Raking in the Sleeper ISK

 eve online, Gaming, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space  Comments Off
May 202012
 
{lang: 'en-GB'}

A bookmark to an unopened wormhole awaits me today, as I cloak on the edge of our home w-space system. What else waits for me remains to be seen. As much as I'd like to jump ahead and look for targets to stalk I've spent enough time in w-space to know that circumstances can change at any moment. It may not matter for my plan to roam cloaked through the constellation, but it would be good to know if there are any new connections opened in to the system before I go on my way.

I launch probes and blanket the home system, revealing two signatures I can't account for. They're not exciting or troublesome, though, just a pair of new sites holding rocks and gas, which should mean the unopened wormhole remains that way. But not for much longer, as my scanning gives me the green light to explore. However, before I get my ship pointed towards the wormhole my glorious leader makes a reappearance. Wicked Fin tempts me to mine some rocks, which I am able to resist despite her silver tongue, but our isolated system presents us with another good opportunity to make some iskies from the indigenous population.

Our static wormhole remains unvisited and unopened. We swap covert Tengu strategic cruisers for rather more overt ones, bristling with missile launchers and ballistic control systems, and warp off to engage Sleepers in what should be relatively safe conditions. We've done this only recently, so get in to a decent groove in the first site. Even so, a well-practiced act can still go awry. Almost at the end of the first anomaly, Fin takes an unscheduled break, leaving me alone with a pair of Sleeper battleships.

I wouldn't normally worry about being alone in w-space, but in this case the modules that are repairing my Tengu's shields, and ultimately keeping me intact, are on Fin's ship. With her gone, I am relying solely on the shields' passive recharge rate to keep them healthy, which is pretty minimal. Well, I say that, but there are tricks that can mitigate damage, which can be equivalent to repairing a greater amount of damage in some situations. For a start, the first battleship is almost destroyed, so I chip away at its hull until it explodes, which drops the damage I'm taking by half. That's not really mitigating damage as much as directly removing the threat.

But by now holding a tight orbit around the remaining battleship I can reduce its gun damage to almost nothing, as it can't track me too well at this range, and its missile damage to manageable levels, as my speed is kept high. It's not long before Fin returns, warping in to rejoin me in the anomaly. What shield damage I've taken is repaired and the final battleship, taking double the number of hits now, pops to clear the first site. Onwards!

The second site holds no surprises for us, but the third moves us back in to the bloom of doom. So much blueness, it burns! And it looks to be burning Fin's shields as well, which is troublesome, her white turning to red with little my remote shield repair module can do about it. Ah, I see the problem. Our speed is low, my reheat isn't on, so we are taking full damage from this nasty second wave of Sleepers. Thanks, bloom of doom, for obscuring the activation light. I get the reheat working and—zoom—we're away.

Three anomalies are cleared, we're still alive, and d-scan remains clear. All looks good to salvage. We break out the Noctes and start sweeping loot in to our holds, although I'm not quite expecting the haul of salvage that we recovered last time. Sure enough, it doesn't look like we're getting it either, as I bring back a paltry handful of the expensive melted nanoribbons in my hold. Fin, however, hits the jackpot, and our combined loot is exactly what we salvaged from our previous outing. Safely bringing home four hundred million ISK in profit from three sites is an excellent result for the evening.

 Posted by pjharvey at 2:37 pm

Empty ships, empty space

 Bestower, eve online, Gaming, iteron, low sec, magnate, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow  Comments Off
May 192012
 
{lang: 'en-GB'}

All would look harmonious at home but for the stray signature that's ruining my zen garden of anomalies. How unpleasant, it's some gas. I activate the ladar site to start its inevitable decay, before leaving it behind me as I jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system for today. All that waits for me beyond the static wormhole is a small canister, and that only on my directional scanner. A single planet sits out of range of d-scan, one that thankfully has moons and so the possibility of hidden occupation, so I launch probes whilst out of view and warp in that direction to see if anyone lurks at the edge of the system.

There is a tower in this C3, one that I warp to directly thanks to my notes from seven months ago, but only an unpiloted Orca industrial command ship sits inside the force field. I also know from the previous visit that the system holds a static exit to low-sec empire space. What I want to know is what else there is to find today. The answer is very little! A blanket scan of the system reveals no anomalies and a mere three signatures, which is hardly worth my time resolving. I do, though, and find I am in a home away from home, with the static wormhole accompanied by a lonely ladar site. And, just like home, I'm running away from here.

Exiting to low-sec puts me in the Kor-Azor region, where no other pilots are in the system. Being in Jeni by myself may be ripe with innuendo, but it also means I can find a rat to pop to increase my security status. And as rats are generally puny I can multi-task and scan at the same time. I launch probes at the wormhole then bounce around the rock fields until I come across a rat battleship, resolving the one extra signature in the system to be a wormhole as I do. And even though some punk enters Jeni—fnarr—as I engage the battleship, he's not going to take the battleship away from me. I align out of the asteroid belt as I chew through the rat's armour, and pop the ship thankfully without being interrupted.

I clear the rocks to re-activate my cloak and warp off to take a look at the wormhole I resolved, landing near a dying K162 from null-sec k-space. It's times like these that I wish there was a way I could flush my waste systems manually in to space. There's not much more to do here. Curiosity leads me to find the pilot lingering in this low-sec system, and seeing he is in an active Iteron hauler makes me both tingle with anticipation of a soft kill and fear for my almost-recovered security status. But it seems the pilot is only bouncing between multiple towers, configuring hangars and performing other menial tasks that look fairly tedious. Best of luck to him.

Another pilot enters the low-sec system and I see a Magnate frigate on d-scan briefly. The pilot leaves again, whilst I am watching the Iteron warp between this tower and that, and although I didn't see any probes I have to admit that I wasn't really watching. In the hopes that he scanned and is now in C3a I warp back to the wormhole and return to w-space. Nothing obvious appears on d-scan, where 'obvious' would be a Magnate and probes, so it looks like it's time to collapse our static wormhole. It's just me at the moment, so I take an Orca through the connection whilst carefully watching over my sums, swapping for a Widow black ops ship to finesse the total mass passed through, and manage to kill the wormhole without isolating myself. Behold the power of maths!

Now I start again. There are still no interloping wormholes in the home system, with just the replacement static connection to find, and I am soon jumping in to the new neighbouring C3. Oh, two Iterons, a Magnate, and a Bestower hauler on d-scan all look rather lovely. There's a tower too, but even if they're all there now they may not be soon. I quickly check my notes to see if I have a short cut to the tower, but the one I have listed from eighteen months ago should be out of range of d-scan. I locate the tower the traditional way, dropping out of warp outside the force field—only just, though—to see none of the four ships piloted. That's such a shame, as they really got my hopes up when entering the system.

I calm myself down and back away from the force field, not thinking a five kilometre gap to be good for my continued health, and get ready to scan. It's a little more involved than the previous C3, with nineteen signatures scattered around four anomalies, and discarding rocks and gas from the results isolates a wormhole. A wormhole that disappears on the next scan. That's a bit harsh, dying rather than being resolved, but I press on regardless. My probes reveal more gas and another wormhole, this one lasting long enough for me get a solid hit, and a second—third? whatever—wormhole also appears. The other signatures all look a bit weak to be wormholes, unless there's an outbound connection amongst them. I'll see what I've already got first.

The dead wormhole was probably the system's static exit to low-sec, replaced by one that is so new it has not yet started its cycle of decay, and the other is a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space. That'll do for me, and I continue in to deeper w-space. A tower and whole host of ships appear on d-scan in C4a, which is an encouraging start, with an eclectic mix of strategic cruisers, recon ships, stealth bombers, cruisers, battlecruisers, mining barges, frigates, and logistic ships. Thirteen ships in all, and none of them piloted, which I find out when I locate the tower. And all owned by a corporation of only twenty-three caspuleers, too. I'd expect them to be tidier.

Scanning shows the system to be well kept, even if their hangars aren't, with only three anomalies and four signatures here. I resolve rocks, a static wormhole to class 3 w-space, and a magnetometric site. It's not a great result but it connects me to more w-space, and I jump to C3b. D-scan being clear from the K162 is actually a good result this time, being in range of only one planet in the system. Exploring finds a tower but no ships, and although scanning reveals two wormholes, a dying K162 from class 4 w-space is not much fun. The static connection leads out to a null-sec system in the Venal region, where three other pilots loiter with me.

It's a shame I'm not alone in null-sec, as it stops me ratting, particularly as the system is part of a tetrahedron of interconnected systems I could zip around to maximise my security status gains. Then again, it's not really a shame, as it means I don't waste my time flitting between systems tediously popping a single rat here and there. I would like to increase my security status steadily, but I'm far from dedicated to doing so. Anyway, it looks like I've run out of fifty pence pieces, so it's game over for the night. I return to w-space and bounce off still-empty towers, looking for but finding no change, until I reach the home system, where I hide and go off-line.

 Posted by pjharvey at 2:53 pm

Re-rendering Character Portraits

 annoyances, characters, chargen, holoreels, In-Game, Kalahari, Quafe  Comments Off
May 192012
 

Recently, I decided to have a bit of a tinker with my character portrait. I didn’t want a complete change-around that some people seem to go for; my character wasn’t about to go changing hairstyles, getting tattoos and magically gaining scars. I just wanted something subtle. A change of angle, pose, lighting, maybe some makeup fixes – just to spice things up a bit. And since its free to do so these days (unlike before we had the new chargen), why the hell not?

Brutor female character

This is how my character looked when I was editing her, and after I had finalised the portrait. The capture is from in-game shortly after I was done.

What ultimately made me decide on this portrait was the hair draping. Notice the curve of the hair on her right side as it drapes around her head in a natural fashion. Sure, there are going to be some minor clipping issues, but its nothing we can’t live with for the time-being.

However, after a downtime or two, I noticed something different when I logged in:

Gravity defying dreadlocks

I like (for the most part) when the server makes a pass and properly renders the new or updated character portraits – it means that newbies can have faces to look at, and it means everyone else has lovely antialiasing on their portraits.

But what I dislike very much is gravity-defying hair! I’ve yet to try this with some other hairstyles, so I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed this one. I Imagine if its consistent, you could end up with some completely wacky character renders.

I got her to scour around her quarters just in case I had somehow missed it, but all I could find were empty bottles of Quafe, cans of some other drink, and holoreels; there was no industrial grade hairspray to be found!

 Posted by Kala at 8:30 am

White Power

 CSM, eve online, In character, Mike  Comments Off
May 192012
 

“You remember me telling you about the questions I was asking of the CSM?”  Mike pulled a chair over to the table where Scotty was sitting with Ev.

“You did say you would get back to me if anybody answered.”  Scotty nodded.

“What this be about, eh?”

“Mike is trying to see if he can make changes or suggestions to the CSM even if nobody ever votes for him.”  Scotty laughed and waved a hand.  “So he writes to all thirteen of the CSM elected and asks them questions.  Last time he asked about the first weeks, this time he is focussing on the White Paper.”

“What be a White Paper, den?”  Ev’s Minmatar heritage was never far from the surface, even if he had been born and bred Gallente.  “Sounds fishy ta me.”

Mike fielded the question.  “It is a combination historical document and . . . well, a constitution, I suppose.  It sets out the reasoning for the existence of the CSM as well as basic ground rules for them to follow in their deliberations.  Thing is, it was written a long time ago and has not been kept up to date.”

“How you supposed to keep a historical document up ta date, then.  If you change it . . . it no be historical.”

“Good point . . . maybe they need to lay this one down and almost start over.  But since I did not want to try writing one just for them too laugh at I decided  to try and work with the  document at hand as a jumping off point and I sent a question or two to each member of the CSM.”

“Any of them willin ta give you the time o’ day?”

“Yes, but not as many as last time, sadly.  But the last to answer last time was the very first to answer this time, Kelduum.”

“He’s that ‘Eve Uni’ guy, right?”  Ev asked. 

“Right, I asked him . . .

In the white paper it suggests that things that are being considered will be labelled ‘marked for consideration’ This way the voting population can weigh in and comment or argue their cases further.

Should this idea be removed from the white paper or better enforced within the CSM and CCP communications

“See, in the old days you knew what the CSM and CCP were talking abot and you could put your own opinion forward to try to sway the council to see things your way.  Now it is all in the election then we know bugger all about what happens the rest of the time until changes are announced.  Not what you call a lot of opportunity for input from the voting public.  Keld answered . . . “

It would be nice for the CSM to be able to provide a list of topics being covered with CCP at any point, however there will likely be some NDA issues (discussing changes to mechanic X, which influences players expecting specific changes), and the amount of work documenting all the topics covered could easily be a full-time job, so it will likely be one of the elements which is updated significantly.

Obviously its a very fine line between providing information, and providing NDA’d material, and I’m sure as time goes on, the newer CSM members (such as myself) will find the appropriate balance.

“So what is this NDA, then?”

“Secrecy act . . . keep the CSM from spilling beans before their time.  The philosopher Paul Barnett once said that if you even hint at a change there will be barbarians at your gates tomorrow demanding it be released right now and complaining each day that they are denied their inaliable right to whatever they think they heard you think wishfully about.  He’s right.  You Have to keep some secrets becuase a lot of the pilot population is prone to overreact.”

“Next Dovinian answered.  I tweeked him about not running a high profile campaign and he was a it rueful about it . . . but hey, he DID get alected.”

“Unlike some folks we know”  Scotty muttered.

“Right, well him I asked . . . “

In the paper the method for measuring CSM participation was attendence to meetings. How should the measure be taken with the new CSM format?

There are talkers and there are workers. So far (excluding yourself) who has done the most work?

“If there are no frmal meetings or minutes then how are we supposed to know who did what, if anything.  The last election had a fair share of name calling and accusations but no numbers to back any of those accusations up.  Dovi answered . . . “

With the CSM having a constant conversation and ability to contact CCP Devs 24/7 (or when they’re around) it’d be very difficult to measure activity in that sense. Through the Skype chats, it’s also very easy to grab a Dev privately and bring your concern up wiht them that way — sometimes that’s a better approach in a few cases.

We have some collaborative tools that we use to work on papers and ideas together, those are really nice because it shows who has made what edits/additions.

He declined to say who worked the least, but that is not what I asked.  He DID say that the veteran members . . .

The people who have been contributing the most are the CSM6 veterans by far though from what I’ve noticed. They’ve really been the heavy hitters this time around.

Mike grinned.  “I like that guy.  He takes pride in what he has done and really seems to care.”  Sighing Mike went on.  “The next question was the hardest for me to ask but it did impinge directly on phrases in the White Paper . . . and how they affected the Mittani.”

“Uh oh”

“Yeah.  See the Mittani was dropped from the CSM becaue of a TOS breach.  To quote the legal findings . . .

Following a thorough internal review CCP has decided to respond to this clear violation of our Terms of Service

The White Paper was very explicit on matters like this.  It says . . .

Breach of the EULA or TOS by a CSM representative is grounds for dismissal and permanent exclusion from all pending and future participation in the council’. There are no exceptions

So I had to ask someone about this and Two-Step drew the short straw.  His response was . . .

 

Is The Mittani taking part in the alumni skype channel?

Not at the moment. One thing that I would point out is that techincally, the EULA/TOS breach wasn’t considered to have happened while he was on the CSM, which is why he is allowed to run for CSM 8.

Looking forward to going back?

Yes. The only summit I have been to was the emergency summit. I’m looking forward to the chance to do less damage control and more real feedback and brainstorming. Of coruse, I am also looking forward to more Bacon subs from Nonnis.. :)

Scotty whistled.  “He is walking the fine line there.”

Mike nodded.  “I wasn’t out to vilify or flog a dead horse further, just pointing out that they may want to remove the ‘No Exceptions’ if they plan on making any.”

“Next up was Aleks Karrde, leader of NOIR.”

“He and his did great work in Jita.”  Ev said grinning.  “Considering the numbers arrayed on each side they were fantastic.”

“Agreed.  Him I asked . . . . “

Given that you guys have altered the meeting format to now a rolling conversation, as opposed to formal meetings,

Do you think that there needs to be some method put inot place to keep players up to date as to what is going on?

The guidline recommended in the white paper was every other week. Would it be reasonable to ask that we get updates in such a timeframe?

“His response was guarded . . . “

This is a difficult subject because the rolling conversation almost invariably discusses NDA material. In the case of the CSM/CCP joint channel, the entire thing is NDA protected so devs and CSM can interact freely and frequently.

I’m gonna decline to comment on specific solutions till we have an opportunity to sit down with CCP and collaborate on a solution that allows us to be transparent with players while also preserving the benefits of free, open, and constant communication within the CSM itself and between CSM + the development team.

“But since then it HAS been announced that the CSM will be having a town hall meeting so I suppose that is a huge step forward.”

“Especially if more than one person talks.”  Ev grumbled.

“Especially then.  Trebor I asked . . . “

There has been suggested that Real Names be removed from the ballots to add a level of anonymity and allow people to campaign without opening themselves up to Real World harassment.

Water under the bridge, of course, for any candidate who has already run.

Where do you stand on this proposal?

“Trebor did nt disappoint me and was as straight forward and common sense as ever. . . .”

I think CSM candidates should have to reveal their identities to the voters.

We are not voting for toons, we are voting for people to represent us to the company. Who those people are in RL has relevance.

“The last word, I leave to the chairman of the CSM who was very busy on many fronts but he still took them time to reply.  I asked Seleene . . .”

Will the CSM white paper make it onto the table as a subject for dsicussion/revision in the upcoming summit?

Would you be interested in hearing the opinions of non-CSM members as to specific parts of the WP that need attending to?

“He kept the answer brief and to the point.

it will be at least Monday before I can give you a more detailed reply than YES and YES. :)

“I thanked him for his answer, that was all I really needed and not much more than that.  Now I wish I could listen to the Town Hall meeting live and even ask some question directly but  have other duties.”

“So, is THIS the end f your nagging those poor guys?”

Mike smiled.  “It is, for this month.”

******************************************************************************************

Lessons

Typed on a tablet so forgive me any formatting issues.

I do wish I could hear the Townhall meeting live but I am on the road right now and umnable to get more than chancy coffee shop level connections or ‘one bar’ of network in a motel.

If any of you DO make it.  Ask questions, thank them for what they have done.  TAKE PART

and fly it like you won it

m


 Posted by mikeazariah at 7:23 am

The Eve Sidekick

 Humor  Comments Off
May 182012
 
Best to start thinking about this now. Once Eve starts walking around in stations properly, like all good science-fiction characters, we are going to need sidekicks.


I imagine mine will be a small dragon that wears a patch, cooks my toast, and delivers snappy catchphrases and repeats the last word in almost all of my sentences. "Yark, all my sentences!"


But there will be others of course. The store could be chock full of great choices, like a yammering robot buddy, a dead-eye Duck (with credit to Bucky), a monkey of course, a dwarf (probably Minmatar), and others. The possibilities are limitless really.


But beyond the awesomeness of having a little guy with you in station, what else can a sidekick bring to the party? I think that's it really, party! As a self-running buddy who is always thinking about you, your avatar pal is always working it. Setting up party spots, playing the scene, opening doors that your dour face would never get open... making life in Station fun again.


Plus, if we get to the point where actual gameplay happens in station...watch out! There will be no end to the insane trouble your little buddy can get into. Seriously, the hilarity meter on fun just went thru the roof.


Kidnapped by evil pirates? Only your pal can save you. Need to get into a tight spot, send in the monkey! Imagine the hilarity.


So what would you choose as your sidekick? And what ways can you imagine Eve being so much better with a little buddy to hang out with?


PS: For those of you that don't usually catch on, I'm not being serious here. This is totally sarcastic tomfoolery intended to illicit a humorous response in the reader. Outlandish contrivance is, in some circles, considered humorous or mildly amusing. "Yark, amusing!"





 Posted by Rixx Javix at 8:01 pm
 Older Entries
© 2011 EVE Online - Blogs Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha