Perspectives

  Since Tranquility is down longer and I have been thinking, I thought I would delve a bit into something I mentioned in my last post. Which, by the way, sorry for the rambling nature of my first banter. I have alot of thoughts on the matter, so it's hard to condense. This post will be a bit rambly methinks. My brother and I got to talking about it yesterday and I think I'll share a bit of our views.

  As I have said before, I am an advocate of the fact that there are so many choices and paths one may take in New Eden. Even the pirates that, in general save a few, I tend to hate. It's the bad apples that are complete smack talking douchebags, but lowsec seems to draw them all together. Anyways, I digress. Two points that I have are these: the whole universe, not just lowsec, could use a good overhaul. Rixx of Eveoganda coincidentally mirrors that thought. It is also my observation that many pirates are rather self righteous in their views of viable play styles.

  Now I know I am probably going to step on toes, but that's life. If you can't discuss without petty squabbles, then just walk away. But both in game and out, I have read and heard numerous people talking about how they want someone else's gameplay encroached on or how they want something, not even a broken mechanic, out of the game. Example? I'll use a recent thing. And Laedy, if you're reading, you are definitely not one of the ones I hate. You just gave me a great example. As I am an Ewar pilot, I feel pretty strongly about it. There are apparently those who would like it gone, or at least wouldn't care if it got taken out. Now, it's a perfectly legitimate warfare tactic, most effective in small gangs as a force multiplier. I feel a rush when I know I can shut down an enemy's entire ability to function in a fight. It makes me useful since I hate the role of DD. A single ECM pilot can turn a battle in their favor. Can a single DD be said to do the same? Perhaps, depending. But this principle applies to the game as a whole.

  Why in the world do pirates think it's fine to raise hell when their low sec home needs some work and their career choice is hard, but as soon as a "carebear" tries to say something similar about their space it's immediately attacked and trolled beyond belief? No space is safe. It's not as if Empire restricts all action. There's simply consequences and if you remember that this is a universe, how immersive would it be for an Empire to let piracy run rampant in their systems? You want less freedom for carebears, yet you still want them to come to lowsec so you can prey on them. Show me the logic there. If a carebear cannot be profitable, they will either stop playing or they will not be a worthwhile target. If a pirate relies on profitable carebears to prey upon, this will lead to famine on their part. No carebear to kill, no ISK to steal. It's exactly why honoring a ransom is far better in the long view of things than taking a ransom and then killing prey. If I do nothing but bleed ISK, I'll either avoid lowsec altogether or I won't pay anyone. While lowsec, as all other space, could use some work, it is also the environment that pirates have made it. So why are you complaining about something that you had a hand in shaping?

  Alright I think that's enough. My rant is over and I'm sure I've pissed enough people off by now. I say alot on this issue because it affects me but also because it is the most prevalent in my experience of Eve. But truly, take a step back and look at something before you go attacking it. Just because it might make your fight harder (ewar) or just because people prefer a degree of order and immersion (empire) doesn't  mean you should be calling for reform. If it's hard, be proud that you are working to overcome it or start making a change yourself. And please...don't feed the trolls.

  What's your perspective?
-Mem

Blog Banter #21

Welcome to the twenty-first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost who a few month ago asked "Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?" Is it? I'd like us to explore this even further. Is Low Sec being treated differently by CCP Games than Null Sec (Zero-Zero) or Empire space is? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither Alliance nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What's needed? Or is everything fine as it is?

  As this is my first Banter, go easy on me :P

  This has been a pretty hot topic lately. In the slew of issues players have called to be revamped, low sec life has been a big desire for quite some time. As a young pilot, I have a bit of a grasp on why but perhaps not as much as the older veterans and those that actually live in lowsec.  I have visited it a good amount, but I have yet to base any operations from lowsec.

  As for the first point, I think Low Sec has become the red headed step child of Kspace. In Empire, you have your trade hubs, beginning systems, and a place where players have a degree of “security”. In Null Sec, you have massive alliances in an eternal struggle for sovereignty and the ability to amass great wealth. Low Sec, however, has little attraction. There are a few things I can see “broken”.

  As an industrialist and miner, there is no appropriate draw to even want to mine in lowsec. The minerals found there cannot justify the risk in taking expeditions to extract them. A pilot could make more money with far less risk staying in Empire or join a good alliance in null sec and make big money there.

  

  Another issue I would think, would be the rather long timer for GCCs in low sec. I have read pirate blogs and I talk to pirates in game that obviously run into this on a regular basis. So why would a cooldown that is so long be of any use? Obviously, they are fine with taking the hit but to have to sit in a safe for so long is rather laborious. I wouldn’t say it makes pirates less viable but it’s a bit less attractive to have to do that all the time. 

  As for whether or not it’s profitable, just ask any pirate. For such a profession, it is often feast or famine. But I have seen enough gate camps with wrecks littering space that I know it has to be profitable in some respect. I know pirates want this so they have people to shoot at more often, since woe be their chosen career. I hear too often that pirates want carebears to have less going for them. I, frankly, think there's a place for everyone in Eve so while making low sec more viable is the right way to go, why should it include cutting down on someone else's experience at the same time? A pirate's life, let's face it. is hard. And for good reason, since they choose to go against the law. Take pride in the difficulty you overcome instead of whining to make it easier. But I digress.

  

  As for what might be needed, I like the idea a blogger had a while ago. I cannot for the life of me remember who wrote about it, so if someone knows, leave a comment or Eve mail me. Their idea was systems dedicated to pirates and those dedicated to the goodies like bounty hunters or something. But I think the idea of havens has some merit. As of right now, the only way pirates can really lay claim to any low sec system is by presence. Whether it’s gatecamping constantly or ganking everyone possible, they simply have to make it known that this is their space and you shouldn’t mess with their terf. An idea I have had lately that reminds me of Freelancer is perhaps making a module that is capable of shutting down a gate altogether for a limited time. One time use, long cooldown or whatever the downside may be. This can trap prey in your system, allowing an interesting twist to small gang warfare. Which is another thing that could be focused on for low sec. Make small gang warfare more attractive and tenable, rather than blob fests rolling through. Not sure how to work that one out yet. I have also heard others talk about allowing a once-a-year security status reset, kind of like remapping. 

  But as I said, since I am a young pilot I may not be able to give as deep a solution or understanding. There are certainly those that are doing their best to rebuild what low sec should be. Mynxee has certainly taken the reins on this one.

 That’s my few cents. What do you think? For those of you that frequent low sec space, what would you want better, added or gone?

-Mem

Ebb and Flow

  As is the nature of wartime, it is rather slow. Lately, I have done very little besides focus on my training, babsit buy/sell orders, and go on the occasional and unsuccessful fleet. With 3 wars raging, I work to perfect my wormhole skills so I can go smash some sleepers soon. Mainly I just station spin, looking at my pretty and shiny Scorp. It has been deemed a pointless war, so until they decide to retract, we are ignoring our WTs. This is mainly because they won't fight us anyways.

  So I thought I might put a few loose ends into this post. A rather amusing one is that, the other night, a group of Uni students got very lucky and found a Thanatos, subsequently blowing it to kingdom come. Where's the amusing part you ask? Well, as I perused my usual blog reads on Capsuleer (iPod/iPhone app for Eve) I read over at Flashfresh the Pirate a recounting of that tale. As it turns out, Lady S and some friends had gotten the Thanny to show itself, but couldn't destroy it alone. The Uni happened by and they asked for help, in return for truce. Well some of our students can be green...or perhaps opportunistic...and ended up shooting everything in sight when they landed. While the pirates were rather frustrated, can you really blame them? We are anti-flashy so we really see no need to discriminate. Although, I think we have been a bit hard on the Lady lately.

  Aside from that, I have read a few posts about community. This is an element of Eve I deeply appreciate, and as others have pointed out, is essential not only to survival in New Eden, but also to truly appreciate and enjoy the universe with others. Joining a corp is a good start, one that will facilitate your interests. While it is a harsh universe, a corporation allows people to band together and open a degree of trust with one another. I think otherwise, this game would be far less fun. Personally, I need to be able to trust someone and be safe somewhere otherwise I have no incentive to stay. For me, I play Eve for my previously stated reasons, but also for a few others. One of those is connection. I was dragged away from the home I grew up in years ago, now living in a state I hate. I am far from most of my family, so playing Eve allows me to connect to my brother that lives back north. I have also drawn my girlfriend into the universe. *gasp* Girls play Eve? :P But I ramble on.

  Another little thing I have wondered is the opinion of my readers. Yes, you two. I'm really not sure how may read this but that's fine. If one person enjoys it, I've been successful. But to further my argument, let's pretend there are lots of you. I read many other blogs and find that most write their own fiction, in character or not. I have some fiction of my own in the universe but I hesitate to publish it. Mainly because, as a writer I am finicky about copyrights etc. But also because I want it to be something that is enjoyed, not a post to be skipped over. Do you want more action reports? Do I post too much? So let me know. Leave a comment, send an Evemail to Memoocan, send a pigeon, whatever is your fancy. What can I do in this blog to make it better? It's young, you could have a hand in shaping it. :)

  Well this is rather longer than I expected. Such is my writing.I have been lacking in my comments on other blogs and I apologize, most of my reading is from my iPod and I forget. I will get back to doing so soon.
Stay safe, it's a harsh universe o7
-Mem

Leveled Up

  No I didn't find myself in an egg. Actually, it's been a while since that's happened thankfully. For me, this "level up" is my ability to fly a battleship. I can fly "with the big boys" now. Of course, at the moment, merely means I can sit in the hull which I love to do so I can spin and stare at my shiny. In a few days I will be T2 fit and ready to be part of an RR WH gang. Which is another new experience for me. Since this is my first time flying such a huge hull, I am now going to have to learn what is generally expected of a pilot at this level. I have a bit of experience with RR and cap chains, but only peripherally. Woo, something new to learn. I don't think I'll ever stop learning something new in Eve, it's just that deep and complicated.

  As I begin to fill out in my early Eve career, I read other's thoughts on their early days. So far down the road, they've lost their awe of the universe. They've forgotten what it's like being one of the smallest fish in the pond, eager to be useful and to be able to do something well. That's not to say someone flying a smaller hull is less experienced, only that there are different applications. While it would be naive to think I'll never lose it, I will hold on to my wonderment as long as I can. Mystery can drive a person quite far to uncover knowledge.

  What was your early Eve career like? Are you still in awe of the universe?

Food for thought
-Mem

Reversal

  So, Eve Uni is and has been known for their six enduring years of leadership and training of new pilots. Over those years, events have pushed an evolution of rules and stances that have allowed the Uni to continue in its endeavors like an ice-breaker. The Uni has held to remaining a neutral entity, not entering player held null sec and not engaging in smalk talk or killing anyone but flashies.

  But it seems that people have begun to think this means the Uni is a pacifist entity. Hardly. As our new round of wars shows, we have no problem deccing someone that proves worth the effort. Think we are just a mass of huddling noobs? You might want to reassess that assumption. We have now declared war on 3, count them 3, corporations that we know to have assisted the Privateers. Whether this is through repping them in fights, harboring them, etc. they have proven to be on the wrong side. As such, the Uni has made sure they know the consequence of their actions. The Uni has a long memory.

  One of the corps has decided it was intelligent to make the war mutual. The Uni will certainly not be the first to bend. As it stands, in the 24 hours before the war went live, one of the corps took down their POS. Works for us one way or the other, but plenty of pilots wanted to shoot it, however boring that can get. We like to make our point with our guns. All the more amusing was the fact that one of their pilots decided to come smalk talk in Aldrat. We were laughing at him in chat and couldn't figure out if he was drunk or not. What he said was rather incoherent.

  So don't think that neutral means pansy. We have teeth.

-Mem

Lazy Weekend

  As the war continues, we have had some losses and no kills as of yet. Hit and run tactics are their best weapons it seems. And we have a few rather stupid Unistas...scuse me, former Unistas. Do something stupid and you don't last long in the Uni. No, you're not "an exception" nor "special". Rules apply to everyone for a reason.

  I think I went out on a fleet that I forgot to write about. I won't here since my memory is fuzzy but I will show this as proof. Tl;dr of it is that we were sitting at a belt, when the Phoon came it disco crazy. Took out a few unlucky frigs, but I had fun permajamming him as he died. We also got a Cane that was stupid enough to stick around for too long. He thought he was smart staying 200 km away...til we got a warp in and he found himself blobbed . Don't get cocky.

  Most recently though, earlier today in fact, was my first FC experience. I have SC'ed a fair amount now and during war there is nothing to do but station spin. As there was nobody out, I got a fleet going for home defense. Just a nice gate camp to ease into the role. It was a decent small gang, a random assortment of tackle and DD with barely any Ewar. As time dragged on (gate spinning isn't all that more exciting than station) more logged on and were interested. At the peak, I was in command of 50 players. A daunting thing for a new FC. And quite a few more than needed for our camp. We also had a fleet of NERV pilots on our gate, apparently camping for Grunts since they had a war too. That made things even hairier when you have to be careful to avoid the wrong person getting shot.

  I now have quite the fresh perspective about the duties of FCing and how hectic it can be. For anyone thinking of doing so, remember that you have WCs and SCs for a reason. Delegate your duties and make sure they are capable of handling the small hiccups. This will free you for taking care of the big picture. It soon grew to the point that enough pilots were bored and wanted a roam. On my first FC. And I needed to find a scout. Scary. Thankfully, a separate FC had started looking to start a roam, so I gave the fleet that option. Many of them left, leaving about 20 of us on gate duty. As I had been on station for somewhere between 2 and 4 hours, I needed a break. I soon handed over responsibilities and logged.

  I loved the experience. This is what I play Eve for in the first place. Eve is able to facilitate such a wide range of skill building encounters that can easily apply to real life. To be an FC you must be decisive, confident, and cool headed. To control an coporation, you must be able to delegate, judge character well, and be an authoritative figure in your leadership. This is why I became addicted, not for the pretty explosions...well that too at least...but because Eve has a level of depth I haven't found in many other games. So I can check off another first for my career and be happy that I didn't get anyone killed.

 Why do you play? What drives you?

-Mem

Privateers

  It seems war always comes in pairs for the Uni..or multiples sometimes. Now, we are going to war with the Privateers. Again.

  They're for hire so it's always interesting to wonder who hired them. But this will actually be a war of note. They are skilled pilots and if it wasn't for our SOP, we would lose a moderate amount of assets. Then again, the last time we ran into them, we still came out ahead.

  So I can look forward to some fleets in the near future. I'll probably lose a Blackbird or two, but not before I jam a few of them into next year.

Fly dangerous o7
Mem

And There It Is..

  I really should just start waiting so I don't bug you guys with multiple posts in one day. The war will be over tomorrow, as we are on cooldown now. This is getting to be rather routine. Someone decs us, realizes it was stupid and retracts soon after. Which is fine by me, since I can get back to doing whatever I want. While I am training Caldari Cruiser IV I think I'll be catching up on the mining I haven't done in ages. It may bore most of you to tears, but it's rather relaxing to me. I can be productive but not have to do too much.

  Unfortunately that will all have to wait as I head into my next class.

Mem

Snail Pace

  As is pretty usual during war, things have come to a crawl. Since I can't go out to mine, mission, or just sit in space randomly, I have to station spin. Since this is a fail/griefdec, they won't come out to play. Cowards. Even wormholes have been scarce, at least when I am logged on. War can be fun and I'd love to take my Blackbird out more...but when your target does nothing but hide, it gets rather boring.

Fail INE Crew. Just fail.

-Mem

War!

  So, tonight we made new friends. Out of the blue, the corp INE Crew. Now if you just look at stats, sure it looks scary. But if you look closer, you'll see them for the sad, sad cowards in the light. They gank noobs. They trick noobs to pad their killboard.

  And they just decced a 1500 man corp with our War SOP. For you tl;dr people, the nutshell is this: We don't mission, mine or carebear at all during war. We station spin or we are actively hunting our wartargets. You won't get an easy kill because there won't be any to get.

  They just got notified that 1500 ppl don't like them and are watching them, waiting to go out and camp then into next year. Feel free to check our own killboard and all the past wars. Wondering why our efficiency is so high? Still think it's a good idea to dec the Uni?

  We may be noobs, and we may not have tens of millions of SP. But we fight as a unit and we do it well. Dec us at your own peril, because you will do nothing but bleed ISK and tears. But by all means, we love fighting as much as anyone. hehe

  Research before you dec. Think before you act. It'll save you one day.

Mem

More Testing and More Training

  Hooray, I finally have my T2 hardeners. But last night I didn't. And last night I ran a C3, again with my Drake. I am seeing why people prefer them in lower class WHs. Even with T1 hardeners, I was never in much danger from being primaried. Although that was also because we brought overkill, more on that in a sec. I'm growing more and more comfortable with the ship and thankfully have a bit better range now that I bought a few skills. It didn't matter much last night since we were in a black hole environment. It nerfs your missile velocity, drone control range, lock range and fallout. Big time >.> 


  It was very late...or early, however you count the wee morning hours...so we initially it was me and the guy trying to get a group going. There were something like twenty six anomalies ready for us to explode. We had little interest for a while, then a bunch of people started X-ing up. We didn't get them all sadly, but we were all tired. However, I'd say 13 anomalies in about 2 hours is pretty dang good. Here is where I explain the overkill.


  We called for battlecruisers. Well we didn't much interest. A few people mentioned battleships. In the end, we had 9 people. A few more than I would usually like in a C3 but I figured the number of anomalies would compensate. Our roster was 2 Domis, a Tempest, 2 Drakes, a Brutix and a Sleipnir. The other two were salvage and scout I believe. Yes, you read that right, a Sleipnir. We were hesitant, but he said he had done C3s in it before so he came.


  Starting out, we did 3 sites in 30 minutes. We had a dozen melted nanoribbons already. I've never gone so fast and it was quite comical. With a horde of drones, a cap and RR chain, and massive DPS we had no worries. It was a great way to spend a late night and push through a bunch of sleepers. I'm awaiting the payout, since it will help with my new plans.


 Earlier in the evening, the wormhole channel creator mentioned wanting to take a "field trip" to WH space, set up a POS for a little while and have fun makin ISK. I love the idea since I want to live in WH space anyways, this would be great practice. So now, my Cov Ops training was shoved aside (I swear, I'm more ADD with training than a squirrel with nuts) and I am now training up for a Scorpion. I have a fit or two I am working towards and I should be able to use it in about a week, week and a half. For me, it's a great ship to get familiar with large scale operations. I can utilize RR/cap transfer as well as my beloved ECM. I can be useful \o/ 


  So we shall see how this goes. I stuck Caldari Cruiser IV in the que and now have to wait a couple days. Then on to T2 ECM and RR and I'll be flyin with the big boys.


Fly safe and have fun
-Mem


  

Test Drive

  I ran a C2 Wormhole last night. Finally got to break in my new Drake and see how the tank holds. Obviously, a C2 won't push me too hard but I didn't want to try something that was going to kill me just in case. Since my T2 hardners won't be ready til tomorrow morning, I fit on named T1 variants and went in.

  I have to say, I like shield tanking. I have done nothing but armor up to now since I am a Gallente pilot. My new conversion to Caldari, however, is showing me things I really like. I even turned my Myrm into a shield tanker. Ironically, it's stronger that way. My Drake held up admirably, hardly noticing the Sleepers at all. Even the battleship only got me close to half if it had a swarm of smaller ships around.

  So it was a success, one that earned me a cool 40 mil ISK. Pretty standard for a C2 group I have found. I am now more confident in handling my new ship and found a few useful things to tweak. One of the first things I did when I got back was buy more missile skills. Heavy missiles by themselves have a sad 37.5 km range. Need moar range. And since I usually use drone boats, only being able to have drones out to 45 km is an annoyance. But they are only peripheral damage.

  Soon as I round out my wormholing fit, I will be moving on to Covert Ops. This is a rather recent and unexpected turn for me, but I think it will be a fun one. So much to learn.

o/ til later
-Mem

Gamer Health

Ugh, I'm sick.

  Those who know me, know that I am rarely ever sick. This is the first time this year and almost all of last year. It's a good thing, cuz I absolutely hate the feeling. I can't focus or function properly, even playing Eve became hard. I spent yesterday and part of today doing very little and that drives me nuts. But I have gone out and breathed some fresh air. Which got me thinking.

  The stereotype of a gamer tends to be someone that acts more like a vampire, hardly considered healthy. While this is fallacious in many ways, I think many of us do tend to forget about our health. I have found I don't appreciate being able breathe out of my nose or all those little things as much as I should, til I lose them. Don't neglect your own body and what it tries to tell you. Make sure you eat well, get some exercise every now and again, and get out into the fresh air as much as you can. We all know internet spaceships is srs bznz, but the game will be there when you get back.

I'm gonna go chug all the water I can and try to get rid of this bug.
Fly safe and stay healthy. o7

-Mem

New Shiny

Since my last post was rather lengthy, I decided to make this a new post. CCP Greyscale wrote a pretty cool devblog. Looks like we have some good stuff to look forward to this winter

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=797&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=update&utm_content=devblog&utm_campaign=eveonline

Back in the Game

  Quite literally. I finally received my new laptop. It's my second Macbook Pro and I love it already. And I am sure a few of you just cringed a little. Yes, I play and work on Macs and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am not some elitist Apple user, however, as I did grow up using nothing but PCs. I have fond memories of MS DOS and the blue screen of death. But, as I am a graphic designer, this suits me better. And it can run Windows just as well if I really want. But I won't egg on the PC vs Mac war. haha

  Still setting everything up and trying to figure out what programs and information I am without now. Still needing to get the old info off my dead laptop's harddrive. But I don't know how to cannibalize a Mac and don't want to hurt the drive. Guess I'll have to talk to Apple.

  As for in-game, I jumped into a fleet when I logged on. Of course this was after I had to reset my overview and all the in-game settings I'm used to having already set. And I lost all my bookmarked sites and personal ship fittings. *sigh*

  The fleet initially turned out to be a reinforcement for a fleet already out in the field. I naturally X'ed up in my Blackbird, ready to melt some flashies. We headed out soon after and made it all the way out into lowsec, to find we had been made. They had neutral scouts no doubt and bugged out. So, we took a bio and ended up merging the two fleets into a whole entity. A couple people had run out of time so they dropped, leaving some big holes in the fleet. As needed, I jumped into a squad commanding role.

  Now, I am still very new to SCing but I love it. This was about my 3rd time and of course it's nothing more than relaying orders and keeping things orderly. It's always fun to be in command chat though.

  After the bio, we headed back out, poking around and initially thinking we were going to head to Rancer to pick a fight. Scout reported it absolutely dead. Hrm...that's a first. Luckily, our flashy friends from earlier wanted another shot. So we jumped back over and hunted them down. We caught a couple small guys on gates, but I didn't get on the KMs. Stupid me forgot that you have to break cloak to lock enemies....and they died quick. But all was not lost, we kept going and ended up in Ammamke with some flashies playing hard to get.

  A Caracal decided to jump in on the fun, and somehow we got a point. I love my Blackbird since I can jam easily at 100 km, but he was only 70 km out. We all burned at him, permajammed and pointed with damage when in range. A Rupture jumped in 270 km out and seemed to just watch but bugged out soon after. It wasn't long til the Caracal went pop.

  Then someone noticed a cyno drop. Well, time for us to head out. I believe someone have a Nidhoggur and Archon on D-Scan before we jumped into highsec.

Fun time.

-Mem

A (small) Milestone

  I hit 5 million SP today. Woot! Ironic, since I am still waiting to get my computer and get back on Eve. I get excited seeing so many skillpoints when I used to think getting to 1.6 million was an amazing feat. lol But then I listen to the pilots that have 50-60 some odd million SP....wow, what can't they do :P 

So, for me, its a milestone. One of many to come. 

Hooray :D

Later

-Mem

Withdrawls

  It's a bit self explanatory. Yes, it is rather sad that it is so but I am a rather avid gamer. I won't continue with all the horrible things like last post, but its all still there. Currently trying to do graphic design work and failing utterly. Brain won't work.

  My brother was kind enough to make sure my skill que doesn't go idle, a pilot's dreaded fear I know.

  My parents, in their generous love and...well generosity, bullied me into buyin a new computer and it should be here tomorrow or the day after. So thanks mom and dad for that, I have great parents. At least I'll have my drake nearly fully t2 when I get back lol

  This is a blog about Eve after all. ;P

Later
-Mem

Nightmare Week

  This week has been nothing but a nightmare. I left school for 4 days because my grandfather recently died and it was an out of town memorial. Turns out it was the exact wrong week to miss. So while trying to desperately make up work, professors have put ridiculous amounts of work and expectations on every day. It's been driving me more than a little nuts and I'm pretty sure it's pushed me into a depression. On top of all that, my laptop failed tonight. After 3 years and around 4 different countries, my Mac has given up the ghost. And I haven't backed it up in a while. And its the only machine I have to play Eve. And alot of school work was on it. And all my creative endeavors like photography, fictional writing, etc.

This week is a nightmare and it's only getting worse...

-Mem

Learnin Lessons in Rancer and a first KM!

  Had a quick fleet today that turned out to be pretty fun. I haven't been out on a fleet a few days, so I thought I'd let my Blackbird stretch its wings. FC called for Ewar and I was in for the fun.

  We headed out, not sure what to expect but sniffin around the local lowsec haunts we were ready. Our first run in was a couple of Jaguars playing gate games with us. Since they were flashy we were free to engage. The amusing part was part of the fleet had already jumped, while the other half was told to hold on their side. The Jags ran into the first half and blew through, jumping into my half of the fleet. Naturally, I started melting their targeting but they just jumped right back through, not agressing once. They jumped back and forth a few times, making comms a bit fun to listen to as each side called out when the Jags showed up. What was odd was the fact that we had points and webs on them multiple times, yet they were able to ignore it and tank our damage til they hit the gate. Warp stabs? Doubtful. They just seemed to be having fun. Soon, though, they both jumped to my side and warped off.

  So we moved on.

 With call outs for a few flashies along the way, we made our way towards Rancer. It's always a fun spot to pick a fight and local pirates are usually up for one. We ran into our pirate friends from The Black Rabbits on the gate to Crielere, where they were camping. With wrecks on gate, we were hoping to get some action. We didn't have to wait long. Just as I was in warp to the gate, a few flashies were called but ended up warping out. But a bit after I landed, a Drake from united showed up. 40 km from the gate. Alone.

  We were on that like a fly on...ya. Pointed and webbed, and myself permajamming, it wasn't long til the Drake popped. Icing on the cake was grabbing her pod. It was lucky I locked fast enough.

  We were all wondering who got the KM, when a SC told everyone to check their logs. I've never gotten one so I assumed it would be blank as always. Much to my surprise, my first killmail!

  The fleet disbanded soon after, and I had to be elsewhere. But I left quite pleased with the success.

Until later
-Mem

Booya

  Lately, some of our leadership has been aggressively attempting to pacify our local lowsec in Metropolis. In friendly back and forth, the Uni has had our run ins with the now famous capsuleer and blogger, Lady Shaniqua.

  She is a highly intelligent, highly skilled pilot and has quite the amusing blog. When Lady S is in system, you know there's bound to be a fight. Well, tonight there was. My brother called to me tell me about what happened so I thought I'd pass it on.

  As far as I can figure from what he said, or remember for that matter as I have horrid memory, is that he had been missioning around the Egmar side of Metropolis and had a few in local askin for a Uni blob. Asking. lol A bit unusual. So he passed on the info to our corp and a few actually had interest. Soon after he noticed Lady S in system and then jump into the next system. One of our FC's got a fleet up and made way over to my brother. After some scanning, they got a warp in and my brother pointed Lady in his Incursus. Soon, the Cynabal was nothing but space dust.

  There was more action, which ended up with my brother being popped out of his Incursus as well as one of our Unista's Hyena, when Lady S brought in a friend in a Machariel. All around great fun and finally getting a KM on her is well worth losing a few ships.

  I only regret not being online to get in on the fun. I missed a shot at the Lady a week or so ago after some smart gate tactics that kept me on the wrong side, allowing an escape from the fleet. I hope this is a reasonably accurate account, if not feel free to comment.

GF Lady S and here's to seeing you in space :)

Until later
-Mem

Changes

If something seems odd or different for the first few weeks of this blog, forgive me. I am constantly tweaking and changing little things to try to make everything flow well and work together coherently. I am adding links to other blogs often so I may dedicate an entire page to my fellow bloggers and keep a few on the main page and box arrangement may get funky. But I promise, I will keep it to a minimum so its not difficult to even look at the page. 

For those who have already and those who will hopefully stop by soon, thanks! It's always encouraging to know someone is reading and that something I post gets a reaction. :)

Until later

-Mem

Reputation

  It is something hard earned. A good one at least. And it seems the administration of Eve University has worked hard to earn ours. It shows when I can fly a frigate into Ammamake and pirates will shout in local that there must be a Uni blob a jump away. I find it endlessly amusing. You call it a blob? I call it crowd tanking and pirate tears are just as wonderful. :P

  Most of said pirates are pitiful at smacktalk in local, something the Uni doesn't engage in since it's rather fruitless and kills IQ to act so childish. We let our guns do the talking. Now there are certainly pirates I love and have no problem losing a ship to in space. I even thought of becoming one for a time. I may, later. But if you are going to smack, be intelligent.

  My main aim for this post was my surprise at how many people still try to wardec the Uni. I'm sure they are just uninformed or hasty or just don't do their research. I've been wrong before. Sure, there's 1500 of us and we seem to be relative noobs. But we are 1500 noobs lead by some of the best fleet commanders in the game. Goons might be bees, but being attacked by the Uni is like having a swarm of baby dobermans. It hurts. There's also this thing called our war SOP. It means we don't fly unless it's to go kill a wartarget, so you won't find us out and about alone during war. So thinking you can get easy kills is a costly mistake that quite a few corps have learned the hard way. Take a look if you like numbers and killmails. I just hate faildecs, they're boring.

In a fellow Unista's blog post, he states it quite eloquently:
"Eve Uni never forgets our friends or our enemies. Eve Uni is unrepentant about kicking our enemies in the forks until they squeal for mercy.  It doesn't matter how long it was since the crime they committed to earn their -10 standings from the Uni.  If we find you in a place where we can hurt you, then we will."
-Deranged Carebear blog

Knowledge is power. Or in this case, knowledge is ISK better spent elsewhere.
/rant

Until later
-Mem

Blog Pack Bump

  As an Eve Online blogger, I would be remiss not to post about the pack that got me thinking about blogging about the game. By now, the famous CrazyKinux over at CrazyKinux's Musings is known for his   Eve Blog Pack. It's a monster list of 51 blogs...and that's after he limited how many would be accepted to the Pack. Sounds like our community is quite the vocal one. That's good, especially in this day and age. The internet has given the gift, as well as the curse, of instant communication and extreme exposure to the world. This means any wannabe writer, like yours truly, can publish themselves. If I have to talk to myself, might as well let others be amused by it. :P

  Early in my Eve career, I thought little of blogs. But that was a noob mistake of course. Blogs give insight, different perspectives and knowledge that is otherwise missed if you limit yourself to in-game interaction. It also gives access to a wider community. And that's what it's about.

Until later
-Mem

A Beginning for It (cont)

  Double post extravaganza! I am a bit eager and figured I might as well get this going while I have the time. On my last post, I left off talking about my current corporation Eve University. I will shamelessly plug them because they are a big corp that is dedicated to educating and helping the pilots of New Eden and effort like that should be rewarded. They have done well by me and continue to do so.

  As such, much of my experience is tied to the Uni and its operations. From earning my first shiny cruiser to learning about the darker sides of Eve. I began as a good ole carebear, specifically a miner. It quickly surprised me, when I found Eve bloggers, how thats used in a derogatory manner. It confuses me, since they are largely who gathers minerals and produces the ships that everyone uses. Why bite the hand that feeds? But that is for a different post. I am hardly someone that would shrink from a fight, I just prefer to do different things. I attended fleets quite a few times. It just wasn't my primary focus.

  I mined as much as I could, clumsily until I found what ores to mine as much as possible and attended a few mining fleets. I thought I was doing really well and rollin in it when I could pull in 10 million ISK in 2 hours. 10 million is still a decent amount of money to me, but looking back I can only shake my head. haha
I didn't really mission all that much, until I found I needed standing for perfect refines. So spider fleets became my friend. That didn't last too long. I still do every so often, I need standings.

  Then I got the PvP bug. Big. I haven't mined in weeks and lately all I have done is train skills that make me better at fighting. This comes largely in the form of Ewar, as I found I love it. No ammo, less skills to spread myself thin on and just as fun as shooting. I also got into Wormhole space. I am making more money than I ever saw before and can't believe it.  I just bought my first Drake for it since I am finding my Myrmidon is less than ideal when range is an issue. It now is my source of income and I plan to move into WH space in the near future, with a corp of course. I am loving Eve and just getting started. I lost my first Blackbird a few nights ago and I am finally comfortable with losing ships. 3 more are ready to fly. I have my eyes set on a Falcon, a Scorpion that I will be able to train sooner than the Falcon, and then I hope to go back to a bit of Industry to get a Hulk and Orca. Must. Focus. Training. haha

  For now, my view for this blog will be my thoughts on Eve in general, my excitement for Pvp and learning it, WHing, and my endeavors in Industry as well. I like to read after action reports so I may write a few myself. I am far from experienced, I am just now getting close to 5 mil SP. But that does not count me out in any degree. So I hope that what I have will amuse, edify or in the least give you something good to read.

 Until later
-Mem

A Beginning for It

  A friendly hello for you.

  I wanted to start this out with just a little introduction and hopefully a general direction for this blog. This is a blog for those interested in the online MMOG Eve Online. As we all know, internet spaceships is srs bsns.

  There are quite a few existing blogs and I will add more links to them on the sidebar as I collect their URL's, all of which will probably be more interesting than mine. But you're reading mine so I assume you think otherwise. Thanks :D

  I'm a college kid with time to feed my addiction to gaming and recently (about 4 months ago) I was introduced to Eve Online. Ironically, this was not the first time I had tried my hand at it. I was curious of the ads I had always seen so years ago popped a trial and found myself overwhelmed and lost. No WASD controls? WTF? Well this time it was different. This time, I had my brother telling me to try it out and making sure I understood what the heck was even going on in the game. It didn't take long before I was addicted. Being a former WoW veteran...yes I cringe too...it was a far different dynamic than I was accustomed to in a MMOG. But that was a good turn for my gaming habits. Eve actually made me think, made me plan, made me want to achieve something and earn my way. Gaming has also been how my brother and I are able to interact on a regular basis, as we live 900 miles or so apart. So all the better.

  While I started out, doing the tutorials and eventually the epic arc, my brother and I tried to learn as much as we could about our new universe. It was and still is the biggest universe, especially a single shard 'verse, in which I had ever played. 60 thousand systems is staggering. I joined a small, new corp and thought I was getting somewhere. Then my brother told me about Eve Uni.

  That's when my playing really took off. I joined the nearly eternal que and waited weeks until I could be counted as a Unista. The absolute wealth of knowledge the Uni provides to new players as well as old is priceless. By now, the famous Uniwiki is proof of such. I have learned so much more in a few months than I could ever have done in a year by myself of in my previous corp and there are many great people in the Uni. If you're new or interested, feel free to look them up.

  I can see this is getting long for a first blog, so I will continue this in my next post.
I am not sure how this blog will play out or how often I will update, random more than likely but hopefully regularly.

Until later,

Fly safe o7