Drones V
Astrometrics III, IV (ongoing)
Target Painting I
Armor Rigging I
Energy Pulse Weapons I
Friday, 6 February 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Skill Queue - Yay!
So, I've been playing EVE on and off for about 5 years; setting alarms, swapping skills here and there when all of a sudden: The Devs announce a skill queue system!
This is very exciting news.
I haven't bothered to read the forum replies, MMPORG forums make me sad, but I'm guessing their chosen method of implementation is going to come under some fire but I think it's really thoughtful. Allow me to discuss.
The Devs were talking about skill queues a while back in one of the CSM meetings and they said that they didn't like the idea of people setting huge queues and not logging on for a year. I thought this was a bit odd - surely they only care that people are coughing up the monthly fees. Reading the post above however leads me to believe that the EVE Online Development team really do love and care about the game - they actually want people to play the game.
That gives us the 24-hour skill queue. Put up to 50 skills in the queue and as long as they all begin training within 24 hours, all is good. That means all those stupid mid-range skills you can usually only get to at the weekend can be queued up and run through in a day. I also noticed in the UI mockup that you can queue the next level of a skill, which is probably the thing that I am most excited about.
Now, obviously there are going to be some limitations in this system - what if I go on holiday? But the important thing to remember is that it is the start of a system that once in place can be tweaked later - if CCP see that suddenly people are playing so much more because now they can actually use all that cool stuff they bought, maybe they'll make it even better later on.
Marvellous!
This is very exciting news.
I haven't bothered to read the forum replies, MMPORG forums make me sad, but I'm guessing their chosen method of implementation is going to come under some fire but I think it's really thoughtful. Allow me to discuss.
The Devs were talking about skill queues a while back in one of the CSM meetings and they said that they didn't like the idea of people setting huge queues and not logging on for a year. I thought this was a bit odd - surely they only care that people are coughing up the monthly fees. Reading the post above however leads me to believe that the EVE Online Development team really do love and care about the game - they actually want people to play the game.
That gives us the 24-hour skill queue. Put up to 50 skills in the queue and as long as they all begin training within 24 hours, all is good. That means all those stupid mid-range skills you can usually only get to at the weekend can be queued up and run through in a day. I also noticed in the UI mockup that you can queue the next level of a skill, which is probably the thing that I am most excited about.
Now, obviously there are going to be some limitations in this system - what if I go on holiday? But the important thing to remember is that it is the start of a system that once in place can be tweaked later - if CCP see that suddenly people are playing so much more because now they can actually use all that cool stuff they bought, maybe they'll make it even better later on.
Marvellous!
Serious Playtime
We were lucky enough here in the UK to get a whole bucketload of snow which closed schools and stopped trains and all that stuff. Being a teacher, this is most definitely Good News. I got 2 extra days of solid EVE. So what did I do?
When it's cold and snowy and you were up at 6am posting closure notices on the school website, it needs to be a pretty low-impact task. I chose a mining & rat combo.
I found myself a nice belt in my 0.0 home system with juicy 'roids and a dual-battleship spawn, parked the Mordant Entropy and made with the pew pew whilst Orobas parked the Endless Light (hulk) and munched through asteroid after asteroid.
I did this for about 20 hours in total, bounties racked up, minerals piled up and I now have a new Raven cooking in the local outpost.
I was also able to start fitting out the as-yet-unnamed Typhoon that Malphas will be training up over the coming month or so. He can already fly it, but he can't really fly it.
All in a very productive pair of snow days! Wallet is well into Orca affordability territory now but I really can't decide if I'll get enough use out of one...
When it's cold and snowy and you were up at 6am posting closure notices on the school website, it needs to be a pretty low-impact task. I chose a mining & rat combo.
I found myself a nice belt in my 0.0 home system with juicy 'roids and a dual-battleship spawn, parked the Mordant Entropy and made with the pew pew whilst Orobas parked the Endless Light (hulk) and munched through asteroid after asteroid.
I did this for about 20 hours in total, bounties racked up, minerals piled up and I now have a new Raven cooking in the local outpost.
I was also able to start fitting out the as-yet-unnamed Typhoon that Malphas will be training up over the coming month or so. He can already fly it, but he can't really fly it.
All in a very productive pair of snow days! Wallet is well into Orca affordability territory now but I really can't decide if I'll get enough use out of one...
Sunday, 1 February 2009
This week in skill training
Hull Upgrades IV
Minmatar Industrial IV
Fuel Conservation II
Signal Acquisition I & II
Idetic Memory III
Astrometrics II
Minmatar Industrial IV
Fuel Conservation II
Signal Acquisition I & II
Idetic Memory III
Astrometrics II
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
More Wormholey News
Eve News posted a summary of the new wormholey exploration stuff that is coming in the next EVE expansion.
I have to say that this is really going to be a lot of fun.
I already have a small cache of probe blueprint copies in my hangar and I think I'm going to go ahead and buy some more, and I'm going to build a small stockpile of some drones in anticipation of them all being converted. I guess it's kinda gaming the system a little bit but I think it's fair.
As I've posted recently, I trained up for Covert Ops so I could fly a probeship. I guess my only disappointment with the new system is that whilst I can still use it and it will give me bonuses, it's probably not going to be all that useful on the other side if I actually want to kill any of these new UBARLEET NPC ships to take their PHATLEWT and make PWNMOBILES out of it. I hope I can squeeze a probe launcher onto the Mordant Core.
One other observation I had was that Lasers are going to continue to be FOTM for this stuff as you're very likely to run out of ammo in these new areas. The Mordant Core tears through ammo so fast and I still need to keep space for probes and PHATLEWT.
Perhaps the Mordant Entropy, my hurricane, would be a better option. Obviously the ultimate solution is to always take corpies along with me, but it's not always feasible.
One thing is for sure, my first trip through a wormhole will be in a cloakyship packed full of emergency backup probes so I can get back again :O)
I have to say that this is really going to be a lot of fun.
I already have a small cache of probe blueprint copies in my hangar and I think I'm going to go ahead and buy some more, and I'm going to build a small stockpile of some drones in anticipation of them all being converted. I guess it's kinda gaming the system a little bit but I think it's fair.
As I've posted recently, I trained up for Covert Ops so I could fly a probeship. I guess my only disappointment with the new system is that whilst I can still use it and it will give me bonuses, it's probably not going to be all that useful on the other side if I actually want to kill any of these new UBARLEET NPC ships to take their PHATLEWT and make PWNMOBILES out of it. I hope I can squeeze a probe launcher onto the Mordant Core.
One other observation I had was that Lasers are going to continue to be FOTM for this stuff as you're very likely to run out of ammo in these new areas. The Mordant Core tears through ammo so fast and I still need to keep space for probes and PHATLEWT.
Perhaps the Mordant Entropy, my hurricane, would be a better option. Obviously the ultimate solution is to always take corpies along with me, but it's not always feasible.
One thing is for sure, my first trip through a wormhole will be in a cloakyship packed full of emergency backup probes so I can get back again :O)
Monday, 26 January 2009
Holy cow, this is gonna be sweet!
I've just finished reading the dev blog about the upcoming expansion to EVE, specifically how the wormholes will work and how we will find them.
I've only just got the training for exploration, having set off on many tangential paths that have finally converged on me being able to fly a half decent exploration ship. I still need to boost my Astrometrics skill, but I'm well on the way.
I loved the whole idea of the exploration mechanic and I'm excited about the new content. What I'm even more excited about are the propsed changes to the scanner and probe mechanics:
Awesome!
I had been wondering how the whole "probe out wormhole, fly through wormhole, wormhole closes, run out of probes before you find the way back" thing was going to work and this answers it and really makes the system cool!
There's lots more in there and I really think this will add a lot of really cool stuff to the game.
I've only just got the training for exploration, having set off on many tangential paths that have finally converged on me being able to fly a half decent exploration ship. I still need to boost my Astrometrics skill, but I'm well on the way.
I loved the whole idea of the exploration mechanic and I'm excited about the new content. What I'm even more excited about are the propsed changes to the scanner and probe mechanics:
You will be able to drop more than one probe in a grid
Probe scan ranges can be adjusted via a drag and drop interface in the 3D map, removing the need for multiple probe types
Probes can be repositioned in the solar system map using a drag and drop interface and will warp to their specified positions
Scanning will now use triangulation to refine and improve accuracy of scan results
You can recall probes for re-use at a later point and time
The transition from ship view to 3D Solar System view to Universe Map view has been made near instant, allowing for quick switching between them
Awesome!
I had been wondering how the whole "probe out wormhole, fly through wormhole, wormhole closes, run out of probes before you find the way back" thing was going to work and this answers it and really makes the system cool!
There's lots more in there and I really think this will add a lot of really cool stuff to the game.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Drama Bomb
Mynxee wrote a discussion post about the Corp Drama Bomb. When I read it, it made me smile as I've read loads of accounts on the forums and in other peoples' blogs about it but I didn't have anything of my own to add to the discussion; until today.
As I've mentioned before, I have mostly played solo or with a small group of close friends. Just before Christmas I joined up with a corporation and have been enjoying the opportunity to experience new things in game.
This weekend, the shit hit the fan, but not only did the shit hit the fan, but I WASN'T EVEN THERE!
Now, so far, the corp is still alive, the bomb didn't strike a killing blow but I think it will be a while before we fully recover.
It all started with a mineral windfall.
One of our corp members had been dilligently mining a metric fuckton of various minerals. He dumped the minerals into the corp hangar but at this point things got a little tricky. Our corp offers about 80% of market value for mins, they build stuff with it and proceeds go to the corp. However in this case, the value of the minerals far exceeded the corp wallet. An arrangement was made that things would be made with the minerals and sold and money would be paid in installments. Everyone is happy life goes on.
Second corp mate, bit in production, running a big recruitment & training programme for the corp inquires as to the availability of some of the massive stockpile of minerals in the corp hangar. Corp tells him the situation denies him access to them, he offers to pay for them, still no go.
This irks him ever so slightly but it takes about a week for it all to kick off. He makes repeated appeals for a small amount of minerals to be made available; he hasn't been able to mine because of the time he has spent with new recruits and is told repeatedly that he won't be given access to any corporation assets. Eventually, CEO gets fed up and expels him.
Other members, loyal to this guy are up in arms and "I quit and this is why" corpmails abound.
Now, I'm wise enough to realise that there has to be more to it on both sides that this (this account is pretty much all I've been able to squeeze out so far), but what is very obvious is that it was very much avoidable (from both sides again).
I'm not making any plans to leave the corp over this, but it does leave me a little sad. We've lost a fair chunk of our 0.0 sec pilots to it too, so I think our operations down there may well be affected.
I think this is just the first chapter in what will probably be a long drawn out affair.
As I've mentioned before, I have mostly played solo or with a small group of close friends. Just before Christmas I joined up with a corporation and have been enjoying the opportunity to experience new things in game.
This weekend, the shit hit the fan, but not only did the shit hit the fan, but I WASN'T EVEN THERE!
Now, so far, the corp is still alive, the bomb didn't strike a killing blow but I think it will be a while before we fully recover.
It all started with a mineral windfall.
One of our corp members had been dilligently mining a metric fuckton of various minerals. He dumped the minerals into the corp hangar but at this point things got a little tricky. Our corp offers about 80% of market value for mins, they build stuff with it and proceeds go to the corp. However in this case, the value of the minerals far exceeded the corp wallet. An arrangement was made that things would be made with the minerals and sold and money would be paid in installments. Everyone is happy life goes on.
Second corp mate, bit in production, running a big recruitment & training programme for the corp inquires as to the availability of some of the massive stockpile of minerals in the corp hangar. Corp tells him the situation denies him access to them, he offers to pay for them, still no go.
This irks him ever so slightly but it takes about a week for it all to kick off. He makes repeated appeals for a small amount of minerals to be made available; he hasn't been able to mine because of the time he has spent with new recruits and is told repeatedly that he won't be given access to any corporation assets. Eventually, CEO gets fed up and expels him.
Other members, loyal to this guy are up in arms and "I quit and this is why" corpmails abound.
Now, I'm wise enough to realise that there has to be more to it on both sides that this (this account is pretty much all I've been able to squeeze out so far), but what is very obvious is that it was very much avoidable (from both sides again).
I'm not making any plans to leave the corp over this, but it does leave me a little sad. We've lost a fair chunk of our 0.0 sec pilots to it too, so I think our operations down there may well be affected.
I think this is just the first chapter in what will probably be a long drawn out affair.
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