EVE

Things to do, Accounts to Sub?

stargrace February 21, 2015 2Comments

I’m still getting familiar with things now that I have returned to EVE Online, and while most of it is like riding a bike (you never completely forget and it feels like second nature) there is of course the decision of what I actually want to DO in game.

When I last played I would use two accounts and do a lot of mining. It was calming, and I had fun using a mining ship & a hauler to collect ore. I also did industry and PI, but the majority of my time was dedicated to mining. This included running mining missions for faction. Since I have returned I have felt a stronger draw towards combat and I have been working on combat related skills. I’m still contemplating setting up my 2nd account so I can get mining going again, but at this time I’m not convinced that it’s something I want to do. Of course there are always other reasons for wanting a second account active, EVE is the sort of game (much like Wurm Online) where that is quite handy.

One thing I love doing is collecting ships. Now that my Tengu is fit properly for both PvE and Covert Ops I have been looking at getting a Proteus set up. This would be an ideal covert ops ship. The tengu is nice, but the proteus can tank better and it can also dps better. Now, I am not so strict that I feel people MUST use the best ship for the job in order to play, nor do I feel that there is only ‘one fit to rule them all’ – I prefer people use what works for THEM, and that can differ. I still really enjoy collecting ships, though, so it’s on my list of potential things I’d like to do.

I also want to re-learn how to probe for sites, I hear it has changed. I do have a ship already fit for probing, so perhaps this weekend I’ll spend some time re-learning how it works and checking out the changes. One of my favourite things to do was to probe the universe for unique happenings. I find it a bit.. weird, that signatures are now marked on the sky with a sensor overlay icon, but it’s something I have been getting used to. You do still need to probe the signature in order to warp to it in those cases, though you do not need to probe anomalies in order to warp.

So what say you, oh readers of mine. Should I subscribe that second account?

A Tengu with 6 Launcher Hardpoints

stargrace February 20, 2015 1Comment

Yesterday I decided to stream a bit of my adventures in EVE Online, using an overlay that I quickly created (not the one pictured above, that one was my first attempt). It didn’t take long before people came out of the woodwork to tell me that my fit was wrong, that I was playing wrong, and I was doing it all wrong.

Of course.

People judge based on exactly what they see, without knowing any of your history or knowing what you’re up to, which isn’t exactly fair, but I can hardly fault them. They (the people watching) wouldn’t have known that I was showing off some things to a friend (like warping while cloaked), or that I was explaining the difference between missiles and blasters, or that I wanted to show them how to salvage. Instead what they saw was a sub optimal fit and decided to make sure I knew it.

Lesson learned!

I did end up flying home and re-fitting my ship the “proper” way for a PvE Tengu. That means instead of the 4 ‘regular’ launcher hardpoints, I swapped my electronic systems around to allow for two more. So the Tengu is now sporting 6 missile launchers. To be more specific, I’m using this build here:

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Invulnerability Field II
Explosion Dampening Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Domination Shield Boost Amplifier
Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster
Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster

Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst II

Tengu Defensive – Amplification Node
Tengu Electronics – Dissolution Sequencer
Tengu Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst
Tengu Offensive – Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir

I’m working on faction to replace the ballistic control systems, and I do swap a few other things here and there depending on my mood, but for the most part this is the basics of what I’m flying. The engineering fittings at the bottom are the things that allow you to have 6 launcher hardpoints, in case a newer player is wondering how that works.

I love the ship. I love streaming while I play, too. I’m even working up the courage to actually leave my microphone on. Problem is the community (parts of it) terrify me. We’ll see how it goes.

Fly safe!

Faction, and Cloaking

stargrace February 18, 2015 1Comment

Right now I’m working with four research & development agents in order to collect RP (research points) and then I use those points to purchase datacores, which are used in various forms of crafting. Each R&D agent has a level, just like mission agents have. You need faction in order to work with higher level agents. I’ve been working on my CreoDon faction for the majority of my agents, but it just so happens that I couldn’t find one who belonged to the Graviton Physics field without needing a standing of 7. Right now my standing is 5.

I’m also working with R&D agents for gallente starship engineering, electronic engineering, and mechanical engineering. Those agents are scattered between L2 and L3. Since I don’t have the standing to work with a higher level R&D agent in the graviton physics field, I’m working with a level 1 agent of another faction so that I can collect RP while I work on raising the CreoDon faction to above 7. Then I’ll switch agents. Why would you want a better agent? The same reason you want to ‘level’ anything in an MMO, better rewards.

A level 1 agent is currently supplying me with only 12.60 RP a day. My level 3 agent is providing almost 70 RP a day. The better level of agent you work with, the more RP you earn, and the more datacores you can purchase. Pretty simple, right?

I used to stick to some pretty tame missions to work my faction up (delivery, mining), but now that I have my Tengu I tend to run security missions because I can complete them quickly.

Today I also finished training cloaking: 4 – this lets me use covert ops cloaking device II, and lets me warp while cloaked. Excited? Why yes, yes I am.

Next I’m working on a few generic skills, graviton physics 3 and 4 so that I’m able to work with R&D agents of those levels (once I get the faction), capacitor management because I haven’t finished leveling it yet, and at the end of the list research project management V which lets me work with a 5th R&D agent. I don’t really NEED one of those yet, but you can never have too many R&D agents.

I have been doing some hammerhead II inventions (the plans), and succeeded in all of them lately which is nice. Normally  my jobs have 10 runs, but I made some 1 run blueprints by mistake, so I’m crafting those into hammerhead I’s to use them up (and then I’ll use them as components to Hammerhead II’s). No special reason other than they only take a few minutes to complete and I’d rather get them out of the list of my available blueprints.

I really like the new crafting UI, it’s much smoother and easier to tell at a glance what you’re missing.

With PI, I’m making guidance systems. It starts with four basic materials. You need base metals, aqueous liquids, suspended plasma, and non-cs crystals. You then refine the first two items into reactive metals and water. Then you combine those two items into water-cooled CPU. Meanwhile, your suspended plasma and non-cs crystals create plasmoids and chiral structures, which create transmitters. When you finally have transmitters and water-cooled cpus, you can use those to create a guidance system. It sounds confusing, but it’s pretty easy to set up your PI that way, and then it just auto runs so that you’re left with collecting the supplies at the end so long as you remember to set the PI programs. Right now my PI is set in high sec (where I have a home base and spend 70% of my time) but I’ve been contemplating getting set up in a wurmhole, which would provide me with far better PI supplies. Unfortunately it has been so long since I set my PI up, I would probably need to do a bunch of research first to make sure it still works the same way I recall (which I know it doesn’t, things have changed of course).

That’s what I’m up to these days. Flying the skies working on faction, and continuing with my industry exploits. I know it doesn’t sound all that exciting, but it’s incredibly relaxing, and a lovely way to spend my time in game.

A Return to EVE Online

stargrace February 11, 2015 1Comment

For a month or two now I have been missing my days in EVE Online. You may remember back when I used to play I was heavily involved in PI (which was relatively new at the time), invention, and my mining operation. I had just learned the skills required to fly a Tengu, which is a Caldari strategic cruiser. Beautiful ship, I had had my eye on it for months. In order to fly one you need a lot of skills and of course just flying one isn’t going to be enough, you’re going to want to find a fit for it, too. For me that took a bit of time, I had absolutely no skills placed in missiles, and the Tengu has 4 launcher slots (called hardpoints on the UI) and one turret hardpoint. It would be pretty important to be able to fit it with something useful. In my case I decided to go with a PvE fit, for flying missions. While the ‘main’ part of EVE Online that people tend to hear about is PVP, I don’t usually spend a lot of time in that sector. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy the game, it’s pretty open to what you decide you want to do.

Anyway. Before I left I had queued the skills I would need, and was just waiting on them to complete. Probably the reason I took my ‘break’ (I dislike waiting on skills).  I’m pretty sure before the Tengu I was flying a Dominix, which is a great starter ship but I was using drones as my major offensive. Swapping from drones to missiles was an interesting change, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it.

Things have changed since last I played. Most notably, the UI. Invention (manufacturing, etc) is much easier to understand, and far more welcoming for newer players. The learning curve is still there, but not nearly as bad (IMO) as it used to be. When I returned to the game I tried to re-familiarize myself with everything without knowing what I was working on last time I was in game. It was a bit disorientating. With that being said, it was also much like riding a bike. Once you remember the basics you just get right back on. I decided to ease into things by doing a very easy L2 mission for Astral Mining Inc, security. I can’t do higher missions because I don’t have the faction required yet. The Tengu blew them away (they were simple kill missions, nothing fancy) and I felt a wee bit over powered. I then noticed that my faction for CreoDron was quite high, and noted that my Research & Development agents were all with CreoDron. You need faction to work with those ranks of agents as well, so I had probably been working on that at some point in time. You use R&D agents to earn RP, a currency that I spend to get datacores, which is used in crafting. There are lots of different types of datacores, used for everything in game from ships to ammo. I have enough faction with CreoDron to fly L3 missions (that’s level 3) which reward a great deal more than L2. Previously I would fly mining expeditions or delivery ones. Now that I’m flying a Tengu I decided I would try my hand at some security.

It took some time, but my first mission was an easy success. I had three points of enemies to destroy, and none of them got close enough to me to matter. I was able to heal myself just fine, salvaged and pillaged all the wrecks afterward for goodies that I can use in crafting, and had a lot of fun doing it. I know this is child’s play for many EVE Online players, but as a player just returning, and one who has never been in the thick of much combat before, I was pleased.

I believe probing has changed too, and there are now icons in the sky that I’m not familiar with, so I still have quite a bit of learning / refreshing to do. I miss my wurmhole expeditions, and I’m already contemplating re-activating my second account. For the time being I think I’m good with just the one, but it would certainly make mining operations smoother to have my miner / hauler duo going. I would typically run a hulk or ice miner on my 2nd account and run my Orca on the main account. In any case, it’s nice to be back, and I’ll be posting about my adventures (minus specific details of course, that’s just the way EVE is) here as always.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!