Out of the fire and into the Crusible…

Well, we are in the Crusible now, and for me, getting there got me boiling… though once in, I kinda liked it…  =]

OK, I am a PC Tech IRL, and my notebook, the one I use for EVE, is technically the best one I have… but a few months ago the HD failed SMART. Not a “gonna die in 5 mins” kinda fail, the far more bothersome “probably gonna fail sometime soonish” kinda fail… fukme. 

So I took a bunch of spare (and lower capacity) NB drives cleaned em up, moved backup data around and picked the 2 best… The 2 best as my wife’s notebook had also started giving HD errors. I had ONE, just one drive with NO SMART errors at all and it was the larger drive too… and as you might guess, that one went in ‘her’ system. The slightly smaller drive with minor SMART issues went in mine. No prob, both more than large enough for XP SP3 and the std apps for hers… std apps plus EVE and the gigs of associated pix, vids, apps that I have for mine.

OK, so I get both systems reloaded, apps & settings configed and all ‘seems’ to be working OK. Until a few weeks ago… the minor SMART errors on the drive in my sys are creeping into the failzone… not there yet, but closer than I like. And then came Crusible…

Initially Everything was going ok then the system simply stopped. No errors, no BSOD, mouse still responded but the screen is wallpaper… no input, mouse or keyboard has any effect. I give it 30 mins and hold the power button for the required 10 seconds… crap. 

To make a long, painful yet unpleasant story a bit shorter…

I first double clicked on the EVE icon to upgrade to Crucible at around 17:00 EVE… I ended up reinstalling the client, from scratch (THANK GOD I saved the Incarna install files!) then redownloading the Crusible update, rerunning the setup… it crapped AGAIN, but I was able to rekickoff the update without downloading again… and THIS time it completed… JEZUZ. 

When I FINALLY logged into our POS in the C2 wormhole we call home (no new pretty paintings in the sky for those who dwell in holes…  =[   ) it was 04:45 EVE… that’s 11 hours 45 mins to get Crucible up and running… sheesh. 

Was it worth it? Well…

Keep in mind we live in W-space and the biggest impact on us so far is the corp bookmarks (Oh HELL YEA!!!), POS fueling changes, we wait to see, and we are talkin about the POCOs… 

As ervybody is doing careful metareports, write ups, and comparisons of ALL of the new Crucible features I thought I do sumthin different.  Here are my PERSONAL thoughts on the changes I have ‘seen’ or experienced and their impact on me personally… in no particular order they are: 

Interface Text Changes/Scaling… Kudos. Period, ‘nuff said. 

Correctly Oriented Gates… Kudos!! Nice and far better for immersion and game “feel”, the ‘science geek’ and ‘SF buff’ in me are both pleased, TY VM. 

Ship Contrails… The contrails are effin NICE! One wonders why they went away in the 1^st place… you get so much moar a FEEL for your ships movement and flight with them… and they just look damn cool as shit!  ~and~  Some Ships got the Love…  The Hookbill was one of the ships that got a ‘make-over’… Grey Urban Digital Camo!!! SCHWEET!!!!

Urban Grey Digitoflage AND Contrails,   oooooo… ahhhhhh…   =]

“Loot All ™”… TY TY TY TY… As the corp Salvage Ops Director I thank you from the bottom of my skeevy licentious heart… but… can you now make the cans POP a wee bit faster after “Loot All ™” is used?? You see, now with the New and Improved “Loot All ™” there is this ungodly, several 10^th of a second, boring wait for the can to pop as looting is now SOOOOO easy…[we will NEVER be fully happy!!!] 

Newbulea... I am of 2 minds and 1 dissenting opinion about the New Nebula…

(1) [RP & Lore] “Where in hell did they come from!??? It’s just fukkin SCARY to wake up one morning and the “eternal” sky is DIFFERENT!!!”  “What in hell do these NEW stars portend???” and “OH fuk!! Now ALL the star charts will have to be COMPLETELY resurveyed AND every goddamn ship in New Eden is gonna need a Garminverse Update immediately!” 

(B) [OOC] Incredibly VERY visually stunning and beautiful AND they do seem to maintain a cogent placement as you move through the EVE cluster… nice and accurate, the ‘science geek’ and ‘SF buff’ in me are again both pleased..  Also… they also make it far harder to ‘see’ a cloaked ship in… This is/may be both good and bad.

Good, I dunt know if others can ‘see’ my cloaky the same as I do on screen, if not then NP. But if they can and they’re close enough, well you know?? So the newbulea will help hide cloakies even better…

Bad, they make it harder for ME to see my cloaky and determine where I am oriented to etc. so hmmmm… 

(2c) Nobulea… We in W-space woke up to the same ol same ol space… no love for us…  =[ 

Corp Bookmarks… One of the single best changes CCP could have given WH dwellers… BMs are our life out here. Ervyday we have to scan down the ‘daily holes, sigs & anoms’… My corp had been using a standardized Daily Hole Report email in which whoever did the days scanning, wrote up data on everything scanned down… And we have long had a corp hangar bay where we also store BM copies in order to ‘share’ the BMs, all of which is probably SOP in all WH corps… the Corp Bookmarks will simply remove ALL of the above work… scan em down, BM ‘em for corp and ta da, yer done. Though in our case we share the W-space we live in with another corp in our alliance… and we will still have to use the old methods to share with them… ah well. 

POCOs…  [Privately Operated Customs Offices]… so far I have no idea if this is good or bad… ALL I know is (1) my CEO got ganked and lost a stoopidly large amount of ISK value transportin POCO stuff to th hole… <sadface>  OH! he was ganked by the newest and baddest of the gankset… the Tornado!!, and (B) I have already started practicing my bombing runs on the local COs in our hole… Wayyy too much fun! LOL! 

New T3 Battlecruisers… are, as far as I am concerned, Battlecrusier Class Dessies…think about it. I have a Tornado over on Sisi and as intimated above, I feel the ‘Nado will become the baddest Alpha Gank boat EVE has seen yet… the ultimate GlassCannon (see: Thrasher)… A Sebo(?) & 1400mm howitzer fit ‘Nado 2 shotted my CEO’s Indie… Hello!

My 'Nado the "HDF =Bukfutter=" w/ 1200mm Arty locked and tracking...

Two of my corpmates have brought in a Naga and a Talos… the Naga nommed the Talos without breaking a sweat. Neither are ANY good at Sleepers (surprise surprise) and the Naga has been refit as a MINER (which it seems to do well at… just like most dessies, go figger)… I’ll will prolly get a ‘Nado or several… as POS Defense and/or Lowsec Gankers.

We dunt do Amarrrgh so no tactical/strategic opinion on that one… its gold colored, funny lookin and flown by God Cursed Slavers…. meh.

POS fuel “bloks”… we are still on standard fuels as are most and we will be researching and seeing what needs to be done to implement this… will update as we learn moar. 

So far that is really all the impact of note I have experienced. I do want to add though...  Damn Good Job CCP. PLEASE keep it UP!  (…that’s what she said!) 

One thought... If CCP wants to make a Vampire Avatar MMORPG I say Great! But do it AFTER you keep your dollar/euro/yen faucet in good working order! Then you could mebbe AFFORD to hire (back) staff just for that. 

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=