Wednesday 15 February 2012

Choices

EVE is full of them, at every step in my short career as a capsuleer i've been faced with numerous choices.
From the very first time i installed came my first - my character.

Male or Female?
Which race?
Hair style, color, muscles or skinny, clothes?
History and family lineage.

So many choices already!

Now of course these small decisions have zero impact on the larger scale of New Eden, but higher up the hierarchy you go, those choices can have a butterfy effect felt throughout the universe.

Now the last 2 weeks i've not been doing much flying about, i have made myself a skill plan as suggested by somebody and given myself goals of certain ships i'd like to get myself into along with respective fittings, ive also downloaded 3rd party programs such as EveMon/EFT and Teamspeak to help with the skill planning.
What i have been doing instead the last 2 weeks is reading up. Reading up to the point my eyes started to ache.
Everything i could get my hands on relating to EVE, i read. From current goings on right back to 3 or 4 yrs ago, if it was on google, chances are i read it. It's after filling my brain with all this info that the impact of choices really hit me. Some of the things in EVE's history are immense, from fake investement funds making the instigator a multi billionaire, to actual devs breaking rules and supplying his allaince with valuble BPO's to gain an unfair advantage, to whole (seemingly) untouchable super alliances getting taken down from the inside by spies out to make a fast and easy profit for themselves.

All the events through EVE's history is littered with the after effects of player choices. Never have i known a game to be so malable in its entirity by the very people who play it. This is what makes EVE stand out against all the other MMO's out there in my opinion. It litterally gives you a blank canvas to start out with, and dependant on your ambition and stamina you can make EVE exactly what you want it to be.

PVE-PVP-Hauler-Market trader-Explorer-Industrialist-Alliance leader-Corp leader-Manufacturer-Pirate and many more things i cant think of right now. All these things can be achieved making the right choices in your game, and if at some point you find yourself getting tired of EVE, then the blame can only be laid at one door- your own.

It's here that i bring myself to the point of this blog.

The choices ive made so far im happy with.

I want to PVP pure and simple.
I'm happy with my char, im happy with my skill plan, im happy with the experience so far my choices have given me, i've met some nice people, ive also met one or two complete asshats, but those are all results of the choices those people have made in their own game, which i think makes EVE so diverse and full of opertunities it really is mind boggling.

Now, me wanting to PVP means i will, and have lost ships, which dont come free. I'm happy to lose stuff as long as i take something from it and learn for next time, but those ships need replacing and to replace them costs isk. PVP is not a viable way to make an income to support losses, i know this from my limied experience of losses and from reading till my eyes bled.
With this knowledge in hand, i'm faced with any choice.

How do i make the money to replace ships and modules lost?

My options are pretty vast, taking from the list above of EVE careers, there are many things i could set out to do, but, the easiest and therefor most acessible to a new player without either making a new account of stopping the training on my char and making an alt, is PVE.
My desire to PVE comes only a close 2nd to my desire to remove my own testicles with a blunt and rusty spoon, so my choices are narrowed down somewhat.

Do i want to make another account? No.
Do i want to stop my training and make an alt on my current account to make me isks? No.

I'm screwed then right? Not quite, as during my reading up for 2 weeks phase, i discovered GTC's.

The answer to my problem!
Off i went to www.shatteredcrystal.com and bought myself 10 x 60day timecodes.

These i learned can be exchanged in game for 2 PLEX - Pilot License Extentions - and sold on the market to people who CAN be assed to slug it out with PVE or market trading to make thier millions and pay for their game playing time with isks, thereby making their experience totally free other than the actual time spent on the game earning those isk.

I have to applaud those guys, they have more patience than me.

So my dilema is solved, i now have just over 1b isk in my wallet through selling those first 2 plex on the market from the time code, this was another one of  my choices. I really have no issues with paying to play EVE and if other players want to look down their noses at me for doing so, than so be it, i really couldnt care less how others pay for their enjoyement, be it through slogging away with PVE each and every 30 days, or buying GTC's and selling them to achieve the same thing. Sure, they're playing the same game for free in effect, where as i'm paying 15Euro per month plus any GTC's i buy.

But if im cool with that, why should a stigma surround it? I have not been told it does for certain, it's just going on other players comments on the EVE forums, that seems to be the general concensus.
Basically i'm trying to convey that my game is not the same as everybody elses game, how i do one thing will vary wildly with the way another player does the same thing and this, again, is what makes EVE a great experience for me upto now.

To finish this blog  off, i'm still faced with my biggest choice yet- a player corp.

Right now im still in the starter NPC corp, but i'm in no rush to jump into the first one who'll take me, i've even had a few offers from corps after making a post on the forums a few weeks ago which is encouraging for a new player who cant really offer much towards the betterment of a corp other than buckets of enthusiasm, being self sufficient and a desire to learn and not cry when blown up!
Fingers crossed i'll earn myself a place in a player corp i'd like to join some time in the (near) future, minimum requirements is the biggest stumbling block right now, but maybe more time to train up whats needed to make me usefull for the next time is a good thing, but only time will tell.

Hopefully the next time i write a blog, i might even be in a player corp!

Fly dangerous

Rox

Monday 30 January 2012

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Gatecamps blow

Really they do.

Just lost a Thrasher, quickly followed by my pod to a camp in low sec space.

Now i'm not here to cry about it, more to try and understand the attraction. You see i get the whole 'free and easy kills with zero work' part, but how long had those guys been orbiting that gate for? 10 mins? 60 mins? more?
I mean i know some players are all about the stats - and checking up on the ones that got me on Battleclinic i can see thats what these guys were - but wheres the fun in that? No thrill of tracking down a target, no rush of warping in on them and starting up a fight, its just scram>pop>repeat.

I guess everybody is different when it comes down to what they find fun within EVE, i can say gate camping is definately not something that i'd be willing to participate in, unless part of a fleet cutting off an enemy fleet maybe, i dunno.

Anyway, not quite sure what i can take from this encounter to learn from, possibly not to warp to zero on a gate, but with no celestials within scan range of the destination gate, i dont know what else i could have done to avoid it.

On the plus side, getting podded did save me a journey back home lol

I still have a good few rifters left to play with, and 6 more Thrashers, but funds are only going down right now, and a completely red wallet isnt that impressive.
I might have to even, you know.........PVE a little
The mere thought gives me a sad :(

The things we do for fun eh?!

Fly dangerous people o/

Tuesday 10 January 2012

In Space no-one can hear you scream

....Or shout out loud 'You cheap bastard!'


Here i am again, 4hrs away from T2 small projectiles and the remnants of an adreneline rush coursing through my veins.
You see, i just returned from another ship loss, not that that bothers me as i did learn another lesson from it which i'll touch on a little later, and i did, after all go looking for a fight. It went like this.......

I got my Rifter fitted out again curtesy of my 3 player donations ( could call it guilt money lol ) and set a random course into low sec. Today i planned on learning to use my D-scanner efficiently to track down a ship to a particular place within an acceptable timeframe. Two or three jumps in and ive found nobody, seriously, the last 3 systems i went through had 2 players in local, one of them being me in each. Eventually though i got myself into a .2 sec system and made myself a few safe spots ( thanks Eve-Wiki ) and broke out my scanner.
This looked promising, 10 in local, 3 of which were only a month or so old, so not that much older than me. D-scan showed me a navy hookbill, a comet and a drake so i went through local and tried my best to match up who the 2 frigs might belong to. I couldn't say for sure ( who could? ) so i tracked the hookbill one of the belts and waited, maybe if he's ratting i could jump him while the npc's are engaging him too and get a slight advantage? Or at the least get to see his name so i could look him up in local before warping off again.

Upon warping to the belt at zero, i was dissapointed, 3 fresh wrecks and zero hookbill :( but this didnt put me off, i warped back to my safe and tried finding him again. I was quite happy with myself when i found him again within 30seconds or so with the D-scan down at 15degs, sitting at the system star, alone. Right at this point, before warping to him, i did another 360deg sweep with the scanner to make sure no other ships had undocked, and also checked local had not gone up +1. All was clear.

At this point i'm going to say in EVE, for me at least upto now, if something seems to be going your way, or even to plan, something innevitably will come along and piss on your fire with vigorous glee before you know whats happened.

So, getting back to the hookbill, i landed at 0 on the star and almost bumped this guy, locked him up, AB on and started orbiting. As soon as he started yellow flashy boxing me i webbed him and got my scam on him followed right away by my ( pretty shitty ) pew pew. All ok so far, took another standings hit ( again ) for being a bad person out for some fun, and started on his shields, i had him down to 60% shields before he hit me with his first salvo, which hurt. A lot.
Even though it looked like i was going to lose again judging by how fast my shields/armor was melting compared to his, it was at this point that the italic part above reared its ugly head.

We had another stranger join the fight, only it wasnt a stranger it was another player from the same corp as the guy i was fighting, and i know for a fact they were not in local right before i warped, so i can only guess at 2 possibilities.

1 - It was his alt that he logged on as soon as i engaged < unlikely given the speed in which our uninvited guest showed up into the fight.

2 - His buddy jumped into local while i was mid warp < Winner? More than likely.

I never asked for a 1v1 for this encounter so was prepared (as much as possible at least ) for anything and everything going wrong, and losing the ship doesnt bother me at all. Its the fact his buddy/alt that joined us was in a FUCKING BLACKBIRD!!
I wouldnt have minded had i been in a damn faction cruiser or something and my opponent needed the help, but it was a 1 on 1 frig fight which i was on my way to losing anyway so he didnt even need the Blackbird. Still, it came, and it jammed me out nicely just how its supposed to. But man, thats some cheap ass ship >:(

Have to say this was the first time Eve has pissed me off, not because of the loss, but because of the cheap as shit way in which it happened. Blegh.

Fair fights are not something i should be looking for, fair fights get you a loss mail and and an ever  deminishing wallet. Fair fights dont exist in New Eden. Fair fights are a myth im beginning to believe in.

As i sit here typing this, still going through the green pulsating hulk mode from that fight, i'm going to announce to you ( whoever you are ) and to myself in a way, that from here on in, im not going to give people the benefit of the doubt, im not going to look for fair fights, im going to head towards what New Eden so very much pushes upon you as a new player, that its a harsh, cold and unforgiving place full of villany, scumbaggery and general douchemongery in every corner. In Eve, if you dont adapt, you die, simple.

* A quick edit to this post*

Having made a killboard to keep track of my kills/losses, it seems the hookbill i fought did die shortly after i was blown up, probably to some oppertunistic player, but still, i almost got half the damage on him!!

A Change

Well here i am New Eden for all to see, adapting just like the thousands before me, adapting after the baptism of fire you give new pilots in the works and way of the PVP universe. Just another sheep churned out from the med facilities of New Eden? No, not this time.
Heres where i'll be different, here's where i'll laugh at your efforts to pound my enthusiasm and destroy my will to fight, here's where i'll be joining that small group of players who took your harsh lessons, screwed them up and threw them back in your face twice as hard, to go on into the universe and be somebody. Somebody who will be known, somebody who'll be making a difference one way or the other. Somebody who'll look to gain every advantage they can on the battlefield to assure victory in whatever it is i choose to do.
Dirty tactics seem the norm in Eve, pilots will always look for that upper hand, so adapt to them, counter them if possible and use them too, or die, its that simple.
 

Remember the name Roxwar pilots of Eden, for it'll be a name you'll be hearing more and more of in the next year or two - bank account permitting ;)

Fly dangerous o/

Rox

Saturday 7 January 2012

Wheres the honor?

Only a brief blog today due to time constaints, but its a question i've found the answer to already.

While sat docked up in HEK i asked in local if anybody new like me, wanted a 1v1 frig fight to pass a little time and see if i could learn anything new. Somebody took me up on it, somebody only 3 weeks older than i was. Now, weather this player was really new like me or just another alt of some veteran i cant say, either way we opened a private chat to arrange location ect.

I asked him if he honored 1v1's to which he replied he did. This was my first mistake.
Before the fight i made the choice to drop the scram for an extra defence mod in my mids to try and get the edge after hearing he did honor 1v1's.
Long story short, i was ahead, AB on and orbiting at optimal, yayyy.

It was when he reached about 20% hull that he suddenly took off trailing smoke behind him and to say i was a little pissed off about it is an understatement!
I vented in local about him afterwards and he did try to defend himself to an extent, but overall the majority of local sided with me that in any arranged 1v1's, honor is king and does actually mean something.
It could have been avoided altogether if i hadnt gone for dropping the scram, lesson learned.

So, im left wondering if ( as i believe ) honor is none existent within EVE, or if i'm just being pessemistic due to this one episode with a chicken shit loser.

Time will tell, but i know next time i'll be more cautious.
As they say, once bitten twice shy.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Day 6

Time to die Tristan

Woo hoo, i can now fit shield rigs! This is bound to make me a little tougher to kill in my quest for my first win i thought on waking. I log in, and after visiting Battleclinic to find some good Rifter fits i set about building my ship.

Today i decide to try out what i've found to be called 'can flipping'. It involves finding somebody within an astroid belt who is jet can mining their ore. Basically mining until their hold is full, then dumping it in a big can to pick back up later allowing them to mine for longer between trips back to station. Now, i've found EVE kind of promotes scumbaggery by creating rules that allow theiving lol
I can steal somebodies stuff from a jet can, which will make them able to shoot at me without CONCORD coming to kick their ass.

I also learnt this can be a way to fight in high sec without consequences from CONCORD. So i go forth setting a random system 20 jumps away and decide to check out a few belts in each system to see if i can find a lone player mining into a jet can. This method is boring, let me just get that out there. A rifter, the smallest pissiest frigate in the game can enter a belt and make a 200+million T2 miner ship ( A Hulk ) warp out in fear. How messed up is that? lol

Regardless of amusing sights, i finally find a frigate mining in a belt into a can. Heres my chance i thought, so long as they dont warp off i might get a bite. I warp in, approach him, steal some ore he just mined and wait.....

Then i hear weapons fire, and my cue to open up back.

I DID IT. I really did, i killed that guys Tristan and got some loot as a bonus! Local lit up immediately with rants, threats, and general 'why you shoot me you no life *******" ect. I sat there with a massive grin on my stupid face watching this guy go mental at me, was even better when i asked him if he wanted to buy his stuff back at a discount lol

So there you have it, my first kill and first 'tears' as they call them. The fight was worth it for the amusement in local chat afterwards alone, the loot drop was just a bonus!

Surprise butt sex

Still riding the high from my virgin kill, i headed back to HEK to unload my ill gotten gains before heading back out again.
Chose Amamake again, no idea why, maybe familiararity im not sure. Made it through with no gate camps again, and made an extra one or two safe spots before going to my D-Scanner. Found local to be mostly full of frigs and destroyers, nice i thought, so i proceeded to randomly warp into the belts at 100km just to check them out, see what turned up ect.

I found one guy in a Bantam via D-Scan in a belt and warped off to him right away, on landing he warped off again so dont know if he saw me coming of if it was just coincidence or what, but i was sat there on my own about to warp to another belt when my overview went red with a guy just warped in on top of me!
A quick look tells me its a Tristan - sort of ironic considering its the same ship i just blew up not 60mins prior - who locks me up and immediately scrams me so im going nowhere. I have to admit here, i kind of panicked breifely due to the surprise of him warping in and locking me up so quickly so i didnt have time to do anything other than see the ship type.
I thought i was going to last longer than the 5 seconds it took him to get me in my pod again, but he was a smart player.

During the convo in local afterwards, he explained how he did it so easily. My ship has a lock range of approx 22km, his was greater than mine so he just kept his distance hovering just out of my lock range so i couldnt really do anything other than wait for his Hornet II drone to make light work of me.

So to wrap up, today i got my first kill. I also lost another Rifter in low sec.

To summerise my first week in New Eden:-

Ive lost 4 ships and killed 1

I was given 20m isks by 2 total strangers in low sec.

I've had 2 offers already to join corps, one of them unfortunately being a U.S timezone corp so i wouldnt have been any use living in the UK, and another from a guy inviting me down into null sec for some PVP experience in free T1 ships and fittings.

Overall i'd say its been a blast, a fun ride the whole time upto now and cant understand how people who are risk averse get any kind of enjoyement out of a game of this nature.
Still, each to their own i guess.

Fly dangerous people!!

Rox

Day 4

Rifter fight

I find myself looking at my wallet, i started off with a few ships and approx 1.4million isks from the tutorials. After losing that first Thrasher, and then the 2nd in Amamake, i was down to maybe 30k isks until the two 10m donations were given to me. I started to realize that i had to try and make my cash last a little longer.

Within Eve there are many ways to make isks, main one to somebody like me being missions, fighting against NPC's for cash rewards. Mind numbing and of no interest to me tbh. PVP is not a viable way to earn money i learn, so decide to buy a GTC - Game Time Code - via shattered crystal. I can exchange this code for a PLEX - Pilot License Extension - which i can then sell on the market for hundreds of millions once my 20 million goes up in a ball of flames. Sounds like a plan, even though is makes me feel like im cheating in some way by cutting corners. meh.

I've decided to stick to Rifters for now, the lowest tier ships in EVE and consequently the cheapest to buy and fit out for a beginner to learn in and lose. I ask in HEK local ( home for now ) if anybody new like me fancies a 1 v 1 as i cant be assed to make the 8 jumps into Amamake again. I get a bite, a player who is only 9 days older than i am. We meet up in a belt, they drop 1 ammo in a can which i take to gain aggro to allow a CONCORD free fight.

Things start off well, im getting through his shields a lot faster than he's getting through mine. I made sure to orbit at optimal according to my gun info, and hoped for the best. Once i was through his shields, mine were only down 50% so i started to think this might be my first win.
It wasnt to be. End result was another rifter loss dammit.
After a chat i find my opponent was flying with 200mm armour plates which explained why getting through his armour was waaay slower than his shields and what gifted the victory to him.

No to worry i thought as headed back to station and bought 10 more rifters.

At this point i decided to leave my trouble causing ways a day or two while i train a couple of skills to help sway the odds in my favour, namely being able to fit rigs.