Tag: EVE

It feels really good to be back in EVE, and even better to be spending most of my time ‘crafting’. While the majority of people I know spend their time blowing up other ships (be they NPC or players) I spend a lot of mine crafting or preparing to craft. You may hear about how boring mining is, but I find it incredibly relaxing. It’s something I can do while doing other things (especially since I mine in high sec without using cans). I’m working on affording an ice mining ship, technically my hulk could ice mine, but it doesn’t have the bonuses that the new ship would have. It’s about 140 mill ISK to save up for one, so I won’t be getting it any time soon.

I’m thinking of starting up an alt on my main account, simply to be able to produce more in PI. It takes about a week to train the skills I would need and PI products are selling quite well. I have never really required another character on my account because you can only have one character training at a time and you can quite literally ‘do it all’ on one character. It just takes a lot of time.

My new corp and I didn’t work out so I moved back to the smaller one I’ve been a part of for the last year or so. I should have known better, it’s rare that I play well with others (there’s a reason I run my own guild in WoW and EQ2 after all). Long story short, I thought I was joining a friendly casual guild but when I joined and lost my hulk in their sector I received some not-too-kind emails stating that I was making their killboard look bad and even implying that our own members may shoot me down just to prevent this from happening in the future. I understand that everyone has their method of playing the game but as a member who had been there less then a day (and personally, I don’t give a hoot about killboards) I found this discouraging. I never pretended to be anything other then a carebear gamer (in EVE at least) who spends most of her time mining, inventing, and doing PI, whether or not I lose a ship shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It is EVE after all. It happens.

Anyhow. I can continue to spend my time in game doing what I do, which is supplying other players with POS bits, selling ships, drones and other crafted items. All from the comfort of the small but friendly corp that I started out in. I’m just not a blood thirsty player, and I don’t pretend to be.

Kasul managed to probe a nice mining site this morning which was a lot of fun. I’m still trying to get the hang of probing, even in my Helios I have some issues finding good sites. It takes a lot of practice. Thankfully he has no issues with probing for sites for me and I split the profit of anything I mine. He has a little hulk he takes out when he has the time, and I go to the site in the Orca as well as the Retriever (which will eventually be a hulk on my second account. In 18 days or so). The Orca takes care of any rats that wander into the system and it’s a nice hour or two of relaxation in the mornings.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I have been dealing with real life (it crops up from time to time) so I haven’t been posting as often as I’d like. Hopefully things will quiet down after next Friday and I should be back to my daily blogging schedule. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

 

There’s been a lot of talk floating around lately about CCP and their recent layoffs, 20% of their staff were let go. My heart goes out to those people involved as it certainly could not have been an easy decision. Going forward CCP has vowed to concentrate on those things that they should be concentrating on, and not spreading themselves so thin. This has brought about a lot of snark from the usual suspects, but I’m ever the optimist and will just have to wait and see how things go.

Today I decided to activate my second account again after having only been back for one day. My second account acts as a hauler account typically, but before I stopped playing last time I had set it to learning to fly a hulk. My main account owns and flies an Orca,which can get pretty dull when you’re not filling it up with ore. Ideally I would probe for grav sites and head out in the Hulk, leaving the Orca close by so that I can ship the ore some place else afterward but that’s a whole lot of work. I’d rather take advantage of the fleet bonuses and use both the Orca and the Hulk at the same time. It will be 20 days before that’s set to go so in the mean time I’ve been harvesting in my retriever which isn’t nearly as fun but it gets the job done.

In the mean time I’m working on my standing with both CreoDron and Astral Mining Inc. CreoDron is the corporation that my R&D agents are associated with, having more standing with them means I can work with better agents. Astral Mining Inc is the corporation I want to earn LP with so that I can purchase some pretty things in the future. I’m working with L4 agents for CreoDron and L1 (for now) with Astral, hopefully I’ll get them both higher before too long. I enjoy mission running, it’s quite calming (where I run them at least) and lets me take in some pretty sights.

I’m also still working on PI daily, as well as my invention and production. I’m waiting for a copy job to go through (13 days) and wondering what I want to build next. I’m quite happy with my selection of ships at this point in time but I could do some work on fitting them all properly. Most of my ships are a mish mash of bits and pieces that I’ve pieced together, a combination of items available by skill and by availability. I also spent some time switching ships back and forth between my accounts, so getting everyone their own ships is high on my list of priorities.

It feels really good to be playing again. I didn’t even realize how much I missed flying the skies until I was back. Sure, there are some less than savory folks out there (50 million ISK in order not to get podded? I think not) but it adds to the atmosphere of the game.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

o/

 

Once more I have been pulled into Tranqility by the lure of – well, nothing in specific, in fact it’s something I can’t quite put my finger on. I received an email from CCP stating that I could log back into EVE for only $4.99 for my first month  back, and the price was just too good for me to resist. Before I knew it my finger was on the activate button and I found myself in game trying to remember what I was doing before my break. Playing EVE is like riding a bicycle, you take a few minutes wobbling around and then it all comes flooding back. I had docked at the headquarters of Genovian Holdings Inc. (my current tiny inactive corp) and the first thing I noticed was that our HQ was gone, items missing, and corp wallet empty. It took me a few minutes to figure out what had happened, and by then I had already frantically tweeted to Petter (CEO) wondering if we had some how been stolen from. Turns out being inactive is bad. We couldn’t pay the rent due for our HQ and thus we lost our hangars. I’m not sure if everything in them transferred to me, but 600 of those items did and I found them in my inventory.

I wouldn’t mind being in a more active corp, but I’m nice and cozy in my high sec space, aside from some wurmhole exploration I tend to stay that way. My ‘gaming’ involves a lot of invention and manufacturing with some mining runs thrown in there for good measure. I have never been one for a lot of killing, although I am working on fitting my dominix for some ‘pew pew’.

I updated EVEMon and saw there have been some changes, both to the program itself (which I use for skill tracking) and the API from CCP. I can now track and view multiple things involving my character like research and standings. Right now I’m working on propulsion jamming IV, and then it’s time to work on energy systems operation. I currently have 24 skills at level V with 13 million SP spent. Not that much compared to some players, but a comfortable amount for me.

I haven’t checked on my PI yet, but that will be next on the list as I ease myself back into things. I was manufacturing items for drones and then selling those drones in Jita on a weekly basis to fund my wallet and I’d like to get back into the habit of doing that (along with some invention). I was also working with an agent or two on some missions, but I have no idea what faction I happened to be working on (or why I was working on it) so that’s on my ‘to do’ list. All in all, it feels great to be back. I think it’s the sandbox flavor of the game that keeps pulling me in. As any long time reader of this site knows, I am really not a fan of any science fiction what so ever. It typically puts me to sleep. EVE, somehow, has managed to beat those odds.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

 

 

There’s an interesting Devblog post up on EVE that states that CCP is going to charge people $99 a year for the use of applications or services which uses the EVE online Intellectual Property (such as the screen shot I have above) – if you’re making money (or attempting to make money) from where those intellectual property things are. Let me explain better – see that donate icon I have on the right hand side of my site? Yep. That counts. Even though I have never ever gotten a donation from having it there. Notice how I also have google ads on nomadicgamer.com because they are there by default with wordpress? That counts. Even though I don’t see a lick of anything that gets made from google ads.

Needless to say I have a few thoughts about this. Number one, if EVE thinks they can do a better job at promoting their game then the small bloggers and MMO sites out there – then kudos to them. I think they’ve forgotten that a lot of these people who are running ads on sites are their fan base, and word of mouth is a powerful thing. I can understand why they may be thinking this is the best plan of action with things like iOS and android apps that are hitting the market requiring payments – but EVE has allowed players to access their character information without cost from 3rd party apps (EVEmon?) for years now, and if those 3rd party apps are accepting donations I don’t see what the big deal is – and I certainly don’t feel that they should be charged $99 a year to keep those apps running to the public. Here is the part of the post that irked me the most:

• Will corporation and alliance websites require a commercial license?
• No, private websites do not need a license. However, if you have an external facing part of the website that uses the EVE IP you will require a non-commercial or a commercial license, depending on your use.
• Will services for in-game currency require a commercial license?
• Yes, if you require any sort of payment for your services you will need a commercial license.
• Will website ads require a commercial license?
• Yes, for ad-supported websites you will require a commercial license.
• Will donations require a commercial license?
• Yes, for donation supported websites you will require a commercial license.
• Will I be able to charge real life currency for in game services?
• No, the commercial license does not allow you to charge real life money for any in-game services.

I certainly will NOT be paying $99 a year to make blog posts about the game and include a screen shot here and there simple because I have a donation button. I’m going to retaliate (small time blogger that I am) by not writing about their game at all when this goes live, and they can deal with that instead. I realize I could simply remove any intellectual property of theirs I may have, but as one of the little guys, I have very few options presented to me on ways I can ‘fight back’ when I don’t agree with their decisions.

** Lets say that even though screen shots are considered intellectual property, I am not personally affected – but – you know who is? EVEMon, who I use daily, Battleclinic, who I also use daily, and numerous other 3rd party apps who accept donations of ISK or cash. This is going to hurt ALL of them. If you have an OPTIONAL donation addition to your project, and you use the API or any other intellectual property, you will be affected. There are 28 (at this moment) pages of comments from developers and fans alike, who are trying to speak out against this. **

What are your thoughts about this new ‘service’ being implemented? Be sure to check out the dev blog write up for all the details. They HAVE mentioned that due to comments they will certainly reconsider some things if required, so be sure to make your voice heard.

 

Ah, Jita. 15 jumps away from headquarters, and well out of the way of my regular travel paths. I head there once a week to sell goods from PI as well as my supply of manufactured bits. I’m always astounded by the number of people who are there no matter what time of day I happen to show up, and of course public channels are filled with everything from scams to sales of every shape and size. Jita is the major trade hub in EVE and represents a city just as much as any other game has. I fly all of the way out there because it’s where I typically get the best prices for my goods. I could stay in my neck of the woods and visit Dodixie but the prices there are slightly under what I get in Jita making the 30 jump round trip worth it.

I loaded my Orca up to make the trip, because it has the ability to hold the most stuff. I’ve taken my Dominix out for a spin or two but nothing heavy until I can get it fit properly (and yes, pkudude99 the dominix is a very small ship compared to – well, compared to everything really, especially compared to the orca). As soon as I get a little more training done I’ll upgrade some pieces on my current fit and start working on gathering faction again. I’d like to be able to work with another R&D agent, and raise my standings with those I am already working with. Earning more RP is always a good thing.

PI seems to be moving along nicely. Coolant is selling well (it’s used in a number of things including fuel for POS) and I’ve been making a few other materials to sell. It would be nice if I were making enough ISK to purchase some PLEX to cover my subscription, but in order for that to happen I’d have to be playing EVE full time – which I’m not. In fact I don’t really play any one game ‘full time’ as it were.

I’ve got (at the time of this post) 1 day and 12 hours left on my small hybrid turret V and that will make the 23rd skill I’ve got at skill level V. I’m nearing the 15,000,000 SP mark, which is pretty neat. I’ll have to upgrade my clone soon, as my limit is 15,700,000 SP. Next after small hybrid turrets it’s time to work on small blaster specialization, which will take a little while. Then I’m moving on to heavy drone operation. The list of skills one can work on in EVE is never ending – which is something I really like. In fact I really like the whole “no levels to gain” aspect of the game, and the fact that you don’t need to be any particular level to do any ‘sphere’ within the game. Doing the tutorials is often enough to get started although it does help to have friends who can help you out with ships and supplies.

A brief little blurb about DUST which I saw some video on at E3 – I’m excited about it. No, not because I’m a big FPS fan, but because of the implications that come with having a game that interacts with EVE – I’m assuming (because I honestly don’t know many details yet besides the video that I saw) that I will be able to craft and create supplies that those people playing DUST will be able to use (ie: guns, ground vehicles, etc) and that will mean a lot of extra cash for me. I’m excited about it. I don’t know how else the two games will interact with one another, but I think it will be quite neat. I know there are a lot of people who are upset that it’s a PS3 exclusive, but CCP knows their company and their games pretty well. If it’s a PS3 exclusive, I’m betting they have their reasons for it and yes, I do own a PS3 so chances are even though I’m not exactly a FPS fan (at all) I will probably give it a try.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!