When It Rains, It Pours

Life in my little corner of low sec got a bit more exciting last night.  A wormhole opened up in my home base system that was apparently occupied by a large wormhole alliance.  I say apparently as they ran convoys in and out of the system for several hours.  Logistics night for them I am certain.  The system I am in is about a 15 jump trip to either Amarr or Rens, and thus has reasonable access to those market systems.  The path to Rens is just two low sec jumps away, while the path to Amarr takes you out of CVA “claimed” space and 5 jumps through low security space.  I imagine they were going to Rens. 

This pushed me out of my little .4 pocket and up to a hidden jewel for me and exploration, the system of Jangar.  Jangar is a .5 sec dead end system that is only bordered by one low sec system.  It has three stations and is usually only occupied by members of a German industrial alliance, that also frequent Hasateem, my home system.  They fly NRDS and apparently have assets throughout CVA lower Derelek and Providence.  

The beauty of this system is that no one ever explores there.  I mean no one.  Thus it is always ripe for the picking when I go check it out every 2-3 days.  Sure enough last night was not disappointing as I scanned down 4 generic Sansha combat sites, Sansha Yard, Sansha Port, Sansha Community Outreach Center (you get the idea), along with 2 hacking sites and the ever popular Sansha plex.  

Combat complexes differ from their normal anomaly brethren in that they do not show up on the system scanner and have to be scanned down with probes like any other spatial anomaly.  I cleared all of the sites in the system and saved the plex for last.  It was getting to be a bit close to the time that I normally log off and wanted to quickly clear it to make sure I had time to go play a real game, like Farmville.  Really it was almost time for Family Guy and I always hate to miss a good episode.  

I quickly dispatch all of the Sansha baddies inside and even force an Overseer to spawn when I attack the “Sansha Mind Control Station.”  Unfortunately no overseer effects dropped but I did get a faction spawn that dropped a nice Sansha Armor Explosive Hardener, the third one of that particular module that I have recovered, along with a low grade delta slave implant.  The Derelik market had this implant going for 60 million, not that you can trust the prices of this back woods region.  And of course as I was trying to get done quickly for the night, guess what else happened when I cleared the site.  For the first time in months I was given an escalation site.

My first experience with escalation sites was very frustrating.  I had only been playing for about two months when I first received that message after clearing an Angel Cartel site.  No one in the Eve University Channel would tell me WTF I was supposed to do or where to go to find out where I needed to go.  NOW I know that you go to your journal and there is a neat little tab marked “Expedition.”  You go to that tab and it tells you which system you have to head towards.  I stored my loot and set my destination for both my main in his AC Cane and my alt in her salvage setup Vexor.  Hmm….24 jumps on my main and only 4 jumps for my alt.  Adjusted the auto pilot settings and sure enough 4 jumps for both now. 

The path took me into Amarr high sec, which was somewhat disappointing.  I had hoped that it would take me deeper into low sec space for the shot at some better spawns and loot.  I was able to complete 3 of the escalation sites before I had to set a course for home.  Two of the three sites I was able to completely clear, and the third required a well timed warp out due to the amount of incoming DPS.  Either I am going crazy or the escalation sites become increasingly more difficult the more and more of them that you do.  The ships in the last site had some decent tanks and impressive DPS, much more impressive than the first site that’s for sure.

A course was set for home and I had 6 jumps to travel back to the low sec border system and back out into some semi-dangerous space.  I landed on the gate to the border system (Rhandalan or something like that) and noticed a player parked 180 km off of the gate in an Amarr noob ship.  Hmm….a scout perhaps?  I sent my main to one of the stations in the system and parked his ship there, then went to the other station to grab a noob ship of my own to do a bit of scouting. 

Jumping into the system I found a deserted gate with just an Abaddon 200 km off of the gate.  I held my cloak for a few seconds and saw the Abaddon warping to land on the gate, his ship danced with the glow of a sensor booster.  Local chat showed six other players present, all members of the Abaddon’s pilot corporation and all had low security ratings.  It seemed that I would be taking the long way around.  I bounced off a nearby planet and landed on the gate next to the battleship and jumped through.  A word of advice to those pirates, use a cloaked scout or at least put your scout in something besides a noobship 180 km off of a gate.  Obvious trap is obvious.  You might have gotten my Cane and possibly a shot at the 100 million worth of loot and salvage contained within my Vexor’s hold. 

I set a course for Bar and sighed as I saw a 20+ jump route mapped out for me through Amarr high sec.  The perfect amount of time to catch the second episode of Family Guy.  By the time I arrived back in lower Derelik and Hasateem, the activity within the area caused by the wormhole occupants had died down.  Not counting low end minerals I have a full load of loot to get back to Rens sometime soon, should be a decent haul with about a dozen true Sansha spawns in the past week out here and five of the low end slave implants to dump.

L2P nOOb!

All too often on the forums, local chat, and blogs, experienced players happily use their advanced knowledge of poorly documented game mechanics against their fellow players.  The response is always some variation of the catch all phrase, “Learn 2 play.”  Expecting new players to have a few bumps and bruises throughout there initial career as pod pilots is nothing out of the ordinary.  But how is it even a remotely plausible taunt or insult to call these pilots out for not knowing the complete ins and outs of some non documented game mechanic. 

I challenge you to find an online guide that fully explains the aggression timer related to stealing some other players loot.  If you shoot them, yes they can shoot back, but does everyone in your fleet also get to shoot the thief as well?  Does every member of the thief’s corporation get a free shot at you?  Do they have to be in fleet or even in the same system to attack the player defending his loot?  These concepts are completely foreign to any game but EVE Online, and yet are not explained ANYWHERE in an in game format and what information there is posted online must be gleaned from forum posts of the “victorious” griefers slapping each other on the back for a job well done. 

Another mechanic that is extremely important to understand and yet is also very poorly explained in game is the aggression timer and how there is both the timer you see counting down on your screen, as well as a “hidden” aggression timer that the griefing players can somehow exploit for their own benefit.  Just the other week I was reading a post from a player who fired on a mission loot thief and then managed to get away and dock up when the griefers tried to spring their trap.  He calmly waited out the aggression timer and undocked to finish his mission. 

This player arrived back on the scene and was promptly tackled and destroyed by these other players who managed to exploit utilize game mechanics to extend the aggression timer and get their kill.  I still don’t fully understand this one, but someone posted in the thread with several ideas on how these players were able to do this.  Of course the mission runner was mocked as a newer player and told that he should have known that just because the game is telling you that it is safe to go back out (aggression timer fully counted down on his screen) does not mean that is in fact actually safe to go back out.  Apparenly even PVP players and pirates have to deal with the invisible timers.

The list goes on an on and covers everything from research and production to the endless docking games played by some in PVP combat.  Eventually there comes a time in every new players career when he will loose a PVP encounter, regardless of the arena chosen (market, production, combat, etc.) through no fault of their own, other than not knowing about some obscure 30+ page guide available on an out of the way website.  Why must they be mocked?

Stealth Bombers & T2 Turrets Vs. HAC & HIC

I am at a bit of a cross roads with what to do with the next training goal.  My plan to date has been getting access to all of the tech II frigates and then eventually moving on toward tech II cruisers, mainly focusing on HAC and HIC skills as opposed to the logistics or force recons.  The other option I have mapped out involves training up my missile related support skills with a plan to fly a stealth bomber.  Then training up for tech II large turrets; both the large turret and the HAC options have a nice 21 day skill to knock out in large turrets V or Minmatar cruisers V. 

The more that I think about it, the more that I am leaning towards the stealth bomber and large turret option as being more in line with my current goals.  Perhaps if I have aspirations of joining some large territorial alliance, and thus having access to a nice ship replacement service, the HAC and HIC line of tech II cruisers would be more appealing.  But with projectile weapons getting a nice buff and sub capital fleets no longer facing one button annihilation at the hands of a Titan pilot, tech II turrets just keep looking better and better. 

Increasing my missile skills to be competent with a stealth bomber also has the added bonus of making my Caldari cruisers IV skill actually somewhat useful.  I had picked up Caldari skills just to be able to fly ECM boats in militia, but with low missile support skills and no points in hybrid turrets, flying them for either PVE or PVP combat was not a terribly effective option. 

My alt account is about 30 days into a 60 day plan for a blockade runner, a cloaking industrial ship.  After this plan is done I then have to start up another alt, thus filling up all three slots on my second account, to work on a POS gunner.  Somebody in the corp needs to be able to use POS guns eventually. 

Speaking of the corp, things are going well, even if a bit slow.  I think the whole group is involved in some lengthy skill training plans and not very big on short term goals.  The two-hulk-guy continues to have his stay at home wife mine ice for him throughout the day, though I imagine she doesn’t do that in his Hulks.  Apparently she doesn’t know how to do anything but target the ice blocks in an ice belt and empty the cargo hold into a station.  So throughout the day she walks back to the PC and docks up and then flies him back out to mine more ice.  I imagine this nice “passive” income of his will dry out if POS fuel prices take a dive post Dominion.

Dominion Sovereignty Test: Where’s the Beef?

I am somewhat disappointed in the lack of blog posts concerning the Dominion test that took place on the 30^th on the test server.  Perhaps I just have too many pirate and wormhole related blogs subscribed to on my reader, and not enough that belong to any O.O sov holding alliance members.  Thus to the forums I go. 

Even the forums were lacking in information, save one thread. 

Jomanda of The Initiave discloses the extremely linear nature of sovereignty costs here. 

Some highlights of the test:

280 million flat cost per system you are claiming sovereignty in.  This does not scale down with more systems currently.

Infrastructure upgrade hub needs 750,000 cubic meters to transport. 

Rare ore types become more common in systems that are heavily mined.  They will keep respawning as they are mined out and will need to be regularly mined to keep them in the system.

Not a lot of interest either in the blogosphere or on the EVE-O forums.  Perhaps it is too early in the process and the experienced players are still digesting all of the information.

Warhammer Online’s Endless Free Trial

Edit: Free Trial Client Click Here

I noticed a Warhammer Online newsletter  in my inbox and it was a slow news day.  Rather than simply feeding it to the trash can, I decided to read it over and saw the following:

WAR Endless Free Trial

We’ll soon be lifting the 10-day restriction on our Free Trial! You’ll be able to enjoy the trial experience and New User Journey for as long as you like!

Blink*Blink*

*rubs eyes*

Yep still there.

If you played Warhammer Online then you would know that some of the best content in the game is the lower level scenarios and open RvR areas.  With the upcoming patch anyone can simply keep an active “trial” account and log in to play low level characters for free.  Perhaps this is the first step in some type of microtransaction/subscription hybrid model utilized in Dungeons and Dragons Online to great success.

I am fairly certain that this will do nothing for those of us with inactive accounts with multiple upper tier characters.  But being able to log in anytime free of charge and play potentially level capped characters in tier one or tier two RvR is very appealing.  The potential for twinking is amazing.  I will be the first to admit that more than a few times I have signed up for the trial and fired up my WAR client for a few days of casual RvR.  Not surprisingly I had no yearnings to reactive my account to play either of my tier 4 characters.

Will it recapture that feeling from beta where everyone rushed to level 12 in one evening and then spent the next few days in Tier 2 open RvR?  Will the mass of players kept at some artificially low level cap provide the critical mass needed to revive lower tiers of the game?

Thank You Jerks of EVE

In my chosen real life profession I am faced with judgment calls to make on a daily basis that greatly impact the life and livelihood of a fellow human being.  Offering someone the bare minimum versus a nice padded settlement only costs me a bit of extra paperwork, but could potentially be life changing for that individual.  I do take my position and authority rather seriously, but often decisions really do come down to a 50/50 chance when you weigh and measure the available information on a claim. 

This is where the EVE pirate and scamming community provides amazing assistance in proper motivation.  Sometimes I feel sorry for the situations that people find themselves in, often is has nothing to do with the action or inactions of the agents of my clients.  But as we may be the closest entity with deep pockets, we carry the brunt of the legal action.  

When faced with these small bouts with my conscience, I find it helpful to read the Crime and Punishment forums for a bit and really brush up on my callousness.  An entire discussion medium entirely dedicated to bragging about how crappy you were to someone else or just how much fun you had raining on someone’s parade.  My eyes narrow, and my irritation with my fellow man reaches new heights.  

So I just wanted to say to all those folks, thanks for being such jerks.

New Sovereignty Mechanics Go Live on SiSi 10/30/2009 @ 17:00 GMT

Fresh off of the presses in this thread here, the new EvE Online Sovereignty system changes will hit the SiSi test server on Friday October 30, 2009 at 17:00 GMT. 

It seems that the speculation can finally come to a close.  The changes should make or break the Dominion patch and have far reaching effects throughout the EvE universe. 

The post from CCP Zymurgist: 

We need some pilots to volunteer and help us test the new Sovereignty system. The test will take place this Friday, October 30, 2009, it will start at 17:00 GMT/UTC on Singularity but we highly encourage you to show up early so we can get you set up in the test Corporations and Alliances. Here is a breakdown of the event: 

• Try to arrive early!
• We will give a short demo on how Sovereignty works in the new system, and divide players into two teams (Red vs. Blue).
• The teams will then play test the new sovereignty mechanics and structures. Don’t worry, CCP Staff will be on hand to answer questions and provide directions.
• Corporations and Alliances will be set up ahead of time so make sure that at the time of the test you are fully able to leave your corporation and join the test corporation (roles removed etc.) or if you have the proper roles, like CEO, we can have your entire corporation join one of the test alliances for the duration of this test.
• The testing event should take about 2-3 hours to complete.
• We are looking to get as much feedback from you as possible during this period.

So if you have any questions please post them here. We look forward to you helping out and test these new mechanics!

Oh and if you didn’t notice, we highly encourage you to show up early!

Zymurgist
Community Representative
CCP Hf, EVE Online
Contact us

 

For help with getting onto the test server, please see this helpful thread courtesty of Eve University.

Gas: Worth the Trouble?

Rather then let so many Ladar exploration sites go to waste I am working on training Gas Harvesting to V so that I can fit five harvesters as well as use the tech II harvesters capable of sucking in 20 units of gas every 40 seconds.  Gas harvesting is luckily both more engaging and more attention requiring than regular mining.  Just messing with you!  It’s just as boring and uninteresting except with some nifty sucking sounds instead of the usual mining laser montage.  I swear that instead of a “nature sounds” alarm clock to combat insomnia, someone needs to make a noise maker that just plays the strip miner sound over and over again. 

Now for the fun part, the math!  A full compliment of Tech II gas harvesters will suck in 100 units of gas every 40 seconds.  That computes to 9000 units of gas per hour assuming you are able to min uninterrupted and have someone emptying your cans for you.  Certain gas types in my little area of low security space sell for upwards of 3000-5000 ISK per unit.  That puts low security gas harvesting at an hourly return of somewhere between 27 million and 45 million ISK per hour. 

This of course assumes that the gas actually sells at that price.  Fro all that I know, low sec gas might be just as readily available in null sec and to wormhole explorers, who likely won’t need or be able to dock up in the nearest market hub for their gas needs.  I went ahead and mined up a thousand units of the local stuff and brought it to Rens to test the waters.

Showing Your True Colors: Why Advertise PVP Intentions?

A perplexing decision seems to have been reached by the vast majority of EVE low sec pirates when it comes to openly declaring themselves as pirates.  I am forced to think of various pirate movies I have seen over the years and how the pirates would often carry and fly flags from various countries, and only hoist the skull and crossbones when they were close enough for the kill.  Often the pirates would lull the merchants into a false sense of security before striking. 

Fast forward to EVE online and I am alone in a low sec system with just myself and my alt.  We are happily hacking away at a regional Sansha computer network when I notice another pilot jumping into system.  I quickly check his bio and see that he has a 5.0 security status and is part of the Tread Alliance.  With just another click I read that the alliance is CVA friendly and practices an NRDS policy.  I return back to the task at hand and don’t even think twice about the other pilot in local.  He leaves the systems several minutes later. 

Twenty minutes later and I am clearing a small Sansha Ship Yard.  Local again ticks from two pilots up to three.  This time when I read the pilot’s biography I see the -9.9 security rating and a big wanted stamped over his picture.  His corp description reads about how they are a low sec pirate/PVP corporation that is currently looking for more members.  Time to dock up!  Less than a minute later I am safely sitting in the station.  The pilot moves on. 

Whether he was a threat to me and my PVE activities at that time was irrelevant.  All too often I find that I have no trouble docking up for safety when the would-be-attacker skulks through the system.  The corporation and alliance descriptions offer instant confirmation of that player’s intentions and allow non-PVP seekers to get their PVE fitted ships out of harms way.  

Why doesn’t some pirate corporation roam the CVA “claimed” low security space regions with a corporation description talking about how they are miners or industrialists?  Pirates of Earth learned hundreds of years ago to not show their true colors until they were just on top of their prey.  Why do the scoundrels of New Eden brazenly provide so much advance warning?

Learning About the On-Board Scanner the Hard Way

Sunday afternoon saw me now out in low security Derelik looking for some Sansha action.  The first order of business was scanning down some exploration sites to run, rather than simply ratting away in an exposed belt.  After all, even if some pirate group entered the system by the time they deployed probes and began to look for me, I would be long since docked up.  

The first site was cleared with little fan fare and I set a course for the second of the five sites that I had scanned down.  A player by the name of Djeepee entered the system just as I began to agro the spawns at the Sansha combat site.  Not concerning myself just yet, I finished up looting and salvaging with my alt on the first site, just as I took out the two battle ship and cruiser spawn that was the first wave of the second site.  

I brought in my alt and opened up the direction scanner and continued to hit the button every ten to fifteen seconds looking for the tell tale sign of scan probes.  At first nothing showed up and I was able to continue killing Sansha while looting and salvaging with the alt.  After I cleared the second spawn and began to work on the third, which was also a two battleship & two cruiser spawn, I now noticed an Ishtar showing up on the directional scanner.  I actually considered docking up for a moment, but again, with no probes in system and me safely tucked away in an anomaly and not exposed in the belt, I considered myself fairly safe. 

I even remember smiling to myself that he must think I am off in a nearby belt ratting and imagined how frustrated this would-be-pirate must be as he checked off nearby belts one by one only to be left empty handed.  There was just one Sansha in this wave left and still no probes.  Perhaps this would be my lucky site and I would get a nice faction spawn, maybe even one of those mythical officer spawns that I had heard so much about.  Visions of billion Isk modules danced in my head.  OMG THERE IS AN ISHTAR IN HERE AND HE’S TARGETING ME!!!!!!!!!!!

 

DONTPANICDONTPANIC

I hit my warp out button as the big heavy battle cruiser slowly spun around and got up to half speed.  I pleaded with the game and tabbed out to my alt to save her and her valuable salvage loot within her cargo hold.  Alas, the telltale warp scrambled broadcast across my screen and I knew my battle cruiser was tackled.  Local stayed with just the three of us as I set all of my drones on this Ishtar and directed fire off of the remaining Sansha BS and onto this foe.

He got in very VERY close and orbited me at 1000 meters.  Ogre II’s began to bite into my armor due to my extremely low resistance to explosive damage.  This fellow did his homework at least.  The Ishtar was down to half armor due to the drones and missile fire, but his armor repairer was coming alive and keeping up with the damage output of the ten small drones and heavy missiles. I highly doubt if my 650mm artillery II cannons ever connected due to the tackle he had on me.  My cap stable tank slowly but surely buckled under the fire and I went slowly from 80% armor down to 40% in just a minute.  I waited for enemy reinforcements that never came and switched my alt from DPS drones to armor rep drones as I tried to force a stalemate and perhaps a negotiation. 

Even with the medium armor drones helping out, my tank could not hold back against the DPS coming through an explosive hole in my tank.  I saw the last of my armor slip away and I fell into structure.  Armor still flashed as the repairer and drones strained to keep the ship alive.  But my attention now diverted to the millions in loot in my alt’s cargo hold.  I recalled her drones and got her out of there.  She was safely in warp by the time the Hurricane popped and I was able to get the pod out of there safely. 

The pirate gave me a nice GF in local and I responded in turn.  He now sat in his 15 minute “time-out” while the game shook its finger at him for attacking someone in low sec as gate guns and station guns would now shoot him on site due to his global criminal status.  As I safely docked my alt and unloaded her cargo, I spoke a bit with this player and he took the time to discuss my mistake with him and explain how the system scanner and directional scanner are used. 

I know it will make me look like a complete noob, but I had no clue that you could scan down anomalies by using your system scanner and visiting all of the planets to scan those areas of space individually.  The whole encounter also is going to help me out in future encounters as I fitted a remote armor repairer on my alt’s Vexor and have plans to get her into some ECM drones to be able to break another solo pirate’s lock onto my ship should the need arise. 

And of course the big question, how much did this little lesson cost me?

 2009.10.12 01:49:00

Victim: Centuri Nova
Corp: Hand of Hermes
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Hurricane
System: Hasateem
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 30005

Involved parties:

Name: Centus Plague Lord / Sansha’s Nation
Damage Done: 17160

Name: djeepee (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.1
Corp: Ratio Decidendi
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Ishtar
Weapon: Ogre II
Damage Done: 12845

Destroyed items:

Proton M, Qty: 970 (Cargo)
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 4
Damage Control II
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 2
EMP M, Qty: 1397 (Cargo)
‘Malkuth’ Heavy Missile Launcher I
Medium Armor Repairer II
EMP M, Qty: 56
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 514 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Acolyte I (Drone Bay)
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 2
N-Type EM Hardener I
Gyrostabilizer II
Cap Recharger II, Qty: 3
‘Malkuth’ Heavy Missile Launcher I
10MN Afterburner II
EMP M, Qty: 28
Armor Thermic Hardener I, Qty: 2 

I believe that it was a net loss of around 15 million ISK once you count out the insurance payout.  Certainly not crippling by any means and at least it was a well learned lesson in scanner usage that I won’t soon forget.