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!

Adventure Time

The lighting effects in ESO are superb

My Saturday night this week was spent gadding about in the new shiny on my list of currently played games, The Elder Scrolls Online. I've got a small static group on the go in there with my RL friends and neighbours Welshtroll and his good lady wife. We get together on one of my nights off and spend a pleasant few hours questing through Tamriel with our Aldmeri Dominion characters, helping the needy, fighting monsters, exploring dungeons and generally fulfilling our destinies as great heroes of the age.

It's a very nice game. The quests are well put together and unlike most MMOs it doesn't feel like you are traipsing from one quest-hub to the next. The quests are nicely spread out through the world and there are plenty that are just out in the wild, waiting to be stumbled upon by adventurous explorer types. Best of all I've yet to come across a typical "Kill 10 rats" type quest. It's all fully voiced and the quest objectives are nicely varied, meaning we can spend several hours just chaining quests together without getting bored.

We seem to have accidentally put together a fairly synergistic group of classes. We've got a Khajiit Dragon Knight who is quite tanky whilst still being able to deal a good amount of damage; a Wood Elf Nightblade who does lots of stealthy sneaking about and has high point damage DPS; and I'm playing an Imperial Templar with a nice mix of damage and healing. So far we are able to pretty much burn through any foes we come up against before they have time to do any serious damage to us, but for the trickier ones our individual abilities often mean the difference between succeeding and the group wiping. We've had a few deaths along the way, but way less than I would have expected by now. In keeping with the differentness of the quests in ESO, similarly the characters feel different to most other MMOs. The limited hot bar and the directional FPS style attacks make for much more involved combat than in something like LOTRO or WoW. The combat feels solid, and while individually characters can sometimes feel a little underpowered, as part of our little group I do feel like something of a badass, which is always good!

The main thing the game has going for it though is it's graphics engine and world design. It is quite simply the best looking MMO ever released. We often find ourselves stopping mid quest to take in the scenery and the level of detail in the world is simply mind-boggling. Combined with a really good score and subtle but atmospheric ambient sounds the Tamriel of Elder Scrolls Online feels like a fully realised and lived in world. I can think of far worse places to spend a Saturday night.

Farming the Farmers

An NC Sunderer

I joined up with my outfit mates in PlanetSide 2 for a couple of hours last night. We were fighting on Indar as usual and hopping around from fight to fight, winning a few, losing a few. Nothing out of the ordinary. Eventually the fight lead us, as it usually does given enough time, to The Crown. As we were getting closer to our target we could see that the Vanu Sovereignty had a fairly formidable air presence around the base, groups of Scythe fighters whizzing about the place and a couple of Liberator gunships looking for easy targets. Our merry little band, trundling along in an almost defenceless Sunderer, was one such easy target.

Usually, we would just try and run the Sunderer in as close as we dared, deploy it, and head into the base on foot, but with the amount of VS air in the area we wouldn't have got very far. So, instead of hiding our little bus in an inconspicuous corner, we first suited up with Anti-Air MAX suits and AA lock-on rocket launchers and then drove our tempting easy kill right into the open valley below the enemy aircraft. A liberator spotted us first. As it angled in for an attack run on us, our defenceless little bus suddenly sprouted seven tooled up and ready AA monsters. The Liberator's heavy guns and thick armour were no match for us and within seconds it was little more than a burning husk falling from the sky. Flush with success, we all piled back into the Sunderer and trundled off again. It wasn't long before we attracted the attention of a keen eyed Scythe pilot, eager to stick a few rockets into our lonely and defenceless Sunderer and gorge on all the lovely XP within. "Scythe incoming, lets get him!" came the cry from our driver over TeamSpeak, again, our defenceless slow moving brick suddenly became a pilots worst nightmare. This one used the speed and manoeuvrability of his craft to try to escape, but he'd taken too much damage before he realised what was happening. Just as he afterburnered away for the safety of the hills a lone lock-on missile streaked through the sky after him. Boom! Goodnight Scythe! Before we could get back in the bus a Lightning tank sprang up over a sand dune next to us, spotted our Sunderer and started firing, fortunately the Sunderer was deployed so I switched out my MAX's flack cannons for a pair of Falcon Anti-Vehicle launchers. Combined with the power of half a dozen dumb-fired AA rockets, he didn't last long. The driver bailed out, but was quickly chased down.

A VS Liberator Gunship

This went on for the next half an hour or so before I had to go to work and I have to say, it is the most fun I've had in that game for quite a while. Our group may be small, but when we can stick together and have a common cause, it's surprising how much of a difference we can make. We managed to keep the whole area clear of enemy air for a while, and even had time to fall back and scupper an assault on the base behind us. It was a really fun evening, and a reminder that despite it's flaws, PlanetSide 2 is THE best game on the market at the moment for having a laugh with a bunch of mates. I think I might even pop back in this evening for another go!