SNAFU (Situation Normal, All F'ed Up)

Well... I'm just f*cked.
(Warning: This post is personal, not about EVE, but about the RL me... you may wanna move on, just sayin'.)

Anyone who has followed me knows the last year, heck the last 2 years have been "fraught" with RL issues that have conspired to keep me logged out of EVE, that being mainly Divorce. To anyone who hasn't been there, you DO NOT wanna know, and to those who have... well... you know, 'nough said right?

Basically divorce eats your life. Money, effort, worry, sleep (IE fatal lack of), hopes, dreams, trust... but mostly it consumes your time, and when you do have free time, you just don't care. About anything... at all. Yes I "should" concentrate on fun and friends and "moving on" and such, but I'm one 'a them weird types, the guy who is the first to be a friend-in-need, and the last to ask for help. When my life goes in the crapper, I usually find a hole, climb in, and pull it in after me for the duration.

It is what it is.

So... my 2B'X' and I have worked out most of the ugly details, we have lived apart more than a year, all that's really left is the paperwork and the spending the rest of our lives trying to be "parents-on-good-terms" for our dottir.

A little backstory is required here...

I am a sailor. I was lucky, I learned to sail and in general "mess about on boats" since afore I could walk. My family is from Northumberland County in Va. A place called Ball's Neck, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. My family home sits at the mouth of the confluence of Mill Creek, Guarding and Gascony Coves facing east across a half-moon bay called Ingram's Bay. My family home is named East Gascony, a old southern bay farm house built by my grandfather for his wife over 100 years ago. we had a private beach, a dock and, well... over the years a LOT of boats.

So as a child I learned to walk and swim hand in hand, and to hunt and fish and crab and oyster and garden. I also learned to handle all those boats, boats of all types. From canoes to powerboats ranging from flat bottomed skiffs with 1950's 2 horse outboards up to the biggest dad ever had, a 43' Hatteras twin diesel. But for me the real joy... was learning how to sail. Sunfish, sailfish, sailing dinghy's on up to a 35' cutter rigged sloop.

And as we were pretty fair at breaking stuff, I learned how to fix it all too. I am competent with brightwork, wood and metal, fiberglass and small to large outboards and inboard engines and diesels.

Back to our irregularly scheduled whatverthisis...

So, this last go-round with divorce, the one where we finally took the steps to actually call it quits, I found myself in that weird place... the one where you find yourself at 55 (then) and gonna be "single" again, but with 2 teenage kids and the smoking leftovers of a 16 year marriage.

I sat there, on that morning, the morning where I knew like I know my own name "knew" that this was actually it... that it was over and there I am... so what now?

I decided I wanted to go sailing. Going Sailing has been "that" dream all my life. You know, the one you will never "actually" do. The Dream of a Dream. The "Sell it all, buy a sailboat and head south until all you need is a pair of flops, sunblock 100 and shorts... and the shorts are optional dream." The Big Dream.

I made a decision that morning in Oct of 2016, that I would, somehow, as soon as possible, do just that. I set a goal for myself to find a way to acquire a sailboat large enough to live on full time and a way to support just exactly that. I started looking at the boat market, reading sailing books and blogs and watching sailing vlogs such as Sailing S/V Delos, followtheboat, Wicked Salty and MJ Sailing just to name a few.

My kids are in their teens, both just starting to stretch their own wings and when I told them of my dream they both said "Go for it dad!" Yes the idea of me being gone for weeks and months isn't a happy making one, but the idea of joining me on the boat in the summers most definitely is one they like and they want me to follow my dream and show them it can be done. They want me to be happy... gods bless em.

So, that's where my time and effort has been going these last 2 years. Last summer I found a skipper who is "new crew friendly" (many are, but you gotta find out the where and the who to ask). He takes on new people as crew, whether experienced or totally green, for races and regattas down in Hampton Va. He has a Beneteau First 305, a 9.3m (30.5') sloop and is very active in the Southern Chesapeake Bay racing season.

(For them as interested, I have put up a few video's on Youtube last year... here is one, OPCYC Tri Service Race full.)

That and one other small thing has taken up my time... I met someone (and before you say ANYTHING, please keep in mind my 2B'X' and I have been separated well over a year ok?), yea... I met someone... and she wants to go sailing too.  =]

Go figure huh?

So, will I ever come back to EVE? Heck, I just don't know. We ALL know what a time sink it is and right now, even in the dead of winter, I just don't have the time. Plus... well, like so many, Kirith Kodachi and Yadot and the whole list of those who have gone dark this last year (9 from just my meager reading list)... it just isn't the same EVE it was when I first undocked eight years ago.

No, I've not unsubbed yet... but there needs to be a reason for me to get active again... and time. I just need the time.

Fly however you like... and maybe, maybe, you'll see me in the sky. =/|)=

Reality of Company...

Just a quick one... I has done it, I jumped corp from HELPeR, and have joined with Epigene, he who Journey's Through the Mind and Oreamnos Amric, he who takes Notes from New Eden and their ilk in Z3R0 Return Mining [Illusion of Solitude].

I have just finished moving my Traveling Roadshow Orca, carrying some 12 ships, into the corp C2 home... called, Fred. ... yea, we call our homehole, "Fred"...  sheesh. Anyhoo, I am getting all settled in and lookin forward to gettin back into the swing of things.

So, new corp, new alliance, new bros, new holes and new going on... let us see what we shall see hmmm?

Fly indiscriminately and I'll see you in the sky...  =/|)=

Boofing Around a Bit...

I'm sorta back... ish.

Things have quieted down in my Real life... not all the way, but a bit, so I fired up the ol hoopty laptop, let the updates run and the cached data cache up and logged in.

Initially I've been solo mining and flying out n about near Amarr to see if the game has made me a noob again after basically a year on sabbatical. Gotta say, whatever changes have been wrought in the last year have not affected my Orca'ravan or the ships I carry aboard her. Back a few months afore I went on sabat I fitted an Orca as a traveling roadshow. I carry a small fleet of ships... a mining barge, a HAC droneboat, a tac dessie, a pirate frig, an assault frig and a cloaky expedition frigate.

These allow me to engage in a wide variety of gameplay from L2 through L4 missions and a variety of sites to "safe" passive mining and not so safe ninja mining. So far I feel the basic gameplay and fitting doesn't seem to have changed enough to be incomprehensible to me, or even really any different at all, so far.

My Orca's cargo hold is fully canned up to maximise her carrying capacity. When looking for a quiet night where I can sit back and watch a little TV or some of my fav sailing vlogs on Utoob or whatever I mine solo inna nice quiet .5 sys somewhere and when I have filled every crevice in the Orca up I make the run to Amarr. I also make a little off the lewts and slavage from the rats and sites. It aint the ISK I could make in my beloved negsec, Anoikis, but its a livin...

As for our home in the hole? Gone. Yea... We had a std old good ol' style POS and one a them there new fangled Stations... but my corp was AFK and, "Boom". Oh well, I always kissed ever ship I jumped into the hole goodbye the day I took em in there, I knew and accepted the risks, it's Anoikis, negative sec, the most dangerous space in EVE. I don't know my exact losses, but probably somewhere north of 8 to 10 bil ISK I think. This is why I kept a shadow fleet in Amarr... I logged in inna Venture, selfboomed it and my pod to wake up back in Amarr in a clean new clone. So it goes in EVE.

I don't know if any of the guys from my corp are interested in coming back. I'm picky about who I fly with and trust is the one commodity in EVE you cannot buy, beg, borrow or steal... and I trust NO ONE... so I'm really not sure at this point what I want to "do" in EVE... but I do know I still long to fly the deadly skies of New Eden... so for now, if you see me in local (local, yuch), give me shout... Who knows, maybe your's is a corp worth flying with.

Fly it like you stole it... and I'll see you in the sky.  =/|)=

All Quiet...

Last post, Dec 16... 8 months ago. What's up? The same, and not.
The divorce is, well, it's what it is... don't ask. Did not go as planned... go figure.

Me? Working full time, creating a totally new life out of the ashes of the old... you know, simple easy stuff. So, as you may have gleaned I'm still pretty busy.

Not much to say other than that, what's worth it (or legally neutral enough) to commit to recycled electrons...

Kids are well, at least as far as it goes given the circumstances. My dottir graduated on the honor roll, with awards for Latin and Strings (she's a 3rd year cellist). My son... he too graduated but, well not quite the same shine, but he's still mine. Work goes well. Still just the IT Support standard of puttin' out fires... some old, some new. The rest is either boring or is covered under lawyer, client privilege.

So, I'm still here just not in EVE. I do hope to make the time once things settle a bit. Keep a beacon burning for me and wish me some luck... =]

Fly however you damn well please! and hopefully see you in the sky... =/|)=

Still here, and yet… not

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been away for a while. Last post was in August actually, 4 months ago. I have not been logging on except like once or twice and obviously haven’t blogged at all.

Back in January of this year I posted about some RL issues, namely my pending divorce from my wife of 15 years… I moved out and then in April we reconciled and decided to give it one last try…

Well, last try was what it was. As of this October we are again separated and I am again looking for a place and going through the paperwork to divorce.

We are still basically copacetic, we are not lawyering up, we have basic agreements in place re the kids, house, property and finances. No one who knows us can ever say we did not really try to make it work, but it just doesn’t anymore and this is the least worst of a host of bad outcomes. So it goes.

As for EVE… my time has been simply eaten with the needs of RL. And this is as it should be. EVE is, first and last just a game. Granted it is the most amazing and engaging game (hobby, pastime, electronic virtual addiction) ever invented by the mind of man… but in the end it is a game and real life, my kids, career, health and wellbeing are always greater than any game… no matter how good it is.

As for Tur… he’s in Amarr and I am still paying to keep the skill Q full, as I do not “intend” on bagging it all in quite yet. I do want to come back and fly the deadly skies with friends and frenimies both old and new one day… but only time will tell, I know not what my future will bring.

Wish me luck... and raise a glass with me to all those who have made a home, for however long, in the skies of New Eden.

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

Whar’s My Black Pearl?

~or “Remember CCP, Black Goes with Everything…”

I want a Black Ship. I want ALL my ships to be Black. I wan Glossy Black and dull non-reflective, light and radar and ladar and shmadar absorbing BLACK SHIPS!

Why do we not have ANY All Black SKINS??? As you can see above I finally caved and bought a PermaSKIN… the Sanctuary SKIN for the Astero. Cost me 386m ISK it did. Worth it? Not really… but as CCP has for whatever reason decided Black is not a “color” so the Sanctuary Navy Blue SKIN is a close as I am getting today so what the hell…

I do like it… I mean it’s the first SKIN I felt was anywhere near worth spending the ISK on. And being a wormholer and living by the cloak and scan, I have lived in one of my ‘stero’s except for combat and sites Ops since they were introduced.

Ya gotta admit… the details are very cool. But just imagine if she was as black as space…

Oh and one last thing. How incredibly cool would it be if they did offer a set of Black SKINS… One set shiney and purty… one set dull, no reflective and all ‘hidey’… and one set, the really expensive one, that is dull black, can turn off your exterior lights AND is radar/ladar/et.,/etc. absorbent?

IE a SKIN that makes you invisible to DScan. The trade off being you can’t use the Cov Ops cloak…  Hmmmmmmm… interesting possibilities huh?

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

Adrenaline Junkies Online…

~or “A Case Against Trammelization…”

I have doubts this post will be taken or understood the way I mean it… it’s a complex thing I want to try and say, but I am going to try anyway cause I think it needs to be said.

There has been a lot of talk-talk of late about how EVE is Dying and how EVE PVE sucks midget donkey balls…

One, I disagree that EVE is dying. It is aging and changing as all things do, but I personally do not believe it is going to or will go dark in the foreseeable future and,

Two I also strongly disagree that PVE is being neglected and that and the general “horrid state” of EVE’s PVE is causative in this much vaunted mythical deathspiral EVE is supposed to be in.

If there is any chance for me to be understood some background is in order.

For them as don’t know it the core group of guys, many if not all, who created CCP in order to create EVE, were Ultima Online players back in the day. EVE was created to be similar to Ultima Online in some very important ways, while learning some lessons from some of the mistakes made in UO.

For them as don’t know Ultima Online was one of the early MMORPGs and as a matter of fact Lord British (Richard Garriott) the creator of UO was the guy who coined the term MMORPG. UO was an open world, unrestricted PVP, persistent virtual world. You could go anywhere, you could take part in and do anything in PVE that was available in the game mechanics… and you could attack and kill, or be killed by, anyone… anytime, anywhere… unrestricted and unforgiving Player versus Player interaction, both working together and in aggression.

Now as these things go, the vast majority of gamers then as today, prefer to play safer games. Games where they are always the winner, where they can’t lose their stuff or be griefed and scammed or basically, as they see it, bullied. Yet… there is a segment of the gaming population, a particular demographic if you will, of players who run the gamut from dyed in the wool carebears to complete asshole spawn camping griefers… all of whom prefer an unsafe game. This is a group of Adrenaline Junky Gamers who find safe PVE only themeparks too bland and boring to really enjoy… and we are not the majority.

Now, here’s the thing. Games like these, really unsafe dangerous risky games, can also be simply terribad or simply amazing neither of which is dependent on their unsafe nature but on the Dev’s and their vision and how the games is crafted and developed. In UO that vision was very good for its day and it captured not just the above mentioned Adrenaline Junkie Gamers but it also, of course, caught the attention of a lot of other gamers who were simply attracted to the game and its new PVE and gameplay mechanics.

Now a lot of these other gamers are not Adrenaline Junkies… and many of these players hated the Open Unrestricted PVP aspects of UO. Many, a LOT, left immediately or shortly after they ran into it. Some of those who stayed were actively targeted by that segment of players who are the Bully Griefers, who’s main enjoyment in the game was seeking out noobs and PVE only players and attacking them mercilessly, sometimes as if Mittens himself had given the drunken order.

Over time the hue and cry against Unrestricted PVP in UO made all the :words: ever posted against unrestricted PVP in EVE pale in comparison. So much so that Gordon Walton, former VP of Online at Origin Systems and Executive Producer of UO, made the decision to split the game space into PvP and PvE worlds. The original open world server it started with, now called Felucca and another mirror server with highly restricted PVP rules, basically a PVE only server called… Trammel.

Now… here’s the part where the PVE Only crowd will howl with glee…

The unrestricted PVP that made UO such an intense game was “…clearly driving away approx. 70+% of all the new players that tried the game within 60 days.”

The following is quoted directly from this Reddit post by Gordon Walton;

“The good: After the change which broke the game space into PvP and PvE worlds, the player base and income nearly doubled (we went from 125k to 245k subs). So from a fiscal responsibility standpoint it was a totally winning move.

The bad: Without the "sheep to shear" the hard core PvP'ers were disenfranchised. They didn't like preying on each other (hard targets versus soft targets), and they became a smaller minority in the overall game. The real bad though, was that the intensity and "realness" of the game for all players was diminished. This was the major unintended consequence.”

And…

“Inherent in the UO brand was the fact it was a gritty, hard core world of danger. We were not successful in bringing back the (literally) 100's of thousands of players who had quit due to the unbridled PvP in the world (~5% of former customers came back to try the new UO, but very few of them stayed). We discovered that people didn't just quit UO, they divorced it in a very emotional way. But we did keep more of the new players that came in by a large margin, significantly more than than the PvP players we lost.”

Now I am sure this will be an orgasmic "OH MY GOD! SEE!! SEE!!! CCP IS DOING IT ALL WRONG!!!!" moment for Angry and all who feel as he does. But I have read much over the years about the who and why of CCP and EVE and I firmly believe the people who run CCP, IE Hilmar Pétursson, Reynir Harðarson, Torfi Frans Ólafsson and company would all agree with this statement…

“…the push for bigger audiences leads directly to more "accessible" experiences. (that's code for directed experiences, that are more forgiving, less intense games which cater a broader group of players). There are plenty of big companies out there making those types of games (and plenty of players who want them).” WoW and every other themepark out there are the games that fill this need. WoW has 8 million players alone, the themepark model is being served.

CCP wanted to do something different. I quote from an old pcgamer article, The Making of EVE Online from Jan 24, 2011: ”Reynir explains how, at launch, mining – seen as overly passive – was designed that way: “There's nothing to it, there's no minigame to play. But when you're in dangerous sectors, you feel like you're trespassing, even if nothing happens. Hilmar leans in again with another take on it. “Because it's so passive, people have so much time to socialize and communicate. They're naturally filling the vacuum.” The mining mechanic is the perfect confluence of developer-led decision making and community-led chaos.”

Obviously, a PVE themepark was not the game CCP set out to make… and it is not the game they have made.  I believe totally that the following from Mr. Walton says it quite well here…

“We are specifically making our game for players who will like the kind of experience we will create, not trying to cast a wide net to get a mass market audience. We want the folks who will appreciate an intense gaming experience with real risk, winning and losing. While we want as many players who are engaged in our game as possible, we won't need millions of players to make our game work.”

“So our game won't be for everyone, and we certainly don't want people playing who aren't enjoying the experience. This is supposed to be an activity we experience as fun after all!”

The guys who created CCP in order to create EVE Online were and still are just such gamers. They wanted to create a SciFi version of Ultima Online… UO had very simple security… In Felucca, you can be attacked, killed and looted by anyone anywhere outside of a town. Inside a town you can be protected by guards… if someone calls them... This is why EVE has multiple layers of security.

Highsec = High to Medium CONCORD response, Security Status penalties = Sec Status loss, Faction Police and Sentry gun response, restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles;

Lowsec = Medium to Low CONCORD response, Security Status penalties = Sec Status loss, Faction Police and Sentry gun response, restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles;

Nullsec  = NO CONCORD response; NO Security Status penalties = NO Sec Status loss, NO Faction Police or Sentry guns; NO restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles;

Negsec  (Anoikis)= NO CONCORD response, NO Security Status penalties = NO Sec Status loss, NO Faction Police or Sentry guns, NO restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles, NO local, NO gates, NO NPC Stations, NO Player Outposts.

Other than that PVP in all its forms… Simple roams, ganks, 1v1s, scams, market PVP, wars, War Decs, Fac War, miner bumping, et al. … is not only allowed but encouraged… strongly encouraged. It’s the point of the game.

Is PVE important to EVE? Damn straight it is. It needs to be interesting, engaging, fun and lucrative. It is how we all make money and how even Diehard PVP players (at least those who can’t throw a credit card at the game every time they need ISK) and all the rest of us make the ISK we need to pursue PVP or whatever it is we want to do in EVE.

Is PVE important to EVE? Yes, it needs to be interesting, engaging, fun and lucrative in order to hold the attention of all those players who are not themselves interested in PVP but also find they are bored and just not as engaged in “safe” themepark games… players who want the kind of experience CCP is working to create, not trying to cast a wide net to get a mass market audience. CCP wants those players who will appreciate an intense gaming experience with real risk, winning and losing.

Angry and all who feel as he does are welcome to play EVE or not that is up to them, as for me… I will login and play until one of 3 things happens… I die, CCP shuts down Tranquility or they Trammel it.

If I die, well, I hope one of my son’s will post something appropriate and keep my blog up until the counter winds down to “0” hits. If CCP shuts Tranquility down… I will post appropriately and probably log onto Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen (if it’s out of beta by then…) If, however, CCP ever Trammels EVE…

Then on that day I’ll probably sound a helluva lot like Angry Onions and Vince Snetterton do right now… for a while at least.

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

A Lack of Imagination…

~or “It’s a Sandbox, Not a Theme Park…”

There has been a lot of talk-talk over my years in EVE about “Malaise”, that sense of boredom with and in the game brought on by the lack of Things To Do in EVE Online. It’s even the topic of the recent Blog Banter, BB:77. “Malaise”  And a helluvalot of the ‘why’ and ‘who’s-to-blame’ and especially the ‘how-to-fix-this-sorry-state-of-affairs’ is almost universally centered around (1) CCP’s massive failure as a game company and (B) how EVE needs New, Improved and Amazing ™ PVE.

To all of this I say Bullshit.

If I sound bitter, it’s because I have recently discovered that I am… but I’m a new kind of Bittervet… I am not bitter over any perceived or actual issues with CCP, or any perceived or actual issues with the game…  I am not bitter that when I log on there is nothing all setup and laid out an all hand-holdy waiting for me to do… No, I’m getting daily more and more pissed off at the players who whine that they step into a sandbox and there’s nothing all laid out for them to do… it’s a godsdamned SANDBOX rich and FULL of toys and buckets and sand and shit... As Harrison Ford’s character Quinn in “Six Days Seven Nights” put it so oh well, “It's an island, babe. If you didn't bring it here, you won't find it here.”

That resort island btw, like all resort islands, was FULL of things to do. Bikes and bars and scooters and boats and sailboats and surfboards etc., etc., etc. But, if you don’t make the decision to do something, if you don’t make the effort to go ride a bike, sail a boat, surf a wave, find friends, make some enemies… then yeah, you’ll probably get pretty bored too.

Do I mean EVE does not need any PVE? of course not. PVE is in EVE a way to make ISK. Itsa grind, itsa job and it aint the point of the game… And as I have pointed out before and as is extremely well known in the gaming community, no game company can create, code, test and deploy Content at anything approaching the rate at which players can burn though it… nowhere near. Hundreds, even thousands of Devs cannot begin to match the abilities of the hundreds of thousands, even millions of gamers working singly or in small to huge groups to figure out the puzzles crafted for them by those, in comparison, few Devs.

Created PVE is and always will be nothing more than a snack for really good gamers. CCP wanted to avoid that trap. They felt that content created by the players, the endless interaction and reaction between solo players and groups of players in a virtual environment where there was stuff worth fighting over was the way to go. And I for one believe there were spot on then and they are still spot on now.

So where is all this whinging and gnashing of teeth and these juvenile tantrums at and against CCP and their “shitty unfun lackluster boring game” coming from? From players who want to login and have all kinds of fun things all setup and ready for them to do… and I don’t get it. Some of the people involved in all this whining are older players who used to know better… and as a playerbase, we didn’t use to be that way. We used to have imagination… we use to understand that EVE was a bag full of toys… not a board game… EVE is a trampoline, not a chess game, EVE is a swingset, not a Poker match. EVE is a sandbox… full of things to play with. But YOU have to use your imagination, YOU, the player, has to make up the story.

When I was a child, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10… I used to love the Ben Franklin Five and Dime store in my hometown of Kilmarnock VA. Every summer when we got the farm house all spring cleaned and mom and us kids would be out there every weekend, some summers for months on end… my Dad would take us all into town and give us each $5… and we’d go to the Ben Franklin 5&Dime… There was one aisle, the toys aisle… oh Wonder of Wonders!! Oh Frabjous Day!!!  The toy aisle at the 5&Dime was sheer magic to a kid with a King’s Ransom of 5 WHOLE REAL DOLLARS burning in his pocket!!!

You would be amazed in 1968 how far $5 would go in a 5&Dime… And the one thing I always got, every year, was the Big Damn Bag of green plastic toy soldiers! I am not sure how many there were in actuality... I was a kid and it was a ’lot’ to me. But here’s the thing, years later my mother would tell of how I would go out in the morning, 9 or 10ish, and start playing with those toy soldiers around the big old complex root system of the old walnut tree out in front of the house, the one right outside the kitchen window. She would watch me play with them for hours and hours. I would run in for a PB&J and Quik and run back out sammich in and chocolate milk hand… and she had to call me in for dinner… from that tree and those soldiers.

The roots and sand and dirt around that tree and that slowly depleting magic bag of green plastic toy soldiers… and my imagination. I played out sweeping tales in my mind of evil empires and those who pitted themselves against them to fight for what’s right and good in this life with those soldiers. That was all it took back then.

I discovered something else about me… that’s all still takes now, almost. My old plastic toy soldiers have been traded in for shiney pixel spaceships, the old roots and sand and dirt around that tree, now replaced by our POS and the planets, moons, stations and the infinite black reaches of space... the evil empires and the good, replaced by all the players who share this virtual ‘verse with me. But now… now I find I don’t want to play alone anymore… I prefer to have a few friends with me who are willing to play along.

It’s not PVE you are missing… it’s the point of the game that you’re missing. It’s a sandbox. CCP has bags and bags of toys soldiers and cargo containers chock full of matchbox cars and STUFF… it’s not up to them to give you something to DO with all of that…

No, that part is up to you.

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

BB77: Climate Change…

~or “Change is the Only Constant.”

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 77th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banters Page.

Blog Banter 77 - The Malaise

Is there a malaise affecting Eve currently? Blogs and podcasts are going dark and space just feels that little bit emptier. One suggestion is that there may be a general problem with the vets, especially those pre-Incarna and older, leaving and being replaced by newer players who are not as invested in the game.

The colonists versus immigrants? Is this a problem? Are there others? Or is everything just fine and it's just another bout of summer "ZOMG EVE IZ DYING!"

Banter on...

===============================================================

OK. Here’s the thing. Global Warming and EVE have a whole lot in common... except of course, for all the differences. What do they have in common you ask? Glad you asked says I.

Global Warming is to reality like EVE IS DYING is to EVE… IE not. You see Global Warming is bullshit… it’s actually just one more statistical point on a long long graph called Climate Change and that has been a “thing” since the earth first accreted out of the primordial cloud left over from Sol’s little bang.

So, Gobal Warming is the idea that our world’s climate is a stable thing and changes are usual. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The earth’s climate is and has been in a constant state of change and flux for as long as the earth has existed and it will only become “stable” if or when the earth loses all atmosphere and hence all liquid surface water and all life etc., etc. … IE when the earth is as dead as the moon THEN and only then will it have a "stable" climate… just like the moon. But as long as there is air and water heated by the sun above and a hot core and flowing magma below… the earth itself and it’s climate WILL be in a state of constant change. Whether it changes slow or fast is up to the observer… IE time scales are (1) important and (B) subjective.

Do you think an ant or a Mayfly experiences time the same way you do? Do you think a Blue Whale or the Pando (Quaking Aspen) experiences time the same way we humans do? I don’t. Imagine if you will that to a Mayfly there is no ‘climate’ there is only now and to the Pando, estimated to be 80,000 years old, this current warm period is just a decently leangth summer… You see the Pando was alive during the last actual Ice Age.

The Earth is currently in what is called an interglacial period of the Quaternary Ice Age, the last true glacial period of the Quaternary ended approximately 11,700 years ago with the start of the Holocene epoch, which from the Pando’s point of view probably seems like just a few years ago.

Global Warming is a null phrase, it is meaningless. The earth's climate will warm up and it will cool down but it will never be stable. Climate Change = Weather on a geologic time scale, this is the norm people, it changes, get over it.

What has this to do with EVE? Guess what… EVE has and is and will continue to change over time too. EVE unlike the Earth is an artificial system, but while the game is a series of intermeshed man made programs and complex computer code it still does evolve in its own way. As the players change, as the devs change, as the technology that it is based on changes so too does EVE change.

That EVE is changing is abundantly clear to anyone familiar with the game. But do these changes mean the death of the game anymore than global temperature changes equal global disaster? Simple answer, of course not. But haters will hate because hate and anger are easy… it is so easy to go straight to the negative. Yes, the PCU is down and yes, some older established blogs have gone dark. My last post was on that very topic. But... new players are trialing the game, and as always some do stay and there are new blogs and some of the older ones, Hermit's, Nevillie’s, Kirith’s, Drakarns’s and even mine for instance, are still here, still playing, still posting.

In the short view, let’s call it the short sighted view, these changes can be easily charged with emotion and cries of "ZOMG EVE IZ DYING!" are sooo easy and, they do get attention too don’t they?… as compared to cries of “EVE is ok.”… not nearly as much fun to run around shouting “EVE is fine, we’re all good here.” now is it?

EVE is going on 14 years old and no one yet knows how long shared persistent virtual realities can last, what their expected life spans are, they are too new a thing in the world. Yes things are changing in EVE but like so many things that live longer lives change is not necessarily fatal, it is however absolutely unavoidable… just like the weather.

Fly reckless but carry an umbrella and I’ll see you in the Sky  =/|)=

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Drifter Mining…

~or “Wake Me When the Drifter is Dead…”

OK, yes I’m still alive, yes I still logon, yes I still play EVE… just haven’t had a lot to SAY is all.

But a thing did come to mind a few days ago when running the “New Improved ™ Sleeper Sites w/ Added Drifter Fun!” You see we, well, my Corp leaders worked out a very smooth and highly effective Drifter comp over on Sisi in the days leading up to the roll out of the “New Improved ™ Sleeper Sites w/ Added Drifter Fun!”. This comp is a tad on the expensive side, but not too much and it is very sweet for small to medium gangs.

OK, we live in a C4 and primarily run C5 sites for ISK and in the process we scan & roll looking for sites and the occasional PVP op. We don’t run caps so we aren’t running any escalations. We run a site… drop MTUs, kill all the shooty things, snag the MTUs and salvage all the left over burnt up things.

Small Note here:

I have never been FC, probably never will be FC… I’m that guy over there who, during a site run (and sometimes during PVP) occasionally turns off his overviews so he can take pix and Ooooh and Ahhhh over the deep and awe inspiring beauty that is EVE… No, you do NOT want me FCing anything… even a mining op in Hisec… That said I will possibly, hell probably get details such as DPS numbers, ranges, speeds, etc. etc. … you know the DETAILS all wrong… so sue me.

We run with anywhere from 4 guys to upwards of 8 or so and we had gotten good at using pretty std. Ishtar/ Guardian / Whatever-you-can-fly fleets for the Pre Change Sleepers. We run a x2Geko/Hammer-II/x2Hob-II drone mix for all ships so DPS is decent and our ISK/hr was good, 30ish minutes a site.

So… the change drops and now instead of massive waves of mixed Sleeper frigs/cruisers/BSs now we get a few paltry token waves before the Main Show… the decloaking of some dumb artifact and… once you aggro the artifact and one second not before… a Drifter Response BS spawns and off we go! 4000ms and Holeee Sheet Batman DPS! So how do we counter it’s initial approach speed reaching over 4k, and orbit range of 15k at approx 2500m/s and normal attacks dealing approx 1K DPS (5k approx every 5 seconds)?

Well, I can tell you that Ishtars supported by Guardians doesn’t do it. So what do we use? The Kobayashi Maru Comp. Nestors with a link Eos supporting Ishtars. A minimum 3 Nestors cap chained as armor Logi, supporting a Linked Eos boosted Ishtar drone DPS wing. The Nestor’s of course add a full X2Geko/Hammer-II/x2Hob-II drone flight each and all drones are assisted under one member’s control.

The Nestors have a very short Cap range so they are always flying grouped tightly together. Their rep range allows the Eos and Ishtars to range a bit further but as DPS is, of course, all drones all we have to do is mitigate the incoming DPS and work the drones down the NPCs spawning each wave in turn until we uncloak the Unknown Structure.

Now we run two fits for the Nestors, the first is our Standard Sleeper Fit:
in the Highs, X3 Lrg Armr Repper IIs / 3 Lrg Cap Trans IIs / Drone Link II;
in the Mids, x2 speed scripted Omnidirectional Tracking Link IIs / x2 Lrg Cap Battery IIs / Drone Nav Comp II / Lrg MJD;
in the Lows, 1600mmSteel Plate / x2Imperial Navy EANMs / DCU II / x2Drone Dmg Amp IIs;
Rigged with Lrg Anti-Exp Pump I / x2 Lrg Egress Port Max IIs.

The second is our Drifter Fit: 
Swap out the Hi Drone Link for a 4th Lrg Cap Trans II;
Swap the x2 Omni’s for a T2 Web and a Grappler and the Drone Nav Comp II for a 100MN AB.

For std Sleepers, we cap chain all up (or down) so 3 Cap Trans in series. Rep as needed, all drones assisted to one guy... Nom Nom Nom...

For Drifters... swap Cap Chain to x2 up x2 down. EVERYONE webs the Drifter. The Drifter 'normally' targets just one of the Nestor's and tends to stay on him, but occasionally will aggro switch (we've lost a few Gekos that way) allowing the others to focus reps as needed.

A bit a go Fozzie made a change whereby you can decide whether or not to spawn the Drifter. If you shoot the Structure, he spawns, if not you take your measly ~30m ISK per wave (x3) and head home. We put a pea shooter (any gun/laser/whatever will do) on one Ish and after we have run the std. Sleepers, we refit, pull drones, the guy with the gun plinks the structure… the drifter spawns, everyone fires up the Abs, launched drones and we all burn hard for the Drifter.

First the Instars get webs on him, that allows the Nestor's to get in web and then Grapple range and then things really get good. Once we get him slowed down enough to get the Grapplers inside their 1km optimal range (-80% speed reduction within that 1km) it’s all over… The Drifter is, for all intents and purposes gangwedgied to death. He is slowed to 29m/s and this is when the drone ball really gets its licks in. Everyone simply hangs on to the Drifter (the Nestors comically staying within 1k of the Drifter... basically a really slow gangbang) while the drone ball eats its way through the Drifters rather impressive omnitank.

Now we have found that the Drifter seems to have some slight resist holes. Not big one’s but enough that we now initially field Ogre IIs (or faction) for the shields and swap over to Praetor IIs (or faction) when we burn through to his armor. We have found this takes them down noticeably faster, not greatly, but a percentage faster than our std. drone flights. We pop the Drifter, refit for Sleepers and warp off to the next site.

Now as to the title of this piece? It seems that the change to Drifters as the End Boss in Anoikis sites, or maybe our comps ability to deal with them has… well… running sites is now, if anything, more lucrative than before… but it is also far, far, far more… boring.

Don’t get me wrong, if the feces impacts the rotary cooling unit during a Drifter run then things get interesting, deadly and with 3 to 4 Nestors on the line, very expensive very quickly, but, so far so good. We have not lost any ships to the Drifters, and we run sites basically at the same rate we did before but, we believe, with a slightly higher ISK/hr. Plus we have been getting some Pew Pew… not a lot by some standards but enough to keep things fun for us.

Two of my recent favs were, one, a group we engaged, after the fight, asked how many ships we had lost to the Drifters... We were like... "Uh none." They said they had lost 6 Domi's in the last few weeks and could we maybe help them with theirs?... seemed they had a Drifter loose in their system... LOL.

So we fleeted up and formed up on their hole (yes knowing full well it could be a trap, but we just fought them and if they went into a fight with their 'C' Game just to get a crack at our Drifter comp with their A Game, then they deserved that crack for the long and impossible con it would have HAD to have been).

They had eyes on the Drifter, we jumped, warped and did that thing we do. We got the schweet lewts and salvage for our troubles and headed home... Sov told us that when we landed and started in on Drifter, the guy on convo said... "Holy Geko." reverently...  LOL

My second fav was when this random 1.3B ISK Occator kill followed by this 1.8bil ISK pod kill… followed by this in local…

Scooter Tazinas > o/ hey guys there is a guy in a proteus that should be coming thru here later…

I love Anoikis… =]

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