samroski

My time in Eve for the last 3 years has been sporadic. I would log in for a few days every 2-3 months and generally do one or more of the following activities: 1. Firework displays outside Jita, and at times outside Amsen (my birth station). I have been buying fireworks (among other items) for years using regional buy orders, and I have thousands/millions of every kind. I have a fleet of ships at Jita with 6-8 festival launchers each, filled with fireworks, ready to go at all times. In recent years CCP have introduced some great fireworks and my impulsive displays are legendary imho. 2. Setting up scores of courier contracts aimed at newish players, to collect items from all over the galaxy and transport to Jita (frequently via other hubs). I have items and ships in every station (thanks to regional buy orders), and I love interacting with couriers. I reward them well and frequently give bonuses and replace their ships/losses (low sec work). I don't really need the items I collect, but it creates interesting gameplay for me and it gives me great satisfaction providing work opportunities for capsuleers with entry level ships (these contracts are generally low volume). 3. Trade PVP, where I set up large buy orders at Jita for items I need, and overcut (is this a word?) other traders by large margins, over a longish period of time. Also use sell orders, at times concurrently with buy orders, with healthy undercutting. This creates hilarious situations at times, as I can push people to the extreme. They either break, or end in loss, or the market collapses (for less popular items), or I get what I want, at a rate still better than buying off sell orders. The cost of these items does not really matter as my trade margins are huge (>100%), but tears are invaluable. 4. Level 4 missions. I have a number of ships set up for pve, and I have been testing them, trying the newer modules, and trying different fitting strategies with newer slot layouts and newer missions. I love the fact that rigs are not destroyed when removed! This is revolutionary, and should have been there since day 1. To think of the rigs I have destroyed over the years... The market for rigs must have taken a hit when the change was introduced, but I missed it. I'm currently playing around with my tengu layout, as I somehow now have 6 low slots. I tried the Golem a few months ago, and it was super-effective, but the micromanagement necessary for efficiency got to me after a while (painful to even talk about), and thus I'm currently flying the tengu where I push one button and it kills the bugger. With my rekindled interest in missions, I was reminded of the time in Journey's End (8 years ago) where we had great fun doing group missions. On an impulse I made Sam Roski (my alt) CEO of Games Inc., left the corp, and am now looking to join a corp with some decent people who like doing missions.

I recently tried Eve again, and it was great fun. Lots to catch up on. I like the Alpha clones, as they suit my style of trading where I set up orders for 3 months and do not monitor/modify. I thus use my omega clone sparingly. I tried some L4 missions in my trusty tengu, which was fun. The slot layout has changed, and I had fun trying to max. out DPS. It is great that rigs are no longer destroyed on removing and you can play around with the fit more freely. My main current interest in game is fireworks (the newer ones are brilliant). I may frequently be found outside Jita firing away at anyone who pauses (mostly gankers). Am leaving for a 6 week vacation, thus unlikely to catch you in game soon. Fly safe!

Updating this blog after 3.5 years. The first 2 years were spent doing industry and trade. I found a great corp mate, who took over research and manufacturing tasks. Our POS was running 24/7 and we manufactured vast amounts of T2 goods, and some T1 stuff, and shipped it in our freighters to trade hubs in Amarr and Caldari space. We made many billions. More importantly, I had the opportunity to spend time with a great human being. He joined the corp as a trade apprentice (the apprenticeship program) and got really good at what we do. He had interest in industry, so I made him a director in the corp, giving him access to corp blueprints and our POS, and we never looked back. Eventually we had had enough and called it a day. Our share from liquidation of left over dregs from manufacturing was about 20b each. The corp retained a large number of fully researched BPOs and thousands of BPCs. I lost my way in Eve at this point. Fortunately a couple of PLEX for Good drives gave me direction. I had managed a fund for this purpose for many years, and had kept reinvesting the money. Somehow this did not seem enough, so I liquidated everything I had and donated. Starting from scratch was interesting. I started with buy orders at Jita for the really cheap meta 4 stuff, and for selected cheap lower meta items. Each of these items I sold for just under a million. This got me back on my feet pretty quickly, and I could contribute significantly to the next PLEX for Good drive. The one item that I did not want to liquidate at a throwaway price was my sole T2 BPO. I came into possession of this item by pure luck. I had been following T2 BPOs in the Sell Orders forum for a while, but they had taken a recent hike in prices putting them out of my reach. I suddenly noticed someone offering a cruise missile BPO for 9b. This was a steal, as the current price was at least 12b, more like 15. Unfortunately I had no money as I had recently invested with a friend from MD (Market Discussions forum). A few minutes later I got a message from the friend returning 10b of the investment for a reason I do not recall. So I typed in an 8.2b bid in the auction, knowing that I would not be able to keep up with the bidding later on, as auction end was 10 hours away. A couple of minutes later I received an in-game message from the seller asking me if I was good for the money. He was somewhere near the edge of the galaxy and was making his way to high sec. I was on tender hooks for the next half an hour, but there was no activity on the forums. The seller set up a public contract for the BPO in Lonetrek, and I scrambled from Jita to Sobaseki to accept it. The seller then spent half an hour giving me advice on how to use and take care of the BPO. This made me feel real bad. I did not have the heart to inform him of his folly, let alone rub it in. So I immediately decided to give half proceeds from the eventual sale of the BPO to charity. But my attempts (1, 2) at selling the BPO for PLEX drives were not successful. Since then I have learned that copying T2 missile BPOs costs (next-to) nothing, so I've been churning out max run fully researched copies for a while, which by now could serve the needs of a generation of Eve players. It may be worth mentioning that I tried some null-sec trade using an alt. I first managed to get a ship full of blueprints to an NPC station in Venal where I set up orders for minerals and got T1 manufacturing going. This infiltration was successful at the 2nd attempt. The first ship, full of tons of blueprints, was lost tragically at M-OEE8. I had scouted this area in 2010, and there is a blog for those who are interested. The recent entries are from 2013 when I took in the blueprints, and later got Blag Frog to freighter in stuff for trade. Made a fair bit of money, which also eventually went to PLEX for Good.

CCP have started a new recall program where accounts that have not been active for more than 6 months can avail of one week of free game time. You can avail the offer by using this link. In case you activate your account, please let me know, as I will receive some goodies which I'll send to you. The goodies include PLEX. Have fun!

Started a new blog a couple of days ago: Sisters of EVE Epic Mission Arc Experience Check it out and give some feedback!

I'm running two initiatives to gather funds for PLEX for Good: Philippines Typhoon Relief. T2 BPO Auction - the higher the bids, the more goes to charity Multiple Items Sale - lets player donate amounts less than the value of a PLEX to the program. Please help by buying the stuff and/or letting others know.

I have no idea about your starter package and steam issue. I've been PLEXing my accounts for many years, and totally unfamiliar with the newer ways of signing up.

The career paths during character creation used to make a difference some years back (gave you different attributes to start off with), but make no difference now. You will start off more or less with the same skills and can train anything you like, so not to worry. We use Eve chat and mail as the main communication tools in corp, and do not use any voice communication. The corp has a no stress policy, and voice communication, though essential in many aspects of Eve, increase stress. Which reminds me, Red vs. Blue is a great place for new players interested in PvP, and make excellent use of voice coms, as do many many other corps. Join Blue, in case you're thinking of joining. Am biased, as my experiences (using alts) were somehow better in blue.

My eve name is the same i.e. samroski. Drop me a mail in-game so I can add you to my contacts and the channels that some of us Nexans use. You're welcome to apply to the corp whenever you are ready, and we can get you started on trade. You may find that after Eve Uni, you want to take a different path. Also do not give up on finding a larger corp. Also: join chat channels. There are a lot of interesting channels, investigate, join, talk. Also use the corp channel, i.e. the NPC corp channel that you are part of as default. There are a lot of interesting people (especially alts) that hang around in NPC corps. Form fleets with them, do missions, mining, or join in whatever they are doing. Fly safe.

Here is a quick guide to some professions: Mining: once skills are all trained and you are in a good mining ship, it can earn you up to 50 million ISK/hr. Probably more like 20-30 mil/hr. I never mine, so I could be wrong. imho mining is boring and only serves to provide materials for industry. An industrialist can hire 20 miners, but not the other way around. Industry: You can earn vast amounts once you have researched blueprints and have raw materials coming in regularly. Again takes a while to get going, but once established, it requires little time to set up jobs. Definitely worth investigating, as it can even be run as a side business, while you do other stuff. Missions/Exploration/Incursions: Incursions is the best way to make money while doing PvE. This is a group activity which can potentially earn you 50-100 mil/hr. You can do missions (and exploration) solo and earn a little more than mining i.e. 30-50 mil/hr. PvP: This is a great way to loose money. Salvaging: Ninja salvaging can be profitable as a solo thing, earning nearly as much as missions I suppose. A Ninja mining corp can be fun, I think, where you can gank hapless mission runners who try to shoot back at you. Bounty Hunting: Not great money to be made, especially if you look at the hourly rate, but hell, if you enjoy it, you must do it. Trade: This is where the money is. Earning any amount is possible, and there are ways to trade where you do not have to be online to make money (like industry). This is how I've made 100s of billions in Eve, and I am a casual trader, who spends little time at it. Scamming/Corp Espionage: Great way to make money. Though I have not tried this myself, but people can make billions by scamming and/or stealing. In Eve there are no consequences, so you can roleplay as a thief. There are many many ways to do this and the profits can be great. Your post, though apparently sincere, may actually be a scam for this very purpose. There are many other ways of making money, e.g. selling different types of services via forums or websites. At the end of the day the most important thing, imho, is to do something that you have fun doing, not the ISK/hr that you make.

Have you looked at the Eve Corp Recruitment Forum? You could make a similar post there and it is likely to be seen by many more individuals. Lots of corps are constantly recruiting, and you can read about them and select the ones you like. This (Nexus) forum is not very active. Having said that, the members here are obviously parts of established corps, and can be of great help. A lot depends on which direction you want to take in Eve. It appears that you may be inclined towards PvP, in which case something like the Starship Alliance (I think) may be appropriate for you, which has many members on this forum. I run a trading corporation, and have run an apprenticeship program in the past. Unfortunately the corp has 2 active members (with about 10 alts), and you may not get the support that you need as a beginner. Still, if you are interested you are welcome to apply. You could also seriously consider joining Eve University, which I have no personal experience of, but is thought to be pretty good for beginners. I suggest hanging in there for a few days. You may get some useful responses in this forum, and in the meantime keep a close eye on the Eve forum liked above. Any yes, Eve is much more fun when playing cooperative- especially at the beginning. After 5 years of playing, I have phases where I play alone, but am still in constant communication with my friends. New Eden would be a harsh and lonely place without corp mates and friends. Wish you the best in finding a group of people you get along with. Do not be disheartened if you do not find the right people at the first attempt.

You may know that buddy invites no longer work like that. Previously you got free game time, and in my previous offer, I was giving a PLEX to anyone who activated their accounts. Currently CCP gives you items other than PLEX or game time (I am not sure exactly what), and I am again offering all of these to anyone who activates their account. I have enough funds to PLEX my 12 accounts for years to come, if need be. I am not interested in free game time as you imply. I just want people to try Eve, as I think it is a great game.

Eve's going to be 10 soon. I've been playing just over 5 years. Seems like yesterday. Intend to play on. How long have you all been playing? How much longer do you intend to play? For the anniversary, I am pleased to offer fireworks and a festival launcher to all Nexians. Please post the name of your Eve character in this thread and I'll set up a contract for you. By default the contracts are likely to be set up in Lonetrek, though I've been buying fireworks and launchers all over the galaxy, and if you have a region preference please indicate.

ib4 Vindekarr adds "disgraceful community" to the cons :smile: I disagree with the following Pros: Always improving content - some "expansions" make you feel that this is not true :smile: I disagree with the following Cons: Too much space, not enough players - I feel totally the opposite. I want 100x the space. 1000x would be better. Too many players where I don't want them. Space Police (Gah... but I wanna kill that merchant ship!) - you can still kill the ship with the police around. Not solo though, for anything bigger than a hauler. Most haulers you should be able to solo kill quite easily in high sec. You'll take a security hit, of course. Grind - heh heh. I suppose the game demands some time/grind towards the beginning. For me, making a new account self sufficient takes about 6 weeks of training and 6-8 hours of play time. The account then earns enough to PLEX itself and make a tidy profit with about 4-6 hours of "grind" a month Heavily Advantaged Veteran Players - but this does not curtail your enjoyment of the game. I use low skill alts for a lot of fun in Eve. Am currently playing a new character in null sec, and cannot get enough of it. One of my RvB alts got his first 3 kills after a day and a half of training, and I had just as much fun playing him as my 5 year old alt. I am the wrong person to give you any further specific advice, as I'm hopelessly addicted to the game.

If you keep a close watch on your drones, you should have little issues with drone management. The Drake still has a great tank, thus good for relatively new players with low skills- as you can take the ship into level 4 missions, or other tight situations, and survive. The damage output is obviously lower, which is unlikely to appeal to more experienced players. It is interesting that your corp leader's statement is exactly the reason why (CCP feel) the nerf was needed. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, the Drake and the Tengu needed the nerf, not heavy missiles. Anyway, CCP want that there should be no, one, hands down best ship around. There are 100s of ships in Eve and their goal is to have the classes balanced. This is a massive and very complicated undertaking, thus CCP has my empathy- and a lot of toes will be stepped on in the process (especially mine). The latest iteration of rebalancing is midway. All ships in the game are being rebalanced, and the process will take another year or so. Change is inevitable, no matter how we feel about it. Adapt or die :)

Good you re-subbed :) I forgot to mention that there have been a number of drone changes as well. Think initially they increased the drone bay for some ships- but the recent drone changes have been related to the NPC AI changes. Now NPCs allegedly switch targets (like Sleepers) and drone management is allegedly harder. Also to note: there are now salvage drones, which is probably a great addition to PvE. I've also been using the new mining frigate (Venture) for some ninja mining in 0.0, and it is a fun ship. The best part is that it has +2 warp core strength- thus you can mostly get away when attacked :) Have also been using the new Caldari destroyer (Corax) with 7 festival launchers to spray fireworks on all and sundry at station exits. The (new) fireworks are quite good- and you can safely fire at anyone without repercussions :)

They obviously thought that HMs were too powerful. Thus 10% reduction in damage - plus 25% reduction in range. This nerf has led directly to me abandoning my Tengus. In fact they basically indirectly nerfed the Tengu and Drake- those being the 2 very popular ships relying on HMs. Unfortunately all the other Caldari ships that use HMs were also inadvertently nerfed- whereas they needed to be buffed. No chance of anyone ever using them now. The idea that my missions would be 10% slower (the range nerf did not bother me too much), made me try the Golem as an alternative. In fact they have buffed torpedoes slightly (by letting rigs effect the explosion radius)- but after the tengu- all other ships are crap- and now the tengu's crap as well. Thus I was never into PvE, and now there is even lesser chance of doing any.... Edit: I love Eve, and think you should re-sub immediately Edit 2: There have been lots of other changes- like bounties and new ships (mostly destroyers). Also: major skill tree changes are due in the summer- and thus you should re-sub and immediately train Battlecruisers and Destroyers to V (you'll get like 6m extra skill points when the change happens)

The NPC AI has been improved recently, and heavy missiles have been nerfed. Not sure if PvE is any better, as I do not do much PvE. Vindekarr does not play Eve nowadays, so his views may be a little outdated, though probably correct :)

Why don't you play it like a single player game? Just don't look at (minimize) the chat channels- and it plays like a single player experience. I've done that many times for months at a time.

I respect your views V, as I've followed your torrid times in Eve. I disagree about the pure PvP part, as there are many other options (boring as they may seem to you). The vast majority of my time is spent in other activities. You could classify trading as market pvp, in which case I do it all the time :) I agree about CCP not having vision. I was at the forefront of the riots at Jita. I still don't like their current "vision". I hate nerfs myself. To the core. Totally share your sentiments about large number of ships not being used. CCP is in the process of rebalancing- and they've done the frigates and some cruisers, with all the other ships in queue. Not sure how it will end up, though. The recent heavy missile nerf made me stop using the Tengu, which used to be my favourite ship. I have discovered the Golem though. Ganking, btw, is the new thing in Eve. I quite like it in the overall scheme of things. There was a gank attempt recently at my (heavily pimped) Golem, and that was fun! Eve community is crazy, no doubt, and as I have said before, you seem to have come across the worst examples. My 2 best friends in Eve happen to be Nexians and that probably helped. We started around the same time, in one corp (with just ourselves) and that was great. After a couple of years we went our own ways, and found some great corps and had a lot of fun, and continue to do so.

Eve is an extremely complex game, thus it is difficult to summarize. The best way to find out is to do the 3 week free trial and see for yourself. Three weeks is enough to get a flavour of the game, though there will still be 100s of aspects that will stay unexplored. As far as worth paying for monthly is concerned- this is something subjective. I've been playing for 5 years and for me it is a way of life. An alternate existence that I spend a lot of time thinking about. Eve is not a quick fix (though it may be used as such e.g. doing missions), and it is deep involvement in the alternate reality that makes it worthwhile (for me).

Please note: freelancer did not inspire Eve. Elite inspired both Freelancer and Eve. As to which game is better, I cannot compare as I have not played freelancer with crossfire.

PLEX is 588m today at Jita. Best of luck in selecting the right account :)

Elite is coming back, with bells and whistles. For those who may be too young to remember, Elite was released in the mid-80s and I suppose it was the direct predecessor of Eve. It was very similar, but single player with wireframe 3D graphics (first of its kind), and with procedurally generated galaxies to explore- totally amazing. And in less than 40k :) I played it endlessly in the late 80s and early 90s (on the Spectrum 48k first and Amiga later). Those of us who played it (and were addicted to it) in the 80s are mostly in our 40s now, and can easily afford to finance this project, so I am sure it will come through. This is an amazing time for space games, with 2 new MMOs announced in one month. Much needed competition for Eve.

Note: if you avail this buddy invite, and subsequently activate your account, I will receive some item/items from CCP. Not sure what these will be, but I will be delighted to give these items to you as a present on joining the Eve community. Thus: when you activate your account, please let me know so I can send you the item/items.