Author Archives: Grimmash

Escamalations

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Back from the holidays, I hope everyone had a good time and survived the familial mine field!  I got myself a Christmas present, but I’ll talk about that in another post, maybe.  Today, I want to muse about Exploration and Escalations. I like exploration.  As PvE goes, it is the most organic experience one can have in Eve.  No set locations, no promises, each time I hop in my CovOps, it is a new experience.  I’ve made a little money running sites, nothing great, but I generally stay out of low sec when exploring, so there you go.  Yesterday one of my corp mates, who has been talking up low sec escalations for some time, got me out of my mission grinding bliss (deadspace mods don’t pay for themselves!) and into low sec for some escamalationing (I just like saying it that way). We ended up going the full four escalations for the Sansha chain he found, which was awesome.  We also flew through quite a bit of low sec in a Drake and two Ishkurs, saw a hot-drop, and got hounded by a  Hound.  Wel also kept a tense eye on a Nyx that apparently was just passing through Continue Reading →

Hand of the Master

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This post is from the Dept. of Metal Headgear. In no particular order, here are some things that have happened recently: In game PLEX prices have gone up. PLEX sales may have curbed this, but a new, higher equilibrium seems to be forming. PI supply has been constrained, thereby increasing demand, and prices. Further, long term costs of PI via POCOs, have increased, further altering the supply and demand curve New ships (with higher mineral reqs) have been added, eating into the mineral market. Anomalies were adjusted up, slightly. Incursions have increased ISK supply. Taken as a whole I see this turn of events interesting.  Eve has inflation.  Others games have dealt with this via simply resetting portions of the economy, or the entire thing, each expansion.  For an example, look at WoW’s continual rebalancing of rewards and looting mechanics.  CCP is rightfully loathe to do this given the more long-term game Eve players engage in.  But, the ISK faucets flow, and as players amass ISK, prices increase.  The options to combat this are either find massive ISK sinks, or tweak the economy.  Let’s take a quick look at faucets and sinks: Faucets Missions Incursions  Bounties  Insurance Payouts  NPC Buy Continue Reading →

Blog a Day #14: Gifts Response

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A response to Poetic Discourse. This is a tough choice of gift! I already bought and am researching the BPOs offered, so that is rather pointless.  I could care less about the destroyers and faction ammo.  But weighing an implant v a remap, that is tough.  I need to look up the info on the remap, as I am not sure if it is an instant thing or if it gets added to my character to use at any point.  If it the second option, that may be a no-brainer.  This could be a nice ace in the hole if I get bored of my Per-Wil Map of Doom ™.

Forum: Industrial Might

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I’m starting a new feature:  Forum questions, where I ask you to respond to some crazy idea I come up with!  Without further ado, here is my question: What if a new industrial hull was added that had a slight buff to tanking ability and more turret slots with a negative “bonus” to those turrets?  Something like: Honey Badger After years of plying the space lanes, Caldari industrial interests decided to update the tried-and-sometimes-true Badger to take into account the realities of cargo transport in New Eden.  While not intended to pose a true threat, the Honey Badger has a bit more bite than previous versions with the ability  to mount a semblance of firepower, while at a reduced cargo capacity. Caldari Industrial Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to shield resistance 5% bonus to cargo capacity and velocity Role Bonus: -25% turret rate of fire Give it 4/6/3 layout with 4 turret slots, same general stats as the Badger Mk II. Discuss!

Taking My Ball Home!

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Edit: For a nice dose of schadenfreude, read through the comments on this one. There has been a lot of talk lately about high sec players and how they ruin Eve for everyone else.  I find the volume of chatter unsurprising, given the resent Ivy League and Goonswarm Shrugged antics.  What I do find surprising is the lengths to which each side goes to delegitimize the other side, and using the “Eve is  a Sandbox!” argument to make the point. A sandbox game is in general a game where the world is laid out for players with rules and mechanics to govern interaction, but without an endgame provided by the developer.  I would posit another fundamental assumption of sandbox style games is that if the mechanics allow for something to occur, then it is a valid play style unless it is explicitly addressed by the developers.  In other words, every play-style that a player can engage in is valid, until restricted. So it seems very funny and shortsighted to claim pirates are bad or miners are evil just because you think the mechanics of the game favor or hinder a play-style.  The fact that you can mine, and the fact Continue Reading →

Bounty Hunting

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If you have read some of my previous posts, I would understand if you think I view pirates as the scum of Eve and they should all go die in that fire people talk about.  But this is not true!  I do want them dead, but by the hands of other players!  I have spent some time thinking about the mechanics of sec status and piracy, and I have a proposal. Tweak the boundaries of legal pvp in eve.  Here is a brief, chart based explanation: System Security Status Legal Target Sec Status* High Sec 1 <0.0 0.9 -0.5 0.8 -1.0 0.7 -2.0 0.6 -3.0 0.5 -4.0 Low Sec 0.4 to 0.1 -5.0 Null Sec Null/WH All Of course there are caveats. Any pilot with a negative sec status is a legal target according to the chart above. Only players who have participated in an illegal action can be given a bounty. Legal actions are any hostilities under the auspice of a war dec, taken after another player initiated hostilities in sec of 0.1 or greater, or anything occurring in low sec. Non-sanctioned bounties (i.e. pirate bounties ) can be placed as contracts in null sec. If a player has Continue Reading →

PI Changes – The Carebear Version

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I was meaning to write an article about opportunity cost that was much more eloquent than this will be, but the recent PI changes are great illustration I want to take advantage of.  Also, robo-poster Jester beat me to some of the economics in this post. So here is the second half.  The TL;DR: I’m out (of PI)! Here is why.  I have roughly 24 hours in each day.  In those hours I have to eat, sleep, take care of my loved ones, attend school and work.  Eve usually comes last in that progression, or is something I do in the background while I focus on one of the others.  This is where opportunity cost comes in.  I am a high-sec carebear, mainly because it is a nice place to base out of and accomplish things in Eve while still being able to get up out of my chair if real life calls.  I generally do not have time to scout low sec routes for gate camps, I generally do not have the mental desire to play hours of stations games, and I cannot commit to being available for CTAs or to wake up at 2am for a reinforcement timer.  And Continue Reading →

Blog-a-day #5: Podcasts Response

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A resonse to Poetic Discourse.What I Listen To: Voices from the Void – Usually informative, always entertaining, and yeah, Arydanika has a voice that is just plain fun to hear.  Seismic Stan is a nice addition/replacement. Ender Black’s  Pod Goo – Nice range of interviews and topics covered.  Nice approach to analyzing tactics and strategies. What Don’t I Listen To (And Why): Fly Reckless – Never seemed to stick for me, I think the in-jokes got too thick when I was trying to listen. Isk (iTunes) – This is personal:  I am trying to be a good former smoker and listening to someone light up on the podcast is infuriating and tempting.  Also, sometimes the format is waaay to long. Ransoms and Roams:  Tried to listen, did not hold my attention. What I Wished Was Still Around: Lost In Eve General Thoughts: I find that podcasts that have a high production level (like a radio show) tend to keep my attention.  As I am constantly working, studying, or moving around, being able to stop and start listening, or listening to little segments at each go is very useful to me. VandV does this well. Consistency (even if it means short Continue Reading →

Guide: Making Money 101 – Mission Running

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 Most new players ask how to make Isk in Eve.  There are a myriad number of ways to do this, but as a new player you are somewhat limited until you invest some key skills into various career paths.  I am going to focus a few articles on a few of the more accessible ways to start building your space wallet.  None of these will make you space rich but they will keep you in enough money to fund your skills and start building a fleet of useful ships.  Warning: I assume you are in a player-run corporation, and occasionally play with other people.  This is a social game, after all. Missioning Simply put, mission running means going to an NPC agent and accepting a mission, completing it, and getting paid.  Missioning pays well… once you hit the level 4 agents.  To get there you need to grind your status up from (probably) neutral.  You will probably want to do this with a useful corporation.  What does useful mean?  I define it as an NPC corp that has fringe benefits besides just making ik.  Good Loyalty Point rewards, geographically convenient Jump Clone access, and better refining rates can all be Continue Reading →