Monday, July 6, 2015

You Know That I’m No Good…

~or “Faithless…”


I have a confession to make… I have cheated… on EVE… as Amy Winehouse crooned…

I cheated myself,
like I knew, I would.
I told you I was trouble,
You know, that I’m no good.

I also will confess to having quite the thing for Miss Winehouse’s singing… (before the drugs…) whatta voice.

I have said afore that I am a one game man. By this I mean I only ‘really’ play one MMO. And that MMO is EVE. I do play other games occasionally but they are basically mindless time killers for when I simply don’t have the time to properly devote to EVE or I have a need to, well, mindlessly kill time.

I play Minecraft, an amazing creative world, but I have not ever played on multiplayer servers and don’t plan to. I have been trying to get a MC server running at home for my kids and I, but I haven’t been trying very hard… I also occasionally play Quake Live… but that is the truest form of mindless mental violenceturbation I have ever known. I know no one on the public servers and don’t ever want to. I go there only for storyless, mindless, unadulterated pure PvP.

My (real) gaming began with Doom. I was a FPS player for many years… Oh, I have trialed many other games over those same years, a few, Planetside 2, The Evil Within, Diablo 3, still reside on my hard drive, taking up space, ‘rarely used’… and at some point they will be uninstalled. Very very few games have ever really grabbed my interest, and until EVE not one of the MMOs had… and I tried many if not most of what’s out there. I really did… and either simply could not get into them or downright hated them.

 Until EVE… to say that I was enraptured, enthralled and overwhelmed barely touches on how deeply I was affected when I first undocked in EVE. I have been a SciFi nerd since I was 6 and an IT geek since my mid-twenties. The combination of the 2 in a game as deep, broad and immersive as EVE was what it took for me to finally take the plunge and become an MMO player. That and the wonderful fact that my sons, both Marines at the time, were the ones who brought me in and who I have flown with ever since… well, what can I say? EVE is the shit.  =]

And until now it was the ONLY MMO I actually played… until Saturday the Twenty-Seventh of June in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Fifteen that is, because on that auspicious day, I downloaded and installed Elite Dangerous… and THIS is something altogether different.

First I created Cmdr Turamarth Elrandir (Yea!!! I’m still ME!!!) then I ran the undocking practice 4 times, then ran the docking practice 4 times, then I did the supercruise and warping about the place practice 4 times… after that, feeling I could now move about with a modicum of confidence, I logged into the verse. By the time I had landed in a new station at the end of my first foray out, I was sold and I knew from that moment on I was at the very least a two game player.

Gidzenko Ring Station in Chamunda System...  My home in Elite Dangerous
All I’m doing now is the easy, safe, low pay contract hauling stuff (delivery missions)... I’m a Courier. I’m making noob bank, slowly but steadily and I spent a only week in the noob ship, the Sidewinder Mk. I. But just like back when I was a noob in EVE, I’m not trying to get rich, I’m learning the ropes and the ways of this new, FOUR HUNDRED BILLION star system ‘verse I am now a very small small part of.

I’ve been kilt in non-consensual PvP already… once so far on my first day in game, about 3 or so hours in. That was a LOT faster than it happened the first time in EVE. What was I doing? boofing around trying to learn the ropes. I had seen ‘stuff’ in space and was sort of exploring… I was trying to figure out how to open the Cargo Scoop and some 5 or so ships landed in a gang… I saw some smack in ‘local’ like, “Ooooo a snack!” and I was attacked. I tried to run but, well… I’m an EVE vet so it was what it was and I was also curious how death in E:D worked. Still haven’t looked up the mechanics or logic or lore behind it but there I was in my starter station being asked if I wanted the free Sidewinder… yes of course.

I Looked it up, they call it Death Penalty Rules:
“When a commander’s ship receives catastrophic hull damage (breaks apart) or becomes incapable of supporting life, the commander automatically escapes via an ever-present, indestructible escape pod.

Ahhhh… the old Escape Pod that never fails gambit…

Not an escape POD... Exterior view of the Gidzenko Ring Dock (the ships actually fit inside it! Yeah physics!!)
- The escape pod transports the commander back to the last station that they docked at. - Commanders losing a ship can accrue an excess fee which must be paid straight away.
- Starter ships with starting equipment have no excess fee.
- The excess fee is a percentage of the ship’s total value (including equipment)

And there is no warping out of a lost fight… when it says transports, it actually mean teleports. It’s just like how Scotty the Docking Manager handles docking in EVE… “Poof” and yer outta there. They went to so much trouble to give us realistic ship handling, undocking, docking and an amazing series of Stations (that unlike in EVE make SENSE!!!) and incredibly detailed planets and suns etc., etc … only to fall back on the age old automagically respawn at death thing, my first real disappointment in the game.

Once the ‘excess fee’ has been paid the commander is given a replacement ship and equipment identical to the load out when the ship was docked (the context is that there is an automatic insurance premium applied to all sales)

And again we have a fall back to the old standard gaming “Your stuff is Permanent.” IE no ‘real’ loss, meaning no real ‘consequences’ for actions in the game… meh.

Anyhoo… so I have been playing about 2 weeks now… I have bought the next up hauler hull and been making fairly steady bank. I found a few websites I am getting good use out of… Thrudd's Trading Tools, Elite Dangerous Central and Elite Dangerous Trader. So far I prefer to start with a contract from the Bulletin Board if there’s a decent one up. I look for sourcing ‘tracts (IE go find us ‘X’ Stuff for ‘X’ Credits) and then I research commodities between the 2 stations involved and pad my cargo with goods based on imports and exports at each system and hopefully make some extra bank while filling the ‘tract.

I have upgraded my ship basically all ‘round as a dedicated risk adverse carebear trader. I do have weapons, well A weapon (1 Seeker Missile Rack) and defenses (Point Defense Turret close in missile and mines and Electronic Countermeasures, EWar target lock breaker turret and one step up in hull armor)… I have increased my jump range (no cargo) over twice the noob ships base (empty) range and all other stats are equally as increased.

I wish we could name our ships... bad oversight there Frontier
I have yet to engage in PvP, well intentionally that it, I did get kilt that once and I have been Interdicted (Travel; Pg 73) numerous times with no losses… yet. I’m not sure about Interdiction… as a noob I would assume I am a good (read easy) target and yet I have only been dropped out of warp once and the guy what did it either din’t attack or was not able to for some reason… I immediately FrameShifted back into SuperCruise and docked up safe n sound. I don’t know if it’s my mad piloting skills (I am good at it, nat’ral born flyer I am I am) or if it is a harder mechanic to effectively use than I supposed.

Anyhoo… so that’s what’s been up with old (and new) Tur… he’s still flyin, he’s just flyin different skies for a bit. You may not see me quite as much as I used to be around, but you will still see me in EVE… I have no desire to ever stop flyin our deadly skies. Gotta admit I do like the variety though…  =]


Fly reckless and see you in… which Sky? =/|)=


A little side note… I installed Star Citizen 3 weeks ago… and while the FPS walking around and getting in and out of ships part is pretty sweet… I am still waiting on the rest of the actual GAME before I can say whether or not I will really get ‘into’ that one or not… so far though, not so much.

And lastly… just throwing this on at the end here… There was this one other game I was really nuts about in my 20s though… not a MMO, a kind of FPS… Descent. I was sooo incredibly taken by Descent that I bought the (then brand new) Thrustmaster F16 FLCS HOTAS set… (without the RCS peddles) and damn if Elite doesn’t have me seriously considering going into hock (approx. $400 to 500 US retail FFS) and buying the newest set… the Thrustmaster U.S. Air Force A-10C Attack Aircraft HOTAS set…  O  M  G…  ‘nough said.

15 comments:

  1. Having a bit of Elite Dangerous on the side? Naughty :o

    Out of curiosity I wonder if Elite has bitten a chunk off the EVE player base. It offers somethings that EVE never will. True flight mechanics (awesome with a Black Widow joystick) and a 'Solo' mode, with you being instanced off from all the other players. Same universe, same prices but they can't gank you and you can't gank them. The kind of thing that gives Goons & their CODE tools nightmares.

    I find it interesting because the 'solo' part could easily bite a chunk off the hisec player base. Space sim with no griefing, but also it's the original. Elite. I played it to death in the 80s on an old Amstrad CPC464.

    Just need to set up the joystick, turn off the in game music and leave Blue Danube on repeat on iTunes. Fire up a trip to Nostalgia City.

    Tbh I find docking easy, but actually getting to the target station at the right speed and dropping out of supercruise just right is a pain in the arse at times.

    Trying to be objective here:

    It has things going for it EVE will never match, or try to.

    Solo mode to avoid ganking.
    400 billion star systems.
    A real flying experience with decent physics.
    Nostalgia element for gaming vets like me.
    Superb graphics, very smooth and well rendered.
    Sound is great, though the only time Blue Danube plays is when you get a Docking Computer. (on the old 8-bit it played all the time).

    It'll be really interesting to see where they take it and how far it can go.

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    1. I don’t think Elite or even Star Citizen will ‘bite off’ anyone… It definitely won’t make me leave... It’s good but it aint no EVE.

      As for Solo Mode… if I want solo gameplay I’ll go play Minecraft or Quake… And I don’t play MMOs to be ‘safe’. I got ganked just last night… first successful interdiction against me since I first logged on. Part and parcel of the game…

      As for biting off hisec players in any ‘real’ numbers… I dunt think so. IMHO the vast majority of people who play EVE do so BECAUSE it’s dangerous… because loss is real and therefor winning is real and so it has real meaning.

      Docking, undocking and generally flying around are a blast… Now, at the Outposts, when undocking I am in the habit of lifting vertically just barely off the pad, retracting landing gear while rotating to 90deg from the pad… then I do the ‘ol, “4, 3, 2, 1, Blastoff!” and hit the Boost key and I take off just like a Rocket crackling roar of the rockets n all!!(LOL!!) wayyyy fun!

      Like you the hardest part for me is the approach… The issue for me is I want to get landed ASAP instead of hanging out there with my ass in the breeze waiting for some guy to scan and Interdict me. So I always push it just a little trying to get into the Blue SAFE Range at the same time as I hit the Blue SAFE Speed… the auto pilot always drops my speed much faster than I am want… leaving me out there for far longer than I am happy with… but I’m getting better at it. =]

      E:D has things going for it EVE will never match, or try to.

      Solo mode to avoid ganking.


      IMHO thank god EVE doesn’t… a feature in E:D I will never use.

      400 billion star systems.

      Yeah… the map is amazing… but it is also a brand new game in 2014. When EVE was new 5000 systems was AMAZING too… and still we have not ‘filled’ the verse there even.

      A real flying experience with decent physics.

      EVE is not and never was supposed to be a Flight Sim or even an FPS… it’s a Tactical/Strategic FiS game… apples to oranges my friend, apples to oranges.

      Nostalgia element for gaming vets like me.

      13 year old game like EVE has Nostalgia for the guys playing it right now… it does for me and I only joined 4.5 years ago… and I started gaming seriously in the 80’s.

      Superb graphics, very smooth and well rendered.

      This is a Granny Smith to Macintosh apples to apples comparison ‘cause no one can say EVE’s graphics are lack luster, not by any means.

      Sound is great, though the only time Blue Danube plays is when you get a Docking Computer. (on the old 8-bit it played all the time).

      Meh… EVE has sound too (really it does!)… all the games I know of do.

      It'll be really interesting to see where they take it and how far it can go.

      Well, we can at least agree on that. =]

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    2. Well, the reason solo is popular in E:D atm is because of "Ram griefing" as well as ganking.

      There are players using hacked clients to avoid damage while they ram and destroy other players while docking or launching. Hard to stop because it's peer to peer on open mode.

      They also used to launch dumbfire misslies in a cheap ship and when the opponents point defence went berserk they'd get popped by station defence. Bug that one, but they abused the hell out of it in the starter systems.

      Solo is a godsend for me tbh. I can chill and focus without the risk of "Commander Leetsauce" crushing my ship in the station with his hacked metal epeen.

      Sad, but it's the same in any system. If it can be abused then it will be, and any loopholes like "Ram griefing" attract the lowest forms of gaming trash.

      Been playing EVE off and on since a RL friend told me about it in 2005. Stopped for ages when I got into WoW but resubbed on an old 2009 alt acct atm. You're right, it looks good but I don't like the sound at all. I prefer to listen to either classical music or 80s Metallica albums.

      Just realised... made a comment about goons in my original post... Ewww, almost did a Dinsdale, lol.

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    3. Solo is a godsend for me tbh. I can chill and focus without the risk of "Commander Leetsauce" crushing my ship in the station with his hacked metal epeen.

      There's the diff tween you n me... I care not one whit for Cmdr Leetwhoever... I've been kilt twice, one as a few hour old noob and once when I lost an Interdiction... but not counting the noob kill, I've easily had 10, 15ish (not actually counting ya know) interdiction's attempted on me, with only 1 success so far... I feel I am doing OK for a 2 week old... so meh. Griefers gonna grief, haters gonna hate, whiners gonna whine... man is what he is and I prefer the company of strangers and the risk and reward that entails over 'playing with myself'...

      In EVE I am always on comms so the music is always muted, my gang is much much moar entertaining... and as far as I personally am concerned, EVE's music reached a high water mark with Incursions drums... addicting music that. They ahven't done anything interesting, to me, since.

      And yea... I can Grrr Gewns with the best of em, but I purely HATE Dimmy and his whining ilk. Glad yer not one... =]

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    4. Ah, hacked clients and aim bots/whatever. I was thinking of eventually picking up ED, but if this kind of crap is prevalent in ED, then I may have to reconsider.

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    5. Awwwww.... dunt be that-a-way man... dunt let the nay sayers and the whiners get to ya! I'm having a ball and eff the nonsense!

      As for 'prevalent'... granted I might not recognize it as such but I have not seen anything I am concerned about... fly safe and smart and you can avoid most of the BS same as you can in EVE.

      You don't let the scammers and bots n asshats stop you from flying there do ya? Nope!

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    6. OP here on my google acct:

      I've no objection to legit pvp, it happens and it's part of the game but hacked clients and ram griefing plus the dumbfire missile bug abuse really p*ssed me off.

      A fight is a fight. Sh*t happens. But abusing the system is not on.

      As for Dinsdale... How long did it take you to work out that Viince Snetterton was Dimmy? When he called Mittens "The failed lawyer"? If you were a Monty Python fan like me then you'd have spotted it instantly. In Monty Python, Vince Snetterton had his head nailed to the floor by Dinsdale Piranha and his brother.

      Tbh I find some things Dimmy says are pure tinfoil overdose, but some are interesting.

      Myself... in eve I'm mainly in hisec with the odd ganking roam in losec. No interest in playing rent boy to the nullbear pimp masters or facerolling noobs in hisec. Ninja mining in passing wormholes for a laugh.

      Never lived in a WH, is it really worth it?

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    7. Oh don’t get me wrong I hate a griefer as much as any legit player… they make the game worse for everyone… but they also drive a helluvalotta content both in the client and in the metagame. That said exploiting, abuse and hacking I detest… but that shit also happens in every game I have ever heard of.

      You fight it when and where you can but you also have to accept that assholes are assholes or you go play something else. But yeah… too much botting, hacking, exploits etc., etc. and I will not stay in a game. But I have yet to be rammed or missile spammed at a station… mebbe just lucky but I also have stayed pretty much inside 10 to 15 LY of my noob system… so I dunno.

      Oh I have known Dimmy was Snetterton for some time... called him out over on Nosy’s blog more n once… he is such an ass. But he, like the gewns, does drive some smellegant meta content soo… LOL! And as much of a fan of MPFC as I am, I am upset I did not know the ref to Python… dammit!

      If you’ve followed me blathering here at all you know I would leave EVE before I’d fly in any other space than my home on the other side of the sky… as for worth it? Simply the BEST ISK and small gang pew you will find anywhere in EVE AFAIAC (as far as I am concerned)… but I’m very biased… I love Anoikis. =]

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    8. Hmm, I'd have to ask for your advice then about WH living as I'm bored of solo roams, station trading, industry, missions etc.

      Monty Python... It's the Piranha Brothers sketch. It's on youtube. I half expected Dimmy to demand a shrubbery from CCP tbh. He's good to read though. Cynical, half right, tinfoil enclosed and you can't knock his taste if he's a Monty Python fan, you've gotta give the man that much. MP and the Holy Grail was my favourite though.

      As for WH living... I ninja gas from wormholes sometimes. Sneak in with a venture or prospector, huff some before the sleepers wake up then leg it to the exit.

      Trouble is that one time I was spotted and spent about two hours cloaked 100km off the exit WH waiting for the interdictors to stop planting bubbles and wait for me to arrive. Not worth it really. I station trade for ISK in Amarr now to support solo lowsec roams.

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    9. Seedy, like most of EVE, playing solo only gets you so far until you're so bored you just can't log in any longer. If you want to try wormhole living, you'll absolutely need to be in there with a group. It doesn't have to be large, but it should be relatively active.

      I love living in wormholes. I've done null and it'd take a lot to lure me back. W-space is the place to be :)

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  2. Good isn't it? I played it early on and I mean to go back. Got a bit fed up of the early chat interface and slightly burnt out on rare commodity runs. The forums are quite lively and there are groups of all kinds forming. Look up The BuckyBall Run and the Fuel Rats for instance. And if you see my pal CMDR Alec Turner in space give him a shout!

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    1. That's gonna be a big step for me. So far of all the games I have ever played the only really 'social' involvement I have had in gaming is EVE. I have not 'met' even one person so far in E:D and have typed "meh" exactly once in 'local'... TBH if it hadn't been for my sons I seriously wonder if I would have gotten very social in EVE really...

      So for me to make acquaintances in E:D will be a HUGE step for me... One I am not sure I will take. But... I may just possibly look up your friends... we shall see...

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  3. Everyone succumbs to New Game Disease at some point :) I'm just coming down (ish) off of my Dragon Age: Inquisition affliction :) Though we have been missing you, Tur. Especially during the pvp we had 3-ish nights ago. One of of our more epic bouts, including us being cut off and outnumbered :)

    Ah, well. At least you're enjoying Elite :)

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    1. It's been a weird summer man... and a bit of RL>EVE has been working on me too.

      And yeah, Elru said ya'll were kickin it again... I do need to log on, slip into something losable and get on comms one night... =]

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  4. If client hacks in Elite are a thing, that can rapidly make the game not worth it. I used to play Mechwarrior Online quite a lot. Then the aim hacks and invulnerability hacks and headshot hacks started appearing. It has nothing to do with griefing, it's pure, plain cheating. When I'm at point-blank range and all my shots miss, or when I'm halfway across the map and the other guy is accurate almost 100% of the time, why bother playing?

    I hope that doesn't become the norm in Elite. But I think I'll wait a while before plunking $60 down on a potentially hacked game and see what the consensus of the players is.

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