EVE Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year where most Americans be they resident or citizen of all religions (for the most part) prepare for the annual Thanksgiving day feast. I was not born here and hence not educated via the US schools. So at first this holiday appeared to me as a practice run for Christmas dinner with some elements of "Boxing day" thrown in. I still joke with my family back in Australia about it being a dressed rehearsal for Christmas dinner.

I've lived in the US now for over a decade and even sadly speak Bostralian now over pure Australian. Over the years my views on thanksgiving have altered slightly. I've come to understand the holiday more as a time to lay aside our differences and give thanks for all the things in our life that defines it. Thanking the good people for loving us and sharing their life with us in happiness. Thanking the Jerks in our life for defining what we dislike in others (someone has to do it). Thanking the dog for being a brainless stomach and chewing up our socks. Thanking our co-workers for various things both good and bad they do throughout the year. It's a time of settling our differences and being grateful for being above ground. The rest of the year we can stomp around miserably and curse it all, but this day everyone should get over them self and give thanks. Kind of a cool idea I think even if we should aspire to do this more than once a year. Oh and we get to eat Silly amounts of roast turkey , veggies, and 2-3 different kinds of pie!

So thanksgiving week on this blog I'd like to thank a few folks in the EVE community:

1: I'd like to thank HellGodofWar for reminding me that Hulks explode when you do stupid things with them. Like flying the through lowsec entry systems without a scout. Thanks Buddy. However trade the drake in for some DPS, that was painfully long. Cudos on the pro-bump when I tried to reproach. Kill mail here

2: I'd like to thank the 5 new pilots who have joined HCSH. Wish I saw you all on more and did not have to think you were ALL waiting to steal my stuff. If you need anything let me know (except all my stuff).

3: I'd like to thank all pirates, ninjas, suicide gankers, and colorful local smack talkers for the entertainment value they bring to EVE every single damn day.

4: I'd like to thank Logan, Kirth, Rixx, and all the other bloggers who have always given me good advice. Hope your RL lets you get your PvP one more. Special thanks to Astral Domnix for being a himself and recommending I join his corp. moments before he left it. I've had some fun and made some great friends as a result.

5: I'd like to thank "The Sarj" for being himself. He may never read this but thanks all the same you Twat!

6: I'd like to sincerely thank Paul a real life friend who convinced me to play EVE. He emo rage quit the game 3 months later over Ninjas in his missions, but with out his suggestion. I'd be out there some palce else finding reasons to quit WoW. That is truly something to be thankful for.

7: I'd like to thank Mom and the other souls who choose to read this blog. I truly don't understand why you read about my EVE life. It's not THAT awesome compared to the high rollers who shoot people in the face. Thanks all the same as it gives me something other than myself to write for. Love you Mom!

What are you thankful for in the EVE sense?

Cheers

EVE SOB

Slow week.

This past week has been slow for me in terms of EVE. I've not been able to log much active time for EVE. Real life is busy and the remodeling of my "evespace" has put a serious dent in my play time as well.

So what good has come this week. What can I blog about in the EVE world. There are a few things.

#1

A new "expansion" has been announced. So far not to thrilled about fixing lag or EVEgate. Planetary structures sound cool and could be considered a big part of SC-FI space fun. My fear is that it will be too expensive for the new player to undertake or become the new public research LAB, where finding a slot to actually take part will require long waits or moving out into unsettled areas. We shall see how it all pans out.

#2

A post on Dense Veldspar called "What is a carebear?" got me thinking about my life in highsec. I think the definition of the carebear is a good one, being some one who hates conflict so much they want to change EVE to avoid it. Simple answer, GO PLAY FREAKING SECONDLIFE!

I choose to live a passive life right now, as I am on a self imposed path of industry. This path however has a long term focus to get me to a more PvP focused life in EVE. Does this mean I consider myself a carebear, not really. I've called myself one but I never really considered myself a person who did not like a good fight. I've lost a ship to another player once thus far. This was a corp. mole who decided it was AWESOME to gank my retriver and badger from the safety of the corp I was a member off. Not thrilling nor exciting. Actually kind of sad really. ;)

A lot of the true reason behind not loosing more ships lies in the stark reality that I have not actually gone looking for a fight. I just don't belive I have the base skills to do much more than die and loose ISK right now. This will change once construction of my new EVESPACE is done. I plan to Cristen the space with a trip into lowsec to learn how to die well.


#3

What's your "EVESPACE" is a current theme filtering around the blogs. Mine right now is a whole lot of plaster waiting for the inside seams to be drawn down with the 10 inch knife. Then finish sanding and paint come after that. For as long as we have owned this house I've had a computer desk set against a wall in our basement as my gaming space. In about a week I should have the new space finished and can participate with some pictures.

#4

CK's re-working the blog pack. It was surprising to see my blog referenced by astral dominix. I read his blog often and find his writing style and journeys with in EVE a good read. Thanks for the mention mate!

While I try to post things of meaning when I post. I keep this blog mostly for my own records while hoping the few that read it enjoy the content. Perhaps some day it might be good for other new EVE players to read of my travels in new Eden. Who knows. For now I do this for me.

One thing that I have always enjoyed is reading the blog pack. I live on capsuleer on my iPhone and through my own blog roll follow some of my favorites. I like to read about the PvP folks, the pirates, and the old souls who have done much in and for EVE. I am excited to see how the blog pack evolves. I would like to see a more new player focus from a few of them. Perhaps some highsec industrialist types to balance the Yarr a little (but not too much).

Either way I don't aspire to be part of the ranks right now. I'd just be happy for some damn comment spam and more time to play EVE right now.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Enrolling in the school of lumps!

As EVE is a PvP game. It should be said that even an industrialist avatar should have PvP experience and skills. The reality is at any point in any ship in EVE you can be attacked. The old saying "Don't fly anything you cannot afford to loose!" really is sound advice. So where does this take this grumpy old space hermit?

The answer is simple. Pick some T1 Frigs fits that I can fly today and go get blown up in the name of education. So what can I fly and what's a good fit? I have two accounts. Both can fly their race T2 fitted Battle cruiser in a PvE sense but PvE is not the same beast as PvP!

So what IS a good basic beginner PvP T1 Frig fit for a Gallente to fly? Let's begin by stating and reminding the flamers - I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT PVP FITS! OK good! Now lets add - If you read this and have suggestions. All are welcome useful or not! OK good!

I see two Gallente options available to me:

The Tristan:

Highs:
- Light Ion Blaster II (2)
- Limos Rocket Launher I (2)
Meds:
-Named T1 Web
-Named T1 Scram
-Named T1 1MN AB
Lows:
-SAR II
-DCU II
-200MM RTP

Million examples of a similar fit on Battle clinic. I can fly this in about 10 days. I build tristans and all the ammo. Should be able to fit 10 of these with out much of a scratch in my budget and go get smacked.

The Incursus:

Highs:
- Anode Light Ion Particle Cannon I (3)
Meds:
-named web
-named scram
-named 1MN AB
Lows:
-SAR II
-DCU II

Once again not exactly original but I can fly it NOW. I could make them (just don't have the BPO) and they are cheap as chips. Drone wise I can drop a Hobgoblin II into either fits above.

This leads me to another potential option. I have two accounts and I duel box everything else I do in EVE. What could my second account be flying to aid me in my baptism by fire? Remote reppers seem interesting. The second account is Caldari and has some nice missile skills. I could fit a cloak to a drake and let fly with some T2 missile hell on those hungry folks who go after my little bitty frigate. Sure I box level 4 missions now, but like I said above (jackass), PvE and PvP are two different beasts. So for now I'll just take my mining account for a spin in one of the fits above. I can counter the hysterical amount of deaths to kills with the argument that it's a mining account.

Anyhow, for the three of you that read my blog (mom does not count). Leave a comment. Point and laugh if you must. It would be nice to have some feed back.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Hulkageddon II

So everyone has posted on this thing but to be honest it's a big enough event that you kind of have to blog about it.

What is Hulkageddon II you ask. It's an organized piracy event that brings all those pirates you don't want to encounter in lowsec and sends them into highsec (well anywhere) to target HULKS (well any kind of mining related craft). Said pirates (and anyone who has an alt with ~12 hours of skill training) try to pop mining vessels before concord serves them justice. This year prizes were given out for all kinds of achievement based forms of miner gankage for a week long event.

So how did this fair on a highsec mining newbie? I support the event to be honest and posted such (with a small bit about miners being like fat cows) on the site this year. However you look at it, there is good to come from it.

First good I see revolves around bot miners. Honestly I have toyed with starting an Alt JUST to rid my frequented roid belts of them. They are cheating bastards, provide no in game social value and are lousy at googling good information. Hence they deserve to die!

Second good I see revolves around raising awareness of new miners (and old complacent ones) to the fact that there is no safe place in EVE. At any time (other than in a station) you can be blown to shreds and loose your ship. Now there are things you can do to help yourself survive. Fit a tank to the mining barge. Sure a T1 barge is not going to offer much options, but there are plenty of examples on how to fit a hulk with a decent tank while still being able to vaporize veldspar and make tons of cash. Some even boast 300+ DPS. Oh yeah, and align to your warp out point please. Some might argue it's folly, but to be honest every second counts when some one with blasters is trying to shoot you. If they had rubber chickens, bah who needs to align.

Third good I see revoles around the market. How so you might ask. So ore prices for starters. Before the event I was selling tritanium at 4% under market (unless I wanted to haul it 10 hops), now I sell it for 2% over market. WOOT 6% gain baby! I also made a ton (well 40) destroyers out of mined goods and reprocessed goods that made me ~28M ISK while I did some thing else for a week. (TIP: Don't gouge the crap out of the gankers by doubling the price of destroyers. Price them well for a modest profit and make a ton of 'em. They will all sell that week.)

Fourth good I see revolves around me actually taking a break from mining and doing some thing fun. That week I got my mining account into a battle cruiser and up to level 4 missions. That week I scanned down 20+ hacking and 20+ salvage sites and made ~20M ISK worth in sold rigs. That week I took a walk (well I flew a ship...) into W space and killed my first sleepers and started a T3 (long way off for me) salvage stockpile. I could have mined and made more ISK perhaps, but man the energy drinks I would have needed to mine for the play time I logged that week (actually I played more that week than normal.).

So take a moment to take off your blinders and look around you. Look past the system you are in, the bookmarked secure cans, and the industrial jobs you have running. Look past your rage when you get ganked by 4 destroyers in your "safe" 0.5-1.0 system. Look beyond the ISK you could have made. Look to the horizons (all be them filled with folks with your ill fortune at hand) and step into the unknown for a week. Most of all, send Helicity Boson a little thank you. If 1% of us EVE players took the time to organize some thing of this scale. Oh how much more fun we would all have.

Oh and if you are still filled with rage from that hulk you lost or clutching your chest with stress over the Orca that is no more. I suggest you pour a bucket of water into the power supply of your computer and take up yoga or something. It be a game and games are supposed to be FUN people, mkaaay!

Cheers

EVE SOB

let's see how this goes...

For many years I have been involved with online activities. I've done everything from late 90's chat rooms to MMOGs. I am yet to BLOG and while I have spent a good number of hours reading blogs for both work and play. This is my first venture into what today is a increasingly common web past time.

This blog for the most part will follow the fun and games inside of EVE online. I recently set aside almost half a decade of WoW to join the pirates, carebears, scammers, shipbuilders, and salvage Ninjas in EVE (and many other flavors of capsuleers).

I bought into the game 26 hours into my first trial. I was amazed that you could mine rocks AND shoot things in the same ship. The tutorials had me do things that gave me free STUFF. Skills were trained in minutes to allow me to fly a different ship, or have a module that repaired my ships hull FOR FREE!!! I was hooked and this game was the best.

Reality hit about a week later when I realized that one ship could not really do everything. Skills took hours and then days and then weeks to roll by. At this point I ditched my NPC corp for a player corp. I was focusing on mining more as it seemed like a good way to make cash. I mined in a fleet with a hauler taking our rocks back to be refined. Life seemed good and ISK started to roll. I tried an alt in the same account. This led to frustration in only one active training queue at a time per account. That frustration led to a second account focused on combat skills and such.

I got a lesson in EVE principals when a mole inside the player corp locked up both my retriever and my hauler one day. Sent both my accounts to their pods and made off with all my T2 strip miners, cargo expanders, and all. At first I was shocked. Then I was angry. Then I was calm and actually found the event some what cleansing. Shortly after this I left the corp to find my own corner of space in highsec and found my own corp. I've also donated about 20M ISK to scammers to educate myself in how NOT to trade in EVE. Ah the life of a noob.

Today my two accounts sit in highsec in a corp. by them self. I mine and manufacture t1 ships and mods. I run level 4 missions and I salvage. I scan for hacking, salvage, and grav sites. I've found myself poking my little T1 scanning frig. into W space. I plan to start taking jump clones and t1 frigates into lowsec to start my schooling in PvP.

What remains in place the most after 3 months in EVE is that I still have a "kid in a candy store" like enthusiasm towards the game.

I know many folks blog about EVE, and all of what I am typing has been laid into text many times before. However, if you find interest in what I write leave a comment. I plan to blog for a while for my own records of what I do in EVE, but it's always nice to share.

Cheers

EVE SOB