New Eden Pilot

So, while moving my newly acquired hurricane to Bayuka the other night, it dawned on me.

I've done this before. Many times before. Basically, I've done what I reasonably can expect to do in EVE. I think I'm done.

Thinking back over the past two and a half years, many highlights come to mind
- I had a great start in EVE university. I still remember the great fleet led by Johnny Horsepower (Sabre A) where we hunted like angry wolves, constantly moving, constantly aggressive, and finally were rewarded a Haiduken interceptor kill.

- I single handedly killed a stealth bomber in my destroyer, thus making the aggressors drop a planned wardec against EUNI. The adrenaline stayed in my body for an hour.

- I taught multiple classes in EUNI, mostly on economy and trading, still popular on mp3.

- I enjoyed the sheer aggression in 22nd Black Rise defence unit (22BRDU) where we conquored 100% of gallente space in factional warfare. Once we hunted in lowsec and a target warped away from us. Immediately it was called on comms, "Target warped to planet 5, following at 0". A split second later, we heard "Following at 100", then "Following at 50". In less than 1 second everyone had figured out the best way to act to the benefit of the team, no one held back or were scared for their own hide, it was pure offense, offense, offense.

- I was impressed by the skill level in Agony Unleashed - some of the individuals are beyond human.

- I've lived in highsec, lowsec, 0.0 and a wormhole.

- I've been doomsday'ed by a Titan.

- I've FC'ed.

- I've done darkside stuff not for public eyes :-) Call Julian Assange if you're interested.

- I've been fortunate to join the Van Hemlock gang, in the 20 minuters alliance. Friendlier bunch you'd be hard pressed to find.


But all in all - I think EVE has done it for me, and I have done it for EVE. It's been good, interesting, playful, tiring, fun, frustrating, humorous. But for now, I think New Eden is ready to pass on to new generations. I wish you all the best of luck and hope you all enjoy it immensly.

Signing off
Dr Deus

Found this in Curse, never seen anything like it.





Here's a few close-ups - each ring is made up of a center Magnetic Double Capped bubble, surrounded by Stargate Explosion Dampening Arrays.



Add to that some ill-tempered neighbours.

EVE Quarterly Economic Update is a gem for those who enjoy digging deep. It contains all kinds of analysis, and from the 2009 Q1 version I found this excerpt:



These characters are approximately just short of a year. As expected, the Caldaris enjoy their missiles and Minmatar like to shoot guns, but what strikes me the most is how much Spaceship Commands stands out. People are clearly flying a lot of ships that their support skills aren't supporting fully. Probably it's worse, many pilots are probably underflying their ships to a great extent. Shields will be lower, armor weaker, guns poorer, tracking missing more often, not so agile, not so speedy. Et cetera, et cetera.

My current skillplan for a perfect Arbitrator lasts for another year. Some of it will not be trained, like Weapon Disruption V (5% cap reduction for tracking disruptors), but most is basic skills as can be found in the 'core competency' certificate. These skills will help no matter what one flies, and will always be useful when you undock.

Have you ever thought about how many skillpoints you leave behind in your hanger? No real use for Amarr Cruiser V when flying that Thorax, huh? Maximizing the usefullness of your skills you have can go a long way when planning for a young pilot. Focus focus.

Fly safish lads
D2

After launching your bombs, you complete the bombing run by warping off. But warping to zero is predictible (a.k.a. dangerous), and to 100 likewise. Hunting interceptors most often follow at those distances.

The best is of course to warp to a safespot, but if you for some reason need to warp to an object in space, at least be a little less predictable.

Since you cloak up after bombing, you will land cloaked, and the only thing you should worry about is someone landing on top of you (+/- 2.5 km). That might happen if you warp to zero, also if you warp to 100.

Luckily there's an alternative: Set your own warp-out distance.



Right click the warp-to button, set your custom distance, and enjoy custom warp-to's.

The pre-loaded warp-to's are
- 10 km
- 20 km
- 30 km
- 50 km
- 70 km
- 100 km

I find 65km to be nice, you should chose whatever you like. Enjoy.

So I got thinking, about gank and tank.

I've held a long term affection towards Amarr. I love to go on long roams, sometimes deep into wormholes and stay there for days, even weeks. Not running out of ammo is pure gold. And Amarr armor is hard. Hard. Very Hard.

For cruisers I've been especially fond of the Arbitrator, the EW&Drone boat. But given the amount of drone skills I've now aquired, what's more natural than to at least think about Gallente, and for cruisers their Thorax and Vexor?

To cut to the chase, I summarized some fittings, all level V skills, and compared DPS and Tank. Yes I know it's simplistic, but it's not meant to be more than a start. Here's the result:


Seems the frogs can deal out some serious blaster damage in adition to their drones. Most envyous however is the Vexor's 75Mbit/s bandwidth, allowing for 3 heavy drones or sentries where the Arbitrator only has 50Mbit for 2 heavies. Yes, that point is outside of the Gank/Tank diagram, showing that the analysis is simplistic, but it's still interesting.

Oh how hard it is to stick with decisions when new knowledge continuously creeps in :-)

D2

So, a few months ago, I started flying in EVE Online. Gradually, and over time, I have developed real world emotions for the people I play with. Friendships, excitement, pity, anger, schadenfreude, relief - all very human emotions, but evoked over pixels on a computer screen.

For me, the stages have been as follows

1 - Human vs AI
At first, all the server controlled spaceships and human controlled spaceships were just the same. But gradually I started to like the human opponents due to the simple fact that they were human. Even though we didn't interact, chat or speak, I liked knowing that there was another guy (probably) in the other end. Their actions were less predictable, and the honor involved in winning or losing was greater.


2 - Steady group
After joining EVE University, I started to meet the same guys again and again, and over time we developed aquintances and to some degree a friendship. Not deep friendships like with people you knew from kindergarden, but somewhat likely to friendships developed between regulars at a bar. You walk into the bar, people recognize and greet you, you continue the chat from yesterday and everyone has a laugh. Good times.


3 - Sharing the common goal
Surprisingly, maybe, after a while I started caring for these drinking mates. At the time EVE University was under a barrage of attacks, and I increasingly found myself concerned about the other guys. As I progressed in skill and knowledge, I felt responsible for taking new guys out for a spin, for helping out, for being there besides them when the shit hit the fan. On the way home from work, I felt real concern. It both amused and surprised me, but the feelings where real. Of course I knew it was all a computer game, and all conflict resided in a server in London, but vritual or not, relationships between humans can span such small hindrances.

4 - RL != RL
Finally, I have lately come to realize how the real world is not so real after all. Before you take this as metaphysical voodoo or me smoking my socks let me explain to you my professional life. I work as a financial consultant in a multinational company, serving clients on all continents, across all timezones and cultures. Over the years my team which is spread all across the globe, have worked together on multiple projects, collaborating on both email and telephone, but rarely in real life if at all. A typical delivery can be to a client in one country, produced by a trio of consultants in two to three others. Over time relationships develop. I always mock Dan when Manchester United lose a game, I chit-chat with Jackie about her travels and the wather around Chicago is nice to drop in a line about to Tom. But at the end of the day these people are just an email adress with a voice on a phone. Slightly Truman show'ish, and very virtual, but that is how real life is for many of us.


So to sum it up - Virtual life is more real and real life is more virtual than people seem to think. I expect this trend to continue in the years to come.

Finally, the war ended against our former teacher ended. The war will no doubt stand out as a milestone in the history of Eve University, and I can truthfully state that I have learned more from this campaign than from any before.

Lessons learned:

1 - Everyone is a legal target, even altruistic corporations like EVE University. But be aware that although your beef is with the leadership, hundreds of noobs will suffer lockdown as well. And ganking our POS? Yes it's a legal target, and in theory we could fill it with bonus-giving commandships. But seriously dude, when was the last time EUNI ever had a commandship? We're struggling to bring battleships and battlecruisers to the frontline.

2 - It's nice when opfor brings it. Much better to just step out the door and bam, be on the frontline. Chasing war-targets all around new eden is no fun, having them in Korsiki is much better. It's harder and harsher, but at the end of the day it's way way better. Good one to opfor.

3 - It's always personal. War-dec'er and former EUNI Director of operations Dee Carson states it's not personal. He is wrong. I sincerely believe him when he states that he himself holds no personal grudge against his former corporation. I sincerely believe that this is not personal for him. But many on the recieving end took the war-dec personally. It is a basic premise of human relationships that you can only control what you yourself do, not how the other party reacts to your actions. A street mugger doesn't hold personal grudges against his victims, but be damn sure the victim will want personal retribution. I am somewhat surprised that Dee Carson seemingly does not understand this nuance.

4 - It's never just pixels. MMO emotion is emotion too. MMO relationships are relationships too. EVE is more than mere pixels.

5 - Under preassure, coal becomes diamonds. Many new and young commanders stepped up, both SC/WC/FC. All hail the young leaders!

6 - Drama will blow over, but will not be forgotten. EUNI is proceeding in a calm and professional manner, but former directors now in opfor will struggle to regain their former love or respect.