Dying Sucks... But it'sa Living

~or  The Strange Case of Me and My Many Corpses

Yup...  that's me...  (sigh)

I have settled down into a simple, sweet, very lucrative and yet decidedly deadly pattern of late.

But First...
"Location, location, location!" Where you live is important so I have moved. I finally took a hard look and realized that Hurston is the closest planet to the sun... ie the most "central" world... therefore it has the shortest flight times to ANYWHERE in Stanton... duh.

Hurston Flight Times to planets in Stanton

So I moved there and I did not reset my toon to do so, this is important. A Character Reset (done outside of the client via your RSI Account) allows you to change your Home location.

Your Home location is where all your "stuff" goes by default. All of your ships, subflair (Subscriber Flair items are permanent because "real-world money") and any ingame items that you have purchased (with aUEC) that have survived to date are spawned there after a wipe or after a Toon Reset. And as I decided not to do a reset, I had to MOVE all of my ships and ALL of my stuff... by hand, so to speak.

This is actually really easy as far as the ships go... I went to Everus Harbor, the main space station in geosync orbit over Loreville, Hurston's main, well, only city... then I simply worked my way down my fleet, "claiming" every ship to EvHarbor... boom done. But the rest of my stuff, not so easy.

I warp back to Bajini Point, New Babbage's geosync station over Acrcorp, pull out my trusty Freelancer and start in the laborious, tedious, mind and mouse finger numbing task of draggin' and droppin' EACH and EVERY single damn item... by hand, into my ship's cargo (inventory)... dear gods.

The Future of Stuff...

We are still waiting on the "Cargo Refactor" (Alpha 3.18.0 we hope), whereby we will have REAL Cargo Containers we can actually fill with "stuff" and use to move large amounts of "stuff" around in... you know, like IRL, like in EVE (Yes, I said it!)... and MAN do we NEED those Uhaul Boxes!

But until we get them... Imagine moving from one house to another by walking into your house, picking up EACH THING, no matter how small, walking that one thing out to your truck, placing just that one thing into the truck... then walking back into the house, picking up the next "thing" (no matter how small) and walking that one thing out to your truck, placing it into the truck then... Oh My Gods.

But, in the end and after a massive, nay near fatal case of carpal tunnel had set in... I got it done. I then warped out to EvHarbor and yup... UNLOADED each and every single damn item from my Freelancer into my Local Inventory... and I was home.  =]

Everus Harbor Station, view from the Concourse

As for why, well logistically Hurston is the most central location so flight times are optimum and... I have been splitting my time (6 to 8 hours a day on avg!) really enjoying the amazing content available at Hurston!

OH! Wait! I mean I WOULD enjoy it if we only HAD "real content" in Star Citizen... (that's a nod to all you SC haters out there)  =]

(1)
"Combat Assist Service Beacons", or CASBs are FPF missions.  CASBs are broadcast by NPC 's who are under attack by random pirates. You accept the mission, warp to the marker, engage and take out all "reds".

There are 4 levels of difficulty (Alpha 3.17.3):
I  Combat Assistance - LOW THREAT
-Reward - 1,500 - 9,000 aUEC
-Complete x8 for higher tier
II Combat Assistance - MODERATE THREAT
-Reward - 15,000 - 25,000 aUEC
-Complete x2 for higher tier
III  Combat Assistance - HIGH THREAT
-Reward - 45,000 - 95,000 aUEC
-IV  Combat Assistance - CRITICAL THREAT
333,000 aUEC Reward

(2)
"Assist in Defending Site", or ADS are FPS "Bunker" missions. As I am now based out of EvHarbor, the merc work is mainly offered by Hurston Security.

Mission Brief:
"A HurSec bunker and personnel are under attack by Nine Tails. HurSec has an open mercenary contract to respond to the location and eliminate any hostiles.

You are cleared to engage with hostiles ONLY. Assault on any HurSec personnel at the site will result in breach of contract, loss of compensation and potentially a Crime Stat."

-HurSec personnel are in Yellow Armor
-HurSec personnel (should) have a "triangle" marker
-Nine Tails personnel are in Purple Gear
-15,000 aUEC Reward

Generally speaking, I wake up and armor up with this basic setup:

Basic FPS/FPF Kit

-Stoneskin Undersuit
-Morozov Heavy Armor
-Gemini "C45" 10mm SMG
(fav of Nine Tails, easy to re-ammo and re-gun)
-Behring BR-2 12 ga., pump action, drum fed Shotgun (also a Nine Tails fav)
-Kastak Arms "Coda" .50 cal revolver (my Fav!)

I fit silencers on everything, grab 4 grenades, 4 magazines for the S45, 4 drums for the BR-2 and 2 reloads for the Coda hand-cannon.

I also take 4 medpens (I don't use a Medgun. It takes too many actions to use, the Medpen takes just 2... "C" + Mouse Click).

Then I pull out whichever ship is not currently needing to be "claimed"... In order of preference,

(1) Anvil, F7C-M Super Hornet
(2) RSI, Scorpius
(3) Drake, Buccaneer

I undock and...

Ok, I gotta digress here for a minute.

Sittin' at "0" at Everus Harbor, waitin' on a mish.  I LOVE THIS SHIT!

I played EVE online for 10 years... 10 YEARS.. and I spent that whole time wishing I could undock and just sit in my ship gazing out of the cockpit canopy, watching the goings on around the space port just as if "I" was actually there.

In EVE you cannot leave your ship. YOU are Canned Space SPAM, A Pressure Packed Pod Pilot... tucked away in a lightless, airless, goo filled, pressurized armored POD, buried deep in the guts of your ship...  sigh.

I hated that, I really did... but SC is THE SHIT!!!!

Chillin' watching the dock from INSIDE... (can't do this in EVE or ED)

Being "there" as "yourself", In Person as 'twere. To walk out onto a station's Concourse and gaze out the armored window-wall. Enjoying the amazing view of the planet, watching the ships come and go... and it all LOOKS and FEELS REAL in every aspect. Amazing!

And none of that damn magical being "Teleported" into the station, like in EVE... And no, SC's physics are not completely and fully "real world"... but they are close enough, and they are a DAMN sight closer to the real than EVE or ED will EVER BE.

This shit ROCKS... 'nough said, back to my irregularly unscheduled rambling...

So... while I am hanging out at "0" outside of EvHarbor I peruse the open contracts. I have been hammering away at the Low Threat CASB's and raised my HurSec Rep enough to unlocked the Med Threat CASB's... moar Pew-Pew FUN and a nice credit bump.

I saved him!  I'm such a giver!

But if I don't see any CASB's (1) close enough and (2) high priced enough (I don't take ANY that are over 100km away and many are around Crusader, too much flight time), so then I check the ADS "Bunker" missions for HurSec and if one is open I take it, warp to the marker, land and do the pew-pew.

This is where the many corpses of Tur come in. You see you don't often leave a body behind when you lose a CASB... it IS Space Combat after all... pretty much if things go BOOM... that's usually it, that first mistake is all you get.

But FPS "boots on the ground" missions are different... you very often DO leave a bloody and slowly cooling and yet well attired and kitted out corpse behind as "you" are re3Dprinted at your re-spawn location... Ev Harbor is mine... remember, where all my ships and stuff is...  =]

Uh huh... me again. Caught from behind...  again... (sigh)

So, I re-suit, re-arm, re-gear, re-ship and re-turn to the site and now I have a serious reason to do it right, to kill them all... I want my STUFF BACK!!

And as long as you don't log out or crash the client your mission should remain active... I mean you only died you know, it's not like you perma-died for reals... (GASP! SHOCK! HORROR!)

Of course all this dying, gettin re3Dprinted, and Leroying back in causes another issue I had not forseen... abandoned ships...  sigh.

Yup... all are mine.   Well, they say the third time is a charm.

But all in all my gaming in SC had been very full and fun and overall quite lucrative seeing as I am basically playing solo... (also something not really supported in EVE).

At an average of 20K to 40K aUEC per Med Threat CASB and 15K aUEC per ADS I can pull down an easy ~100K to 500K creds per night... definitely covers my running costs... Suits, Armor, guns, gear, food, fuel, repairs and ammo with a decent profit left over.

"I got a bad feeling about this..."

All in all I am very satisfied with Star Citizen and the gameplay we have right now in Alpha... and if this is that good now... I cannot begin to imagine what the future and CR and CIG will bring to us in the years to come...

One other thing... I don't just fly missions and run bunkers... oh no. I will often just take off and explore... low-fly at high-speed "Nap of the Earth" style... or I will break out a ground vehicle and roam far and wide.

Recently I took a day off, flew out to Arccorp and found a really beautiful, secluded spot... Man would I LOVE to build a base, or a cabin! here.

A really lovely valley, remote and unspoiled.

I'd build my cabin right here...

Later, on Hurston, I found a lake... and went swimming...  let's see you do THAT in EVE or ED!

I wonder...

Oh yea!!!  The water is FINE!

Swim like it's your own Private Lake
I hope to see YOU in the 'verse!

=/|)=