Everyone does it once...

At least I'm going to tell myself that is the case. If I am deluding myself, well, let me have my delusions.

We all know the advice that everyone tells us. "Check your flight route, don't use autopilot in or around low-sec, make sure your route isn't going through low sec, etc." And this is a practice that I live by pretty rigidly... except for yesterday. I was busy flying around fitting up my Myrm for missioning - something that I've been waiting to do for a while now. I browse the market for cheap mods in a close general area, set up my way points, undock, hit AP and then go to change my sons diaper.

I failed to check my flightpath, I think it was because I was sticking to the general area that I know very well. But as it happened I mixed up two similarly named systems in my head. One is .6, the other is .4. Guess where I ended up? By the time I returned from the aforementioned diaper change had ended up back at my clone station staring at the clone tutorial. All said and done it was probably a 100mil ISK lesson to learn, but I learned it the hard way and now I'm better for it.

So I will repeat the oft heard advice: "Don't autopilot through or to lowsec. Always check your flight path before you hit that auto-pilot button."

But most importantly, don't worry about it too much when you fuck up and learn the lesson the hard way. I think we all have to do it at least once.

OMG IT'S FULL OF STARS!!!

I was again overwhelmed by the sheer massiveness of Eve Online yet again today. As I mentioned in an earlier post, some friends and I are looking to expand into running a POS. Again, I am not sure what the endgame of all of this is going to play out to be, but it gives us something to do. I've started looking into just the basic information and I find myself flooded with issues like Faction, Charters, Fuel, Configuration, Skills, and so forth. Even just getting a handle on one miner/minor (pun intended) aspect of the game is rather awe inspiring. I will say there are some aspects of the game that don't play out as evenly as other games more concerned about 'balance' would need. However, in Eve you don't need entirely balanced game play in order to create a vibrant world. In fact I would argue that the world is more vibrant because it isn't balanced. Yes, I have a friend who is essentially and Eve day trader. He spends most of his time as a dock walker managing buy and sell orders. He has more ISK that is healthy and will probably be the primary bankroll to our POS adventure. I don't make nearly as much of him with mining and in many ways my role takes a bit more attention. But this is okay, because in the end not everyone in a world has to earn the same amount of ISK to enjoy the game.

In a related note, my alt is almost maxed out as a Mining Director/support character. He also has a plethora of combat skills, so I'm now looking to start him running some missions while my main plays Salvage monkey. That way both can start to sweep up some reputation and the benefits that brings. The universe is truly full of starts, and I'm going to enjoy picking one and hitting my jump drive.

NERD RAGE GO!

Okay, bit a nerd rage moment here. Downloading the update for Heavy Rain so I can play. This is a 226MB upload, not a huge download, but something that takes more than a minute or two. Halfway through the download my internet burps. I'm signed out of the PS network and the download fails. Go back in, it starts AT THE BEGINNING and gets 71% done before giving me a repeat performance.

Why is it that the PS3 can't use a BitTorrentesque download structure so failed downloads can be resumed? Yes, grand total I probably lost less than 15 minutes of my life to this annoyance, but it is an avoidable one.

Oh well.

Life and such

So, being a stay at home father has not translated directly into the amount of Eve time I thought it might. This isn't so much because the needs of the baby but because I'm looking to put my house on the market and the needed repairs and cleaning are monumental. That aside, I have been getting back into Eve and a few friends of mine are looking to set up our own POS - a huge undertaking, but something new and fun for us.

Hopefully I'll be able to blog a bit more about that undertaking and how it is going but right now I'm going to go try to slide through some of Heavy Rain.

Epic Fail

I've fallen drastically behind on my posting due to a large influx of real life. In the past month I have done the following:

• Witnessed the birth of my first child
• Survived the holiday madness including transporting said child to several family gatherings
• Gotten back into Eve as mining makes for a good profession while waiting for a baby to cry
• Managed to avoid joining the ranks of the many unemployed for now

So with my return to Eve I can say fairly certainly that not too much has changed for me with the release of Apocrypha. Mining wasn't touched too much by the last expansion, though since I stick to high-sec I also haven't seen the changes that have been brought about by sovereignty. I have, however, reached many of my short term goals for both of my accounts. So now I get to start to head down some new paths.

Before I begin to venture too aggressively into the world of potentially doing low-sec mining I think I'm going to explore missioning. Fortunately one of my characters is already well on his way to being able to handle some serious missioning. The other character is going to work on raising his drone skills and exploring some more defensive skill sets. I have seen some pretty impressive examples of what a properly fitted Hulk can withstand. I need to explore this more before taking my baby into risky waters.

All in all I'm looking forward to a good year in Eve. It will probably be vastly different from my past year.

From a Carebear to all Assholes

You know, I'm sick of hearing people shit on "Carebears" and talk about them in such a derogatory term. The vast majority of human society is made up of "carebears" if you take the standard PvP definition. Because I don't enjoy hunting down people who are minding their own business, perhaps missioning or mining, and blowing them up or stealing their crap I'm a "carebear."

Since when is not being a dick a bad thing? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there aren't people who whine and complain far too much in the game. If your Orca or your Hulk gets blown up you are undoubtedly going to be pissed, and yes, chances are the guy who just popped you is a raging asshole. Venting a bit and complaining about how much that asshole is an ass does not, in my opinion, make you a overly cuddly person. People, however, take it to far and fail to realize that ship loss and PvP are part of the game.

But, on the other hand, there are a fair number of "pirates" who are just childish assholes in the game. Suicide ganking a hulk just to piss someone off? You are an asshole. Flying around popping people in newbie ships just because they are a fun target? You are an asshole. If you fly around baiting people merely so you can blow up their ship, you are an asshole.

I have no problem with pirates who make piracy their way of life. They do it for salvage, they do it for cargo, they do it for ransom, they do it for whatever reason they want, that is fine. But people who log on just to be a dick to other players in the game are assholes. Remind me to call you a "carebear" next time someone beats you to a pulp for being an asshole and you go complaining to the police.

(Note - this isn't a response to http://alexiamorgan.blogspot.com/2009/09/carebears-need-to-harden-fuck-up.html and while the post by Alexia was meant more as Satire than as opinion it unleashed my Carebear Rage)

Fun vs. Addictive: a reply

Recently Rakanishu over at Level Cap posted an article about  games being fun vs. addictive. I found it rather amusing considering my last post was about how thought, jokingly, that I might be addicted to Eve. Certainly online games have an addictive quality to them. They provide constant and on going challenges, there isn't a specific ending in mind for characters so there is always more to do if you so choose. I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing or if this takes away from the fun of a game.

I might be addicted...

You know you might have an Eve problem when you have this phone conversation:

Me: Hey man what's up?
Friend: Not much, watching tv with my wife. Why'd you call?
Me: Ummm I'm out at rehearsal till 10:30 and I just checked and I only have 2 hours left on a skill and nothing queued.
Friend: Okay....
Me: You mind logging in on my account and queuing up Exhumers 5 for me?
Friend: *sigh* Sure... hold on...

Yeah, you know it's a problem when missing 4 or 5 hours of skill training time upsets you enough to call in backup. At least $15/month is cheaper than heroin.

Multi-Tasking while Mining

So, I'm sure if you are a miner you've done it. You've dumped your cargo hold into a waiting jetcan or Orca and then run to get a soda, or use the bathroom, or take a shower. In fact, I have many daily routines now worked down to the point where I can effectively accomplish them between cycles. I'm sure when my wife gives birth I'll be able to prep a bottle or change the baby in the same time span in short order.

The point is that mining doesn't always require undivided attention. Now, there is always the chance that a two minute distraction will lead to far more than two minutes and you'll return to this. But the chances are that most of the time you are safe. Pull in your mining drones, set the drones on the Orca to protect you and your danger is minimal.

But even I'm actively at the computer I'm doing things in the foreground while I mine waiting for the sounds of turrets to rouse me from my slumber, or the computer informing me it's time to target another rock. I've posted to this blog, I've shot the shit in Corp Chat, I've worked on websites. And then I discovered the joys of Hulu. I can run two Eve clients, one on each monitor and staple Hulu in the upper left hand corner of one monitor and watch episode after episode of shows from Dead Like Me or Death Note to simply classics like Highlander.

So what do you do while you grind the rocks?

ISK for ObelISK

Well, I've almost gotten to the point where I can fly an Obelisk. Now the one thing stopping me is ISK. As we speak I am training up Advanced Spaceship Command and then I have to drop 90,000,000 on Gallente Freighter. Once that is out of the way I merely have to scrape up the 800,000,000 for the Obelisk itself. Fortunately, one of my Corp mates builds them and has one he said he'd hold onto until I could get the cash together. I'm starting to get to the point in the game where accumulating large stockpiles of wealth are possible.

Soon I'm going to have to turn to missioning for standings. Any recommendations on that front will be welcome. Are you familiar with Zoars and Sons? Give me some pointers!