Signatures

Well, I am throwing another hand in another pot. I am not an art guru, in fact, I suck horribly at art and design. But I don't feel like paying a large sum of isk to have a forum signature done up by someone who doesn't. Without having the proper tools, here is what I've thrown together:



Any good, or should I trash it now?

More changes announced!

CCP Chronotis has published a new devblog on some more changes coming in Tyrannis. Finally, a rebalancing in loot drops, drone alloys, and some ore changes for low sec. While I am hardly the full on industrialist, nor claim to understand the complete process behind these changes, I have followed the numerous posts on EveO forums about the changes needed to improve income from mining. Players have asked for a mining and loot drop rebalance for as long as I've been playing. It is good to see CCP responding to their player base and listening to the good advice that some have been giving.

They are also making insurance a dynamic system that will automatically self adjust to market changes. I'm not going to go into too much detail, you'll need to read the devblog for that, but this is very exciting news. This will remove the mineral basket floor and give the market to the miners. At least, that is what is predicted. While it won't get rid of suicide ganks, like some seem to think, it should make ganks where little to no profit is to be had much more rare. And as the insurance adjusts to the market, the payout on the hull shouldn't make the ganker money as they are now with certain ships.

The other positive effect is that T2 hulls will get a small boost to payouts. Still not coming close to compensating for a loss, but 40% is much better than 10% or less. Same for T3 hulls, but not subsections. And it looks like supercapitals, titans and supercarriers, will get a measly 1% or so of value to make their losses even worse for the respective pilots.

At the end of the day, more great news for Tyrannis, making May seem further and further away!!

The near future

Well, I am about as unmotivated as I've been in this game. I am seriously considering taking an extended break. I have a new quarter starting this week, and I've done nothing in game for the last couple weeks worth mentioning. One roam, a little side manufacturing job (which I've transfered responsibility to my alt), an attempt to get back into mission running, and bought a couple ships. Ships that I can't afford, and currently serve no purpose to my skills at the moment.

Funny thing is, I just came back from a forced break of 8 months. In fact, this isn't the only game I'm feeling down on. I've hardly touched Halo: ODST, which my wife generously purchased for me as a welcome home present, and Modern Warfare 2 has been sitting there staring at me as well.

I guess we'll see where this week takes me................

Eve Gate Alpha Test

Eve Gate, formerly known as COSMOS, is now in the alpha test phase. Not all features are implemented, and the settings aren't yet active, but you can log in look around for yourself. The devblog here gives more information. They pretty much want as many people as possible to log in to help stress test it. Log in, try it out!

P.S. If your account wasn't active when the most recent Sisi mirror was taken, 11 of March, you will not be able to test it.

Site seeing

Since I dipped my hand into manufacturing rigs, I thought I'd set up another salvaging Arbitrator (my favorite hull!) and get back to scanning down anomalies and other exploration sites and start obtaining my own salvage on my own again to supplement my buy orders. It really is interesting, fun, and gets you out and about into out of the way systems. The first couple of systems were empty, but eventually I was able to scan down a Blood Raider anomaly and a radar (hacking) site.

The anomaly was devoid of rats.... And the hacking site had 3 cans to hack, 2 of which were empty (already done?) and the third yielded crap not worth my time.

Here are some pics of the anomoly:


I don't know if you can see by the shadows, but the solar arrays are facing away from the sun. Whomever built these did a poor job!


Just for your info, the Arbitrator is a little over 300 meters in length, or about a football field long.


Here is the now defunct stargate. Not sure why construction wasn't finished and abandoned, but maybe they couldn't generate enough power with those poorly aligned solar arrays!

Trial run

So I am making a trial run on manufacturing. I've decided to start making rigs. Well, one rig at the moment. With generous figures for the costs of the salvage, I figure I can make a bit over 100K isk per rig. But I placed some competetive buy orders, and they began filling faster then I expected. I might have to start placing more buy orders. They work better then expected. But anyway, this is a begining, to see where I end up. If it all works out and my profits are more then my projections, I might be on to something here. I'll keep you updated!

It's been a while....

since I last posted. Not much has been happening though on my side. A couple days ago I decided to move a clone back into Caldari space where I have access to level 3 and 4 agents. I was tired of running weak level 2 missions where I was at not earning any real isk for my effort and time. And actually, that is all I have done since my last post. Oh wait, no, I did participate on a roam.

For a whole 45 minutes, 30 of that waiting for others to get in fleet. I should have remembered that despite setting up the time and date 2 days in advance, people still are never ready at the given time. I wasn't really planning on going at first because I knew I'd be leaving soon, but I decided I was there, ready, and might as well get my feet wet again. Once we got moving, it was good. Right away, we came upon a Legion (T3 cruiser!) on a gate, but failed to hold him, and missed him on the other side due to our over-excitement. That kill would have been nice to have. But soon, I had to go, and logged off.
When I came back on, I initially thought I was going to roam on back, looking for something that my poor little Merlin might be able to take on it's own. That was when a Morsus Mihi scout in a Taranis intercepter hopped in system. Knowing that he would tear my little frigate apart, I quickly made my way to my out gate. Right as I jumped out, local spiked to 30+, and the chase was on! As luck would have it, I was able to stay just in front of the intercepter and his gang, and made it back to blue systems. I continued on to my ultimate destination, and apparently his gang decided to camp the blue station instead of pursuing little ole me. Needless to say, it got the heart pumping again!

As I look back on that, despite running scared, I realize that situational assessment is as important as bravery. Could I have stayed and engaged the Taranis? Sure, most likely it wouldn't have ended well, but I would have gained a bit more experience. But getting ganked and raped by a large gang isn't the best learning experience either. So yeah, here I am rationalizing me tucking tail and GTFO!

Here is a little scenery to look at while you laugh at me, the Hookbill, Bentbeak, I bought a year or so ago and got reacquainted with upon returning to my old stomping grounds:

More on PI

So not many changes have been put up on Sisi, but they did add silos since the first time I messed about with it. Last night I started some more testing, and from what I can tell, it seems to be coming along nicely. Here are some screenshots of what you can do. Take note, it will be more complex then what I have done, but this is the basic setup, no sense in cluttering up the screen until they seed more resources.

This is the first thing you see when entering the Planetary Interaction UI:

Using the right click, here I am placing an Ore Extraction facility to obtain aluminum, which will be sent back to my control center, and on to the processer:

Here is a more complete setup, the blue icons are extractors, both for ore and vapour, the red icon is the control center, green is the processor where the nitrogen and aluminum combine to make aluminum nitrate, and the new orange icon is the storage silo, where I have the processor dumping the finished product into it:

Here is a zoomed out view, showing that you can place extractors on the other side of the planet if need be:


The lines connecting all the facilities are links, and it is with these that you establish routes and their directions. You can also limit their bandwidth, but I haven't really determined why you'd want to do such a thing. Isn't the goal to get as much out as possible, to make the most product, to bring the most isk in? It seems the deposits are time limited as well as quantity limited, so I have yet to figure out what the purpose would be to limit the routes total volume.

Well, this is just a quick rundown, hopefully they will be posting more content sooner then the 3 weeks they said, so I will keep you updated as more comes onto Sisi!

If you haven't noticed...

I have been trying to make some positive image enhancements to this blog, liven it up so to speak. I tried different templates, but really, I just like the plain 'ole black. I am not a Photoshop guru, if fact, I don't even have it, so I have been messing about with a basic image editor to go for the look I want. Let me know of you like the new look, or have suggestions on what to change!

More Sisi(ness)

Just as I am typing this, I realize why CCP have nicknamed the test server, Singularity, Sisi. It is a place where you can go and test setups, POS deployment, ect.. without risking anything. There is a no combat rule in effect everywhere except the systems with a FFA beacon, even in low and null sec. The test server is a safe haven where you can play around, learn, arrange 1v1, 1v1+ without fear of loss or of being set up and ganked. Everything costs 100 isk except faction items, so there is no real loss. In effect, a place for sissies (myself included!) to learn new skills.

So that is just what I did. I learned about the new planetary interaction expansion that will be coming here shortly, and messed about with several people that technically are my enemies. All in all, good fun. But I also took the opportunity to try ships in null sec that I wouldn't risk without knowing how sound they were otherwise. I fit an arty hurricane to test against the higher bounty rats, and also a Sacrilege heavy assault cruiser. The Sac is a fantastic PvP ship, or so I've heard, but I've yet to play around with it as my missile skills are generally not up to par. Mostly all my skills are in the level 2-3 range, with a few at lvl 4 or 5. Namely, the ones my character started with upon creation at level 5. Out of 18M skill points, 950k are in missiles. Fairly weak I'd say. So this is the fit I tried out:

Ballistic Control System II x2
Medium Armor Repairer II x2
Damage Control II

10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 400

'Malkuth' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Hellfire Assault Missile x5
Small Nosferatu II

Medium Anti-Thermic Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Hobgoblin II x3

I have been perusing several fits online, and most pilots tank it more in the lows with resists and use the rigs for missile rigs, something I am going to try when I log back in. But the above fit I used against Serpentis rats to great effect. Mind you, this is not a ratting fit. But I never even got to try out the armour tank, as I never went below 50% shields. The only time I took damage was on approach, even against cruiser and BC rats. 1M+ battleship rats went down quickly, and if they ever did score a hit, it was just a scratch. This thing spews missiles like no other ship I have flown. I burned through 5k of them in just 30 minutes of ratting. Granted, it probably took that many because my skills are poor, but in a 10km orbit, I had a second volley on it's way before the first hit their target.

Needless to say, I am hooked! Here is a pic of the Sac at a Lava planet that was in system. Enjoy!

Tyrannis on SiSi

Some quick thoughts on what has been put on the test server, Sisi, so far. Planetary Interaction is awesome! The UI was a bit of a mystery at first, but I was able to figure out what was needed, and how to operate it after about 1-2 hours of fiddling around. Since only silver, gold, nitrogen, and aluminum are seeded for resources, so far the only reaction you can produce is between aluminum and nitrogen for aluminum nitrate. Once water, silicon and carbon are seeded, you will be able to start reacting for nanites and eventually nanite paste. I was impressed with the interface so far. I am glad I was able to spend some time with it though, because in typical Eve fashion, it wasn't something that you can just plop down and get working efficiently the first go. I will post some screenies once I get back on tomorrow and play with it some more.

This was my first time on Sisi, but I will be back. I was able to play around with PI, ship setups, and feel like I accomplished something all at the same time. If you haven't already, set up your Sisi client by following this forum, Test Server Feedback, and start playing around with it!

Some updates

A couple new things going on. Finally. As I said, I am now pretty much based and settled in to our low sec base. I got several ships in the hanger, and supply to replacements. I'm actually getting out there and making a bit of isk too! Not as much as I'd like, but some is better then none. Still working towards T2 medium projectiles, but even without, my hurricane Pinchermarm is working fantastically. A bit heavy on the ammo consumption, but whatever. I've yet to get any battleship spawns, but against the other battlecruisers ,cruisers and frigates, she performs flawlessly. I'm fit for pvp just in case I get caught with my pants down, but am having no troubles tanking their damage. All in all, a good experience, and it's getting me back in the habit of watching local and using the scanner religiously. I do need to take some frigates out though and pop my low sec cherry in some good solo pvp. I've only been in roams so far, but I'm sure this will help me get comfortable quicker.

In side news, I splurged and nearly bankrupt myself the other night. I was bored, in high sec just ship spinning with my isk burning in the wallet, begging me to spend it!!

So this is what I bought, Fervent Mantis


The Ashimmu class cruiser hull is a Blood Raider vessel. Sporting 3 pairs of Heavy Pulse Laser IIs and medium energy nuetralizers, she is capable of packing quite a formidable punch. But like my ONI, she will be sitting in the hanger until I am much more confident behind the helm in combat.

Blogger memes

Not much has been happening lately. I'm kind of stalling in my momentum here and in Eve. Finals week is coming up, and I have been procrastinating that as well. So in light of that, I thought I'd jump on the blogger bandwagon and knock out a couple of older trends that have been going around. One is my "Eve Space", and the other is a screen shot of where I've been in New Eden.

My Eve Space...


Kind of sparse, I know. Usually it is covered in papers, bills, ect... I thought I'd clean it up just a bit. No Eve posters yet on the wall, still got to talk the better half into it!

And now where I've been....


You can see that I have spent the largest portion of my time both in Caldari space and Amarr space. My first null sec roam was to the north into Fade, and then I spent a bit of time both living and roaming in Delve and Querious to the south. We'll see where this next year will take me!

Get ready, get set,..........

So I missed the first carrier run, but damn it, I am making the next
one! I got my Harbinger, my maller, a harpy and a retribution all set
in the corp hanger to head out to our pos. A 7 jump run each
direction, not too bad, to drop off each ship from my new hi-sec home.
Met a couple nuets and reds but none were out of the stations, so it
was a carefree convoy. I've been training up projectiles and Minmatar
ships so that I can fly the rupture and hurricane once out in null sec
for pvp. Yep, I'm hopping on the FoTM. I do love my lazers still, but
it seems hard to compete with projectiles now that they've been
revamped.

Speaking of flavors and memes, all the Eve bloggers have been posting
pics of their "pods". Soon, I'll post a pic of my own eve-space to
ride the wave too. It's late for me now though, so til the next time!

Sent from my iPhone