This time however, it’s actually about the blog itself. It’s taken the EULA and some awareness that I had (at times) spent more time thinking about EvE than actually playing it. This is post 100 and it’s as good a time as any to sign off.

I started writing in Feb 2010. Somewhat surprised that the time has gone by. A comment I guess on how busy RL has been. Which has a real upside for skilling those long term L5s. Back then I was talking about having 42 skills at L5…now it’s more than twice that. Perfect fitting and cap skills are ticked off, as is hull tanking elite. The cert I like the most from a “where do I fit in” is Cartographer elite as it fits with the science and exploration theme that H has.

Total SPs is a big number and shortly due to tick over another big milestone. 241 known skills. Not as quickly as a mate of mine who started at the same time, but still pretty damn quick given I’ve used no neural remaps (conscious decision) at all. But basically, it looks like 20mil sps per year is possible once you break certain initial barriers. Much easier now you don’t have to skill up your stats individually any more.

So… lets talk about projects. Some are still unfinished but here’s a quick summary:

Project P – Marauder (Paladin). This alt has max gun skills… I think there’s only large laser spec V to tick off and some implants to go. A 1000+DPS monster, 800+ at 50km turret only.

Project K – Marauder (Kronos).  Quite a bit of work to go, but won’t end up being quite as good as the Pally even with the hybrid changes. Expecting around 150-200 dps less in the final analysis.

Project H – T3 exploration ships. Essentially complete, with some work to go to obtaining the low grade virtue set. With my drone skills and utility mid slots, I’m very much liking the Proteus as the go to ship

Project M – Navy Megathron as a comparison. Improved with the gun changes, but sodding jammers aside, marauders are an easier fly for L4 grinding. More cost effective on the Navy Ammo too.

Project L – Oneiros/Basilsik. Done. Alt with max logistics skills.

Project O – Orca. Done. Alt has max mining link skills as well. Doubles as a max command ship/warfare link skills pilot.

Project V – Vindicator. Another self build. A scary, scary PvP beast. 1400 DPS with quite a bit of improvement on the way with changeouts from T2, plus skills, plus implants still to come.

Enough of the alphabet already! What’s upcoming..? well, I’m debating building a Golem, though this is from the first ever invention run I did, and it’s without any modifiers. 50% wastage is a sucky, sucky thing. So, I’m not sure I will build as I did with the Kronos. It would be some considerable time before I could fly it, though the irony of flying that as a missile boat as my first ever one is not lost on me, being Caldari and all. Actually, not quite true. I did fly a merlin for a very short period before discovering drones and gallente ships

So… what will I do next? Well cap building is on my list of things to do. Something I did not get the chance to do while living in null. Living in a wormhole is possible, but unlikely purely because of the RL time constraints and logistics issues. When it comes down to it though, I think the most important thing is to open the doors to our corp and start letting a few bodies in.

The focus is likely to be chilled out and for older folks. We definitely acknowledge that RL and family takes precedence. No 2am CTAs here thanks very much. Passing on the wisdom we have gained, making more social connections, and just helping out is also a part of it. And I might even get to indulge my white knight complex and save a few ships in the process….

I will update the links one last time because there are some extra-ordinarily good bloggers out there. Found a few new ones. Need to delete some of the old. Otherwise, take care of yourselves.

See you in space,

H

Was stuck 600km from home for the better part of two weeks and had only played on a low spec laptop prior to yesterday. So, downloaded the new expansion and fired her up. Between the engine trails and the new nebula (nebulae?), the new shiny skins on the ships, I was entranced.

Thought it might be gorgeous, but I didn’t expect it to be beautiful. Seriously sexy. I may swoon. Ah-hem. There are some not so good elements however. Some of the ships I don’t like as much. The Ishkur for instance. Preferred the old model tbh. As for the Navy Raven… well, it looks like it has a bad case of the digital measles.

While I haven’t played with PI yet, if the screaming is anything to go by in the blogosphere, I will not be particularly happy with the changes in costs. I don’t manufacture to sell, I use it to offset the costs of running a POS. This, put bluntly, is a PITA. I don’t imagine for one second that the dedicated carebears are going to try to make a go if it in low sec. I do imagine the cost of fuels is going to spike…. possibly dramatically.

I like the new fitting screen, and the break down in DPS. One of my ships has broken the 1400 DPS mark, which surprised the sam hill out of me. This ship is only T2 fit but does have CN AM loaded. There are improvements to be had from skills… and there are no damage implants in that particular clone either. No wonder we gave that golem pilot a little bit of a scare…

Very much liking having the cartographer elite cert in combination with a T3 ship as finally the loot gods dropped something sexy. In fact, I’ve had some rather interesting results in the last 24 hours. And I have an escalation up my sleeve as well…. though the last one is 20 jumps away… o.O God only knows where the last escalation (no doubt into low sec) will be if that’s anything to go by.

Also very idly wondering if I might not up sticks and become truly mobile. I have the capability to do so if I really want…. and the PI side of things may mean that having a POS is very much a luxury. Interesting times indeed.

FS

H

Downloaded Crucible and installed it, which took the majority of an hour. Listened to Voices from the Void. Waited with baited breath while it patched and…. computer says no. Luckily the automatic repair worked.

But now I’m sitting in front of the EULA and reading it thoroughly. Wow. Words such as world wide and in perpetuity leap out. I’m guessing that even discussing the EULA in detail voids the EULA, so I’m going to talk in broad strokes only. CCP, as would any business, guard it’s intellectual property. But I have to say this is pretty fierce.

Perhaps I’ve just never really read it before. Likely given when it was last updated. I like to write, and have been both critical and supportive of CCP and this marvellous game. I will say this however, if it comes down to a choice between continuing to blog or playing the game, I know which one will win.

I have something to think about….

FS

H

After quite a few days of researching BPOs, making crystalline carbonide BPCs, deciding that that will take WAY too long and purchasing another BPO and researching that one, THEN manufacturing till I’m blue in the face, H is now the proud owner of her first marauder.

Interim name: Killing Time. I’m a big fan of the culture novels and the naming conventions that Iain M Banks has come up with. She’s no rapid offensive unit… well, yes on the offensive bit… not so much on the rapid and there’s also nod for Kronos thrown in there too.

I can honestly recommend that a single BPO for the majority of the T2 components is well worth getting, but once you’re starting to having to produce runs of 32500 units, three possibly even four BPOs will cut down your build time significantly. I’ve found that it just was not worth the up time on the POS to create multiple 1000 run copies. And it’s all additional cost too for that matter.

So, I have a new shiny and the skills to use it. Will be gathering the bits and pieces for fitting it in the next few days, most likely just  T2 to begin with. I will however be playing with Caldari Navy ammo as the role bonus compensates nicely… frankly it’s a toss up whether its LP/cost effective to use it for 7 or 8 gunned ships. Four guns at twice the DPS AND tomorrows changes to hybrids is likely to again make me a very happy capsuleer.

As for the flying of it? The report will come later once I’ve had a chance to download the patch. I suspect she won’t quite foot it with the Paladin still, but it will be an interesting comparison with the Mega. I’ll still maintain a doctrine of mobility and range control, but I think the difference in tank as well as DPS (Ogre IIs are great….. once they get into range – hammers will deal with most things effectively in any case) will make for a serious increase in speed.

Now to the big question – Why…? Summer Glau. Ooops. Wrong media. Well, partly because I can, partly because of SHINY, and partly because I want at least two mission hubs to work from. And flying a number of jumps from one to the other is a PITA. Especially when you can park a clone somewhere convenient.

FS

H

As a family, we were rather stretched out genealogically speaking. My father was the 3rd of three children, and while I’m the oldest of of us “kids”, I think we were generally behind the curve that way. To give you an idea, My grandparents were born in 1903 and 1905 respectively, over 100 years ago.

Christmas time starts you thinking about the people in your past, family especially, and if there is one thing I do regret, is that I was not old enough to really appreciate them or their lives when they were with us.

Imagine this: growing up going to school either by foot or on the back of a horse and cart, growing your own food and produce, milking the cows, though to the roll out of radio, electricity and lightbulbs, through two world wars, the advent of calculating machines, motorways and the first man on the moon. All of these things in the space of one generation.

We think our lives have changed with with the miniaturization of things, the internet, watches with the kind of computing power that once took up the space of a room. But they haven’t, not really (OK we could argue about the interweb), not by comparison. We have seen refinement and design engineering the likes of which would have truly left the previous generations floundering, but the principals and basics were already laid down before us.

It may be that we are 0n the cusp of something big, with inter-connectivity or the density of energy or data storage, new materials, or the overlay of an entire virtual world on top the the real making a difference. It might be a sociological change, a way in which we group together, possible now that physical distances are not a barrier.

Improvements to cybernetic interfaces, and especially those sufficient to control machinery or are sensory replacements are happening every day.  A capsuleer quality interface may not be as far away as we may think. Who really knows. One thing is certain, when the singularity does hit, the changes my grandparents lived through will be classified at the gnats fart end of the spectrum.

So…. Crucible. I don’t foresee that the combined changes will equate to being a paradigm shift. After all, those with the most guns will most likely still win. But it sure has heck could produce some seriously interesting times….

FS

H

P.S Another project is in the cooker right now… as are the skills to use it….

P.P.S Yeah – I did forget to put a title on this post.

Render the red nosed slave hound,

Had a very shiny nose,

And if you ever saw him,

You would even say it glows

All of the other slave hounds,

Used to howl and laugh with glee,

Coz Render the red nosed slave hound,

Couldn’t catch an escapee.

Then at one singularity site,

Sansha came to play,

“Render with your nose so bright”,

“Become my cyber-hound tonight”.

Now all the other slave hounds,

Whimper, cower, run and flee,

From Render the red nosed slave hound

Assimilated 113 YC…

P.S I have NO idea where this stuff comes from…!

H

Ya know, I just can’t type that without Ren (or was it Stimpy?) voice bounding round in my head. Anyways, now I’ve got your attention – how would you like to win it…?

The lovely Adrielle Firewalker has a competition going… go have a look…

http://www.minmatart.com/2011/jingling-some-bells/

This could be a lot of fun

FS

H

Had a boy night the other night and decided I’d do some exploration while getting slightly pickled. Jumped into the Proteus and scanned down a site. Just a bog standard gurista one – killed the dread gurista (ammo and a tag – sigh), but managed to get an escalation out of it.

Ran the next site – killed the DG (ammo and tag – sigh). Hmmmmm. Onto the next escalation.

Ran the NEXT site – killed the DG. Any guesses? Ammo and tag. Damn you’re good.

Kept going, collecting ammo and tags until I get an escalation into low sec. Now by this time I’d had a few glasses of wine, but even so did not want to risk a T3 ship jumping two systems into low. Ding went the light bulb… I’ll use an Ishkur. Small, fast, and not too expensive if it comes to a loss. ECM drones on board for a last ditch get out of dodge attempt should they be needed.

Set the autopilot to stop just shy of Tama (not a particularly good system at the best of times), and a few jumps out had a sudden thought. Implants. Uh oh. Hand brake turn Mr Sulu, and a clone jump to a naked clone later, back to the entry system. There was a destroyer sitting on the in bound gate possibly giving intel to the citizens in low.

With a little trepidation and a notification (must turn that darned thing off), into low I went. And not a soul in the outbound gate. Bamfed through to the next gate and jumped through. Was surprised to see a prowler lurking there, but it jumped through almost immediately.

Local numbered a grand total of two, me included. Off to the site. A Gallente G10 tower needed removal with prejudice. So, maintain a certain distance, afterburner on… and set drones to frag.

What happened next was an exercise in repetition. D-Scan, kill, watch local, d-scan. Local ratcheted slowly up to 8, along with my nerves. Eventually I managed to kill everything (#$%^y damping rats), and started work on the tower. Got a fairly sizable spawn including our favorite – faction frigates.

Thinned the rats out sufficiently that I could get close to the wreck…. opened it and TA DAAAAAH! A Pith – A….. small shield transporter…. and some ammo…. and a tag. Seriously?!?!? Again????? CCP – enough with the shield transporters already. And DG lead/iron/foxfire ammo!

Had already decided on an exit strategy… and bugged out via an alternative route. Local had dropped away, and there was no way to know where they’d got to. No dual boxing in this case and the idea of going back through Tama was making my spidey sense twitch. Jumped through… and I don’t think I saw more than one other person in low sec local the entire rest of the way home.

My friend John has mentioned that exploration is something like spinning a roulette wheel…. I’d just like it to land on something else for once!

FS

H

Wow. Tough one. Tougher given the fact that we’ve all been yelling for a refocus on flying in space. Now you want an additional feature? I’m beginning to suspect Seismic Stan has something of a sadistic streak somewhere in there…

Who knows what we’ll find there? This is very much like gathering the wagon (Orca) train and heading out over the plains in search of fame and fortune. To take everything you need with you and blaze a trail to somewhere new…. and perhaps eventually, with significant time, effort, and research, build a jump gate to enable a connection back from your frontier post. The similarities to a land rush where you stake your claim are actually pretty good. Wild west, here we come

It could all end in an unmitigated disaster. It might make you rich beyond your wildest dreams… it may take you too close to Jovian space and elicit a response (big nod to Eveoganda btw). It’s a shame that the name Exodus has already been used for an expansion, though that isn’t quite to Stan’s brief I will admit.

Implementation wise, this shouldn’t be too difficult (in my limited understanding) as it leverages off current mechanics, nor is it too different from wormholes, though instead you may need a session change at each heliosphere or heliopause (often considered the boundary of a solar system) and something to be indicative of interstellar travel.

Cyno’s are a no no. Otherwise, once you get there, pop the beacon and call everyone through. Cheating in my book, and way too easy for Alliances to farm willy nilly. We have enough of that already. So, lets have a look at the maths.

Hmmmmm. Closest star to earth is Alpha Centauri at 4.37 light years. There are about 63241 AUs to the light year. So that translates to roughly… a big number (276363 AU). More so when you start talking about a 3AU warp speed being standard for a battleship…. that would take (carry the four, divide by the airspeed of an unladen swallow…) a bit over 25.5 hours of game time to get there. Possible…. but methinketh few are going to devote that kind of time, so it might be argued that the arbitrary distances should be a lot less, or very much dependant on where you are in the current galaxy.

On the other hand, people might actually use certain implants and rigs that I’m sure are completely ignored at the moment if something like this was implemented… On the other hand again, the fastest ships with the right combination of gear could do that kind of distance in three to four hours or so. Hmmmm….

So, the tie in. The Jovian’s could send out a message to  the four main factions suggesting they look beyond known space for answers to the Sansha threat. The Arek’Jaalan initiave might pick up a signal from deep space and set out to investigate… or perhaps send some trusted capsuleers to do so. I suspect that’s the relatively easy part.

The various Faction States would obviously react to this new and unexpected news by going into a higher alert status. Each would be eyeing the other’s readiness levels militarily, and looking to provide a fast, relatively cheap upscaling in might (the new battlecruiser classes) as well as (in the case of the Gallente) major improvements to weapon and drone systems…

And I can’t help but thinking about about large mass driven asteroids, set on a collision course by an unknown force as in Starship Troopers. These could also be implemented like the incursions, but instead of multiple targets, sheer firepower overcoming a single massive object to save a planet or station would be the order of the day. Perhaps. It would tie in nicely with the new BCs though.

In any case – the truth is out there… if CCP will let us have another out there …

To be filed under H ranting about exploration. Again.

FS

P.S Dead horse? What dead horse…??

P.P.S No. That is not a whip… it’s erm… something else…. honest!

P.P.P.S Here are some other banterers – well worth a read:

CCP Ninveah – Ship Transport, D-Scan Improvements, Exploration Ships
CCP Madhatter – Stalemate Unleashed
CCP FakeDevBlogger – Faction Warfare Redesign
CCP Revenge – Joystick Control, Pirate Factions, Wormhole Changes
CCP Cozmik – Global Criminal Countdown Changes
CCP NinjaHoneyBee – EMP Blasts, New Rigs
CCP BadStudent – Navigation-Linked Market Tools
CCP Haberdasher – War Dec’ Changes, Hi-Sec PvP
CCP Ranter – Launcher and Turret Animation, PI Improvements, Motherships
CCP Anomaly – Incursion Iterations
CCP Veskin – Multiple Concepts
CCP Margin – Product ‘Heat’ Map

Skin…?

Oh yes. Skin.

She becomes aware of an urgent impulse clamoring more and more stridently for attention. Touch. Sensation. Light and sound. And that impulse again.That’s it. I remember now. Breathing.

Her quiet Achura curves shudder with the well overdue breath. Followed by the racking cough of lungs responding to their first use. Far more a spastic heaving than quiet inhalation, gradually it comes under control, the overly oxygenated and clinical air helping the transition. More aware of her surroundings, she reaches mentally for her enhancements and finds none at all. A naked brain then, a virginal clone.

Her ego quails for a moment, not used to being so… diminished. Vulnerable. Without the high tech armaments and sensor suites, within and without. No weapons grade shielding, unable to rain death upon her enemies with merely a thought.

Naked. Cold.

The light filtering in through her eyelids is a restful shade of green or perhaps blue. Reaching for a name brings a moment of unease. Did the clone jump fail somehow? Is this body or brain flawed in some way? And then the memories flood in and the color shading falls into place. Gallente.

She cracks opens her eyelids, and the ergonomically beautiful surroundings confirm it. This place is Gallente. The attendant in the white medical garb asks a few questions seeking to verify the mind behind the brand new eyes, and to confirm her functional status. The machines in the background have already told the medic what she wishes but they are no judge of humanity…. or the lack of it.

Satisfied, the medic turns to leave and the Achura woman catches a glimpse of the SOE logo in subtle variation against the pristine white. The medic pauses at the curved archway, stops and turns. “The next stage of your procedure will be in 15 minutes – please take this time to rest as you may experience a degree of disorientation while the implant is calibrated”

The piped music was subtle and gorgeous. Typical really. And somewhat ironic as the larger station surrounds were the girder and beam construction of the Minmatar Republic, and that the station itself was floating in Caldari space. A riddle within a puzzle inside an enigma. A fitting metaphor for humanity and those that try to save it from itself, the capsuleer supposed.

At the 15 minute mark a chime announced the opening of the comms channel and the familiar face of her primary agent with the Sisters of Eve resolved with it’s usual enigmatic smile quirking the corner of her mouth. “We are glad to see that the transition to your new clone has gone without trouble. We see that it has been some time since you last engaged in such activity. We trust that everything is satisfactory?”

At the assent the agent continued “We thank you for your purchase and are glad to repay you for your work to date. We do not recommend a full set of implants in combination with the top line prospector series in either conjunction with a covert operations or specialized Tech Three ship, should you be considering it. All together the cumulative effects may be both unexpected and difficult to maintain for any period.”

“A maintenance issue?” Asked the capsuleer.

“A mental one” replied the agent, her tone implying much while saying very little. “We will see you, in time, for your next upgrade. Thank you for your loyalty, Helena Khan”

A moment of cold, local anesthetic, the Achura supposed. A thunk more felt than heard. Then total blackout followed by the usual diagnostic chaff. She checks the expansion in her faculties and finds some enhancement, but nothing cutting edge. Not by comparison in any case. To be expected given the specialized nature of the implant. She reaches for the probe interface and finds the expected additional sensory bandwidth, there is however, an unexpected subtlety and nuance.

Surprising given this first small step. It gives her cause to pause and consider. She remembers the agent’s tone and wonders for a moment about her course of action.

Will it be worth it to be able to gaze into forever, when forever will be gazing back into you….?

FS

H