April 2024

10th Annual Frigate Free for All

stargrace April 20, 2024 No Comments

Today was the 10th annual Frigate Free for All hosted by Stay Frosty, and I decided why not show up. I used my second account since this would be a PVP event, and it was actually a lot of fun! Minus the people who showed up who just wanted to create chaos and not play by the rules (not a big deal, more details about that later).

The event worked like this: You show up (I went early to make bookmarks) and then frigates with fittings were given away to anyone who opened trade with the hosts. Fly your frigate around and try to take out other frigates. The system was a .4 so there was no concord to worry about, though there was some sentry guns causing issues for some people I believe. Their range is 150km, so stay away from those and it was no big deal. There were shouts of ‘gf’ everywhere (I believe this means good fight?) and people good naturedly ribbed one another. Lots of harmless fun.

Then one annoying corp who had a beef with the host showed up and started demanding money to have you be flagged blue (allied) – they used legion’s to fight the frigates, not exactly a fair fight but since they were free ships it also wasn’t a big deal. They were intent on spoiling the fun for others, and I like to think that the 450+ people who showed up managed to have a fun time anyway, despite the sore losers.

I saw my first CCP employee, and also a GM in system playing along with. They interacted and had a good time all around.

I stuck around for a few hours (the event ran for 6) but eventually the harshness of it all started wearing me out a bit. I can only handle so many people screaming and yelling and fighting before I get tired of it and long for the quiet of jspace again. I am not much of a crowds person IRL and that is very much the same thing in game. Still, I’m glad I went and had some fun. It was neat to see everyone in local, and I enjoyed watching people greet each other who hadn’t seen one another in some time. I think the most exciting part was that so many people turned up for a player run event – I’m a huge fan of player run events, no matter the game, and with 450+ in local at the height, it was quite a sight.

Fly safe o7

EVE Gaming

Being Safer

stargrace April 19, 2024 No Comments

Much has been said over the years about the learning curve in EVE Online. Sometimes, when I watch streams, I’m amazed at how much of the language I still don’t know. I watched a big battle go down in Curse yesterday with 1900+ players, which was awesome to watch, and while I once again took absolutely no sides in the outcome, I did feel like I was constantly learning about the history and drama that has trailed people around.

To that note, I decided it was time to learn two aspects of the game that I probably should have learned years ago but had never really given it much thought. It’s two (well, I suppose one) ways to keep ‘safer’ in space, since you’re never really 100% safe no matter where you are (unless you’re docked). For the first time ever, I decided to create some insta-dock and insta-undock bookmarks.

I use a lot of bookmarks, but they’re usually to pretty mundane locations already marked in the overview. I have never really paid attention to the tips and tricks of flying around safely, and when you’re a beginner, that’s OK. EVENTUALLY you should learn a few things though, and one of those things is how to set up an insta-dock (and undock). It’s pretty simple. Normally, I warp to my home station using the overview, and dock. There’s a few seconds where I’m not safe, because I need to inch a bit closer to the landing area. So what I had to do was get within 0m the landing area (taking care not to bounce off of the structure) and create a bookmark. I made one for my shopping hub that I frequent on an almost daily basis, and another for my home station. When going to either of these locations, the idea is: Set my autopilot destination to the location (don’t turn autopilot on yet though). Then warp to the newly set bookmark that’s within 0m, stealthing as I warp (or not, if I’m flying something that doesn’t stealth), turn on autopilot as I’m warping, and when I hit that 0m spot, autopilot will turn on, and instantly dock me. I could also manually dock instead of doing the autopilot thing, but it’s easier to just have the game dock me.

I didn’t really understand insta-undock, but what I’ve gathered is – you undock from your station, and don’t touch anything, using a naturally fast ship (to create the bookmark). Then you drift out away from the station, turning on MWD if you want. You have to be careful to pick a spot that’s at least 200m away from the station – but (and here’s where I get conflicting reports) you also don’t want a ‘typical’ number, because someone might be waiting there for you because they know it’s a popular warp area. So to set this one up I drifted out some random number away from the station, bookmarked it, and then went back and docked using my insta-dock. How I believe the insta-undock works is that your ship normally needs time to align to whatever you’re moving towards after you undock. If you set a bookmark out far away from the station in a perfectly straight line, then there’s no time needed to align. There’s also a buffer of (10?) seconds where you’re invulnerable from attacks as you undock in case your computer has lag. I set up the undock bookmarks, but I’m still not really sure how they work. It didn’t feel like I instantly warped off to anywhere, and I’m not really sure I set them up properly. I’ll keep practicing though and see if I can get it all sorted.

Ideally, you’d make these bookmarks for any place you go to. For now, I just plan on making them for the more popular routes I take. As I get better / faster at it, I’ll add more bookmarks. Now that I’ve joined Signal Cartel these bookmarks are really important because we spend a lot of time wardec’d. Plus there’s been some little beginner gankers hanging out at my shopping district hoping for easy kills. I don’t want to be one of them.

Fly safe! o7

EVE Gaming

Friendly Conversations? Maybe..

stargrace April 18, 2024 No Comments

Depending on the character I’m playing, EVE tends to be a very quiet game (just an observation, it’s not a good thing or a bad thing). Today while I was shopping someone opened chat with me and wanted to ask some questions. I don’t think I had heard of them before, and I wasn’t really sure what they wanted. They asked about what happened to cause me to leave the large corporation I had belonged to and to head out on my own, instead. I told them it really wasn’t anything dramatic but that I was looking for something a bit more personal – I reached out before I left the corporation and no one even said anything to me (I didn’t want to just vanish, but turns out I could have and no one would have cared one way or another). Anyway, they talked about themselves for a bit and then I got called away to handle real life, so the conversation ended. I’m still not really sure how they found me or what inspired them to send me a conversation. It was me and 100+ other people in the shopping district, I wasn’t carrying anything of value, I had just dropped off some bits to sell and was cloaking around.

My extra cautious and paranoid self wondered if they were hoping to distract me while I jumped home, or if they really did just want to chat. It was an unusual interaction, and I’m still not really sure what to think about it.

Any way, things in EVE have been moving along at a good pace. In 1d22h I’ll finally have mining frigate V finished off, and then it’s on to shield upgrades V, caldari propulsion systems V, caldari offensive systems V, and caldari core systems V. That’s right, my Tengu subsystems are finally getting some love. It has only taken 9 years (whewps). I also checked out a comment regarding an event that is happening on April 20th, I’m hoping to make it! I’ll have to head out early to get some bookmarks set, but I’m thinking I might be able to get some neat screenshots. More about that event in the future!

As always, fly safe o7

Gaming

Recipe Collecting (one faction at a time)

stargrace April 17, 2024 No Comments

While we wait for S4 (or Pandaria Remix, or both) to get started, I’ve been working on completing my recipe collections (at least for horde, alliance will be a task for another time). A lot of recipes require faction that I do not have at exalted on my demon hunter (my LW/JC character) so I’ve been working through the list. Yesterday that meant I was working with The Sons of Hodir, and doing quests in Wrath of the Lich King. That one was pretty painless, I did a series of quests in Storm Peaks, and then unlocked the NPC who takes faction bits. The bits were only 90s each, so I bought 1.5k and easily earned my exalted status. Afterward I picked up the two recipes I needed, a few transmog pieces, and two mounts that I didn’t have.

Next I’m working on getting faction with Cenarion Circle, so I’m out in the old version of Silithus, questing. Eventually I’ll start turning in my encrypted text that I’ve been collecting, and that should add another 10 recipes to my LW collection.

Unfortunately some recipes are no longer in game with no way to obtain them (wild leather helmet, I’m looking at you) so unless things change I’ll always be missing a few, but in the meantime, at least I have a bit of direction in the game again.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming WoW Gold Making

Weekly Review [Apr7-Apr13]

stargrace April 15, 2024 No Comments

There are some days where I just don’t feel like posting auctions. In the last year, those days have been pretty rare, but they do occasionally happen. I think it’s important to take breaks when you feel this way, and not feel pressured into continuing on in the same way if you’re not really into it. The slump I’ve felt while waiting for S4 is as good a time as any for a few days off here and there, I figured. The earnings for the week show that, with a weak 7.7 million earned in that time frame. I know, that’s actually a fair amount of gold still for the average player, but it is a few million below my personal average.

Patterns have started picking back up, whether it’s from collectors or people preparing for S4, I’m glad to see the uptick. Another blackrock bulwark made the list – this time for well above my usual average, it sold at 846k. A Tuskarr kite made the list too, which is great because for a while there the price had been incredibly low as Blizzard was just giving them away.

A small number of pets sold this round, but that’s probably because I need to restock and level up a few more. Armored Vaultbot, Jadefire Spirit, and the rare Indigo. I also managed to sell a mageweave bandage manual, I think it was the first time I’ve seen one sell in all the times I’ve listed it. Thank you collectors!

Blizzard just announced that Plunderstorm will be ending on April 30th, and that there’s double reputation gains until then – thank goodness. I’m currently sitting at renown 29, and I feel like I can easily reach 40 before the 30th if I just keep plodding along with my 1 renown a day. In the meantime, I’m hunting for my final LW recipe (it’s going for 1.9 million gold, and I’m reluctant to spend it in case Blizzard returns it in the future) hoping to catch it on a snipe. Aside from that, things are quiet.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

10th Annual Frigate Free for All

Being Safer

Friendly Conversations? Maybe..

Recipe Collecting (one faction at a time)

Weekly Review [Apr7-Apr13]

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