Some changes

Well, it's been a busy week in and out of game for me.

Out of game I've had a few things going on and haven't really had too much time to log in, but when I have been around I've mainly been working on getting myself set up with a new corporation. When I started the blog a few weeks back I was in a small 2-man corporation made up of me and a friend of mine. We were enjoying pottering around in a quiet corner of Gallente space for a while, but I was struggling without having anything real to work towards.

So I made the decision to move to a new corporation. I'll follow up with another post concerning details and such when I'm a little more settled in the new place, but it certainly feels a little more active. It's still a small group, which I like, but I think there'll be more room to grow and hopefully achieve some more goals.

Anyway, just a very short update. Hopefully there'll be more to come when I have more time in game and start joining in with some corporation activities.

Until then, fly safe.

EVE Blog Banter 16 - What Have You Got To Lose?

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: “Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you’d like to share with the wider Eve community?”

My first attempt at this Blog Banter business, and the topic seems quite fitting, given my recent return to EVE and the new approach that I'm adopting (or trying to, at least!).

In the good old days, I mostly sat in station, spinning my ships. The corp is running a mining op? I'll sit in station. The corp is running some missions to get standings up? Yeah, I think I'll sit in the station. Wait, we're moving to null-sec? Okay, I'll... sit in the station. The corp is having great fun in null-sec? Yeah, well these Level 1 missions are really important. And now I'm going to sit in the station.

I think you get the idea. Basically, I wanted to do all those things, but I was worried that I was too much of a noob, didn't know enough or didn't have the skills to contribute. So I ended up doing only what I was comfortable doing, watching all the new recruits with much younger characters than mine hop into a Rifter and head to null-sec to join the fun. Eventually the game got stale for me and naturally, I quit. Why didn't I just get involved?

What did I have to lose? A bit of ISK, perhaps a bit of pride?
What did I actually lose? A whole load of time, and I missed out on a whole load of fun.

So, fast-forward to the present day, and I'm attempting to put that approach behind me. This game is there to be played, and there are a number of ways to play it. But to do any of them well, you have to get involved. Join a corp, ask stupid questions, get blown up, get podded, lose some ISK. have some fun, have some banter and know that you're getting the most out of this awesome game. I fully intend to learn from my mistakes above, and hope to get out there and enjoy things a little more.

So, new players out there that might be sitting in station when an opportunity arises, ask yourself... what have I got to lose?

Fly safe folks, and when you pod me after blowing up my laser-fitted, hull-tanking Dominix, give me a 'GF!' in local whilst I wake up in a station with a warm, fuzzy feeling that at least I tried.

Other participants in this month's banter:

• Yarrbear Tales
• Rantuket
• Hands Off, My Loots
• A Merry Life and a Short One
• A Mule In EVE
• The Planet Risk Show
• Zero Kelvin
• EVE Opportunist
• Diary of a Space Jockey
• EVOGANDA
• Into the Unknown With Gun and Camera
• A Memoir From Space
• Death’s Sweetest Kiss
• Prano’s Journey
• Freebooted
• Learning to Fly
• Caldari Outcast
• Autopilot Disabled
• Finders & Keepers
• Kirith Darkblade – EvE Pirate
• Facepalm’s Ramblings
• Nullsec Carebear
• Roc’s Ramblings
• Flashfresh – A Pirate
• The Clan Oriana
• I am Keith Neilson
  
  More to follow...

Back to mission-running

My new net connection was finally hooked up this week, so I managed to get some decent time online with a stable connection, rather than a friend's less-than-reliable WiFi. I felt that missions were a bit of a risk with all the lag and disconnects that came with that connection, so I spent most of my time mining instead. However, that's all changed now that I'm up and running properly again.

I decided to celebrate by doing my first level 4 mission in about a month. So out came Carmelius and Marek, the mission-running duo. Carmelius in his Dominix and Marek supporting in a Hurricane. I was a little rusty on the combat side of things (I know they're only NPCs but hey, I'm slow) but it didn't take me too long to get back into some sort of rhythm. Carmelius warps in, grabs the aggro and then sets the drones to work. Marek joins him shortly afterwards and sets his own drones to work, whilst tearing everything else apart with his autocannons. Once they're done, they both jump into their dedicated salvage Destroyers and salvage and loot quick-time before the ninjas arrive.

I managed to work my way through the series of 'In the midst of deadspace' on Wednesday, and whilst there were no bounties available (I was shooting Caldari and Amarr ships), the loot and salvage added up to a nice pile of ISK. The only problem is now decided what I'm actually going to use the ISK for!

And therein lies my current problem. Which direction to take in the game? I can run level 4 missions without any trouble now (unless I get complacent) so that's a good money-maker, but what's the use in being able to make cash if you have no reason to spend it? I think I need more of a focus, maybe:

• Manufacturing?
• Wormhole living?
• Trading?
• PvP?

Not quite sure which path to take yet. I guess I'll meander around for a little while longer until I decide!

Mini mining op

So with Marek’s mining barge skills advanced enough for him to hop into a Retriever, I decided it was time he joined Maurice on a mini mining op. I’m not sure two miners can really justify the title of an op, but it’s about the most I have at my disposal right now.

I got a little paranoid about my extensive jet-canning after reading Mick Flaherty’s ‘How old is old enough to know?’ post over at Life in the Hole, and decided that Carmelius could take a break from studying Drone Interfacing V and hop in his Iteron III to come and help too. It’s a quiet system, but with two miners I stood to lose a lot more to a pirate than I did with one.

So we got to chewing through some rocks. Marek’s mining ability isn’t great, and it made me think back to the early days of Maurice’s mining attempts. Thankfully Maurice can bring in a lot more ore, so we were able to get through our little section of the asteroid belt in just over an hour. We even had a fleeting appearance from my corpmate mining in his Exqueror before he moves onto a barge in the next few days. Didn’t spot another capsuleer for the entire night, so the cans would have been safe. But I guess it pays to get into good habits early on.

Perhaps not the most thrilling of nights in New Eden, but helped me to get to grips with running three accounts at once and learning (or re-learning) a few aspects of the game that had drifted from my mind over periods of inactivity. Hopefully with a few more of these ops the corp can build up a nice stack of minerals or ISK in preparation for whatever we decide to do once we’re properly on our feet in EVE again.

Safe travels!

In the beginning...

After becoming severely addicted to many of the fantastic EVE Online blogs out there, I figured it might be a good idea to start my own. Just reading about other players' experiences in the game adds huge value to EVE for me, so hopefully one day people might read of my own humble adventures and gain some sort of enjoyment.

So, a little about me then. I've been playing EVE on and off for about two years, but that really only equates to a few months of active play time, what with starting, quitting, real life issues, starting again, internet issues, quitting.. I'm sure you know the drill. So here I am again, consciousness transferred into two (occasionally three) separate pods:

Maurice McPhee - a miner and industrialist hovering around 8m SP at this point in time. Rarely out of an industrial ship unless he's grinding level one missions looking for the elusive 'Break Their Will'...

Carmelius Hove - a mission runner, currently doing his best to tear apart Serpentis ships in his work for the Gallente Federation.

Marek Ebon - the very definition of a support character. Generally helps out the above two with whatever they might need, whether it's mining support for Maurice or some extra fire power if Carmelius gets into a sticky situation.

I'll be focusing mainly on these characters, and the game in general, for this blog, whilst at the same time trying to figure out what path I'd like to tread in New Eden.

For now, fly safe!