create a good few soldiers that I can use and equip them all well.

Not that I fly them....

But something interesting about carriers.

Posted here:http://targetcaller.blogspot.ie/2013/12/mobile-depots-carriers-and-you.html

From a quote on Jesters blog.

The quote being:

“Entertainingly, the Thanny dropped a mobile depot, refit warp core stabs, and warped away from the Nyx's tackle!”

I have to agree that it sounds like a brilliant maneuver.

It was part of this story: http://evenews24.com/2013/11/26/solar-fleet-nyx-down/

Great reviewer.

I only started watching the "angry" review series when I saw one detailing Guild Wars 2.
With a sale on steam I saw that Rome Total War 2 was 50% off, so I decided to see if they fixed any of the problems since if came out. This review stopped me buying it, but is a hilarious 44 minutes that is well worth watching.
My favourite part is the ship glitch that makes it look like a sandworm from Dune, the Dune music as it drifts through the sand is a classic moment.

Eve Online - Review by Gamespot.com

A nice honest and up to date review:
http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/eve-online-review/1900-6415576/

The shakes....

Over on http://www.ninveah.com/2013/12/blog-banter-51-shakes.html a good post had gotten a few bloggers to comment about the subject of 'the shakes' that players get when engaged in pvp.

A great post about their own experience is http://evehermit.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/bb-51-avoidance/

I've felt my heart pounding and I've done the irrational reactions when being engaged.
Calm and logical thought goes out the window for me especially when I was first starting to get targeted.
For me it started in hi-sec being targeted/scanned when flying cargo ships.
Then when trying to get into activities that included low-sec space ( mainly cosmos missions ).
But it wasnt' until I entered Null for the first time that it became such a common occurrence that I really got used to it. I got used to expecting incoming fire/neuts/webs/scrams etc. I learned to predict things I'd run into, and in doing so how better to defend against them. I'm not saying that I don't get a tingle of excitement or an increase in heart rate, I do. But it isn't incapacitating to my gameplay anymore.


A few posts I did when trying to get my lil amarrian alt into null to get jump clones "the easy" way are the best example of how my experience has varied my gameplay in comparison to my earlier eve days.
Before, I would have been docked for hours trying to mull over the should I or shouldn't I consequences before an undock and go, if it even happened at all. Now with that alt I just undocked went and did it, got blown up twice then went back for more and got blown up, got what I wanted and got blown up again. Granted I lost 53 mill in implants for not thinking it through enough but they are replicable.
So better to have gone and done it even with 4 explosions (two ships and two pods), than to have sat in station mulling over the repercussions and what if's.

The key to loosing the shakes is to get rid of the risk, not the risk you are going into but the risk of loosing something you have, lessen the value of what you are invested in flying with. Expect the worst.
Fit that tank on your hauler and loose the low cargo extender and fit a warp stabiliser instead. If you expect to loose it you'll be surprised to live and dock, then get to do it again.

another example is with hauling loot out of null, this for me would have had my heart in my throat, but now I'm reading intel and judging the best time to move, in a well fitted ship, with the support of an alt, its a risk but at least its a minimised risk.

The old saying of "Never fly something (or with something in the cargo) you can't afford to lose" is as true today as it was years ago.

A lot of people talk about this trailer and mock it. I really like it as it gives a true reflection of what happens in game, from a players perspective and is a lot truer than the other trailers, good as most are.


This is another great post that is also linked to the theme of how connected people are to Eve, worth a read.
http://vonkeigai.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-fundaments-of-eves-design.html

Eve Text Adventure

Only came back across this link recently, worth a look for shiz and giggles.

When Incarna was released the disappointment and reactions of people were obvious, but this link is the best way to relive that time :   Incarna: The Text Adventure


I also recall a funny video that included a voice over from a Russian Call of Duty character.... gonna have to try and find that .....

A few bits.... Boosters and Ships.

Came across a post on reddit's eve section where a player was asking about drone boats still being an acceptable missioning ship.
People in reply give some good info. The main ship in question is the Dominix. I've not used a Domi in a while but I think I'll have to dust mine off ( on my main ) and give it a refit.
The parts that sounded good were these:


Run remote armour reps on your drones
Use a target painter 

Use Garde II's drones 
Fit a MJD to maintain distance 

I'll need to test things like the range of reppers and target painter, see what drones are usable and a reason to test a micro jump drive... never used one before.

There was also this post about using boosters.  I've never used them as the drawbacks are not worth it. But I did do a good bit of research about it a while ago when looking into production for my own POS. I found that the Synth version was legal and had not drawbacks, but only gave a 4% boost in its stat, that 4% is better than nothing. But he cost may not outweigh the benefit. It is a per player thing. The graphic from the post is really good and lists all the info you need. Gonna repost that pic here not to infringe on copyright (credit is listed on the pic already) but to share the information.

Jester has a good post about the Crow (Caldari Interceptor), like the ship, had one because I could fly it but never used it in anger lol, this fit may tempt me.

The new Sisters of Eve Battleship was revealed, although there are some jokes about that compair it to a blender, I think it does look good. And I'm very interested in the "rescue shuttle" bay.

Podded again....

Am not having much luck with my lil Amarr alt of late, got podded again last night. 

I got her into null with only the loss of a noob ship at teh choke point gate camp, got to setup 2 jump clones and got out of null (no camp on returning). A couple of jumps in hi-sec and I passed the only 5.0 system on way to my destination. I put myself on autopilot while I went to do other stuff. Clean clone in hi-sec, what could possibly happen.

I could hear the gate activations but then I heard a target lock noise off in the distance and when I got to the pc she was podded.

On this character it just seems if something bad is going to happen it will happen especially if you dont' know it yet!

I'm sure the deliberate podding in hi-sec is to get "tears" the same way there are all kinds of gimmicks at destroying miners etc. People doing things because they can.

I've done things that have gotten me killed on many a character in the past in many a location. Hi-low-null, I'm a carebear and in that fashion, am naturally risk averse, no matter where my activity is located. But the more things like this happen the more I feel the need to become the instigator rather then the "explodee".


Out of curiosity on dotlan I did look up the kills in that system, there are long periods between pod kills... and only a few pod kills in total. So there are people out there that can wait 50 minutes ... or longer sitting on a gate looking for a particular target... interesting, makes me glad to have had no implants at all.  I wonder if the concorded kills ( his losses ) were to be combined with standard kills what the isk/kill ratio's would be like.

Main(ly) Alts....

Longer weekend with yesterday off. My area finally got some broadband line upgrades. Had to take it off as I had arranged to get the installer out. A bit of a rushed post but better then nothing....

Over the weekend i did a good bit on Eve, mainly ratting with my Nullsec alt. 
I also got my amarr alt to haul gear to market etc. So null PI/salvage and loot and a contract of two for the lucky officer mods I had drop all in all sold off for 130 Mill. The officer mod was sold to a friend way under the margins... for a quarter of its real value...
The PI in null is also setup now and I think I need a few more adjustments or arrange for a small production chain but for right now its a good source of income.  The best part of null so far is that the alliance owns sov and allows repairs for free.... Nothing like a bashed up ship and a free repair. That and the ability to un-dock and kill stuff for isk.
I also did a bit of mining. While I was doing this a few people appeared and as there was not word on the intel channels I assume they came from a wormhole. It did seem to be two wormhle parties and some indiscriminate killing of locals… as there was gf's from both red sides and then from an alliance members.

I did a silly thing with my amarr Alt. It was late... I had the idea of just jumping into null to go get some extra clones without having to grind rep...... I had not seen anything on the intel channels but it was a while between logging my nullsec alt and getting to the amarr alt. I tried my luck but was unlucky... a gate camp was up and they were hungry. Ship killed and pod killed. Ship was only a noob ship but i had forgotten that the clone had half decent implants... so that cost about 54 Million. My main had a lot of the replacements stashed away and only ended up paying 15 mill and about 15000 LP for replacements.

On my main alt I was getting SOE rep to 5 doing level 3's. I took one mission from SOE (a level 3 'The score' ) is was soooo long and included soooo many reinforcement waves that I began to get annoyed with it. 

I didn’t even feel downtime creeping up on me until the timer popped up!!! After all this I’d have to do it again!! As they would reset after down time!!!!!!

But I kept at it and a random pop of a ship made the mission compete with a minute to spare..!!

 

 

I docked and did the handin and then logged off from eve. Which was good timing as the broadband engineer called to the door about 10 minutes later...... it all worked out really well!

I got a text from my rl Eve playing friend today … he has sold everything he owns ( even the Nightmare he said he would not sell ) to get a Paladin ( amarr marauder ) he has stated some stats and it is an insane thing!!
Especially to do level 4's in! We had spoken in game late last night and said I’d be on about 9 for some SOE level 4 LP grinding. Should be interesting…

During the weekend I checked the pricing on the navy drake's and they seem to have a steady price about 4 weeks after they hit... I assume the same will be for SOE ships... I doubt they will fall in price any time soon. They seem very much in demand and the markets from what I could see was starved of sellers.

The mains and other alts got sidelined in favour of SOE rep grinding and bursts of isk farming in null sec.