EVE

Always Someone Bigger

stargrace June 5, 2010 1Comment

I was on my way to Jita to make my first ever contract. I’ve been working on invention along with Kasul, to create blueprints to sell in order to raise money for my Orca. I’m about 1/8th of the way to affording one, and still two months away from flying one, so I’m hoping it works out. Anyhow, Jita was amazing. I’d never been there before, and it was by far the largest number of ships I’d ever seen in one location, with more then 900 flying the skies. The chat channel was also far different then I was used to, and it really reminded me of a galaxy with traders from all over the world. In fact it was probably the first time my brain grasped the concept of the fact that I was playing a sci fi game and enjoying it. My favorite comment of the night came from someone who was replying over scamming attempts. His reply to the person who seemed a bit outraged was “dude, you’re in Jita.” – it just hit home for me.

The screen shot above came from my trip to Jita, a Charon flew side by side with me almost the entire way (it was easy to tell we were both on auto pilot) and I felt incredibly small in my hulk which I have been raving about for weeks now. The hulk is the largest ship I own, and previous to the Charon the Orca was the largest ship I had ever seen. The Charon was gigantic, and amazing, and graceful and just made me remember all of the reasons why I’m enjoying this game so much.

I put my contract up, and now I’m eagerly waiting to see if it pays off (literally). In the mean time Kasul and I have a nice little invention rotation going on. We’ve been working on hammerhead II’s since we’re both playing drone boats, and I’ve successfully invented and manufactured a few of them now. The cost of creating five of them is less then one million ISK, and since the drones themselves sell for half a million ISK each, we’re saving a good amount of money.

Kasul has also been creating rigs for us to use, I’ve added some to my Dominix that increase my CPU, and stabilized myself finally. The Dominix is ready for all sorts of missions now, and I’m excited about that. In the mean time I’d like to work towards Research Project Management, which is a skill that allows you to work with more then one R&D agent at a time. It takes a fair amount to be able to train this skill, and it’s just one more item in a long list of things I wish to learn. I do have to admit, I’m having a blast.

Happy flying!

Perhaps an Orca?

stargrace May 22, 2010 0Comment

Mining may not be something you particularly enjoy in EVE Online, but for some, it represents exactly what we want to do in game. Sure, it’s a little boring. It’s also quiet, and fairly painless, and doesn’t exactly require a LOT of concentration. Now that I have my hulk (remember I’m a highsec miner) I can set myself to a particular asteroid belt or a location with some ore that Kasul has located, and set myself working without too much hassle. Since I have dual monitors I typically have EVE running in one and whatever else I’m up to in the other monitor. I do have to beware of people looking to ‘suicide gank’ me as it’s called, and be ready to run if I notice anyone suddenly targeting me – but aside from that it’s a very calming and relaxing way to spend my time in game. Not to mention it’s something I can do practically all day long as I work on my main monitor and quietly mine on the second. What exactly am I saving up for? Well of course I have some plans!

My second account is currently finishing off drones V, and then will be working towards using heavy drones. She’s using mediums in the Dominix (which I adore might I add) and then once that is all taken care of and I have it fit as well as I’d like, I decided I’m going to work towards flying an Orca. Whether or not I want to attempt to build one or instead just purchase one I haven’t decided. I do think it will be a great addition to my hulk, and I’m pretty excited about flying one.

It will take me 66 days to train for the Orca, and a lot longer to be able to afford one, and fit one. Compare this to my main account which would be able to fly one in less then a month – it’s mostly due to that mining barge V skill that takes so long to learn. I haven’t quite made up my mind on what I want to train next on my second account, so we’ll just have to see. In the mean time I’m still having an incredible amount of fun, and I surprise myself daily that I’m so interested in a sci fi game when I have never taken any interest in the genre as a whole. I suppose stranger things have happened!

Fly safe!

Isn’t She Pretty

stargrace May 20, 2010 3Comments

It was no surprise that I spent most of yesterday evening flying my hulk around and mining, testing her out so to speak. Named after a rare gemstone, Painite, I couldn’t be happier. I have a pretty basic highsec fit on her, three modulated strip miner II’s, two mining laser upgrades, and a bunch of shields to boost her survivability as well as a survey scanner so I can go after the juiciest pieces of ore. Kasul did some probing and found a few sites for me to mine, so I headed that way and stretched my wings. What a HUGE difference from flying the retriever I’ve had this past little while. The amount of ore that the hulk coughs up compared to the retriever is a lot bigger then I thought it would be.

I’m continuing down my ‘crafter’ line in EVE on my main account, while my second account works the “pew pew” side of things. I’ve got refining, and production efficiency that I’d like to get completed – and then I discovered research. Without a POS (player owned structure) this avenue may as well be off limits for me because the line ups for this at stations is .. well. Lets just say I’m not that patient. David (as far as I know) is still working towards getting us a POS, so that may be solved in the future. It would be nice to have the skills to begin research once I’m able to, and I’m incredibly excited about trying this out. Of course I’ll update either here or on NomadicGamer about how it works out.

Now that the hulk has been invented and built, Kasul and I have our eyes set on other bps that may be profitable. Whether they pay off in the end or not time will tell, but it’s great to be working towards these things in the mean time. Makes the game a lot of fun, and nicely complex.

Time to get back to mining. Fly safe!

One Jump Away

stargrace May 19, 2010 2Comments

Pictured above are my Retriever (main account) and my Iteron V (2nd account) – headed to their last destination together before I finish manufacturing my Hulk. That’s right, my 8th attempt at a blueprint was met with success as yesterday I finally managed to invent a hulk blueprint. As soon as it was done I headed to an open assembly line so that I could manufacture the ship – and in 3 hours I’ll be the proud new owner. In 6 hours, I’ll be able to fly it. For those who may not understand my excitement think about your favorite piece of gear. The one that you’ve always wanted, but that took you an incredibly long time and effort to obtain. In EVE, ships are ‘gear’ and I’ve been working towards this ‘piece’ for three months now. It took me 28 days to train the final skill I needed (mining barge V) and now that I have room in my queue I’m not even sure what I want to work on next.

I’m incredibly excited about my first adventures with the hulk, and I plan on capturing the moment with GameCam once I’m up and flying. I’ll be sure to post it here, because. Well, because we geeks are simply like that.

Fly safe!