Punishment

PVP members wanted for the Kadavr Black Guard

2011-09-10T15:08:00.001+10:00

I've been busy. Not with Eve, but with real life. Work decided to increase my responsibilities and work load (not that I mind!), I've got a new girlfriend (she's become a new 'hobby', and you know how much time hobbies can take up), and we recently went to China together for a holiday. That was quite an enjoyable experience, I tell ya...

But I'm back into it now. And my first task was to tell a new recruit to go somewhere else!

So let me tell you the story...

I'm the Aussie timezone director of the Kadavr Black Guard, a dedicated PVP Corp basing itself in lowsec. We're recruiting people who have had experience with PVP and want to join in on some lowsec action.

However, we're also recruiting people who DON'T have PVP experience too. Basically, if you want to join us, you'd be welcome. But there's a small catch for those who have no experience - you'll have to undergo PVP and survival training.

For that, we're pushing inexperienced (but eager) pilots to join OUCH (Open University of Celestial Hardship), go through their nullsec survival and PVP training, and successfully graduate. All graduates get a medal to prove they've graduated and can survive and fight in nullsec, and that guarantees automatic membership into the Black Guard.

So I told someone where to go today - to join OUCH! Ironically, they had already been a member of OUCH but failed to graduate before they moved on. They were hoping to join the 'big boys' for PVP, but they were good sports to accept that they needed to rejoin OUCH and complete their training before that would happen.

I also found out one of my fellow directors has a 'Leroy Jenkins' style, but at least he kills a lot more than he loses, so that's ok. And he's an excellent FC, so I can live with that. :)

I'll be developing some Corp policies soon to help ensure that members maximize their wins and minimize their losses. That's the kind of thing I enjoy. :)

If you're interested in joining us, look me up in-game or send me some questions by eve mail. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

The Kadavr Black Guard

2011-07-15T13:30:00.001+10:00

And so starts something new...

I've joined the Kadavr Black Guard this week as one of their directors. After extensive talks with Nashh Kadavr, I've decided to take up the challenge of seeing what I can do in his Corp.

I have a few ideas, which he's agreed to, so the future of the Black Guard could be very interesting indeed. Obviously what I bring to this Corp will be a combination of my past experience and coordinated plans for the future with Nashh... It's his Corp after all. :)

There's a bit more information about this on Nashh's blog.

Any questions or comments? You know the drill.

What kind of corp would you like to see?

2011-07-02T17:31:00.001+10:00

I'll be honest - the Corp I tried to create didn't work. There was ZERO interest in an anti-pirate Corp, and after spending more than a month trying a few different recruitment strategies, I've had absolutely no interest. I've concluded that no one wants to join an anti pirate Corp, even though they all whinge about pirates...

So I'm trying something different now.

What kind of Corp would you like to see?

What do you think is missing from this game? What kind of Corp would you like to see in Eve Online, that either doesn't already exist, or exists but not very good?

My last challenge was to create something like Eve Uni, but for nullsec. I created OUCH, and that is currently going exceptionally well. I'm looking for a new challenge, so please throw some ideas at me so we can discuss them.

It was you, the readers, that helped OUCH come into existence, so maybe you'll help me create something else. Thank you :)

The zombie pirate apocalypse is coming

2011-06-21T19:10:00.000+10:00

[I was going to put this ad on the Eve Online recruitment forums, but I forgot Incarna was starting today. So while everything is down, you can read it here first.]

Pirates. You all know about them. But something worse is coming. Zombie pirates. Be it a zombie pirate uprising, fast rage virus zombie pirate or shambling zombie pirate outbreak, eventually there will be more pirates than you can poke a stick at. And most of them will be zombies, wanting your brains. 'Loot', they call it. But we know the truth.

Of course, as members of The Punishers we're prepared to defend the galaxy's homes, families and way of life from these zombie pirates by using our exceptional knowledge of intel management as well as zombie pirate uprising and counter-zombie pirate attack computer simulation training (eg. making sure we don't run out of Twisties and cans of V while spending entire weekends playing Eve Online).

But even with our steadfast dedication to the cause and our staunch ability to survive, we must concede that some of our kin will be lost to the all consuming zombie pirate horde. Are you really as prepared as you could be? Are you REALLY safe?

We are making preparations for Galaxy War ZP (for Zombie Pirate) and we think you'll be interested. Why slum it alone on a backwater planet armed only with a machete when you can spend your time sheltered in a cozy modern ship with a nice bottle of Quafe?

We are building up impressive defensive positions and looking to fill our numbers with the best of the best. The soldiers, and the survivors. You'll want to do your bit to preserve the invaluable knowledge of humanity and build a brighter future even after the last autocannon round has been spent and the final ration-pack has been eaten.

After many hard choices it's been decided that membership will only be offered to those pilots with previous combat experience.

But don't think that just because you know your way around a Tech 2 frigate and you own a T3 Strategic Cruiser that you automatically qualify. To ensure your survival against the zombie pirate hordes you'll also need to have:

- at least 10 kills on your personal Battleclinic killboard
- the skills to fly battlecruisers, covert ops, and recon ships
- an intense desire to save the galaxy from the pirate horde
-

Miners will get eaten and even smug Transport pilots will be at the mercy of the horde, but if you can deliver tactical and combat successes in a relaxed, people-centric corp then your tasty brains are a commodity that we are very keen to have. (Not eat, ok? Just so we're cool about this there's no brain eating in this role whatsoever).

(Honestly)

Applicants for The Punishers should also have a sense of humour. And be willing to help the corp grow. And not want to eat brains.

Any questions? If you have any, send an evemail to Alexia Morgan.

If you have no questions, just apply to join us. We'll arrange an interview with you, and if you pass the test (which may or may not involve a bowl of tempting brains being put on the table in front of you) your application will be accepted and you will become another proud member standing between the zombie pirate horde and the rest of humanity.

Join us. The galaxy is depending on you.

The Punishers are recruiting

2011-05-25T21:48:00.002+10:00

What we're about

The Punishers is a new antipirate corp which will do its best to keep the lowsec areas of Derelik safe for the general public. The corp is in the very early stages right now, currently looking for members, but it will maintain a public intel channel that will allow all pirate and hostile activity to be reported through Derelik and beyond. The corp will have reds who are pirates or known hostiles, and this information will be publicly available as well.

Corp mission: helping to keep people safe

What we plan to do

As the corp grows, it will be involved in intel-gathering to create a database of pirates and hostiles in the lowsec areas of Derelik, and this information will be shared publicly.

As the corp's strength increases, it will include anti-piracy PVP in lowsec, as well as PVP roams into nullsec. Over time it will expand its activities into other areas and explore the idea of doing what CVA once did with Providence.

What would be required of our members

All members must meet the following minimum membership requirements:

Must have at least 50 kills on their personal killboard
Must have a minimum of 10 million skill points
Must be able to fly covert ops or recon ships, and T2-fit battlecruisers

(We will discuss membership options for people who have less than 50 kills and less than 10 million skill points, but only if they join OUCH and graduate from its nullsec survival and PVP training - these skills will be essential to have while in The Punishers.)

All members must be willing to:

roam various lowsec systems and monitor for pirate or hostile activity
provide intel in the public intel channel whenever appropriate
engage flashy red pirates when chances of success are in their favour *
rat or do missions to ensure an income to support PVP activities

* We have strict rules of engagement to minimise stupid losses and maximise smart victories.

If you're interested....

If you meet the minimum requirements and/or you're interested in being involved, then contact Alexia Morgan in-game. You will be interviewed about your interest and whether or not you will be a good fit for The Punishers, and if you get past the interview and get accepted, you too can be a Punisher. :)

The Punishers are back

2011-05-19T16:28:00.000+10:00

Some years ago I started a corp called The Punishers and I went around 'blowing shit up'. Lots of things happened along the way and then I moved on to join Ushra'Khan, and then joining my good friend Black Claw in running OUCH (Open University of Celestial Hardship). That's been extremely successful and OUCH is now doing quite nicely without my help, so I've decided to return to The Punishers (after my roles in OUCH have dropped, that is).

The Punishers are going to return to those activities they were originally involved in, which is dealing out punishment to those who deserve it - namely pirates in Empire space and lowsec, and asshats in nullsec.

Now, I know it's not going to happen overnight. I'm not going to immediately have the strength that I know will be required to achieve successes against those that deserve to be punished. I know its going to take time, and it's going to take commitment.

The commitment is not just from me but also from its members - those pilots who join The Punishers are going to have to be as committed as I am. Campaigning against pirates is not for the weak or the faint-hearted. It's not for those who are looking for easy kills and quick successes.

It's a long, hard road we walk, but we're in it for the long haul because we know that if not us, then who? Someone needs to take a stand against those who would prey on the weak and the innocent. The Punishers are going to take that stand.

What I'm looking for are those noble soldiers who want to fight the good fight, to stand up against the bastards in red and say, "We're not going to allow it any more!"

Is that you? You're going to have to be pretty damn special for this task. You're going to need the below, at a minimum:

10 million skill points
can fly covert ops and recon ships
can fly T2-fit battlecruisers
you have at least 50 kills on Battleclinic

If you have any interest in becoming involved and want to find out more, send Alexia Morgan an evemail in-game and I will contact you to provide you with more information about my plans and how you might be involved in them.

OUCH offers piracy training!

2010-01-10T22:23:00.003+11:00

We've started providing courses on piracy, namely lowsec combat for fame and fortune.

Of course, we're not professional pirates, nor do we intend to be. But lowsec PVP is just as valid as nullsec PVP (and empire PVP, but maybe that will be a future stage), and so we're offering that as an option.

Surprisingly, most of our members have been eager to be involved in piracy operations! Bless their evil, little black hearts.

So not only do we offer nullsec training, but also lowsec training.

If anyone is interested in joining up for the variety of our courses, make sure you contact Black Claw in-game and talk to him about it, or just join us. We welcome everyone.

We also welcome trainers, for both nullsec and lowsec PVP. If you've led fleets on combat operations in lowsec as a pirate (or even mercenary, we don't mind), or in nullsec, and you want a change of pace where you're training others in how to do what you've been doing for so long, then we want to talk to you too.

OUCH is recruiting for nullspace survival training

2010-01-08T16:31:00.002+11:00

That's right, the Open University of Celestial Hardship (OUCH) is looking for more recruits who are interested in learning how to PVP and make money in nullspace. Here's our recruitment blurb:'

WHAT IS 'OUCH'?

OUCH is the Open University of Celestial Hardship. We're based on the border of empire space and nullspace, allowing our members to ease into nullspace activity without being thrown into the deep end. Our goal is to help people get skills and confidence in entering and living in nullspace.

I should warn you that If you're looking for safety and boredom, you're not likely to find much of it with us. Instead, you're going to die. We guarantee that. You might even die a lot. But along the way, we'll teach you how to die less, and maybe even to stay alive long enough to be successful in your endeavours.

We don't just teach you the theory of operating in nullspace. We take you there so you can experience it for yourself. We take you on training operations into nullspace and show you how to avoid real warp bubbles and real gate camps, operated by hostiles really trying to kill you.

At the same time as teaching you how to survive, we also teach you about PVP. There's no shortage of PVP in nullsec, and we teach you how to fight and win, or how to avoid fights.

HOW YOU BENEFIT FROM JOINING US

OUCH recognises that one of the biggest reasons you don't want to go into nullspace is because you can't or don't want to lose the ships and fittings you've spent your hard-earned money on. So we provide the ships and fittings for you, and the skillbooks if you need them.

That's right, we give you the ships so you don't have to be afraid of losing your own. Of course, if you want to bring your own ships and fittings to use and lose, you're welcome to do so.

By being a member of OUCH you will have access to our resources which will help you learn how to survive. If you're looking to learn all about nullsec, then you owe it to yourself to be part of a corporation that can teach you.

We're also a member of an alliance of corps supporting OUCH's operations. This means that once you've learned all that you want to, you can join one of our dedicated support corps for your chosen specialty, whether that's industrial or combat operations, or you can move on somewhere else, knowing that you'll be an asset to any corp or alliance that might want you.

We have a network of allies (blue standings) that you can fleet with and be involved in active operations to practice what you've learnt.

We provide you with instructions on how to obtain and use Jump Clones for free, so that you can continue using implants in one clone, while being in another clone for PVP.

WHAT WE REQUIRE FROM YOU

We require from our members a commitment to venture into 0.0 space, to learn, to get involved in our training activities, and to help other members learn too. Eg. once you've learnt a few things yourself, we hope you might want to help other members too.

We aim to be self-sufficient, so we need miners and manufacturers to help the corp make money and provide ships and fittings for training requirements. You can join OUCH to learn about nullsec survival, and then if you're interested, you can stay on to help support OUCH's growth and operations.

We also need skilled PVP specialists to help secure operations and areas of space, and you can even join these ranks 'full time' after you join and become skilled at PVP yourself. It doesn't matter what you want to do, you will have a part in the corp.

It is your choice if you wish to join OUCH. Our members value being part of a corp providing nullsec survival training, and they value the contributions they can make to the corporation and that the corporation makes to them.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NEXT

You can find out more by sending Black Claw an eve mail or visit the channel OUCH-UNI where you can talk to him (or someone) about your interest. We would be happy to have a chat with you and answer any questions you might have.

Guess who's come back?

2009-12-30T17:33:00.003+11:00

My, what a busy time it's been with OUCH. The interest in membership has outpaced my ability to accommodate the members that want to join. So I suspended membership for 9 days to allow my skills to catch up...

Except that I'm getting about 5 new members a day joining OUCH, and the applications sitting there on hold were starting to pile up.

I had to do something, as I didn't want to break the momentum. I considered my options, and made a decision.

Black Claw is back.

Yep, that's right. Black Claw, who some of you may remember, and others of you have probably never heard of. He was my first character from early 2006 before I started Alexia Morgan early 2008.

He also has all the needed corp management skills that would allow for him to continue accepting membership applications to carry on the recruitment momentum. And he was a reasonable combat pilot too. (Could do with a bit more training today though... Good thing he's in a training corp!)

So I reactivated him yesterday, waited 24 hours for his roles in his previous corp to disappear, and then recruited him into OUCH today. I immediately made him CEO of OUCH.

Black Claw is back. Woohoo!

Black Claw is going to be the most active, due to his new commitments with leading OUCH. So Alexia is going to take a bit of a back step and be a 'secondary character' for a while. Maybe forever. Or at least until her own brand of skills are no longer needed.

It's been fun. But I think it's going to be even more fun back in Black Claw's saddle....

If you want to join OUCH, or you're interested in becoming a trainer, please hop into the OUCH-UNI channel, or send Black Claw an evemail.

Thank you everyone, it's been great. You can follow Black Claw's blog again now. :)

Eve Online on Reddit

2009-12-30T17:21:00.002+11:00

A short while ago I created a 'subreddit' on Reddit called 'Evebloggers'. As of today there's about 35 readers of that subreddit. It was pointed out to me today by someone whom I'm unable to remember right now (please congratulate yourself in the Comments below!) that there is an Eve subreddit that has 650 readers.

35 readers compared to 650.... Hmmm....

So I've updated the share button at the bottom of my posts to point to the main Eve subreddit. If anyone else is sharing Eve blogs or websites on Reddit, please do the same.

Desperately Seeking Experienced PVP Specialists To Provide Nullsec Training

2009-12-26T11:56:00.004+11:00

As the title says, I'm looking for people who are highly experienced in nullsec PVP, who can help provide specialised training to OUCH students.

I need people who can provide training in any of the following areas:

Nullsec survival
Ratting / salvaging, scouting, evasion, map tools, etc
Small ship PVP
Fitting, overheating, tactics, etc
Large ship PVP
Support / Logistics Training

Obviously, if you're skilled in something to do with surviving in nullsec, then you're the kind of person I'm looking for.

Some of your experience needs to be in being a fleet commander, so that you can comfortably and confidently lead a group of people in doing what they need to do.

I know there are lot of bloggers reading this who are skilled in teaching PVP skills. I know there are a lot more players reading this who are also skilled in these areas.

Some of you are looking for something interesting to do, that's rewarding and challenging. Some of you have even contacted me and told me how you think OUCH is a great idea, and you think it'll do well.

Well, I need you to help it do well. I need people to help train others in nullsec survival.

If that sounds like you, please contact me to discuss your interest.

Updates to evebloggers.com

2009-12-22T15:55:00.003+11:00

Firstly, I've made a big change to evebloggers.com

I used to have outputs from both the Eve Blog Pack and Eve Player Blogs. The only thing is, the Eve Blog Pack are still 'Eve Player Blogs'.

So I've decided to get rid of the Eve Blog Pack output, especially considering that they're doubled up in the Eve Player Blogs anyway...

Now there are just Eve Player Blogs. And really, when you think about it, we're all part of the same community. It's not like there's a bunch of 'elitists' or anything that think they're better than others, so there won't be any issues with bringing everyone together into one group. Right?

Understand that this does not invalidate the Eve Blog Pack that Crazy Kinux started. Thanks to him, the Eve Online Blogging Community had a rally point, somewhere to focus their efforts on, and to expand upon. But I think everything evolves, and instead of having a small group of players calling themselves the 'blog pack' and holding themselves separate to everyone else, now we have a much larger community of Eve bloggers. I think we should recognise that we're all part of the same community, and we all support each other and enjoy each other's blogs and this awesome game that we're all part of.

Secondly, I've caused a big problem to evebloggers.com. I don't know how, seeing as how all I did was change around some of the RSS outputs in the widgets, but all the evebloggers.com Posts and Pages can no longer be accessed.

I've sent a support email to the host provider to get the site restored from backup, and I'm hoping that will fix it. If there are any Wordpress experts out there who know why the posts and pages have disappeared (but links to them are still there in the site's footer), please let me know.

Flying the Dramiel

2009-12-21T10:09:00.007+11:00

A few days ago I was reading Andrea Skye's post about the Dramiel, and I was so inspired by their results with the ship, I went out and bought one of my own. However, I couldn't afford faction or officer fittings, so I went with the best I could. I figured that I'd do pretty well against other frigates and cruisers, so that's what I went looking for.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. I eventually found a Thorax to play with, and engaged him outside a station. He was happy to play. I had small T2 artillery, allowing me to keep range at 22km and spit out some decent damage while still being within warp disruptor range.

However, I quickly discovered that the speed of the Dramiel meant that my 22km orbit quickly ellipsed out to 30+km, which meant I not only lost my target lock, but couldn't keep the target warp disrupted. So I went to try pulsing the MWD, but when I came back in to re-engage, the Thorax's own MWD allowed him to quickly close the distance between us. He had a scrambler, and I didn't, so his MWD was active while mine was shut down. Along with his web, blasters, and drones, it was quickly all over. I couldn't escape his 1,200m range, and I lost the Dramiel.

Quite annoying, really, considering that everyone else that seems to fly it has so much success with it, but that's what happens when you get into a fight - you don't always win.

So, if anyone with extensive experience with the Dramiel has any tips for me on how I can do things better, please add them to the Comments. :)

Nullsec Survival Training for PVP and riches

2009-12-21T10:05:00.002+11:00

The below is from OUCH's new recruitment thread that I thought I'd reprint here to increase exposure. Please read, and contact me in-game if you're interested in joining:

DOMINION has arrived and you want to venture into 0.0 space (nullspace) to join in on the excitement, but you don't have any training... You know you'll die.

Most of the other nullsec corps and alliances will offer you training only if you join their 'cause', whether that's PVP or industry, but you usually have to fund your own way. That can be daunting for someone that doesn't want to be part of some 'cause', and who expects to lose a lot of ships before they start getting somewhere.

We understand your dilemma.

What's the answer?

OUCH is the answer. It's the Open University of Celestial Hardship. We're brand new, but we have very experienced trainers to teach you how to survive and prosper in nullspace. We have no 'cause' other than to teach you Nullsec Survival Training.

We have a T1 ship program that provides ships and fittings to all members - FREE. These include frigates, cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships. All ships can be used for training or individual use while in OUCH, and their fittings will also be included.

What does that mean for me?

If you lose a corp-provided ship, we will give you another one - free of charge. While you learn how to cope with the hardships of nullspace, losing ships will not be something you'll need to worry about.

And you will lose ships. You'll get podded quite a few times along the way too. We don't guarantee your survival in nullsec, but we guarantee to teach you how to minimise your losses along the way.

It's brutal out there, but when you're a member of OUCH, you're with a group of friendly, relaxed people who understand your fears. We're here to help you take advantage of DOMINION and get involved in nullspace. We will teach you everything you need to know.

What kind of training will I get?

Initially, as we start our operations, training will focus on frigates and cruisers as well as the following:

Nullsec survival - includes ratting / salvaging, scouting, evasion, and map tools
Small ship PVP - includes fitting ships, overheating, and combat tactics in fleets or solo

As we get more members (and more advanced skillsets amongst them) we'll move to battlecruisers and battleships, along with more advanced PVP training. Again, all ships will be provided by OUCH. (We also intend offering T2 ship training, including interceptors, covert ops, and support ships, but the ships will need to be provided by the students themselves.)

We're also part of an alliance that is dedicated to providing support for members of OUCH, including security, intelligence-gathering, and manufacturing ships and items. If you want to stay on and help support OUCH after you've finished with your training, there would definitely be a place for you.

We want to help you learn how to survive in nullspace, whether that's in PVP, ratting, or complex's. We will help you be the best that you can be, and teach you how to earn as much as you can along the way.

That's right, we'll also be teaching you how to make money in nullspace. There's no point giving you combat training if we don't include teaching you how to replace lost ships, right? We don't expect you to be with OUCH forever, so we understand you need to learn how to sustain yourself.

Ok, I'm interested - what do I do now?

If you're interested in learning more about how OUCH can help you, then join the OUCH-UNI channel in-game and talk to Alexia Morgan, or send her an evemail to discuss your interest and ask any questions.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you to OUCH's sponsors

2009-12-15T19:09:00.005+11:00

This page is my big thank you page to all those who have helped OUCH. Whether it's through donations of ships, items or money, or providing loads of helpful advice or even some amazing emotional support, they're all going to be listed here (with their permission, that is... some might want to remain anonymous).

Thank you so much for helping OUCH get off the ground. Without your generosity, it would be that much harder.

Noir Avlaa
Iroxorsju
Kalisis
Seondar Moleck
Jarob Talloway
Shadows Lord new!
Alex Carmel new!

As more people offer their support in whatever way works for them, I will add their name to this list.

Edit: updated 26/12

OUCH is open for recruitment

2009-12-14T11:41:00.005+11:00

What is OUCH?

OUCH is the Open University of Celestial Hardship. Its purpose is to provide nullsec survival training for all those who are interested in learning how to survive and prosper in 0.0 space.

Where is OUCH?

We're based in Curse, an area of 0.0 space that still has a whole bunch of NPC stations for members to hang out in. And there will be plenty of targets that will offer plenty of training opportunities!

OUCH is looking for:

Trainers who can train newbies and veterans alike in any of the following:

Nullsec survival

Ratting / salvaging / 'plexing
Scouting
Evasion
Map tools

Small ship PVP

Fitting
Tactics
Support

Trainers must have at least 3 years worth of experience, with most of it in 0.0 space, and be willing to offer their services to help others learn.

I'm also looking for trainees interested in joining OUCH to learn all of the above, and more. We have room for anyone and everyone. There is no minimum requirement for trainees, other than a desire to jump into nullspace and learn. Therefore, all trainees must be willing to go on training operations whenever they can.

Ship Program

OUCH will have a T1 ship program, so all ships (from frigates to battleships) will be provided to its members by the corp. In the early stages, however, it will just be 'small ships' including frigates and cruisers. As we get more members, and more resources, we will expand to battlecruisers and battleships.

We will soon offer T2 training, but members will need to provide their own T2 ships for such training.

Are you interested in supporting OUCH?

We require ships, items and money. If you would like to support us with donations of any sort, we would be most grateful for your assistance, and your name will be put on a special web page that will publicly thank you for your assistance.

If you support the concept of helping people survive in nullsec so they can play a more prominent role in helping others or fighting others, then we need your support in material or monetary donations.

Are you interested in joining OUCH?

I have a few people already either joined or preparing to join. Are you interested? Then contact me (or send an evemail ingame to Alexia Morgan) to discuss your options.

Thank you.

OUCH begins

2009-12-14T11:18:00.005+11:00

Over the weekend I created an alt and then sent him into 0.0 space to seek out a good location to start an office. It only died twice before reaching its destination. Not bad for a 1-day old character. :)

The office was created next to a system with clone facilities. I don't think the area will be too busy, so it will make for a good location to start training.

One thing I discovered, however, is that it's just going to be too difficult to run a nullsec survival corp with a character that's brand new. So I've decided to use Alexia as the CEO of OUCH. Over the next week I'll be moving my ships from where I am, to where I want to go. (Can't give locations just yet, as that could inspire someone to try and stop me.)

Thank you

OUCH is a proud new member of the New Bastion alliance, and I would like to thank Cal for coming forward and offering some very valuable and much-needed support. His input into the development of OUCH, and his support to help it move forward, has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you!

While I'm thanking people, I need to include Noir Avlaa. She is another example of someone committed to the ideals of OUCH. Over the weekend she donated some resources to OUCH. This included dozens of frigates, hundreds of items, and tens of thousands of units of ammunition. More than could be fit in a single contract (so there were 2 contracts!). For this I am extremely grateful.

More coming soon.

Nullsec Survival Training is coming!

2009-12-11T15:11:00.006+11:00

Most of you have seen me discussing OUCH (Open University of Celestial Hardship). I just wanted to give a small update on it:

I've had some interested people approach me to become both trainers and trainees
I've been successful in negotiating blue status with a major nullsec empire
I've been offered membership in a nullsec alliance for the purpose of moving forward in a 'nullsec training alliance'
discussions are underway with interested 'stakeholders' on location, corp funding, and training modules

I will be creating a new character over the next couple of days, and this character will become the CEO of OUCH, the 'nullsec survival training' corp. Once I do, I will create a blog for the character and the corp.

If you're interested in being a part of OUCH, please contact me to discuss how you can be involved. Ideally, I'm seeking sponsors, trainers, and trainees. You can also join the public discussion on Google Wave if you have a Wave account: Open University of Celestial Hardship (OUCH).

If you would also like to join OUCH simply to help provide security for the training missions (in some kind of Security Division), I'd love to hear from you as well!

The Open University of Celestial Hardships

2009-12-03T11:50:00.003+11:00

I created a Google Wave for discussing this, and the Wave link is here:

The Open University of Celestial Hardship

I thought it would be a good idea to have it here as well, to allow non-Wavers the opportunity to discuss this too.

I'm seeking expressions of interest in starting up a 0.0 corp that caters to education and training of nullspace activity, including PVP, ratting and industry. A bit like Eve University, but in nullspace instead of Empire space.
I'm imagining the corp needs to be part of a 0.0 alliance, so if any alliance directors would be interested in providing support, please make yourselves known as well.
I look forward to comments and discussion, so please don't be shy. If you want to help, or you want to be involved, become a participant in this Wave.

OUCH

2009-12-02T07:47:00.005+11:00

I've been seeing some chatter lately about various tales of woe with Eve University, and how it can be difficult for new players to get to learn the game because of the attitudes of those already entrenched in University operations.

If there's one thing I dislike more than Crying Carebears, it's Elitist Scumbags. You know the ones... They think they're better than you because of their position, status or skills, and they'll go out of their way to remind you of it.

It's not just limited to the University though. They're all around us. They're just... everywhere! Those people who think they're the Gods' gift to the races.

If you fly with a Scumbag, you're supporting them. You're encouraging them. If you give them positions of responsibility, you're doing the same thing. But you're also lowering morale amongst the non-Scumbag members of your corp or alliance.

No one wants to fly with a Scumbag (unless they're a Scumbag too... we all know those Scumbags need to stick together), but if you force or encourage people to fly with Scumbags, you're slowly driving your pilots away.

And if you're one of those who just doesn't like the Scumbag you have to fly with, then just stop flying with them. If the corp or alliance or University has too many Scumbags, then go somewhere else.

Here's a tip for the new players:

The best University is in 0.0 space. Suck it up, gather your belongings, and head out to the Open University of Celestial Hardship (O.U.C.H.)* and you'll learn more there than you could ever possibly imagine.

I've already helped a few people out to 0.0 and they've joined O.U.C.H. and haven't looked back. You could too.

Contact me if you're interested.

* Just in case you're wondering, O.U.C.H. is not a real university. It's more like the 'School of Hard Knocks', but O.U.C.H. sounds better than S.H.K....

Sorry I haven't posted in ages!

2009-12-01T18:37:00.000+11:00

I'm so sorry that it's been such a long time since I last posted. I think it's been maybe 3 or 4 hours. I hope you guys can forgive me.

I promise to post more frequently in the future.

Eve Player Profiles - Ga'len

2009-12-01T13:46:00.002+11:00

Please tell us about the person behind the character, we'd really love to know a bit more about you - What do you do outside of Eve?

In the meantime, here's Ga'len!

Your character name:
Ga'len

Your real name:
J. Riley Dagastine

The country you're living in:
USA

How old are you:
36

What kind of work do you do:
IT Support Specialist. I work tech support for a surgical instruments manufacturing facility. I maintain the production systems for the CAD/CAM systems as well as support other manufacturing facilities across the East Coast.

What other hobbies or interests do you have:
I like to cooking, watch movies with the missus and read engaging books. That whole pinacolada's drinking and the rain stuff, well, hangovers and being soaking wet are just not my thing anymore.

Do you have a personal blog or non-Eve website you want to share:
I have another domain on the net, however, it's not very active as I am focusing my efforts here, however you can visit it at http://www.dagastine.net.

Who you gonna vote for?

2009-11-24T09:46:00.003+11:00

I wasn't going to vote in this year's CSM elections, as I didn't care enough about having a representative. I'm quite happy with the game, and satisfied that any changes in the game will work themselves out.

"The world will be what it wants to be."
- Tao

I had the same view about the game - it will be what it wants to be. And what it wants to be will be a result of player-driven hysteria (along with some valid game-testing and suggestions) and the vision of the game developers. Who am I to think that a lone voice crying out in the wilderness can influence that juggernaut called evolution?

But a lone voice can, by calling out to other lone voices in the wilderness, and together they can perform miracles.

Or they can use the CSM Vote Matching Tool.

I did, out of interest in how it would work, and I was pleasantly surprised. It helps you match your interests in the game with a CSM who is in alignment with what you want. And it links to where you can place a vote for the candidate of your choice.

So I did it, and I found there were two candidates who most closely matched my needs - 67%. The candidates were Mrs Trzzbk and Song Li. I was a little disappointed that no one got any closer than 67% of what I thought was appropriate for the game, but so be it...

Now, I'd never heard of Mrs Trzzbk, but I have heard of Song Li. And he's a fellow blogger. So guess who I voted for? That's right, Song Li.

I hope he wins!

And you can have a say too. Go to the site, answer the poll to provide your thoughts on the game and its future, and see who matches your own beliefs. Check out their websites, see what they're saying, and make an informed vote.

You're a lone voice in the wilderness, but together with other voices, you can make a difference.

Do it today. You don't have much time left!

PS. Who thinks I should run for next year's CSM? It's a thought I've had lately....

Share Eve blogs on Reddit

2009-11-19T13:07:00.001+11:00

Just to make it a bit easier for you, I've added a button to the bottom of every post. If you think it's worth sharing, please click on the button and it will allow you to submit the post to Eve Bloggers on Reddit.

Thanks!

5 Tips to Make Your Blog More Successful

2009-11-18T15:26:00.001+11:00

If you write a blog, you're probably doing it for a number of reasons. You're doing it because you want to share your adventures with others, you want to learn how to write better, you want to be noticed, you want to share what you learn, you want to help others to play the game better, you want to be a part of the community, or you want to help build or promote the community. And I'm sure there's many more reasons you're blogging that I haven't mentioned.

Being a blogger, you're putting yourself out there, and you're likely to guage your success or even failure by how many people visit your blog, how many people leave comments, and how many people try to promote your blog.

If you get more people visiting your blog and leaving comments, it makes you feel good. It encourages you to write more and to participate more. What some people have a challenge with is truly understanding how to get more of all of the above, or how to make their blog successful.

Now, I know that some bloggers truly don't care about 'success'. They're blogging for themselves, and they really don't care about getting more visitors to their blog. If that's you, maybe you won't care about this post. But if you want to make your blog to get more visitors and comments than what it currently is, then you might find something useful in the following tips.

1. Post regularly

If you try to keep up a schedule of posting either every day, every few days, or every week, people will see you're active. They'll be more interested in engaging with your blog if it's active. If you haven't posted in a few months, they're going to wonder why they should bother leaving a comment or even promoting your blog. If you're not posting, they're going to assume you're not around and they'll leave. So post regularly and keep them coming back for more.

2. Have conversations

When people leave a comment on your blog, they're connecting with you. If you ignore them and don't reply, they're going to wonder why they bothered. If you reply to their comments, you make their effort worthwhile, and you encourage them to do more of it. People like to connect with others and have conversations. They like to be heard. Listen to your readers, and communicate with them.

3. Be yourself

Write as if you're talking. It makes it easier for people to read as it becomes a 'conversational style', but it also makes it easier to write. You can imagine talking about a topic in your head… write that down, word for word. You should find it easier to just write what you think.

Of course, if you're writing 'in character', then you need to put yourself into the mind of your character, and do the same thing. Write as if they're the ones thinking, rather than you. Translate it to text, and voila! You have a blog post.

4. Communicate with others

One of the best ways of getting visitors to your site and spreading the word about your blog is to visit other people's blogs of a similar nature and leave comments in their posts. As you communicate your thoughts with them about what they've written, they - and their readers - will click on the link to your blog (make sure you leave a link to your blog in the website field available when you post a comment) to see what else you have to say. This engages a community by bringing together like-minded blogs and bloggers as they leave comments on each other's blogs, increasing their exposure.

5. Help them, entertain them, or anger them

If you just drone on about nothing interesting, people might get pretty bored. No one wants to be bored, so you're likely to see very few visitors or communication on your blog. Even though you're doing the blog for yourself, if you're interested in 'being successful' you have to make sure you give the readers what they want to read. Present your content in such a way that it either helps them, entertains them, or angers them. Any of those 3 methodologies will get more people coming to your blog and leaving comments.

If you follow all the above tips, you're going to see an increase in visitors to your blog. You're going to have people commenting on your blog. And you're going to find your blog will be just that bit more successful than it used to be.

Where am I?

2009-11-18T11:37:00.002+11:00

I'm deep behind enemy lines, screwing with the locals' heads.

That's all for now on this topic.

Eve Player Profiles - Kirith Darkblade

2009-11-17T10:46:00.004+11:00

Please tell us about the person behind the character, we'd really love to know a bit more about you - What do you do outside of Eve?

In the meantime, here's Kirith Darkblade!

Your character name:
Kirirth Darkblade, blog: http://kirithdarkblade.blogspot.com/

Your real name:
Sean (would be grateful to keep surname private)

The country you're living in:
UK, Cornwall

How old are you:
29

What kind of work do you do:
I'm an Accountant. I work in a Leisure Centre that is run as a Charitable Trust. Being a Charitable Trust we solely rely on the income coming through the door and from our members, unlike local authority run centres we do not receive any funding or subsidy. This makes times challenging especially in times of recession like we are currently in. Were it not for a small and strong management team and capable staff with them the centre would have closed long ago. Whilst I am an accountant I find that I am drawn into many different areas of the business where you would not imagine that skillset is appropriate, but it keeps my life varied and interesting.

What other hobbies or interests do you have:
I have several hobbies & interests outside of EvE, though I do tend to get very absorbed into MMO's (though my wife is very tolerant of this). Here's a selection of my other time-sinks:

Radio Control Cars
Kite flying
Driving (See attached Pic)
Cooking
Films

Do you have a personal blog or non-Eve website you want to share:
Nope

My first time as fleet commander

2009-11-16T15:59:00.003+11:00

Ok, I've been involved in a few alliance fleet operations now, and I've come to appreciate some parts of them, and dislike other parts. Everyone who commands a fleet deserves the utmost respect, in my opinion, but we all know that some are better than others, and that's fine.

But instead of whinging about what others do that I don't like, I decided to just do it myself. Then, when it goes wrong, not only do I have no one to blame but myself, but I can learn very, very quickly about what not to do...

So on the weekend I organised a fleet operation, with me commanding.

Now, I've led small fleet operations before, but it was always in low-sec. It seemed a little safer there... Out here in null-sec, it feels quite different.

I didn't want the op to be too extreme, nor did I want it to be too official, so I asked a real-life friend and a friend of hers if they wanted to be in my fleet to help me learn. It just so happened they're both in Ushra'Khan, so that made it all the better. And then a corp mate (Autumnn) logged in and wanted to be involved too, so there were 4 of us.

I advised everyone that this was my first fleet op, so they should all expect to die, and to bring only ships that they were ok with losing. My friend (Zyeth) bought a Rifter, while her friend (Nukelear Storm) bought a Vagabond. Autumnn ended up choosing a Rupture, and I was scout in my Rapier (this was because no one else had a cloaked ship or interceptor...).

And so we set off on our roam. My objective was simply to fly along a circular route through a large loop of systems in the northern are of Catch, and see if we could find any targets to kill. While everyone knew we might (and probably would) die, I wanted to do my best to keep everyone alive.

So I was somewhat cautious. I wasn't using the Rifter as a scout as Zyeth was new to all this pvp/scouting business, and I believe this was her first real operational experience. I couldn't use the Rupture or the Vagabond as scouts either, so it was up to me in the cloaked Rapier. I also decided, for the same reasons, that I couldn't use any of them as rear scouts either, but now I think Autumnn in the Rupture might have been a suitable choice for that.

So we roamed and rambled our way around Catch. I managed to keep us safe from about 3 or 4 different red fleets, comprising over 10 ships each. Keeping an eye on the intel channels and scouting worked well, with my little fleet being able to keep one system ahead of the larger fleets before they broke off on a different path, or successfully hiding out in safe spots.

We did this for about an hour, but we were unable to find a solo target to pin down and attack. We had a go at a Destroyer once, but it was able to evade us and slip away.

Eventually it was time to return home and call it quits. Nukelear wanted to continue on into Providence by himself, so we parted ways. Just as he left the system, the gate the rest of us had just entered (and were sitting around) began firing and local began spiking with a number of reds. I know now that a rear scout would have been helpful here....

"Get away from the gate - now!" I said over comms, and immediately began the warp process to the next gate. However, an interdictor appeared on the overview and a bubble went up, and the warp drive disengaged before it could complete activation. Already having my cloak activated was helpful, and I turned the Rapier around to head back to the gate to jump through it. I did this because a number of other ships began appearing, releasing drones. I figured it would be safer to get back to the gate than to slowboat through the bubble.

I heard Zyeth over the comms, "Oh wow, a bubble... I think I'm dead." I tried to tell her to quickly make her way back to the gate, but then she said, "Ummm... everything's frozen on me..." Lag. I didn't bother telling her anything, as it wasn't going to matter.

As I jumped through the gate I heard her say, "Great, I'm in a new clone..."

I was in the next system, and I quickly checked local to see that Autumnn had made it through as well. I told him to get away from the gate and make some safe spots in this system.

While cloaked, I warped to a planet and made a safe spot to hide at, as local started spiking again with the reds coming back through the gate. A few seconds later I heard Autumnn on the comms say something like, "They got me." I asked him what happened, and he said that he warped to a planet but there was a red already there within range, and he was scrambled. Then another 5 or so reds arrived, and it was all over for Autumnn's rupture. So Autumnn took the fast ride back to a new clone too...

With a sigh, I sat there in my cloaked Rapier. I knew we had all expected to die anyway, but it was still disappointing that some of us did.

Over the next hour I made my way slowly back home, successfully dodging a number of other red fleets before finally docking. I spent that time thinking about my first fleet commander experience, trying to work out how I could have improved it, and getting some feedback from Zyeth and Nukelear.

With what I learned from the experience, and tips I've gotten from feedback and other sources out there on the internet, my next op will be quite different...

Eve Player Profiles - Psia

2009-11-16T15:19:00.002+11:00

Please tell us about the person behind the character, we'd really love to know a bit more about you - What do you do outside of Eve?

In the meantime, here's Psia!

Your character name:
Psia (though in blogging circles I'm often known as ChainTrap - when I'm known)

Your real name:
John

The country you're living in:
England (in lovely rural Warwickshire)

How old are you:
36 - though often I feel much older

What kind of work do you do:
I write policy and advice for the UK government on the use of IT in schools. It is both rewarding and interesting.

My background is in networks and IT support, although I have in my time written for traditional tabletop RPG systems (and been paid for it); been employed to make gaming miniatures and been a sound engineer (during which time I worked on tracks by David Bowie and Take That amongst others).

What other hobbies or interests do you have:
It's natural with my professional background that I'd be into music, and that's still the case. Although I hung up my drumsticks a while ago, I keep meaning to get myself back into drumming - though it seems that my circumstances keep getting in the way. In the meantime, I continue to seek out new bands, and accumulate albums and attend gigs.

Cars and motor sport are also an interest. As well as spectating, both from an armchair and in person at the events, the wife and I also marshal. Rallying (WRC, IRC, clubman); F1; Touring Cars (BTCC, WTCC); Hill climbs: we're into anything as long as it has wheels and an engine. We also compete at a very basic local club level in road rallies, 12 cars, and the like. My (current) pride and joy is a 1988 Porsche 944. Not the fastest car on the planet, but point to point across the countryside it is a close match for anything out there. And besides, I can always borrow my wife's Subaru Impreza for those "knock your nuts off" acceleration moments.

It's not just motor sport though. I'm a fan of the mighty Nottingham Forest FC (twice European football champions); both the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders american football teams (I have attended the NFL international Series games for the past couple of years) and follow international rugby union (supporting England, of course).

The majority of my time at the moment is spent with my family. My wife and I were blessed with a delightful baby girl in July. Spending time with her is a complete joy - which is just as well cos she does require a lot of attention.

Do you have a personal blog or non-Eve website you want to share:
Not really - but I would like throw out a plug for Eve University (http://www.eve-ivy.com/index.php) - my current home, and an admirable endeavour. Props to Morning Maniac and the directors of the Uni.

Bekka's Punishment

2009-11-16T11:30:00.003+11:00

Over here, Bekka discusses how piracy needs to be made harder.

In my opinion, low-sec piracy should carry significantly more risk for pirates than it actually does.

By 'significantly more risk', she wants CCP to implement CONCORD appearing in lowsec at random intervals to punish pirates for their actions if detected at that time.

She also says:

CCP needs to address this problem, and they need to do it now, before it gets worse than it already is.

Since when was it a problem for pirates to engage in low-sec piracy? But wait, she also adds:

Unless CCP is comfortable with the idea of low-sec and 0.0 becoming the virtually exclusive domain of the most wealthy and powerful corps and pirates, it's high time they do what they have to in order to open up these areas to the rest of the player base. No doubt much bitching and moaning will ensue, but it's really the only way to ensure that EvE will be able to not only gain but also hold on to new players over the long term. Regardless of whether you're a pirate, a noob victim, or anything in-between, encouraging more new and middle-range players to participate in and stay with EvE should be a goal every player can get behind. It's good for the game, it's good for CCP, and it's good for the players.

This is a perfect example of not just a Carebear that plays the game, but a Carebear that whinges about how the game disadvantages them. They spend all their time in Empire space but then, when a mission sends them into the more dangerous areas of low-sec where they can get killed by pirates, they have a cry and whinge about how CCP needs to fix this problem.

They did fix the problem - it's called Empire space. If you don't like low-sec, don't bloody go there!

Don't ask for the game to be changed because you don't like how pirates can 'kill people so easily'. Just stay away from low-sec and you won't be killed.

I had to add a comment on their post. I said:

It's real simple. Piracy is 'easy' only because most people are not organised enough to create fleets to push the pirates away. Piracy is easy because so many people ignore what they COULD be doing to prevent it.

It's not the fault of the game or of the pirates. They're doing what the game allows them to do. The game also allows people to form fleets and fight the pirates.

The real simple solution to low-sec piracy is to form fleets of your own and take ownership of police actions. People already do this - they're called 'anti-pirates'. They form fleets, corporations, alliances. They sign up to take the fight to the pirates, to kick them out of systems, to force them out of the region.

They do their part to fight piracy. You can join them if you so choose. Or you can do nothing but whinge and cry about how CCP should do something to 'fix this problem'.

Your choice. The anti-pirates out there are doing what they can to 'fix the problem', which is part of the game experience!

This game is open. You can do whatever you want in it. CCP have created protected space for Carebears like yourself, semi-protected space (eg. CONCORD-like gate and station guns to punish hostile actions) for pirates to have fun in, and unprotected space (0.0 space) for the serious players. You can go wherever you want, to do anything you want.

But don't bloody cry and want the game changed because you don't like dying.

This game has something for everyone. But you want it changed so it has less for everyone, and more for you.

How selfish! You've now been Punished.

What do you enjoy about evebloggers.com

2009-11-15T12:06:00.003+11:00

I'd like you to give me some feedback.

Do you visit www.evebloggers.com for the screenshots and videos as well as the blogs?
Or do you visit only for the blogs?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm wondering if I should just get rid of the screenshots and videos so as to improve the loading time of the page.

What are your thoughts?

Share Eve blogs via Reddit

2009-11-13T10:01:00.003+11:00

I'd just like to remind everyone (or notify those who didn't know) that you can share Eve Online blogs via Reddit. Instructions on how to easily do it are here:

Share blogs and sites for discussion

Please join in the community effort to get those Eve blogs and related sites shared out to the world, and to each other.

Join up and be part of it! :)

Fleet Battles

2009-11-09T12:40:00.005+11:00

Since I joined the Ushra'Khan I've been spending most of my time initially 'getting my feet'. This has involved mostly ratting in U'K space to get some money to fund my upcoming PVP adventures. At the same time, I spent a lot of time observing the alliance and intel channels and seeing how things are done around here, and what people talk about.

I've gone on a few 'roams' into Providence space, and discovered the major difference between CVA-friendly pilots and U'K pilots is that those in CVA space hide, and no defences occur to repel U'K incursions. Even if there's just 1 or 3 of us. However, when a large CVA fleet tries to make its way into U'K territory, dozens of pilots form up and kick them out immediately, and then go on retaliation strikes into CVA territory, where the locals all hide.

Anyway, in the first 2 weeks, I think I went on about 3 small roams into CVA space. It all changed on the weekend just gone. I spent a few hours on Saturday at first flying my Rifter, but then when it was declared primary by the enemy - or it seemed like it, since it was destroyed by a Nighthawk, Flycatcher, Cormorant and Harbinger... I think I was the only Rifter in a fleet of cruisers, interceptors, battlecruisers and battleships... And the enemy took out my frigate...

I suspect they knew they were screwed, so they attacked the easiest target, which just happened to be me. Damn 'kill' mail whores...

So I decided to take my brand new Rapier for a test flight, it's maiden voyage. Excitingly enough, I was involved in the kill of an Abaddon.

I got up early on Sunday to join in on a corp op. Except the CEO didn't turn up. :p (Yes, that's me poking my tongue at you!) So I joined in on an alliance fleet op. And another one. And another one. And another one. And then I had something to eat around 7pm. Then I joined another one...

Overall, I was involved in 3 kills throughout the day in my Rapier: a Myrmidon and its pod, and a Guardian.

All in all, a good weekend.

However, what I REALLY want to do is take my Rapier out and get some solo kills with it, rather than as a 'hanger on' in fleet battles.

I bought and fitted a Typhoon this morning, and then tested it ratting. It just wasn't as good as the Raven, so I think I'll turn it into a PVP battleship instead. It'll give me a bit more variety in fleet battles, rather than just with a Rifter or Rapier.

Exciting times!

The lessons we learn

2009-11-07T00:03:00.003+11:00

I roamed and rambled into Providence tonight, with my corpmate Kellnir. We found lots of reds but they hid from us. Except for this one red I found on a gate.

Tip: when you encounter an Ishtar in your frigate, don't mistakenly think it's an Ishkur and you might be able to hold it until the rest of the fleet arrive. You won't.

Oh look, a nice new clone for me...

Eve Player Profiles

2009-11-06T08:04:00.003+11:00

Thank you to those who have sent me your personal profiles. I will publish them on a daily basis rather than all at once. Please send in yours if you haven't done so already, we'd love to know more about the people behind the characters.

Your character name:
Zalorria (in training)

Your real name:
Sherry

The country you're living in:
Wellington, New Zealand

How old are you:
37

What kind of work do you do:
Was an IT Manager, have now changed industry and purchased a fast food shop. I am also the landlord for a couple of properties.

What other hobbies or interests do you have:
Did play World of Warcraft for a long time, currently don't have alot of time for hobbies. I do like to listen to music, read and ski. Recently have been doing a couple of half marathons (walking)

Do you have a personal blog or non-Eve website you want to share:
www.punkas.com

Character Name:
Siddh Siitem

Real Name:
David Michael Spencer

Country:
Canada

Age:
24

Work:
Payroll/Benefits for Government employees.

Hobbies/interests:
Philosophy, psychology, political science (have a degree in that last one) and RPGs (pen and paper, computer, console, whatever). Also reading, and video games in general.

Personal blog:
I sort of have a LiveJournal I don't use anymore. Mostly I'm on twitter as davethebrave371, and tumblr as davethebrave (or davthbrv, if you will).

A couple of people have done their profiles on their own blogs. You can find them here:

Some thoughts about clones

2009-11-05T16:42:00.003+11:00

Vol has a discussion about PVP and suicide ganking:

"Put on the cheapest high-damage, suicide fit that you can and find your hub of choice, or your 0.5-system-with-good-traffic of choice. I hypothesize that one could nearly strike at random and at least break even. I hypothesize that if one were to sack a good sample rate of suicide ships in this manner, one would find that they aren't losing nearly as much money as one would fear, if in deed they were to lose money at all.

To me, that is what is broken. One should have to think about it. One should have to lay in wait and strike targets carefully, with some thought, and with some great risk."

You know what? Even though he's crying, I actually agree with him.

The reason why we have 'rampant ganking' going on throughout the galaxy is because of clones. There's no actual risk involved, apart from financial. Everyone updates their clones and ensures their continued lifestyle choice.

I know that clones were a game mechanic implemented by CCP to guarantee people were able to continue playing their character even after dying. However, death is non-existent, and all pod pilots are immortal. Immortality creates recklessness.

Maybe it's time to change the game mechanics.

Now, please understand I'm not discussing this to support the crying carebears. Nor am I discussing this because I've been hard-done by. Instead, I have an idea on how gameplay can be made more interesting...

If character death had stronger repercussions, entire methods of gameplay would change. There would be less suicides occurring, because the repercussions would be more severe. Combat would be more strategic and tactical, rather than 'blob combat'. Pilots would care more about survival than the financial cost of losing a ship. (Finances would still have a major influence, but survival would outweigh it.)

I know that implants go some way towards providing repercussions to losing a clone. But that is avoided by using jump clones, or just not using implants. The problem is still there.

What if we didn't have clones any more?

How do you think gameplay would change if cloning facilities were no longer able to be used, or there were some major issues with using them?

People don't want to permanently die and lose all their hard-earned skill points. I agree with that.

So I have another idea that I thought I'd present for discussion. I'll present it according to in-game reasons, but with the mechanics of how it would work being very obvious.

Current technology allows us to access up to 3 different people, available as clones, but we can only have one of them training at a time. New technological advances would allow all characters to train simultaneously. However, we decide which character is our main character, and skill training for this is at 100%. The clones not being consciously controlled are in 'storage' until activated, but they're still able to receive training at 25% of normal.
When an inactive character's skill has completed, the system advises your active character with an evemail, allowing you to change characters and set more training.
When you change characters to one of the 2 alts, their training speed increases to 50%, while the main drops to 50%. This encourages continued use of the main instead of the alts, which are mainly 'backup characters'.
When you die in any of your characters, you cannot activate another clone of that particular character for 24 hours. You have to either sit there and watch a blank screen while still having the chat windows available, or you can log out and activate a new character.
You can only control 1 character at a time, so you can't login with multiple clients.
If you have up to 3 characters and they all end up dead within the 24 hours of the first character dying, you'll have to wait until you can access a new clone of that character before you can inhabit a new clone again. During this time, however, you can look at your blank screen while still being able to access the chat windows. You can not engage in any active manipulation of the market, fittings, etc, as all your clones are still waiting to be reactivated.
The reason it takes so long to reactivate a new clone of a dead character is because the multiple clone training takes up system resources all across the galaxy. You can't have all clones training throughout the galaxy without some disadvantages...

How would your style of gameplay change under such conditions?

Do you think you'd love the increased options for character advancement and multiple career paths? You could have a main for combat, and an alt for trade, etc.

If you had to wait 24 hours before your character is restored, how would that change what you currently do?

Please discuss your thoughts.

What do you do outside of Eve?

2009-11-05T12:52:00.006+11:00

I got an idea for a new series of blog posts that I thought I'd experiment with (thanks to an email discussion with Ga'len). The last time I did something like this I asked a series of questions about what you did in the game, and how long you've been playing it, etc. This time I thought I'd try something different.

If you'd like to submit answers to the following questions, I'd be very grateful. Your answers will be submitted as new blog posts, with the intent to help everyone out there understand a bit more about the person behind the character.

Please note that this is for anyone - players and bloggers alike. If you want to let us know about the person behind the character, send me your answers:

Your character name:

Your real name:

The country you're living in:

How old are you:

What kind of work do you do:

What other hobbies or interests do you have:

Do you have a personal blog or non-Eve website you want to share:

I'll start the ball rolling with a few details about me.

Your character name: Alexia Morgan

Your real name: Alan Howard

The country you're living in: Australia (city: Canberra)

How old are you: I'm 43 this month.

What kind of work do you do:

I'm a Business Analyst (BA). What that means is that I do the following:

understand the practices and processes of the business or government department that contracts my services
understand what their objectives are (eg. what do they want me to achieve)
analyse where they are now, in relation to where they want to be, and present a 'gap analysis'. This shows them where they are, and where they want to be, and what they need to do to implement changes that will result in them getting to where they want to be
and finally, help them implement those changes

What I love about it is that I am directly responsible for change. I love change. I embrace it. And it excites me to be responsible for changing some business or government department so that the way they do things is improved.

I've spent about 13 years in the IT industry, most of it in tech support. The experience I gained helped me move forward as a BA, with a forte in IT Operations and Support. I'm excellent at helping service desks, for example, improve their practices and processes around Service Delivery and Management.

What other hobbies or interests do you have:

When I finish work, I'm usually braindead from some element of mental exhaustion, so I jump onto Eve and wind down ingame. Being in Australia, I have about 3-4 hours of gametime after work and before Downtime, so I try to make the most of it. Occasionally I go out with a friend for a mid-evening coffee.

On weekends I usually catch up with some friends for brunch/lunch, or go out for dinner somewhere. If the weather is nice and/or I'm inspired, I love going out taking photos. Photography is a passion of mine, but one which I pursue only as a hobby. I recently bought a Nikon D90 DSLR, which is my very first semi-professional camera, and I'm loving the quality of shots it takes. I'm hoping that one day I'll become good enough to take it up as a semi/professional photographer.

Driving is another passion. I have a Ford XR6 Turbo which keeps me very happy. It's an Aussie performance vehicle, and you can't get it outside of Australia or New Zealand (maybe you could import it, I dunno). I've had it a couple years, and I love playing with it. A friend of mine has a turbo-charged Nissan Pulsar, and we're often going out on Friday nights to find others to 'play with', if you get my drift. :) So far, I haven't found anything that is faster than mine off the lights. Lots of fun.

Travel. That's something else I love doing. I've seen probably half of Australia in my lifetime so far, and intend seeing so much more. In 2000 I went to New Zealand for a holiday and ended up staying there. Beautiful country. I saw most of it in my time there, and came back to Australia in 2007. There's a lot more traveling I want to do, like China and Japan and Europe. Shame I can't take my car with me, but at least the camera will come...

Do you have a personal blog or non-Eve website you want to share:

I've been blogging since 1998, back when it was called 'online journaling'. I've changed domains and formats over the years, but all the content has been maintained. It's now at www.alanzeyes.com It's a reflection of my life and adventures.

Right, your turn. Send me your information, and I'll throw it up as a new format of Blogger Profiles.

My first taste of combat in Ushra'Khan

2009-11-04T10:26:00.007+11:00

Yesterday was a good day... a public holiday here in Australia for the Melbourne Cup, so I spent the morning on Eve. I joined a fleet op into CVA territory, and there were 25 of us. Since I've been focused on battleships for ratting, and I'm yet to fully complete my Recon training, I jumped into a Rifter for the fleet op.

At first, the FC didn't want frigates. Then someone suggested to the FC that we'd need tacklers. So he said ok, but he didn't want Rifters. So I said "the Rifter is a frigate...", so then he agreed to having Rifters.

I wasn't completely inspired, but so be it... off we flew!

Earthwynd, a corpmate who came across to Phaze-9 with me, was also in a Rifter. We were the only 2 frigates in a 25-man fleet.

Then the FC made someone a scout. But they didn't have any tackling mods. That didn't matter, apparently... until the scout engaged someone and the fleet made their way to the scene of combat. Except that the target warped away before we got there. So someone else was made scout.

What the hell, I thought. Being part of a fleet is good experience. That's what I was telling myself, anyway.

And I was right. At the end of a roam through CVA territory, including their base system where they were all huddled in a station, hiding (watching us all waving as we went through the system, unhindered), we ended up with a few kills. I managed to get in on the death of a Rupture and then I was one of 2 who podkilled the pilot (although I didn't do any damage... I think I was involved 'cause I was web/scramming him).

But after a couple of hours, it was lunchtime. I had to go out to lunch with some friends, so I left the fleet while in the very centre of CVA space. I logged off, looking forward to the lone flight back home when I logged back on later in the day.

So when I logged back in with 8 reds in the system, I immediately set off back home, confident that I would be able to get home without any issues.

Based on my experiences so far of being in CVA space as a neutral member of Providence and watching the Ushra'Khan roaming around relatively unhindered and having to hide from them, and then being in the Ushra'Khan and wandering around unhindered, laughing at all the locals in Providence hiding from me, I've learnt something quite interesting.

When CVA form a fleet to go attack U'K space, entire defence fleets of U'K warriors form and repel them before they get very far. But when the U'K go roaming around CVA space, everyone there hides. The defence fleet is... well, I don't know where it is, 'cause it's rarely where the U'K are.

Of course, this is just my experience. I'm sure others might have different experiences, and you're welcome to tell me about them in the Comments below. :)

So, back to my solo trek back home...

It didn't happen.

Instead, I joined up with an in-game friend (Nukelear Storm) of a real life friend, both of whom are also in U'K. He was nearby and planning a solo venture into Providence. I joined him.

So together we went back into Providence, the 2 of us. We roamed and rambled our way around. Him in a Stabber, me in my Rifter. Wherever we went, the reds hid in their stations or safe spots, or cloaked up, waiting for us to leave.

Another U'K member, sw33t lips, joined us in his Rapier. So then there were 3. And still the locals hid.

I was scout, and at one point, as I was scouting around a particular system, I flew to a planet at 100km. I was surprised to find the system's station right near me, at 102km. There were 2 reds just leaving the station - a Drake and a Kestrel.

I sat there, watching them, reporting this to the small fleet I was a part of. I told them that the Kestrel was starting to make his way to me, while the Drake had warped away. I suspected that the Drake would warp to his Kestrel buddy once an engagement occurred, but I decided to stick around.

My fleet started to make their way to me, but they were 2 jumps away. The Kestrel got to about 30k away when she started firing her rockets, and I jumped into action. Initiating an orbit of 750m, I approached her at about 800m/s. Her rockets impacted against my shields, and they quickly dropped to about 30%. I activated the armour repairer, followed by my weapons at about 8km.

I was constantly aware that the Drake pilot could warp in on us at any second, and I was hoping to kill the Kestrel before I died myself. I saw 2 MORE Drake pilots exit the station 100km away, with 1 of them warping away while the other stayed there and watched the combat from 100km.

My shields were repairing themselves, and I was taking no more damage from the Kestrel's rockets, being so close and all. I switched off the armor repairer. Suddenly there was an explosion, and there was the Kestrel's pilot sitting there in a pod. I chuckled to myself when my web and scrambler engaged, preventing them from warping away. However, I was very surprised when it was taking so long for my weapons to do any real damage to the pod...

Range? Check. All weapons firing? Check. Weird. So I started to align for warp, expecting someone to arrive any second. As range was increasing on the pod, I decided I didn't want to wait any further and I activated warp - just as the pod exploded behind me.

Nice!

And none of her CVA buddies turned up to help. There was no coordinated defence, no assistance...

Lex Lacey, if you're reading this, I applaud you for seeking a fight with the Ushra'Khan. I applaud you for trying to do what you can for the territory you're residing in. However, you might want to consider abandoning those who abandoned you.

Back to me... my fleet was disappointed I got a kill without them, but hey, it was a Kestrel.

We continued our roam, but wherever we went, the locals hid. Eventually we got bored, and went back home. I returned to doing some ratting.

It was a good day indeed.

10 tips on how to be an idiot

2009-10-30T08:25:00.006+11:00

In a previous post I ended it with: "Watch out idiots, Punishment is coming for you."

I decided to let the sensitive part of me write a post to help people be less of an idiot and avoid the less sensitive part of me having to come after them. So here's a few tips on how to be an idiot. Avoid these if you can.

If you believe that people are cheating if they kill you, scam you, or do anything to you that you don't like, you're an idiot. If they're doing it, it's likely they're able to use a game function to do so.
If you bleat about it in local, on the forums, or on a blog, you're an idiot.
If you petition CCP to get the action reversed, you're an idiot.
If you make it public that you tried getting the action reversed, you'll be laughed at, 'cause you're an idiot.
If you want to get the game rules changed because you don't like how often you die from them, you're an idiot.
If you blog, comment or write on the forums about how the rules should be changed so that you die less often, you're an idiot.
If you come up with all kinds of elaborately detailed suggestions on how these changes can be made, you're an idiot.
If other people try to teach you how to play the game according to the rules, but you ignore them because you decide that doing any of the above is a much better idea, then you're an idiot.
If you teach other people that anything you say in relation to the above is correct and they agree with you, then you're all idiots.
If you think any of these statements apply to you and you get upset - you're an idiot. (Go on, show us you're an idiot by complaining in the Comments section.)

Bonus tip:

If you think I'm an idiot for coming up with these tips, then you're an idiot. Don't prove it (see #10 above).

Hopefully you'll understand how to NOT be an idiot by taking note of all the tips above. Don't do any of the above, and you'll be fine. If you do any of the above and I see it, I'm going to laugh at you.

And probably do a blog post to point out your idiocy to everyone else.

You've been warned.

There's gonna be some changes around here

2009-10-30T08:00:00.003+11:00

You know, I'm sick to death of all these social niceties that control us. We don't say what we really feel, believe or think because we're afraid of offending people.

Well, you know what? I'm over it.

If you get offended at what I say about things in general, and you take the opinions I have as personal comments against you, then you're far too sensitive and insecure for me to waste my time and energy on trying to keep you happy.

I'm not naming names, but if you think I'm referring to you, then you're right.

Things are going to change around here. I'm not going to tiptoe around any more, trying to make sure I don't offend anyone. Not that I ever really went out of my way to avoid offending people in the first place, as some of you might have noticed, but it's always been in the back of my mind.

What's brought about this change is the fact I've been seeing more and more idiots around lately. People that don't have a clue. As a result, I've said things that I've normally not said, and you know what?

It felt gooooood...

I'm a believer that if something feels good, and there's no withdrawal symptoms when you're not doing it, then you should do more of it.

So I will.

Watch out idiots, Punishment is coming for you.

If you play as intended, you're cheating...

2009-10-29T17:09:00.002+11:00

I saw a discussion of the CVA hacking/disbanding on Massively and I'd like to paraphrase what one of the commenters said:

"Another reason I'm letting my Eve sub run out this month" is because "all manner of espionage and underhanded tactics are permitted… Winning like that is the diametrical opposite of FUN…" and "since CCP is confused… and thinks that kind of thing is a 'win', I see more and more… fighters like me quitting… eventually resulting in the entire game being composed of failgamers and their alts…"

Now, it's bullshit like that which shows so many players of Eve Online just don't get it. They really don't.

CCP create this game to be a particular way. They have features and game-play elements purposefully created to be a part of the game, and to lead to all kinds of different actions.

And then you get these people who honestly believe that using the very functions of the game - as they're designed to be used - is tantamount to cheating. And they consider the game developers themselves to be 'confused' when people play the game the way CCP have designed the game to be played.

I'm trying to keep a civil tongue. I'm trying to avoid swearing at these idiots that think 'playing the game' is cheating, and that once all the 'decent players' quit, all that'll be left are those who cheat.

And seriously… they think CCP are confused about their own game, and that people are cheating and playing in ways not intended?

Grow a friggin' brain.

Or, please - quit now, before your sub runs out. You're obviously clueless about this game, and we really don't need you to pollute the spaceways with your idiocy.

If you get offended by this, then YOU are one of those who should quit. Do it. Do it now!

And now for something completely different

2009-10-26T22:12:00.005+11:00

I've joined the Ushra'Khan!

Well, more to the point, I've joined Phaze-9, a corp which is a member of the Ushra'Khan (U'K). I did this because its CEO, Maestro Ulv, has been harping on at me for weeks now to join his corp. Eventually I caved in and joined up, with my application being accepted today.

Now, there's a few reasons I accepted the invitation.

It was an honour to be invited, and I'm privileged to be part of Maestro's corp and the U'K.
It got me away from Providence, which is where the carebears hang out. Maestro didn't want to see me hanging out with the carebears... And I can't say I blame him. I could feel the carebear-ness coming over me, and I think it was good that I got out of there when I did!
I plan on being in a Force Recon very soon (a Rapier, followed soon after by an Arazu). I thought it would be a great idea to get some training from experienced pilots in covert ops / recon combat, and that just happens to be something of a specialty of Maestro's corp. I was promised extensive training and experience in such combat.
Experience in 'professional' fleet operations can only be a good thing for me. I've had my share of fleet operations over the years, but they've all been small, and I wouldn't say they've been professional. That's about to change.

So, I joined the corp today, and once I found myself part of the alliance, I decided to go on a roam around the region to see if I could find any 'intruders' to shoot at. I made certain I understood the local rules - neutrals were targets in the region and in Providence, but not anywhere else. Reds were always a target.

So I set off on my small journey. I quickly discovered some kind of plex with about 8 battleship rats and 6 frigates. What a shame I was flying around in my Rifter... I decided to leave it behind, but marked it on my map as somewhere to come back to when I was flying a battleship.

So I went through 19 systems in a circular route to come back to where I started. All I saw were alliance members.

This was good because it meant I could probably do some good ratting around here without worrying too much about the bad guys (don't worry, I know not to be overconfident; that's bitten me on the bum in the past, I can assure you).

It also meant that most of my combat would either be in defence of this region when attacked, and I answer the alliance's call to arms, or it would be on adventures into other regions.

I do look forward to either of them.

When I got back from my roam around the region, one of my new corp mates took me on a tour of jump bridges. Now this was exciting! I've never been part of an alliance before that had their own jump bridges.

So as I was taken on the tour, and bookmarking their locations in system, I was also marking the routes on my region printout, so that I could easily see where the jump bridges were in relation to the rest of the systems.

Very cool, and very exciting!

I can see some interesting adventures ahead....

8 Secrets of the 80/20 Blogger

2009-10-22T19:56:00.001+11:00

There's this thing called 'the 80/20 rule' (or Pareto Principle). It states that in many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. It also applies to business, where 20% of the clients will bring in 80% of the sales. I decided to apply the same rule to blogging, and this post is all about the 8 secrets of the 80/20 blogger. I hope that it brings you value.

1. 80% of your posts are meaningless.
80% of what you post is going to be absolute rubbish. But those posts are still important, 'cause without them, your regular readers will go somewhere else. If they're regular, of course. Who'd be regular though if you don't have any posts? Those regular fans you have, they're there for the 20% of your posts that are meaningful to them. And of those fans, 20% of them will link to 80% of those meaningful posts on their own blogs.

2. Your blog is a valuable resource.
If you can work out why only some of your posts are linked back by your fans, you can begin to increase the ratio. Start writing more of what they find interesting and meaningful. And if you can't do this, then you're probably just not bound for success, so you might want to start knitting instead. Maybe you could blog about that? Try to aim for 80% of your posts being talked about by 20% of all your visitors.

3. Be Unique. Don’t be like everyone else. That is so Web 1.0.
You should be tired of looking at your stats and seeing that 20% of your traffic is return visitors. You want 80% returns! If you want more people coming back, you have to be unique. You have to find topics that no one else is talking about, and you have to talk about them yourself. People need to hear things in a new way, and you're going to have to be new if you want them coming back.

4. Become a Google Wunderkind. Delete your archives.
Review all your posts. Clear out the ones that either aren't popular, or are not a good reflection of how you want your blog to be. If you have less content but more of it's linked from other blogs, guess what? You become an overnight Google wunderkind. Google doesn't want you knowing this, but it works.

5. Drop all the advertising bullcrap. Simplicity is betta.
If you have advertising that's not making you money, get rid of it. Now. If you remove 80% of the advertising that's not making you money and optimise the 20% that is, your readers are going to visit your site more, and make your more money in the process. What better reason to do it, right?

7. Quit feeding at the trough.
Spend more time on your blog and less time reading websites or RSS feeds, and any other feeds you might be accessing. It's wasting your time! Quit feeding at the trough and do some creative writing of your own, instead of using other people's content. That's what people feast on, and that's where the success is.

8. Don't TRY to be one, just BE one!
To be one of the 20% of blogs that 80% of people are going to come back to, you have to be one of those 20% of bloggers that 80% of bloggers wish they were. Do more writing. Care less about the crap, and more about the quality. I have a saying sticky-taped to the top of my screen: "combine quality with consistency." Don't try to be what you THINK you should be, just do it and BE it.

The Eve Wave Pack

2009-10-17T13:16:00.003+11:00

You may or may not have heard of Google Wave. If you haven't, I'd say you don't read much on the internet, but that's ok....

Google Wave is Google's attempt to revolutionise email by bringing together Instant Messaging, file hosting and document collaboration. For example, you can create a wave with a description or questions, add members from your contact list, and add a file of some kind (eg. a Word document).

Then you can have this single document available to all members, allowing you to discuss it and work out how you want the document to evolve. Discussion is 'real time', which means as you're typing something, other members can watch what you're typing - mistakes, backspaces and all.

Even if you're not working with a document, you can simply have discussions with the other members of your 'wave'. You can discuss and plan social occasions, etc.

You can also use it for 'collaborative writing', where you work together to write a story or something. You can edit each other's comments, or you can each edit a chapter of a story that you're all working on.

Some of the things I'm expecting to be integrated into Google Wave over time are:

Twitter: update your Twitter feeds from your wave. You and your friends can converse about your updates in the wave itself, and have it replicated back to Twitter if you configure it that way
Blogging: update your blog via Google Wave. Comments on your blog post are replicated in your wave, so you can reply and converse there, and have comments in your wave replicated back to your blog.
Facebook: same thing here. Keep up to date with communication from friends that are in Google Wave and Facebook from one place, with communication being integrated between multiple platforms.
Evebloggers: as people comment and communicate amongst the various integrated platforms, evebloggers.com will present the ongoing 'stream' of conversations out there.

There are gadgets being created for various functionalities, and I'm sure most of them will be absolutely useless, but there's going to be gems in amongst the crap. There always is.

There's already a few of us Eve Bloggers in Google Wave. The Eve Online Wave Pack has begun. If you are on Google Wave as well, or when you get onto it, sign up for the Eve Wave Pack.

See you there!

Strive to be happy

2009-10-15T19:20:00.005+11:00

There's this perception amongst some sensitive souls out there that I'm against Carebears. I realise I've not made it absolutely clear in the past, and it's ended up being a little confusing and misleading, for which I apologise. This post is my attempt to help clear up the confusion.

I'm actually not against them. I've even been a Carebear myself, on quite a few occasions. But let me clarify what those occasions were...

My occasional Carebear status has been the result of non-PVP activities in Empire, lowsec and even 0.0 space. That's about the extent of it.

So no, I'm not against Carebears. What I'm really against are those who whinge and complain and cry about how everyone's out to get them or how unfair the game is because they can't get their way.

Even PVP professionals often fall into this category, and they come up with all kinds of grandiose ideas about how they want the game to change to suit them. In their head it all makes sense - if the game changed in the ways they think it should, then they'd die less often!

So whether you're a Carebear or a PVPer, I don't really care what you do or how you do it. What I DO care about is how much you whinge when something doesn't go your way, and you begin campaigning to change the game to suit your sensitivities. Or you just whinge a lot about how it needs to change, but you don't actually do anything constructive to help make it happen...

It's really simple - if you want the game to change to suit you, how about you go find another game to play, as this one is obviously not for you. Stop whinging to us about how much hardship you're in because someone has used the game mechanics or features to screw you over.

They haven't. They've just played the game according to how it's meant to be played. If you don't like it - stop playing.

Yes, I know - I'm having a whinge. I feel like I'm 'campaigning' to stop whinging. It's probably a useless exercise...

However, me whinging doesn't make me a Carebear - it just means I'm really annoyed about those people that want to change the game to suit themselves.

I know that there are things that may need changing about the game. Use the relevant forums to present good reasons and discussions on why these things need to change and how the changes might even be integrated, rather than "I got killed and I couldn't do anything about it, therefore it needs to change!"

To help you on your way to becoming less of a whinger, I'd like to present a very old poem I found. I've taken the liberty to edit it in a way that reflects our modern times.

Please enjoy - and stop your whinging!

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the vastness of space,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all pod-pilots.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull, the ignorant, and the Carebears;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons who smacktalk in Local;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser pilots than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the galaxy is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the veterans,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture your skills to shield-tank you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt Eve Online is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with the Gods,
whatever you conceive Them to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the violent confusion of death and new clones,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful galaxy.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Print it out and hang it in your pod where you can see it at all times.

Be cheerful - strive to be happy.

A night's adventure

2009-10-12T16:55:00.005+11:00

After asking on my blog the other day about where I should go next in 0.0, I discovered that you can use the maps at http://evemaps.dotlan.net/ to find out how many belts the systems have throughout a region, as well as NPC kills and ship/pod kills . Using these functions - and more - you can browse through maps of various regions and see how busy they are.

So I did that, and found that one of the least busiest 0.0 regions in the entire galaxy was Cobalt Edge. I couldn't find much on the interwebs about it, so I decided to go visit it and find out why.

60 jumps through 0.0 space.

I decided to use a cloaked frigate, an Inquisitor, to be exact. Why? Because I liked the look of it. I fit 3 x warp core stabilisers on it, and an Improved Cloaking Device. It was my makeshift 'covert ops' ship. Very cheap.

It was quiet most of the way, with very few people in the systems I passed through. However, I jumped through a gate at one point and there was a Rapier on the other side. Waiting for... well, anyone really, but for him it was now my turn.

So I aligned for the next belt and immediately activated the cloak. The Rapier was about 20km away but quickly closed the distance, releasing some drones along the way. As I moved away from the location at an awesome 90 m/s, I was biting my fingernails. Was this my turn to die?

He moved past me at 2,600 metres, trailing drones as he went. I was, as you would expect, crapping my pants, worried that the drones would decloak me, but they stayed in a line behind him as he continued traveling, passing me by at just more than 2,000 metres... He got to about 20km away again and then moved back to an orbit of the gate, giving up. I breathed a sigh of relief.

When he was about 40km from me, I decloaked and took off for the gate. He immediately set off after me!

As I arrived at the gate and jumped through, I saw him arrive at the gate too. As soon as I appeared on the other side, I set off for the next gate, warping away just as he appeared and started realigning to follow me. This continued through 8 systems, always with that half a second of timing between us.

I was on voice comms with someone and told them about what was happening. They mentioned that if I get the Rapier to attack me at a gate and THEN jump through, their aggro will prevent them from being able to jump for a few seconds, allowing me precious time to get away properly.

So I stopped at the next gate and waited, hoping that my little frigate would be able to take a 'first strike' from the Rapier and survive, allowing me to jump through but leave him behind.

He arrived at the gate… and jumped through!

I sat there and blinked. And blinked again. And then started laughing while quickly turning the frigate around and heading for a planet where I cloaked, giving myself a bit of a breather.

After about 10 minutes of remaining alone in the system (the Rapier didn't jump back through), I approached the gate to continue on my journey, expecting him to be on the other side, still waiting for me.

He wasn't there. He was in the system, but not at the gate. I quickly aligned for the next gate and took off. He didn't chase me, and I never saw him again. Phew!

The rest of my journey to Cobalt Edge was without incident, but when I got there all I found was empty space and a lot of 'Rogue Drones'. Battleship-sized drones, but none of them with any bounties on them. At the same time as I discovered this, my friend on voice comms told me the region was good for nothing because the drones only dropped minerals.

Great. 60 jumps, and for what?

Well, I got some excitement, that's what.

So I continued to search via the maps for another region to investigate. The lucky region was Great Wildlands. Right next door to Molden Heath, which was my old hunting grounds.

Another 60 jumps through 0.0, this time around the outer edge of the galaxy. I set off on the great star trek, with plenty of stars to… well, to trek through...

It was mainly uneventful, although I did encounter two warp bubbles along the way…

The first bubble was via a Heavy Interdictor (HIC) camping a gate, and he activated his bubble as I jumped in. Once again I aligned for the next gate and activated my cloak once the gate's cloak dropped. He tried to approach and decloak me but failed, so he went back to the gate and waited for someone else to jump through.

As I continued slowboating to the edge of the warp bubble, the gate fired and someone else appeared. They immediately tried to make their way to the edge of the bubble, but the HIC smashed him in just a few seconds. And then podded him.

Poor fella… but that's 0.0 for you.

I eventually made it past the edge of the bubble, and the HIC was about 50km from me. I decloaked and streaked to the next gate. The HIC pilot wished me well, which I thought was nice of him….

I arrived in Great Wildlands, and encountered another warp bubble with about 20-something ships.

Ouch.

So I sat there for a few seconds and tried to work out which direction to start moving in so that I can cloak and slowboat past them. Then one of them started talking in local, advising me that they were anti-pirates and I was free to go. I checked the info of the pilot - they were all in the Paxton Federation. Nice! I knew of them. They were very efficient at fighting pirates.

So with a wave, I decloaked and warped off, thankful that they were the good guys!

It was at this point, after having jumped about 120 jumps through 0.0 space in about 3 hours, that I started talking to someone who wanted to invite me to join them in 0.0. They told me where they were and I made my way to it. It was an uneventful 20 jumps.

We chatted some more and then I returned to Providence - another 20 jumps without incident.

After docking my trusty little cloaked T1 frigate back in 'home base', I sat back and reviewed my adventure. In just 4 hours I had travelled 160-something jumps through 0.0 space. I had avoided a Rapier chasing me and a Heavy Interdictor's warp bubble, and came back home without a single scratch on the paintwork. It was far more than I was expecting, as I had transferred my clone to various stations along the way (where I could, that is), expecting to die numerous times.

I kissed my frigate, and gave the cloaking device a hug. They had served me well. Exceptionally well.

A good night indeed, I thought, as I transferred my clone back home.

The future is going to be interesting. From the communications with the CEO who invited me to join his corp, and the subsequent discussions with my corp mates, there are going to be changes ahead. I can't say what they are right now, but they're going to be very, very interesting…

And lots of fun.

Do you like sharing Eve blogs?

2009-10-11T22:42:00.003+11:00

The other day I created the means by which the Eve Online blogging community can share, discuss and vote on each other's blogs or other Eve-related material:

Share blogs and sites for discussion and voting

If you think it's a great idea to share and discuss what's going on in the Eve Online blogging community, then I encourage you to write about it on your own blog. Share the love!

It'll increase your exposure and bring more people to your site. Go on, you know you want to.

Where to next?

2009-10-10T13:12:00.003+11:00

I've been in Providence for over a month now, and I've come to the conclusion it's time to move on. So I thought I'd ask you, the readers, where you think I should go to next.

It has to be in 0.0 space, and it has to be quiet.

What are your suggestions? Where do you recommend I move to, and why? I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Share blogs and sites for discussion and voting

2009-10-07T21:52:00.011+11:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've set up a site that will allow you to share your favourite blog posts, websites, forum discussions and... well, anything! Not only can you share it to a single site that everyone can access, but you can discuss it, and vote positively or negatively for it, driving it up or down in popularity.

Reddit for Eve Bloggers

Instructions:

Bookmark the site in your browser, so that you can visit it often.
Register to join the site if you want to share links. You need an account to do so.
Create a 'bookmarklet' for your web browser. This sits in your Links or Bookmarks toolbar and allows you to quickly submit new pages.

In Firefox:
click and drag this link to your Bookmarks toolbar: Evebloggers Reddit.

In Internet Explorer:
right-click onEvebloggers Reddit then choose "Add to Favorites" and add to the "Links" folder.

In Safari:
click and dragEvebloggers Redditto your bookmark bar.
You can right-click on your bookmarklet and select Properties to edit the name if you don't like 'Evebloggers Reddit'.
Now every time you find a webpage that you want to share to the other Eve bloggers and interested visitors for discussion and voting, just click on the bookmarklet. You will be taken to a page that already has the important URL and title.

(Click to enlarge)
In the image above, you can see a red circle around 'text'. Click on this to add a description if you want.

(Click to enlarge)
Fill out the 'captcha' letters to prove you're human, and then click on Submit.
Once you've submitted it, there will be a new entry in the What's New -> new section.
Enjoy sharing and discussing and voting!

You vote by clicking on the up or down arrow to show your pleasure or displeasure with whatever you've shared, or what someone else has shared.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the Comments below. I'd be happy to help you.

You are going to LOVE this!

2009-10-07T21:22:00.005+11:00

I got an awesome idea tonight which I decided to run with. Here's the details of it:

Everyone can share their favourite Eve Online blog posts to a single site, which will allow discussion and voting on those posts. The most popular blog posts will rise to the top, while the dregs will be pushed to the bottom.
Eve Online-related sites, forum discussions, etc, can be submitted for conversation and voting.

The Eve Bloggers Portal was designed to present the output of all Eve blogs in one site, automatically updating every hour with a constant stream of new blog posts via a single site.

The Eve Bloggers Portal now evolves with added social features to allow discussion and voting on what's hot, and what's not.

More information coming soon!

Save the carebears!

2009-10-06T21:06:00.002+11:00

I was recently surprised and amused at the level of ferocious anger exhibited by carebears just for being called carebears (37 comments!). What's even more amusing is that, even though I never named anyone, those who were offended ended up naming themselves by placing comments about how angry they were to be called carebears, only proving how much of a carebear they were.

A few years ago, when I first used to call players carebears, there was a lot of good-natured responses. People didn't mind being called carebears, just as people didn't mind being called traders, etc. But it seems carebears are getting tired of being called carebears. And they're getting angry. Very angry.

I actually find this really, really amusing. I laugh a lot at these people who get so angry. But I wonder what it means when you look at it as a reflection of society itself...

It's a game, and yet there are a lot of people who take it far too seriously. They treat this game as if what happens in it is so very, very important to their personal wellbeing and their life. They take in-game actions personally, as if people are threatening their very existence outside the game by what they do in the game.

And when they come up with these ludicrous statements that I'm a carebear as well because I complain about carebears, that's just stupid. If I complain about criminals, does that make me a criminal?

A carebear is someone who wants the rules changed so they're not so adversely affected by in-game events. They're the people who cry and whinge and hate when someone takes something from them. Real life death threats are an occasional occurrence.

I complain about carebears because it's fun to do so.

My belief is that people who rage in-game are people who rage out-of-game. If someone threatens to kill you as a result of what you do in-game, it really shows how stable they are in real life. That's right - they're unstable, to the point that they actually want to physically kill someone for doing something in a game.

Amazing stuff.

So, I think we should engage in a campaign to help carebears stop playing the game. If they don't play, they won't get so upset. They'll find something that's more enjoyable for them.

So we should do everything we can to bring that carebear rage out in these people, and point out to them that there are other things they could be doing with their time than spitting with rage at their computer screen. They could be sitting under a tree with their loved ones, having a picnic and watching their children playing in the park. That would be much better for them than playing a game that enrages them.

What are your thoughts on this ongoing carebear issue that detracts from the carebear's enjoyment of the game? What will you do to help the carebears decide this game is not for them? You could be helping save a life, preventing them from having a heart attack in the near future. Or even keep them out of prison, because you get them to leave the game before they decide they want to kill someone.

My input into saving these people's lives is blogging about it. What will you do? Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section. And if you're a carebear and feel like raging, get a tissue first, so you can wipe the spit off your monitor afterwards.

Fun and games in Providence

2009-10-02T11:23:00.002+10:00

I had a pilot join my corp a couple days ago. I set up an office nearby for him to join at - which he did. He came to Providence, was advised of the rules, and agreed to abide by them. But then, within 24 hours, Sev3rance almost declared war on us...

Sev3rance is the local alliance that provides security in the area against aggression. Anyone can go there - even flashy red pirates - but they must abide by the 'no hostility' rules. If someone engages in hostile actions they get put on a 'Kill On Sight' (KOS) list, and may end up being there forever.

I've been there for about a month now, ratting away without any worries. And then the new member joins, and allegedly attacks one of the alliance members.

So then I log in to Eve and undock from the station, and the fun and games begins....

"Oh look," I say to myself. "There's about 15 ships - all blue - and a big warp bubble at the station exit. Ooh, pretty... Hey, another 2 ships are warping in. Ooh, they're big! This is exciting, they must be about to lay the smack down on someone really bad!"

I start to slowboat to the edge of the warp bubble so I can take off for an asteroid belt and start ratting, when I notice a message telling me I'm being warp scrambled. Huh? This doesn't compute... they're blue! Then I see all of the ships in the overview are flashing because they've all targeted me...

I'm still trying to work out what's going on, thinking they must be confused or something, when suddenly there's great bursts of energy lighting up the sky, and my shields drop immediately to 50%.

"Holy crap! They're shooting me!" I don't bother trying to talk to them, I just immediately swing the view around so I can select the station I just left and request to dock.

"Let me in, let me in! They're all shooting at me!"

"Yes sir, we'd be happy to. There's a charge of 145,000 ISK for docking fees..."

"Just let me in!" I yell as I quickly pay the fees. I enter the station just as the space I'd left behind is filled with a second volley of weapons fire, but I was safe.

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I engage in communications with my attackers, and after lengthy negotiations with one of the alliance diplomats, I learned they had made my entire corp red - because my new corp member had attacked one of their own.

So I worked with them in trying to resolve this. The name provided by them as being the person who my member had attacked, didn't exist. The victim didn't exist! So I asked them to investigate whether or not it was a typo, and what the real story was. In the meantime, they removed me from red status so I could freely go about my business. But by this time it was my bedtime, so I went to bed instead.

This morning I woke up and found he'd attacked another alliance member. What the...? He told me he ransomed the guy for 20 million.

I removed him from the corp. While there was no real evidence to suggest he had attacked someone in the first place, his act of aggression this time around really didn't help his case.

I discussed this with him, and we agreed that Providence probably wasn't the best place for him. I wished him well, and we parted ways.

I also advised the alliance diplomat about what I'd done, and he thanked me for being co-operative.

In line with the new recruitment I've started doing, I'd just like to remind any potential recruits - or even travellers to Providence - of the following:

It's a safe place for a reason. Abide by the rules and it will be safe for you. If you don't, you'll have an alliance or two come down on you pretty damn hard.

It's ok to be a pirate, but not in Providence. Use the region for its safety, but do the piracy elsewhere.

Never shit in your own back yard.

Want to blow shit up?

2009-10-01T15:54:00.005+10:00

Then you might want to join The Punishers. "We blow shit up," as some of our members love to say.

We're currently in 0.0 space in Providence, taking advantage of the conditions to make a lot of money. It's safe, as long as you follow certain rules and stay alert. You can make a lot of money.

We're making a lot of money blowing shit up so we can buy scary ships to blow more shit up. Maybe even with cloaks. And big guns. Bombs too.

That's about it. If you want to blow shit up with us, then contact Alexia Morgan in-game or by email.

Controversy

2009-09-30T21:50:00.004+10:00

If there's anything that inspires debate and brings traffic to your site, it's controversy. The past week has been great for the number of visitors coming to my site:

If you want more people to come visit your site, getting them angry works. :)

Thanks for the links from around the blogosphere, I really appreciate it!

What is a Carebear?

2009-09-29T14:58:00.002+10:00

There's a huge debate in the blogosphere, which I'm happy to say was started by me. But I've learned Carebears are proud of being Carebears, but it seems they don't understand what a Carebear is.

So here's an explanation:

Carebears are:

players who stay in CONCORD space and never venture into lowsec or 0.0 space
players who detest PVP (player vs player) combat and whinge about how it ruins their gaming enjoyment
players who are killed via PVP and then complain about player harassment or cheating
players who focus gameplay only on non-PVP activities
players are afraid of being attacked by other players
players who ruin PVP games by whinging so much to the game developers that the game developers think they're the majority and change the game to suit the Carebears

The reason why people like me complain about Carebears is because our gaming enjoyment is spoiled by the changes these people demand to the game. They don't like being killed, so they demand the game developers make it harder to be killed. As a result, the 'killers' find their game play even harder.

Since Eve Online started - and continues - as a player vs player (PVP) game, every time someone whinges about how badly they've suffered at PVP, they're automatically a Carebear. Every time a Carebear wants the game changed to suit them, they're automatically loathed by every PVP player who's suffered at how the game changes around them to suit the Carebears.

So now you've been educated. And you're a Carebear if you whinge about people whinging about you. Yes, that applies to pirates too. :)

So when I say Carebears need to 'harden the fuck up', what I'm really saying is stop your whinging, and stop wanting this game to change to suit you. If you don't like it, go play something else.

Chat with other Eve Bloggers

2009-09-27T10:53:00.003+10:00

There's a lot of Eve bloggers out there - over 400 of them - but during peak times there's usually only maybe a dozen bloggers in the Eve Bloggers chat channel in-game. We need more!

So if you're in-game and you're wondering what to do with yourself, join "eve-bloggers" and chat with other bloggers.

See you there!

Carebears need to harden the fuck up

2009-09-25T19:30:00.004+10:00

One of my pet hates are carebears. We're never going to get rid of them and I understand that, because new ones always come in as the old ones leave or grow out of it. But I can help the carebears grow out of it by revisiting something I wrote in a previous life. Some of you might remember this, while for others, it will be brand new. But for the carebears reading this, you might get something from it...

One thing I've noticed, all across the galaxy, is that people are having a whinge, having a sook, having a cry about it. If our ancestors were around today, I reckon they'd be spewing. Carebears need to harden the fuck up.

This is Daniel. He owns a big, shiny, fancy fucking battleship. But he doesn't know how to change his low slots to tank anything. Harden the fuck up, Daniel.

This is Petros, and he's too scared to enter lowsec. "Ohh, look at me, I'm combat intolerant." Why don't you try a gate camp and harden the fuck up, Petros.

This is Theresa. Her kitten has a psychiatrist because it cries every time a Hulk is attacked. How about this, Theresa. Dr Black Claw prescribes that you harden the fuck up!

This is Mark. He doesn't approve of people swearing on blogs. Well how about you harden the fuck up, Mark.

This is some fool with a stupid name I can't care to type. Learn how to come up with decent names, fool, and harden the fuck up.

This is Yellow Rose. She won't join in on fleet action without taking half a dozen smartbombs with her. Harden the fuck up, Yellow!

This is Jad. He spends an hour a day trading on the stock market. He's also a DJ at a local nightclub. So why don't you ha-ha-ha-harden the fuck up, Jad.

This is Bevat. He owns every Tech 2 ship you can buy, sleeps with his blasters, has over a thousand kills to his name, and once cut off his own arm for a dare. Fucking spot on Bevat!

So come on, carebears. Take your skirt off, cancel your manicure, grow a mustache, and harden the fuck up.

UPDATE: Here's the original video for you all, which is what inspired me to come up with this back in the day.

The great cloaking debate

2009-09-25T14:59:00.000+10:00

A number of people have been talking about cloaks lately, and there seems to be a lot of complaints about them. Interestingly, most of the suggestions for 'improving cloaking' are actually suggestions about how to make it easier to find someone who's cloaked, or to prevent a cloaked ship from actually doing anything.

So from this I can assume that the people who want cloaking changed are the people who have been hurt by cloaked ships, and they don't want to suffer any more.

I think this is just another case of the carebears' true colours coming to light.

The carebear tears

2009-09-21T14:53:00.002+10:00

I have a friend who has been a pirate for quite a while. I've looked up to him as an inspiration to my own activities, and have spent some time learning from him.

He's the one who suggested I move to 0.0 space and do some ratting, so I can make some 'easy money' to afford to buy my Rapier. He's been active in 0.0 for quite a long time, so I listened to him, packed up and moved to 0.0 space.

A couple days ago he was ratting in the same area, when he was jumped by a small fleet of pilots in a NRDS (not red don't shoot) alliance. He wasn't red, but it seems his previous corp was. That's why they jumped him - not for what he was, but for what he used to be. This was in accordance with their rules. If he was once in a red corp, and then joined an NPC corp, he was still 'red' until he joined another player corp that wasn't red.

Now, he knew the rules that this alliance flew by, but he thought that they would at least give him a warning first, allowing him to leave the area. But they didn't warn him - they just attacked him instead, which was according to their rules of conduct in the area.

He just hoped they would do something different.

He cried.

In fact, he cried a lot.

I didn't realise how much of a carebear he was. I wanted to grab a vase to catch the carebear tears, but I couldn't find any around.

He said he's going to take his bat and ball and go home. No more pod time for him!

I gave him a tissue to wipe his tears.

It made me think.

How many of you expect other people to do something for you that they never do for anyone else, because that's what you'd prefer them to do?

Do you think you're entirely reasonable for expecting them to do something that they've never done before?

It reminds me of a quote from a famous scientist in ancient history:

"The greatest sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results." - Scooby Doo.

We can apply that here:

"The greatest sign of insanity is knowing what someone will do, but then getting upset when they do it because you hoped they'd do something different…" - Alexia Morgan

Faction spawns and ratting

2009-09-20T16:44:00.003+10:00

I think I've worked out a technique to getting faction / officer spawns while ratting in 0.0 space. I'll have to test it further before I discuss the technique, but I'm pretty excited about it!

That's all I wanted to say on that.

50 Fights

2009-09-18T08:10:00.000+10:00

I've noticed a lot of pod pilots get very attached to their ships. It's almost as if their ship is a loved partner or something. They go through elaborate ceremonies with building, naming, and flying their beloved.

And then they lose it in act of violent destruction, and their life, for a brief moment, seems like it's come to an end.

They get angry, they grieve for their loss. Their beloved ship... gone! They don't know how to cope, or how to continue with their somewhat miserable life now that their beloved ship is destroyed.

They eventually get a new ship, and go through the same elaborate processes as before. They invest not only their ISK into the ship, but also their energy, their love. And so the cycle continues.

It disturbs me that these people have such an attachment to great lumps of metal. I know it's not really the ship that they love, it's what that ship allows them to do. The freedom, the prestige, the excitement... A ship gives them good feelings, and they love it for that.

The loss of a ship is equated to a loss of those good feelings, and so they grieve.

HARDEN THE FUCK UP!

Excuse the language, but... it's pathetic. It really is.

Do you mourn the loss of a broken screwdriver? Or a bolt? No, of course you don't. You get a new one when you need to, knowing it's just a tool. It doesn't even emotionally register with you.

A ship is a tool. That's all it is. This galaxy is harsh. Violence is a way of being, and with violence comes destruction. Particularly the destruction of ships.

If you have mourned the loss of a ship, and found yourself in misery, ask yourself - am I emotionally stable? Is this ship any more significant than that round of projectile ammo?

You'll be forced to conclude that no, you're not emotionally stable, and no, the ship is no more significant than ammo.

Your ship IS ammo, being used to kill your enemy before they kill you.

In the great struggle for survival, for the achievement of our goals, a starship is simply a tool for us to use to achieve those goals.

The next time I see someone cry and mourn the loss of their ship, that they took through many elaborate, emotionally-binding ceremonies, I'll wonder what kind of sick love affair they had with that lump of metal, and maybe their other tools too.

Are you in love with your ship? Will you mourn the loss of it?

If you find these thoughts as disturbing as I do, there's only one thing you should do.

Take a frigate into lowsec and look for a fight. Don't care about winning, because you're only caring about the fight. You actually WANT to lose your ship.

Do this 50 times. No, I kid you not. FIFTY TIMES. Lose your ship 50 times and you will realise it deserves as much emotional investment as your screwdriver.

I don't care if you're an industrial miner that's been sitting in Empire space for the past 4 years, and you've only lost your ship once to rats. I don't care if you've ventured into low sec and lost your ship from pirates and then woken crying in your new clone back in Empire space, vowing to never go back into the darkness. I really don't care.

You owe it to yourself to take lots of frigates into lowsec and look for fights. Sure, you don't have to initiate the fights if you don't want to be a pirate, but if you hang around, pirates will find you, and they'll help you understand how much of a tool your ship is as they destroy it for you.

50 fights. No less.

When you've had 50 fights, and you've lost your ship maybe 50 times (sometimes you might even win, depending on how you've fit your ship), then you'll be able to look back at your past and realise how much of a crybaby you were. And you'll never cry over a ship again.

Save the tears for when you lose your real loved ones. Don't waste them on tools.

The RSS Cloud

2009-09-14T22:22:00.002+10:00

All blogs implement something called RSS feeds (Real Simple Syndication) that allows their content to be syndicated out to RSS feed readers (like Google Reader, etc). Last week Wordpress.com enabled something called RSSCloud.

What is it?

“RSSCloud is an element that’s always been present in the RSS 2.0 spec but has drawn new attention with the rise of interest in the Real-Time Web.”
- Read and Write Web

What this will do is make blog updates available to compatible feed readers as soon as the 'Publish' button is pressed.

It takes about an hour for a current feed reader to pick up new blog posts, which means RSSCloud will enable 'real-time blogging'. You'll be able to see new blog updates as they're published, rather than every 60 minutes.

As soon as I can, I'll be implementing this technology into www.evebloggers.com so that new posts from all the Eve bloggers will be displayed in real time, instead of every hour.

If you use Twitter or Facebook, you already see how real-time updates looks in their display of status updates.

Is anyone looking forward to this, or just me? :)

Is your blog listed in evebloggers.com ?

2009-09-13T12:41:00.006+10:00

If you're reading this, then you're probably an Eve Online blogger. You're also probably listed in the Eve Bloggers Portal (www.evebloggers.com).

But if you're an Eve blogger and you don't think you're listed, then please follow these instructions:

add a comment to this post, or
add a comment over at Eve Bloggers: Do you have an Eve Online blog?

As soon as I know about your blog, I'll add it to the list so that every time you update your blog it will be shown in evebloggers.com as well. And then everyone can see what you're posting about! Pretty exciting, hey?

Galen has an OPML file he's been keeping up to date, which currently has 361 blogs. I regularly import that file into Eve Bloggers to add to the rest of the blogs that are being listed, and as I'm writing this I'm proud to say that the Eve Bloggers portal now lists:

~~628~~ 464 blogs!

That's an incredible amount!

Obviously not all those blogs are active at the moment, but it's still impressive... If any of those blogs update a post, they'll be visible in Eve Bloggers.

So if you haven't got your blog listed, please follow the instructions above to get it listed now.

Update:

Thanks to Ga'len for pointing out that all the Gamescribe blogs need to be removed, so I got rid of 140 of them. And then I went through the list of the remaining 488 blogs and got rid of duplicate entries (those that were listed multiple times with different RSS feeds). The result? 464 blogs. Still pretty good.

What missile skills do you recommend?

2009-08-27T12:46:00.001+10:00

I started flying a Drake the other day, as a friend of mine recommended it as an excellent means of hunting down battleship rats. He checked my skills and thought I was 'good to go'.

So I went, and... well, it was pathetic really. I fired the missiles, almost 500 of them. And then I turned off the launchers with a sigh. The two battleships I'd been firing at still had their shields at about 40% and it didn't look like I was getting any further into them.

So, I put it to you, the skilled and experienced missile pilots out there. What skills should I have for Heavy Missile Launchers that will ensure I have the best possible means of quickly killing rat battleships?

Please note that my shield tanking is fine (how else could I sit there for so long, pointlessly firing missiles at these battleships? No, it's just the missile skills I need suggestions on.

I need to raise some money fast, and battleship ratting seems like a good way of doing it.
Your comments and suggestions will be very welcome. :)

Things are about to get interesting

2009-08-22T01:11:00.004+10:00

About 2 months ago I was talking about being an anti-pirate. That hasn't really worked out, because I've been sitting around in stations poring over skill books. Back in February this year I decided to become a Force Recon pilot. Now THERE is some intensive training requirements!

But after a solid 6 months of training, I'm excited to find out I'm only a couple weeks away from jumping into my very first fully-equipped Force Recon. A Rapier, to be exact. About 2-3 weeks after that, I'll be able to jump into an Arazu, which will be my preferred stealth ship. I've been hanging out for an Arazu for a long, long time...

I recently flew my very first battleship, a Megathron, and was really excited about that little adventure! But I'm now very happy to be able to fly every single Tech 1 combat ship from frigates all the way up to battleships. For all races!

I can jump into any battleship, and start flying it. Admittedly, fitting it with the relevant racial fittings might be a bit of a problem, but not a big one... I can fly fully fitted Minmatar and Gallente battleships, and will soon work on the fittings for the Caldari and Amarr.

It's all very exciting! I'm not sure how much of this excitement a girl can handle...

Back to the topic - things are about to get interesting. Tomorrow I'll be finished with my cloaking training. I need to make some money to afford the Force Recon ships, so I'm going to jump into a cloaked Raven battleship and head off into null-sec to seek out some dirty rat battleships and blow them to hell! I hear there are huge bounties on their heads...

Once I'm in a Rapier, I'll be seeking out targets here and there, and blowing them to hell before they're even aware I've suddenly appeared!

Well, that's the plan, at least...

If any of you have tips on fittings and tactics for the Rapier or Arazu, PLEASE help me out by telling me about them in the comments. All your assistance will be greatly appreciated, especially since it'll help keep me alive!

24 Tips to Surviving Lowsec

2009-06-28T18:37:00.005+10:00

I was reminded by this article here (Idiots guide to lowsec survival) about something I wrote some time ago, and I decided that I would revise and republish it (it's an old article I once did on another blog a long time ago) for those people who are uncertain about jumping into low security space. I hope you find these tips helpful.

Dont play the game while away from the keyboard (AFK). You should never consider yourself safe while being away from your computer. If you have to quickly do something else, then dock at a station.
Enter space with security status 0.4 and below at your own risk. You can never expect to be safe in low security (lowsec) space, regardless of how safe you think you might be.
Take the time to sit inside a station in the lowsec systems you want to operate in, and observe the traffic. Do 'show info' on everyone that comes in. Any pirate corporations or alliances that show up, adjust your standings to -10 for them. This will put a red icon next to them, so that you can tell them as pirates as soon as you see them. Doing this will be invaluable for your future lowsec operations.
Insure all ships you are using, especially the expensive ones. Make sure you buy the most expensive "platinum" type of insurance. It will help you replace your ship once you lose it.
Don't rely on sentry guns at gates or stations to keep you safe. Especially not when travelling in lowsec space. There are several ways to avoid sentry gun fire that are not considered to be an exploit, like sniping outside of sentry gun range. There are a lot of ships that can also 'tank' the incoming fire from sentry guns.
Use map filters such as "ships destroyed in the last hour" to spot possible player pirate camps and other dangerous areas. Also check 'pilots in space in last 30 minutes' to give you an idea of how many people are flying around in the system you want to go to. If there's 10 in space in the last half hour and 4 ships destroyed, you can be guaranteed it's not safe.
Use the local chat channel to see what's happening within the system when you have just jumped in. Checking 'show info' on each of the pilots in the local chat channel (if there aren't too many people in local) can show you if there's any 'nasties' in the system. They're the ones with negative security status. But really - don't trust anyone, because a lot of pirates keep their sec status high by killing rats in between killing other pilots.
If you're intent on avoiding combat, use Warp Core Stabilizers (WCS or 'stabs') to help avoid being warp jammed, allowing you to warp away if they try to scramble you. Only use these on ships like industrials, etc, to help you get your cargo away from pirate ambushes.
Different types of ammo have different ranges. Right-click your gun and check its' attributes to see the optimal range. Fit some ammo to it and re-check the range. By choosing long-range ammo, you can mostly stay clear of enemy fire (especially when up against rats). Try to stay halfway between your optimal range, and your falloff range, as that's where you're more likely to get maximum hits.
Make sure you always have a clone available for when you need it, and always buy a clone (from a station with a medical facility) that is going to handle your skill points. Upgrade when your skill points get close to the limit of the clone. You never want a clone that is less than your character's skill points, as that wastes all the time that you spent training.

If you wake up in a new clone, buy a new one immediately! If you die again without upgrading, you will lose a percentage of skill points from your highest skill. Your screams will be heard even in space.

More information on this and the percentages can be found here.
If you're in an asteroid belt killing rats or mining and a pirate jumps in (see #3 to determine who are pirates), dock immediately. Do not continue ratting or mining, as the pirate WILL find you very quickly. Do not wait until the pirate enters your belt, as that could be too late. Do not go to a safe spot, as you could be scanned down and attacked. Just dock.
Always keep an eye on your scanner. Even if you don't think someone is a pirate, if you see a covert ops ship or scan probes on your scanner, then dock or leave the system. They're probably going to try and scan you down and attack you.

Assume everyone is out to get you at all times.
When you're flying anywhere and someone target locks you at a gate or station, do not fire first. If they fire at you first, then they're the ones that take the security hit, and they're the ones that take the sentry gun fire if it's near a gate or station, and they're the ones that get attacked by CONCORD if it's in high security space. Never start combat if someone target locks you first.

Ignore this rule if you don't care.
If someone invites you to join their fleet and you don't know them, decline the invitation. It's likely that they're a pirate. As soon as you accept a fleet invite, they can warp straight to your location and attack you.
If someone attacks you and you actually destroy their ship, podding them in 0.1 space or higher will give you a huge security hit, and make you a target for sentry guns. You can only pod kill in 0.0 space without any loss of security status.
Don't buy that shiny new ship until you can afford the ship, the fittings, and the insurance five times over. That way, if you lose the ship, you've still got enough money to afford a replacement (after the insurance payout, of course).

This is because you WILL lose it if you take it into lowsec. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But you will lose it eventually. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose.
If you're in 0.0 space, EVERYONE can be a pirate, even if they have positive security status. There are no security hits in 0.0 space. Do not trust anyone.
Do not take stuff from someone else's cargo can, as you then become a 'can thief' and they can attack you without penalty, even in Empire space. If they're offering stuff from their can for free, they're probably setting you up. If they really want to give you something for free, then they can trade it with you while docked in a station.

Never take from someone's can unless they're in your corp or fleet and you trust them.
If you want to be attacked in Empire space then you can jettison something from your cargo hold that they can then take, which allows you to attack them without taking a security hit or being attacked by CONCORD. This is good if you know you have a good chance of defeating them in combat. Otherwise don't do it, as you're likely to be destroyed.
When you jump into a low security system, DO NOT MOVE. Disengage the autopilot AS you jump, so that it's inactive when you get to the other side of the jump gate. This is so that you don't move when you get there.

Why can't you move? Because when you come out of a jump, you are cloaked and no one can see you. You will remain cloaked for 30 seconds or until you move, or until someone comes within 2 km of you. Being cloaked is good for you, as it gives you a bit of time to see who's in local, and if there's any pirates, you can either move back to the gate (which will decloak you, so only do it if it's safe and/or you can do it quickly) and jump back where you came from, or do something else.
If you find you're in the middle of a gate camp, as soon as you move and decloak they're going to try and lock you and attack. Since they'll be using warp scramblers/disruptors or a heavy interdictor, you won't be able to warp away. Your best chance is to try and crawl back to the gate to jump back out, and hope that any shield or armour tank you have holds them off long enough for you to jump.
If you are leaving a station and you need to get away FAST, then look straight ahead of your ship. Select a destination (asteroid belt, planet or jump gate) that is right in front of you and warp to it. You will go into warp a lot faster than if you had to to realign for a different direction. This is because you're already moving at your maximum speed as you leave the station.

If you're at a jump gate though, and at a dead stop, there's no difference between the time it takes to reach warp going straight ahead or turning to align.
Make a safe spot. This is a bookmark that you drop in the middle of nowhere, while you're warping from one point to another. While warping, open People & Places and drop a bookmark. Click OK so that it has the default name, which you can change later so that you know it's a 'safe spot'. The advantage of this bookmark is that it's literally in the middle of nowhere, allowing you to warp to it from anywhere in the system, when you need to escape from pirates and you don't want them finding you.

To make it harder for them to find you though, you need to warp from your safe spot to another location in the system, and drop another bookmark along the way. You need to try and drop this bookmark more than 5,000 km from any other object in the system, if you can, so studying your system map is essential.

The first safe spot is along an established flight path and easy for probe scanners to find, but the second safe spot will be out of range of any scan probes that could find you.

However, still do NOT think you're safe. If they drop a scan probe at their own safe spot that's within range of yours, they will find you. Try to bounce around between your safe spots if you can't leave the system or you can't dock, so that it's harder for them to actually detect you in one location.

When you're at a safe spot, remember - you're still not safe. You can be scanned down by cloaked covert ops ships, who will then have their fleet members warp right on you.

The only time you're safe at a safe spot is if you're cloaked.
Whenever you're sitting somewhere (like at a safe spot) and not actually traveling anywhere or doing anything, always align yourself with a distant object, like a jump gate or station. Preferably an object you can select in your overview. The reason for this is that aligning yourself to something has you traveling at your maximum normal speed towards it.

In order to go to warp, you have to be at 75% of this speed, so if you're already traveling at that speed, you'll go into warp much faster than if you were standing still.

So with the object selected in your overview, and you're aligned to it, you can sit there with the knowledge that if someone turns up with your death on their mind, all you have to do is quickly press the 'warp to' button at the top of the overview and you will go to warp almost immediately, avoiding their attack.

If you don't do this, you will die as you try to align for the destination and gather speed.

Please add your own tips in the comments below if you think they will be of value to others.

PVP and business - so much fun!

2009-06-24T10:18:00.009+10:00

What a time I've had. In only a few days of re-focusing on Eve Online, I've explored piracy, anti-piracy, trading, and hauling. Wow.

So... I got back into piracy, and joined up with a ragtaggiest bunch of misfits I've ever had the misfortune of flying with. And these were the primary pirates in my region. Holy cow... They were disorganised, unruly, disrespectful, and ignorant of fleet protocols.

I flew with them for an hour before taking a break and getting a hotdog in a nearby station. How fortunate for me!

Their fleet of 8 (battleships and battlecruisers) encountered 5 anti-pirates. The pirates lost 6 of their ships, while the anti-pirates lost 1. I munched on my hot dog while listening to the screams, which abruptly ended as their comms systems went up with the ships, happy that I had taken a break at the time.

And no, my Rifter would not have turned the tides of battle...

So I reconsidered flying with the pirates. Not only did they fill the voice comms with inane chatter that grated on my nerves, they really didn't know how to fly fleets. I felt like taking command, but really, I knew my place. Being the 'new girl' and flying a Rifter in a fleet of battleships... well, it just wasn't going to happen.

So I withdrew from the pirate fleet, and spent some time roaming around. Then I was advised by one of the local anti-pirates... oh, that's right. You've met him over on Black Claw's blog - An interview with an anti-pirate. He advised me that I'd been seen flying with the pirates, but he was willing to let me prove myself an ally rather than an enemy.

I took up the challenge, and decided to move away from the piracy thing. I flew with him, and within 5 minutes we had encountered and destroyed a Rapier.

Ah, the sweet taste of victory. Disciplined, communicative, efficient victory.

I was sold. It was the ANTI-piratin' way for me!

Until yesterday, when an opportunity threw itself at me. Well, after I reached out for it, that is.

I was engaging in missions, and had just finished setting up salvaging destroyers throughout 3 systems (to save time from having to get 1 destroyer somewhere else, I set up 'salvaging bases' in each system I'm doing missions in), when I saw someone offering 20m per ship, to fly them from one highsec location to another, right next door.

One thing led to another, and now I'm their sole supplier of battleships.

And this is where my excitement REALLY starts!!

Due to my already-stringent training program, I was skilled in battlecruisers for both Minmatar and Gallente, and I discovered I only needed to train a single skill to level 2 (Gallente Battleships) and I could fly battleships.

Holy. Cow.

I flew a Megathron battleship this morning. I had to take photos! Here's the evidence.

I had to take so many photos because it's such a beautiful ship, and I was so excited! That camera drone really got a workout, that's for sure. I think they're still repairing it as I speak. Poor thing broke down from being overworked.

So anyway, I delivered the battleship for my new client, and they're yet to pick it up, but I'll get quite a decent profit from it. I found another client too, and ended up delivering a battleship for them as well, but into lowsec.

The system was full of pirates, but lucky for me they weren't camping the gate I entered by. I flew to the agreed drop-off station, and contracted it to the client. Then I left in my pod.

As I exited the station, I was surprised to see the sky full of red flashy ships. There were 7 of them, all waiting for the battleship to come out that I had flown in with. Instead, there was my pod, which warped away before any of them could get a chance to do anything.

"Bitch!" was the cry from their fleet commander over the comms. I laughed, and danced, and then left.

Combat can be fun - when you're winning - but business can be just as much fun!

I'm in business, and here's my new bio entry:

Do you need ships delivered for you? I can fly Minmatar and Gallente ships all the way up to Battleships. If you want 'em, I can deliver 'em.

Talk to me about my special business rates. Highsec or lowsec - there's nowhere I'm not willing to go for you.

Contact me if you'd like to discuss how I can help you.

I also invested 50 million ISK into the market a couple days ago. 'Buy low, sell high!' is the mantra. So I bought a lot of stuff at its current price, and put it back onto the market at the price I want to sell it for. I'm leaving it there for 3 months. The price I want to sell it for is only 20% of what it's sold for in the very recent past, but if it sells, I'll get a 50% profit. Then I'll just do it all over again.

I'll keep you up to date about how things go.

Blogger Profiles #26 - Escoce

2009-06-08T16:14:00.004+10:00

I know, it's been almost 3 months since the last blogger profile... What can I say, I was distracted. I'm sorry though! Hopefully things should get back to normal from now on...

What is your character's name or handle?

Escoce

What is your blog's URL?

http://escoce.blogspot.com

How long have you been blogging?

Very sporadically since April, 17, 2008

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

I operate all over Empire, though the regions another pilot is “most likely” to see me in Essense, Verge Vendor, Genesis and Everyshore.

When did you start playing EVE?

November 2007

What do you enjoy about EVE?

The emmersion and attention to detail. The scope and breadth of the gaming universe, and the possibility that I will never reach an end-game, but perhaps only do pretty well compared to others who’ve had similar Eve-Online careers.

What is your playstyle?

Style? Hmmm, I am pretty much a solo style player, I however love the social aspects of Eve, and I am a member of a corp to which I contribute time to help develop the corp by getting them cheap materials. I also socialize a great deal with various types of low sec folks since I spend so much time in low sec doing trade. I started out as a miner, and got bored with mining almost as soon as I had “mastered” that career path, moved into trade and specialized mostly in mineral trading. I am now also an arms dealer and it is my current goal to establish a low sec market hub. I run literally all over empire, just so I can provide the cheapest goods in Hevrice so that no matter what popular item you are looking for, Hevrice is the cheapest place to get it. Like I said, I want to put Hevrice on the map.

I do however also blitz mission (strictly for standing improvements for trade, tax and broker fees reductions and POS anchoring and that stuff), I don’t do it for the money, I don’t loot or salvage unless its perhaps the last mission for the night and I am just picking up a few extra bucks worth of loot. I PvP, and I am pretty good at it, it’s just not central to my character like missioning isn’t. I am a trader and a damned good one at that I’d like to think.

Do you play any other games?

I only play other games when Eve Online is down. I’ll play Wesnoth or perhaps something on my kid’s Nintendo DS since he’s sleeping during my gaming hours anyway.

What do you blog about, and why?

I blog about Eve Trading, and recently about my efforts to establish a low sec market.

What are your other interests?

I am an IT project manager with strong interest in security currently, and spend time continuing my education down that path. I am also a beekeeper (as in honey bees), and small scale farmer. I love astronomy, and reading escapist literature like Harry Potter or Ursula Le Guin or whatever, just so long as it’s catchy (catches my attention after a few pages), otherwise the book is likely to sit on the shelf for a few years before I give it another chance.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

It’s not easy, but if you at least have developed a foundation in a career path, you should have the resources (meaning money) to keep you going while you develop a new career. Trying something new is always a good way to make something fresh. When mining got god aweful boring, I switched careers to mineral trading, when that got boring I added turned a backwater constellation into a mineral market still to this day one of the most active mineral markets in Empire even though I don't drive it anymore, I added missioning into it just to mix things up, then I started in arms trade, dealing in combat oriented ships, modules, weaponry and ammo and I bring them to low sec which added a little excitement and I made some new friends in the bargain. Now I am working to rewrite the map a little and get a LowSec system rated as a market hub (Hevrice).

If you are getting bored, then change your career change your ships, change your surroundings, change the people you hang out with. Just do something new, whether its switching from Rail Guns to blasters, or switch from specializing in Battleships to Rifters. I did that, I started flying an ishkur (gallente assault frigate) for missioning, and that added some excitement. I can run all level 3 and most level 4 missions solo in a frigate now. You gotta keep it fresh, but when you do find a change that makes you happy, you find yourself emmersed all over again in something completely new even though you might have 10 or 20 or 50 million skill points under your belt. No matter what you do in Eve, there is always something new.

Anything else to offer?

I really enjoy reading the player generated facts and fiction in the blogs and posted as official fiction on the eve website. It keeps me entertained and wanting to try something new every once in a while.

Ventrilo server for out-of-game comms

2009-06-08T16:04:00.006+10:00

I'm the proud owner of a Ventrilo server ('Vent' for short), and I was wondering if there was any interest out there in the Eve blogging community to have a Vent channel for the bloggers, or if anyone wanted to rent some access from me for their own corp or alliance.

Please add your thoughts in a comment, or send me an email if you would like to discuss having your own channel.

UPDATE:

If you'd like to join the Eve Bloggers channel, use the following connection information in Ventrilo:

Server: V63.DARKSTARLLC.COM
Port: 4003

I look forward to chatting to you in there!

I'm back

2009-06-07T14:08:00.003+10:00

Yep, that's right - I've returned!

I'm no longer playing LOTRO, so I can focus on this again. I'm still only a couple months away from flying an Arazu, so I'll get back into the mission-running and see about raising some cash.

Oh, I just noticed my last post said I'm aiming for the Rapier. I changed it since then to an Arazu...

I've also updated evebloggers.com with some new blog posts (go to the bottom of the page to see the recent blog posts). I'll try to update it when I get inspired to.

Who wants to have a party?

I guess what I really want to know is... what do you people miss from me, that you want to have back?

Let me know in the comments section.

I'm still here

2009-04-01T09:32:00.005+11:00

If you've been wondering where I am, there's a really good reason.

A couple of very close (real life) friends of mine have decided they wanted to play an online game in a group of the 3 of us, and so we went through a couple games (trial versions) before trying Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). It's something we've decided to stick with, as it's pretty good.

I have no intentions of leaving Eve, but my activity in the game is reduced to keeping my skill training up-to-date. I'm currently training for a Rapier, and I have 130 days to go. Now, it's entirely possible that I might not actively play Eve for that entire time while I join my friends in LOTRO, but I'll certainly be keeping my skill training going.

Evebloggers.com will remain as it is. I've set up a really good portal for Eve Bloggers, and it's still consistently getting around 100 visitors a day on average. The good thing about it is that it updates itself with everyones new blog posts, which means I don't have to do anything with it. I like that idea. :)

All my other socially-related activities have been suspended due to the fact that I'm not active within Eve, and I want this blog to be more than just blogger profiles. I will post a few remaining blogger profiles which have been sitting in my Inbox, but apart from that, I will not be active on this blog until I'm active in the game.

As for the game, I recently managed to join Faction Warfare, and that was very, very disappointing. I really hate 'blob warfare' - it's one of my pet loathings. So I wanted to step into mainly solo/small fleet PVE and roam around taking over systems for the Republic. With only a single attempt, I discovered this was going to be very, very difficult.

I found a contested system with Amarr installations, and set about taking them over to turn the system into a Republic system. I only had a Cruiser, as I'm not skilled enough for Battlecruisers or Battleships yet. So I sat at an installation and waited for the 15-minute timer.

With 9 minutes to go, 6 rat cruisers appeared and started hammering at me. I quickly went into action and tried to deal with them, but by the time I got it to 10% shields, I was at 10% armor. I then bugged out to repair and come in again.

However, upon my return, there were 11 rat cruisers waiting for me. What the....? After bugging out again, I consulted the comms channel for the militia and was advised that I needed to be in a sizable fleet to take over systems. And to fight the enemy. And even to go to the toilet. A fleet was the best option in all cases.

So I withdrew from Fleet Warfare, and washed the bad taste out of my mouth with some Scotch.

The next option for me to consider will be moving into null space and seeing what I can experience down there. But that's not going to be for quite some time yet.

In the meantime, I'll be on LOTRO.

Blogger Profiles #25 - Nuyan Zahedi

2009-03-17T10:37:00.003+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

What is your character's name or handle?

Nuyan Zahedi

What is your blog's URL?

http://nuyan.wordpress.com

How long have you been blogging?

I started at the start of 2008, so a bit more than a year now.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

My most visited system must be Amarr. So mostly Domain and surroundings, especially Bleak Lands with Factional Warfare. Also Providence, where I used to rat and help out CVA sometimes. Then there's Heimatar, which is a region I got to know quite well as me and others of PIE Inc often had expeditions into that area to shoot at Electus Matari and Ushra'Khan, but that was before FW.

When did you start playing EVE?

February 2007.

I was still busy playing WoW back then, but it was a holiday, I got a bit bored with the Burning Crusade, probably browsed the internet a bit and ended up reading some articles about that game I heard some other people rant about earlier, often in a negative way ("It's so boring, blabla"). I don't exactly remember which article I read, but it intrigued me. It was in a way precisely what I was looking for in WoW, a big seamless evolving world where players provided consequences to each others' actions (or are at least able to, to some extent), where you have the freedom to create and live your own story.

Then in the first weeks I read upon CVA and what they did with the Providence, I saw one of their big fleets leaving just before their big attack on Ushra'Khan, I read the 0.0 Expirement at work/school and I was involved in an Aurora event (I guess my character helped the Speaker of Truths do what he had to do). All that in my first month, I was sold.

What do you enjoy about EVE?

To be honest, I haven't played EVE at all lately. I really want to get more involved again, but I'm quite busy and there are also some other great games I sometimes just have to play (World of Goo!). And even for these games I can barely find time. I could always make time of course, but I simply prioritize other things higher I guess.

But why I enjoy playing EVE? It's the thrill of combat which gives me a huge kick, it's the idea of being out there in that huge universe, it's the freedom and the fantastic stories it generates. Not just the bigger 'CCP storylines', but espescially the player stories, all the drama, it's lovely. It's unequalled in any other game. And even if you don't play EVE actively, it's still awesome to read about it and follow it actively.

What is your playstyle?

Firstly, I'd like to say that I try to play EVE Online (also other games sometimes) as "In Character" as possible, so I guess people would label me as a 'Roleplayer'. I don't like that separation and I am one of those people that constantly shouts that every EVE player is a roleplayer as they participate in the EVE universe and its story, so I'd rather call myself an 'Immersionist' as it was nicely dubbed by CCP.

I'm member of PIE Inc, so I mostly live in Empire, we participate in Factional Warfare and fight for our Empire and Empress. I never liked the concept of mission-running and prefer to make my ISK by trading instead, although I mostly fly cheap ships which aren't too hard to finance.

Do you play any other games?

Yes. I like games in general, just reading about them. I actually got back more into non-MMOs after starting to read a site like RPS a year and a half ago, which is having a nice mix of mainstream and the more obscure games. I really do like games as a cultural platfom/outlet. It has so much unfulfilled potential. I do prefer PC games though and if I just look at the mainstream top-selling lists, I'm probably not interested in 95% of it.

As for actually playing them.. It's the same with EVE.. I don't play them nearly enough. Just a few hours a week really. I've played quite a bit of Team Fortress 2 though and I also love Civilization 4, World of Goo, Left 4 Dead, Defcon. I also still really want to get into some of the Paradox Interactive games, plus there's Empire: Total War... My favourite game? Deus Ex, easy.

What do you blog about, and why?

Unlike many others in the blog-packI don't really write stories about my own experiences in EVE, I not only write just about EVE, I also write about other games that inspire me to.. well.. write about it. But EVE is definetly one of the most fascinating games out there in this world and I often end up drawing comparisons to it when writing about other games. I also like to theorize a bit about the whole sandbox concept and I like to give my perspective on it, as I think it often differs a bit from most other people, although I must say I have barely written any posts about that yet, I'm still planning to. I actually keep a huge 'to-do' with stuff I want to write about for my blog.

Why blog? I don’t really know really, I don’t know why I write what I write. Sometimes the need just seems to be there. It’s not just about ego fulfillment by people reading it, although people reading and commenting on your blog can surely motivate me to write more. But even without anyone ever visiting my blog I’d probably write there every now and then. It’s good to have a place where you can express yourself on any subject you like, to share your ideas or that article/video which ‘moved’ you at that moment.

What are your other interests?

There are quite a lot. I'm a political science student, so I do take some interest in that obviously. I love music and couldn't live without, from Bob Dylan to obscure punk bands. I kind of 'grew up' with punk music, but I can listen to anything, I do look for some sort of 'pureness' in music though. Movies, books. I also love the internet, guess I spend quite a lot of time on it. I love people, sounds silly, but silly situations and random conversations with unkown people can really make my day. Guess I do find social dynamics rather fascinating.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

I think people should know that EVE is all about freedom and creating your own path (and fun!), don't hang out there doing missions in high-sec and think that's all there is, because even while mission-running might be entertaining enough for many, the brilliance of EVE lies elsewhere. Play with other people, explore the possibilities. If you haven't already, I suggest you read my 'must-read' articles I listed here some time ago. To me, they really help to explain the greatness of EVE.

But as for motivation. Probably a lot of people have a bit of problem with that. EVE Online is quite intense on your mind and it requires you to put effort in it. It's a bit like having to choose between reading a relatively difficult and thought-provoking book or a simple popular pageturner. There's nothing wrong with mindless entertainment every now and then, but it's better to challenge yourself as that is where you really develop yourself. So if you have to choose between playing EVE Online or any other MMO (/game), go for EVE Online as it'll make you a better person.

Hehe, that sounded quite pretentious. But there's some truth in it.

Anything else to offer?

Ah well, guess you've read more than enough by now. Thanks for that by the way, I really appriciate people reading my gibberish. Oh, I do have a second blog that covers my 'other interests'. Good I didn't forget.

Blogger Profiles #24 - Godlesswanderer

2009-03-14T11:18:00.002+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

What is your character's name or handle?

Godlesswanderer

What is your blog's URL?

http://www.articulatedsky.com

How long have you been blogging?

General blogging, around 3-4 years but Articulated sky has been going about a year and a half.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

Right now, I'm generally found flying between Black Rise and Sinq Laison.

When did you start playing EVE?

Back in 2005, although I only really started playing regularly around two years ago.

What do you enjoy about EVE?

On a grand scale, I really love the way that the acts of one player can greatly affect the EVE galaxy as a whole (like the recent disbanding of bob, for example).
But on a more personal scale, I love the adrenaline rush that one gets while fighting for your life. I've yet to get that feeling in any other MMO.

What is your playstyle?

Piracy, with a little bit of carebear added in for good measure. Sometimes I can't resist breaking out the old mining barge.

Do you play any other games?

MMO-wise, I stick to EVE. I'm having enough trouble with money as it is without having to pay a second subscription for a second MMO!

What do you blog about, and why?

I blog about any EVE related stories and/or experiences that I find interesting, and also about anything that has happened to me ingame that I found particularly interesting or fun. To be honest, I mainly blog for myself but lately I seem to have become obsessed with my page views.

What are your other interests?

Anything and everything relating to geek culture. Technology, graphic design, gadgets, weird t-shirts. I could go on forever.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

Whenever I lacked motivation in EVE, the usual problem seemed to be that I either had no one to talk to (as in I was basically soloing EVE), or people around me didn't really seem motivated. The fix that I've found for both of these problems is to essentially pick up, leave and make a new life. I don't necessarily mean that you should move across the galaxy, change profession, etc. it could even be as simple as changing corporation or changing the system you call your home. Anything that will give you a bit of variation or give you something new is great and will keep you motivated without a doubt.

Anything else to offer?

A little inside info; I'm going to be holding a contest on my blog soon. It's so secret that even I don't know what it's going to be about!

Snapshot of Eve - 12 March 2009

2009-03-12T10:51:00.002+11:00

Extended, Comprehensive Analysis of the Facwar Mechanic - CCP respond?
The PERVS Lag-Spectacular 5th of March OMS

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

[Application] MLCalc - A Standalone Research Tool [1.9.4]
★★★ The Complete Miner's Guide 3.0 - Apocrypha ★★★
POS-Tracker 3.0.0 Beta 5 [updated Dec 24, 2008]

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

The Thieves Of EvE: And Possible Corporate Thieves
Radioactive Battle Bunnies - Guns for Hire
High-sec Pirate Alliance - Member corps wanted

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Blood on our hands

2009-03-11T15:20:00.000+11:00

I was just reading the thoughts of Ciarente Roth, where she mentioned "Has the death of so many ever laid on the heads of so few-- and weighed there so lightly?"

It got me thinking. (Yes, I do occasionally think...)

A lot of pilots travel around seeking the deaths of others. But in their quest for adventure, they always refer to their defeated prey as individuals. They very rarely think about the dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people serving on the ships they destroy.

All of them with families, loved ones, people with lives outside of their jobs as crew members. They're not always there because of some idealistic view of the universe. They're certainly not there because they are immortal. They're there because they have mouths to feed back on their home planets. Because they have goals and aspirations. They want to amount to something, and that's what drives them to be a crew member of a starship.

But we don't discuss these things. Our elitism blinds us to the people whose lives depend on us. Our flippant attitude towards success or failure means nothing to us pilots, because if we die, we're reborn in a clone.

But our crews do not have that same fantastic luxury.

Not only do they die with the ships we so carelessly lose in our fights of vanity, but their families back home are left with no one to continue providing for them. The lives we shatter extend beyond our ships, and reach out across the planets and the stars throughout the galaxy.

In a past life I used to be a pirate with this same careless, selfish attitude. I feel differently now in this life. I feel like I have a responsibility to those who rest their hopes and dreams with me. They look up to me for their survival, and for the survival of their families, wherever they might be. They hope that I'm good enough to keep them alive. They bet their very lives on it.

Rest assured that these realisations won't stop me from fighting, but they will help guide me in my choices. I will fight for something meaningful, rather than vanity. I will fight for something worthwhile, and hope that the deaths of those who serve me will actually mean something. I will fight for the freedom of the Minmatar race from persecution and oppression, and hope that it's enough.

We, the chosen few, are the elite. Our lives can be eternal, should we wish it. We can choose to make our lives mean something, or we can simply show to the galaxy that we're only selfish children, playing with people's lives as if it's just a game.

This blood on my hands? It will remind me of the responsibilities I have to my crew, their families, and the Minmatar people whom I ultimately serve. I can only hope I do not let them down.

Blogger Profiles #23 - Quintrala

2009-03-11T11:13:00.003+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

What is your character's name or handle?

I am Catherine DELOROIS but please, call me Quintrala or just plain Quin.

What is your blog's URL?

http://speedfairy.blogspot.com

How long have you been blogging?

Oh, I started my first blog all the way back in January 2009 I think so by now it would be... two months. Almost.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

Metropolis, Tash-Murkon, Sinq Laison and other regions in between. Commute sucks.

When did you start playing EVE?

When, for RL reasons, I was both down and bored out of my mind and someone brought this science-fiction game for grownups to my attention. It was late 2006. Still looking for the grownups, hahaha. Sorry, not true. You rock, New Eden.

What do you enjoy about EVE?

You can live a life in space - absolute freedom. Wanna be a pirate? Be a pirate. Wanna rule an empire? Start working now. Wanna roleplay? Be all you can be. Wanna be a miner? Go see a shrink.

This freedom translates in me being able to develop as a character, to live a (pretend) life in space. People and environment around me change and I will live, change and react to those changes (this also means that I must be very close to my character, in order to RP well. Sort of acting.).

Again, the spaceships are fake but the people interaction is real so you have this 'Personality Lab 101' in which you can try things you would not normally risk IRL like, always nice / wicked witch / the other woman / crazy scientist / outlaw wench

What is your playstyle?

Social. I am a charisma tanker. I am a pro racer too.

It is all about the people, not the spaceships (the MM in MMORPG). You can have so many people running around and doing their own thing, but when you get them together, wonderful things happen: the roleplay, the fiction and stuff you get to write -and have fun with- are accessories to bring people together. Fun accessories. Team playing, alliances, corps... it is all in the people.

I race professionally, I spend a lot of my time doing race-related stuff (more than half my time, does that make me a pro?). The weekly race is just the tip of the iceberg, but it does require training, rigs, modules, testing stuff and having crazy ideas. If you add team cheering, organizing and sponsorship (it takes money, you know -a top racing interceptor may cost up to 1 billion) and lately taking over some Racing League PR responsibilities...

Also, roleplay to some extent wherever I go. I intentionally play and roleplay nice and sweet; it's sort of refreshing in a universe full of ugly and mean. No, really, people think it is a joke but I find it is fun to play that. Unusual. On the surface I am a star-hugging peacenik that looks for ways to play nice and appease conflict. Below the surface I am just a regular person, flaws and all, and shades of grey; nice and sweet is just some defense mechanism you acquire growing up an expat with three national backgrounds and no place you really feel like home.

I try to stay in-character as much as I can. Other than the expat thing my background is intentionally vanilla-flavoured, sort of girl-next-pod. Whatever thing extraodinaire I will ever brag about, I must first earn in-game; importance is something other people attribute to you. Whatever changes my nice fluffy IC life, too, should be an in-game influence. Which basically has kept me from FW, PvP and shooting people in the face. Oh, but there will be time for that -hey, I am not really that nice. People change, characters do too.

Also... wait, are we running out of time here? Sorry.

Do you play any other games?

I am one of the few, the proud to have never played WoW.

Otherwise, there is a Wii at home: WiiFit, does that count as a game? Mario Kart. Other stuff occasionally, some time ago. Sim stuff, Spore.

Nah, EVE is what I play almost exclusively.

What do you blog about, and why?

My life in space (IC), growing up a diplo-brat -in space-, fiction (I have this hyper-active imagination), racing stories (that's my only major accomplishment in EvE, being like a Danica Patrick of New Eden), a bit of OOC. I, ah, "map" stuff from RL to IC, sometimes I write about my own experience or memories, sometimes about someone else's. Yup, the ideas behind gossip, water and the iguana stuff happened for real; I still remember part of that recipe, ew.

It is funny how, in order to fully be part of the blogging community you have to go OOC once in a while, otherwise there is this sort of invisible barrier that is very difficult to cross. Mystic Pizza comes to mind as an exception, it takes talent to craft a message in such a way that it has an IC meaning for the story and a OOC meaning for the community. Maybe I will try doing that later.

What are your other interests?

Hmmm... my family and friends, reading, movies, skiing, cycling, wine, cooking, dancing, scuba diving, sightseeing and travel travel travel. I love Sci-fi, my current favorite being BSG -have you seen how many roles each character gets to play?

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

Take it easy, do not burn yourself out. This is a game, not a job. If you feel you are sort of burning out, then take a few days, or a couple of months and come back. It is still going to be there. Also, there are so many different things to try, why no take it slow and try a new one. You choose what to do and you choose the pace and you choose your people in-game.

Ah... and do not biomass your character. You will regret it if you do.

Anything else to offer?

Hahaha, that would fill an entire post, or a blog. I will choose one: what about come join the races, at least give it a try?

Blogger Profiles #22 - AeonOfTime

2009-03-08T10:51:00.001+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

I'd just like to thank all the Eve bloggers who have handed in their profiles so far. There's over 160 Eve bloggers out there though, so I'm looking forward to getting some more. Yes, that means YOU, if you haven't already given me a profile. :)

What is your character's name or handle?

AeonOfTime

What is your blog's URL?

http://eve.aeonoftime.com

How long have you been blogging?

About six years now outside of EVE; for EVE I started the blog about a week in the game. I knew it would be long term then, and I wanted to keep a log to go back to later on. A kind of early nostalgia if you like.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

Heimatar will always feel like home the most, with Metropolis next. I spend a fair amount of time in Domain too, but more because I fly Amarr and modules are more readily available there. Heimatar is my real base of operations.

When did you start playing EVE?

October 13th, 2006. I spent a week thinking about getting a subscription or not, reading the FAQ on the game world. I was not sure if I should join because it seemed terribly involved and way too similar to real life for a game. In the end I decided that I had to see what online gaming was all about. Besides, I was a bit bored out of fantasy settings then and World of Warcraft seemed way too traditional in that aspect.

What do you enjoy about EVE?

Quite a number of things, but most importantly that fact that it has a Scifi setting and that I get to pilot big, shiny spacefaring vessels. It reminds me of Stephen Donaldson's "Gap Sequence" books through the harsh setting it plays in. Beyond that, I have come to enjoy the total freedom and contact with likeminded players from all over the world. As a software engineer, I am also often amazed at what CCP have achieved and really enjoy testing out all the possibilities the game world offers.

What is your playstyle?

Ironically enough, I play solo. I do realize it's a MULTIplayer game, but I have always been a lone wolf at heart. I am not entirely anti-social however. I have one chat channel I have followed since I started the game, and my corporation, Sytek Technologies, is a safe haven for other lone wolves to get together without the usual corporation restraints. I am a miner at heart, and a missioner for fun. I have never done any real PvP, and do not plan on doing any for the time being.

Do you play any other games?

Yes, many - but EVE is the only MMOG I play. All the other games I play are solo games. I never stopped playing since my first gaming experiences on the Commodore C64. One constant is the Civilization series, closely followed by RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series (Oblivion) and more recently, Mass Effect. Add a few first person shooters to the mix like Doom, Unreal or Crysis, and a bit of nostalgia with Master Of Magic and the Wing Commander / Privateer series.

What do you blog about, and why?

I blog about my character's adventures in EVE, mostly because I want to keep a log for future nostalgia moments but also to share my knowledge of the game from my personal perspective. Whenever I try a new aspect of the game, I write about my experience with it to help other players discover it. There is a much cheesier reason to why I am blogging though, which ultimately led to my blog being named "The Captain's Log of AeonOfTime": I have grown up with seafaring ships, and one of the traditions as a captain is to keep a written log of events. I always liked that, and seeing that I do pilot a ship of sorts, I figured it would be fitting :)

What are your other interests?

You mean, like, in real life? This is going to sound boring I fear, but oh well - here goes: Web design and development, traveling abroad, diving (without bottles or scubas).

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?
Do not lose sight of the fun. I met a number of players that had gotten so involved in the game that they did not realize they were not having fun anymore. In my world, duties should not be part of a game. Of course in EVE you have to dedicate yourself to your corp if you want to achieve something bigger, but don't let that spoil your fun. If you start thinking of not logging in because you will have to attend to chore XY, you need to free yourself of those duties. Just play by gut even if you don't make any ISK for a few hours - stop crunching numbers and just play. Take a ship, and on a whim set up shop in a new system in another region, with a different agent. Screw the 30+ jumps, screw agent quality, take one that just looks good and see where that leads you.

Anything else to offer?

Only an invitation to all love wolves out there to check out Syrkos Technologies. We have no corp duties whatsoever, so you can keep your complete freedom. We are a growing community of about 20 members from all over the place that all play just the way they want to without any strings attached. You can find out more on my blog and on the minisite (igb compatible): http://sytek.aeonoftime.com

Blogger Profiles #21 - Ga'len

2009-03-05T12:00:00.000+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

Our latest blogger is also known as The Wandering Druid, and he's been quite busy and helpful for the Eve Blogosphere, as well as having his finger on the pulse of new Eve blogs. Please enjoy...

What is your character's name or handle?

Ga'len (pronounces Ga Len)

What is your blog's URL?

http://www.eve-druid.com

How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging about EVE since January 5, 2007, kept a personal blog from March of 1997.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

I wander a bit, but my current home is in Sinq Laison.

When did you start playing EVE?

I started back with a trial in 2003, picked it up again in March of 2006.

What do you enjoy about EVE?

EVE is a game where you have to use your brain quite a lot. I hate games that are grind based. EVE is brain based and that's what drew me in.

What is your playstyle?

I am a pirate, yarr!!!

Do you play any other games?

Yes, yes I do play other games. I like to play Chess, any Star Wars game (except for SWG, left that when NGE hit).

What do you blog about, and why?

I blog about PvP engagements, the goings on in the EVE community and my perspective on the game. I like to think that I can look at things with a different set of eyes than most EVE players. I am 35 years old and in my experience, most EVE players are a tad younger than I am. I've been around the Internet since before it was a public place for people to meet and exchange ideas. No matter what you think and how you express yourself, there is someone who is looking to read about what you think and feel. Adding your 'verse' to the 'powerful play that goes on' is something that appeals to me. I maintain the OPML download of EVE blogs (http://www.eve-druid.com/opml-download) for this very reason. There are many blogs out there that are not as active as the members of the EVE Blog Pack. Some of these blogs have been inactive for some time, but their content is worth reading.

What are your other interests?

I like to cook, spend time exploring the real world with my wife, spend time playing with our dog and I love going to the movies.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

You have to ask yourself what do you want to receive from this game. You also have to understand that EVE is not meant to be played as a solo game for the majority of the game content. It's meant to be a social interaction. If you are looking for something where you can do most things all on your own, then EVE is not for you. If you find that you simply are getting bored with the game, then you really need to look at who you are spending your time with in the game. Many people end up leaving the game because the corporation they are a member of is just not active in their time zone or does not cater to their play style.

Experiment, try different things, join up with another corporation with an alt or your main. Create a industrialist character or a combat character, try things out. There is a lot to do in the EVE universe and you own it to yourself to explore the game.

Anything else to offer?

Like I have said many times, try different things. Explore the game, move about. Don't be afraid of loosing a ship as that's part of the game. Enjoy yourself, that's the whole point!!

Best blogger of the month

2009-03-02T20:38:00.002+11:00

Over at evebloggers.com there's a monthly competition for Best Blog Post of the Month. For the month of February we had a winner!

Mynxee's post: Yarrin’: The Little Frigates That Could

Congratulations to Mynxee! She's won herself a free ad placement on the front page of evebloggers.com. Go there and have a look.

Everyone - please nominate or vote for what you think is the best post of the month over at the Eve Bloggers Best Post of the Month section.

Blogger Profiles #20 - Mynxee

2009-03-02T16:40:00.002+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

This one has been sitting around in my Inbox for a month now. I'm sorry! I've been busy and distracted for a little while. And the same for those that come after this. But anyway, on with the show...

Mynxee is one of our favourite bloggers and pirates, and she's an inspiration to many. Without further ado, here's her profile:

What is your character's name or handle?

Mynxee

What is your blog's URL?

http://lifeinlowsec.blogspot.com

How long have you been blogging?

Nearly a year now.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

Metropolis low-sec

When did you start playing EVE?

February 2007 (on my first character, a dirty rotten carebear!)

What do you enjoy about EVE?

The dynamic complexity of player interactions and relationships, and the sense that the only restrictions on what you can accomplish in-game are the ones you place on yourself.

What is your playstyle?

Pirating and exploration

Do you play any other games?

No

What do you blog about, and why?

I blog about my experiences and the things that affect me as a low sec pirate. These may be in the form of event reports, open discussion topics, or fictional storylines involving my characters. I try to write in-character most of the time.

What are your other interests?

Trail riding and foxhunting on my mules, watercolor painting, digital painting, making limited edition artist books, gardening, fiber arts, science fiction.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

Find a group of players who inspire you and who are fun to hang out with in-game. If that doesn't do it, maybe it's time to either take a break or try something totally different in-game.

Anything else to offer?

Feel free to convo me in-game if you want friendly answers to questions about piracy and exploration. If you're a female in real life who's interested in pirating, consider joining my women-only pirate corp Hellcats. Our recruitment thread is here.

Snapshot of Dev Finder - 2 March 2009

2009-03-02T15:55:00.002+11:00

Welcome to the latest 'snapshot' of the Eve Online developers and their comments in the Eve Forums.

2009.02.24
18:56	Oneiromancer announces that the new eopic mission arcs are now available for testing on Singularity.
18:55	Oneiromancer provides a list of known issues and workarounds in Apocrypha - build 81170
18:54	Hypnotic answers player queries regarding attribute respeccing.
18:54	Fallout introduces a New Dev Blog by Incognito: How the AI pew pews the player.
18:47	Nozh answers multiple player queries regarding Tech 3 cruisers in a succession of posts.
18:45	Oneiromancer provides a list of known issues and workarounds in Apocrypha - build 80627.
18:44	Nozh provides a comprehensive guide to Tech 3: Strategic Cruiser Bonuses.
18:29	Whisper explains the mechanics behind local chat in wormhole space.
18:28	Fear replies to player queries regarding the New Player Experience for Apocrypha.
18:25	Chronotis announces changes to Tech 3 ship production on Singularity.
18:25	Chronotis provides some information regarding reverse engineering.
18:24	Chronotis assures players that normal celestial asteroid belts in current high security space will not need to be scanned down and discovered.
18:22	Fallout introduces a New Blog by Fear: New Player Experience.
18:21	Oneiromancer provides a list of known issues and workarounds for the 80418 build on Singularity.
18:16	Greyscale continues to provide further feedback regarding wormholes and scanning which is in testing on Singularity.
18:12	Mindstar replies to player queries regarding the new hardware upgrades blog.
18:11	Ginger advises players that, far from removing back story content, that we have actually added newdescriptions for regions and systems of note.

Snapshot of Eve - 2 March 2009

2009-03-02T15:50:00.003+11:00

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

[Application] MLCalc - A Standalone Research Tool [1.9.4]

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Subscribing to this blog

2009-03-02T09:19:00.002+11:00

I've just added the option of being able to subscribe to the comments of this blog (to the right), so that if you want to keep up to date with discussions that are going on here, you can now do so.

Please enjoy. :)

Snapshot of Dev Finder - 24 February 2009

2009-02-24T12:26:00.004+11:00

One of the things that has been lacking is an RSS feed of the Eve developer's activity in the forums. It's available on the Eve website, but it's just not accessible via RSS or any blogs, so I've been thinking about it. I've decided to include their Dev Finder updates as a snapshot in this blog as well.

When they update it, I'll update this blog. That will allow the dev updates to at least be available to everyone else via RSS, via this site.

2009.02.17

14:06	Fallout introduces a New Blog from Mindstar: Hardware Upgrades!
14:05	Fendahl replies to a huge amount of player queries regarding the new fitting screen for Apocrypha.
14:03	Greyscale answers a large amount of player questions regarding wormholes and scanning.
14:02	Abraxas presents a new End of the World Chronicle: "The Great Harvest".
14:01	Gangleri answers multiple player queries regarding the new character creation and bloodlines.
14:00	Chronotis gives an overview of starbase system security level anchoring restrictions, comments on the supply/demand of resources and a guide to prices of Strategic Cruisers.
13:58	Fallout introduces a New Blog by Chronotis How do I build a strategic cruiser?
13:56	Abathur answers player queries regarding wormholes.
13:44	Prism X explains the mechanics behind how players will be able to exist wormhole space if they have no probes.
13:32	Oneiromancer provides a listing of Apocrypha testing known issues and workarounds for build 79298.
13:26	Chronotis provides some general comments on the use of starbases and low security space for different aspects of Tech 3 production.
13:18	Chronotis answers several player queries in the Tech 3 production thread.
12:59	Fallout introduces a New Dev Blog by Nozh: Strategic Cruisers.
12:56	Fear explains changes to the skill learning system with the release of Apocrypha.
12:54	Chronotis confirms that the component assembly array material multiplier has been reduced to 1.0 witn apocrypha.

Snapshot of Eve - 24 February 2009

2009-02-24T12:13:00.003+11:00

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

Industry in w-space

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

GENERAL DISCUSSION

33 odd facts about me

2009-02-20T17:09:00.001+11:00

PsycheDiver posted some questions for other bloggers to answer. I thought I’d give it a go, but since it was non-Eve related, I’m posting it over on my personal blog instead of here.

I hope you enjoy.

9 tips on writing better blog posts

2009-02-20T12:00:00.001+11:00

If you're serious about writing an Eve Online blog, and you want to attract more people to contribute with comments and be regular visitors, then you're going to want to know how to write better, and how to inspire people to write comments. Read this article if you want to learn more tips on how to write better blog posts.

1. The bait

The bait is your title. It needs to be attractive, to inspire the reader to find out more. Make sure it's informative about the content, but also very short.

The title is what people are going to see in search engine listings, so make sure it includes those key words that are relevent to the content.

2. The hook

Once you've got the reader to take the bait, you need to have a good hook. Your hook is going to be the first paragraph of your post. Remember that many people will find your site via a search engine, so they're going to quickly see if it has the content they're looking for. If it doesn't, they're going to go look somewhere else. If you can grab them right there with the hook, you'll keep them reading.

Of course, the hook needs to be provocative and controversial. It has to grab the reader's attention and make a point, all in one go. If they don't read anything more of your post, that first paragraph is the only chance you've got to tell them what your thoughts and opinions are.

3. The reward

If the reader has been hooked by your first paragraph then they're going to want to know why you've written what you have. Giving them the 'why' is your way of rewarding them for staying.

Use a couple of paragraphs to to tell them why you made the statements in the hook. Keep it short and informative, no more than two paragraphs. Include humour if you can. People love to laugh, and if you can help them do that, they'll be encouraged to stay and keep reading. Since you've managed to keep them past the first paragraph, you don't want to lose them now!

4. The inspiration

For people to be inspired to leave their own comments, there often needs to be something controversial for them to comment on. Sure, you can write the posts that don't offend anyone, or that inspire people to be or feel better, but if you really want to get people discussing your posts, you need to make them more controversial.

Some of the controversial things you can write about include: game politics, ship fitting suggestions, game or forum controversies, etc etc. Anything that can inspire or inflame people's emotions are good topics to write about.

5. Make your point

If you can keep your post about a single point rather than several points, then you're going to make it more attractive for people to stay and read. The less for them to read, the better.

If you really want to make a number of points, then write a different post for each point you want to make, and schedule those posts out over a few days or weeks.

6. The KISS principle - 'Keep it simple, stupid!'

The more detail you put into expressing your thoughts, the more people are going to swtich off. They just want it to be short and easy to read. They want to know your thoughts using as few words as possible. Keep the complexities of your thoughts to yourself.

Before you press that publish button, read your post as if you're a random reader who's completely clueless about whatever it is you're talking about. Be honest and ask yourself if the reader is likely to hang around and keep reading. If not, then keep editing it.

If a sentence can afford to have words removed and still keep the same meaning, then do so. When the meaning is lost, put back the word you last removed and leave it at that.

7. Let the reader form the conclusions

Don't just insult someone or something. Provide all the reasons why you don't like them, and let the reader insult them for you!

If the reader is given information with which to form their own opinion, that will mean more to them than just reading what your opinion is.

8. Be passionate

If you're not passionate about something, then don't write it. If you don't have the belief in your own opinion, then why should the reader listen to you?

When you write what you're passionate about, that's going to be obvious to your readers, and they're going to feel it. Writing with passion will inspire your readers to feel almost as passionate about it as you!

9. Have a moral to the story

If the reader has gotten to the end, they want there to be a point to it, so they can justify the time spent reading it. Give them a moral, a one-line statement that they can take away with them which will summarise the post and stick in their memory.

For example, the moral to this post could be: Get serious with your writing, and you'll get a serious increase in the readers who respond to what you write!

Dipping into the Twitter stream

2009-02-19T16:11:00.005+11:00

Poor LurbyJo (also known as Eve Chick) jumped onto Twitter today and soon posted a message to all her followers:

So sick! I thought I'd come play something but reading all 149 tweets I'd missed tired me out. Back to bed. o7

I replied with:

@LurbyJo you jumped into the Twitter stream & tried to take it all in & it made you sick! Just enjoy the stream at the point you jumped in

She replied:

@Alexia_Morgan I can't. I feel so guilty if I don't read everything. WHAT IF SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING TO ME AND IGNORE THEM!?

It made me think about a problem that's common to many Twitter users - too much information!

The messages, updates and communication coming to us via Twitter can be likened to a 'stream of information', or a Twitter stream. Imagine it as a stream of flowing information. It's always flowing, always moving on.

When you're following just a few people, it's very easy to keep up with their messages, because there's so few of them. You might be able to check once a day, or even once a week, and still be up to date with the conversations or updates occurring since you last checked.

But what about when you're following dozens, hundreds or even thousands of active people all sending their updates via Twitter? You simply can't keep up, and to even try will just drive you crazy!

How to make it easier

The first thing to do is to check whatever tool you're using (Twitter itself, or Twhirl, Tweetdeck, etc) to see if anyone has @replied or direct messaged you since you last checked. You can browse them, even reply to them if you want to. They've made the effort to personally address you or reply to you, so it's always a good idea to do them the courtesy of engaging in communication with them.

The second thing to do is to browse back through people's updates, but not very far. You don't need to browse back through the hundreds or even thousands of updates people have made since you last checked! You really don't.

Take a dip into the Twitter stream

When you jump into a stream, you don't try to swim all of it. You don't need to! It would be silly, if not downright stupid, to try and swim upstream as far as you could go in order to enjoy what the stream offers you.

Wherever you dip into the stream is where you need to be to enjoy it. That's all.

You can relax and enjoy it flowing past you, you can splash around a bit, and engage in communicating with people at that moment. Then you can pull yourself out when you've had enough, and you can go off and do other things.

When you next check Twitter, you can see the replies people have made to the messages you made when you last jumped into the stream, and you can engage them in return. Then you can jump into the stream again to see what people are saying in the moment, and for however long you want to participate, before you jump back out again.

This helps you avoid information overload. It helps you enjoy the experience more.

When people send an update to their Twitter, they're not personally addressing you - they're just throwing out 'stuff' about what they're doing or thinking. You don't need to see all of it! You only 'need' to see what they're throwing at YOU, and that's with the @replies they send to you. Everything else is just flotsam and jetsam, floating in the stream.

That's the interesting nature of Twitter and the Twitter stream. You don't have to be part of it at all times; you can just jump into it every now and again and participate with whatever is happening while you're there, before you jump out again.

That's how I do it. There's just too much going on to take it all in, so don't even try.

Secrets of the 80/20 blogger

2009-02-19T12:25:00.003+11:00

There's a lot of Eve Online players out there who are trying their hand at blogging, and a lot of them are very, very good. But there's a few who are struggling. So in line with my interest in helping the bloggers and anyone interested in blogging, I'm going to start writing more posts about how to blog. I hope some of you find them either interesting or valuable.

There's a secret to business that some of you might be aware of. It's the 80/20 rule. The way it works is that 80% of business comes from 20% of the clients, while 20% of business comes from 80% of the clients. The 80/20 rule is a centrepiece of improving business results, by helping to understand that if 80% of the clients are generating only 20% of the business, then there should be a greater focus on the 20% of clients who are generating 80% of the business.

We can apply this rule to anything, and this article is about applying it to blogging.

80% of your posts are meaningless

80% of what you post is going to be completely meaningless. Absolute rubbish. But they're still important, because without them your regular readers are going to go somewhere else. The regular readers you have are there for the 20% of your posts that are meaningful to them. And of your regular readers, 20% of those will link back to 80% of your meaningful posts.

If you're writing 1 post per week for your blog, then over the course of a year you would have about 52 posts. Of that, 42 of them (80%) are rubbish, while 10 (20%) are fantastic! If you want more fantastic posts, you need to increase the effort you put into it.

Let's say you decide to write 3 posts per week, which is about 156 posts over a year. This means you will have 31 posts that are fantastic. You'll also have about 125 posts which are rubbish, but because you've increased your effort, you're also going to increase your exposure. More posts generates more interest. (I would even hazard a guess that if you increase your effort by 20%, then your results will be increased by 80%...)

Also, if 2 in 10 posts are fantastic, then if you are writing once per week, you'll do a fantastic post once every 5 weeks, on average. But if you're posting 3 times a week, then you'll do a fantastic post once every 1.5 weeks. That's going to get a much better response from your readers, and you'll have a lot more of them wanting to hang around and read your posts.

Your website is a resource

If you can work out why 20% of your posts are good enough for your fans to link back to, you can actually increase the ratio. Start writing more of what they find interesting and meaningful. And if you can't do this, then you're just not interested in writing for your readers, and that's ok too. But then, if that's the case, you really should stop reading articles like this that help you with your blogging.

Try to aim for 80% of your posts to be fantastic, instead of only 20%. Understand what your regular readers like and link back to on their own blogs, and try to write more of it.

When you can write some fantastic content that a lot of people link to, then your blog becomes a resource for others to share. The reason they want to link back to your posts is because they think you're good enough to share with their own readers. You eventually become the resource for the content you want to present.

Look at Crazy Kinux's blog for an understanding of how he's made this work extremely well for him.

Delete your archives

Review all your posts. Clear out the ones that either aren't popular because no one commented on them, or simply are not a good reflection of how you want your blog to be. If you have less content, but more of it is linked or has discussions on it, then guess what? You become an overnight sensation.

Another interesting side effect is that the more content you have that is linked to from other sites, the more likely your content is going to be displayed first by Google. It will recognise that your site is a popular resource, and will show your site more often in people's relevant Google search results.

Drop all the advertising, simplicity is better

If you have advertising that's not making you money, get rid of it. If you remove 80% of the advertising that's not making you money and optimise the 20% that is, your readers are going to visit your site more (because there's less advertising cluttering it), and will make you more money in the process.

Remember, 20% of your advertising is creating 80% of your income. Get rid of the 80% that is generating only 20% income or less. You don't need that much clutter on your site.

Quit feeding at the trough

Spend more time on your blog and less time reading websites or RSS feeds - it's wasting your time! Quit feeding at the trough and do some creative writing of your own, instead of using other people's content to inspire you. People love original content, and that's why you're going to get a lot of your regular readers coming back for more.

Why would they come to you for content that's already been posted somewhere else? Stop riding the coat tails of other people's posts and success, and start working on your own original blog posts.

If you can write about the source of something, rather than on what someone else has written about it, you'll get a much better response from your readers.

Don't TRY to be a blogger, just BE one!

To be one of the 20% of Eve Bloggers that 80% of people are going to come back to (I think the Eve Blog Pack represents this rule quite well), you have to be one of those 20% that 80% of bloggers wish they were.

Do more writing. Care less about the crap, and care more about the quality. I have a saying sticky-taped to the top of my screen: "combine quality with consistency". Consistently create fantastic content, and you will achieve the success that you desire. (And if you don't desire it, why did you read this post all the way through?)

I hope this has been helpful. There will be more coming soon. Please leave your feedback and even your own suggestions in the Comments.

Best blog post of the month

2009-02-17T22:40:00.003+11:00

Over at evebloggers.com is the Best Blogger Of The Month competition. It's a monthly thing, and the winner will receive free advertising on a prominent position of the front page.

It exists to help promote the fantastic writing efforts of the Eve Bloggers out there, but in order to succeed each month, it needs the input of the forementioned Eve Bloggers.

Please go and nominate or vote for a post that you think is deserving of the award 'Best Blogger Of The Month'.

Snapshot of Eve - 17 February 2009

2009-02-17T16:09:00.003+11:00

Welcome to the latest snapshot of the major topics that people are discussing within the Eve Online forums. To see other snapshots, click on the 'snapshot' tag in the Tag Cloud. The rules of the snapshot are here.

Since there was absolutely no feedback whatsoever on my addition of Corporation, Alliance and Organisation Discussions, I've decided to remove it.

My next request for feedback is: are these snapshots of use to you? Am I wasting my time doing them? Are you already keeping up with the forums and have no need for these snapshots?

Please let me know your thoughts in the Comments, thank you.

WARFARE & TACTICS

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

GENERAL DISCUSSION

I robbed a Goon

2009-02-13T07:07:00.004+11:00

And I liked it...

Well, ok, it wasn't actually me that robbed the Goon, so I can't really say I liked it. But this very talented Eve player sang about it, and I liked the song so much I thought I'd put it here for everyone to share. Please click on the link to share the musical goodness.

http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/PotentiaVox/I_Robbed_a_Goon.mp3

Thanks to Serious Sally for sharing it with me first!

Apocrypha on the test server

2009-02-10T10:25:00.004+11:00

A lot of people are getting all excited by the new Tech 3 ships available on Sisi, the test server, along with new graphics for various other areas of the game. Everyone's talking about it, and everyone's posting about it.

I'm not.

Oh wait, I think I am now...

Ok, fine. I'm posting about it.

But I'm not getting into the hype myself. I'm just going to wait until March, when it's released live. I'm not reading posts about it (much), and I'm definitely not looking at any of the images being displayed of the new ships.

I want Eve Online to be about my own personal experience. I read posts written by others that relate to what I want to experience for myself. I read some fiction, but not a lot. I read articles and guides that help me play better.

Eve Online is all about me, and my experience of it. And what I write is based upon what I experience, and how I might be able to use that to educate or entertain others in some way.

I have no time or interest to log onto the test server, so whatever is there is outside of my personal experience. I'm perfectly happy to enjoy the experience when it comes to Tranquility, but until then, I'll enjoy whatever the experience is at the moment.

So this is a heads up that I won't be writing about Tech 3 or Apocrypha. Apart from this post... Oh, whatever.

I return you to your normally scheduled programming. Whatever that might be.

Snapshot of Eve - 8 February 2009

2009-02-08T21:44:00.004+11:00

Welcome to the latest snapshot of the major topics that people are discussing within the Eve Online forums. To see other snapshots, click on the 'snapshot' tag in the Tag Cloud. The rules of the snapshot are here

Due to the controversy this week related to Band of Brothers, I decided to add the category CORPORATION, ALLIANCE AND ORGANISATION DISCUSSIONS. I'd like to know if you all think that this category should be a regular addition, so please tell me in the comments below.

WARFARE & TACTICS

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

EVE GENERAL DISCUSSION

CORPORATION, ALLIANCE AND ORGANISATION DISCUSSIONS

FEATURES & IDEAS DISCUSSION

This is one of the nicest things...

2009-02-06T17:19:00.001+11:00

...anyone has ever said about me!

In my time as an Eve blogger I have had the great pleasure to meet some truly nice individuals. Most of them, but not all, are linked over on the right of this blog. One of those stands out a little from the rest with his (I think she is a him in RL!?) constant friendly promotion of others work whilst never attempting to draw the attention back to there own work. I speak of Alexia Morgan and the blog Punishment.

Thanks Biomassed, you're awesome. :D

The Eve Bloggers portal

2009-02-06T09:55:00.008+11:00

I had an idea to develop an 'entry point' (a portal) into the Eve Blogger's community. The idea started less than a week ago, and gnawed at me... I engaged in discussion with someone who I discovered had already come up with the idea themselves, but didn't have the time to build it. Feedback was good however, so I was encouraged to continue. I bought the domain and hinted at my plans in Twitter. I talked to some others who loved what I planned. I researched and discovered and developed and talked and developed some more and implemented and then...

The site went live this morning!

www.evebloggers.com

I'm really excited with what I've done, and how it looks. It's exactly as I imagined it to be, and that makes me happy. :)

Please note that this is day 1. As the days, weeks, months and hopefully years go by, it's going to change and evolve.

I hope it gets a lot of attention, and I hope everyone can give me some feedback on what they think should be on there. Please send all your suggestions and thoughts to evebloggers@gmail.com so that I can consider them, and use them to help develop this site.

This is a site for the community of Eve Bloggers and Eve players, to help spread information amongst everyone that's playing Eve Online. It requires your support to help it grow, so please provide feedback (you can do so in the comments to this post if you want, or by email), and please, please, please promote it on your own blogs.

Thank you!

PS. Thank you to those who I spoke to about this over the past week. Your feedback and support was invaluable: Smakalicious, LurbyJo, and Ulfskein Gangr. Thanks guys!

R.I.P. Band of Brothers

2009-02-05T16:25:00.003+11:00

Band of Brothers (BoB), one of the most significant alliances within New Eden, has fallen to the nefarious machinations of their enemy, Goonswarm.

Details are sketchy at this stage, but it looks like a member of Goonswarm infiltrated BoB and was able to become a trusted and valued member of BoB's senior command. Today, they caused the disbanding of the BoB alliance and took 500 million ISK for themselves from the wallet.

Everyone's talking about this, but no one REALLY knows what occurred. More details will be provided here when I find out.

UPDATE: I've been too busy to follow this event and update this post accordingly, so instead I'll just link you to an excellent outline of it for you to read (if you haven't already!):

Massively: Further developments in EVE's 'Grand Theft Alliance' drama

Blogger Profiles #19 - L’einad Imperia

2009-02-05T12:00:00.001+11:00

Welcome to yet another profile of an Eve Blogger! Please check out the list of Eve Bloggers so you can enjoy getting to know a few of the others as well.

New Eden Diaries is a brand new blog with only 2 posts so far, but I'm expecting big things out of them! The look of their site is very cool, and since they've put so much effort into it, that's why I'm expecting a lot of effort in their posts. This is a blog to keep an eye on. :)

What is your character's name or handle?

My main character is L’einad Imperia, but I also currently have 3 other ‘semi-mains’ all on different accounts. They are Amenia K’halli, Jaidar Ysari, and Garzi Junan’nk.

Though most people I associate with in game call my Cyber...since that was the prefix for most of my characters before I had my latest revelation of starting all over from scratch.

What is your blog's URL?

http://www.newedendiaries.com

How long have you been blogging?

The blog mentioned in the question about is my newest blog and was started 21 January 2009. I have been in the [non-Eve] blogging community off and on for about 4 years now, but The New Eden Diaries is currently my only active blog.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

It’s changed a few times since I’ve been playing, but for now (and the foreseeable future) I am located in Heimatar/Metropolis.

When did you start playing EVE?

November 2007, though I have taken a few little breaks since then.

What do you enjoy about EVE?

The depth of the game overall. EVE is huge…and I like big stuff. Being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want is an awesome feature to have in an MMO…and EVE provides that. I also enjoy the fact that the economy of EVE is so realistic…finance and building/crafts are some of my favorite things to do out of game, so it makes sense that in game I find joy in the same type of things.

What is your playstyle?

I’m really all over the place. I started the game wanting to fight, then I started mining, then producing, and eventually missioning. Right now I’ve got 4 characters that I’m training to do a multitude of things. But overall I would say I’m more of a carebear with an urge to start killing people one of these days…

Do you play any other games?

From time to time I do. I have a Wii and a 360, which I get on to play sometimes when I just feel like doing some loner stuff…or possibly to get online with my brother and kick it with some Fable 2 or Two Worlds. I also play Lord of the Rings Online sometimes…it’s a family game for me, as I got my wife, 2 brothers, mother, father, and one cousin all hooked to it so I could game for hours on end without feeling guilty anymore…and surprisingly it worked!

I also play board games from time to time (a wife and 2 young daughters…), it’s always fun to sit down from time to time and just have a family fun night.

What do you blog about, and why?

At the moment I blog about my experiences in EVE…because I realized lately that I really love to write…and I figured I’d do it about something I’ve been doing a lot of latey…EVE. In the past I’ve blogged about everything from finances or live experiences, to just completely random things that popped into my headed.

What are your other interests?

I love to read…though I don’t get nearly enough time these days to do as much as I’d like. I am also a graphics designer in my spare time, as well as dabbling a bit in website creation.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

I recently had this problem (in fact, my new blog, and in fact this bio; is a result of it. I had been playing EVE for a while just to play the game and earn isk…instead of playing it to have fun. My advice would be that if you aren’t having fun…change what you are doing. Don’t be scared to trying something new, or of losing your isk…it’s a game, and it’s easy to make it back. Make yourself a list of goals (not just skill goals…) and work to achieve them…not by the quickest route…but by the most enjoyable one.

Sometimes it’s fun to jump in a quick frigate (with no implants in your head…jump clone anyone?) and head out into 0.0 just to see how far you can get one day…

Anything else to offer?

Not much really, just to mention that I love to chat, so if anyone ever has anything to say about my blog, or articles in it…feel free to comment, or contact me in-game. I also love to help out where I can. Plus, of course I’ll need to give a shout-out to the folks over at Syrkos Technologies…my corporation that I’ve been with for quite some time now…built for the loner that’s looking for friends.

Sex in Eve Online

2009-02-05T10:22:00.002+11:00

Is there any?

I know there is in other games, where people can identify themselves with their avatars, and can remove clothes, dance, and engage in suggestive poses which have occasionally led to in-game 'sexual activities'.

I'm expecting similar things when CCP brings out 'ambulation', and we can all roam the corridors of stations in our underwear, or hang out in rooms and dance naked for the sweaty masses...

Hey, some people get a kick out that kind of thing...

But I'm interested in finding out if anyone's had 'cybersex' in Eve Online, where you might have engaged in hot and steamy chat with anyone else in the game.

Please leave your stories or thoughts or comments - and yes, you can select 'anonymous' if you prefer. :)

The Punishers' new corp HQ

2009-02-04T20:26:00.004+11:00

I realised tonight that I didn't have a corp office or HQ. How embarrassing! So I went to all the stations in Gelfiven (Molden Heath) that had medical facilities. Not a single one of them had any office space available!

So I went to Teonosude, and tried to do the same thing. There was one available, but the landlord wanted 10 MILLION ISK per month.

'Screw you, buddy!' I told him, walking away in disgust. He only shrugged, and went back to his sloppy meat pie. Unfortunately, there would be someone coming along soon, stupid enough to pay that kind of money. Not me though.

So I went back to Gelfiven and went to some of the stations that didn't have a medical facility. I found some office space, and for a good price of only 10,000 ISK per month. Much more reasonable.

So I now have a new office, and established a HQ there. I'll set up the corp hangars later tomorrow, it's not like I need them just now.

But if anyone wants to join The Punishers, at least now they have somewhere to join and to operate from. They'll just have to use one of the other stations in the system as a place to store their clones...

The Punishers HQ: Gelfiven V - Joint Harvesting Food Packaging