Escape Velocity

Shiny New EvE

2012-01-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

I am loving all the little tweaks and fixes being pushed into EvE in Crucible and the subsequent patches, it's really making me enjoy some aspects of the game again. There are still things that need some love and I know CCP will have to get back into adding new content and features soon but here's hoping the fixes keep coming.

I'm also looking forward to the completion of the re-skinning project since that leads to a lot of promise for the millions of hello kitty thorax's we can expect to see if they allow custom skins. But for now I'm enjoying how much better many of the ships are looking.

Getting Whooped

2011-12-18T04:52:00.000-08:00

So, I've been in this game a long time and I'm proud to say I've made a lot of friends. There are some of these friends that I've alienated in the course of this stupid game and given the fact that you can't please everyone, and there are also those very few friends who have accepted me as I am and enjoyed the ride (yep, it got dirty fast!). One of the issues that has always divided myself and many of my friends in this game is their view on many of the fights I take part in... They are of the firm opinion that any fleet that is made of more than 10 people is a blob and that 0.0 alliances somehow cannot PvP by their very nature. They always fail to take into account the strategic significance of 0.0 fights and the fact that sometimes it's better to discourage attacks with overwhelming force than to encourage good fights in a space where you are trying to make a home. Many people seem to forget that as a sandbox game, there are a lot of EvE players out there striving for more than just the next great 1V1 fight. But I hope they never forget that in the crucible that is 0.0, true combat happens daily and I try to prove it whenever I can.

Of all the things I've done in EvE I've never really scrapped a fleet, but I did that tonight in epic style. I'm man enough admit that as an FC I got whooped once tonight and had some success later on. To be fair, the bomber fleet was supposed to be engaging a T1 cruiser fleet but the intel was bit spotty:

http://www.fatal-ascension.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=62102
http://www.fatal-ascension.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=62116
http://www.fatal-ascension.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=62115

A corpie's vision of one of the good fights we had this week

New PC

2011-12-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

With EvE getting prettier and my old graphics cards melting like butter I decided to upgrade to a brand new PC. Wife thinks I went overboard, I think I need a bigger monitor :)

So Pretty

2011-12-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

So, as it's all over the blogosphere; Crucible has landed and it includes some sexy new visuals. For the bitter vets it also includes an array of changes that are both small and huge at the same time. Little things like fixing the font and making destroyers actually work are going a long way in repairing a bit of the rift that had grown between CCP and the EvE community. A lot of people are wondering what amazing things could have been done if CCP had put this type of energy into EvE all along. For my money, I'm so glad these changes have come but I understand CCP's need to expand their repertoire. I do hope CCP keeps up the good work they've displayed with this patch even when they do move back to the other projects they had to put on the back-burner to keep EvE from fail-scading.

For me it's been a good month even if I haven't written anything; I'm lazy :) Had a fair amount of kills http://edk.evemeatay.info/?a=home&m=11&y=2011 and had a lot of fun which is really all that matters. Luckily I was able to do this without getting as much playing time as I'd really hoped for; and also spending about a metric shit-ton of my time doing logistics. I'm looking forward to the new POS fuels personally, but just in case I've put far too much current style fuel in the POS's in the event something goes haywire on us. I was a little sad about the delay in seeding the new fuel BPO's but I managed to get a set for cheap so I'm happy in the end. I'm not sure how much research effort I should put in but it appears I should put in at least some.

-Meatay

Crazy Month

2011-11-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while... again... Taking over as the NT CEO has been a little more time consuming than expected; but in a good way. I've certainly found myself more engaged in the overall game thanks to my duties and as a result have had one of the better months in my career PvP wise: http://edk.evemeatay.info/?a=home&m=10&y=2011

There has also been a lot going on in EvE in general which is exciting. I know it took a near player revolt but I'm really excited to see the new energy in CCP. While I know they can't give up on WIS I'm sure happy to see a little focus placed on FIS now. I'm not exactly sure I like these new tier 3 BC's though. Don't get me wrong, they look great and I've been begging for new ships, but I'm not sure if these are something anyone really wants. Time will tell, and the real world use of course, hopefully I'm wrong. On the plus side we're getting some hybrid gun love, even if it isn't a lot. Hopefully it's a test run and a precursor to further balancing :)

Anyway, have a good weekend.

Capital Re Balance

2011-10-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Capital ship re balancing is coming and it looks like it may be a bigger step than many of the naysayers previously thought. I'm not exactly sure how this will all play out but I am pretty certain there will be some angry super capital pilots. Of course they have spent a lot of time and energy getting that ship so they have a right to be angry but it seems to be the general consensus that the changes are good for EvE.

As a very big fan of my Moros despite it's long lived lack of usefulness to me so far, I'm interested in the dreadnought changes. I am sad to see the Moros' drone bay go away because that was the feature that really made it one of the more useful dreads. It's a bit odd that in buffing dreads they decide to take away a feature BUT; I understand the point being made by removing drones from non carrier capital ships of all sizes (looking at you Titans). I do hope that as a subsequent re balance they decide to give the dreads back their drones. In the long run I know those 5 drones don't make that much difference but I have always found having them much better than not, perhaps that's just the Gallente influence though. I'm interested to see how this plays out and here's hoping my Moros gains a role in fleet fights because I really like that ship for some reason.

Except for ratting carriers I'm not seeing too much change to standard carriers; they will be a little less effective against smaller ships but they aren't losing their standard drone bays so they will continue to be able to field heavy or medium drones to help with these. We'll see if this sees further changes in either direction, I'm sure this will need a bit of tweaking to get just right.

The new logoff mechanic is such a big change and something that I think has been lacking for far too long. I think many will agree that this is an important addition. Still I hope they keep an eye on this to make sure it isn't too far in the other direction. With all of these changes CCP will need to keep to their word and monitor the effects because these changes could have big ripples in EvE that we may not completely realize yet (as these things have been seen to happen in the past).

Also, maybe this will lead to some new ships? Maybe even new capitals?
-Meatay

Site Redesign (and back from summer)

2011-10-06T05:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since this place got a fresh coat of paint. As a part of shaking off the summer rust in EvE I thought I would take the time to spruce things up around here as well. First off I contact Rixx Javix over at Evoganda for a shiny new banner design (which also carries over to my killboard). I really like what he's done with the banner(s), his work is always impressive though.

In other news things have been active but nothing much worth posting about sadly. As a new CEO there is plenty of work to be done in and out of game but luckily the Night Thiefs are a strong group of mature guys and it's been pretty fun so far. There has been plenty of work settling in the new alliance and everyone is trying to shake off both the rust of summer and the distrust of CCP that have combined to make logging in harder and harder this year. I think Helmar's Post goes a long way towards re-establishing the faith that this game won't just up and quit on us in the near future but it's pretty easy to say the right things so I'll be waiting a bit.

Wicked Twisted Road

2011-09-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a long hot summer here and my EvE career has continued to take some twists and turns since I've been away from the blog. I won't kill you with the boring details but to sum up I started by re-joining my original alliance in EvE with a good chunk of my original friends from the game, we took a break from running the alliance and focused on the corporation, the corp CEO took a break and I became CEO and now; I'm back in Fatal Ascension, this time with my fellow Night Theifs behind me.

I've taken quite a long road to be here, having been a part of FA during the fall of Providence up to the early days out in Fountain. It's not always been pretty either but that is probably a tale for another time. Anyway we're now members of FA, hopefully the summer rust is shaking off of everyone, and there should be more tales to come.

~Meatay

The Recruiting Trail

2011-07-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well, as much as we've always tried to avoid it -NT- is finally on the recruiting trail. Check out our post at http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1555012 and at least give us a bump if you aren't interested.

Missed Oppurtunity

2011-07-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was bored so I decided to do a little random flying around in my trusty Nemesis. I managed to find an active group of pilots who were gearing up for something and puttering around in front of a station. Obviously the battleship heavy fleet didn't have much to fear from a single stealth bomber but I did think I had a shot at popping a few of the smaller ships stuck between battleships. I picked out a little flycatcher who was nice and far from the un-dock and looked to be stuck between some Abadons and unable to warp. I setup a safespot on one side of the blob and worked my way to the other so that I could align...bomb...and warp away without too much trouble. I successfully caught the group off guard as no one even bothered trying to lock me but I wasn't able to kill a single damn thing despite getting damage notices on every ship in the system. In retrospect I should have locked the Flycatcher and target painted him. Maybe I should have even thrown a torpedo or two at him prior to warping out. While I hate to have missed out on the kill I am always happy to have a successful bomber run because there are very few things more thrilling in EvE then using a SB. The run needs to be setup perfectly so that you are aligned to warp out, you must time your warp properly so you aren't too early (no detonation) or too late (locked and pointed), and you are in a paper then boat that relies on the first two things being done right as it's tank. Always fun :)

-Meatay

Say what now?!?

2011-07-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=937

I've mentioned this before but it's clear CCP knows that the greatest marketing tool EvE has is the player community and player generated content. Despite that fact CCP has seemingly pursued a general goal of limiting the strength of player content in favor of their own over the past year or more. Now it seems they are asking us to provide more examples of the content they aren't exactly helping us create in order to further their marketing.

I want EvE to succeed because this is really the only game I play and its awesome; so I'm not saying the community shouldn't help promote it. BUT: I do think its kind of a slap in the face to a player-base who just united against content they didn't want. Now they ask them to promote the part of the game they used to have. If CCP was a person I would probably advise they visit a doctor about their unusual mood swings.

-Meatay

Night Thiefs is Looking for PvP Pilots

2011-07-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Night Thiefs is currently recruiting active PvP pilots. If you are looking for a true PvP home with plenty of freedom to handle your business however you like; then come give Night Thiefs a try! With an permanent invite only policy we are only looking for a few fresh faces which we will be interviewing before accepting. You don't have to be the best player in EvE, you just have to be ready and willing to join in some hot and steamy PvP. Of course a limited API will be mandatory.

The blah blah:
-We do PvP and do it well, that's about it.
-We don't care what you do with your free time (in or out of EvE) as long as you can take a joke and like seeing other players go boom.
-The only game play guidance we provide is expert advice on request and designation of main areas of operation.

Mail "Meatay" in game or speak to another Night Thief to discuss joining and plan a short interview.

Why so Serious?

2011-06-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

Noldevin made a nice post right here on this blog the other day and I just finished listening to the Fly Reckless community shoutout Pod Cast in which they make some interesting points but also miss on a few (at least in my opinion). There has also been a ton of talk in chat channels, on the #tweetfleet , as well as the general EvE blogosphere about what is going on. I think there are many people who are missing some of the reasons for this public outcry for two main reasons and countless smaller ones:

They are caught up in the anger of others and/or themselves and aren't seeing clearly, or even considering why they may be so angry.
The general issues aren't affecting their game play so they just see it all as a stupid thing to be upset about.

I would like to talk about some of the reasons I think this past week or so has been so insane in EvE. I believe there are many reasons and some of them are actually old at this point but they created a base for the new anger to build on and "overflow the banks."

Why all the secrecy?

I understand that CCP is a company and as such they have some things they don't want to flat out tell their rivals via a forum post. On the flip side of that coin; there has to be some detail they can share with the player base about upcoming changes or just general ideas that may be kicking around in the office. This seems especially true as the date for a new feature gets closer where the time frame for a rival to use that information is shrinking. There is also the issue of the CSM being held to such tight NDA standards while supposedly being the voice of the players. I think it would go a long way for everyone if the CSM was allowed to pick one thing (by vote) every so often that would be exempt from the NDA, even if CCP forced some things out of contention for this.

There is a general feeling in the older EvE player base that CCP has basically stopped talking to us. This is a company who has grown a lot and as a result their communications with their customers have gone from personal and often direct to being handed out in PR crafted press releases and dev blogs. A lot of people understand this but that doesn't mean it hasn't upset them a bit, even hurt their feelings on some level. This issue was blown to astronomic proportions during monoclegate when CCP could have really cut down some of the fire early but reacted more as a slow moving giant than the plucky little company many of us used to love. That leads directly into the next issue:

Where's the love?

This has been brought up by several on the tweetfleet and in other places and I don't want to exaggerate the truth because some of it is just nostalgia. Still, there was a time when the actions CCP took were directed more by the emergent game play happening in the sandbox than by game play styles they wanted to push down on the players. I have no idea when this changed but for me the last time we saw this was the introduction of the heavy interdictor based on the play style in 0.0 space.

Obviously CCP introduced a lot of their own ideas in that time as well, but it was widely appreciated when something was added that was directly drawn from what we were doing as players. There was a sense that our actions really did matter in shaping the future of EvE on an even grander scale than taking space and destroying alliances. In recent expansions CCP has largely done the opposite while claiming that this is not true. A part of this is the recent treatment of 0.0 space which has not been well accepted by a large portion of pilots.

0.0 is the lifeblood of EvE...

Now; that is very likely an overstatement but it's also important to note that most of the PR push for EvE (prior to Incarna) has basically been a re-telling of player generated content that is happening out in 0.0. They love to brag about giant fleet fights, huge coalitions going to war, and players truly making the sandbox their own in lawless space. However the actions of CCP over the past few expansions have clearly shown that they are more worried about getting new players to swarm into hisec than keeping the most energetic part of EvE alive. Patches have changed the way 0.0 anomalies work several times now, added costs to living in 0.0 on multiple occasions, and have generally been geared at making it less hospitable to live anywhere but hisec.

The addition of Incursions which basically boil down to 0.0 gains in the safety of hisec are another example of this. Ignoring the fact that EvE players are a special breed and many have died thanks to these incursions, it is pretty clear they are meant to be a lure out of null-sec for borderline players.

Many veterans are feeling a cold shoulder from CCP these days as they are actively courting new players with the fruits of veteran labor (a rich game universe) while seemingly not caring if those veterans stick around at all.

Do you think we are stupid?

I understand the tricks of business including the price anchor theory are aimed at making money but to expect to sale virtual goods for more than the real world counterpart is just insane. Many people were upset about this and took to the forums to ask why they thought we were so dumb as to buy a shirt for $20 that could be destroyed by pixel based lazors. This hasn't really upset me that much as I don't have the slightest interest in playing dress up with my characters in EvE, I have the Sims if I want to do that. I looked at that price and said "meh, that's an awful lot, doubt they'll sale many of those widgets." However this is one of the issues that started to push all the recent problems between CCP and it's customers towards an explosion.

Silence is not golden

The "rabble, rabble, rabble" for this started slowly and pretty softly but when the internal newsletter was leaked it got a lot of people thinking. The key points of contest in the news letter were the possibility of selling advancement in EvE for cash. I don't think *most* of us actually thought the news letter was policy but it was clearly very one sided which lead a lot of us to believe it may be indicative of a policy shift taking place. The refusal to tell us, in plain english, whether this was true or not is actually what set off the powder keg in my eyes.

I think it would have been better if CCP had just said "yes, we like the idea of selling you stupid shit for ridiculous prices, and some of that is going to be unicorn ammo!" The silence was taken by many as yes, but it was also taken as a serious slap of disrespect by a pretty big group of players. Then, CCP did the unthinkable, they threw CCP Zulu at us without any answers and told us that was all we were getting. It was too late, by the time Hilmar's internal mail was leaked it was just more fuel on a fire that had grown largely out of control. By that point spin wasn't going to work and even CCP taking the step of bringing the CSM to Iceland didn't appease a lot of players. Many of us have decided to see how that meeting turns out but unless the whole CSM gives us a giant thumbs up I don't think this will be over.

-Meatay

Words in Anger

2011-06-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

So it appears Zulu has finally felt the pressure of our action and not our words, just as they wanted to. In the latest Dev Blog Zulu comes to grips with reality and realizes that we the EVE community will not stand for such blatant bullshit. He claims his rather unfavored post was a result of heat of the moment. I almost forgive him, here's why: While what transpired this weekend was unacceptable to us players, many CCP employees recieved insults, harsh treatment, and hatred that was undeserved. It seems many CCPers are friends, so it is only natural for them to feel anger or frustration in defense of their comrades. I would probably have done the same to be completely honest, though that does not make it any more acceptable. Please remember, I DID say almost.

Is the CSM meeting just a PR stunt? Most likely, but since the CSM answers to the community using it as a stunt would backfire tremendously and just further prove that they are ignored. Hopefully they take what the CSM brings them to heart, for once. Because they are pretty much in the exact same position as this guy...

You guys (and gals), the EVE community, have done an excellent job in showing that our wallets dictate their business, and not the other way around. It is important that we continue to do so, lest CCP make another attempt at emptying them.

That being said, please make sure to contact the CSM and make it extra clear that we will accept no less than a guarantee that there will never be pay to win items. Ignoring our wishes, for CCP, would be like our friend in the picture digging another foot forward.

-Noldevin

Protesting In Jita Today

2011-06-24T19:03:00.001-07:00

click to en-gigantasize

Wow, What a week!

2011-06-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

In the understatement of the century, this is a big week in EvE. Walking in stations (or more accurately, walking around a room trying to figure out why you are there like a frat brother on Monday morning) was already slated to cause some "discussion" among the EvE community. Then, in a comedy of errors, the situation has escalated beyond anything that could have been imagined. For the sake of brevity I will just hit some of the high notes for you:

----------
This CCP internal memo was leaked, it's "Interesting"

This was confirmed as real by CCP Pann

CCP released some news about 3rd party apps that upset about everyone

Amazing unrealistic prices on the new store (for items no one wants anyway) have left many questions in the commnunity

Incarna has been *reported* to cause graphics cards to overheat, even acceptably high quality cards **Note that this did happen to me on a formerly stable system with no overclocking**

Helicity Boson has been banned -- although I am a bit happy to see his tears as the organizer of Hulkageddon

CCP Pann is the first to come out of hiding

Some of EvE's major community contributors are up and quitting: Here and Here and others but I didn't feel like looking everything up.
----------

As you can see, there is A LOT to talk about here. I don't think I can cover all of this and I don't even know how much I care to. Instead I want to talk about why there are so many problems with the changes and why so many people are upset, at least in my opinion.

The first and most obvious problem was that there was some misdirection leading up to this launch which I can only assume was meant to keep the "bitter vets" on a low key as CCP was actively courting new types of players into New Eden. I'm not sure what CCP thought would happen when everyone realized they had been lead down an alternate path, but I think the reaction was more venomous than they expected. This lead to CCP making the decision to circle the wagons and try to wait out the storm by not really making any public reaction. They probably couldn't have made a worse decision short of just posting on the forum HTFU and locking it down. The player base worked themselves into a fury as only EvE players can do, and the fire was far too hot to put out by the time CCP broke out the water buckets.

The second major issue I see is that EvE is a very (very!) complex game and even casual players have put a lot of thought and effort into being a part of it. No matter the intended direction CCP has allowed a feeling to creep into the community that they want to make this game "easy" now; so that they can get new people to play. Their actions leading up to this release have all been geared at getting players back into high security space: from the nerfing of null sec anomalies to the incursions that basically serve as hisec anomalies. CCP has seemingly made a point of stomping out emergent gameplay in the past few months. EvE is a game that is about as boring as watching paint dry when played by the original CCP rules, so you can imagine the backlash to losing the "fun" things to do in the game. Now, I don't know if this was CCP's intent at all, but they allowed that feeling to grow from the initial seed into a terrifying force in the community without ever stepping in to clarify.

Another big issue was the claim that was stated over and over again: Incarna was something that the EvE player base REALLY wanted. In truth most of us understood that it was necessary for the growth of the game but I don't think many of us actually cared whether or not we ever got it. In fact I believe most current EvE players would have chosen a single new ship for each race over being able to see our bodies in the game. When you first start in EvE it takes about a week to get used to the idea of a spaceship avatar, and then it's over, you never care about not having an avatar again. In my opinion if CCP had been honest and told us that they had to do this to keep the game relevant or risk us all loosing it forever: everyone would have been happy to help, most would have even been nice about it. Instead they chose to try revisionist history and tell us that this is something we always wanted.

At this point the overall fire has reached a pretty serious point and there have been a lot of mistakes from both the players and CCP. I'm not sure where this is headed but I do know I've already turned off my station graphics so that I can get back to playing EvE. For me, Incarna is a non-issue until they take away the option to leave the station off. I'm not going to quit EvE, even though I did consider it for a moment, but I'm also not even going to open the new store again because I really don't care about my avatar having a monocle that could buy me a new carrier.

-Meatay

Piling on CCP

2011-06-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

First off, don't forget to set long skills training for the upcoming Incarna release. CCP has made incredible strides in streamlining patch day since I first started playing but I think we can all expect some growing pains when adding a whole new technology to the game.

Many people have been jumping on CCP lately, but I plan to reserve my judgement for Incarna, at least for a while. While it isn't something that is very important to me I understand the reason it is necessary within EvE. New players look at this game with a reference and fear that nothing else on the market can match. Getting those new players to stick around is going to take something that they can sink their teeth into, and considering the time it takes to even get a ship worthy of PvP that something is going to be Incarna. I'm sure there will be players who never un-dock thanks to the new feature, but there are already a lot of those thanks to an odd pleasure they get from being in Jita. So even though I'm not all that excited about the new feature I think it will end up being good for the game: *as long as* CCP continues to care about ships in space and doesn't focus entirely on a feature that is aimed at WOW players.

I do want to give CCP some recognition for handling the lulz DDOS attack pretty well. They seemed to put in a lot of honest effort and did a pretty good job of updating the player base. I think everyone understands that there were some "op-sec" concerns with giving out details too early and the updates we got were just fine in my opinion.

I'd also like to thank CCP for the much improved alliance tournament coverage. Although we weren't able to watch the first rounds, and I missed much of last weekends rounds with RL, what I did catch was very well done. It was a lot more exciting than the US Open.
--Congrats to Hydra Reloaded--

-Meatay

Alliance Tournament and Random Updates

2011-06-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) I haven't been able to log into EvE very much because of the beautiful weather here in NC, USA. I've read a bit about the Alliance Tournament but haven't been able to catch any of the matches. What I've read has made this sound like a pretty good tournament though; although some teams are obviously playing things close to the vest (PL for certain). I'm looking forward to the matches hitting YouTube a bit down the line. I found it very nice of CCP to have a series of "Pick the Winner" contests during the tournament @ http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1525902

I was pleasantly surprised on catching up with the news today that CCP will be implementing an option on Captain's Quarters, at least for a period: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=922 This is great for me because I have an older computer that I like to play EvE on so that I can have separate controls in some situations. I'm going to update/replace that computer but the longer I can put it off, the better it will make the issue for a lazy bum like me.

I've gotten out of the loop in 0.0 politics pretty quickly in the short time I've been away, especially because things have been moving very quickly for certain segments of the 0.0 population. Delve is an interesting hotbed of activity and a very convoluted political structure which includes old blues, new blues, sometimes blues, and just about every kind of political relationship in EvE. I'm not really sure what is going to happen there because there are a lot of old and new "big players" with at least some presence or stake in that area.
The "fall" of the NC is still ongoing although the news now focuses more on those leaving and the actions of those who have already left. I'm interested to see where the DRF make their next move and if they are concerned at all with the growth of old enemies in the south.

I have managed to get in on a few kills with one of our random wardecs as well as some other action despite my short time playing. We are pulling out of the current wars because we have a series of major changes coming down the pipe and we need to be free to make those steps without other concerns.

-Meatay

Summers in EvE

2011-05-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

Summer is barely underway and I've already started to notice a downturn in activity in New Eden. This happens almost every year as students head home/abroad and weekend days are spent outside. I have certainly felt it myself as I have been on vacation or outside instead of in game for at least the past week. This really provides a nice downtime to help stem the burnout many people are probably reaching at this point, especially given the hectic year it has been for some alliances.

Personally I hope to spend the summer with at least a toe in the waters of New Eden, even if I don't log in anywhere near as much as I normally would. Hopefully this will be a good time to tick off some of those extremely long skill training paths that are so hard to start when you are logging in more often. Perhaps I will have my fully maxed out T2 guns for all races by the end of the summer? In reality I'm sure I'll be sidetracked by a shiny new skill (as I always am) and be only a little closer to my plans.

I do certainly plan to enjoy my summer though with as much EvE as I can fit in. For those of you who won't be on until the days get short again, fly safe!

-Meatay

Enjoying PvP - My Path

2011-05-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

I don't mind saying that for much of my EvE career I wasn't really that "in" to PvP. I never really minded going on roams or joining ops for the good of the corp/alliance but it wasn't really something I sought out. Over time I did come to enjoy seeking kills a bit more but always hated the "inconvenience" of PvP. By that I mean the trouble getting properly fitted ships to a target location and then re-shipping if you lose them.

Recently though, I feel like I've found my "groove" as far as PvP goes. After completing cross training on cruiser sized hulls I found that there were many ships out there that I was missing (such as the Hurricane) which make PvP a lot more fun. I discovered that it is important to find some ships you like flying because it makes it a lot more fun to go out and shoot people. Even if you end up flying something different occasionally because of fleet needs you will still have a ship out there that you like to fly waiting for you.

It's also important to find good people to fly with, and I can't overstate that part enough! One of the great things about AoV is that (despite being a PvP alliance) no one hassles you about stupid losses on the kill board. I've had many stupid losses so I should know. I have always hated corps/alliances that fuss at players for losses. Unless they are out there specifically trying to junk up your kill board you should just be happy they're out there and willing to fight. It's also important to find a group that makes it fun. Good FC's help but if you don't like the people you are roaming with you won't be very likely to do it again.

As a cap pilot I have a bit less trouble these days getting my ships around; but if you aren't a cap pilot make friends with one. Be willing to light him cynos every so often and throw some fuel (or gas money) his way if you ask him to move some ships for you. More often than not he will be happy to help you get your gear to where ever it's going.

Also, get new shinies like a fresh KB :)

-Meatay

New Shinies - My New KillBoard

2011-05-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

I have experimented with the Eve-dev killboard before but decided to give it another try today. I had to go through several updates and I'm still trying to get older mails accurately updated but it's been a good start:

http://edk.evemeatay.info/

Obviously there is some work to do in the looks department which is something I need to do a little research on. If anyone out there can help me out here I would be very appreciative.

-meatay

Relaxing in EvE

2011-05-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted, mostly because of vacations and general lethargy. Not a whole lot happened in the past week or so except for the loss of two interdictors in a row http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9607 & http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9608. That Sabre had seen me through a lot of good fights and I was a bit sad to see it go, but learned a lesson about keeping alignment up when facing Machariels. Don't be lazy kids, keep moving to stay alive.

I was going to post something about the jump bridge changes but actually decided against it. I'm not upset with the changes themselves but I would like to ask CCP for some clarification on one thing. It seems they love to promote player driven play with their words but they work so hard to break up actual player content in favor of content that they direct. That's pretty much my only opinion on the subject as the only people this is really going to hurt are the guys who have to set the jump bridges up and negotiate JB systems amongst allies.

-Meatay

Roaming Under the Influence: part Duex

2011-05-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

I had the whole weekend off (wife was out of town) so I settled down for a bit of EvE. It was certainly an interesting time. As AoV continues to regroup and wind down from the exceedingly intense activity of earlier this year we are settling back into what we do best; PvP. We do have plenty of logistics still on the board as well as commitments to other entities that we won't ignore but all in all we're getting back to a bit of "business as usual."

As a part of that I've been trying to do my part and improve my abilities in the realm of PvP. I'm not trying to bite off more than I can chew so for now that has been limited to attempting to stir up fights and small roams with relaxed rules (this weekend's was another drunk roam which is always fun). It turns out it isn't very hard to stir up fights if you bring the right bait, but that's a story for another time (maybe I'll let noldevin tell this one). This weekend's version of the party roam also wasn't shaping up too well until we decided to pack it in and head home. At which point we managed to run into this unusual fleet: http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=9354 and http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=9355 (two parts because of two different systems). Following this little gem we were baited by a pair of Ravens with a >40 man gang attached; which we sveltely out maneuvered (ie ran away from). As this was the end of our op we waited these guys out and continued to head home after being sprung by a nearby blue fleet who cleared us a path.

The rest of the weekend was taken up by a bit of logistics (to you guys who are waiting on me to move things for you I promise to get around to you) and hopping on to some other fleets that were bouncing around. One of these turned out to be at least interesting if not exactly a full success. A small group of alliance-mates were burning down a POS in lo-sec to stir up fights and apparently annoy a corporation for fun (I didn't ask why). I decided to hop on over and throw some dps of my own into the fire.

I'm really not sure what was going on in the target corp but they started by bringing in 3-5 complete failures of cyno attempts (and the odd PvP ship) which either died or left the fight. Eventually they managed to get a stable cyno up and promptly jumped an Erebus on us (50 KM from the POS shield). The pilot had obviously meant to bridge a PvP fleet in and both sides cleared the field as we had no clue what was going on until we had a second to digest what just happened. After the laughter wore down in voice chat I went for a scanning boat but the Erebus had already worked out his return cyno by then. Sad to not get a titan kill but if you have never been fail dropped by an enemy titan I would suggest the experience. From the obligatory "what's an Erebus" in fleet to the chatter that this generated in local I haven't laughed so hard in EvE in quite sometime. If I can dig up the local logs I will post them later, once I edit them to take out some of the off topic chatter that was also going on.

-Meatay

Old Friends (faggy friendship post)

2011-04-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

Many of us have probably forgotten our first months of Eve by now, probably including the people you flew with (that is, if you even had friends)...

I haven't. My starting months in Eve are what made me fall in love with this game, and I have never found anything like it since. When I joined the Aurelius Federation most of us were total noobs. We learned, grew, and adapted together. We died in a fire in our first wardec together - yes that's right, we actually FOUGHT VALIANTLY in a wardec, something you almost never see anymore. We did get a couple kills, though it was more of a failed bum-rush than actually fighting. It was some of the most fun I've ever had in any video game.

Aurelius Federation has since disbanded, and many of the members have left Eve for almost a year.... Until this month :D

This month saw the return of Mendolus and Kuroda Tsu, my fellow officers in AU-F. Out of everyone in Eve, I talked to them the most and developed a friendship that will probably extend beyond Eve. Also returning (and already in -NT- with us) is Falgoria, our resident fail expert and secondary sarcastic smartass. I'm the primary of course.

I'm quite looking forward to much epic YARR with all of them and their return has re-boosted my interest in Eve greatly. Now if only days were 5 hours longer >:D

-noldevin

What a view

2011-04-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

  Jumping onto the new test server (Duality) to see the new Captains Quarters. It's certainly different having a body in EvE and I would recommend you go check it out.

*Edit: if you want to check out Singularity (SiSi) or Duality I suggest you use the tool that CCP has created vs. the old method of downloading the clients manually. Check out this thread for details and an official download link http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1377944

  One thing I would like to have changed is the scaling of ships from the balcony. CCP has always tried to express just how massive these ships are but when you look out over the balcony everything seems small. I understand that they need to scale it to fit in the most massive ships but hopefully they will add in some auto-zooming or something to work on this.

  For example, even a Thanatos looks a bit puny:

While the Moros looks a lot more like I was expecting (because it's really really big )