EVEOnline

10th Annual Frigate Free for All

stargrace April 20, 2024 0Comment

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

Being Safer

stargrace April 19, 2024 0Comment

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

Some Industry Splurges

stargrace April 13, 2024 0Comment

Just like I do in World of Warcraft, working the market in EVE means I need to know what people are buying, and how much they’re buying it for. Watching YouTube videos may be a great introduction, but if all you’re doing is what everyone else is doing – you’re going to quickly find that market over saturated. The best thing for you to do is to figure out a small portion of the market that you can wiggle your way into, and then expand from there.

I decided to expand on what I had already been doing with industry just a tiny bit. My ammo can be crafted for cheaper than it costs to buy it – but that wasn’t the reason I went and picked up the BPO today. The main reason is because I go through a LOT of ammo, and I get tired of running out to the shopping district every time I want to buy more. The fact that it’s cheaper for me to craft it is an added bonus and just made sense, so I went and took care of that.

There’s a handful of ‘popular’ ships that also sell for a few million more than it costs to craft, so I added those to the manufacturing jobs that I already had running. I might keep one for myself as a spare. My PI takes care of another group of crafting, and I have some alts who are also getting situated when it comes to PI. Nothing much, but I don’t need them to be much. For now, at least.

I also learned about warehouse containers – fantastic, because at the moment my inventory is a disaster. I’d like to put BPO / BPC into a container and then just not look at them for a while, heh. I hate that they don’t stack, either, so those 600 T1 items I decided to invent into T2 take up a whole lot of room. Ideally I wouldn’t necessarily live in the same place I was doing my industry work, but I like it here, so that’s where I am. Having containers should help keep things in line. I thought I already had containers, but I must have emptied them ages ago.

Apparently I get to experience my first war dec first. I’m not really concerned, I’m already pretty paranoid no matter where / what I’m flying, and the thought that concord won’t be coming to my rescue isn’t really one I’ve ever really cared about. Especially since these days I’m almost always in jspace. No data/relic sites today, but I did get a lot of industry done, so it was a nice change. I haven’t had a lot of spare gaming time, but I’m doing my best.

Fly safe o7

My EVE Experiences Through the Years (2009+)

stargrace April 12, 2024 1Comment

I’ve been playing EVE off and on (more off, than on) since 2009 – and I decided to go back through my older posts and note some of the moments that stood out to me over the years.

• March 18, 2009 – my very first day in EVE Online. I did the ancient tutorial, and wasn’t sure if I was going to keep playing. I had a 21 day trial account back then.
• May 20, 2010 – I’m flying my very first hulk, and I was SO excited. It felt like it took forever to train for.
• June 5, 2010 – My very first trip to Jita, where I felt TINY compared to the number of people around.
• June 6, 2010 – I jumped into my first WH, and did some mining. What a rush!
• June 9, 2010 – PI releases for the first time
• December 31, 2010 – I finished training to fly an Orca, and finally was able to afford the ship, too
• October 30, 2011 – Ice mining for the first time
• February 15, 2013 – I finally finish training to fly a Tengu (I still fly this ship as my main ship type)
• February 18, 2015 – I return after a few years away, and start working with R&D agents
• February 20, 2015 – I attempted to stream EVE, and some viewers reprimanded me for my Tengu fit, so I changed it.
• November 22, 2015 – After another break, I’m still ranting about R&D agents
• March 26, 2016 – 10 days of EVE for .99 (so I return, again, briefly)
• March 9, 2019 – My very first relic site
• March 10, 2019 – Lost my Tengu to C5 rats, whewps.
• June 11, 2020 – I start doing a few more relic/data sites (and promptly take another break)
• March 13, 2024 – I return (yet again) to EVE after a 4 year break, my longest away from the game.

I guess maybe the 100th attempt is the one that sticks? In those years I belonged mainly to one corporation (for 11 years), and they’re no longer active, which is why I made the decision to join Signal Cartel. Everyone tells me that EVE is a social game, and I believe that those social aspects are what keep people playing (so we’ll see how it goes). It has been pretty interesting to read up on how things have changed over the years (and what has remained the same).

Fly safe! o7

A Day of Firsts

stargrace April 11, 2024 0Comment

Most of my adventures in EVE happen in high sec because after attempting to pass through low sec and getting instantly blapped I had zero desire to interact with that portion of the game. It just wasn’t fun playing a game where everyone else seemed to know the rules, and I knew nothing.

These days things are a bit better. I’m still learning those rules, but survival is the name of the game. Most of my recent days are spent in nullsec (jspace, wormholes) which I find much safer than low sec. I’ve been trying to get more familiar with these aspects of EVE, and the best way to do that is to put yourself into those types of situations (almost like exposure therapy). So yesterday, I found myself a quiet C2 system, and decided on a whim that it was time for me to attempt some of the combat sites within. All of my combat to date has been in high sec, scanning down anomalies and doing L4 missions.

I don’t really know much about WH sites. I had to look up the one I decided to attempt, and I guess it was a C2 sleeper site? The loot was OK, and while my tanking was fantastic, my DPS felt a bit slow. Something to work on I suppose. Anyway, I cleared the site (all the while frantically checking d-scan, expecting an angry swarm of attackers to scan me down and blap me again) and then I scanned down the rest of the hole, wondering what other trouble I could get into. I found a gas site, and decided that with the little bit of free time I had left over, I might as well do some huffing (that’s the name for gas harvesting).

I’d never done it before, and while my alt account can use the covert ops ship for huffing, I can’t use the good scoops (harvest modules) and on my main account I can’t use the ship (I need 9d of training still) but I can use the fancy scoops. I swapped over to the cheaper venture, deciding that I didn’t need the covert ops cloak that bad since I had been in the system for quite some time and not seen anyone – and I was hyper aware of anything that moved, so I was hoping I’d have time to get away if someone did show up.

I set a timer so I knew when the rats would show up at the gas site – and when they did, I swapped out again for the exploration Tengu I have. After that little adventure I decided to step into an adjoining WH, but there were a few ships on d-scan so I didn’t stick around too long. One was a Helios (appropriately named Dora the Explorer) and the other was a navy issued combat ship (I’ve forgotten the name). Still, it was a nice gaming session where I felt I had accomplished quite a bit that was ‘new’ to me. Now I just need to keep up with it.

Fly safe o7