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. 

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Taking this a bit literal aren’t we?

I came to the realization this weekend that high security level four missions are becoming a crutch for me that must be cast off.  Too often, while engaging in other endeavors, I begin to compare the ISK per hour of that activity to running a decent level four mission.  Factor in the added safety and the risk of some sort of low security or null security activity is clearly playing second flute.  

Therefore they have to go.  For me at least; you can still run them if you want.  In the end it just was becoming more of a chore to run them as fast as possible, while looting and salvaging with my alt.  Pick off the frigates as they come in.  HACs go down next followed by the battle cruisers that always seem to take obscene amounts of damage from large turrets, finally begin to work on the battle ships.  Often by this point you are safe to tab out of the game and listen for the sound of the turrets to stop or the out of ammo warning.  Some have spawning waves that require me to be a bit more awake.  Others just have everything arranged nicely and neatly in groups for me to take out one at a time.  Everything is clearly mapped out in the available online and in game resources.  No mess no fuss. 

The spoon fed PVE content was interesting enough, but began to have more of a grind feel to it rather than a sense of adventure.  The EVE experience that I was having was starting to feel all too similar to other games that incorporated PVE grind into them, and this was not what I was looking for.  

The loyalty point rewards were interesting at first, but now with a full set of eight faction turrets, I feel wasteful spending the points and Amarr navy tags on faction fittings to increase my overall DPS by a few trivial points.  I am already nervous enough, at times, flying a ship with a net worth approaching 800 million ISK.  Investing a few hundred million more over the next few weeks from the loyalty points store would push the value of the ship and modules up above what I was comfortable in loosing.  

I had thought about making a push for level five missions with the corporation.  We would have three combat pilots and two logistics pilot, only able to fly tech I logistics for a few more weeks.  But the only corporation that I have high enough standings with is the Brutor tribe, and doing level five missions and bringing well fit battleships through Amamake and Auga just does not appear to be an intelligent decision.  

Someone in the rookie help channel the other week (I know horrible place for information but I am stuck in the channel on my alt for the time being) stated that it was possible to get a level five mission that sends you into high security space.  His statement was that the agent will pick a random direction to send you, and that if the system has a high sec border then perhaps he would send you there.   So I have spent a few evenings flying to Amamake and Auga to request and decline missions.  After about a dozen or so missions declined, I have yet to see one that sends me into high sec.  I had a feeling that this player was not being truthful, but no losses here other than a few minutes of flight time out to low security space.  I will make it a point to keep checking when I am passing through the area. 

Thus Saturday I once again found myself scouting around in low security space to setup a new base of operations.  The area that I selected was lower Derelik in and around the Hasateem system.  The area offered numerous NPC stations to dock at with exploration looking promising on my first pass through.  The system is only ten jumps from Rens and two jumps into low sec.  Thus resupply should not be an issue.  If I outgrow that area, then entrance into northern Providence is just three jumps away.  I had hopes that it would be far enough off of the grid that it would have low pirate traffic, and it seems to be one of those low security areas that CVA claims to patrol and police. 

As I moved assets out to the area (read a PVP frigate, Cov-ops scout, and a PVE anti-Sansha Hurricane) I knew that I had a lot to learn about permanently basing myself out of low sec and 0.0.  The only uncertainty in the whole equation was exactly how much all this much needed education was going to cost me.