Incarna - how many folks will it turn away?!

I am a huge fan of change and game progressions. I really truly am to the point of spending cash to buy additional content etc. For the most part added content and features are happy times for the players of a game and a sign of a game developers longevity. I just don't get how captain's quarters and this silly vanity item shop gives any EVE player a chubby!?

Lets review the patch shall we:

1: So we get to strut about in a small dimly lit room, forced to wear cloths, and experience buggy shading and horrendous video card requirements for it. Um yeah, nice job. Certainly worth a day of downtime, client disconnects, and loosing half my active corp members while they figure out if they need to buy a new PC, or just turn that shit off.

2: Animated turrets and stuff. This is actually pretty damn cool for the first 2-3 times you undock a ship and shoot some thing with it. Sadly the animations require you to be zoomed in to really see them. Great for the EVE movie makers, a meh for the folks who actually want to fight.

3: "micro" transaction Vanity items. OK it seems like micro in Iceland has been miss translated to MASSIVE. I mean OH MY F##KING GOD a plex =3500 AUR. Seriously spending $15 for some boots that suck!? Looking at the VAST selection of available cloths, that all look like some messed up, bad porn spoof of a WW2 Uniform. Folks missed the mark, and I mean shooting at jita and hitting SKG-PY kind of off the mark. FAIL!!!!

4: Agent finder: GREAT, it's pretty much a built in version of http://eve-agents.com. So for us agent based carebear PvE types, it's one less bookmark in the in game browser. It does mean we can start conversations with that agent with one less copy and paste. So hey, Nice job, really I like it.

5: other crap. Some one told me salvages have a longer range now. That's nice. I now have this feature where my clients randomly disconnect. great I guess. My undock button comes and goes, as does local/corp chat channels. Awesome, those are dull anyways. I need to dig in an extra layer when trying to move stuff from my ship to the corp hangers now. Steller.

I know at least 5 people in my VERY small list of close associates in EVE who are pretty much unable to play the game at the moment. Either through needing a hardware upgrade, or horrendous issues with the game. I know at least 3 of those will probably walk away. So lets see how that might scale. 300k subscribers. If in 1 in every 50 players rage quits because of this patch, that's what 6000 people out the door. That's US$90,000 a month in lost subscriptions... Ah well DUST 514 will save CCP...

All grumbling aside, I hope the game does not suffer for this. I hope CCP gets a clue about the definition of micro, and stabilizes incarna. Makes it worth the time to be the cyber punk full body avatar with out COMPLETELY forgetting what EVE is, an Internet SPACESHIP game. I mean one real rival game, and New Eden will be dust and dried up pod fluid. I mean really if BioWare made a MMO Masseffect with more space combat....Ponder that a sec CCP.

Fly safe, or sit blandly in your dark cell.

Cheers

EVE SOB

EVE gets DDoS hacked

I was just logging in today when boom, all three of my accounts disconnect. Sockets close, corrupt sessions and no love trying to log in.

Hit http://eve-offline.net/ and watched as everything but Serenity turned to a red circle with a big X in the middle. Then I hit the EVE Online facebook page and read the news about the attack and the measures taken.

So a lot of $5 fools were on facebook complaining about the game being down and demanding it be bought back or free ISK/Skillpoints/ponies be given out. The older wiser $150 fools were glad that they set long skills to train. The $1000 fools like myself were hoping that this day would end with out some 14 year old ordering porn with my creditcard information. /emote prays his card is not being entered into -censored-.com

Seems like the world of the 14 year old pimply geeks with a love for basement air and mothers fine microwave cooking is a buzz these days. I mean playstation network, nintendo, and now EVE Online. Seems like gamers are targets and one can only wounder how long it will be before blizzard is in the news for a hack attempt on WoW. Gasp the 14 year olds are attacking each other...Old farts like me best go back to simple games like pong if we want to be safe.

Well I am off to see what is outside of the basement. Perhaps I'll watch a movie with my kids, mow the lawn, take a walk, or grill a tasty steak. I am sure CCP will get the firewall rules fixed and the environment back online soon enough.

Cheers

EVE SOB

P.S. lets really hope no private User information was gained.

On the go sob #4

Sunday here in the real world. I've started to grind another R&D agent Corp standings. Having got all Lai Dai level 4 agents unlocked. It is now time for CreoDron. Doing distribution agents as couriers take me about 3 mins each and I can churn out those and storyline missions quick.

Ice prices in lonetrek have started to fall and frankly if I see another ice field in June I'll hurl. It had been a good run paying for a Charon, bustard, vexor, and hulk. With some extra healthy padding to the wallet.

This week it is off to remote mining systems to massacre rocks for a second orca, 5 ravens, and another Charon. I can almost solo mine (with three accounts) a Charon in 8 days. So with the Corp now with 5+ active hulk pilots. We should knock it out pretty quick.

Well off to the pool with the family.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Where in the universe is EVE SOB – June 2010

It is time for this month’s “Where in the Universe is EVE SOB” post where every month I summarize where I am at in EVE. I also throw in some real world stuff and the top CNN headline of the day for a historical WTF was the world doing back then element.

Time keeps on slipping into the future. DAMN IT ALL!

So records indicate the last WUES was in DECEMBER 2010! Um yeah, sorry about that. What can I say, been lacking in the blog inspiration fund for a while. However with the new folks in the corp. and some interest in PvP and well the current ice prices in lonetrek. Activity has been enough that I find myself with that itching burning sensation to blog. (TMI?! OK noted)

Warning issued that it's still going to be highsec carebear stuff for the most part. It might well cause a few comas in the readers, but well why have a blog if you don't post eh? Hold on I am about to turn this thing up to MAX and get it spinning at a blistering 2 RPM.

So what am I doing:

hmm... Let's see. I/we the executive committee responsible for healthcare for Space Hermits corporation are seeking young and eager pilots to join our organization. As such ranks are growing and the potential to inflict some serious harm on asteroids and frigate belts rats has grown. This in turn means we can build it. Well most stuff that is and slowly find our little crew entering the capital ship market. WOOT!

With Ice as high as 190,000ISK a block in and around Jita. I also find myself spending mind numbing amounts of time in an Ice belt these days. I mine 112 blocks an hour which nets me about 20 Million ISK and I do this semi afk while I chat and work for 6-8 hours. So sitting about I make about 120-160 Million ISK 5 days a week. Yes I could make that easier in Null sec ratting sure, or moon mining in Low. I could sure, but I drag and drop 2 items every 4 minutes and stack and sort and haul about once every hour. really 120-160M ISK a day for that kind of focus is pretty darn cool. Sure I could trade and make more with less effort. I agree, once I have the trade skills and the capital.

So why do I need ISK? Who does not need it right!? Well I am building a capital BPO set which falls into the "NOT FREE" bucket of stuff in EVE. Short term goals will cost me about 5.8 Billion in BPOs.

Things I am training:

SonOfBraben: Ice processing V, because I hate waste and the POS is hungry. After that more manufacturing skills, and perhaps a thanatos skill set for fun.

ZombiNutz: getting all missile skills to T2 IV from rockets-torps. Then I got my eye on a HAC build and a nice hurricane build. Should keep me busy for a bit.

Sister jayde: Meet sister jayde, the third accounts main. She is finishing her exhumers V training. Then she will hand the queue over to an alt to grind down the requirements for a RHEA. Said alt can pilot and has a Charon. this third account is proving very handy.

Real Life Stuffs:

In short. Kids are growing and doing great. Mrs. SOB still loves me. The summer in the USA is oddly hot for this time of year. tornadoes where they should not be. I got a new grill, and some nice grass fed beef. So life is good.

Work is busier than ever and my EVE time limited as a result. Hence the semi afk ice mining :) If work wants me 14 hours a day, they can deal with me dragging and dropping ice every 4 mins and hauling once an hour.


CNN Headline for Today:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/08/weiner.risk.behavior/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Cheers

EVE SOB