samroski

The campers at M-O: http://i49.tinypic.com/116hy11.jpg Eve is down and thus I have been unable to check their affiliations. Thank you for your advice. I have now lost that guilt of not initiating communication. I am on the right path and mentally prepared for the hunt :)

Thank you for your wishes Theta :) So does this mean that there is no point in striking up a conversation with the locals? It appears that I'll be constantly hunted, wherever I go... 'M-O' I presume is the Lonetrek-Tribute jump? Thanks for the tips. The MWD tip is a potential lifesaver!

I have started a new eve online blog.called Edge of the Galaxy About 3 months ago I created a new character on my second account, Iksormas. He was trained to be an expendable scout in a covert ops. He scouted for me briefly before I left w-space to work on level 5s. Unfortunately CCP promptly nerfed (high sec) L5s, and left me direction-less in Eve. Thus this blog. which is probably nothing but a waste of everybody's time :) Edit: It is apparent that I had meant to call this blog Edge of the Universe, but for some inexplicable reason entered Galaxy instead, while selecting the URL :)

The Command Centres are the only thing you need to buy- these range from 100k to 7 million depending on your CC Upgrades skill level. Better CCs have more CPU and power- and thus you can have more installations online. You take the CC in your hold (500m3) and deploy it on the planet. The CC then builds everything else you need- you select the installation from a list and place it where you want to. Each installation costs money- which is negligible- certainly less than a million for most buildings, probably less, but I was not paying too much attention. How much profit is a difficult question to answer. I had very low expectations from PI and purposely avoided all the hype and information available about it. Once it was available in the game (and I was making a killing selling the skills and the command centres) I decided to fool around with it. Thus I have ended up making biofuel and water and toxic metals and other stuff that I have little idea what to do with. It does appear that I am extracting 3 times more ore in the new 0.2 planet, as compared to the first two 0.7 planets. As usual you ideally need to set up in null to reap max profits :) There are of course (this being Eve) 2 or 3 different levels of products you can produce- and you can choose to sell your mined/extracted stuff unrefined. NPC market orders still exist for about half the things I am producing- which totally throws one off. They will disappear at CCP's whim, a long time after which the price will settle (as people have hoarded in advance). Corps in null/low love PI (I think) as they are producing their own POS fuel now. As usual the options are tremendous: 7 types of planets, all with 4 or 5 extractable ores, different processors with blueprints installed for multiple products. A .pdf is worth a thousand words. Forum thread for the .pdf. And forum thread for a PI Planner. People think of PI as passive income, but there is a fair bit of management required. Not much brains once you have everything set up, but lots of clicks. This can be done remotely, based on a skill. You can select the frequency with which you want to update your installations. Every 5 hours is best for profits. Every 23 hours is ok. If you select every 4 days then your extraction rate is slightly better than 23 hours.

My 3rd set up on a lava planet. I did not realize that materials could not be routed via extractors and thus the inefficient links. http://i46.tinypic.com/25a841v.jpg

After 2 years of playing Eve I selected MAP/STAR MAP/STARS/My Information/Systems I've visited, and found the result (below) very interesting. Would love to see where you all have been. Please post your map. http://i50.tinypic.com/2l90e2b.jpg Edit: I admit to being a carebear, before any wise-ass comments come my way :) I did spend 2 months in w-space, but narrowly missed all PvP action (expect for some scouting).

I managed to set up a couple of command centres on a barren and a storm planet a few hours after PI went active. Low expectations help- as there were some options to play with- and it was quite satisfying to route the raw materials through storage facilities to the factories. Strange but true. Not sure if I have managed to set up efficient links, or whether I selected the right resources using the right installations on the right planet in the right system. Will let the information imbibe in rather than actively go searching for it. My first setup on the barren planet: http://i48.tinypic.com/2d6wp5h.jpg And the 2nd one on the storm planet: http://i46.tinypic.com/4r9ovc.jpg Edit: getting images to work

Remember when explosions were actually like explosions? Looked wonderful- worth blowing up structures just for the visuals. Then they changed it to these spokes radiating out...

HAM= heavy assault missile- does less damage than heavy missiles (HM)- but faster rate of fire, and lower range HAC= heavy assault cruiser- T2 i.e. tech 2 ship - better type of a cruiser that you can get once you train Cruisers V- these would give bonuses to HAMs- but T3 ships like the Tengu killed HACs imho as T3s give bonuses to HAMs and HM- and atm a HAC Tengu does equal or more damage than any other ship in the game - though with a range of 25km or so as opposed to >80km range for HMs.

May I add that the reason I personally feel strongly about all this is because I think Eve is the best game ever (since Elite/Doom), and I see Eve as a part of my life, and I would be devastated if Eve died. I am aware of the movement for excellence in Eve, and there was a fair bit of discussion on this among/with the CSM candidates this time around. I do support this movement, though there has to be a balance. Features that are not perfect must not be abandoned. More importantly features that are perfect must not be messed with. The sound effects in eve were brilliant till they decided on the new sound engine - and even after a year the sound is still not the same (let alone be better). They finally got a handle on lag- or it appeared that they were getting somewhere- and wham!! Worst lag ever... so it goes on. I love it- and I hate it- though the love is overpowering.... and the hate is full of hope and expectation....

Don't hold your breath for Incarna, Term. I logged into Eve Gate, but I have not tried any of the newer features yet. The calendar may help me organize my RL, not sure about Eve :) One of my friends has the same issue with standings as you Theta. Been cursing, just like you too :) There is always hope that in about a year they will iron things out. I like the basic idea of changing skills etc. via a browser. Did not realize I have to opt-out of this- should check the privacy settings....

I have very low expectations from Tyrannis. Since Apocrypha i.e. w-space introduction (and the mini update for rigs a little later) little has changed in Eve for me. Dominion had no new content as far as I can remember, which is not true- but still, this is the feeling I have. Oh yes: Dominion nerfed the rattlesnake- thus it did change eve for me by spoiling my fun. I have this very strong feeling that planetary interaction is going to be useless- something we tinker with for a week and then carry on with other stuff. Eve gate in its current incarnation is a calendar and mail client, which is (not) soooo exciting :) Not sure what I want from the expansion, but certainly I want something more exciting. Maybe with these low expectation I will be pleasantly surprised, though I doubt it.

A couple of gates in level 5 missions http://i46.tinypic.com/2diob44.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/2195boo.jpg Edit: and my current desktop background: http://i45.tinypic.com/33a9bm8.jpg

I stayed away from level 5s for a couple of weeks- trained logistics, and T2 rigged a Tengu for passive tank, and am back doing L5s at the rate of about one a day. Tried a few L4s in the meantime, but they do not excite me any more. Using a CNR for DPS, will probably shift to a tengu for DPS in a week. Used the Basilisk (logistics) a couple of times to support the CNR. My routine, though, is to go in with the tengu and the CNR. There is a shield transporter on the CNR, which is used rarely, and I swap this for a drone link augmenter in most missions. The key is mission selection. You got to know the strengths of your ship (tank) and select appropriate missions. The tengu is great against thermal and kinetic damage- and the tank is not even tested in missions against gallente/guristas. Thinking of using a BCS in the lows for these missions. LP are accumulating nicely. Thinking of what to do with it all :)

The idea of using a Rattlesnake (RS) and a CNR for level 5 missions sounded good on paper. Having lost 2 RSs and a Drake (about 2 billion loss) in 8 missions, I am not sure this is the best set up. I have a shield transporter on the CNR, but obviously this is not enough. Possibly need a dedicated RR ship, or maybe try T2 purger rigs on the RS. Fitting T2 rigs will take the cost of one RS up to near 2 billion. Wondering if there is a cheaper solution? Fortunately my finances are such that I have sustained the loss of the 2 RSs. Still, this has inspired me to train one of my alts for 300 market orders, taking my total orders up to about 900. This should help me to continue my spendthrift ways :)

er.... I think you're off by about 10k Term. I distinctively remember it hitting 52k after Dominion in Dec. A few days later it was 51.5k and somebody posted in the forums that the PCU was about to be broken again, and to log in all our alts :) This, some of us did- and promptly there was a server crash. All of eve thus turned to the forums for info and saw our thread about logging in our alts and we were flamed all the way to hell for causing the crash :) Haven't seen too many >50k numbers since then.

I was under the impression that the Eve player base continues to grow steadily. Apparently there are more than 300k players now. When I started playing 2 years ago, there used to be a max. of 35k players online at peak times- and now this figure is 45k (up to 50k quite frequently). For me this is progress- and I note the difference the wider player base has made on trade (which is what I mainly do). Fanatical Eve players (like me) take it for granted that Eve will be here forever and just keep getting better and bigger.

The question you ask: what career is most rewarding, is most difficult to answer. Your mention of politics leads one to believe you may find PvP rewarding- and Dark One's and Terminator's replies summarize the situation. There are many other careers in eve, though- and a lot of people find them rewarding. Mining is the most boring thing possible- but huge number of people do it. Useful if you are going to be afk much of the time. There is a limit to the amount of money you will make. Possibly up to 50 million an hour- probably like 20-30m/hr. Missions are done by many. They can be fun when done with friends. ISK/hr is twice that of mining (thus more rewarding in this way) The most financially rewarding profession is trade. There is no limit to what you will make. Daily income of 200-300 million is achievable within a few months. Successful traders may make 2 or many times that much in a day. Trade is great as your trade items continue to sell even when you are not online. Thus even with a few hours online in a month you have brilliant financial rewards. The market in Eve is amazing and mimics real life. I find this a most rewarding profession. Industry and research is also a pretty good career- especially if you combine it with trade and decide to sell the items you manufacture. Your profit margins are much better, and industry can also be done with minimal time online. Piracy is rewarding for many. You can work in small groups and kill innocent haulers etc. Comes under PvP. Hopefully that helps. Eve is a way of life. Once you get into it you will find your niche and the career that suits you. As I am addicted, I strongly recommend the experience :) Edit: Term: that graph is the funniest thing I have seen in some time :)

http://i43.tinypic.com/258qx3s.jpg I tested my Scorpion at a combat site in the C4 system that we are in. Went in with 4 ECMs and left with 7% hull. Thought I was dead but somehow made it (managed to ECM the ship that was scrambling me). Amazingly I could not find any hull repairers at the POS (we have 3 POSs in the system and I searched the wrong 2), thus I refit 7 ECMs and went back in with 7% hull and jammed the hell out of the sleepers. I can (nearly) perma-jam 2 sleeper ships with 7 ECMs. 7 ECMs work pretty well with 3 sleepers- with jamming them 70-90% of the time. Even working on 4 ships is pretty good- with at least 2 of them jammed at any one time. The scorp is an amazing ship is all I can say. 2 years ago I looked at Electronic Warfare IV in my skills sheet and wondered if I will ever use this skill :) Am working on the other ECM skills atm. And yes!! I did a couple of level 5s while waiting for an entry back into w-space. This was an inspiring experience- especially with 70k LP per mission :) I used a super-tanked drake as bait and a raven for gank. As a policy I warped out the raven whenever it got targeted and warped back in, by which time the drake had been targeted. This worked great. In future I am may use a rattlesnake and a CNR, which should get the missions done twice as fast.

I finally tested and used HAMs and here are my comments: The ultimate HAM ship has to be the Tengu. Though it may be a little expensive for PvP. The tengu works brilliantly in PvE. You do something like 800 DPS with HAMs- this pulverises opposition in seconds. The issue is the pathetic range. I get like 20km - and this is what eventually made me switch back to HMs. I also note that the Amarr Strategic Crusier (?Legion) also has options (and bonuses) for a HAM setup- though, if low slots are being used for armor tank, then DPS may be lower than Tengu- where you must fit at least 3 ballistic control systems for a decent setup.

March 25, 20010. 22:45 Impressions of the Alpha Duchy of Zion Thought I would pen down my thoughts on the old Duchy. I must first apologize to all for mis-stating many of the facts below. This is due to my failing memory. Think of these as random thoughts and observations. Please feel free to correct me, and add any details. The Duchy of Zion was located in class 2 w-space, with no effects on ship attributes. Exits The system connected to a low sec exit that lasted more than 24 hours. The 2nd exit was always to a class 2 system. This adjacent system generally had a high sec exit and a 2nd exit to usually a higher class (4) system. Base System The above type of class 2 system with 2 exits: one to high sec and second to higher class w-space, may be feasible for initial base, before moving to a higher class. Move in I moved in on the 17th of February 2010 (I think). Will Gauss gave me a system name deep into low sec, I was bored and got into my covert ops (Buzzard) and made it to the Duchy. Ships Over the next couple of days I managed to bring in my Drake (BC), Catalyst (Destroyer: salvage), Retriever (Barge), and Zephyr. Will and Laura/Shu did the recon. Catalyst (Destroyer for salvage) 4 Tractors, 4 Salvagers, 2 Salvage Tackle rigs, Afterburner/MWD and cap booster/recharger. No need for cargo expanders as sleeper loot generally does not take up room. Agility mods may be used instead e.g. Nanofibre internal structure. Drake (BC) I used my Drake for all the comabt and Radar sites we did in the system. Used T2 heavy missiles and a passive tank. Used more or less a standard fit with 3 purgers, and shield power relays in the lows. Two large shield extendaers in the mids with 2 invuln fields and a magnetic sacttering amplifier. Most sites were do-able with 2 ballistic control systems in the low slots, instead of the shield power relays. For Radar sites 1 BCU in the low - rest shield power relays, and this would free up one mid-slot for the Decoder/Analyzer. Buzzard (Covert Ops) Covert ops cloak and sisters expanded probe launcher with a MWD. 2 scanning rigs (gravity capacitor). Nanofibres in the lows. Fit is tight on powergrid. Lots of middle slots for additional modules like ECM, warp scramblers. Modules can be fitted and kept offline. Ammo With the kinetic damage bonus on the Drake (and many other Caldari ships) T2 scourge fury heavy missles should be used for all sleeper ships, except the frigates for which the T2 scourge precision heavy missiles are better. Corp Change I had problems in using the corp hanger and ship maint arrays. After a couple days of this, I decided to join WEEC. Subsequently the use of the arrays was painfree, except for the fact that the arrays were so positioned that you got caught in the POS while warping out :) Linath's Loss Linath was keen to move in, and I tried to help. We were connected to a low sec system full of pirates who came within 4 km of my cloaked ship, which ended my vigil and I recommened Linath not to attempt the run. Later, after I had logged, Linath was waiting for recon to jump into low sec when one of the pirates suicide ganked him at the gate. Among other things lost were the 2 Zephyrs that I had contributed towards the Duchy. POSx3 Linath moved in succeessfully a couple of days later (I may be off by a few days here and there). Will and Shu were busy in setting up the large WEEC POS. I had initally dumped my stuff at the Hamster on Steriods small WEEC POS, which was later renamed Fireplaces. I contiued to use this small POS as my base throught the next month. Prometheus also moved in with Sparroth (who may have been here all the time). Possibly a week later Shu/Lora had set up a third POS for their corp PSP. Exploration and Observations I did a lot of exploration in my covert ops. I noted combat ships, probers, covert ops from the adjacent C2 go into our system and exit within a minute or two. I believe that the sheer number of POS and associated structures was a deterrant. Similar behaviour was observed at the low sec exit. There were few incursions. Though other Duchy members who logged in at different times may have had different experiences. I also do not have access to corp ship losses and thus not entirely up to date. W-Space Occupancy Majority of the C2 systems we connected to were occupied. During exploration it was difficult to find a system that was not occupied or abandoned (sites depleted). A lot of the C4s were occupied, with some C5s. I explored 4 or 5 C6s and none were occupied- though there were the occasional ships in there, mostly scanning. Many other occupied w-space systems routinely have multiple ships floating in POS shields. On the Directional Scanner this may seem alarming. Possibly a good tactic if done well. No good when the ship is named after the owner :) In one system I noted about 6-8 ships on the Directional and wapred to distant a moon to mark a safe spot. Managed to warp in right next to a POS with 5 ships in it. Thankfully none was manned. Subsequently I started warping to planets to mark my spots. I was in the Duchy for one month, though I spent about 5 to 6 days in k-space. Duchy Dry It took 2 weeks to clear out all the combat sites (dry up the hole). Meanwhile Will tried mining in all types of ships and was as excited about gas clouds as he is now :) Combat Sites I did a number of comabat sites with Will in support- both in comabt and salvaging. The Catalyst came in very useful. Linath was also ever keen for battle. The 2 of us had similar log in times and we did a number of sites together. He was using a Minmitar BC - which is a cool looking ship. These sites involve mindless killing of sleeprs that show up. Drone use is painful, as constant management is required due to sleepers switching targets. Spawns The first spawn has 4-8 sleeper frigates and cruisers. The second and third have one BS with 4-6 smaller ships. I do not recall sleepers warp scrambling me. Sleepers move FAST with frgiates under 10km range and BSs 40-80km gernerally. Occasionally 2 BSs spawn with 2 cruisers, and this may be tough for a BC to tank, though the Drake does fine. Salvaging I believe thos nanribbonthingies are what salvaging is about. The rest of the market has caollapsed I think. These should be sold to NPC orders. Combat sites disappear within a few minutes of the last player ship leaving. Wrecks stay for some time- probably 2 hours. Scanning Even if one probe is used, Combat Sites show up on the system scanner as 100% signatures that can immediately be warped to. These sites are thus succesptible to attacks. Gravimateric, Radar and Ladar Sites require 3-5 probes to scan and take a few minutes each.(mining- a few sleepers show up once. sites last 3 days. Gravimetric Sites These are mining sites. The system had ample ABC ores. A few sleepers show up at these sites and need to be cleared once. Sites last for 3 days. I beleive Shu/Lora had a decent ship (hulk) to mine with, and Kingwitty, Linath's alt, joined us soon in a hulk and started on the Grav sites. I made a couple of feeble attempts at mining- though I was happier doing the combat sites in the Duchy and neighbouring C2s. Radar Sites Towards the end of our stay we did a couple of Radar sites. There were (5-8) containers that needed to be decoded while the sleepers put up stiff resistence. One of the sites contained the 2001 Space Odyssey Monolith. The sites may be soloed in a Drake. These were nicely coordianted events with possibly Prometheus, Linath, Tarasien, Will and myself in fleet. Viaris Vist Viaris came in one day with a friend via the low sec exit. I had just soloed the last combat site in our system and this may not have pleased the company:) There was an adjacent C2 with an (apparently) abandoned POS, but the WH was nearing the end of its life. Nevertheless we went over and with Viaris' Nightmare in the fleet we cleared up combat sites in 5 mnutes or so. These sites generally take 20-25 minutes to solo in a Drake. It was difficult for the salvage party (including Prom) to keep up with us. The Move Interestingly, one day I got sick of the Drake and decided to bring in a Nighthawk (>90% shield resists) and went to Jita fit the ship. Unfotunately, overnight we moved to a C4 Wolf Rayet sytem with -27% shield penalty and armor bonuses. I was screwed. At a loss what to fly. Posted in the forums and ended up fitting a Scorpion for ECM and RR and moved into the new Duchy (C4). I have a feeling that the Scorpion will pop as soon as it sees action. I need at least 2 months of training to be able to fly a decent armor tanked combat ship for C4s. Critical Mass I do not think that we reached that crictical mass of players in the alpha Duchy that was necessary to ensure that resources were well utilized. A move to a C3 system may have been an easier jump, as the team is still developing. Still, a case can always be made for throwing one in the deep end.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2cpanvm.jpg We have moved to a C4 wormhole. A Wolf Rayet binary system. The move happened while I had gone out of our previous system to get my nighthawk in with >90% shield resists. But I am screwed. This new system has -27% shield resist penalty and +27% armor resists. Looked far and wide for a Caldari ship that could be armor tanked- and finally fit a scorpion with ECM and RR. Think it will pop in a few minutes when it sees action. I may train Amarr Cruiser V and get some decent armor tanked ships that can fire missiles. In the meantime I am at a loss what to fly. Wolf Rayet systems are not for Caldari pilots. Have become pretty good at scanning thanks to this prolonged stay in w-space. Am enjoying the buzzard like never before. http://i40.tinypic.com/16kxlx4.jpg

Apocrypha doesn't seem all that bad now, does it? :)

I actually took part (briefly) in a WH mining op http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.06.18.34.01.jpg My Retriever is the one wandering around http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.05.17.19.49.jpg And we found the monolith at a Radar site: http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.10.18.49.25.jpg http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Samroski/2010.03.10.18.33.35.jpg Edit: trying to get the images to work :)

Have been exploring a lot recently and I came across this black hole which looked amazing: http://i50.tinypic.com/2dl7py9.jpg And a WH leading to C6 w-space :) Wondering whether I can sell this/similar systems http://i46.tinypic.com/5koqcj.jpg I forgot to mention that I organized a treasure hunt for my ex-corp in Dec. This was possibly the first event of this kind in Eve. A number of "races" have been organized- but I wanted to do a hunt which could be attempted any time within a 23 hour period. Each participant was timed and there were riddles, anagrams. clues in space, containers, channels, passwords, contracts etc. Extremely complex to organize, as I needed to counter possible exploits. It was successful- if a little hard. Gave the winner a Cerberus and the runner up got a Drake. Contemplating doing this on a wider scale with better prizes, if there is enough interest. Setting up the hunt: http://i45.tinypic.com/33v0rwh.jpg And some time before that I witnessed a strange event. A corp named G.A.N.J.A. self destructed some ships at Rens as a protest against the Minmitar state (I think). I nearly did not go to the event, as they had a disturbing video on their site, and they appeared... er.... disturbing. But my friend Moonaire was also interested, so we went. http://i50.tinypic.com/dh8u9h.jpg http://i45.tinypic.com/2e37kzr.jpg