July 2024

ISK Update for July

stargrace July 10, 2024 0Comment

It doesn’t show in my ISK tracking spreadsheet yet, but today I spent almost a billion ISK on various ships / implants / things I wanted, and while normally that would make me a bit sad (I hate spending ISK) I’m feeling pretty good since my accounts are all situated for game time and there’s really nothing I’m saving up for. In order to be ‘on track’ to purchase 1 month of game time, I would have had to have earned 840m ISK by today, and I had made 1.5b ISK – well over where I needed to be. Of course, tomorrow might show that I’m once again below where I ‘should’ be since the spending isn’t calculated until next day, but again, it’s really no big deal.

What did I buy? Well, for the first time ever I splurged and picked up some ORE strip miners. That’s right, I’ve started to bling out my hulk. Might not be the smartest idea, but I decided why not. We’ll see how long it takes me to replace it with harvested materials. Ideally I’d earn enough to at least replace it if I lost it – and some extra. Unfortunately right now hulks are EXPENSIVE, so those 2 ore strip miners + hulk with a basic fit, came to just under 700,000,000 ISK. Making it one of my most expensive ships. Fingers crossed I don’t immediately lose it.

Yesterday was a fantastic day as far as ISK making went. I made almost 500m ISK after selling off some PI and some exploration loot with my market character. Industry has been a bit slow moving for me, I’m attempting to harvest my materials instead of purchasing them, at least for now. My industry is so small scale that it’s not a big deal, that may change if I get more involved or production becomes larger.

I’ve started making some popular rigs that sell for a decent amount. I also completely forgot that I do still work with R&D agents and have datacores coming to me. I should probably pick them up, eventually. Maybe this time I won’t get ganked at a gate and lose 500m worth of stuff. At least it was a learning experience.

I have not played with skinr since it released. I have been collecting all of the goodies that CCP threw at us and what I found in exploration cans, but I don’t know the value of them or if people are actually paying. In fact I don’t think I’ve even seen anyone with a custom skin – but I haven’t been looking too hard (nor do I fly in areas where I would be running into someone else).

Yesterday my system joined with a very active C5 that had a fortizar inside of it, that was pretty exciting. Throughout the day people would pop into my home system and look around, but there isn’t much there at the moment, so finding no content they would move on. I’m perfectly OK with that and honestly don’t mind the quiet.

As always, fly your way! o7

EVE Gaming

Obvious Bait is Obvious

stargrace July 9, 2024 0Comment

I spent a quiet evening scanning down wormholes and working on data / relic sites. I normally set myself some sort of goal, like 85 million ISK (if you’re paying for your subscription with ISK, this is what you need to bring in each day to cover the cost) and then head home shortly afterward. My hull had almost 200 million in it after a bit of a dry spell, but I was really tired so I decided to log out safely where I was instead of travelling.

The next day, I scanned down the signatures (I was in a C1 with a HS static) and noticed an uncloaked catalyst at one of the hacking sites. I flew over to my perch that I had made the day before, and uncloaked. The catalyst wasn’t actually completing the site, and was just hanging out at a can.

Interesting. I didn’t approach or engage, something about this wasn’t right.

Eventually after a few minutes they blew up a can, maybe to look like they were active. I had scanned down a few other wormholes in the system while watching them, so I warped off to the C5 – right when three buddies from the same corporation as the catalyst popped out of that C5.

Ah ha.

I think it was the first time I had seen someone actively acting as bait in that sort of situation. It wasn’t even particularly good bait. I had zero intentions of engaging (I’m in a helios after all) and I left and took my 200m loot safely back home. I’m sure with the high sec static attached to their C5 they were looking for some day trippers and easy content, but I’m just not the right target for that. I’m not a particularly good pvp player – but – I like to think I’ve been learning a lot these past few months, and know what situations I want to engage in and which ones I stay away from. That one just didn’t sit right.

As always. fly your way! o7

EVE Gaming

Suitcase Challenge Day 63: Finally

stargrace July 8, 2024 0Comment

When I returned to EVE online in March, I had no idea what I was looking for or what I hoped to accomplish. Normally when I “play” EVE, I jump in for a month and then would find myself at a loss on what to do, and I’d wander off. This time for whatever reason the game has staying power (combined with the fact that no matter how much I try, I just can’t seem to get interested in Warcraft these days, Plunderstorm really did a number on me) so much so that it’s 4 months later, and I’ve just picked up 6 months of game time on two of my accounts. That’s pretty neat.

Anyway! My Orca is still safely living in her wormhole. I’ve been doing a little bit of mining, a lot of PI, some anomalies, and I continue to work on my market character along with my ‘main’ who is doing industry. I was thinking of trying mercoxit mining, but I have no idea what sort of ship fit I need for that, I just know that when I run into it, I can’t collect it with my strip miner II modules. It probably has special ones. Also something about spawning gas that harms you as you mine it? Interesting!

I’ve stopped trying to fly the biggest and best ships out there (note: I’m not even close to flying anything big anyway) and instead focused on flying what I can, well. I finally finished training biology V on my Signal Cartel character, which means I was able to pick up the Neural Lace ‘Blackglass’ Net Intrusion 920-40 implant, and oh my this thing is lovely. It lets me basically 1 shot any of the bad virus’ that show up on the mini game when you’re doing hacking. My helios is still my ship of choice. That little ship is amazing. I’m also still really enjoying my Tengu for C1-3 and while I know there’s more ISK if I were to do harder things, I’m happy and having a lot of fun with what I’m doing so far.

There’s less than 1 month left for my Suitcase challenge! I can hardly believe where the time has gone. As of today, I’ve been to 198 systems, and visited 143 unique wormholes. I’m not sure what I’ll do once the challenge is over. I might just continue to live in the wormhole, or I might try something new. Maybe I’ll sell the Orca. It doesn’t get a lot of actual use, since I don’t want to lose it. It feels strange to keep a ship around with such high value but with very little use. I guess we’ll just have to see!

Fly your way! o7

Gaming

Black Desert Online – Some QoL Changes!

stargrace July 5, 2024 0Comment

When I want to game, but don’t really have the time or maybe I’m out of spoons, the game I jump to is almost always BDO – this game has a lot of AFK / passive game modes that make it absolutely worth it to get my gaming fix when things are a bit rough. It has also been quite some time since I played, and a lot of QoL changes have taken place that I am completely in love with.

First, I created a Dosa, my first male character (my one issue with BDO is that classes are still restricted by gender). I made a season character – but seasons have changed now, they’re no longer static dates that rotate, you can create one when ever. I had a scholar in the works (the newly released class before Dosa) but decided that I didn’t want to continue with that, for now. Anyway, apparently life skills are now family (account) wide! That was one of the first changes I noticed. This is a fantastic change, I used to swap characters all of the time and I’m very glad it went account wide. On that same note, harvesting tools are also now shared across your family, another VERY delightful change.

One of the less favourable changes that happened is the hotkey for fishing, it’s ‘ now (the key beside enter) on QWERTY keyboards, other languages might have it elsewhere. To stop fishing, right click and move back to battle stance. Confusing, I actually had to watch a video on how to fish since the changes took place.

There’s been a bunch of other changes too, things I haven’t managed to wrap my head around yet. I don’t know what artifacts are, how to use them, or what to do with them. The same can be said for the transfusion window. I do have bits and bobs scattered all over the place, so I’m taking my time and sorting things out and figuring what I want to work on – when I don’t have the time to actually pay attention, I set up for some AFK fishing (there’s an event going on at the moment) or some mount training.

BDO has never been the easiest of games to get into, there’s a LOT to it, and the cluttered UI easily scares people away – but – I think learning the mechanics slowly is doable, and I really love how beautiful the game is as well as the incredibly robust life skill system (crafting). There’s apparently a new life skill releasing this year and I’m excited to see that, too. Plus, the game doesn’t require a subscription and the expansions are always free. Sure, there’s lots of ‘please buy this’ in the shop, but I’ve honestly never felt that pressured, they give away so much for free.

In any case, I’m enjoying my return and hopefully I can figure out what else has changed given some time. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming WoW Gold Making

Back to Warcraft, and Making Gold

stargrace July 1, 2024 0Comment

As is my way, I’ve been wandering around for a few months now and haven’t really played much world of warcraft. I didn’t like Plunderstorm, and I didn’t enjoy the Pandaria Remix, either. I’m not a fan of removing players from the world and sticking them on their own servers, or time limited events. Breaks are good, and I do tend to take breaks from Warcraft, knowing that eventually I’ll wander back. It helps that I only spend in-game gold on my subscriptions, and I stopped feeling ‘guilty’ over my wandering ways years ago.

Anyway. This week I wandered back. It was Timewalking (Pandaria, go figure) so I completed that with my paladin, which is the character I think I’ve settled on as my ‘main’ for The War Within. I also happened to return when Snail Fight! Was up in Legion, so I spent the rest of the evening leveling up the 214 pets that have just been sitting there. I managed to get the list down to 100 or so that still need leveling. Doing that got me another level 70 character (my alliance rogue over on Argent Dawn) as well as 50-61 on a Warlock over on Hyjal. Almost all of my alts have been leveled exclusively through pet battles, my method of choice.

Sales this week were sporadic because I couldn’t decide if I was honestly returning to the game or not. At one point I had stuffed all of my AH items back into banks across Azeroth only to pull them out and put them for sale (again) the next day. The API has been down since the 27th of June, so TSM & sniping in general have been restricted to a per-server basis rather than region wide. It’s not unusual for this to happen, especially when an expansion is being worked on – the API has gone down in the past, and I’m confident that it will get fixed – eventually.

Wandering away from Warcraft lets me appreciate the things that it lacks, as well as the things that I love. I still haven’t found a community within the game, and that’s always the main downfall I have with it. I stick to my own happenings, doing my own things. My sporadic and random play time doesn’t lend well to static groups or raids, so I fit in when / where I can.

Anyway, that’s enough reflection for tonight. It’s nice to be back, and here’s hoping sales continue to swing upwards as I get back into my routine.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

ISK Update for July

Obvious Bait is Obvious

Suitcase Challenge Day 63: Finally

Black Desert Online – Some QoL Changes!

Back to Warcraft, and Making Gold

You Missed

Big Updates in Wurm Online

Player Housing? FINALLY

Am I Still Making Gold in Warcraft?

The Search For Hrada-Oki Bivouac