So after much anxious waiting, my PC was finally returned to me in perfect health. Needless to say I've been trying not to cry with joy everytime I play. On a semi related note, I've also bought a second screen so I can dualbox properly. When it arrives this week I'll stick a photo up of my setup so I can bash my E-peen.
I spent the afternoon that I got my PC back doing MORE Jump Freighter runs, back and forth about five or six times. Luckily it didn't take more than an hour or so, and we didn't run into any problems with two freighters doing the heavy lifting and corpmates to help with cynos. Now we just need to ship our things across HighSec to our jump point, and from there unload everything in our new home. I can already tell what I'm going to be doing this weekend...
I'll be going out for PvP asap when we move in, so stay tuned guys, and fly safe.
Sunday, 24 August 2014
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Just take out two ribs at this rate (More skillplan talk)
So last time I talked about Seraph, but what's Zendrak been doing?
Boringly he's been maxing out skills for capitals. I've got some seriously long skills under my belt on him, like Amarr Carrier V, Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration V, and all of the jump drive skills to V too. I'm only a little smug about those skills being done.
But now I'm not sure what I want to do.
Currently Zen is just chugging along with capital shield support skills, since I'm hoping when CCP eventually get around to balancing capitals, the Chimera will become a shield Archon. Hell, even if the Chimera doesn't get buffed, I can just get Caldari Cruiser V for the Basilisk so I can fly in Incursion fleets when I feel like some easy ISK. Also the Chimera is sexy as hell, so flying one would make my e-peen grow a few more inches. Essentially I'm trying to "future-proof" Zendrak from nerfs and buffs, but besides this I don't really know. I have a few ideas but it's tough to decide, so I'll lay them out.
Option 1 - Capital Pilot Perfection
Basically I keep on the track I'm currently on, finishing off basic skills to sit in all the carriers (Expensive skillbooks though, ouch), getting JF V and the ability to fly all of them since I can already fly the Anshar and the Ark. Then I can start getting gunnery skills together and look towards a Revelation or Naglfar. I don't want to have the ability to fly all the dreads since that would be overkill. Honestly one would be enough, or even one armour dread and one shield dread. After all that's done (which is obviously alot) I could perhaps look towards a Supercarrier. The problem is that the only super I'd be willing to fly is the Nyx because the Aeon hull looks so ugly. If I'm lucky though, by the time I reach this stage CCP will have redone the Aeon hull so it's actually fully built.
Another problem is that I'd need a holding toon for whenever Zendrak wasn't flying the Nyx, which is a bit of a pain in the ass, plus it'd pretty much require me to have a third account which I don't particularly want to deal with. So there's limits to how far I'd want to skill for capitals, especially seeing as I'd never be able to use my super unless I joined Null-Sec again, or some big LowSec hotdropping alliance like Shadow Cartel.
Option 2 - Utility
This is the simpler, cheaper and potentially more interesting option than training pure capitals. In this plan I'd start grabbing useful secondary skills for Zendrak so I can fly him alongside Seraph.
For example, I could max out scanning skills and use Zen to scan down NullSec exploration sites and scout, while Seraph completes the sites and carries the loot around, which sounds pretty fun in my book (well okay, making shit tons of ISK sounds like fun). Plus if Seraph is in something like a Pilgrim, I can use Zendrak to scan down people running anomalies before warping in and murdering them. Alternatively Zen could train for a Noctis or even a Rattlesnake and help me blitz missions so I can pay for more PvP stuff with dat mad ISK. Hell I could go balls to the wall crazy and duo box marauders with the two of them. But I think that's probably a bit much. I could also max out leadership skills and be a massive elitesololinkfaggotwarrior or "ESLFW" but I don't really like the idea of that (if you couldn't tell). So there's lots of potential here, but I don't know if I want an alt that covers areas my main already does to a decent degree.
Option 3 - Industrial Revolution
I've never really got into the manufacturing/industry side of EVE but I could quite easily train Zendrak so I can dabble with it and see where it goes. I've always loved the idea of starting a capital production chain and churning out Archons and such, but the startup costs of the blueprints etc is enough to put me off. However with the Crius expansion now released, maybe all that has changed, since the industry UI is apparently a thousand times easier to use and understand. With a small investment or two in BPCs, maybe I can start my dream of building for the constant war machine that is New Eden.
Even if capital production is a little out of my reach, I could look into building subcapitals, perhaps even selling them to my corp so they don't have to get them from Jita and ship them over to our home system. It's a nice little dream, and something I'd definitely like to try, but is Zendrak the character to do it with? I'm not sure currently.
So I've got alot of places I could go with my characters, especially when you consider the three "minor" alts I have that aren't doing anything currently except taking up my character slots, but I don't know what I want to do with them right now so they'll have to wait. But that's enough talking about skillplans for this year, I'm sure you're sick of reading about them too!
But fear not, my desktop should be back either tomorrow or the day after, and I plan to go out and die gloriously. Then I'll tell you about it and probably complain about how rusty I am at PvP.
Fly safe!
Also if you got the joke in the title of this post, I'm impressed.
Boringly he's been maxing out skills for capitals. I've got some seriously long skills under my belt on him, like Amarr Carrier V, Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration V, and all of the jump drive skills to V too. I'm only a little smug about those skills being done.
But now I'm not sure what I want to do.
Currently Zen is just chugging along with capital shield support skills, since I'm hoping when CCP eventually get around to balancing capitals, the Chimera will become a shield Archon. Hell, even if the Chimera doesn't get buffed, I can just get Caldari Cruiser V for the Basilisk so I can fly in Incursion fleets when I feel like some easy ISK. Also the Chimera is sexy as hell, so flying one would make my e-peen grow a few more inches. Essentially I'm trying to "future-proof" Zendrak from nerfs and buffs, but besides this I don't really know. I have a few ideas but it's tough to decide, so I'll lay them out.
Option 1 - Capital Pilot Perfection
Basically I keep on the track I'm currently on, finishing off basic skills to sit in all the carriers (Expensive skillbooks though, ouch), getting JF V and the ability to fly all of them since I can already fly the Anshar and the Ark. Then I can start getting gunnery skills together and look towards a Revelation or Naglfar. I don't want to have the ability to fly all the dreads since that would be overkill. Honestly one would be enough, or even one armour dread and one shield dread. After all that's done (which is obviously alot) I could perhaps look towards a Supercarrier. The problem is that the only super I'd be willing to fly is the Nyx because the Aeon hull looks so ugly. If I'm lucky though, by the time I reach this stage CCP will have redone the Aeon hull so it's actually fully built.
 |
| SERIOUSLY IT'S SO UGLY (Screenshot credit to Fen Zavda) |
Another problem is that I'd need a holding toon for whenever Zendrak wasn't flying the Nyx, which is a bit of a pain in the ass, plus it'd pretty much require me to have a third account which I don't particularly want to deal with. So there's limits to how far I'd want to skill for capitals, especially seeing as I'd never be able to use my super unless I joined Null-Sec again, or some big LowSec hotdropping alliance like Shadow Cartel.
Option 2 - Utility
This is the simpler, cheaper and potentially more interesting option than training pure capitals. In this plan I'd start grabbing useful secondary skills for Zendrak so I can fly him alongside Seraph.
For example, I could max out scanning skills and use Zen to scan down NullSec exploration sites and scout, while Seraph completes the sites and carries the loot around, which sounds pretty fun in my book (well okay, making shit tons of ISK sounds like fun). Plus if Seraph is in something like a Pilgrim, I can use Zendrak to scan down people running anomalies before warping in and murdering them. Alternatively Zen could train for a Noctis or even a Rattlesnake and help me blitz missions so I can pay for more PvP stuff with dat mad ISK. Hell I could go balls to the wall crazy and duo box marauders with the two of them. But I think that's probably a bit much. I could also max out leadership skills and be a massive elitesololinkfaggotwarrior or "ESLFW" but I don't really like the idea of that (if you couldn't tell). So there's lots of potential here, but I don't know if I want an alt that covers areas my main already does to a decent degree.
Option 3 - Industrial Revolution
I've never really got into the manufacturing/industry side of EVE but I could quite easily train Zendrak so I can dabble with it and see where it goes. I've always loved the idea of starting a capital production chain and churning out Archons and such, but the startup costs of the blueprints etc is enough to put me off. However with the Crius expansion now released, maybe all that has changed, since the industry UI is apparently a thousand times easier to use and understand. With a small investment or two in BPCs, maybe I can start my dream of building for the constant war machine that is New Eden.
 |
| Corax under construction! :D |
Even if capital production is a little out of my reach, I could look into building subcapitals, perhaps even selling them to my corp so they don't have to get them from Jita and ship them over to our home system. It's a nice little dream, and something I'd definitely like to try, but is Zendrak the character to do it with? I'm not sure currently.
So I've got alot of places I could go with my characters, especially when you consider the three "minor" alts I have that aren't doing anything currently except taking up my character slots, but I don't know what I want to do with them right now so they'll have to wait. But that's enough talking about skillplans for this year, I'm sure you're sick of reading about them too!
But fear not, my desktop should be back either tomorrow or the day after, and I plan to go out and die gloriously. Then I'll tell you about it and probably complain about how rusty I am at PvP.
Fly safe!
Also if you got the joke in the title of this post, I'm impressed.
Monday, 18 August 2014
Skill Queue Online
This is one of those boring self-fellatio type posts where the blogger shows off all the nice skills they have trained to V and then talks a load of waffle about where they want their character to go next. In all honestly I'm only writing this crap out to get things straight in my head, and see where I could/want to go with my characters in the future. I'm also putting it out publicly because I have nothing else really to write about with my desktop PC currently having surgery (turns out my motherboard fucked up, so it wasn't something I could have fixed easily myself) so I need something to fill space. Deal with it.
The last time I did one of these posts was when I talked about my year plan to super specialise into frigates, and later cruisers on Seraph. Did that happen?
Damn right it did. Cruisers are less finished at the moment (I'm dreading Caldari Cruiser V even though the Tengu is tempting me) but I'm currently working on large blasters so it'll have to wait.
But I also trained loads of other useful things in that time, and now I'm not quite sure what I want to do next. From what I've done so far, I think I have three real options for Seraph, my primary main.
Option 1 - Skill Cleanup
This is the OCD part of my brain that hates the random level II and III skills I have trained, and wants to get all of them to IV at a minimum before I start training anything else. Obviously this is the least glamorous option, and includes thrilling skills such as Survey and Frequency Modulation.
Oh be still my beating heart!
Now while I'd secretly love (and be aroused by) doing this, it's all a little pointless besides making my skill list look pretty. I imagine this is something an eight year old character does, not a three year old one. It's an option but it feels like a waste. Spending literally half a year to make numbers look pretty is probably not the best plan.
Option 2 - Subcap focus
Much as the title suggests, I finish rounding out my subcap skills, such as all cruisers/strategic cruisers trained, all battleships to V, perfect fitting skills (except rigs to V because screw that). Possibly even train for Heavy Interdictors and the like, though I'll probably not need those unless we get dropped by supers on a regular basis in our new home. I'm leaning towards this skillplan because the idea of being near perfectly skilled for all subcaps is pretty alluring, and I've always wanted an excuse to train things like Marauders V and Black Ops V. Max skilled carebearing OP yo'.
However this will be a long road, especially since most of the skills I don't have are big skills. Like Caldari Battleship V or Warhead Upgrades V. The good news is that most of these skills mean I can stick with my current Per/Will remap and save my current remap for something else in the future.
Option 3 - YOLO Dreadnought
I really want to fly a dreadnought. You guys don't even understand. But the thought of training all those jump skills again on another character is almost too painful to bear. I have max jump drive skills on Zendrak and it's a nice, smug feeling to have them. But I hated every dragging minute of training them, and that's not something I want to experience again. Plus will I really use my dread that often? Could I bear losing one or would I just sadly spin it in station? Plus when I've got Zendrak already so heavily focused into Carriers and Jump Freighters, wouldn't it be simpler if he just trained the gunnery skills for a Dreadnought and became a dedicated capital pilot? But Seraph already has Advanced Weapon Upgrades V, so he can start training for Siege Modules pretty much straight off...
It's a hard decision for me if I'm honest. However the more I think about it, the more I'm tempted to combine all of the above into one huge "No I want everything" skillplan.
Only time will tell I guess. Anyway, what of Zendrak's skillplan? Well that'll be the next post I start working on while my desktop is fixed. So if you give a shit about my other main account then head on to the next post (if it's done when you read this). If you don't care, then just skip ahead to the post after that, hopefully by which time I'll have my desktop back and I can make sweet PvP love in my new home and tell you all about it
In any case, fly safe!
The last time I did one of these posts was when I talked about my year plan to super specialise into frigates, and later cruisers on Seraph. Did that happen?
 |
| FRIGATE SWAG OP |
Damn right it did. Cruisers are less finished at the moment (I'm dreading Caldari Cruiser V even though the Tengu is tempting me) but I'm currently working on large blasters so it'll have to wait.
 |
| Thank god for the old Battlecruisers skill to V |
But I also trained loads of other useful things in that time, and now I'm not quite sure what I want to do next. From what I've done so far, I think I have three real options for Seraph, my primary main.
Option 1 - Skill Cleanup
This is the OCD part of my brain that hates the random level II and III skills I have trained, and wants to get all of them to IV at a minimum before I start training anything else. Obviously this is the least glamorous option, and includes thrilling skills such as Survey and Frequency Modulation.
Oh be still my beating heart!
Now while I'd secretly love (and be aroused by) doing this, it's all a little pointless besides making my skill list look pretty. I imagine this is something an eight year old character does, not a three year old one. It's an option but it feels like a waste. Spending literally half a year to make numbers look pretty is probably not the best plan.
Option 2 - Subcap focus
 |
| Despite my huge fetish for the Megathron hull, I've never flown a variant of the damn thing |
However this will be a long road, especially since most of the skills I don't have are big skills. Like Caldari Battleship V or Warhead Upgrades V. The good news is that most of these skills mean I can stick with my current Per/Will remap and save my current remap for something else in the future.
Option 3 - YOLO Dreadnought
I really want to fly a dreadnought. You guys don't even understand. But the thought of training all those jump skills again on another character is almost too painful to bear. I have max jump drive skills on Zendrak and it's a nice, smug feeling to have them. But I hated every dragging minute of training them, and that's not something I want to experience again. Plus will I really use my dread that often? Could I bear losing one or would I just sadly spin it in station? Plus when I've got Zendrak already so heavily focused into Carriers and Jump Freighters, wouldn't it be simpler if he just trained the gunnery skills for a Dreadnought and became a dedicated capital pilot? But Seraph already has Advanced Weapon Upgrades V, so he can start training for Siege Modules pretty much straight off...
 |
| Dem lasers... Hnnnngh |
It's a hard decision for me if I'm honest. However the more I think about it, the more I'm tempted to combine all of the above into one huge "No I want everything" skillplan.
Only time will tell I guess. Anyway, what of Zendrak's skillplan? Well that'll be the next post I start working on while my desktop is fixed. So if you give a shit about my other main account then head on to the next post (if it's done when you read this). If you don't care, then just skip ahead to the post after that, hopefully by which time I'll have my desktop back and I can make sweet PvP love in my new home and tell you all about it
In any case, fly safe!
Thursday, 14 August 2014
Technology sucks
I bought a brand new gaming desktop a few weeks back, because I've never actually owned a good PC in my life. I used to play EVE on my laptop for christ sakes, and frankly it's a miracle that EVE is so compatible even with old machines, else I would have been reduced to playing games like Snake or Tetris.
Things were going so perfectly with my new machine, it was a huge step up from where I used to be. Games would automatically switch all settings to "Ultra" or "High", gameplay was always smooth and I felt I could wave my dick around with the rest of the PC Gaming Master Race. Or atleast I could until I killed the damn thing.
One morning she just wouldn't wake up. I pressed the power button, the fans started, she beeped softly as usual, then... Nothing. Black screen, keyboard wouldn't react, mouse was dark. My PC just sat there, blank, silent and judging except for the low hum of fans trying to cool components that were no longer working. Tearfully I rang the company who built it for me (I'm lazy shut up) and they tried to help me save her but it was too late. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.
Breaking down I begged the nice man on the phone to take her to the PC Hospital. He agreed, and yesterday I boxed her up with loving hands, trying not to sob as the concerned looking courier carried her from my doorstep. She's probably sitting on a cold operating table as I write this, opened up so she can have life saving surgery. It makes my heart ache to think of but it was the only thing I could do. I hope my baby will be back soon :'(
Until then, EVE updates will be short on the ground because, well, I refuse to play on my laptop since I've experienced the beauty of EVE at maximum settings. It would be a betrayal :(
Fly safe!
Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Moving Pains (Jump Freighter Woes)
So ages back when I wanted to buy a Jump Freighter, namely an Ark, I never actually put any thought into what I'd use it for beyond supplying Seraph with bulky ships in deep LowSec and ship spinning occasionally.
It's almost cute now how naive I was.
So when I finally had the ability to fly one, I told pretty much everyone about it. For me it was just a big a milestone as getting into my Archon. And stupidly I told my CEO. You know what ships are useful for moving large amounts of people's crap from one end of the universe to another? Jump Freighters. What is my alliance doing at the moment? Yeah you guessed it. And I'm one of a rare breed in my corp who fit the two requirements of being able to fly a JF, and actually own one. To make it worse I'm the only EU timezone JF pilot that I know of. If there are others they're keeping quiet about it, the bastards.
You can probably guess what my bitching is leading up to so I'll put it out in the open now.
I have a moral duty to move millions of m3 of people's crap out of the kindness of my own heart. That means calculating jump fuel amounts, setting up cyno alts, preparing safe station jumps, checking for potential threats to my 6 billion ISK ship and it's cargo everytime I undock, using dusty market alts as scouts in far flung systems and making frequent note of individuals and corps known to kill JFs in every system I need to use as a cyno point. Oh and I'm also paying for the fuel at the moment, but I think the corp will cover my costs.
Basically it's exhausting and boring work, made frequently stressful by Local spikes, random roaming gangs and members of dangerous hotdropping alliances meandering through. Trust me, you've not felt real fear until you've jumped your JF in system just as a Shadow Cartel member comes into Local. I thought I was about to scream, cry and shit myself all at the same time.
He just kept flying though.
So yeah, I'm being an absolute crybaby at the moment and frankly people from my alliance might read this and get the wrong idea. I really have nothing against doing this, because I know I'm one of the few people we have that can do it. I also know I should be setting an example as an "experienced" player to our new recruits. So I'll suck it up and deal with it, and I still love you all :D
But I swear if one more of you little *********s puts like 50km3 of stuff into a container that's 250km3 in volume and contracts the whole thing to me to move (not naming any names), I'm going to awox you halfway through our next fleet. That's a promise.
Have a nice day!
It's almost cute now how naive I was.
So when I finally had the ability to fly one, I told pretty much everyone about it. For me it was just a big a milestone as getting into my Archon. And stupidly I told my CEO. You know what ships are useful for moving large amounts of people's crap from one end of the universe to another? Jump Freighters. What is my alliance doing at the moment? Yeah you guessed it. And I'm one of a rare breed in my corp who fit the two requirements of being able to fly a JF, and actually own one. To make it worse I'm the only EU timezone JF pilot that I know of. If there are others they're keeping quiet about it, the bastards.
You can probably guess what my bitching is leading up to so I'll put it out in the open now.
I have a moral duty to move millions of m3 of people's crap out of the kindness of my own heart. That means calculating jump fuel amounts, setting up cyno alts, preparing safe station jumps, checking for potential threats to my 6 billion ISK ship and it's cargo everytime I undock, using dusty market alts as scouts in far flung systems and making frequent note of individuals and corps known to kill JFs in every system I need to use as a cyno point. Oh and I'm also paying for the fuel at the moment, but I think the corp will cover my costs.
Basically it's exhausting and boring work, made frequently stressful by Local spikes, random roaming gangs and members of dangerous hotdropping alliances meandering through. Trust me, you've not felt real fear until you've jumped your JF in system just as a Shadow Cartel member comes into Local. I thought I was about to scream, cry and shit myself all at the same time.
He just kept flying though.
So yeah, I'm being an absolute crybaby at the moment and frankly people from my alliance might read this and get the wrong idea. I really have nothing against doing this, because I know I'm one of the few people we have that can do it. I also know I should be setting an example as an "experienced" player to our new recruits. So I'll suck it up and deal with it, and I still love you all :D
But I swear if one more of you little *********s puts like 50km3 of stuff into a container that's 250km3 in volume and contracts the whole thing to me to move (not naming any names), I'm going to awox you halfway through our next fleet. That's a promise.
Have a nice day!
Sunday, 10 August 2014
This time I'll stick around
So yeah I've not written a blog post since December 2013.
That's a pretty long time, and since then I've not done much in EVE besides join a wormhole corp, decide I didn't really enjoy it and take some shit as I ran out the door. The first time I've ever stolen from a corp and it was fun.
I'm talking sweaty palms and raised heart-rate fun, wondering if I'd be discovered while pulling ships out of the SMA into my carrier. But nobody seemed to notice the sudden lack of about 2billion ISK in ships and modules (the fuck?), so I left for an old corp and older friends, Shattered Paradigm.
As it is at the moment, my old CEO Myopic Thyne is rebuilding the corp and getting the alliance, Eon.Apocalypse on its feet. Currently we're moving homes out of Minmatar FW Space due to the pure number of larger entities able to crush our noob fleets without a chance of us fighting back. To this end we're moving to a quieter LowSec area, looking for somewhere we can build and learn to fight. Maybe one day we'll return to Ualkin, but for now we're heading to greener pastures.
Since my real life has calmed down somewhat from the hectic last year I've had, I'll be back to chronicling my time with SHAPA and watching this new alliance develop. Maybe we'll flourish, maybe we'll crash and burn, either way it's sure to be entertaining for all involved! Why not follow along? I promise I won't take another year long break from writing anytime soon ;)
And to my old readers, if there ever were any of you, welcome back.
Fly safe!
That's a pretty long time, and since then I've not done much in EVE besides join a wormhole corp, decide I didn't really enjoy it and take some shit as I ran out the door. The first time I've ever stolen from a corp and it was fun.
I'm talking sweaty palms and raised heart-rate fun, wondering if I'd be discovered while pulling ships out of the SMA into my carrier. But nobody seemed to notice the sudden lack of about 2billion ISK in ships and modules (the fuck?), so I left for an old corp and older friends, Shattered Paradigm.
As it is at the moment, my old CEO Myopic Thyne is rebuilding the corp and getting the alliance, Eon.Apocalypse on its feet. Currently we're moving homes out of Minmatar FW Space due to the pure number of larger entities able to crush our noob fleets without a chance of us fighting back. To this end we're moving to a quieter LowSec area, looking for somewhere we can build and learn to fight. Maybe one day we'll return to Ualkin, but for now we're heading to greener pastures.
Since my real life has calmed down somewhat from the hectic last year I've had, I'll be back to chronicling my time with SHAPA and watching this new alliance develop. Maybe we'll flourish, maybe we'll crash and burn, either way it's sure to be entertaining for all involved! Why not follow along? I promise I won't take another year long break from writing anytime soon ;)
And to my old readers, if there ever were any of you, welcome back.
Fly safe!
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