Out of the gutter

Y115.11.11

Firstly, thank you and may you find the peace your sacrifice has given us.

Secondly, apologies to my reader for not being very active for some months. Send me that EVEmail and I will give you the 1mil I promised. Busy IRL, busy in EVE, hell even busy at work. Enough about RL though - it's dull.

Y115 recap
Busy. Any small amount of evewhoing will reward you with the priceless and probably not particularly valuable information that I reside in Providence, or Provistan as we affectionately call it. Every nullite comes here to play at some point as further interaction with your search engine will show. Internal drama, external drama, we have it all and although often referred to as the ginger kid of EVE, people still come to our house quite a lot. So, very busy - one bunch come and kick / get kicked / get bored / get kicked by someone bigger or more important somewhere else, leave. Rinse, repeat. No shortage of good fights here though, but sadly those 30-man one-way kitchen sink WH roams for lulz are now largely a thing of the past. Probably good for the wallet.

Kerching
So, the wallet - how on Sarum Prime can I afford this lavish PVP lifestyle, I hear you ask. Well I don't play as much as I did, so losses are less. Also, as the Provibloc fleet size has grown, there are more [and more juicy] targets for the OPFOR to choose. I also tend fly logi a lot at the moment, which although often means primary, also means I am already on my logibros watchlist. And logi is SRP'd :P

Talking of logi, I still can't understand why people are so reluctant to fly it - ships are cheap / SRP'd, everyone loves you, you can turn fights and you get one or 2 more channels to watch. Most importantly, you get to hang with the logibros - and a finer bunch of miscreants I have never met. You need more tactical awareness and are constantly watching your WL / broadcast history, juggling targets, reps, cap chain, prop mod, orbit, anchor, align point, etc. Have even if I have done my share of logi FC'ing and I reckon it's the best buzz in EVE for me right now. Or go DPS and press F1 / assign drones to the drone bunny. Of course, as logi, I would never use my drones to whore on KM's. No Siree, not me. Purely for defence from ECM drones and small tackle, honest.

Oh yes, ISK generation. PI, primarily - 1 system, 4 planets harvesting P0 / producing P1, 1 factory planet turning P1 into P3, 2 characters, 1 Epithal, some hauling, 1 week cycles to reduce the RSI. Pretty much covers the losses. I think I have tried every PI guide off the internet and have now come to the conclusion, that the only real way to make any money off PI without wanting to committing seppuku, is to do it in null and keep it simple. Sure there is more money to be made off it, it doesn't sell so quick in null, reds in system can be a pain in the arse and you always wonder if you would get better money if you hauled it all to hisec, but to use common chatroom parlance - meh. As PI guides go, the ones I have found most useful recently are, yes, you guessed it, EVE Uni's, see the bit about colonies for some great set-up info. Thanks again. I wonder if I would be rich if I had just joined them at the bloody start.

One interesting nugget I picked up from somewhere, is that if you are PI'ing in sov null, you need to be in the holder alliance to plant a Command Centre. Once it is planted however, you can build a colony from it and don't need any affiliations. Except those you may want to stop yourself getting exploded or reduce import / export taxes.

Training
Can't remember where I got to. All T2 subcap guns in the bag, just got T2 HAM & Light missiles, working on T2 Cruise, I think.

Fly safe, sportsfans

o7

Blah, blah, blah

Y115.05.20

2 posts in a week, good stuff.

Pie
Well, the 1 ECU per planet thing is ok, but requires some micro-management on the 3 day cycle thing. I gashed the silo’s as it was either that or field less than 10 heads and that defeats the object of alternating / maximising the resource stripping. Also, in hisec there is no real need for one as the LP is [just] big enough. So it’s now –

EH x10 > ECU > LP > P1 [basic] factory x3 > LP > P2 [advanced] factory x2 > LP

…with 6 basic factories [one for each resource] & 2 advanced. I have tried retasking the basic factories to speed up P1 production, but it’s a PITA resetting all the routes, which is what I am trying to avoid. On next iteration, I will go with 3 basic factories per resource and therefore leave one side of the chain empty but still routed. I might also try with just one advanced factory to free up some PG / CPU [whatever it is I am short of trying to run 10 heads and requiring me to gash either the unused ECU or its link to the LP].

EH x10 > ECU > LP > P1 factory x3 > LP > P2 [advanced] factory x1 > LP
EH x10 > ECU > LP > P1 factory x3 > LP ^
*note – one side is unused for 3 days then extraction swapped [and just one LP]*

Of course, the other thing I forgot is that not all P0 comes out at the same rate, meaning I have more than enough of some P2 to feed the P2 > P4 factory planet and nowhere near enough of the others. So it looks like when I get it sorted, I will be rearranging heads and transferring product to the POCO every 3 days [just need to be undocked in system for that], haul every week or so and make less P4, but at maybe double the profit per unit over solely producing P2 > P4. Once I have an ISK buffer built up, I could always top up the low P2 with market bought stuff through buy orders, something the alt has not really trained up yet.

It’s mine[ing]
Still the way to go for easy ISK – 5-odd mil ISK per hold plus the bounties for the belt rats and no real thinking involved. Just burned through the first set of T2 crystals :D Oh, and set up a POS on my own? Ahahahahahahahahahahaha. Just no. Well, not until there is a bil in the bank as change after Caisman has a bunch more ships are bought and fitted. I’ve let the alt’s corp CEO know he can POS gun out of someone else’s, though

Pop
Got me Naga popped trying to catch up to a big strat-op the other night, which was quite annoying, but the guns were only T1 anyway :/ Been line DPS grunt on a couple of blobs, sorry big fleets since then [and not primaried], so I have somehow made #1 leet killah in corp and #2 in alliance this week and learnt that I don’t really like lowsec, what with its safeties, flags, consequences and those colours in my overview that I can never remember what they mean malarkey. Red and not red is much easier. And flashing = shoot it. Will do what FC says though, ofc.

Reshipped to logi for the redux of these fleets, but the policing had been largely successful by then and no-one needed much logi loving. I have noticed a real problem with getting into logi chat lately though – I wouldn’t want to interrupt voice comms for such things, but requests in fleet chat are often ignored / unseen by those who can drag into the channel and I end up looking on the blues overview, sorting by type and convoing someone I know who is in logi to get me in. Being in logi chat is important for sorting the logi anchor / cap and rep chains and getting the those logi specific orders which get missed in the fleet chat [like my x’s for the chat]. At least it means I get away without being logi FC.

Logi watchlist tips – alliance op = corp mates on WL, bloc op = alliance mates on WL, hehe. Er, plus whatever the FC says, of course.

Blue on blue action
Last night was bloc free-ship Sunday and off I went in my free T1 fit Kestrel of arse, for some pure KB whoring / ISK correcting. Popped way more than I lost, but was a little surprised that top damage on me [17%] was done by a blue fleet member [highest red damage was 5%]. ‘Twas but a free ship, but best let him know in a sarcastic manner in case he needs to review his overview settings. Check my tips out here, btw :P Mail sent. Went for a tab after getting back to home system and missed the alliance roam and its shiny kills. That’ll learn me.

Training
Warfare Link Specialist IV to be able to inject Command Ships before its prerequisites are changed to all the Warfare’s V on 4th June with the Odyssey expansion. I may want them someday. Get on it kids, details here.

Fly safe

o7

Working in the coalmine

Y115.05.09

Posted later than written

To quote Culture Shock - time is money and money is time, on civilization street. There’s a couple of wars active ATM, so missioning is out and the need for watching chat channels, listening to comms when doing PVE stuff in 0.0 means I could do with another option for a bit. So I’ve been spending more time on the alt and not logging Caisman in, as this just means I’ll end up roaming. Led a couple of nice logi flights though, it really does rock.

The alt just tried a couple of factory planets making P2 > P4 PI goods, but the lowish profit margin needs a fair bit of investment into P2 and I hate to admit it, but I can’t really spare the cash. P4 also seems to be dropping in price a bit, making the margins even smaller. But I have 6 planets available, so I will set up 5 making the most expensive P2’s, buy the other 4, whack ‘em into the factory planet and see what profit comes out. It’s become a bit of a goal to make it work properly, but I am sure I will get bored and PLEX before too long.

Putting ‘eve pi p0 to p2’ into my favourite search engine, looking for those tips on how to maximise profits that everyone seems so keen to share :/ , I came across a novel [to me] idea which I have put into place on the 2 planets I have set up so far – thread here with interesting bits here and here. Essentially [and on one P0 > P2 planet], it advocates extracting just one P0 at a time for say 3 days, trashing that ECU, rebuilding & linking at the other P0 hospot and alternating. This allows 10 heads on the ECU. Seems legit to me, but not to the corp PI guru, so watch this space. My initial setup is -

EH x10 > ECU > silo > P1 [basic] factory x3 > LP > P2 [advanced] factory x2 > back to LP

I may not need the silo, but it gives me a buffer in case of RL. One more level of Interplanetary Consolidation for Cais will open up the plan I mentioned a while back of using 4 planets for P0 > P1 and then a dedicated P1 > P3 planet. Combine this with the 1 ECU at a time thing and we’re golden. Possibly. Or just left with overflowing silos.

On the subject of watching this space, the planetary planner I mentioned last time, seems ok, but the window is small, requires a bunch of annoying scrolling and it’s a bit clunky. Kind of like a solution looking for a problem, but fair play to the author.

Going down down
Paused training on the alt to put another one in Jita and maxed his Accounting & Broker Relations skills to minimise any taxes. This gives me the abiity to sell in 2 trade hubs with no lengthy / risky commute and I can get Red Frog or Push X to freight any stuff I make to where it sells for most. Could also maybe max Connections and run a mission or two at 4-4. Nah, sod that.

Miiiiiiining
You know, it’s really not that bad. Undock, warp to belt, check other occupants & ‘roids, mine ‘til hold full, dock up, rinse, repeat. The mining laser noise is great. Alt is now on T2 strippers & crystals and basing out of another hisec system which is quiet enough to see who is coming and going and seems to have the rocks I like at the times I am on. He now has a 100% refine and a slightly better standing there to reduce refinery tax and I’ll do a bunch of level 1’s one day to get it down further. Tristan FTW! Not sold any of the minerals yet, will wait until there is a tidy sum, haul or even freighter it all to the hub and do it as one market order. Or start making stuff with it. Of course it would be better to buy and research some BP’s, which would be far better done in a POS. Can he possibly set up a POS and keep it running on his own? New plan – mine and PI endlessly on alt until 7 figures are made > grind standings > build / buy & anchor POS > research BP’s > make stuff > PROFIT!!1. But what about Caisman, you ask? Aren’t you making ISK to keep him in PVP? Do you not have enough time even for that? By the Empress, do the things to do in this game never end? At a monthly fuel cost just shy of half a bil, I’d want to be grossing twice that to make it worthwhile, so it’s not going to happen this week, that’s for sure.

Training
With Large Hybrid V in the bag, Caisman is pushing Interplanetary Consolidation to IV, while the alt is on Hull Upgrades V for that elusive T2 EANM.

Fly safe

o7

Peace sells

Y115.04.11

But who’s buying
Another month flies by and at last most doctrines are open to me, as the only turrets missing at T2 are large hybrids, of which, V is in the cooker. Realized today I have never fired lazors or artillery of any size. I must rectify this soon.

Less success as Director of Recruitment - applicants are not replying to follow-up mails and characters I find, seem to enjoy piracy while we don’t. The hardcore of the corp is good though and we have now been in this alliance for nearly a year, which is a corp record. 5.15 is the magic number.

Feb looked a bit dismal on the KB as I tried to pull the logi together a bit and failed each roam to get a KM add – must mail high command to see if I can be trusted with the password. I think this would be a great way to get people into logi as everyone has a bit of KM whore in them and judging by my inability to lock anything before it pops in recent fleets, some have more than a bit. To be fair, some FC’s do dish out free Scythes pre-roam which helps and of course, some people actually like flying logi.

However, March was ok and there’s a few on the board for April already, so a logi-ing I will go for a couple of weeks. Gotta keep the corp as #2 1337 killah in the alliance, though.

In my darkest hour
The alt is now merrily mining away to keep his younger brother in ships, though I’m sure that geddon thing those dirty piwates do will rear its hydra-like badness soon enough and cost me something. Better sit down and work out how much mining he has to do to fund one barge. Also need to buff his refining skills and build up a little bit of standing with an NPC corp.

All pilots have an inherent 37.5% refining efficiency. Some internet trawling tells me that when using a station with 50% base yield, Refining V with Refinery Efficiency IV and a 3% refining implant gives 100% yield, whereas Refining V and RE V only needs a 1% implant [Tau Cabalander & EVE Uni again, thanks]. Refining implants are the Zainou ‘Beancounter’ Refining RX-80x – check your LP stores, kids.

Refinery tax is worked out at 5 - [0.75 x personal standing] %, so one requires a standing of 6.67 to achieve a 0% tax rate. Alt has no real skills for any red cross shooting, but can fly indy’s alright, so distribution missions it is. Fortunately, there is a L1 agent in his home station. Tidy darts.

Training
Large Hybrid Turret V, 18 days.

Fly safe

o7

There’s a man, at the window

Y115.03.16

He knows
Right, the overview. Been playing about a lot with this and tried pretty much all of the ones listed on the EVE Uni page. They each have their good points and bad and I have made the remarkable discovery that you CAN have the best of both worlds, but only because someone else has put a bunch of time in for you. So gratz & mad props [check me, kids] to Louis deGuerre , Tau Cabalander, Sarah Schneider, Brother Benthor & EVE Uni for compiling it all in one place. Some other ideas here.


You know
I have been happily using Louis Epic Overview settings for the last couple of years, it all makes sense and fits how I work. With Retribution though, came more timers and categories of criminal I need to know if I can shoot [if told to by the FC, ofc] and Louis default colourtag / background settings now made everything orange, which for some reason annoyed me although according to our FC, burnt orange is the new fashion colour. He is however, Dutch. And bonkers. I digress. I wanted Louis’ profiles with less orange and Gucci bolt-ons. What to do? Play. I discovered you can import different profiles from different packs, delete the profiles you don’t want [bigger screen meant I could see this option for the first time – it’s at the very bottom of the rt-click menu – d’oh!] and save modified versions of the ones you do like.

He knows
So I tried these packs and made these rash conclusions -
Louis - familiar, make sense and works well for me, just too much orange
Tau - only gives colourtag / background advice
Sarah - custom ship labels and coloured tabs, but unfamiliar with profiles
Brother Benthor – great ship type specific profiles, but not Louis’

You know
Blah, blah, blah. I wanted Sarah’s custom ship labels and coloured tabs as they totally rock and Tau’s colourtag & background settings as I like to see stuff flashing [Tau vs Louis is explained here] Louis’ profiles had to stay as his idea of what brackets you need is spot on, but I didn’t need some and wanted to add some ship specific ones like Brother Benthor has.

He knows
This is how I did it in 10 simple steps. Mmm, chubby Claire off Steps, mmm.
1, export current settings – details in Louis guide.
2, import just the Global settings from Sarah’s pack and refresh ship tab
3, import all profiles from Louis and verify
4, fix clolourtag & background per Tau
5, change tab labels to what I want [travel, red, blue, op alpha, op bravo]
6, assign profile to tab [write the name down if you are dinny]
7, edit profile [name will change to ‘not saved’ hence writing it down]
8, save as whatever you want [eg blue - logi for your logi buddies]
9, repeat 6-8 as desired
10, export to save

This of course, is far too simple and gives me the result I want, meaning I have probably missed something and will die horribly in a fire again and again. Oh well. I could probably just have used Sarah’s and imported Louis’ bracket profiles, but hey.

/wall of text

Fly safe

o7

Whafu?

Y115.02.25

Him
Well, a quiet month for me – in the few roams I have managed, I have flown logi in an attempt to help build up some logi love in alliance and the bloc roams have been bloody structure bashing or utterly devoid of targets – ‘should have been here last night, mate’. Thanks. 1 kill. Dreadful. On the upside, long time RL bud, corpie and proper PVE / PI whore has thrown off his carebear shackles and is now happily blowing up heathen shit in the name of the Empress. He has even forced the usual corp #1 killah to fly fast tackle to keep up with him. Nice job matey. AMARR VICTOR!

Me
So, I settled down for some serious DPS action the other night but the laptop power socket went again, but nothing that shouting at the bloke who ‘mended’ it last time in a shop full of punters couldn’t fix in 30 minutes. New PSU to boot as they didn’t have the right socket. And a new laptop is ordered with a quad core and a bit more screen real estate to see WTF is going on other than bloody windows.

The bitch is moving along nicely with those trading skills that reduce sales and order tax [Accounting & Broker Relations] in order to sell the mission loot / hangar crap that keeps appearing. Contract the shit back to the main to melt and make PVE ammo and keep the salvage to make rigs. I should probably look at making and selling rigs, but those pricey numbers [Large CCC / CDFE’s] eat up the salvage and I’d rather make the money elsewhere and keep a buffer of salvage for when I don’t want to pay 20mil for a rig. Rig BPO’s are so cheap, that if you have enough salvage you can save a ton of ISK. Must look into buying the raw salvage and making rigs from it to sell, as 4 Large CDFE’s is 100mil in the bank.

So
New PC incoming means a clean install of the client and redoing all the settings that entails. Might be time to try all those things I talked about in some previous posts – build myself a new overview from scratch using the EVE Uni guide as I really don’t use very many of the ones in Louis [admittedly great] settings and tool around with Azual Skoll’s great ideas [scroll down] on all kinds of PVP shite such as keybinding and screen layouts. The Altruist is a really great blog, which actually tells you stuff you need to know, not just some twat banging on about rubbish.

PI
Found a great tip about PI on FHC the other day [page 5 is where it’s at] and I will implement this when next in the PI system.

I currently use 3 planets – P1 [processed materials] on 1st planet + P1 on 2nd planet, then ship to a 3rd [factory] planet to make P2 [refined commodities] and subsequently P3 [specialized commodities]. If I was to use 4 planets to make 1 P1 each, then ship to a 5th [factory] planet, I would increase [double?] my yield and therefore profit. Mmmmm, profit. Could probably do with CCU V though and no time to train that until large lazors is complete. The bitch could do it though…

Training
Just browning off Large Energy Turret V, will take the remaining pulse & beam specs to 4 [maybe just 3 for large], then either CCU V or surrender monkey Cruiser V to have them all up there. Or Large T2 Rails. And I now wanna fly Cap ships too.

w00t, some actual information there, enjoy.

Fly safe

o7

Ah, that's better

Y115.01.30

Succour
Fear not subscribers [ah, ok], my ‘oh noes, lost some ISK again’ huff taking me out of PVP for a couple of weeks to carebear my back up to a reasonable wallet balance, is over. After trading of all the mission loot to the trade alt to flog, I have discovered this new feature on Aura for Android where you can see not only the combined balances of all linked characters and a monthly cash flow statement. I was minus half a bil in January. That’s even after all the mission rewards, selling a bunch of loot and having bugger all to show for it. Easy come, easy go.

You can also see their combined assets at market price, which made me feel a little better about having no free ISK, as I can now see where it went, apart from contract stuff & PVP losses now totalling 2-odd bil, of course. And now the API feed for the alt seems to have stopped importing to Aura and I have no idea why – I wasn’t drunk last night, just updating sell orders and shouldn’t have clicked anything I shouldn’t. Still, this month’s cash flow will get off to a good start when it does link.

I ran out of Trit, of all things, to make PVE ammo and had to buy some, eurgh. Alt has moved all the cheap shit to the melting station for me to melt and build more now though. I shot around 20,000 rounds of EMP L, plus some Plasma and a bit of Fusion. In 3, maybe 4 nights. Probably 900 presses of F1 if they weren’t on auto-repeat. T2 AC’s FTW.

Training
I got Security Connections up to IV and this has brought that NApoc even nearer, just as they have dropped 100mil in price in a month. w00t bloody toot :/

Even though large T1 lazors / hybrids seem no longer to be regarded in the same light as leprosy, Sharpshooter V is cooking to open up large lazor / hybrid spec when the respective large turrets are up to V. And salvage drones are shite.

Fly safe

o7

All snugly

Y115.01.24

Well, after a great WH enabled roam and finding an ex bloc FC to pagger with, I realised that I don’t understand the logoffski. One Cane & pod later though, I do. The engagement thing in the top left corner is red, bold and conspicuous for a reason and the reason is you can’t log off while it still there. Ah well, only 90mil down.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the straw that broke the camels back and I have made good on my recent promise [and the corp MOTD] to do some missions and help fill both my and the corp wallets. I have even trained some carebear skills to get that Navy Apoc in the LP store a bit sooner. So I JC back to hisec to find a bloody incursion going down in the constellation, with all the shield / damage / etc penalties that brings. Least I have a L4 agent a few jumps out, though for a different corporation, so although there’s no movement on the Navy Apoc front, it is the corp I get my implants from so not totally wasted. And still Amarr or something.

And you know what? I’m actually enjoying doing my own thing and not listening to comms so much that I’m going to take a week or two off null and play solo.

So how does this new NPC AI work then? Ah, 2 drones down. To BS’s? Blimey. And how long has the Noctis had a drone bay? Ah, salvage drones – best get some of them, too. And chuck some ammo in the cooker and haul it to my temporary mission hub while that arms dealing, abducting, Caldari scum Sansha Kuvakei gets his arse handed to him on a plate. What I should do really is x up for the incursion fleets, but that is listening on comms again and I can’t be bothered. I am not a number, I am free man, etc.

Training
Well sod AWU V for now, it’s Salvage Drone operation to III, then maybe Large AC’s Spec to IV. Maybe even Negotiation V.

Fly safe

o7

The harpoons, man them

Y115.01.20

As the New Year begins, updating the GFX driver fails to improve the 30 FPS when zoomed out in empty space and the lust for a 17” i7 laptop reaches the vinegar stroke, I find that corp is quiet, presumably as folk recover from their festive excesses and resume the daily grind EVE normally lets us escape. I have taken it upon myself as Recruitment Director to annoy RL mates until they come in. The annual Christmas D&D [which turned out to be Risk] Leo Sayer provided a chance encounter with someone who may be game – I’d not give him the keys to the hangar though.

Nurse! Me pills!
Logi is indeed the new DPS for me. Well, I tell myself that to provide valuable succour in the new style armour fleets I seem to find myself in and at least Amarr Cruiser V wasn’t wasted entirely. It’s not armour that’s the problem [Faillente, see], it’s T2 weapons to make them work properly – I fell into the AC Cane / HML Drake trap and failed to act when they were nerfed. Yes, I admit it, I neglected lazors & hybrids. /me beats self with birch – thank you Sir may I have another.

Logi - it’s a bloody nightmare juggling 40 squillion windows on a laggy old piece of shit 15” 4:3 screen at 10FPS while listening to the FC, clicking the porn links in chat channels, keeping the logi cap chain together, prelocking who needs prelocked [and corpies, of course] and occasionally even repping someone. And then the fleet warps to a jump bridge that isn’t in locations and you have to find it.

So, just a quick skill up to Med T2 lazors to get out of logi in this new armour doctrine, plug into EFT and bang – down to earth with a bump – the fit needs AWU V or a bonkers ISK EG implant. Dang. So, 19 days to AWU V? THREE MORE WEEKS OF LOGI??? No thanks, I’ll plug in Med T2 blasters and that’s only 10 days.

However, as I realised when I stopped kicking the Augoror’s ships cat, just a simple rig change from doctrine [shhhh, don’t tell the mad Dutchman or the CEO] still gives me more gank & tank than an armour Ruppie and in a glorious Amarr ship - no hippy slave / cheese-eating surrender monkey / missile chucking capitalist nonsense here. So I’ve bought one of the Empires finest and it’s roam Monday – x for fleet! When I’ve JC’d and bought the right rig, that is.

So what do I do now – continue with Med Hybrid V or AWU V? AWU V of course – AMARR VICTOR!!1!

Hello. Goodbye.
A new corp joined alliance and provided a much needed and KB green US TZ presence which made the CEO happy, not having to hang with us limeys so much. Then they left again. Ah well – he will have to put up with our colonial jokes a while longer. Least one of our US pilots has come back to corp. When he gets off his xbox, that is. It is rumoured he petitioned CCP to have Jita renamed after him. It wasn’t.

Training
AWU V. And I’ve finally worked out that now alty boy can fly all Indys and has good trade skills for selling all the mission loot from the missions I never get time to do anymore, he needs to max his PI, get a JC & blockade runner in null and start generating his little brother some money. Like a bitch.

Fly safe and yes, it’s ARMOUR. With a U.

o7

Y114 Round up

Y115.01.04

Well, what a busy year. The last 7 months has seen me move from carebear to PVP’er and I am now really only in hisec when I have >24h off EVE, and then mostly logged off in station until I log back in & JC out to null again. Really need to train some social skills & grind for a bit though. Maybe I will take January off PVP. Lol.

I have added Logi, ‘Ceptors, Recon, Caldari, Amarr, the first T2 guns, the first missiles, lost my first proper shiny to a mission and am no longer limited to being a DPS grunt in fleets - it’s good fun though. Hell, I have even trained some Gallente stuff, got PI working in null and given ISK to noobs. I have been promoted to a corp director and seemed to have gained the reputation I long ago had in D&D, of being Carol Vorderman.

Low points have been a miserable failure to get any RL mates into EVE [though a bloke from the work IT dept tried it for a couple of weeks] and something else I can’t quite put my finger on – ah yes – I don’t think anyone actually reads this blog.

Highlights have been being on 1st PVP killmail / top damage / final blow, seeing a Titan for the first time, hearing the noise of a jump bridge, the rush of a 24 jump ‘tactical redeployment’ from a dead end pocket through hostile space, my 1st cap kill, helping drag the corp KB stats up from 50% to 80% after some heinous losses, getting 100 kills, losing >1 bil of ships, causing fires, dying in fires, saving the pod, spending Brobdingnagian quantities of ISK on shit, but most all hanging out, fighting, repping, bumping and laughing with those folk I am honoured to call my corp and alliance mates – I salute you all.

Fly safe, brothers and sisters.

o7

The Skillnaught

Y114.12.06

Retribution
Well, that wasn’t so bad. Some chat issues where on log in, the channels opened up sequentially about 5 minutes apart and then I couldn’t switch channels until the member list had loaded for the current channel, the usual black screen on undocking – nothing that a good old cache clearance didn’t fix.

Some weird fucked up thing on the skill queue training times though – I JC’d from empty PVP clone to Gucci clone [and then a CTA went up – grrrr] and the training time went up – whafu? This only happened on the skill actually training though – the others showed the correct time. Maybe I’ll bug report it and get a free PLEX or something. Loooooool. Maybe not.

Out and about
Certainly a bunch of people in corp & alliance had worse issues and the planned op was cancelled. Corpie asked if I wanted to do something, so we shipped to the old favourites for one last ‘BC of old’ fling. This was a big thing for me as it was the first time I had been out and about just tooling around null without being in a formal fleet. I was in good hands though – he was FC’ing from the womb and knows EVE far better than I. After he realised I had more raw EHP, I was first to jump in system which was a great learning experience.

Seeing all the empty space, I guess a whole bunch of other people were having worse post-patch problems than us. Roaming to the usual high activity areas we saw nothing, so sat on a gate for a while with some blues and got a random red into structure before he jumped. I say we – I had me corpie locked to check out the new targeting graphics and he ended up with a volley of the Caldari Navy‘s finest. Sorry mate. Still, no hard feelings – he bought me 2 armour hardeners I needed from another system. I love this corp.

With nothing pinging in intel, I took us into some more local space, but again no dice until a red Talos showed up 70km off the gate. We ummed & ahhed a bit, then a blue Falcon jumps in resulting in this little gem from the red –

[21:22:26] [red] > retards
[21:23:09] [red] > you can fuck yourself with that falcon

Priceless, but fair comment, so we went and did a complex corpie had scanned down earlier, which was the first real test for the ratting ‘Pest – you gotta love perma run LAR fits.

Fitting
All these new ships and no idea what to put in them. As I am an EFT man and also impatient, so as it was not updated IMMEDIATELY [sorry Gripen, it’s great work you do for the community], I’ll give PYFA a go. Then I can buy and lose some new ships without any derisory remarks about my fittings.

All the new things
So a few new skills released this patch, I still hadn’t bothered with those from the last patch and Aura shows a whole bunch of green ticks that I might be interested in at least injecting and level 1or 2 ing. This means only one thing – NEED NEW SPREADSHEET!!1!!! So, I now have 30-odd skillbooks to buy and inject, but when alliance / bloc calls for something, the chances are I can probably fly it. Badly, but at least it shows willing.

Training
Just level 1’d a few things I had injected but not started, now 1 ½ days to Science V, buy and start 30 little-uns as described above and back on track for well, dunno yet. Amarr BS & lazors? Caldari BS? Recons?

Fly safe

o7

Y115.01.02 EDIT: I never posted this for some reason, so here's the update -
Training skill glitch was indeed a glitch and those affected were reimbursed the 75k SP they probably lost.

Never bothered with PYFA as Gripen rules the world.

All the new skills injected and trained to at least 3, some more.

o7