tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68821543021531852142024-03-13T21:17:30.127+00:00Notes from New EdenOne person's scribblingsOreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.comBlogger305125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-27070975429013059762018-11-07T00:18:00.003+00:002018-11-07T00:18:58.220+00:00Pod and Planet YC 120 - The Lost WormholersI was asleep. At least I think I was asleep. I had been engaged in archaeological data recovery in J154538 but my shift was over. Rather than return to the relative safety of empire space, I had chosen to spend the night in the wormhole system. This would enable me to get an early start the next day. I distinctly remembered powering down my Loki-class strategic cruiser and catching some shut-eye. Here I was now, however, sitting cross-legged by a campfire. Across from me was a tired old face. The old man began to talk.<br />
<br />
"You shouldn't be here."<br />
<br />
He was right about that. I knew exactly where I should be. In fact, I knew a great many places I could be. But neither the 'should's nor the 'could's involved a campfire.<br />
<br />
"You have to leave."<br />
<br />
"E.. e.. excuse me?" I stammered in response. "Who exactly are you? And why should I do anything you tell me?", I gained confidence hearing myself talk.<br />
<br />
The old man sat back with an amused look on his face. "Who am I?" he smiled, "Well, now, I guess we've just about got time to tell that tale."<br />
<br />
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<br />
"It all started with the Seyllin Incident," the man began, "I assume you know of it?"<br />
<br />
Of course, I knew of it. Anyone who dared venture into the depths of wormhole space was familiar with the dawn of access from New Eden. In YC111 several massive explosions were triggered all across New Eden. These were initiated deep in the lawless regions of null security space when a Thukker captain opened fire to destroy a cache of the rare isogen-5 mineral. The captain could not have known the cache he destroyed was entangled with the various other caches across New Eden. He would also never know the absolute power he had unleashed on his universe. Although several solar systems experienced their own cataclysmic devastation, nowhere was it felt so strongly as the system of Seyllin. Despite the best attempts of Gallente, CONCORD, and even Serpentis aid fleets, half a billion souls were lost. Their loss, however, was our gain and a whole new, uncharted realm of space was opened up for exploitation.<br />
<br />
"Once the wormholes opened", the old man continued "there was a rush of the most intrepid explorers into these new reaches of space. Few could refuse to journey into the unknown."<br />
<br />
He went on the paint a picture of uncertainty and danger. Things long since lost to the modern tourists who venture into the area of space also known as Anoikis. He told me about the first, deadly, encounters with the Sleepers where a great many ships were lost. The golden era when artefacts and materials brought back from expeditions would make even the laziest capsuleer rich beyond their wildest dreams.<br />
<br />
"And that's when the most daring of us contemplated living there permanently. We amassed a large fleet of colonists, our friends, our families, and flew our entire lives there. We felt invincible."<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><br />
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<br />
"The riches we achieved once we were actually living in wormhole space far exceeded our expectations."<br />
<br />
My friend painted an almost unbelievable picture of Anoikis in its glorious heyday; greatly understood but still dangerous to the incautious. In an era before scanning systems became mostly automated it took real skill to place and optimise each individual probe into an optimal formation. For those who mastered the skill, the reward was an increased depth of influence through the ephemeral wormhole connections and even greater rewards.<br />
<br />
"The Sleepers were eternally ready to destroy all who challenged them but actually living in their space brought a greater knowledge of how to defeat them. We even came to master the physics of the wormholes themselves. We learnt that with enough ships we could prematurely collapse a connection to another system. This allowed us greater control over who and where our neighbours were. We lived in safe impunity. Nothing could touch us.<br />
<br />
"We grew fat in our excesses. We had more ISK than we could sensibly spend. Our ships were ever more extravagant. The best modules were imported from Jita. Then we built capital ships. The Sleepers were no match. Not in our low-class system.<br />
<br />
"With the riches, of course, came those who would take it from us rather than do the work themselves. Pirates, thieves, turncoats who would live as one of us only to take what wasn't theirs and flee. None of that mattered, though. We had enough assets saved that whatever was taken we could simply replace it."<br />
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<br />
"Then something changed. I was scanning to update our current charts. All known connections had expired and scanning showed we only had one new wormhole. This was unusual because we'd always known our home to have two connections, one deeper into wormhole space and the other back to the known regions of empire space.<br />
<br />
"I approached the single outbound connection and saw it led into another wormhole system. My group wasn't unduly concerned. Nature changes over time and a new, unexplained phenomenon were welcomed. The absolute worst case we would have an extra hop to make to reach known regions of space.<br />
<br />
"I jumped through the connection to start mapping our new neighbour. Once my transit of the wormhole was complete I was more than a little confused to find myself still in my home system, albeit now more than 6 AU from my original location.<br />
<br />
"I surprised my fleet by warping to them and relayed what had happened. My experience was repeated by several other pilots before we decided to collapse the connection. Nobody expected the next connection to also connect to our home system, but that's exactly what happened. Time and time again we collapsed the single link we had. Every single time the new wormhole that coalesced led right back into the same system."<br />
<br />
There was a remembered fear discernible in the old man's voice now. With some urgency, he relayed how his entire corporation spent days upon days doing nothing but running ship after ship through connection after connection. And day after day the only connection they were rewarded with returned them back to their starting point.<br />
<br />
"Panic killed the corporation. Fighting broke out. In our despair, we turned on each other. And that's when some of us decided to abandon everything we had. With a heavy heart, I set the self-destruct timer on my capsule and waited to awake in a new clone.<br />
<br />
"The new clone never came. Even with my death, there was no escape from our home. This was different, though. We were now free from the restrictions placed on us by our pods. We still could not go back to empire space, but we could venture to other areas of Anoikis."<br />
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<br />
"In our ethereal travels through many, many systems we became aware that wormhole space was becoming ever densely populated. Corporation after corporation were following in our footsteps and settling new space. Concern increased that the plight of everyone we cared about would become more common. We were worried that others would become forever trapped in Anoikis as we had. We needed to take action.<br />
<br />
The old man's face turned even sadder and he sat in silence for some time before I prompted him to continue the tale.<br />
<br />
"I discovered it was possible to infiltrate the dreams of capsuleers as they slept in their ships. At first, we tried to explain what had happened. What fate befell us. We only wanted to warn others away. But none would listen.<br />
<br />
"Some of our number turned to more radical methods. They would return night after night after night. The living got no rest. They would show horrific scenes of destruction to the capsuleers. Show them their loved ones being massacred by massive fleets of Sleepers. Some left wormholes for good, many more stayed.<br />
<br />
As the old man continued to talk I remembered hearing tales of haunted wormholes. The tales all related to a mythical being everyone called 'Bob'. I didn't think anyone believed in the actual existence of 'Bob', but could the tales of haunting currently being told be the grain of truth in the legend?<br />
<br />
My guest was silent. My mind had been wondering during his tale and he clearly knew. "Yes, Bob," he said, "some of that may relate to us. But not all, not by a long way."<br />
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"It became clear that the few capsuleers we were able to drive from Anoikis were rapidly replaced by just as many new souls. A new tactic was needed. We could communicate with the sleeping. What could we do with those who were awake?<br />
<br />
"We started small. Initially, we experimented with the subconscious of the capsuleers. Disabling ship modules at inconvenient times turned out to be trivial. Deactivating armour plates or prop-mods during hole-rolling exercises led to massive frustration. As an unexpected bonus, our victims had a tendency for blaming each other for it. They would accuse each other of borrowing ships they weren't rated to fly.<br />
<br />
"We also forced the inaccurate creation of navigation bookmarks. Once again, this spawned many arguments that the bookmarks were deliberate sabotage. But still, newcomers came. We had to up our game and get more imaginative. It was a short leap from there to taking control of the entire ship.<br />
<br />
"Once we made that transition, driving people out became easy. We took control of entire corporations of pilots and forced them to hunt their fellow capsuleers. Of course, their minds attempted to resist. Tied to their corporeal forms they were no match for us. Day after day we would treat the pilots as our puppets of destruction. Locked in their ships and in their pods they were mere passengers.<br />
<br />
The old man's eyes were ablaze now as he went on to relate his tale of violent conflicts. The ease by which they were able to infiltrate apparent safe systems simply by taking control of a pilot in the target location and forcing them to turn traitor against their will.<br />
<br />
"Finally, our mission was working. People were fleeing wormhole space. First, there were tens of empty system. Then there were hundreds. Today there are thousands, but my job is not yet complete. There are still a few pockets of resistance to drive out. And once they are gone, and wormhole space is once more uninhabited, then I can rest."<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.</span></b> </div>
<br />
So now I hunt for him. I am a prisoner in my own ship. I find myself helpless in battles I never committed to. I am a passenger; I can only watch. I feel him there. I struggle against him with no effect. I can sense his amusement when I try. And still, he strives to drive all from Anoikis. To deliver J-space back to Bob. And then I, too, can rest.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-788232416043960672018-08-19T09:48:00.001+00:002018-08-19T09:48:41.346+00:00Abyssal SitesWhen I first heard about the addition of Abyssal sites to New Eden I was a little sceptical. I instantly christened them "Abysmal Sites" and let it at that. Once they arrived in the game I largely ignore them; a mix of disinterest plus fear of the unknown (as in unknown if I'll lose an expensive ship). However, as will all things, curiosity eventually got the better of me.<br />
<br />
Fast-forward a bunch of months. My opinion has been reformed to considering Abyssal sites as a fantastic addition to New Eden. I love the work done by the art team in them. The massive asteroids are spectacular to behold. I'm looking forward to those creeping into other areas of New Eden. The randomness of the rats in the site makes for wonderful variety. You don't go in knowing that there's <i>x</i> of rat A, <i>y</i> of rat B, and <i>z</i> of rat C. You have to learn which to shoot first and, once in the site, you have to pick target order quickly.<br />
<br />
The main aspect of Abyssal sites I like most is they are "instant-on". If I have 10 minutes to spare I can jump into EVE and go run a Calm or Agitated site. If I have a bit longer then I'll jump into a Fierce. So far I've not tried the hardest of the sites - the Raging and Chaotic. It's worth noting that returning from these sites will leave you flagged as a suspect. This means other pilots can await your return and legally shoot you. If you do decide to run these sites you should do so from a safe-spot and hope nobody combat-scans the signature down.<br />
<br />
I've you're looking for some instant gratification in EVE then I'd recommend you give the Abyssal sites a go. EVE Uni has a <a href="https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Abyssal_Deadspace" target="_blank">good article</a> covering just about all you need to know. Have fun out there.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-40095960522264189252018-07-22T00:18:00.000+00:002018-07-22T00:18:08.294+00:00I'm still hereDespite things going rather quiet here I am still playing EVE. In fact, I've been online and 'playing' for the past four nights in a row. "What have you been up to?" I hear you ask. I'd love to say it's been the riveting stuff of interest. However, the reality of the situation is thusly:<br />
<br />
First, we joined Anomalous Existence (N0MEX). By "we" I mean the active denizens of Z3R0 Return Mining Inc.". We joined knowing full well that their EU presence was somewhat lacking. We'd been told that there were a handful of people who would be online during our time. Figuring this for a reasonable "reverse-recruitment" opportunity it made sense for us. Sadly, the reality of the situation was maybe two or three people were in corp during our game time. Those people tended to be actually playing other games and waiting for content to happen. On top of that, their archaic bookmark scheme required a reference manual for which folders to leave bookmarks in. We decided that as nice as the people we met were, N0MEX weren't for us.<br />
<br />
Decisions had to be made. We still have a wormhole under IoS alliance control. Should we go back to that? We quickly decided that was a terrible idea. With only a handful of players, we have no right to be holding our own space. The obvious solution is to go wormhole diving.<br />
<br />
Wormhole diving is the act of living in K-space but using W-space as your primary hunting ground. With our small numbers, it seems like the perfect middle-ground for me. We have nothing to lose beyond our ships. There is no 'home-ground' advantage. There is simply the pure fun of the hunt.<br />
<br />
Oh, and we're no long Z3R0 Return Mining Inc., just call us IoS(dot)!<br />
<br />
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<br />Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-26193067324298817612018-04-17T21:44:00.000+00:002018-04-17T21:44:14.943+00:00All good things...<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirD6oTnHiIYzcPg49cXOgoXfxXO2wdwhh3BF15qeSqFw-xRj1wGnhhr2KTw29t-_1VL-AAdT2Ey0w0lnfV0JGd92xV5rRC1qsWu2W5j5hIlrJU8DuEWDIDuLwL8doWjeWa-wf1DqKzxnw/s1600/resigned.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirD6oTnHiIYzcPg49cXOgoXfxXO2wdwhh3BF15qeSqFw-xRj1wGnhhr2KTw29t-_1VL-AAdT2Ey0w0lnfV0JGd92xV5rRC1qsWu2W5j5hIlrJU8DuEWDIDuLwL8doWjeWa-wf1DqKzxnw/s1600/resigned.jpg" /></a></div>
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Fear ye not. New beginnings are coming. And Z3R0's not dead, it's merely resting.</div>
Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-313006667114209852018-01-29T00:02:00.000+00:002018-01-29T00:02:05.014+00:00Circuit TrainingOver the years the size of Z3R0 Return Mining Inc. has shrunk to become dangerously small. Those of us left are good friends and many of us have met in the real world. This makes the prospect of closing down Zero unpalatable for us all; moving as a group to another corp would dilute the friendships. Plus we'd be at the whim of people we neither know nor whom would understand our seven years of collected in-jokes (beep, beep). The upshot of this is sometimes we need to find innovative ways to entertain ourselves on an evening of EVE.<br />
<br />
A couple of weeks ago was one such evening. We'd encountered a fleet of at least a dozen pilots who were taking heavy advantage of a hisec connection very close to Jita. They had a guard on the hisec wormhole but it was still very tempting to trigger a suicidal fight - a temptation which increased as the evening went on. In the course of scanning our chain in the other directions, I found a second hisec connection which was also one jump from Jita. This second hisec was a single hop from the first hisec! If we can't fight them, we might as well troll them.<br />
<br />
I hopped into my pod and headed out to their cloaky camp on the first hisec. My plan was to look like I was going shopping and would be coming back with something juicy for them to shoot. I parked my pod on the hisec connection, waited until I saw a Flycatcher on D-scan, then jumped out. Rather than head to Jita, though, I took myself to the other entry to our chain and headed home to dock back up. After 10 minutes or so I did this a second time, and then a third. All the while scouting desperately with my other account for something more suitable to actually fire some ammo into.<br />
<br />
On comms, we were having a good old laugh assuming they were utterly confused how I was only ever heading out in the same direction and never returning. I have no idea whether the scouts on the hole had any idea what was going on. I don't really care either; my corp is all I'm interested in keeping entertained. And in the wasteland that is wormhole space, one needs to take entertainment where one finds it.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-12955307003949173322018-01-02T20:43:00.000+00:002018-01-02T20:43:50.171+00:00Daftly DoingsOkay, folks, it's a new year and time to do some daft stuff. I realised over the past few years I've managed to spread a lot of ships and random junk around most of New Eden. For sanity's sake, and for something random to do, I needed to collect it all in one place and sell the ships I don't fly anymore. This took the best part of three days and resulted in six billion ISK worth of unwanted ships.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHnvk3nXLsEoqprviYIOaqX1BRx2nzRlZv8QYc6rR2rLO8niCoYtHxIRRuJ5Tvcrme1ykcHyN9ugORLSHHiC2li6D-qZiNaX69g0eZI5kRg3o9kEccCl6W6bFHZtfhyphenhyphenIsnLm4QiZmunA/s1600/ships.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="926" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHnvk3nXLsEoqprviYIOaqX1BRx2nzRlZv8QYc6rR2rLO8niCoYtHxIRRuJ5Tvcrme1ykcHyN9ugORLSHHiC2li6D-qZiNaX69g0eZI5kRg3o9kEccCl6W6bFHZtfhyphenhyphenIsnLm4QiZmunA/s640/ships.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This isn't even all of them!</td></tr>
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Of course, there's always some random crap in a random location far away. In this case, there was a very Expired Cerebral Accelerator in a Blood Raiders station in Nullsec. To get there is 42 jumps from Jita. The item is worthless. The only sensible thing to do here is trash the item. But where's the fun of being sensible? It's much better to pour myself a whisky and fit myself up an uncatchable interceptor. Let's see what Nullsec has awake today.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy7ukWElNtdqu7vMKrKOq4X4aO6PyBnV9gZNYvHuKDG2a1mKsba2a7UmyzntkQQpGr6lZxl025FhSZ-O5N2EPuheU0y-v691_6AoiUYn-f0Cjyb_0iN723e_zWBu37vXM0Nu1loB_D96A/s1600/gatecamp.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="21" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy7ukWElNtdqu7vMKrKOq4X4aO6PyBnV9gZNYvHuKDG2a1mKsba2a7UmyzntkQQpGr6lZxl025FhSZ-O5N2EPuheU0y-v691_6AoiUYn-f0Cjyb_0iN723e_zWBu37vXM0Nu1loB_D96A/s1600/gatecamp.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More a Gatecamp than a gate camp</td></tr>
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The first 20 jumps of Hisec were completely uneventful. Once I got away from the local scam-chatter of Jita there was absolutely nothing to distract my attention bar the profusion of anchored structures in almost all Hisec systems these days. Lowsec was entered at Vehan with a pilot called Vehan Gatecamp on the outside but no sign of an actual gate camp on the inside. In Hier, there was a small gate camp of four ships - nothing exciting - and this theme continued until the end of Lowsec and my entry to deepest, darkest Delve.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_3ROx8nuxnUKZGVSjQ7FpUYchWxrPOOyBLUcBmti6LtqSeJHsZ6AbrlvH8aWU9-zvW31w75aw9mO_Bb3LWUD9Mbmj014TNQb-TW1lCTXLgqvaa17kfipa1YYJMFDVIngMzZlTs7hQNE/s1600/actual-camp.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="91" data-original-width="359" height="81" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_3ROx8nuxnUKZGVSjQ7FpUYchWxrPOOyBLUcBmti6LtqSeJHsZ6AbrlvH8aWU9-zvW31w75aw9mO_Bb3LWUD9Mbmj014TNQb-TW1lCTXLgqvaa17kfipa1YYJMFDVIngMzZlTs7hQNE/s320/actual-camp.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A gate camp was 'Hier'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've never lived in Nullsec. I never fancied the ring-kissing, safe-ratting lifestyle. This means Nullsec still maintains an air of mystery for me, and with mystery comes the fear of the unknown. My first jump, Goon-inhabited 1-SMEB, had a Nereus and Machariel sitting on the gate. An interesting combination that smacks of confidence. Use your bait for looting the field! The rest of the gates in were clear, but every system had someone somewhere. Much more active the average deep Lowsec system.<br />
<br />
I docked and collected my Expired Cerebral Accelerator then began the return journey. The route home was even less eventful. In A-ELE2 there was a Hurricane sitting at the entry gate. As I flew through the systems I kept track of the numbers in local. It was interesting to discover that Nullsec is more populated that Lowsec. For my small sample size, there were 1.5 pilots on average per Lowsec system compared to 4.5 per system for Nullsec. It's a really small sample and I'd love to know if this holds true for more areas of space. Has EVE truly become Hisec and Nullsec only?Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-23019851981371929492017-05-16T23:05:00.000+00:002017-05-16T23:05:13.863+00:00Where's the wormholers at?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
This is our map from a few nights ago. It's not the most expansive map in the world but with the hisec connection there's a certain expectation of entertainment to be had. Sadly there was not a single engagement. Not a single shot fired. The largest ship we saw was a Magnate and he liberally shat himself before jumping back to hisec.<br />
<br />
I increasingly find myself wondering if wormhole space is dead. Are we the dinosaurs of a bygone era?Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-73964523218516973562017-05-09T19:55:00.000+00:002017-05-09T19:55:09.544+00:00Flying the FlagThe newest release of EVE Online is with us. Release 119.5 went live today and brought exciting things such as:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Blood Raider Shipyards</li>
<li>Beautiful New Suns</li>
<li>Shattering PLEX into little pieces</li>
<li>Killing Aurum off</li>
<li>New CONCORD ships for players</li>
</ul>
<div>
But the most important feature of the 119.5 release was far and away the alliance logos being mounted onto citadels.</div>
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<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's been a long time since the IoS logo was commissioned. In that time it's changed colour and been 'weathered' by CCP. Nevertheless it still looks like one of the best logos in game (yes, yes, I am biased) and it looks even better projected from the top of an eight kilometre high tower.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As an added bonus my glorious mug appears elsewhere on the citadel. I'm less sold on that idea, to be honest, but it's still kinda cool.</div>
<div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
All dock at the feet of Oreamnos the Great, or some bollox like that.</div>
Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-66317101145183391392017-04-04T00:39:00.002+00:002017-04-04T00:39:53.299+00:00Not an OrcaSomehow I managed to play a reasonable amount of EVE last week. We even saw the occasional person to shoot at! On Thursday we were hunting when I spotted an Orca somewhere in system. Oh hell yeah! I'll kill some Orca. The Orca started hauling stuff between a Citadel and an Engineering Complex so we got ourselves set up with a stop bubble. Our first and very visible attempt to catch the Orca failed terribly so we came up with an alternative - catch whatever the hell came to shoot at us. The following video shows how that went. I'm the voice who eventually becomes FC and calls the Stratios primary.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C4MctwdF3qM" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Enjoy that? Think you can do better? We are always recruiting ;-)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The final score <a href="http://kb.ofsolitude.net/index.php/kill_related/19878/" target="_blank">looked like this</a>. Note that I'm missing because I mainly acted as a diversion and neither died nor was killed.</div>
</div>
Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-52997920179083779242017-03-12T22:07:00.000+00:002017-03-12T22:07:25.094+00:00CSM XII<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Once more it's time to vote for the CSM and this time around I really couldn't care less who gets in. As far as I know the outgoing CSM has been relatively drama-free which evidently equates to bad marketing. Mind you, I've pretty much drifted away from most of the meta surrounding EVE so probably wouldn't know if there had been drama.<br />
<br />
I had a look at the list of candidates for CSM XII and the names were all pretty unfamiliar. Only seven of the 64 names rang any bells, and not all those seven were for good reasons. I turned to the <a href="http://eveoganda.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/my-official-csm-ballet.html" target="_blank">wisdom of Rixx Javix</a> to pick my names. I did swap Steve Ronuken to the top though.<br />
<br />
If you haven't voted yet <a href="https://community.eveonline.com/community/csm/vote/" target="_blank">get your arse over to the voting page</a> right now and bang in some names. Drama or not we players still want CCP to have access to players to use as sounding boards. Hopefully the quiet CSM XI shows CCP have learned how to leverage such a focus group without giving away too much information to be abused.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-10418250112966420752017-02-13T22:52:00.002+00:002017-02-13T22:52:41.996+00:00Zen<div class="separator tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJwx7Q7XpYcFyzqGiUKMu091enopfBLbZrcV_xP9nt8ULUu_ElP3OTTPyNw5LwNSqSEhh3itPODF_ZeCex3T2YPQIaVT32jjN-xUzBBIiiSJ-o7f2hIuqCCSLuVRc5kIBTWYZVvVMAFOI/s1600/scanning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJwx7Q7XpYcFyzqGiUKMu091enopfBLbZrcV_xP9nt8ULUu_ElP3OTTPyNw5LwNSqSEhh3itPODF_ZeCex3T2YPQIaVT32jjN-xUzBBIiiSJ-o7f2hIuqCCSLuVRc5kIBTWYZVvVMAFOI/s400/scanning.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote>
<i>The cathartic nature of the aural ping,</i><br />
<i>as the bubbles resize and draw you in.</i><br />
<i>Danger lurks somewhere within.</i><br />
<i>Can ye find it? </i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>Gas, gas, data, relic, null,</i><br />
<i>probes in space unearth the soul.</i><br />
<i>Can I find somewhere to go?</i><br />
<i>Do ah care? </i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>Chain is forged and none shall see.</i><br />
<i>Sitting waiting patiently.</i><br />
<i>Writing terrible poetry.</i><br />
<i>Scanners pause.</i></blockquote>
Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-33932827385863721372017-01-15T23:30:00.000+00:002017-01-15T23:30:20.199+00:00Lost In EVE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back in the mists of time, when I first joined Z3R0 Return Mining Inc., the corp was primarily a PvE<br />
corp. To a certain extent we had teeth we would bare at times, but our primary activities revolved around running sites, sucking gas, or building things. Fast-forwarding through the years we have moved back and forth between becoming more PvE focused or more PvP focused, but never fully dived into either camp.<br />
<br />
A couple of years ago when I thought the time was right I tried to position us as a PvP corp who did occasional PvE to pay the bills for ships. The problem with that is people would join the corp, realise we weren't always wanting to form fleets to go out hunting, then log off and/or quit the corp due to doing too much PvE. Conversely, off the back of that, I positioned us as a PvE corp who like to shoot at people and the exact opposite problem rises up. People who don't want to PvP get upset when we want to shoot at other folks.<br />
<br />
As it stands, with a new year underway, I'm having a think about how to position the corp in the obligatory EVE-O forum post. I've tried honesty and it didn't have much truck with people. I've detailed my stretching of the truth and that just leads to disappointed people. It seems that EVE players just don't get the concept we play the game with, namely we'll do whatever Bob presents to us. Be it shooting people, running sites or sucking C5 gas, so long as we can do it while consuming plenty of alcohol and having hilarious conversations we're happy. Hell, the perfect night brings in all of those options.<br />
<br />
EVE players seem to expect a focus on a single aspect of the game. Large nullsec alliances get the luxury of creating silos of player activities so people take part in their favourite aspect. I have no intention to go to Nullsec. More powerful wormhole alliances occupy multiple holes with each member having a hole to 'Krab' in and not pollute their main pewpew home. I prefer the idea of not gaming the system, but to have each pilot (or family of pilots, as I see alts) truly earn the ISK 'at home' to enjoy New Eden. So I sit here contemplating a recruitment drive but have no idea how to position it. Saying "We do all the things" appears to be worse than lying.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-60552731114897150942017-01-08T21:39:00.002+00:002017-01-08T21:39:30.658+00:00Must Try HarderMy 2016 blogging campaign began with the goal of posting more frequently. I didn't think I would get back to the heady heights of 2012 but I was looking for at least one post per week on average, ideally six posts per month overall. Things were going pretty well for the first five months but then real life decided to take a dump on me in June when my work went under and I was made redundant. That's where blogging definitely took the back seat for the rest of the year.<br />
<br />
Finding a new job for the first time in over a decade was interesting. Acclimatising to the new job was interesting. The hectic uncontrolled nature of the new workplace was interesting. All of this 'interesting' left me with not much spare time or energy. I had the choice between blogging or playing EVE. Sorry, dear reader, I chose to play EVE.<br />
<br />
Citadels have been anchored. Roams have been roamed. Traps have been sprung and ships have been both lost and killed. I still fly with the same wonderful group of people every week so I'm happy to say my lack of blogging isn't a reflection on my lack of game time. Although I still don't get enough time to play...<br />
<br />
This year I return with the same hope as last. A weekly blog with a couple of bonus posts per month where possible. Hopefully my remaining three readers will multiple into 12 by the end of the year. Stick with me and we'll find out. If there's anything in particular you would like to me write about drop me an email at <a href="mailto:orea@ofsolitude.net">orea@ofsolitude.net</a>.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-73123413977916859692016-12-14T23:30:00.002+00:002016-12-14T23:30:40.338+00:00Gratitude<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUBF2SgiiP6LfjKG4CmTDE4mSy2VsGjCxOCd5qLOPuPysLXFgssZ1stb_91izOPgqOYRu29sNSpqevAJme6JpoPagaa8i0vQOdmyvxfxD_WQY2TuCe9-d50Ek0w4C2prt9G_DnDysis0/s1600/gratitude.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUBF2SgiiP6LfjKG4CmTDE4mSy2VsGjCxOCd5qLOPuPysLXFgssZ1stb_91izOPgqOYRu29sNSpqevAJme6JpoPagaa8i0vQOdmyvxfxD_WQY2TuCe9-d50Ek0w4C2prt9G_DnDysis0/s1600/gratitude.jpg" /></a></div>
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:sadface:Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-37794831130609010462016-10-16T16:27:00.001+00:002016-10-16T16:29:00.232+00:00Opening a New Map<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrpT7htSo6yKNopqBVqmjKeqnbKlUkm3PchcD0oNPg4NlzT706D3rtzYx3hkycT24whMuETPBP0nXBX0_Ke-e9S8BTbepuFOxT_Hb6PMX5c01YpbyT5Y5Sl8Cs5omTDCv3EBTHNAXhuTo/s1600/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrpT7htSo6yKNopqBVqmjKeqnbKlUkm3PchcD0oNPg4NlzT706D3rtzYx3hkycT24whMuETPBP0nXBX0_Ke-e9S8BTbepuFOxT_Hb6PMX5c01YpbyT5Y5Sl8Cs5omTDCv3EBTHNAXhuTo/s320/map.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Out with the old</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Intel is everything in wormhole space. Our daily routine revolves around scanning for routes. Presenting the chains we find as accessible maps is a massive requirement for us. In the beginning we used ASCII maps in the bulletin board. Then almost exactly three years ago we started using <a href="https://github.com/evewspace/eve-wspace" target="_blank">EVE W-Space</a> for creating our chain maps. Unfortunately this requires the in-game browser to track each pilot's current position. On Tuesday the in-game browser was retired from the client and EVE W-Space lost a massive part of functionality.<br />
<br />
Thankfully I had been preparing for this by trying other pieces of mapping software. I prefer to host the code myself so that ruled out <a href="https://siggy.borkedlabs.com/pages/welcome" target="_blank">Siggy</a> from the get-go. The first option to try was the other well-known mapping project of <a href="https://tripwire.eve-apps.com/" target="_blank">Tripwire</a>. It installed easy enough and I got it up and running with no problems at all. When I started using it I just didn't gel with the interface. With three years of EVE W-Space mapping left to right, I didn't like the top-down mapping in Tripwire. Everything also felt small, again likely caused by the emphasis on larger nodes for each system mapped in EVE W-Space. After one evening spent mapping with Tripwire I was done and looking for another option.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In with the new</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One night on comms someone suggested a newer project called <a href="https://www.pathfinder-w.space/" target="_blank">Pathfinder</a>. I had a quick read of their website and agreed to give it a go. Once again, installation was trivial and I had the software mapping for me in no time. Right from the off I had the same complaint as with Tripwire regarding the size of the node bubbles. Unlike Tripwire though, Pathfinder has free placement of each system. You can click and drag the system type indicator (C1, C2, H, etc.) and move the bubble where ever you want. This means we could continue to work with left-to-right mapping.<br />
<br />
Another nice feature is the page loads in system kills within the last 24 hours. This gives you an instant idea if there may be people lurking around to shoot at (or die to). One final feature I quite like is the route planner will use the mapped connections to calculate the fastest route somewhere, using wormholes if required. It is rather nice seeing the distance to Jita is eight jumps while I'm sat in a random nullsec watching nobody do anything.<br />
<br />
If you are in the market for a new mapping tool and want to host it yourself I can thoroughly recommend Pathfinder. Or, if you're not as paranoid as me you can always use their hosted version.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-15416295089279376162016-09-26T23:15:00.001+00:002016-09-26T23:15:37.580+00:00Drifters Abound<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To quote my corpmate who took this screenshot in J130037: "Yeah, fuck that hole".Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-72984110937269604392016-09-21T21:44:00.000+00:002016-09-22T06:57:32.567+00:00Not EntertainmentThe problem with new player retention was inadvertently pigeonholed on comms tonight:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It's PVE; you do it for the ISK, not the entertainment"</blockquote>
'Nuf saidOreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-69917040020552016532016-09-12T07:59:00.000+00:002016-09-12T13:13:19.026+00:00The Hidden ChairAlmost everything was unpacked now but there was still no sign of the writing chair. Oreamnos had been asking everyone he'd seen, and spent hours digging through the computer inventory, but it was as if the chair had never existed. Walking past his writing desk for what felt like the millionth time since the new office was set up Orea noticed a small piece of white paper had been left for his attention; the writing simply said "Check out the view".<br />
<br />
There had been no reason to open the shutters on the office's massive view port. He knew the view of a distant sun was hugged by artificial representations of the wormhole system's planetary orbits. Still, the note had been left for a reason and with nothing better to do right now he might as well take another look outside. An instruction to the citadel's computer made the shutters slowly roll open.<br />
<br />
"Bastards!", Oreamnos swore out loud to nobody in particular. There, right in the middle of his window, occluding the view and bracketed by the computer as 'Unknown' was the clear outline of his favourite leather writing chair. "I'll kill them all!"<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ6F5RwTQOuDfY59JLiiFWKa94HOxnnL3oaJ_hTvshHWYlZEV6GKh9tlHtOkwknhoEqAxlNb_Cw-GMN36y_NjifsxvCdXlcDkfYQc6ySZZdG_7sysce-fac_02xlxy1f0PQS_-Xm1FIi8/s1600/chair.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ6F5RwTQOuDfY59JLiiFWKa94HOxnnL3oaJ_hTvshHWYlZEV6GKh9tlHtOkwknhoEqAxlNb_Cw-GMN36y_NjifsxvCdXlcDkfYQc6ySZZdG_7sysce-fac_02xlxy1f0PQS_-Xm1FIi8/s320/chair.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by Rhiana Kurosawa, aka prime suspect</td></tr>
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Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-12179560021614360522016-09-07T23:28:00.002+00:002016-09-07T23:28:20.760+00:00Unpacking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVqoNcs3kgEdLaUcV_2GMIAVK5domUo1CW00g10P7bWeBbX0YeWGaUsKPDQx-DA8XDJeS516lM_mqQJRhyphenhyphenF4qeA4ylnCYdgYF7aCFJRTKjUgrzLwmloQCcg4BAAfXSYdQI_C4BoUMnR4/s1600/desk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVqoNcs3kgEdLaUcV_2GMIAVK5domUo1CW00g10P7bWeBbX0YeWGaUsKPDQx-DA8XDJeS516lM_mqQJRhyphenhyphenF4qeA4ylnCYdgYF7aCFJRTKjUgrzLwmloQCcg4BAAfXSYdQI_C4BoUMnR4/s200/desk.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
"About bloody time" Oreamnos though as he wandered through the mess of his new office. In the corner, recently uncovered, was an antique oak writing desk which he hadn't seen for weeks. Looking around he realised the battered leather chair which went with the desk was yet to be unpacked.<br />
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Stalking off, muttering about incompetent janitorial staff, Orea went to see if his new citadel contained a decent glass of rum anywhere.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-82988142001334136192016-06-26T18:43:00.000+00:002016-06-26T18:43:15.233+00:00When Bloggers CollideMy friend and fellow blogger, <a href="https://splatus.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Splatus</a>, finally managed to vacation in the UK. After over five years of playing EVE together we finally got to meet in person. He also brought a gift which will give me many hours of reading enjoyment.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkzE0NT9T7PB7FfCeoXpDM15XBzIUD3pq2-If36F8UbWpXElBBLhH8uMaZ4P6bQK_oG1E77W2EcfS-KEtMzgipG2_hiXgH69APL_pQKXFv4hYbPDrz-M0cGNbec3ZcifQRBdOmaOUBfo/s1600/EOE-book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkzE0NT9T7PB7FfCeoXpDM15XBzIUD3pq2-If36F8UbWpXElBBLhH8uMaZ4P6bQK_oG1E77W2EcfS-KEtMzgipG2_hiXgH69APL_pQKXFv4hYbPDrz-M0cGNbec3ZcifQRBdOmaOUBfo/s400/EOE-book.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
I also had a gift for him, a good beer and glass with the alliance logo etched on it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvmGZSr0EBoN8MnIVJrhfOpde4Tc4k0s7gFT0CWwKnjaihSUsrosp4-5rz-JQPKRxvunRQuIb4hyphenhyphenrCj8vR0_QxuKywHEr_DHooPydwfJuxsmpTgoRevR4SruF0dIqY3xd7kOw0dL2RChM/s1600/Reginald-Beer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvmGZSr0EBoN8MnIVJrhfOpde4Tc4k0s7gFT0CWwKnjaihSUsrosp4-5rz-JQPKRxvunRQuIb4hyphenhyphenrCj8vR0_QxuKywHEr_DHooPydwfJuxsmpTgoRevR4SruF0dIqY3xd7kOw0dL2RChM/s320/Reginald-Beer.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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It was great to finally meet someone I've been in almost daily contact with, through EVE, for five years. I was told it can't take so long until our next meeting but next time I've to go to the USA. I'd better renew my passport then.</div>
<br />Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-68114366680147444162016-05-31T18:13:00.000+00:002016-05-31T18:13:21.253+00:00EVE Launcher for Linux<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlevZVk6gZj53hzbxv4tfXFioBEU1VeV5yac0m0kdR0Lz6EwpBUYE8vMuPa5rsgYsDTgbO0SJxj8nlsku8j2u1A2VwUCdR-VlaQMuUO5CgwFyc1iM6ir8_GnGWCTows9ae1M8HWgAIrwQ/s1600/Tux.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlevZVk6gZj53hzbxv4tfXFioBEU1VeV5yac0m0kdR0Lz6EwpBUYE8vMuPa5rsgYsDTgbO0SJxj8nlsku8j2u1A2VwUCdR-VlaQMuUO5CgwFyc1iM6ir8_GnGWCTows9ae1M8HWgAIrwQ/s320/Tux.png" width="268" /></a></div>
In the distant past I used Linux as my main home PC operating system. I didn't play many games back then and being able to run successfully on Linux was pretty much a requirement for me even trying a game. As my professional career gave me more and more freedom to play with various technologies on Linux I spent less time playing with them at home. This freed up time was soon put to good use and I started playing more games.<br />
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I still spent a fair amount of time trying to get a sufficiently performant experience with EVE in Linux. I could definitely get it working but there were always some niggles, not least was that my PC was getting old and the performance hit from running EVE on top of a translation layer made it worse. Ultimately I gave up and just ran EVE under Windows. I would occasionally foray back into EVE on Linux on various work computers but never got anything I would call 'satisfying'.<br />
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I randomly stumbled across a post in the EVE forums yesterday talking about the <a href="https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=482663" target="_blank">EVE Launcher being available for Linux</a>. Apparently this is something that CCP Snorlax has been working on as a side project. It downloads and installs its own custom build of WINE on which EVE will run. The forum thread I linked, above, is pretty active so if you give this wonderful side project of CCP Snorlax a go and get stuck there's a good chance you can get some help there.<br />
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I've yet to try this myself. As always all I have running Linux is an ancient laptop. I hope to give this a go at the weekend but I'm pretty sure all it will do is turn the laptop into molten plastics.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-51894260483756290602016-05-30T08:42:00.003+00:002016-05-30T08:42:47.379+00:00Opportunities KnockLast month <a href="http://newedennotes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-march-of-newbie.html" target="_blank">I wrote about</a> CCP introducing what amounted to 'daily quests' on the test server. These have finally arrived on the live server and I'm happy to see that rats in w-space also count towards the gifted skill points. A few of us had hoped that the daily opportunity would be per character, thus giving us the chance to earn extra SP for all our alts. Sadly this is not the case and you can only earn 10,000 SP extra per account, per day.<br />
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I suspect this is to prevent more experienced players who don't want or need the SP from simply farming it. If you used all three characters to do this you could fill three skill extractors every 7 weeks. Selling those on would have given enough ISK to cover a PLEX. Essentially the monthly cost of playing EVE would have halved for people who didn't need this SP.<br />
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I guess doing it this way is probably a good thing. However, given the alt-centric nature of EVE, it would probably benefit newer players to be able to accelerate the training of the two alts they get on an account. Maybe CCP could allow the bonus SP to be per character providing said character has less than five million SP? Then new players would be able to rapidly train the low SP, highly specialised alts most experienced players have access to.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-71520286333625533002016-05-23T10:24:00.000+00:002016-05-23T10:24:03.654+00:00Sovless Goons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nckXWB1mLZSaz-rpXBZjPJTOIpE1NGaF2OdH4eLVKI_xxkNOa788GJs_VC6weffKb7wa4qlfOcScMHvXnbjsQWJXn44xCkXmiMaB2GzULxBfg8uucWSNW1DSraS_Ssf_Rajs9oScqao/s1600/sovless.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nckXWB1mLZSaz-rpXBZjPJTOIpE1NGaF2OdH4eLVKI_xxkNOa788GJs_VC6weffKb7wa4qlfOcScMHvXnbjsQWJXn44xCkXmiMaB2GzULxBfg8uucWSNW1DSraS_Ssf_Rajs9oScqao/s320/sovless.png" width="320" /></a></div>
I've been watching with vague interest at the whole World War Bee thing. Along with most of New Eden I put an alt into Pandemic Horde. I didn't do that because I have any particular hatred of Goons/CFC/Imperium, rather it was the easy route in for random fights. I can't say I've been particularly active as I'll always log in to my wormhole corp. first. There's been some fun roams, some total whelps, and a couple of totally boring moments sitting doing nothing. As I've mentioned here before the propaganda flowing from the war has been excellent. To my mind that's been the best part of the war entirely.<br />
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Throughout the war so far the basic scheme of things has been thousands of Money Badger's shouting "Grr Goons" while taking sov from said Goons. On the Goons side they've been readily declaring how they didn't want that sov anyway whilst getting somewhat excited about Horde tears and crushing victories over "strategic Thrasher fleets". To be honest I've been somewhat disappointed by the Imperium response. I've been around since 2009 and there's been some impressive shows of force by the then CFC which has been totally lacking this time around. What could have been the next great war in New Eden has been a damp squib where the largest and most experienced coalition has been excited about shooting fish in barrels.<br />
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Today it was highlighted to me that Goons have finally reached their target. They currently hold sovereignty in absolutely zero systems in New Eden. No matter what happens now it is incredibly unlikely that we will see any Goon supercaps in battle any time soon. They no longer have the infrastructure available to them to rebuild any losses. We are all poorer from this turn of affairs. Nonetheless I hope that with zero systems claimed Goons now feel ready for the fight back. With no sov, they truly satisfy the conditions to stage their uncatchily-named "War of Sov-less Aggression".Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-46306483273126924982016-05-16T22:23:00.000+00:002016-05-16T22:23:26.743+00:00Citadel Death RateIt's been just over two weeks since the first Astrahus citadel was anchored. Many since then have been aborted before they made it to fully operational status. I thought it would be interesting to trawl zkillboard and look at the Citadel deaths so far this month.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSCzrJ0NmOJe_1rDVYHM3gtHMdqmazyhomj2MYk3ZBFk16BMwdyovH5Oo5bPpnSBxOJ4sqFTeEaTungte0QKiGqk7S5QtLsDsLLBTzNaUYYul0nvKU09TehYZMkKZu3Asdlfzz5za2dRU/s1600/citadel-loses.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSCzrJ0NmOJe_1rDVYHM3gtHMdqmazyhomj2MYk3ZBFk16BMwdyovH5Oo5bPpnSBxOJ4sqFTeEaTungte0QKiGqk7S5QtLsDsLLBTzNaUYYul0nvKU09TehYZMkKZu3Asdlfzz5za2dRU/s640/citadel-loses.png" width="640" /></a></div>
I had thought the majority of citadels would die very early in the graph as everyone scrambled to kill the shiny new thing in-game. It turns out the rate of dying seems to be increasing. In retrospect I guess this is because the price has been dropping. More people are either willing or able to risk the cost of launching these new toys.<br />
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I can't help but notice w-space is particularly unforgiving for people launching a citadel. I wonder if that's a function of us wormhole dwellers allegedly having too much ISK. I'd need to check the classes of hole these citadels died in. The C5/6 dwellers certainly can afford to drop the 1.5 Bn ISK on a citadel. The more casual groups like my corp have to think twice about it.<br />
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I'd be interested to see how the number of aborted citadels compares to successfully onlined ones. To see seven citadels died in w-space yesterday seems concerning on the surface. But if that was seven out of 70 anchored then all is well.<br />
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I look forward to us anchoring our first citadel but I'm going to be watching silly season on these kills to pick an appropriate time before we even attempt to put one up.Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882154302153185214.post-15872735124780662482016-05-09T23:30:00.000+00:002016-05-09T23:30:37.740+00:00Death to all CitadelsAs I recently posted, I was definitely not going to suicide a noob ship on the Perimeter citadel which ended its final reinforcement timer last night. Here is the edited video of me not doing exactly that, set to Permaband's latest tune.<br />
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<iframe height="360" width="640" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_piJxaTye2I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>Oreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17463371090240353831noreply@blogger.com0