Blog-a-Day 19: CSM7

Poetic Stanziel sometimes posts community discussion questions, with the most recent being: Question #019 Do you know who you will be voting for in the upcoming CSM7 elections? If not, who are you following closely? Here is my response: First off, I have not decided who I will vote for.  I will not be voting for null bloc candidates, as I assume they will have no trouble getting the votes needed.  Those blocs will game the system a bit to try and split the other voting blocs, which are much less organized.  Others have written about this already, and Mittens has talked about the shortcomings and benefits of the CSM voting system in more than a few places.  I am also not terribly concerned about most of the incumbents.  If they are running again, a vote for them is effectively a referendum vote. I am following a few candidates though, so here are my thoughts on the ones I am aware of.  And yes, I used most of Seismic Stan’s links for the candidates, because although I have been browsing Jita Park, it was easier. Hans Jagerblitzen I have a post up already on this guy.  He seems to have Continue Reading →

CSM7: Hans Jagerblitzen

So Hans Jagerblitzen, in an effort for publicity and to court my vote, went so far as to find my blog and put a comment up linking to his blog, and even posted the comment on a post that talked about CSM7.  He’s got my vote for organization at the very least! But seriously, I read Hans’ manifesto of sorts, and I think he is a very thoughtful  addition to the CSM 7 race.  Although I do not agree with all his stances, I find the effort he spent thinking about issues, compiling his thoughts in a mostly coherent document,  and crediting/admitting lack of knowledge on some issues are all good qualities in a CSM candidate.  He should pique interest, especially in the Faction Warfare and High Sec player bases he seems to be courting.  Hans seems to know where he stands (on the outside, looking in on the bloc voters and the fractured high sec mobs), and does not claim to be the end all candidate, but rather someone who wants to provide a reasoned voice to the CSM and CCP. I agree with many members of the Eve community who have already given most, if not all, of the “full” Continue Reading →

KOTM: Turberfield Edition

Of The 843 Exhumers destroyed in Jan 2012, 409 were in high sec, 10 low, 406 null and 18 wormhole space. – CCP Diagoras If I am reading this correctly, somehow 409 Exhumers were killed by high-sec belt or mission rats in January.  What?  How?  I have a Hulk.  With literally any shield mod you care to throw on that ship, this should not be possible.  You can walk away for fifteen minutes and come back to find a belt full of high-sec rats plinking away at your shields to no avail. I have no further words for this.Update:  Apparently 121 of those were in Incursions, I assume doing that mining thing I’ve heard about.  But that still leaves 288 taken out by other NPCs

CSM7: The Blanding

 I am waiting for something to happen in CSM7 land.  So far we know most of CSM6 is going to run again.  Here are my brief thoughts on each, with asterices: The Mitanni – CFC will get him elected, so no point in even paying attention. UAxDeath – Not sure what he ever did. Two Step* – I like this Two Step, talks a lot, even if I do not agree with some of what he says. Seleene* – Useful knowledge of CCP and Eve Meissa Anunthial* – Posts frequently on the forums, so hooray! Trebor Deahdoow* – Another communicative CSM. Prometheus Exenthal – Who? Elise Randolph – Again, who? Not already on the CSM but making noise: Kelduum Revaan – Eve Uni CEO, no substantial info or platform yet. Mintrolio – “I Love All Secs!” campaign is funny but uninformative. T’amber – Moar pink ships, smaller boobs and Serious Business.  Probably more interesting than Prometheus, but hey, that’s not hard. And that’s about it so far.  I think I saw someone nominating Chribba, but I have doubts.  Ripard Teg made a pass at the pretty girl in the bar, then talked himself out of it in a weird bait-and-switch Continue Reading →

Titans and Supercaps

Update:  My original link went to the wrong post, so I fixed it. Over at 2nd Anomaly From the Left, I read an interesting post.  Orakkus talks about potential ways to increase the multiplayer aspect of supercarriers and titans in order to make them, essentially, more of a logistical problem to use on the battlefield.  He proposes a Voltron-like solution.  It’s a very interesting idea. Doomsday FIIIIIIIIRE! After thinking for a few seconds, I thought why not take an in game model, strategic cruisers, and apply it to these behemoths?  I leave figuring out skill system tweaks to others, but you would end up with something where multiple players would each control a portion of the Titan, and each portion could be targeted independently and have an impact on the overall performance of the Titan.  The ship could function with less than the full crew, but with some form of penalty. Here is a sketch of the idea. Titan Roles Navigation – Controls flight, jumping, and movement related tasks. Gunnery – Controls the onboard weapon systems and the doomsday device. Engineering – Controls defensive and power/cpu related tasks. Communications and Electronics – Controls targeting and jump bridge operations.  Would receive Continue Reading →

Guide: Skill Planning

Given some of the recent posts around the skill system in Eve, and some discussions in game with Corp members, I am going to propose a boring, but highly useful initial skill plan for new players who have no real idea what they want to do.  This list also focuses on Flying in Space skills for a basic combat oriented pilot.  I am assuming a new player is not going to immediately decide to go the industry or science based career paths. I’ll list these in a general order of training.  A key note:  Training to your racial frigate and gun type of choice is always a good first day of Eve approach, as it will let you actually do something in game.  It may also be worth training a few levels in the racial cruiser and medium turret or missile  too, but that is by no means an absolute.  It just gives you a few more ships to play with early on.  Also, playing through the tutorial missions will get you many of these skillbooks for free, so it is worth sending a day or three doing those missions! Core Fitting SkillsThese are horribly boring, but are highly useful Continue Reading →

Blog Banter 32: Mechanics and Education

Seismic Stan occasionally posts questions to the Eve blogging community.  His most recent is: “A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons’ Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an “opt out of PvP” option.  Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?” Seismic Stan asked us if there should be a way to remove non-consensual PvP from Eve, which I will take to mean, should there be parts of High Sec that do not allow non-consenual PvP.  I cannot think of another way to reframe the question that makes sense.  So we are either talking about PvP free islands or a PvP free High Sec.  I vehemently disagree with the removeal of PvP in high sec.  I would cautiously support development of very small islands of low value, PvP-free High Sec, but Continue Reading →

Wormhole Fun

I have been having some pretty awesome luck with exploration within a jump of my home system lately.  In the last few days I have found multiple Radar sites with about 20 mil of loot (in my opinion these are the easiest isk/time ratio in the game when the streak is on), I found a nice Sansha site with a 90m mod, and we found a nice little C1 that was inhabited. I go in, make some safes, scan down the sites and investigate things.  I get on the horn and call in some backup to clear out a few sites.  Jump clones are activated.  We end up with 2 combat sites outside of D-Scan of the people living in this hole.  There are at least 2 guys logged in flying around in a Tengu and Loki.  Fun!  The best WH sites are those you are stealing out from under the “owners”.  We make sure the warp bubbles are not on our warp lines to the sites.  We proceed to find out two Drakes can clear sleeper sites, but it takes a while. Apparently Sleeper NPCs know how to use EFT unlike the Empire rats, or they are just using Continue Reading →

Failing at (Internet Spaceship) Life

I saved up and trained up over the last month or so, and finally got myself into the ship I wanted to fly since I saw one in action, the Tengu.  My fit was a rather standard mission running fit, as I recently moved to a new section of Empire and have been grinding standing for various characters and stocking up on the isk while I decide on my next move in Eve.  My fit ran along these lines: [Tengu, Mission] Tengu Defensive – Amplification NodeTengu Electronics – Dissolution SequencerTengu Engineering – Augmented Capacitor ReservoirTengu Offensive – Accelerated Ejection BayTengu Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy MissileHeavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy MissileHeavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy MissileHeavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy MissileHeavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy MissileHeavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile Republic Fleet 10MN AfterburnerCaldari Navy Shield Boost AmplifierPithum C-Type Medium Shield BoosterInvulnerability Field IIInvulnerability Field IIPhoton Scattering Field II Caldari Navy Ballistic Control SystemCaldari Navy Ballistic Control SystemCaldari Navy Ballistic Control SystemPower Diagnostic System II Medium Capacitor Control Circuit IIMedium Capacitor Control Circuit IIMedium Capacitor Control Circuit I As far as Tengus go, this is not a terribly expensive Continue Reading →

Why I’m Not Playing SW:TOR

I’d been thinking about it, but fears of WoW-creep have lingered.  I spent about 5 years in WoW, I’m not going back.  There are some features of a character driven MMO that are appealing in a way that Internet Spaceships is not.  Incarna was a botched attempt at this, but does show that having an avatar is something many players want.  I loved gearing up my Hunter, but got frustrated with the constant “gear resets” that each patch added.  So deep in the recesses of my brain, I have been hoping for SW:TOR to swoop in, beloved droids bee-booping and lightsabers flashing and sweep me off my feet. Then Poetic posted a link to this.  Images of dancing in Orgrimmar waiting for Raid/BG/Dungeon/Something to Grind flooded into my brain.  And the interface looks… identical? No thanks.