Not as Fin as I was

  I couldn't help myself.  I'm back in the space lanes flying around.  The Corp I was in is no more but I think I like this better.  No concern about war decs or low sec PVP.  Just logging on and doing what I feel like without having to worry about devoting resources to an endeavor I don't truly support. 

  Today was a little interesting, had a discussion about PVE, PVP and how the devs could cater to both styles more than they currently do.

  I have distilled my hopes for PVE into two changes I'd like to see happen although I doubt they will happen.  The first is make a flag so a person can agree to PVP in hisec or not.  This won't change anything to people who prefer the risk, but for those who just want to relax and do some spaceship flying it will mean a lot.  This will never happen in the game, but I can only imagine how many gamers would play Eve if this was an option.  The second change is make another level of difficulty into missions so that they require 2-3 ships at minimum.  Some missions already have this type of requirement, but they are sometimes few and far between.  What I'd like to have is the ability to only choose this type of mission to provide more difficulty when I'm in the mood and push me to get better at playing the game outside of PVP.  Currently incursions are the only other option and they just require too much time to run consistently.

  I know this is a short post, but I wanted to get it onto the blog.

Fin

I quit Eve a few months back.  No announcement or anything like that, just cancelled my three accounts and like a ship without power I faded into the darkness of space.  Then I saw the recent news about the biggest fight in Eve history and I read Jester's take on the even so now I want to make a post.  No it's not about the fight, but rather why I left Eve.

The biggest reason I quit my accounts is simply that I was not receiving enough value from the game to justify the cost.

I played the game because I enjoyed the sci-fi aspects, I liked having a challenge, and I liked the idea of a sandbox style.  I left the game because I ran out of the challenge.

No not the challenge of PVP because that was very challenging but rarely was I involved in a fight that was fun.  Either we had more numbers or the other side had more numbers and eventually the other side escalated to capital ships (to include supers once) and there wasn't any true fun in getting roflstomped.  I didn't PVP to conquest new territories or to wrack up a kill count.  I PVP'ed because it was fun and I liked helping out my Corp and Alliance.

The challenge that I ran out of was PVE.  Incursions just weren't that much fun due to the distance needed to travel and the coordination required.  Sometimes I felt like going through the effort but most of the time I just wanted to spend an hour or two completing missions by myself.

No it's not very MMO, but that's how I wanted to play and plenty of other games cater to just that very notion.  Then again, how MMO is being out in a belt somewhere ratting or mining?

When I look at all of the MMO's I've played over the years the single biggest difference between them and Eve is the fact the other games provided lots of solo PVE content.  Now I realize some people will immediately point to missions and say "you can do lvl 4's solo easily".  And I will agree with you, lvl 4's can be completed by a single ship, but it's not all that fun and it's definitely not profitable enough to enjoy the game.

Which is why I flew three ships at once, to make missions profitable, but in so doing they also became incredibly boring.  So I was left with nothing but monotony when I yearned for challenging escalations in the missions.

I wanted to have something that required multiple ships to complete.  I wanted to have a mission that truly challenged me, rewarded me, and didn't force me into low sec.  I also realize that is a lot to ask of the Eve developers because they don't like players like me.  They only want "hardcore" folks who are all about turning on your friends, blobbing, piracy, and pretty much anything else that is considered inappropriate behavior in most games.

So instead of hardening up, I simply quite, and took my three accounts worth of monthly payments elsewhere.

Increasing the Risk, Gradually

I haven’t posted anything in a long time but my hiatus is soon to be over.  I’ve been keeping up with Eve while I was gone and one of my favorite subjects has come once again to the forefront of conversation; should high sec be truly safe or not.

I’ve posted on this subject before but time changes all things and so to have my thoughts on the subject.  Well, I still think high sec should be safe for the game to expand i’s player base, but a lot of the other details have changed.

All games evolve over the years.  Some better or some worse.  Eve has changed some but the core concepts are still the same since I started playing three years ago.  Sure the ships are being adjusted and there have been a few changes here and there, but for all intents and purposes it’s the same game.

During this time the average number of players logged in has remained fairly stagnant.  Which indicates that while subscriptions might be up the people actually playing the game is the same.  The game essentially isn’t growing and I believe the reason behind this lack of growth is due to the hostile nature of the game casual players can't escape.

Barging into Space

Earlier today I did a post about Exhumers and the changes from the patch.  I went ahead and worked up some builds for the Mining Barges (Barges) as well.  The Barges have much lower EHP but I was very surprised to see the output is very similar  or higher to equivalent Exhumer builds.  Combined with the ability to insure on a T1 level and Barges might just end up being the ship of choice for mining in high sec.  For now I'll just list the builds.

Exhumer Changes

A while ago I made a post about CCP fixing the mining ships by giving them some tank.  This week they put in the patch to make some significant changes.  One hull has a great tank with the smallest amount of yield.  The next hull has huge ore bay, medium tank and medium yield.  The last hull has the best yield but limited tank and an ore bay big enough for only one cycle requiring some kind of fleet support.  In theory this type of division sounds pretty good, giving each hull it's own role and providing options for miners to choose what fits their play style the best.

For the ice or gas miners there are no longer innate bonuses for those activities, instead there are two new rigs which boost ice or gas output but you can only fit one at a time due to calibration costs. 

Capital Intentions

  I'm swiftly approaching my first Capital specific skill training and it's time to talk a little about my initial thoughts about Capitals (Caps) and what I think will need to change in the future.

  When I started playing EVE I did some research about the ships, empires, and general background.  It's something I do for pretty much every game I play.  As I was reading one of the ship classes that captured my imagination was Carriers.  The thought of sending a flight of fighters out to engage the enemy conjured up images of Battlestar Galactica, Wing Commander, and Space: Above and Beyond.  Once I started playing and found out the reality of the game I realized getting a Carrier was something a long way into the future.

  The future is no longer a long way away though.  I should be flying a Chimera or two by spring of next year.  I could have made the transition to capitals faster but I took some good advice to work on the basics before even thinking about caps.  Thinking about caps is something I've been doing a lot of lately and I'm looking forward to the experience.

Tech 2 Cruiser Changes

  The last blog post talked about T1 cruisers with a promise of more to come.  Now it's time to dive into the aspects of T2 cruisers and see if there are any changes which might help.  Once again I'm not touching anything Amarr.  There are four groups of T2 cruisers; Heavy assault ships, Heavy interdictors, Logistics, and Recons.  HIC's and Logis are already in good shape and I'm not sure there is any need to dig into them for corrections.  Instead I'm focusing on HACs and Recons.

Ship changes- Cruisers

EVE, she is a changing.  The next year should see some dramatic adjustments to ships and the concept of tiers.  With that in mind I figured why not take some time to list what I'd like to see happen once the balancing hits cruisers, BC's and BS's.  I'm starting off with Tech 1 cruisers and I'll work my way up from there.  Also, I'm not discussing Amarr ships as I won't fly anything Amarr so I don't feel qualified to accurately assess them.

Cruisers-  The work horse of any Navy.  These ships are cheap enough to use in a variety of ways but versatile enough to fill a multitude of roles.

Fixing the cracked buckets in the Sandbox

  A lot has been going on lately in the world of Eve.  Burn Jita, Hulkageddon, OTEC, persistent Hulkageddon, changes to war declarations, and future plans for ship changes.  Most of the above are things I disagree with on principal but I do admire the ability to pull a lot of it off in the game.  I've helped herd cats in other games and I know it's never easy to get a group of people to jump the same direction at the same time.

  So with all of this activity I thought I'd spend some time discussing the concept of a sandbox game since I see the term bandied about quite frequently on the forums.  The first thing I did was went looking for any type of consistent definition.  Unfortunately there was no consensus opinion on what exactly was meant by sandbox.  The best I could find was a game where the developers provided sand and toys then the players set about creating the content.  In most cases content is considered activities like blockading a system, ganking other players, manufacturing, and all of the meta game activities that go on behind the scenes.

  The more I thought about what some people defined as content the more I realized that the problem I'm seeing isn't a reflection of player actions as much as the problem was one of CCP's poor implementation.  Let's go back to the sandbox and the dev's handing out toys to use for castle building and what not.  The issue is not players using the toys they are given but rather some of the toys have a flawed design.

Jumping Through Hoops

 One more post about the upcoming Alliance Tournament.  I thought I was finished with this subject but a response by a Dev deserves comment.  The first quote verifies the rules were intentionally written to cause confusion among the player base.  The second quote invalidates the reason behind banning Hydra and Outbreak as being because of working together on Sisi.  I'd quote the exact text explaining the bans, but the posts have been pulled down. 

"This rule is vague because it has to be. We have had 9 tournaments without this rule and for good reason, but the events of last year have forced us to react by including new rules such as the one above. Tournament staff and referees will act based on the information available and with the tournament both as an event for the players on the field and those watching on the stream on their minds.

Teams and players should hold the tournament in high regard and take the event seriously, if you have to ask yourself "would they stop the fight if we did this" then you should not do it. ""

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1392266#post1392266

"Sorry missed the bit about the test server, you can change corps and alliances as you like on Sisi. But based on actions taken by us so far I would be very wary if you intend to join someone else's alliance for "practice & logistics" reasons. Again, if your not sure about it, don't risk it."

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1398070#post1398070


Edit*  To top it all off a thread I started explaining my disappointment was mocked by CCP Soundwave.  It might be time to find a new game if that is their idea of professionalism.

  At this point I think the truth is that Hydra and Outbreak were never going to be allowed to participate in this years Alliance Tournament.  The two alliances were banned because they were in the same corp on test but we are now told that it's not against the AT rules to combine on test.  Hydra and Outbreak said they sent multiple emails and petitions to determine if their practice of testing against each other on Sisi was against the rules and eventually they received a reply saying it was ok, but in the end the AT Dev's banned the two groups anyway.

Spirit vs. Letter

Last year was the first time I watched an Alliance Tournament.  I picked the loser in almost every match I tried to guess but I have to admit the competition really sparked my interest in small group warfare.  Not that Eve ever really has combat on such a scale, but it's nice to theorycraft.  I also liked how the smallest details meant success or failure.  Sadly the final battle was a complete letdown, but the rest of the tournament was superb.

This year the Alliance Tournament is already off to a rocky start and the first match has not even happened yet.   The two teams that won last year have been banned for practicing together, against each other, and in the same corp on the test server.   The rules this year were changed to prevent one alliance from entering two teams but Hydra and Outbreak were clearly two alliances working as one team.

Breaking the spirit of the rules if not the letter of the law.

What's in your hangar

So once again I'm following Jester's lead.  This time I'm posting what's in my hangar.  Well, not just my hangar but the hangars of my two alts as well.  Since I fly pretty much all three at once and they are fairly interchangeable on most ships it seems to make sense.  I'm not adding the names because I don't use unique titles.  Instead I use modern day navy designations.  So my battleships are all BB-hull number- name.  Kinda plain but helps me keep track when I start moving stuff around.

5x Badger Mark II -  Mainly used for PI hauling and misc movement

3x Basilisk- All three pilots are Logi 5 and I use these for incursions mainly

3x Blackbird- Armor/shield versions, primary ship when not flying logi for pvp

4x Buzzard- Each toon has at least one scout

6x Caracal- I love the idea of this ship, but rarely fly them, first pvp kill though

3x Celestis- Experiment that never panned out

Charon- the first ship I knew had to have, useful for moving systems, rarely flown

2x Cormorant- haven't tried them out since the buff

Covetor- why not

Crane- for sneaking through low

2x Crow- rarely flown

Dominix- built for BS RR op, flown once

4x Drake- mission and exploration mainly

Falcon- rarely used as I prefer BB for pvp

3x Ferox- another ship I love the idea of, haven't tried it since hybrid buff

Gila- missions

3x Hawk- use them for running around solo, pvp fit

Hulk- cause sometimes you just feel like mining

2x Hurricane- one mission fit, one not fit

Machariel- mission fit

Mackinaw- ice, ice baby

Maelstrom- mission fit

3x Mammoth- cause sometimes a badger just won't do

Manticore- got it before I realized I have better options for scouting

Moa- No clue why I have this

Myrmidon- got it for mission dps, rarely flown

Orca- most versatile ship ever, love it

3x Osprey- RR fit for cheap support

2x Rattlesnake- mission fit

Raven- mission fit, rarely flown

3x Rupture- experiment, rarely flown

Scimitar- PVP fit, I need to get a few more, love this ship

2x Tengu- mission fit

Vexor- experiment

Worm- cause it's just plain fun to have that many drones in a lvl 1 mission

Investing in the future

CSM elections are happening soon and one of the problems I have with the process is the skewed voting from nulsec blocks.  The problem as I see it is the lack of true interest diversity because of the differences in how nulsec and high sec operate.  This post however is not about the voting process for the CSM but rather an attempt at expanding on the high sec point of view in regards to nulsec.

Nulsec is a scary place for someone who's never spent time there.  Traveling through nul isn't that big of a challenge most of the time, but living there is a different story. 

Hawk changes

  So I fiddled around in EHQ tonight working on refitting the Hawk.  So far it seems the T2 SML version is a pretty tight fit.  A rocket version is much easier but I'm not sure I want the reduced range.  Guess I'll work on it some more later.  Real life has me busy at the moment so not much time for fun.

Lost in space

  I logged on for most of the day and decided I'd get out and run some missions after dinner.  About the time I was ready to undock I realized I forgot where I normally go to do missions.  I haven't run them in so long I have to spend some time looking them up again.

Reviewing Eve

Jester has posed a challenge to the Eve community to come up with an objective review of Eve Online.  I thought I'd voice my opinion on the subject using the basic same criteria.  I know off hand my review will be from a different point of view since I've never ventured into nullsec but in the end voicing my reasons and motivations is a valid exercise.  I'm going to skip a lot of the additional information Jester has already covered.  There's no real need to write a summary of Eve, if you are reading this you already know about the game.  Instead I'm going to dive into the heart of the matter and hit the topics immediately.

Interface- 2/10
  I'm going to further break this category down into combat, market, and fitting since those are the three things I've spent the most time doing.

  Combat:  Much like Jester I feel the interface when undocked fails on multiple levels.  The single most important window is the overview and it also happens to be the most difficult window to configure.  The overview settings consists of multiple windows, tabs and options that can't be tested or viewed until specific events occur relating to the chosen options.  Want to make adjustments to how an enemy fleet is going to appear?  You won't know if your changes are what you want until you encounter an enemy fleet. 
     The next most important element to combat is the chat windows.  While the chat blocks can be adjusted and moved, there are a few pieces that are all or nothing.  Viewing the people in each chat channel requires a large portion of the window to be taken up with both name and portrait icon.  There is no option to turn the portrait off to just view the names, nor is the any kind of option to adjust how the names are listed.  The other problem with the chat windows is the inability to combine different types of chat channels into the same block.  I'd love to have both alliance and corp chat in the same window, but the best I can do is have multiple tabs stacked and flip back and forth.  Extremely annoying.

  Market:  The market tab provides a lot of information while being very unfriendly to use.  There is no automation, the organization options are limited, and the filter options are buried which can lead to mistakes.  The cherry on top of the market window is a skill that allows people to create buy orders with insufficient funds which leads to a plethora of scams.  Selling is worse than buying because you have to sell each stack of items individually which can lead to a lot of clicking to unload a weeks worth of loot.

  Fitting:  The fitting window is the single bright spot for the interfaces of Eve.  Drag and drop works, it's easy to see changes and what will or won't fit, and you can spin the ship to your hearts content.  Having more information for ammunition, weapons, and resists with activated hardeners would be great; but it's not enough to call the fitting window a failure.

Gameplay- 8/10

  The most impressive part of Eve is the gameplay.  Whether you choose to fight NPC's in missions, mine astroids, explore uncharted areas, live in a wormhole, pirate in low sec, build ships, create an empire in null sec, or become a market tycoon there is something for everyone.  There is always something new to try or something old to go back and revisit. 
  One of the common complaints about Eve is the high level of knowledge required to effectively play.  This is usually translated as a steep learning curve, but I found that some time spent on the forums or surfing the net would answer many questions.  The help channel provided information on basic actions and was enough to get me going.  The hardest part I had with the game was learning to fit the ships but this is roughly the same thing as learning the maps in a first person shooter.  The only way to really learn is trial and error.  At least with Eve there are some excellent programs like Eve HQ or Eve Fitting Tool to allow lots of trial and error for free.
  The only real complaint I have about game play is the lack of a safe zone for people that just don't feel like putting up with PVP today.  Eve is all about PVP and if you leave the station you are putting yourself at risk.  In my opinion this lack of an area in which to relax and just enjoy the PVE aspects of the game has been the biggest killer of subscriptions.  Most MMO's have more PVE servers than PVP and the PVP servers almost always have areas that are PVP free.  Eve has purposely chosen to ignore this section of the gaming populace and the results have shown through in the lack of an increased player base over the years.

Story: 9/10

  Eve has a rich and varied story line.  Every month see's additions to the universe and the players are encouraged to contribute as well.  There are even a novels based on Eve.  The only real negative is that the players are never really tied to their empire so there is no real way to enmesh your character into the storyline.

Graphics: 5/10

  The developers of Eve has spent a lot of time and effort to improve the graphics of Eve.  The ships look great, when you're in station and are actually able to have your settings turned up.  Once you are in space there is no real way to look at the pretty ships, keep track of the overview, and watch chat channels for critical updates.  Settings have to be turned down to avoid lag and in the end all of the wonderful looking ships go unnoticed.  The background nebula, clouds, stars, asteroid belts and other space settings are pretty, but having a pretty background is not enough.  Part of the low score for graphics can be blamed upon the poor interface.  If combat was easier to conduct then having the screen show off the ships would be practical.  As things stand though the inability to fight and look at the ships means you aren't looking at the beautiful artwork.

Sounds: 8/10

  Eve has some good sounds and the score shows.  There's also an in game player if you want to listen to your own tracks.  All in all they've done a decent job the noise of space.  The only thing I'd like to hear is the sound of the guns firing from inside my ship instead of the noise of my partner's ship next to me.

Multi-player: 7/10

  The score on this category is going to differ based on what you think multi-player (MP) should offer.  I think that there is more then just the reliance upon interaction with those around you.  In my opinion MP should be a mix of need to incorporate other people for progress, access to other players, and ability to play in a group.  Eve is smashingly successful at requiring other people's help to progress.  Almost every aspect of the game is controlled by players.  Where Eve is lacking is access and then actually working with other players.  Eve has lots of chat channels but the risk inherent from the PVP aspects of the game end up making people shy away from joining with others.  Then when you do find a group of people there is a huge amount of risk that they could be setting you up to kill your ship or pull off some kind of scam. 
  Overall Eve's lack of acceptance for a safer environment in some areas of the game results in actively causing players to avoid grouping. 

Single player: 5/10

  This score is lower than what it should be due to the lack of a safe area to conduct PVE operations.  There is a lot of content for players to utilize, but the risk of getting attacked by other players ends up driving away a lot of the fun and relaxation that most single player games offer. 

Character enhancement: 9/10

  One aspect of Eve that hasn't been mentioned yet is how you level your character up.  In Eve all improvements are accomplished through training that occurs at a real time rate.  There is a que that allows a player to store up varying levels of training which require a specific amount of time to complete.  The ability to train without being online is the single aspect of Eve that has kept me playing despite all of the shortcomings.  I love the fact I don't have to raid, I don't have to grind rats, all I have to do is log on to set my skills into the que and my character gets better.  The only downside to the skill system is the lack of a decent interface (go figure) to allow planning.  There is an excellent third party program however (Evemon) and it's everything you need to plan your characters progression.

Overall: 6/10

  Eve can be a lot of fun, but you have to be a player that enjoys the unique highlights of the game.  Heavy reliance on PVP, no safe areas, and an antiquated interface all detract from what would otherwise be a game that could honestly compete with WoW.  The developers have built the game the way they want, but this has resulted in a game that isn't popular with the majority of the player base and if Eve is ever going to expand some fundamental changes are required.

Back!

  There has been a noticeable lack of reports lately due to the fact I haven't been piloting a ship.  I had to relocate and now I'm starting to get set back up.  The command center won't be up and running to full capacity for a few weeks still, but I'll be out and about looking for a fight.  Along those lines I just refit my trusty Hawk with T2 launchers.  Now I just need CCP to hurry up with the T2 MAC to free up a low slot.

The Path Less Taken

  Reading through the blogs linked on the left resulted in a huge release of information when the test server was uploaded with a data packet detailing future changes to ships, weapons, and modules.  The best review I saw was from Azual at The Altruist.  I'm not going to rehash all of the changes, but I did want to post about some of the things I'm looking forward to or concerned about.

Hawking My Wares (AAR)

Task: Practice and learn tackling procedures while solo

Conditions: Given a disruptor fit Hawk in the Auner system

Standards: Don't lose my pod

Summary: 
I wanted to hang out in space tonight so I hopped in my Hawk and headed out to Auner again.  I got on the Resbroko gate and waited to see what came through.  Soon enough a red (no GCC) Wolf landed on top of me and I locked him up. 

Losing a Logi (AAR)

Task: Conduct anti-pirate roam in low sec area around the Arant system

Conditions: Given a shield tanked BC fleet and access to low sec systems while personally flying a Scimitar logistics ship

Standards: Have fun, fly smart

Summary:

The fleet was engaged in combat almost from the start on this roam.  There was a small gang engagement and later on a fleet fight.  In both fights I made a few mistakes but the fleet did well overall.