Profit and Loss

I've just finished a particularly troublesome security mission in EVE Online that involved taking out waves of enemy ships. They were mainly destroyer class with frigates supporting, and about six cruisers. Nothing too taxing, although some of the frigate class ships, Coreli Guardian Safeguards I think they are called, were really quite hardy and took a lot of killing. By the time I was done my full compliment of drones, (a haphazard mix of Hobgoblin I, Warrior I and Hammerhead I drones), had all been destroyed and I'd chewed through over a thousand rounds of ammo. I did make almost a million ISK in bounties alone though, so coupled with the mission rewards it was fairly lucrative.

The encounter deadspace just so happened to contain a load of asteroids, including the elusive Pyroxeres which is one of the only sources of Nocxium in High-Sec space. So once I'd dealt with all the hostile NPC's, I bookmarked the site and nipped back to the station to pick up my Mackinaw in order to get back out there to hoover up some of that good stuff. Shortly after I arrived a couple of belt rats showed up so I launched my shiny new Hobgoblin II drones to deal with them. I only finished training the skill to be able to use them yesterday and this was their maiden flight, needless to say I was excited to see how they would perform compared to their tech 1 counterparts. I wasn't disappointed! They tore off at break neck speed and obliterated the first ship in one volley, the second followed swiftly after. Just as they were making their way back to the ship my first mining laser reached the end of its cycle and as it started it's second cycle there was a loud explosion and I noticed my ships shields take some damage. Before I could figure out what was happening my second laser finished it's cycle and there was another loud explosion, followed this time by five smaller ones as my shiny new drones simultaneously exploded. Two million ISK they cost me not an hour ago and now they were gone. Why were they gone?! Turns out deadspace asteroids can be booby-trapped with smart bombs and nobody told me. That's what I get for flying solo I guess. Still, I snagged about 5.5 mill's worth of ore before the server shut down for maintenance, so despite my costly loss I'm still up over all.

A Quick Round Up

It's been a quiet week for me game wise, hence not much updating going on here. Saturday night saw my usual static group in ESO which was good fun, as always. More questing with my little static group, including ticking off a few more dungeons and slaying a few named beasties out in the wild. We finished up at level 14 by the end of the evening which means not far to go now until unlocking the alternate load-out granted at level 15! That'll make a nice difference to me, being able to spec for ranged or melee combat at the flick of a switch. I'm considering using the second set of powers to augment my healing abilities by slotting a Restoration Staff and some of it's attendant powers, and moving the healing powers currently in my main skill bar over there and replacing them with more melee damage abilities. That would mean that my secondary skill set is incredibly Magicka dependant though, and I think I'd have trouble with running out of juice all the time. So my other option is to keep my main skill bar as it is, (which I'm finding very versatile and useful at the moment anyway), and augmenting that with a secondary skill set made up of bow skills which will keep a similar balance of Magicka and Stamina use that I'm already used to and my character build is set up to handle. I'll have to have a chat with the rest of the group before I decide I think, get some advice as they are both a lot more experienced with the game than I am. Saying that though, I have spent a little solo time in there this week. I spent a fun hour or two running around with my Nord Dragon Knight smashing things over the head with a two-handed hammer the other morning, and then last night I rolled up a new Sorcerer and got her to level 6. I'm finding jute much harder to come buy than iron ever was in those areas. I've managed to keep both my Templar and Dragon Knight in full suits of level appropriate armour all the way up so far, but my level 6 Sorcerer is currently stuck in 2 pieces of level 1 gear appropriate for her class and a few odds and sods I've looted on my travels! I think next time I go in with that character I'll ignore the quests for a bit and concentrate on some resource gathering. It's a fun class to play though. So far I've played three of the four class types available and each is a lot of fun in its own way. Zenimax has done a good job in that regard, the combat feels quite meaty and fun no matter what type of role you choose to play.

There's been no PlanetSide 2 to speak of yet this week, despite a big patch that has brought quite a few changes to the medic profession, including a nice new gun that seems pretty good and has seen the introduction of implants as a way of tweaking your soldiers abilities. This is the second time the implants have been introduced, they were taken out almost immediately first time around after a massive outcry from the player-base after it was felt they were massively overpowered. I haven't heard any crying about them yet this time around, so maybe they've had a more thoughtful implementation now. My outfit is looking to have a bit of a get together in there on Friday night, so i'm looking forward to that.

As the last post makes clear there was a little War Thunder as well, which I haven't had much time to play since so I won't go over that again here, which just leaves an hour or two in EVE to round out my list. Very little done in there to be honest. I'm currently umm-ing and ahh-ing over weather to buy a Battle Cruiser or just keep saving up and training until I can properly fit a Battleship. I can probably pull off a Battle Cruiser now, but as my current standings mean I can't do Agent 3 missions yet, I'm not sure if there's much point. I would like to get a Brutix at some point though, because I love how they look, even if the Myrmidon is probably the smarter choice.

The Sisters of EVE

Just a quickie this morning because I've got last nights Game of Thrones to catch up on before bed, but I did want to just quickly mention that four and a half years after starting it, I finally finished the Sisters of EVE epic mission arc "The Blood Stained Stars" in EVE Online!

That's quite a trek

In my first encounter with EVE Online back in September of 2009 I did what all good newbies do and followed the initial set of missions that are offered up to you. They do a reasonable job at introducing you to some of the things you can do to while away the hours in the game, but to be honest they barely scratch the surface. Probably the most useful set of missions for the new player is The Blood Stained Stars mission arc offered up by The Sisters of EVE corporation. Some forty nine missions spanning seven chapters will take you from your first combat frigate up through your first destroyer and into, (as long as you save up the mission rewards in order to buy and fit the damn thing), your first cruiser class ship, which you'll probably need for the last mission. I don't really remember much about the early chapters, but I think you get a few implants and skill books as rewards, possibly even a ship or two? I really don't remember. What I do remember is that somewhere along the line I ended up with a mission that required me to leave Gallente space and head over to Hek, the main trading hub in Minmatar space. This was a trek of 10 or so jumps and when I got there one of the first few missions was something like a further 23 jumps. I could have got it down to about 18 by going through low-sec space, but as a newbie that was too scary and really not worth the risk for such a small saving. It was at that point I gave up and headed back to my home station to start a life as a small time industrialist and regular mission runner.

I've burned out, gone away and come back to EVE two or three times in the intervening years and each time I come back I see that mission listed as "offered" in my mission log and think, "One day", but until this weekend I've never thought to actually try and finish it. So I loaded up in my Thorax and went for a long, long ride. It took two fairly long play sessions to actually finish the whole arc, and at this stage in my career the one million ISK reward for completing the final mission was pretty anti-climactic. I can make that in about 3 minutes mining Blue Ice, so it was a dreadfully unproductive couple of days as far as wealth accumulation is concerned. It did give me a good sense of completion though, having finally got through it all. I just wish I'd stuck at it back at the start when a million ISK in one payout would have been a big deal! I also wish I hadn't left some loot all the way over in Lisudeh, some 19 jumps away from were I currently am!

I love the smell of Veldspar in the morning

Pew-Pew lAz0rs!!!11!

Working the night shift can make finding time for gaming difficult. My post work relaxation time, or evening as normal people would call it, is usually a couple of hours either side of eight o'clock in the morning. That means that all of my gaming friends are in bed or in work, neither of which is ideal for grouping up in an MMO. As such I have to make an effort to get online for an hour or two in the evenings, before I go to work, to catch up with my outfit mates in PlanetSide 2. But what about that post work period? I don't really want to come in after a hard shift and go straight to bed! I need to relax a little first.

It's in these early morning hours that I tend to get most of my single-player gaming done. Typically, this has been on a console, but in recent months it's seen me more and more turning to solo play in an MMO. For a while I was spending my time sauntering around Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings Online, but since returning to EVE, I've not spent a single second staring at the arse-end of a Bree Pony. The way I play EVE means it is fantastically suited to my early morning needs. The semi-AFK nature of asteroid mining in EVE means that I can catch up on the nights Twitters, check my clan's forums or even watch some telly on the second monitor while I'm doing it, but also keep an eye on what's going on in case some belt rats or gankers decide to show up. As I'm typing this, EVE is on the main monitor and my Mackinaw is sat in space, strip mining the hell out of some Rich Plagioclase asteroids. When the ore hold is full I'll scoot off back to the station where I'm based and refine it into the Pyerite I so desperately need to feed my production line. But while that is going on it gives me time to make blog entries! The main reason this blog is so patchy update-wise is that generally I'd much rather be playing games than writing about them, and if I've got the time to write then that is time I should be spending playing! Only with EVE, I can do both at the same time and as such I'm hoping that for a little while at least, I can keep to some sort of regular update schedule.

Now I just need some topics to write about I suppose...

Return to New Eden

My Miasmos ore hauler leaving a station

Where was I?... Oh yes, video games! Jon over at How to Murder Time has recently re-posted all of the old Van Hemlock podcasts and I've been slowly working my way through them. The early ones are quite heavily EVE based, and being of a highly suggestible nature I am of course now playing EVE again.

Eve Online is a strange beast. It can be utterly impenetrable to the newbie, yet has the scope and scale to allow it's player driven content to make its way onto international mainstream news. Massive battles with hundreds of thousands of real-world dollars worth of ships being destroyed; intrigue and espionage allowing a single player to destroy a massive player alliance from within. EVE is the epitome of multiplayer. The vast bulk of its content is derived from players interactions with each other and yet here I am, soloing it and soloing it hard. I've only been back a few weeks but I've easily put in 100 hours in that time and all of it has been solo.

My Thorax, bristling with rail-guns

I'm kind of intrigued by the prospect of joining up with a big corp or alliance and heading off into the wilds of 0.0 security space, but it feels to me like I'd need to make a commitment to the game I just don't think I want. I think the added pressure of that would make me burn out on the game altogether more quickly than I would do otherwise. So here I am, treating one of the most hardcore PvP MMO's as a kind of relaxation aid. I load up into my Mackinaw mining ship, head out to a nice quiet asteroid belt in high sec and start mining some big juicy space rocks. Since getting a nice new 27" monitor my old 20" Samsung has been given a new lease of life as a second monitor. Most EVE players in this situation would have a second account running to provide assistance to their main account, a hauler maybe, so the mining vessel never need leave the asteroid belts. However, as is fairly obvious, I'm not most EVE players. I'm using my second monitor to browse the web, read and write blogs, catch up on missed TV or power watch a series of something on Netflix. EVE is my perfect companion to a few hours of idle surfing, happy to get on with something by itself and only requiring occasional input from me. And all the while the ISK, (in game currency), keeps trickling in, be it from the sale of unrefined Blue Ice or from my little Catalyst, (a Destroyer class spaceship), production line that most of my asteroid grazing goes towards supplying. If I fancy a change of pace I can hop in my Rifter or my Thorax and run a few Agent combat missions, pew-pewing against AI controlled drones and pirates. I'm in the process of training up to be able to fly and kit out a Battleship in order to do some higher level agent missions and really start making some money off them, but for now they are a fun way of mixing up my more sedate industrial activity.

I'm 100% sure that if any real EVE player was to read this they'd sadly shake their head before calling me a n00b and telling me I'm playing the game about as wrong as it is possible to play it. I'm well aware of that, but you know what? I'm really enjoying it the way I'm doing it for now, so sod off!