For Science! Eve Gets Better

  It seems crucibles aren't just for the laboratory anymore. No, my friends, interweb spaceships have them and boy does that mean a thing or two. The novelette of patch notes have been out for a bit and they are a read.

  So what's good about this expansion? The real question is closer to being what's not cool about it all. There's a metric tonne of information to go through and I have yet to really even run into the majority of it in game. Admittedly, a few other games have been taking my attention (looking at you BF3, Deus Ex, and Skyrim) and RL and all that. But the giant patching process went smoothly for me, not something all can say it seems, and getting in game was quite the experience. I'll just go through my impressions.

  Logging in, I was immediately presented with visual anarchy. My windows were all reset, so I took the time to put them all back where I like them. I found that I can no longer pin them, an issue that annoys me greatly. I was worried all my settings were gone, but thankfully they were all where I left them.

  I had one particular thing in mind that I could easily check, so I did. Holy moley, Batman. Corp Bookmarks are the sex and I will never let them go. Even with the time delay the server has the have, it's beyond amazing and useful in wormholes. Having the entire chain of bookmarks without much fuss for the entire fleet is going to alleviate so many headaches. Well...that is as long as nobody screws them up in the first place.

  But a problem I had immediately was the font. I almost want the old font back, it's so hideous. As a graphic designer I play with type a lot. When your font library is as big as your music library...yeah. There simply is no way that it looks good and the way it meshes, or doesn't in this case, with the entire UI just makes it all garish. CCP, please hire someone who knows what they are doing to choose or make a font for you. Please.

  The new tier 3 BCs will be quite fun toys to play around with once I get a chance. Couldn't get out to a good highsec exit while I was on, but it's for the best. Prices were a bit stupid around 200 mil or more and even though they quickly started dropping I won't touch them til they are around 60 mil ISK. I am pretty excited to try them out. It will be a bit more training to get T2 large guns in more races, but seems well worth it. Rumor has it the Naga can get around 500 dps out to 200 km. That's just nuts, I can only imagine the kind of dps these things can do with real weapons fit to them. Just don't let anyone sneeze at you or you'll lose it. And you don't want to lose that pod along with it, since everyone now gets to laugh at the way you mix +2s with +3s and the odd hardwirings you chose.

  Scanning also seems a bit borked, so I have heard. There have been signatures that multiple, well skilled players could not scan down so hopefully that gets resolved quickly.

  Cloaked ships don't decloak each other now. While this is cool, I would like to say "boo" as well. This should only have been implemented as it pertains to fleet members. Now I can't be cloaked, watch some idiot in a T1 frig cloak off a hole, motor over to him and surprise him with a nice warm cup of facemelt. It makes bombing runs easier, sure, but we've gotten some pretty hilarious kills with cloaky on cloaky action.

  And as a PI junky, I can tell you messing with POCOs (player owned customs offices) is going to be a real kick. They have the tank of a small POS but who knows what kind of action you can get if it generates a notification as well as a killmail. Oh the possibilities for trolling and shooting are endless.

  I will be finally making my way into a Proteus just in time to get in on the hybrid love. Ammo is smaller, dps is even better...hopefully. It's gonna be sweet. Too bad I still have to hump people to do it. Although I hear hail got its penalties removed entirely. *Looks at void* Thanks CCP...
I am also pretty sad I don't have my Vindi now to really enjoy it.

  There's time dilation, new captains quarters, new T2 modules and so much more. Look at the notes for it all, it'll be a good bedtime put-you-to-sleep light reading.

  Overall, I think this is one of the best expansions since Apocrypha. CCP did well to grab a ton of low hanging fruit that will make this game so much more fun. While there is more to be done, I think we will be chewing on this hunk for a while. I know it'll take me time to really digest it all and take advantage of all our new options. Yea, there's stuff that annoys me or I hate but it could be worse. You could have lost your boot.ini file...again.

I'll give it all a good test drive and let you know more of what I think later
-Mem

Ninja edit for the trailer

The Ladies Like It Massive

With all the insanity you hear about on the news of people macing or shooting each other just to get their greedy paws on discounted items, I thought there was one deal you'd like quite a bit. And you don't even have to leave the house!


Drumroll please:




Our friends at EON have a Massive 50% off Blowout Sale to celebrate Thanksgiving & Black Friday 

They've cut the price of EVERYTHING!

So you can buy an EON subscription at HALF PRICE, an EVE Survival Pack at HALF
PRICE or a full Poster Bundle at HALF PRICE. You can even buy the
complete collection of every copy of EON ever produced for HALF PRICE
(they were already at half price for the bundle deal, so that makes
them all a gargantuan 75% off if you buy the Complete Collection).
Yep, that's right - everything from EON is half price. They've never done a deal this good before...

You must apply Coupon Code EONBF50 at checkout to get the discount.  Oh, and the deal won't last long apparently, so you'd best be quick if you want to bag a bargain.
                                                                     
          
Click here to go straight to the store - http://store.eveonline.com/EON-Magazine-C7.aspx

Gobble Gobble

  Here in the US, we are getting ready to eat inordinate amounts of food and then promptly pass out in the company of people we usually barely tolerate in the spirit of Native Americans not letting us die back in the days of yore.

  It seems that CCP is getting into the holiday spirit too, with their recent excursions to meddle in capsuleer affairs. They are out for fun and explosions, a sentiment I can certainly share and respect. But sadly it is one that I cannot get in on more than likely since my break is being consumed by crazy schedules, catching up on sleep/trying to destress and sorting out things due to a big life changer.

  I've been absent from writing because it has to take a back seat for a little while. I can't write anything of quality when I'm too stressed out or working on other things and don't want to put out crap just to have something recent on my page. That's not fair to my readers nor to myself, so I will write when I can and am inspired.

  My absence is due to a baby. My baby boy, who will be born in the next few months. It's insane to think about still, but there it is. So trying to figure out life with a new little one for which I am responsible, still trying to finish the last bit of college, trying to find any job at all, and not going insane is taking up my time. I hope you can understand.

  My computer charger also melted recently and I finally got a replacement. Missed out on a lot of spaceship fun but got in on a shiny, shiny Archon last night.

  Hope you and yours are enjoying the season and hopefully I'll be back with some good posts soon.

Cheers o/
-Mem

Witty Title Here

  It's been a bit since I last wrote, apologies. There have been many factors that go into the reasoning behind that, but I hope you'll bear with me when it happens. As much as I wish that I could have something awesome to write all the time (or ever xD) I just can't be motivated lately. Real life is smashing down yet again, Skyrim came out (squeeeeeeeee), and I've been avoiding writing because the world might be ending.

  Why is it ending? Well why else would CCP be putting out a devblog every other day about things that have gone untouched for years, only to be packed into this fall and winter? It has been a slew of new ships, rebalancing, ship spinning counters, SiSi bug reporting tools, graphical upgrades, and so much more. I can't write enough to keep up with it all and I don't think you all want a post every time they do since that would get quite boring.

 I have still been in game, less so in the last couple of weeks, but it has been slow. I am sad to say I lost my Vindicator in an embarrassing fashion. Over a billion ISK worth of ship gone, thanks to Sleepers, rep ranges and late nights. So....I've been working up my bank again, staying in ECM and logi roles and staying safe for the time being. The good thing was I lost it the day we had massacred  3 carriers and a support fleet. Between that and other fights, at least Olga killed more than she was worth. I've mentioned how our new neighborhood has led to more and better fights and that's the truth. If you want epic tales, come to wormhole space.  It'll only get better after the winter.

  My training marches on and I am finally going back to getting a Proteus. My plans have been altered for the expansion and I meant to get it before the Vindicator distracted me. But I really want to expand into projectiles since that will round out my T2 weapons into all races.

  So, what have you guys been up to lately? Comment! I love hearing stories others have in Eve, it actually motivates me more than just finding my own.

  I shall find something decent to write about, so keep an eye on this space.
-Mem