Tag: EVE

Reactivate? Sure, Why Not. #EveOnline #Tweetfleet

When I got the email about being able to reactivate my (two) EVE accounts for five days, and then being able to purchase a 60 day sub for $19 – I tried to hold off, I really did. It’s pretty common knowledge that EVE is the one non-fantasy MMO that I enjoy an enormous amount, and the only space orientated MMO that I’ve managed to stick with for whatever reason. I closed my account not too long ago, deciding that I simply wasn’t investing enough time into the actual game. I still don’t have a large amount of time but I have been managing things slightly better, and the appeal of flying my Orcca around once again was too strong to resist. So I activated for the five free days before they expired, and then I subscribed for the next two months.

It felt good to be back. Really good. The first thing I did was take a look at my PI stations (planetary interaction) and curse myself for not having switched over to the latest method. One of my stations used the new extractors, but the other four did not. I spent some time dismantling old extractors and then placing new ones and routing my supplies to their proper locations as well as checking my storage facilities to ensure nothing was over flowing in my absence. Then I headed to my two R&D (research and development) agents, picked up their much neglected missions, and purchased all of the data cores that I had earned RP for (there were a lot) in by absence. When I had left I had a fairly steady production of Hammerhead II’s going on, but I’m a bit short in supplies at the moment so I plan on restocking and then getting back into production. Crafting in EVE is one of the highlights of the game for me personally, and besides that and working on factions it’s probably how I spend most of my time.

As far as my skill queue goes, I don’t quite remember what I was working on. I’m flying an Orcca which I adore, but I believe I was training this account to better outfit my Dominix which is a fantastic little ship for doing missions. I had a dominix plan saved in EVEMon so I picked up with that. I can already fly the dominix so I’m pretty sure the plan I’ve got currently is just to increase my skills and to fit it properly. I should have an easier time with missions (hopefully) since I’ve been spending most of my time working on mining.

The temptation to start up my second account is very strong, since then I could use my Orcca to haul around ore that the 2nd account is mining. For now I’m going to resist temptation though. One account really should be plenty. Should be.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

EVE Characters get Remodled

Of course the big news yesterday (I’m cheating and posting this for the 18th even though it’s the 19th now, I’ve been very sick all week) was Incursion going live and with it one major feature that I was interested in – the character creator. I didn’t mind the previous one because we never really SEE our characters per say, but I really had a lot of fun re-creating Ellithia. Since I have some what of a back story for her I already knew in my mind what I wanted her to look like, and the customization available was fantastic. It reminded me a lot of working on 3D rendering in DAZ or Poser. There wasn’t the largest (or nicest for that matter) selection of hair or clothing options, but certainly a lot more customization than was previously available.

The character creator is just one of many things that were implemented though. Another huge change came to the Planetary Interaction system which I was incredibly happy about (taken from patch notes):

  • Players can now upgrade command centers from basic all the way up to elite without replacing their colonies.
  • Only basic command centers will be seeded on the market now; larger centers will now be purchased as upgrades via the upgrade window.
  • Extractor control units (ECUs) have been introduced on all planets. The ECUs can be built from the build menu, replacing extractors.
  • Extraction is now done by extractor heads that are installable via the ECUs.
  • ECUs also allow installation of extraction programs. Players can now create extraction programs that run up to 14 days. These automated extraction programs will harvest resources based on the settings in program creation.
  • Prior to installing an extraction program, placed extractor heads can be moved by clicking the button at the center of the extraction head. Extraction heads can be moved via drag and drop to resource hot-spots for a greater extraction amount.
  • You can set the area that your extractor heads will extract from, which will affect the length of the extraction program and amount of extraction.
  • Overlapping extractor heads from different ECU’s will cause a reduction in extraction amount from each extractor head.
  • Pinned UI windows are now affected by the global window transparency settings.
  • The new ECU window will display a colored graph to indicate the deposit of each cycle.
  • The output per cycle of ECUs diminishes over time. The output is, however, variable in a way that even though it generally decreases, local “hotspots” can still occur.
  • Sounds have now been added to cover changing resource intensity and interference from other extractor heads.
  • Routing materials is now more intelligent. Processors are prioritized based on how close their hopper is to being filled. Storage pins are routed in equal amounts.

Having extractors replaced into these new control units is great. It is much easier for a new person to figure out how the PI system works, and it was easier for me to place what I wanted. Having the extractors work on 14 day rotations instead of my daily rotation is also a huge help as I was neglecting PI by not logging in every single day to check on them. Now I just need to make sure that my storage units don’t fill up too much before I unload them. Allowing us to upgrade centers via an upgrade window instead of having to buy every type of command center as we progress is also a really nice change. I spent most of last night (after I fiddled around with the character creator) fixing PI.

There were so many other changes there’s no way I can fit them all in this post, so I highly suggest you check out the link mentioned at the beginning and read through it all. I also found it interesting that there is a voice program implemented in EVE Gate now, beta stages so far. If any of you are checking it out, let me know what you think!

Over all, I like the changes. I can certainly see how some people may not enjoy them, especially after having their ‘old’ characters for so long, but I was pleased with the outcome of my own.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Ore! #EVEOnline #Tweetfleet

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Last night I took the Orca out after Kasul scanned down a few grav. sites and finally got to stretch her legs (so to speak. Don’t worry, I know ships don’t really have legs). The shear size of the Orca and how much she can carry was finally realized. I had been waiting for leadership V to finish – this would allow me to fit my mining foreman links, I have one for laser field enhancement (increases the range of your fleet’s mining lasers, gas harvesters, and ice harvesters) and also fit my laser optimization which reduces the duration of those mining lasers. Yum. Kasul flew his new hulk, and I boxed my 2nd account, flying my retriever. It’s not a hulk but it will work for now. After about an hour or so of mining we made 10 mill ISK in ore, and had completely filled up the Orca. Yum.

Now I have to decide what I want to work on next. Ship wise, I think I’m pretty well set. I like the dominix and the hulk, orca, and helios as my main ships. I could use better guns on the dominix, and there is a lot of processing I could pick up as well. I am training tactical shield manipulation V currently so I can finish fitting the orca, and then I’ll decide what to do next. My 2nd account is working her way towards a hulk, so I can pass the one that I’m currently using on my main account. I’ve spent so much time crafting and working on PI as well as invention / manufacturing lately that I haven’t gotten around to doing any missions lately and my guns are going to get rusty at this rate.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Finally Flying #EVEOnline

I’ve been wanting to fly an Orca for a very long time now. This came with two hurdles to cross, number one I had to be able to train and afford the skills to fly it. Number two I had to be able to purchase one of these massive ships which sell for roughly 450,000,000 ISK give or take. It wasn’t really worth while for me to try to invent and build one myself, so I decided to go the “saving up” rout. Thanks to some help from Ethomas in corp, I was able to afford one yesterday – AND fly one.

This ship is amazing. I have to admit, she is now my ultimate favorite. First of all the ship comes with a lot of fleet bonuses. Mining bonuses. Good thing I started up that 2nd account again eh? Now I can box my mining runs. The room that this ship has is astounding, and the bonuses to cargo just make it even better. It comes with 31,000m3 of room in the default cargo hold, which I brought to 40,000m3 by adding one cargo expander. There is also an ore hangar, which carries 50,000m3 of ore. A corp hangar can be found on the ship with another 40,000m3 area. There’s also a maintenance bay with 400,000m3. That’s right, need a place to dock? We can do that.

I haven’t done much but hang around HQ asteroid belts so far with my little retriever working hard not too far away, but I am planning on scanning down some sites later today with the helios and getting more use out of her. Ethomas is also working his way towards a hulk so we’ll have a few more taking advantage of her fleet bonuses.

I named her Asteria, after an amazon. The name means “in the sky” which I thought was quite fitting. I’m actually planning a few roleplay posts centered around obtaining this ship so look for those in the future. For the people who follow me on twitter and who have heard nothing over the last two days except me go on and on about this ship – I apologize, hehe. It’s just one of those grand moments in MMO gaming that we all wait excitedly for. Where we accomplish some major goal, take down a massive encounter, or something else on our personal agendas.

I hope everyone has a very happy (and safe) new years – happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Holiday Gaming Goodies

The holidays are finally rounding up, and with it hopefully a little more time to write here on MmoQuests as well as NomadicGamer. I’ve settled into a semi routine with my gaming and I’m happy for that. What am I up to at the end of 2010? Nothing all that exciting, but I’ll list it in any case.

Rift – Today the 3rd Rift beta starts and runs until the 31st of December. Chances are if I were participating in it a lot of my time will be spent there.

EVE Online – I’m also three days away from flying an Orca – my dream hauler. I can’t afford one quite yet but I know that will come with time. I can’t wait to fly one of these. Ever since I got my hulk and saw my friend David flying on I’ve wanted to be able to fly myself.

WoW – I haven’t been playing in the Cataclysm zones (80+) all that much. Both my priest and my warlock are at a comfortable 82 and I’ve been working on their crafting skills as well as playing lower level alts on the opposite faction. I have been having a great time with the new quests in “vanilla” WoW. I just finished Redridge mountains on my paladin and I thought it was really well done, gained a few levels even though the quests were gray and worked up my enchanting skill. I’ve been enjoying the slow walk towards 85 and I mean it’s more like a crawl than a walk. I’ll get there eventually. I’ve unlocked and completed two dungeons (Throne of Tides and the one in Blackrock) which were quite fun. Healing PUGs is always stressful but I’ve enjoyed the challenge.

Sims 3 – This game continues to hold my attention in a big way. I wish there were less bugs would be one of my major complaints. It feels like EA just likes to push expansion packs out the door and rarely fixes any of the issues that they come up with, so it’s all about me dealing with bugs from a few expansions and packs that they’ve sold. I really enjoy and appreciate the amount of options we’re given in game, and though at times it feels a little “too real” for a video game there is enough humor to keep me trucking along finding out what happens next.

Neverwinter Nights 2 – This game was on sale at Steam for $10 including two expansion packs. I own NWN but haven’t played in ages, and while I have heard there was a lot of bugs at launch for NWN2 I decided why not, and picked it up. Still a few hours left to go on the patcher, but it should be a few hours of fun none the less.

As pictured above I also got a brand new Logitech G700 gaming mouse for Christmas, and so far I’m really liking it. The fit of the mouse is perfect to my hands, and unlike my previous razor, I can very easily hit the buttons and what’s more important to me – feel the buttons while I game. I found with the razor it was impossible for me to hit the buttons because they didn’t exactly stand out to me. I don’t want to fumble along the mouse or have to look down in order to hit them. Fully programmable with different profiles, I’ve already set one up for WoW. My attempts at learning WASD are going alright. I’ve completely unbound the arrow keys as movement keys in all of my games so that is at least forcing me to use them. I own a Steelseries merc keyboard which has a special gaming pad section on the far left that emulates the WASD keys as well as a few others. It’s not something I’m used to quite yet, but my right wrist is MUCH happier with the new set up.

How about all of my wonderful readers, get anything new and shiny for Christmas? Any new games on your horizon? Let me know in comments!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.