Back on the Belts (and other stuff)

It has been a little over two weeks since I’ve returned to EVE Online, and as I mentioned in a previous post I’ve finally settled into a bit of routine. I try to get a bit of ice mining done first thing, do my dailies, and I re-set my PI. PI is really treating me quite well. I’m not selling the components but instead crafting bits with them which I sell. My hangar was filled with a lot of BPO/BPC so I’ve been working through the backlog and making some ships to sell (when profitable). Looks like I had stocked up on Viator BPs for some reason, I don’t think I intended on flying one (at least I can’t find any mention of it) so I’m crafting those for a few million ISK of profit.

There was some drama in the Jspace version of my corp yesterday, which doesn’t affect me since I live in the Kspace version, but it still didn’t sit very well with me. I’m thinking I might try to find a more pve/industry/exploration aligned home, if one exists. One of the issues I have is that the corp has an open policy on pvp, if it’s not blue/green (alliance/corp mate) then you’re free to attack no questions asked. I prefer a more passive method of gameplay – defense is fine (and encouraged) as well as attacking those with negative standing, but there’s some great kind people out there just doing their thing, and I don’t really like the idea of just being a random asshole simply because they’re not known. I understand that’s a very me mentality, and a lot of EVE is “bully, or be bullied” but it’s just something that has been on my mind. I also don’t really appreciate some of the snide comments from the Jspace corporation towards the Kspace one, like we’re lesser. Again, purely me thoughts on all of this.

I’ve been doing a LOT of exploration this week. I watched a few videos on how to get pathfinder working, and now I’m mapping my way through Eden. I enjoy this a HUGE amount, I found my very first C6 WH! I did not peek inside as it was EOL (end of life), but it was still a neat discovery. Doing this sort of exploration is fun – and sometimes it can be pretty rewarding if I happen to stumble into some relic/data sites. My industry adventures are keeping me well supplied, but I don’t think there are any other ships (at this time at least) that I want to add to my rotation. I’m pretty set for everything I enjoy doing – what I do want to spend a little ISK on are a few more BPO to round out my collection.

Back to exploration – I was scanning down WH yesterday and found one that went from Agal to another high sec, Fabum! When I manually made the path between those two destinations, it was over 40 jumps away, so it was a really neat little shortcut for anyone who may have wanted to head out there. I thought that was a cool discovery. I also learned about some POI (points of interest) that I may want to explore, thanks to Signal Cartel, and TripTik. I love this idea and everything about it, so expect some posts in the future talking about it a lot more.

I think EVE is still the only game I play where I need to have a minimum of 10 browser tabs open at once just to get through my gameplay and I am completely here for it. I have so many spreadsheets, have so many lists and notes and just bits of information I’m trying to retain all over the place. It’s lovely.

As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself.

PI? What was I even doing?!

I think PI was one of those things I was initially excited about – trained all of the skills, and then kept telling myself “one day I’ll optimize this” and never did. I was earning ISK from it, but I never calculated how much. I would re-set my extraction program once a day, and pick up all the PI stuff once a week. Some I would sell, some I would use.

This week I decided to watch some YouTube videos on how to set things up in a more optimized way, and it turns out that everything I had done with my own stations was completely wrong and was probably not even worth me having it set up. Yikes.

I spent last night removing the PI I had set up, shuffling all of my components around (I even ended up picking up the Epithal for this because it was cheap and why not) and figuring out what planets I actually wanted to do PI on. I wanted something closer to home, I enjoy where I have my base at the moment, it’s close to what I need and I don’t mind making the jumps to get to quieter space.

Anyway, after a few hours the old factories were removed, and then this morning I set about getting the new ones set up. At the time of this post, I have 4 planets set up with 8 factories each (I only had 1 single factor per planet before and I had split the extractions between two raws that were not even related to one another, it was honestly a disaster). I still have one ‘factory’ planet to set up, and that will produce the T2/T3 items. That planet will have 24 factories. Once PI is set up, you only need to check in every so often – but getting it all set up and linked and running, can be confusing.

Do you play Factorio? Enjoy it? Then you’d probably enjoy setting up PI and optimizing it. What I’m making won’t even come close to what I COULD make if I set up my PI in ls or null, but honestly I was content with what I was making before when it was 100% unoptimized and horrible. I just didn’t know any better. I understand that a LOT of people do NOT enjoy PI, and that’s OK. I don’t particularly enjoy PVP, so I’m glad that there’s other aspects of game play that I DO enjoy.

Once my PI is optimized I’m sure I will look at something else that I’ve been using that’s outdated and archaic and update that. I still haven’t finished raising my R&D faction yet either. I don’t lack for things to do, I just lack the time to do it all.

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

Industry? Sure!

Apparently during one of my (many) breaks from EVE, how BPO work was changed – I don’t remember how it used to work, but now, they’re sold by NPC, and you can sell the BPC through contracts. I have quite a few BPO and BPC just sitting around in my hangar, I know I was making some T2 drones at one point, so that’s what I decided to start with for some pocket change. Then I noticed some of my blueprints were not optimized for time/materials, so I decided to fix that on a few of them. I’m not even sure why I have 14 Nereus blueprints, all I can assume is that I was trying to research them into the T2 version (Why? Was I going to fly one? I have no idea).

I spent a small portion of the morning scanning down WH and hoping I’d stumble into a gas site – but I did not. Not even a relic/data site. I did find quite a few combat sites, so I completed my dailies (two quests to scan down 5 sites, and one to kill 25 NPC) easily enough.

I parked myself in the two ice belts that spawn after downtime, and decided to lay low while happy weekend gamers decided to blow one another up. I learned a little while ago the Tengu was hit with the nerf bat, so I may just keep mine parked (it’s expensive to fit) and figure out what I want to fly next. I’ve got quite a few skills but they’re a bit all over the place. Heavy assault missiles V is what I’m finishing up right now, and then it’s on to the specialization.

I’ve been practicing using Pathfinder to map my way around the universe, but haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet. It’s supposed to auto-map as I jump, but that function doesn’t seem to work for me, personally. I did learn how to delete old signatures and add new ones, so that’s something at least. I know how to manually add connections, but the auto mapping still eludes me. My EVE folder continues to grow with all of these neat little 3rd party tools, enhancing my already splendid spreadsheet game. I know a lot of folks are preoccupied with flying the most fancy ship they can possibly get into, but slow and steady wins the race, or.. something like that.

As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself.

Organizing All the Things

It’s really no big surprise that one of my favourite things to do in EVE is to organize. Whether it’s my ships, their fits, my hangar, or industry – I spend a lot of time sorting through things and organizing them. Last night I decided to focus on the ships. I stripped those I’m not actively using so I could take better inventory of what I have, and I wanted to make sure I had complete fits for those I do use. I know I could just share items between ships but I’m not really a fan of that (plus I end up losing / forgetting things). I’d like each ship to have its use and fit it for that use. I’ve also been thinking more about WHAT ships I’m using, and how expensive they are vs. other ships that might be able to handle the same things that I’m already handling. Especially if I’m going to risk losing that ship. In 3 more days I’ll be able to fly the Tengu again (I can already fly it, but I’m waiting on some weapon skills) but the Gila has been great at handling what I need it to handle and it’s not nearly as expensive when all is said and done. I also have a myrmidon, and the Dominix (which I believe I was going to upgrade to a Sin, I have the blueprints for one, at least). Then there’s a catalyst, and even a tristan rounding things out. I’ve got a prospect I’m hoping to take out gas huffing (finding gas has been a difficult task for me as of late) and there’s the venture, too if I want to go even cheaper.

It’s better for me to practice and learn in these less expensive ships, and then when I feel more confident I can start using the better ones. My EVE tasks are not exactly limited, even by using a less expensive ship, and it should give me some experience and confidence.

Industry is going pretty well, I have lots of drones and ammo for sale each day, and they’re moving even though I’m not selling in Jita (I really didn’t want to make all those jumps just for a handful of ISK, I’d rather sell closer to home). I haven’t managed to get my R&D faction up yet, but I know if I just plug away at it slowly the faction will come. I keep getting distracted by other things in space (like that escalation from yesterday).

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

My First Escalation!

I’ve been doing some faction raising (remember I have one R&D agent who is still L2 and I want L4) and in between those missions I’ve been doing HS ratting, the ones that show up on your overview when you’re in an area. I’m not sure how many I’ve done now, but it’s a fair amount – and today I got my first escalation! I had to look it up first, because I didn’t want to jump 4 jumps away just to have someone else complete it while I was OTW, but I guess they’re specific to you (that does NOT mean you’re safe, someone can warp in on you easily if they’re looking for you) but since it was in HS no one was looking for me (I hope). It was a few thousand ISK of loot, and of course some great kills. I had to complete it in multiple stages, passing through a gate each stage, and handle a handful of encounters. The Gila is a lovely beast for HS, but I do wish I had a salvager fit to it, because letting all those wrecks sit there made me a bit sad – I understand it’s better to complete these missions fast and move on to something else for ISK/h but I’ve never been much of a min/max player, and I use those components for industry.

I went back afterwards with my salvaging ship just as a way to unwind and to take some pretty screenshots.

Speaking of industry, it was a very good week! I sold all of the drones I made, even though I had priced them above others in the market. I am not quite making enough for a PLEX, but I don’t really know if that’s my goal or if I’d rather just keep myself in ships and continue to buy my game time the good old fashioned way.

Losing the Tengu right at the start of my adventures really put a large dent into my ISK earned, but at least I’ve had a week now of gains in the green instead of in the red. It’s not the billions of ISK others talk about, but I’m still pretty happy with my time invested vs. ISK earned given that I tend to avoid PVP as much as I possibly can (I know this is EVE, I’m still going to play in the style I enjoy most).

Safe flying!