Thoughts on Equinox

CCP released a video yesterday that announced the next expansion – it’s called Equinox and it goes live June 11th – exciting! The video talks about redefining nullspace, four new ships, enhancements to the AIR program, automated moon mining – and my favourite feature, a new extension to SKINR.

  • Design at your fingertips: The new SKINR interface introduces a robust palette of design elements, consisting of basic and metallic nanocoatings as well as patterns, alongside five customization slots for each SKIN design, four for nanocoatings, and one for patterns. Use your creations to express your unique identity and share them with other capsuleers.
  • Sequence and share: Gathering design elements and sequence binders allows capsuleers to sequence ship SKINs, for themselves or to sell to other pilots. Sequencing costs are based on a tier system and calculated in PLEX based on the rarity of design elements and complexity of the SKIN, and your creations can be sequenced in bulk for your own fleet or your corp.
  • Organized collection: A new cosmetics collection makes it simple to keep track of SKINs, components, and emblems. Applying SKINs and filtering through your collection will be easier and more enjoyable than ever with the new updates.
  • The Hub awaits: Visit the Paragon Hub to buy, sell, and trade SKINs and components. A platform to showcase designs or discover the perfect look for every fleet, the Paragon Hub offers an easy-to-navigate interface and opportunities for budding designers to make a name for themselves, not to mention untold riches.

I’m very excited about this change. I love player created content, and I absolutely want to try my hand at designing patterns. Other things were also mentioned, like new anomalies, the ability to create sovereign hubs in space, new resources, and new encounters. For someone like myself, who hasn’t been around the block a time or two before during an EVE Online expansion release, these all sound like pretty neat things. Given that I HAVE been around the block a time or two before when it comes to MMORPG expansions in general, I will (as always) take a “let’s wait and see” approach to all of it. I do like that they don’t leave us hanging forever, June 11th is just around the corner, and I should be able to fit it in with all of the World of Warcraft stuff that is also going on.

Excited? Not? Let me know in comments, and as always, fly safe! o7

Weekly Review [Apr14-Apr20]

This was certainly a week for transmog sales! Some unusual ones at that. I sold a Flaming Quartz Staff for almost 800k (there were some for sale on other servers at 50k) which was the largest single sale. One Blackrock Bulwark, a Warchief kilt, and some Emberfire Shoulders. Down at the bottom of the list was a few pets, but nothing to really write home about. I managed to sort through all of my inventory (minus recipes, I still need to distribute recipes to my AH characters), and S4 is quite literally just around the corner which will hopefully bring about a lot of excitement. I’m almost close to finishing off the Plunderstorm renown (at the time of this post I’m level 35, which means I only have 5 more to go) and I should be able to complete that with time to spare (I believe the event ends on April 30th). I did manage to reach my goal of collecting all of the battle pets, that was the main reason I was working on Plunderstorm at all.

In preparation for S4 I am doing – nothing. I don’t deal in commodity, so I’m not stocking up the shelves or anything of the sort. I don’t have it in me to partake in the AH PVP that goes on when everything goes live – I probably WILL partake in crafting though and I’ll stick my main crafters in the city so they can complete craft orders. I also hope to pick up the new recipes (PVP, mostly) and get a head start on that stuff. Materials are constantly cheap so I’m not buying anything ahead of time. That could change if I see a sudden spike, but I’m not expecting it.

I will be playing my demon hunter for S4 (I played her for S1 and S3, but played my evoker for S2 which I sort of regret). I know everyone is very excited about The War Within alpha / beta stuff but I’m trying to avoid spoilers (it doesn’t always work, but I’m making an effort at least). Anything you’re particularly excited about? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself!

My First Shattered Wormhole

Unfortunately I didn’t get into EVE yesterday until just before bed, so I didn’t get a lot of time to explore – but as I left my home in high sec (flying the astero that I won), I figured I had enough time to get a little bit done. I’m so glad I did. I scanned down a WH in my home system and it lead to – another high sec system. So far I’ve never had that happen, I was curious about where it was possibly going to lead, maybe it gave a short cut to some place neat – so I jumped, and found myself around 35 jumps away from home, in a quiet area of space. No one else in local. In that high sec system there were a few more signatures, so I scanned them down and one of the first ones I found was a shattered wormhole system!

I wish I had more time. I jumped in and things were quiet. For a few minutes I just warped around, enjoying the views. There was a beacon, an ice field, and a shattered debris field. I couldn’t scan down all of the signatures (I really wanted to) but I found a relic site and made short work of that, at least.

It was so pretty. I would have loved to stay and scan down more of the signatures, but alas, real life has me waking up early these days and I had to do the grown up thing and get some sleep. It was still pretty exciting.

Speaking of exciting, I’m looking for EVE twitch streamers to watch – if you know of any, let me know in comments! I’m not much of a PVP player, but I’m looking for calm and relaxing streams, family friendly would be great (but I know that’s not always possible). Like-minded folks who spend their time exploring, hacking, pveing (whether in high, low, or null doesn’t matter). Mining, Industry. Those types of things. One person I was watching last night was flying around high sec in a stratios doing ghost sites – woah. They had over 2 billion ISK in their hull from their pillaging. It was neat. Ghost sites are a bit out of my range at the moment, but I’d love to get there eventually. I know the stratios is an expensive bling ship, and there are other ways to work a ghost site, but I’m still new to all of that.

I also watched another streamer who was doing data/relic sites in jspace and I was amazed at how FAST they were. I feel like I’m very slow when it comes to the mini game. I try to be fast, I’m also using d-scan in between every move I make which I know slows me down (but also keeps me safer). They had a smaller audience but I really enjoyed learning how they handled relic/data sites and exploration in general. Since my time is so limited I tend to warp in, bookmark the exit, check for life, and then scan down a site or two until I find a relic/data/something of interest. I don’t scan down the entire system, because sometimes by the time I do that I have to AFK / log for a bit. If I just scan as I go, I usually have time for a bit of ISK making before real life drags me away. On longer game play sessions I would probably adjust this.

Any way, it was a lovely night exploring – and I have some ship goals to work towards.

If you’re looking to return to EVE or maybe to try the game for the first time, keep in mind that you can get 1 million skill points (new and returning players can each get this, one time only) and I have a link on the right hand side of my site you can use! I’ve been back in game for a little over a month now, and it has been a nice addition to my regular gaming habits.

Fly safe! o7

Flying Cheap

As always, when I play EVE Online I seem to learn something new, or pick up some new information, or have an ‘ah ha!’ moment. I’ve been training my skills and learning about different ships and different fits for those ships and spending most of my time in jspace (wormholes) where I feel safest. Yesterday I was scanning my way around and found a C5, I think it might have been my first. I jumped in, someone was at the gate, so after I bookmarked my exit I jumped back out to check out the 4 other wormholes I had found – the person at the gate decided to follow me and jump in too, but by then I was already cloaked and zooming off towards a C2, so I jumped that, and since I had already scanned that one down too, then jumped into another C2 from there, and eventually I jumped into Highsec (35 jumps away from where I had entered from). I just naturally assume anyone I see wants to kill me, and it seems to be working to keep me on my toes and alive (for now at least).

In jspace I feel most comfortable when I can cloak, but, after I had scanned down all of the connections and created a bunch of bookmarks, I decided to bring out my Venture, which does not have a cloak. It’s a simple frigate, nice and cheap. Alpha gamers can use it (CCP’s name for F2P). I stuck myself in a gas site for 18 minutes and warped off before the rats could show up. Then went to the next gas site, and so on. Since I couldn’t stealth I was hyper vigilant about checking d-scan for anything at all, but I didn’t see anyone else. I just assume everyone is cloaked and lurking about, like me. I figured even if I lost the ship it wouldn’t really be a big deal, and after a few sites the day paid for itself. I have done almost zero mining since taking a greater focus on exploration, but I’ve done a fair amount of gas huffing, and a LOT of relic/data sites. I’m gearing up for ghost sites next. I’ve also been looking at some other combat fits that are less expensive to fly than my Tengu (which I adore, but I’m not keen to draw so much attention) including my Gila, and maybe a Myrmidon. I’ve also got a Dominix (not sure if I have a current fit for it) but I still always seem to default to the Tengu. I’m learning that you don’t have to fly expensive ships to get stuff done – and the ‘stuff’ to get done, is plentiful.

Fly safe! o7

Er, OK?

I’m not really sure how it happened, or why, but someone that I’m not familiar with randomly sent me 300+ items. It’s a character I don’t advertise, I don’t talk to anyone else, and I just use for auction house sales. I wrote them a letter back and said this must be a mistake, and I returned all of the mail to them in case this is some weird plot involving nefarious schemes in Warcraft. I honestly have no idea.

Anyone else have a strange interaction like this? Just odd Warcraft things I guess!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!