Changing the Game

  Recent Dev blog activity indicates CCP is looking to change the game some.  Many people are looking forward to a pending SuperCap nerf to help even the playing field in null sec.  There is talk of long term plans for revamping null into something more friendly and more appealing to the masses.  UI modifications, font adjustments, and more fun with the API have all been talked about.

  What hasn't been talked about though is the idea that perhaps some attention should be paid to the 80% of the population (QEN Q4 2010) that lives in Empire.  Everyone knows that Eve is a game based on PVP and there is no such thing as a safe place.  Anytime you undock there is a chance of getting killed by another player.  This hardcore mentality is not new to MMO's, most games have several servers based on this concept, but Eve is unique in that it has no option to avoid PVP.  Thus the game ends up with a constant threat at all times.

Epic Arc (AAR)

  I helped out a corpmate friday night when he requested some support for gallente epic arc missions.  I took a tank focus Rattlesnake and a Scimitar to back him up.  EHQ indicated I would have be able to tank something like 3000dps with the fit.  The first mission went fine.  I warped in, took agro, shield went down a little, and then scimi landed and no problems.  The next mission though got interesting.  I had to refit for omni tank and I didn't consider neuting so I put on active hardeners instead of passive amplifiers for resists.  The fight was going fine to begin with but my rattlers cap was slowly going away.  Once the cap died so to did my resists and my shield was getting gouged.  Fortunately we killed a BS and at that point the scimi was able to keep me up alone.  I sat on half shield the majority of that mission but we finished in the end.

  Lessons I learned for future epic arc missions: use passive resists when going up against neut ships, bring multiple resist modules along, and epic arcs look fun.  I think I'm gonna look up some Caldari arcs and perhaps give them a go.