Sleepless in Space

A Long Time Ago...

2011-11-29T07:52:00.001-05:00

So with the last beta patch and play,Bioware has unlocked restrictions on being able to talk about it, soI’m going to let you all know about my experiences so far. Just asa fair warning, this is a non-EVE post. And it’s not for lack ofEVE things to talk about. CCP has been doing a remarkable job onthis upcoming expansion and it looks better and better with each newdev blog that comes out.

This makes me wonder wtf they weredoing all this time. All of these advancements in the game we lovein what, 2 months? You’re kidding me. How baddass would thisexpansion be if that’s what CCP was focusing on THE ENTIRE TIME.

But that is really a discussion foranother time. There have been so many good things coming out of theland of CCP I haven’t even attempted to write about them here in myblog. Really they don’t need analysis. It’s all good. If youwant to read about what someone else thinks, read some of the othervery well written EVE blogs that go into depth.

For the moment though, let’s talkabout Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Terror of the Trailer Park

2011-10-28T19:59:00.000-04:00

Yeah so I was wrong.

I'm man enough to admit when I made a mistake, and this was a pretty big one. I somehow managed to confuse tier 3 with tech 3 and it all went downhill from there. Funny how I had about everyone telling me.

Anyway, there were still some good points in that article, but nobody could seemingly get past the mistake so I'm pulling the entire thing. It would take too long to edit it out, so I'm just salvaging the stuff I want to get across and posting it back up. Look for it in a few days. Despite the mistake, there really was a few good points in there. Usually I'm pretty good about checking my facts and whatnot, but this was a base error I made that compounded itself thoughout the article.

Sheesh. Sorry.

Revelations

2011-10-25T07:58:00.000-04:00

Poking through the Hilmar interview that Eurogamer didI found an interesting comment/revelation.

The question was posed to Hilmar aboutthe CSM. I found the answer very interesting.

First, the question, posed to Hilmar byEurogamer:

“The Council of Stellar Management(CSM) has been increasingly vocal and rebellious in recent months. What’s your relationship with them like at the moment – yourpersonal feelings and those of the company as a whole?”

And Hilmar’s answer?

Burn Notice

2011-10-24T15:35:00.000-04:00

My name is Shadai… I used to be a spy, until….

Interesting changes afoot at the CCPoffices. It starts with a heartfelt letter of apology and a “youwin, here’s what you want, happy now?” set of blogs. Then a fewdays later, the true cost of the revolution comes about.

Cuts and layoffs.

No one likes losing their job. It’slike Jimmy Fallon asking the rhetorical question on the Capital Onecommercial “Who doesn’t want more cash?” And as someone who’sfelt the sting of job cuts and downsizing, I know it sucks.

So my heart goes out to those of youwho lost their jobs. I know you are in a difficult time right now,and me telling you that on a no-name blog you probably don’t evenread isn’t going to change your situation. And I hope that youswiftly find new fulfilling employment doing that which you love.

To those of you who didn’t get fired,I feel for you guys as well. I’ve been in that situation beforetoo. Where you are glad you didn’t get fired, but you feel bad forthe ones that didn’t make it. It’s a general crappy feeling ofsurvivor’s guilt that sticks with you for a few days and just ruinsyou for the week.

And no, you really don’t get it orunderstand what it’s like until you are there.

What does this mean for CCP?

Rumors of My Demise….

2011-10-24T07:27:00.000-04:00

….are greatly exaggerated. Yeah soI’m back. I should first apologize, and oddly enough I don’treally know why. After all, I don’t owe you wonderful intelligentreaders who clue into my blog each week anything; but I feel like Ido. Over the last year of my maiden voyage into blogging, I feltlike I was producing cutting commentary, helpful tips, tricks andhow-to’s just for each and every one of you. Each comment I gotwas a blessing, a sign that someone out there in the wilds of theinterwebs read my rambling article and took something away. And eachpage view meant that much more, as someone was looking over my workappreciatively (or unappreciatively) and/or just stealing my picturesI rightfully stole first.

So I don’t owe you anything, yet Ifeel like I do. And for being absent for the last few weeks Iapologize. Personal life has kind of been busy for me, and I had avacation in there where I was away from my computer for a while (I’mstill recovering from the shakes, tyvm… the doctor’s think I’llbe back to normal after a few marathon gaming sessions). Again, noexcuses, but I keep having this nagging feeling like I’m lettingsomeone down.

Besides, like most of you I’mdrowning in Jester posts. Good lord, he makes me look terrible. Whereas I’m about good for one really decent post a week; he’sabout good for one really solid post a day. It’s an average Ican’t even begin to match up with, let alone try and beat.

So as my extended apology and as a wayto goad people to come back to my site, I’m posting a flurry ofposts. Well, a flurry for me. A flurry like Jester would put me ina coma. My flurry will be 2 to 3 posts in as many days as I “catchup” to the time that I missed. For some of you it will be old hatby now, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Also I’ll have my thoughtson the new ships and what they mean for those of us that don’t haveto deal with Incarna at all, and maybe a wormhole exclusive or two.

For those of you keeping count here onSleepless, I’m reaching that magical one year of blogging. When Istop and think about it, it really kinda blows me away. I startedthis blog hoping I wouldn’t make a fool of myself as I gave it theol’ college try. Never in my wildest expectations did I thinkSleepless would become as popular as it seemingly has. I willcertainly strive to continue that as we move forward. But in themeantime I think I’ll probably have a “year in review” post asI highlight the stuff you may have missed.

So on we go.

TL;DR: I’m back, I’m sorry, Jesters a robot, New posts coming, Happy happy birthday to me

Winter is Coming

2011-10-06T07:55:00.000-04:00

CCP, Sun and Stars

So as time marches on this ridiculouspace CCP has set for itself, winter heralds a few things for themajority of us.

While not being as ominous as in GeorgeR.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones; after all I’m not about tobe invaded by frozen zombies for lack of a better description. Thereare some certainties that I’m forced to look forward to. I amgoing to be snowed in. I’m going to have to drive on shit roads. I am going to be cold. And sometime before Christmas I’m going tohave decisions to make. Not “what do I get my adorable niece forChristmas” kind of decisions, but a more earth shattering gamingtype decision looms for me, especially since I’ve started thisblogging thing.

Keep playing EVE Online or scrap it forThe Old Republic.

Mythbusters: More Scan Probes

2011-09-30T00:40:00.000-04:00

It’s the activity we do the most. It’s also the most dreary, boring, lackluster activity you can doin game. And we do it, all the time. We don’t have a choicereally. If we want to know what’s out there, or we want to knowwhere the exit is, or if we just want to know where that Hulk isstupidly mining, scanning is a necessary evil that we have to put upwith. So of course, one starts trying to figure out how to make saiddreary activity faster so they can get back on with the fun stuff.

The majority of us get by with astandard 5 or 4 probe setup. A few patches ago, CCP “unlocked”the other probes allowing for more probes to contribute to signalstrength. But does it matter? Do more probes actually increase thespeed of scanning, or does the hassle of dealing with more probesactually take longer to deal with?

Time for a little Mythbusters,Sleepless in Space style.

What's that smell...

Cyno-oh Baby!

2011-09-22T17:39:00.001-04:00

She may be ugly kid, but she's got it where it counts. I made a lot of "special modifications" to her myself.

A while back Kirith Kodachi asked for some wormhole fits for the new issue of EON magazine. I submitted 3 fits that I had lying about with explanations. He seemed impressed, but due to space concerns he only picked one. For those of you that have the magazine, you know that my overpowered Tengu fit was the one he picked for EON. If you don't, I suggested you pick it up. There is some pretty good wormhole information in there, especially for those of you new to wormholes.

One of the fits he didn't list was my (as he described it) hit-and-run Cynabal. As one of the fastest (if not the fastest) cruiser hulls in the game, the Cynabal has the advantage of range dictation. This is similar to the Dramiel, although the Cynabal has a bit more HP for buffer in case a mistake is made. With its damage and falloff bonus to autocannons, the Cynabal can spit out some impressive damage at impressive range. Combined with its speed, the Cynabal is virtually unmatched among cruiser hulls. However, it's an advantage you have to pay for, as the Cynabal clocks in as the most expensive T1 cruiser hull you can fly.
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The Death of a Legend

2011-09-20T15:52:00.001-04:00

After five seasons, Jade and Jayne are calling it quits.

Again.

To be fair, I think this one is for keeps. Last time they "quit" the community rallied around them and they decided to give it one more go. This time I feel its a bit more permanent. Jade left a post on the Lost In Eve website explaining his decision. In it, he explained that he had come down with a nasty fever that just wouldn't let go.

I'm certain juggling a full time job, kids, wife, Eve, and oh yeah the podcast where him and Jayne were for all intents and purposes on opposite sides of the world didn't help. But now he's looking at surgery, and he just doesn't have time anymore. For not just Lost in Eve but Eve Online as well. He's unsubbed his accounts.

Jade I salute you sir. o7

The Lost in Eve podcast was a staple for many of us, especially those of us in wormholes. While we chuckled at Jade's buzzard story, we cheered as he got his revenge. We rolled our eyes at Jayne, who sounded every bit like a typical American on every show. But for the most part we listened. And sometimes we learned something. And sometimes we shouted at the radio when they were getting something wrong. And sometimes we just enjoyed the banter.

Thank you Jade, Jayne for 5 seasons of content. Thank you Jade, for allow this humble blogger when he was virtually unknown to appear on your podcast. I was and still am honored for the privilege. I apologize for not being more available so we could have worked on the future segment.

There are things more important then Eve and a podcast. If you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Get well soon Jade, and good luck on your surgery. You will be missed.

Sticks and Shenanigans (Blog Banter #28)

2011-09-08T08:10:00.001-04:00

In recent months, the relationshipbetween CCP and its customers has been the subject of somecontroversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management hasplayed a key role in these events, but not for the first time theyare finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP’srecent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and itsplayer-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping thatfuture? How best can EVE Online’s continued health and growth beassured?

This set of questions set forth by thenew overlord of the blog banter comes at a fortuitous time. I wasactually going to write a piece about this as my next post. As younotice, I did not post anything last week, as I was hoping theminutes regarding CSM’s emergency meeting would have been releasedby now. Sadly, this is not the case and we seem to haveinadvertently been reset on course for the very disaster we narrowlyavoided a few months ago.

First some background, for those of youliving in a WH for so long you don’t get out into K-Space much. Asmost of you know by now or have heard, CCP hasn’t been the bestwhen coming through with communication to the players. And bycommunication I mean actual meaningful conversation. The kind ofconversation your girlfriend wants to have with you before you blowher off to play EVE. In fact, CCP even pledged to do better in this regard.

However, someone at CCP forgot to tossthat skill in the Que. We haven’t been getting any communicationfrom CCP, more like communiqués that tell us what they think theywant us to hear. And worse, our only link with CCP, the CSM, hasgone deceptively silent.

Well, until now.

The Versatile Loki

2011-08-27T15:40:00.001-04:00

The final entry in my four part series about T3 improvements has me highlighting the Minmatar Loki. This week I wrap up my thoughts on the T3 strategic cruiser as a whole. While I’m not deluded to think that the T3’s I envision here in this blog to be anything close to what CCP is/might/probably do, it’s nice to get my ideas down. Who knows? Perhaps I’ve inspired a dev in the bowels of CCP HQ to do something impressive.

For those of you who have been following my blog (bless you!) you’ll remember I already wrote at length about the Loki. The Loki is one of my favorite T3 ships just because of the versatility factor. I will continue that theme in the changes I feel need to be made. The strength of the Minmatar people as a general rule has been that versatility, so to move away from it detracts from the ship as a whole. While I don’t expect it to do the damage of a Proteus nor have the range of a Tengu, I do expect it to have one thing over the others. Speed.

Pro-fessional Proteus

2011-08-19T00:18:00.002-04:00

For the last 2 weeks I’ve been posting proposed changes to the T3 strategic cruiser platform. These changes are based on my experience in wormhole space, the very place the strategic cruiser is designed for. The first week focused on the Legion and how underwhelming it is. Last week it was the opposite side of the spectrum with the Tengu. This week I’m going to focus on what I consider to be the zero point for T3 strategic cruisers, the Proteus.

For the uninitiated, the Proteus is the Gallente version of the T3. I call the Proteus my zero point because it’s at the power level I think all T3’s should be. Good for PVE, good for PVP, but it doesn’t take the place of the specialty ships. Whereas I consider the Tengu a wee bit overpowered, the Legion a wee bit underpowered, the Proteus is that bowl of porridge that is just right. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tweak it.

First of all, I’m going to suggest you read the Legion article, if you haven’t already. The Legion and Proteus are very similar in their subs so much of the same thought there will apply here. This way you understand some of the changes without me getting carpal tunnel by typing it all out again.

E Tu Tengu

2011-08-12T15:17:00.002-04:00

Continuing my series on T3 changes, this week I focus on the Caldari Tengu. I feel that this is the week I get relatively unpopular as well. Unlike the Legion that I feel needs some buffs, the Tengu is on the opposite side of the spectrum. The Tengu is arguably the best T3 cruiser of the four. Name me one ship that can hit for long range with authority, get in close with blasters as well as any Gallente ship, tank like a Drake, and ECM like a Blackbird. And therein lies the problem.

The Tengu, unlike some of the other ships, actually is in need of a nerf. Now, before you start flooding my comments about nerfs and blah blah blah Caldari’s only good ship, hear me out. I’m not a fan of nerfs. In fact, I never have been. I would rather see the other ships get buffed up to where the Tengu is. However, to do that creates a problem. Raising the other ships to the over 9000 power level of the Tengu would make the strategic cruiser the ultimate power in the universe. Okay maybe not the universe, but in the cruiser oriented combat of wormhole systems it would be.

Fixing a Legion of Problems

2011-08-03T01:45:00.005-04:00

In last week's blog I mused on CCP's decision to re-balance ships. While it would be interesting for them to actually do something useful, I really don't trust them or our Null-Sec friendly CSM, who clearly don't know shit about wormholes. I graciously offered my assistance for the idea part of the re-balance, and started typing down some ideas I thought I would share with you all. In the end, I damn near had a white paper on where CCP had gone wrong and exactly what they needed to do to fix it. So instead of slamming you with a wall of text that was even longer then what is before you, I've helpfully broken it up into sections by race. I'll start with the Amarr Legion and post another one on the other ships later.

Of course, please feel free to let me know what I got wrong or right in the comments. And if any of you know any CCP devs, feel free to forward this their way. I'm sure I'm off their collective Christmas card lists.

The problem with the Legion, while great for PVE, it is generally considered to be extremely lacking in PVP. Additionally, users are looking for a great deal more flexibility in their T3’s, especially wormholers. The goal then is to redesign the T3 subs to make more combinations possible, introduce more utility, all while retaining the flavor of the strategic cruiser.

The Good Side of the CSM Minutes

2011-07-28T17:39:00.004-04:00

Wait... isn't that... Nah, couldn't be

Really the only thing most wormholers took out of that CSM minutes document was how ignorant the current CSM leaders are, with the exception of a few intelligent people. For most of us, we can stop right there. For the most part it seems we aren't going to get any help, and the best content CCP has created to date is going to get nerfed at the hands of our Null-sec friendly CSM. Sad really. So despite the terrible news on the CSM minutes, is there anything good in that document? As a matter of fact, there is. And a few good hearty chuckles to go along.

Join me, won't you?

CCP Pot, Meet CCP Kettle

2011-07-19T02:05:00.000-04:00

And now, your CSM Minutes Moment of Zen:
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CSM Ignorance: Our Worst Enemy

2011-07-16T00:53:00.003-04:00

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous then a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” -MLK

And in our case, nothing is more dangerous to us, the player base of EVE Online then an ignorant and almost stupid CSM.

Let's take the case in point.

I was reading over the minutes and found some shocking information within. Allow me to share. First, I'll direct you to Jester's blog, as he writes about the CSM ignorance and stupidity regarding the Art department. Since he's pretty much saying what I would say, I'm not going to bother to type it out, as he has already put it as eloquently as can be done. And correctly, I should add.

Which is good, because it allows me to focus on the truly shocking thing for us wormhole residents. A direct attack by the ignorant CSM on our space.

Lessons Learned from AT9

2011-07-10T20:03:00.001-04:00

I love the alliance tournament. I love it for the very simple reason that to me it is small gang PVP perfected. And before you say NOOOOOOO, think about it. The concept is simple. A small group of ten or less pilots taking on another small group of ten or less pilots in more or less a realistic setup of ships one might actually see in the game. Granted, it isn't something that you would see in 0.0 space, but in wormholes its pretty much par for the course. And while the individual ship setups might changes, the concept is still the same. Bring as much power to blow up the other guy.

That being said I don't watch the AT9 with interest in who is going to win. That was settled a long time ago in backroom dealing. It is the fleet setups I study and try to learn as much as I can. After all, this style of combat is what we see in wormholes often, so it is important to see what works and what doesn't. So what did I learn this year?

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

2011-07-05T20:31:00.000-04:00

So it has been an interesting week in eve.

It all started with the release of Incarna, and the player base doing its best "What is this, I don't even..."

CCP of course exacerbated the situation with an unfeeling, uncaring, and generally unwise Dev blog that will forever live in the halls of infamy as one of the most terrible answers to honest questions we'll ever see.

Eve is a Game

2011-06-24T15:58:00.000-04:00

...and CCP is a company that makes money. At the end of the day, there it is.

I've been really enjoying my popcorn out here in WH space where I don't have to deal with Incarna at all. Its actually been very amusing watching EVE burn. I could link the several blogs, forum posts, and other stuff I found insightful and amusing but by now you've probably read them all, and like me you are all anxiously awaiting an official response.

Before I set everyone straight, I did find this really amusing:

If you don't think CCP is in full spin mode right now I have a few jump bridges to sell you. With 10% off discount.

CCP, the players are outraged at you for one reason. You have been lying to our faces since this entire fiasco started. We could give a shit about $60 monocles or walking in stations. Overpriced virtual goods won't sell, and they just make you guys look like idiots. We don't care about walking in stations.

But Shadai, it will bring in new players.

Bullshit.

Oh it might. Pretty graphics always bring in the most shallowest of Hals. But they won't stay. You know why? Because the game isn't about pretty graphics or your avatar or even your captain's quarters. Its about internet spaceships and PVP. And the same shallow players who didn't like EVE before for that reason aren't suddenly going to like it now because they can jerk off to their avatar.

CCP where is the development of internet spaceships? Where are the new ships? Where are the T3 improvements? T3 frigs? Where? Why is it in the last few things done in eve been superficial graphics shit? Why is this shit in my game about internet spaceships? Truly, the only thing you have added to internet spaceships was incursions. That is really it.

At the end of the day, it's internet spaceships that determine if the new players stay or go. Being impressed with graphics is not enough reason to stay and play a game you hate or don't like or don't understand.

And then there is the multiple client/cpu thing. If you have an ATI card (I do) you're pretty much fucked. CCP, you have marketed this game to players to have multiple clients. Power of Two remember? You encouraged the players to have more then one account so doing things was so much easier. Don't pretend to be outraged when we can no longer take advantage that we paid for in another subscription.

CCP the lying to our faces has to stop, or you might as well drop all subscriptions and just go full micro transaction. That should completely and utterly destroy everything you've so carefully created in EVE. You know, the market, the players, and your free subscription ride to World of Darkness bliss.

To the players I say everyone needs to calm down. Seriously. Stop with the "Free Helicity" bullshit, that guy got what was coming to him. If someone threatened to kill me in real life I'd boot his ass out too. He's not a martyr. He's an asshole. He had the opportunity to say and do the right things and yet he chose to go the opposite way. That is not the guy I want leading the charge. So do us all a favor and knock that shit off right now.

Don't be just another mob member. Be smart. Be a person. THINK before speaking. The second coming of Summer of Rage is coming to all, and this time once we have a hold of CCP's ear we need not let go. But we need to be smart about it. Don't be an unthinking mob member, caught up in the rage, looting and burning so much that you forget why the fuck you are doing it in the first place.

On the other side of the coin, to the players defending CCP and Incarna, first, Welcome to EVE; and second, I'm sure there will be a job opening at CCP soon. You need to relax too. You only serve to whip the mob into a frenzy and really that's the last thing we need right now.

CCP the ball is in your court. Only you can prevent player rage, and so far you have been utterly incompetent at it. We don't want the moon. We just want spaceships to take us there. And instead of that you guys are giving us a doll. We don't want a doll. We want our internet spaceships back.

Because at the end of the day, this is a game about internet spaceships, not WoD beta testing.

Incarna: Priceless

2011-06-22T03:29:00.000-04:00

T3 Ship...

Thirty-four dollars on Debit Mastercard.

Faction Fittings...

Thirty-four dollars on Debit Mastercard.

Pirate Implants...

Thirty-four dollars on Debit Mastercard.

Monocle...

Fifty Dollars on Debit Mastercard.

The look on CCP's face when Summer of Rage II: The Sequel kicks off...

Priceless.

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else your EVE character needs, there's Debit Mastercard.

The look on my face during the entire thing:

CCP Banking the "ISK"

2011-06-16T02:52:00.002-04:00

So if you haven't seen it yet, CCP just released a new dev blog. Usually these are oh so informative and helpful things that CCP is bringing to the game for the benefit of us players. Sadly, they seemed to miss the latter part and someone, some dumbfuck intern (ie Hero to us on the outside) managed to post an internal memo:

CCP's new money making scheme!

I'll let you read that a couple of times so it really, really sinks in.
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Eve's Art of War

2011-06-02T16:53:00.000-04:00

Around the 6^th century BC an influential manuscript was written on bamboo slips about warfare in China. As part of the Seven Military Classics, Sun Tzu's Military Strategy, known more widely as the Art of War is the most popular book on strategy of the Seven. Translated roughly over two hundred years ago by a French missionary, the Art of War has made the rounds throughout the West as an influential source of knowledge on military strategy. Since its discovery and subsequent translation, the teachings held within have been sought out and studied by all manner of people, from Napoleon to Nazi High Command to Japanese businessmen during the 80's who engage in “corporate warfare”.

Regarded as China's oldest and most profound volume on military strategy, nothing comes into question more then the man who credited with writing the Art of War, Sun Tzu. Some credit Sun Tzu as actually Sun Wu and the writings the preservation of his stratagem and tactics during the violent Five Dynasties period. Others doubt the existence of the man himself, believing the Art of War to rather be a collection of thoughts from various generals at the time in one comprehensive volume. Regardless of the who, it is the content of the Art of War that continues to make it one of the most important manuscripts studied by scholars and military commanders to date.

So what can a manuscript about warfare in China during the 6^th century with swords, horses and chariots teach us about excelling in combat spaceships?

The answer may surprise you.

Black Eve Down

2011-05-26T21:22:00.000-04:00

So if you haven't wandered over to the Eve online site in the last few hours, you'll be met with a fun surprise:

While funny, it brings into light something very serious.

Who the hell is in charge of the web development team over there?

Ah Eve Online Web presence. Let me count thy fails. Oddly, they all seem to revolve around Eve Gate. Wasn't Eve Gate going to be the be-all-end-all?

Chat with corp members in game while out of game... uh yeah, kinda, after several false starts
Eve Forums being moved to EG... oh wait they are back again.
Live Dev Blog... not so much?

To be fair, I wasn't at the live dev blog so I don't actually know if went off without a hitch and the back log of all the people there caused this little crash in the first place. I found it ironic that they put out a nice Dev Blog about the changes to API that are available RIGHT NOW ON SINGULARITY... HURRY HURRY HURRY! then the web service and API go down for the count.

Anyone else feel like this?

I just feel confused really. Does CCP think this is a race or something? Guys, take your time. Make sure the shit is right before you launch it. In general, the gaming community (which oddly enough includes Eve Online) hates Hates HATES buggy launches. We don't want emergency patches to fix emergency patches to fix the shit that should have been right the first time.

But for some reason, I get the nagging suspicion that CCP is just rushing to get this out. Is the World of Darkness launch date pushing you guys along, and the beta testing in Eve isn't going as smoothly as you planned? Is the Dust due date making the multitasking difficult to push both Eve and Dust at the same time?

Honestly guys, we want less of this:

And more of this:

Currently at the time of this posting the services are still down. Thank the gods the game still plays. If not we might have a riot. Or at least a long worded bitching session on Failheap. Whatever.

Patch Notes: Scanner's Delight

2011-05-20T00:56:00.000-04:00

In the latest update, CCP has given those of us who play in wormholes a few helpful additions. Sadly, still no swapping subs and putting together T3's at POS's. We've been promised that for so long (and so long ago) its beginning to feel like it's CCP's version of Duke Nukem Forever. And I just ran outta bubble gum. Its like the WH version of the white unicorn - really pretty to talk about, but seeing not so much.

And we didn't get the bookmark thing. Initially we were going to get the scanning improvements which consisted of a harder faster stronger on-board ship scanner, probe UI improvements, and the ability to see bookmarks on the overview (cue Hallelujah please). However there seemed to be a problem with the bookmark thing, so it is promised for a later patch which could be the next one but like with the T3 thing, I'm not holding my breath.

So what did we get, and does it really work?
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Basilisk: Dependable Like a Rock

2011-05-12T13:12:00.000-04:00

For most wormhole corporations, shield tanking is the norm. What better way to abuse the dps and range of the Heavy Missile System which is easily the most unbalanced weapon system in the game? For some pvers, they don't even know what armor is, or even how to use it. This is usually reflected in the EVE Quarterly reports when they do race breakdown. Caldari is the most populous race every year, although I suspect its because everyone has a Caldari alt to watch the market at Jita.

But I digress.

Generally, shield tanking is performed by Caldari ships which for the most part are considered excellent for PVE. Proponents of shield tanking over armor besides gloating about the range and damage of the usual weapon systems also know that sleepers have no shields. This means when blowing them up in a system that penalizes armor but buffs shields (Pulsar) is a faster, safer way to that big payday. So it isn't hard to understand why it is the more popular way to Op in a wormhole.

Salvage Ships for Wormhole Operations

2011-05-06T23:08:00.000-04:00

The majority of money to be made from sleeper sites is not in the actual blowing up sleepers. No money is made that way, as they don't have bounties. Anyone doing wormholes sites knows this already. The real money, therefore, is in the salvage. Thus, the most important job is the one of the salvager. Because without it being done, no one gets paid.

One would automatically think the Noctis would be the best ship to salvage. And they would be right! However, WH space isn't safe, ever. Remember the rules I went over last week? They doubly apply here, as the salvage guy is the most vital and often unprotected guy in your op.

The way most corps do business is warp off as a squad, clear site, warp to the next and start clearing while another guy warps to the first site in his Noctis/destroyer/whathaveyou and starts salvaging.

Houston, we have a problem.

Intelligence Gathering 102: Defensive Scouting

2011-04-27T22:22:00.001-04:00

Welcome to part two of my EVE intelligence gathering operation. In this segment I will talk about how intelligence plays a role in not just scanning but when a corp runs an Operation as well.

Mastering the techniques I've talked about in 101 will help here in 102. You should know right now that defensive scouting is INCREDIBLY boring. However, it is an absolute necessity for the security of your fleet when running various ops whether they are combat or mining oriented.

Be sure your corporation pays for this job. Some give an equal cut, others do not. If you don't have anything to do it is easy money. However they will be happy they gave you a cut the minute you give early warning and the fleets gets away safely.

In my opinion, an Op that is not scouted is destined to fail. Maybe not now, or tomorrow, but eventually it will end in tears. You should never assume you are safe. In fact, assume the opposite. Even when you are running sites and have 6 or 7 ships, never assume you are safe in the anom shooting sleepers.

What you learned in IG101 holds true for IG102. Rule 1 - You are never safe; this will hold true even when you have a fleet. If you haven't read IG101, go back and do that now.

Intelligence Gathering 101: Effective Scouting

2011-04-24T23:29:00.000-04:00

The most important aspect of wormhole life is intelligence. New awesome ships are cool and all, running ops and making isk is sweet... but all of it flares up into a momentary lapse of death and nothingness without good, proper intelligence.

Intelligence is not just the backbone of a well run op. It is everything in wormhole space where the lack of local means extra steps must be taken to insure the safety of the fleet. There are some corporations who do just enough, and then there is the truly successful ones that excel at it.

Like money, you have to have it to make it. And there are effective ways to scout and plan while being the eyes and ears of your corporation in a local-less place.

It all starts with scouting and effective information gathering techniques. This will be a two part series. In this first part I will talk about gathering information as a scout. In the second, I will go into scouting and running operations.

The Point of EVE

2011-04-14T20:17:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I was talking to a co-worker where I work. He noticed my EVE Online background I had put up instead of the standard boring blue backdrop that comes with Windows. Turns out the guy was a gamer, much to my surprise. Now, he plays mostly console games, so like all console gamers he has never heard of EVE Online.

The next few minutes were filled with us talking about games. He started to ask me questions about EVE. What was the ship on the backdrop; is that planet Saturn; what happens when you blow up; what kinds of ships; what kind of things do you do; etc etc. All questions that showed he was getting interested; questions that had definite answers any of us who have played this game for longer then five minutes can and would answer.

Eventually he got to the question I'm sure all of us who have talked to anyone about this game to people who have never played it get:

So what's the point of the game?

Solving the Rubix Cube of UI

2011-04-06T22:11:00.001-04:00

One of my biggest complaints with the game of Eve online is the user interface. It a word, it's terrible. Actually it's beyond terrible, but to accurately describe it requires more then one word. Or paragraph. Or book.

In the latest episode of Lost In Eve (season 3, episode 10), Jade and Jayne introduce two new co-hosts that I'm still adjusting to. Without spoiling it, lets just say the ego on that show has multiplied by a factor of 500. I'm still not sure if that was a good move or not. Regardless of how I feel about it, the four hosts took shots at our new elected leader of the CSM, the one, the only, the arrogant, The Mittani. I use “took shots at” reluctantly. The tone of the interview was very standoffish at the beginning, but near the end it almost sounded like they wanted to kiss him. And while The Mittani sounded like he had crash landed on Earth from the plant Arrogance, I found myself developing a healthy dose of respect for the man. For now I think he's perfect, but I reserve the right to change my mind later. The Mittani really comes off as a man who has no middle ground. Either you like him or you hate him; only time will be able to tell if this was a good move that will continue to move the CSM in a positive direction or one that will backfire and blow up in all of our collective faces.

Loki, Trickster God of Mischief

2011-04-01T19:14:00.002-04:00

Being April Fool's Day, I enjoy a good laugh as the internet tries to fool me every year. However, I decided against doing the same... coming up with lame stories or untrue facts just to poke fun at my readers. Some people just can't take a joke, and if in my fabrication I get someone blown up because I told them you can solo sleepers in a particular ship or with some expensive mod, SOMEONE is bound to try it. Then they will come crying to me.

By the by, one of my favorites in Wormhole space was one I believe the goons perpetuated. The way it went was if you had a Nemesis bomber loaded with therm bombs, you could launch them at the hole, MWD there and jump through. If you did it correctly, it would instantly close the hole. The trick was it only worked on the side you wanted to close, so you had to jump through fast. The goons referred to it as “Scorching the Hole”. Anyone who tried it found out exactly who got scorched, and it wasn't the hole.

So instead of any of that nonsense, I'm going to focus my trickster sense of being toward a true trickster in wormhole space, the Loki.

Loki was the trickster god of Norse mythology. It was said Loki could change shape at will to anything he wished, and he used this ability to cause chaos for others. While we here in Eve don't get to change our Loki's at will until CCP does something about that subsystem thing, the Loki is the closest thing we have to a true shape changer.

Fanfest 2011 - Things of Interest

2011-03-25T14:17:00.001-04:00

Since I work full time and somehow am still poor, Fanfest is not an option for me, neither time nor moneywise. So I sit here in the States, waiting for college baskeball to start and refreshing my computer to read up on the goings on in the Land of Ice.

I picked out some of the more interesting things from the liveblogs.

First of all, from the PVP Round Table by Eve News 24:

"Are dramiels OP?"

Yes. Yes, yes and more yes. Any frig that is an instant win for most combat, or at the very least easy to escape combat you can't win is my definition of OP. The thing of interest here is Eve News reported that "not many hands going up". Perhaps the majority there all fly them. No one wants a nerf for any ship they fly. And a dram allows you to win a lot of fights without losing a lot of fights. I find it interesting to note that while some people claim "I don't care if I win or lose, I just want to find a good fight", most generally prefer to WIN. And any fight you can't win in a dram you can most of the time easily escape. So yes, its a bit OP. Its a bit OP that with an afterburner, a dram can obtain speeds equal to any other frig on a MWD. Let's just call it what it is guys, not being honest with ourselves doesn't improve the game any.

I found Michael Bolton from TEST's comment to be the most enlightening: "Dramiels only die because people get overconfident and stupid". That is the razor line between the OP arguments and the not OP arguments. It can be taken both as a comment towards how OP it is, and against how OP it is.

Fix Gallente RAWR!

Selene calls for Blaster/Rails fix. Wants to add an action bar for drones. And wants gate and station guns to ignore drones.

I'm 50/50 on this. First of all, as a Gallente pilot our ships do need a buff. Even non-gallente pilots can agree with me on this one. Blasters is the first thing that need work. For an incredibly short range weapon, they simply don't do enough face-melting dps to justify their terrible range. On top of that, they don't track as well, only having a slight point hundredth of an advantage over autocannons. Anyone who's flown in any combat knows that when you are on top of a ship because of range issues, speed and tracking issues become magnified. Its why small frigs and orbit close and get under guns of a battleship. I don't know what the answer to fix blasters is, but everyone is pretty much in agreement they are the worst weapon system in the game right now.

Where I like the idea of a blasters fix, I'm kinda on the fence about rails. Rails are already the longest distance turret-style weapon in the game. The tracking is terrible, but all long range turrets are. So I don't really see how these need to have attention more so then say, blasters.

Action bar for drones, hells yes. I've been calling for this for ages. Hell, I think I shouted this out in my first appearance on Lost in Conversation. Right click for drone actions is incredibly tedious and half the time in a bang-bang PVP situation you forget all about them.

But now I'm against Gate and station guns ignoring drones. Why do we need this? Is it really that hard to recall drones? As a wormholer who is used to doing the "drone dance" I don't really see the issue here. Is it maybe because drones get pounded giving the controlling ship time to blow people up without having to tank the guns? I'm not really sure the angle here other then Yarrrr buff.

Nerf Drake!

This got interesting. The devs were asking if the Drake is OP. I actually don't think that, I think buffer shield tanks are a bit OP and that heavy missile system is a bit more OP. The players disagreed with the devs that the drake in itself is OP. They said instead that is has too much buffer (which is true). So the devs respond with a possible nerf to buffer tanks by only letting you fit one rig of each type.

Couple of things here. First, the players responded (as we typically do) with a NOOOOOOOOOOO don't nerf my drake!!!! Just buff the others OMG.

But the more I think about it, the more I actually think this a good idea. Typically when fitting ships I try to spread out my rigs anyway, and at the most I'm only doubling up on something. The only time I triple stack a rig is when I (wait for it) stack buffer. 3x Field Extenders for shield buffer tanks. 3x Purgers for recharge. 3x trimarks for armor.

Here's a novel idea. Why don't we change the calibration cost? Those buffer extending rigs cost a paltry 50 calibration. Make them cost more so players are forced to actually, you know, think when fitting ships? If you think its a problem, make them cost 200 calibration so at the most they can only fit two, just like the weapons rigs. Or better yet, 150 so it gives them some wiggle room to fit something else. That way you can restrict them without actually implementing a one type of rig per ship rule that no one is going to really enjoy. And therefore those of us that double stack current routers or gravity cap upgrades don't get hosed out of the really important rigs to double stack on.

Not that I'm arguing against buffing the other battlecruisers, mind you.

The PVP round table ended with a discussion about AFK cloakers. Apparently they are boogeymen who kill kittens while afk. Honestly people. Grow some fucking balls. Or better yet, come to WH space, where AFK cloakers will never bother you again in local.

Next live blog I found interesting was the Eve Keynote:

For those of you who are as fluent in the tech world as I am, the Eve keynote was a lot like watching an Apple Keynote. Lots of patting themselves on the back, lots of this-is-what-we-did-ain't-it-grand, and only a few small its-about-fucking-time things that drove the crowd rabid.

One of my favorite things was Team Gridlock coming up to talk about lag improvements. It ended with a statement in quotes from Eve News so I'm assuming someone from Team Gridlock was actually arrogant enough to say this: "Won the war on lag".

Really?

I'm sorry. I'm sure you have made great strides in trying to figure this problem out and correct it. I'm sure its working too. But the minute I no longer have to tell you IN ADVANCE that hey, we're gonna have a big battle in this system wouldja couldja please spare some server power so we don't lag out? kthxbye, THAT will be the time you can flaunt that statement. Seriously.

They talked about a new UI (about fucking time) and apparently there were pictures? I really wish I was there so I could see it, the UI being my number one bitch lately. A new readable font is coming too. And here I thought it was just me getting old.

So on to that small section of new stuff after much back-patting and look at me, look at me. There are changes to agents coming that sound promising. Not from a wormholer perspective, but how do you think I raised the capital to get to WH's in the first place? Apparently CCP is going to destroy the agent tables, and if you want a "blow shit up" mission you simply go to the "blow shit up" guy and get it. Which is nice because nothing sucked more then going to that guy and getting a mining mission. They are also apparently taking a blaster to agent quality. Hopefully that will spread mission runners out a bit instead of them all leeching off the same guy.

Another small improvement I found interesting was the improvements to the "built in scanner time" mentioned by Eve News. I'm assuming they are talking about the ship's On board scanner, which, actually, does indeed suck. Apparently they are making it faster so its more useful. I'm for this, as a wormhole guy it makes it faster for me to find the anoms you may be hanging out in when I'm in my bomber and don't want to alert you with probes. Perhaps they can give it more range as well?

And finally, we can change subs at the POS. All I have to say is its about fucking time, and how much longer do I have to wait? Then I can see my dream of a true nomadic corp come true like I wrote about last week.

The one thing coming up that has been talked/bitched about a lot in the Eve Community is the Captain's Quarters (CQ). PC gamer's liveblog was all a glow about this but that's because those guys love graphics. New player retention, it is argued, that is what CQ will bring to the game. I think Eve News had an interesting observation. They noted the long time it seemed to take and combination of everything in station burning up his laptop. Eve News wrote: "From a(n) UI standpoint, and from an efficiency standpoint, this sucks."

Now, I haven't actually seen what he was looking at. But he brings up an excellent point. If it takes as long a time to walk into the CQ as it does to fit a damn ship, CQ is actually making us take longer to do simple tasks. Great, glad the new players have a reason to stick around, but you are killing the older players who will prefer the faster way if it was indeed faster.

Perhaps not all of Eve's future is rosy.

The Changing Nature of Wormhole Space

2011-03-17T23:59:00.000-04:00

So a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

EVE Online: Apocrypha Uncovers a New Version of the Universe Itself

CCP's massive free expansion slated for March Release

Reykjavik, Iceland: January 8, 2008 - CCP, one of the world's leading independent game developers, today announced the launch of the tenth free expansion for EVE Online, its popular science fiction massively multi-player online game (MMOG). EVE Online: Apocrypha is the most ambitious EVE expansion in the game's over five year history and it coincides with the March 10th, 2009 release of EVE Online as a boxed product through a partnership with Atari.

The fabric of space itself will be transformed as vast, unpredictable wormholes open to connect previously unexplored regions of the universe to the stars of New Eden. The seeds of advanced new technology await inside of these cosmic anomalies for those brave enough to explore them. This infusion of technology will enable production of the most dynamic vessels ever: Tech 3 modular ships with an astounding amount of customizability that can fill any role from skirmish muscle to industrial support.

Furthermore, NPC agents in EVE Online: Apocrypha will be authorized to assign Epic Mission Arcs to the pilots of New Eden. These branching, far-reaching mission strings are full of meaningful stories and more intelligent and deadly adversaries.

In addition, we are offering an entirely reworked New Player Experience for those joining (or rejoining) the game, giving them better insight into how to thrive in a truly limitless universe. We've already launched EVElopedia (http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Main_Page), a great repository for information on all things EVE where our players are also building their own living history of the previous five years of Alliance warfare, political intrigue and nostalgic recollection

"Just this past week we broke our concurrent user record with 45,186 people flying unbound in the same game world at the same time, a huge percentage of our quarter of a million current subscribers and a true testament to EVE in our sixth year of operation," said EVE Online Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson. "Today is an unprecedented time to start playing, as you can get ahead of the curve before Apocrypha releases in stores and our hard work hits the server cluster. It'll be easier than ever to get 'lost in the wormhole' that is EVE with what we have planned for the future of our expanding universe."

Leading up to the release of EVE Online: Apocrypha and the boxed version of EVE Online in stores, we'll be revealing more features on www.eveonline.com.

--NextWeek@ Thursday, 8 Jan, 2009

And thus CCP created wormholes. And it was good. Then on the seventh day they rested. And it was good. On the eighth day they rested too. And the ninth, tenth, etc, etc, etc.

Apocrypha ushered in a new age for those pilots brave enough to undock and (to steal another catch phrase) to boldly go where no man has gone before. But then CCP rested. And forgot about it. Wormholes are perfect, they seem to be saying, move along, nothing to see here.

But are they?

The Art of Closing Wormholes

2011-03-12T03:30:00.000-05:00

Pst. Hey Shadai.

Sorry folks.

Shadai, dude, wake up.

He'll be right along. See, he sat down to play Dragon Age 2 on Tuesday and he's been in this comatose state ever since.

SHADAI!

Wha...? what? What day is it? Shit, Saturday? Already? Well damn. Last thing I remember is sitting down to try Dragon Age 2 and.... oh my, I don't really remember what happened after that. I certainly don't remember drinking.

Um right. Wormholes!

Today I'm going to cover the art of closing wormholes. Those of you who get a terrible exit and log off thinking, “Well, maybe tomorrow will be better” pay attention. The great thing about WH space is if you don't like your exit or the neighboring system, you can close it and get a new system. Generally there are a few easy ways to do this.

Blog Banter #25: Moar Low Sec!

2011-03-04T04:39:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the twenty-fifth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from @Tetraetc - "Tetra's EVE Blog" - who asks: "Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts wherever. Would the reduction of the alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (or the modification of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?"

I preface this with the fact I don't live in Null Sec.

I'm not sure I can say it any better then Mord Fiddle in Fiddler's Edge. He is pretty much my go-to guy on anything Null Sec.

All that being said.

I don't believe the sovereignty system hampers either the PVP or RP potential. If nothing else, it helps it flourish. Small gang PVP in Null Sec is not dead, hell I read every Wednesday in Rifter Drifter about Wesley's Wasted Wednesdays and enjoy those stories immensely.

So I guess I have to ask, why would you want this to disappear?

To me, the sovereignty system is the one thing that truly defines Null Sec and keeps it very clear you aren't in Low Sec anymore. We really don't want Null Sec turning into Low Sec, right? Low Sec has their power corps that band together to hold or roam. I'm sure the death of sovereignty would bring about this same thing.

Numtini from the Eve Blog OMG! You're a Chick?! says something very profound:

“Would getting rid of sov mean more PVP in nulsec? That implies there isn't enough right now. I just looked at eve-kill.net, which is about as comprehensive a resource as possible for PVP kills. I had to go to the third page to find a single kill that wasn't in nulsec and that was a classic lowsec special, 4 pirates in battlecruisers ganking a T1 frigate flown by a newbie. That's the kind of PVP we need more of?”

I feel inclined to agree. That kind of PVP is especially no fun for the gankee, and realistically no fun for the gankers if they are truly honest with themselves. I doubt very much that giant power blocks would form, but wasn't that exactly what goonswarm did back before sovereignty anyway?

And besides, don't we have enough of Low Sec already?

Participants:

CSM 6: Burning Balance

2011-02-25T03:04:00.001-05:00

With the elections looming and candidates jockeying for position and rank to be heard, I have some thoughts and questions of my own before I decide on who to vote for.

Now is (without being too dramatic) the most important time for the CSM. While previous CSM's have done good work or got great achievements to add to their gamer score, the game is far from over. And although the Pickled Fish! achievement is pretty awesome and all, its one of the gimmie ones anyone can get with a trip to the Land of Ice.

So without further delay, here is what I'm burning on....

Upgrades for the Love of the Game

2011-02-18T04:59:00.000-05:00

In the latest Lost In Eve podcast done by Jade and Jayne, they bring up for the first time in what seems like ages the Wormhole Idea Factory. Or as I usually refer to it, the Terribly Unnecessary Ideas that might or might not apply to wormholes.

Jade and Jayne intend to take the top ideas to the new CSM to share with CCP. So if you haven't looked at it yet, take a few minutes and poke around.

Its not like I think they are all bad, in fact, I'm going to go over some of my favorite ideas. These aren't my favorite because they make the wormholes more profitable or easier, nay! These are my favorite because they are generally great ideas that not only make wormholes better, but the make the entire game better. And all this at the low low price of CCP to implement them. Team Best Friends Forever? Are you paying attention? Because I'd rather you implement these things over “cleaning out my character sheet” whatever the hell that means.

But before I dive into my top 10, I'll list some of the stuff that makes the Idea Factory more like the Terribly Unnecessary Ideas no one needs. Some of these clunkers are voted really high and I'm still scratching my head as to why.

Wolfpack

2011-02-10T15:40:00.000-05:00

Being in a wormhole isn't all rocks and pve. Knowing what end of the blaster to point at other players is important, as defending your home takes on new meaning when you are invaded by hostiles. Smart players who live in a wormhole have several ships at their disposal; ships for pve of choice be it rocks or sleepers, and ships for pvp.

Pvp fits in w-space for the most part are not any different then from null sec roaming bands. This is because the although they are fundamentally different, the rules are the same both w-space and null.

The rules are as follows:

There are no rules.
If you in some moment of insanity believe there is some rule or order, see rule number one.

Bubbles, trash, HICs, Caps, cepters, bombs and bombers, you name it, its there. Or can be there. No rules like low or high sec. Just outright carnage and killing. And jumping. And ganking. Fun.

So what kind of ship fittings would be considered solid pvp WH fits?

Sleepless in Space is now part of CrazyKinux's Eve Blog Pack!

2011-02-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

When I first started reading about Eve Online a few years ago, I read a lot of blogs and comments through CrazyKinux's website. Most of the really good content seemed to flow through his site and I, having little time to read blogs AND play, found it easy to surf around his site for interesting blogs by authors I otherwise never would have heard of.

Last November when I started this crazy Sleepless in Space project I had never did any sort of blogging before. I had wrote seriously for a hardcore WoW forum board, but never in a blog like format. CrazyKinux's website was extremely helpful in providing links and sites to go to for help in starting Sleepless. I had thought it would be cool if I could somehow make it into this Eve Online Blog Pack I had used so much but never thought it would actually happen.

Now, it has. I'm proud to be a member of the Eve Online Blog Pack. And I hope, if you are finding this site for the first time, you find some interesting things to stick around.

Thanks to CrazyKinux for allowing me this opportunity, and thank you, my readers, for helping make this possible.

Character Progression

2011-02-04T03:08:00.000-05:00

The new CCP character creator is a pretty remarkable piece of software. Its pretty easy to get lost in it for a while, and fully suggest that allow yourself plenty of time to finish the character. A rush job will get you exactly what you wanted. Rushed characters.

I've mentioned this in the Eve Blog Banter a post ago, but between it and the Lost in Conversation where I sounded like a bitter vet with no reason to sound like one, I have some additional thoughts.

Energy Drain: Rise of the Passive Tank

2011-01-28T01:51:00.000-05:00

Who would of thought one simple fix would have caused so much anguish?

I'm talking of course about the Energy Drain fix to the sleepers. People living in wormholes trying to make it with significantly less (read: solo or multiple toons) are finding their ships being blown up at a medium pace. Mostly, those packing shield tanks seem to be the worst off. Armor tanks seem to be working just fine with just a few modifications, provided you aren't tanking locally.

The difficulty ramps up with each progressive level in. C3's are becoming difficult to solo with active local tanks, C4's are becoming unmanageable with conventional setups, C5's are potential deathtraps, and C6's carry the ability to wipe out carriers and dreads.

So the question becomes how can the content be put back on farm?

The answer lies in the passive tank and a slight change in fleet setups.

Eve Blog Banter #24: A New Age

2011-01-20T17:09:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the twenty-fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the "Where the frack is my ship" blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

Patch Notes: Energy Drain

2011-01-18T12:57:00.000-05:00

I was reading over the patch notes and noticed that CCP is finally getting around to fixing the Sleepers ability to energy drain.

I have not had a chance to test this out yet, so it is unknown how much this will affect ship's ability to tank. Most sleepers carry NOS so as long as it works like NOS does for players (ie, no energy drain when the target ship has less cap then the NOS ship) I don't see it as a problem. However, I do believe some Sleeper ships have Neuts as well.

What does this mean?

Well, it could be nothing. NOS isn't really a killer unless you flirt too low with the 33% max recharge. Neuts could really ruin your day. It may become unable to solo C3 content now with this change due to the extra stress on the capacitor.

Let me know what your seeing out there.

Guardians: Lifeblood of the Fleet

2011-01-14T07:25:00.002-05:00

With armor tanking being so prevalent in PVP and some people beginning to see the advantages in PVE, it has never been a better time to fly Amarr. What with the excellent weapon systems, the massive tank, small signature radius and stupidly good T2 lineup, Amarr ships are almost on another level for fleet warfare.

And while each of those is their own powerful reason to fly Amarr, its the true workhorse of the Amarr fleet that rarely sees any attention that makes it so powerful: The Guardian.

There are four logistic ships in the game, one for each race. These are then split by what type of tank they project. Amarr and Gallente repair armor, while the Caldari and Minmatar repair shields. Of the four, only the Amarr and Caldari get two very important bonuses. While all Logistic ships get a 15% reduction in cap use for their reps, Amarr and Caldari get a reduction in energy transfers cap use as well. Because of this, Guardians and Basilisks are intended to work in pairs for maximum efficiency.

I set out to build a Guardian the other day and wanted to make one as cheap as possible without skimping on the power. Generally the reason is opposing FC's don't really like when the fleet they are fighting has logistics, and therefore logistics pilots have a tendency to get primaried a lot. Being primaried usually ends up in spinning in a pod and heading off to buy a new ship.

The Downward Spiral of Low Sec

2011-01-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

For a few weeks now I have been reading, studying and researching Low Sec. I've never really lived there as I feel that living in a WH is a bit more hardcore, but I have no fear of the place and its never stopped me from doing whatever it was I needed done at the time. As such, I've spent a lot of time trying to put to words my thoughts and feelings about Low Sec. I've read many blogs, forum posts and thoughtful, well written discussion; and as such I've decided to put to words my findings.

And before you completely discount my opinions as “Well you don't even live there, how could you know?” It could be that I'm exactly what the Improve Low Sec initiative needs. An unbiased, intelligent, researched look into exactly whats going wrong, and perhaps insight as how to reverse this self destructive pattern.

As a disclaimer, its a wall of text. Please refrain from saying something stupid in response until you read the entire article (not that you, my regular, intelligent reader would ever do such a thing). As always, I welcome constructive comments to help facilitate the discussion, even if you don't agree with what I'm saying.

I will attempt to explain Low Sec. I will explain how it got into its current state, and how current events and calls for fixes are simply not going to work. I will also reveal the true reason for Low Sec's demise, and who is responsible for fixing it. Read on, and think carefully about it. I think the answer may surprise you.

A New Year's Resolve

2010-12-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

Being my last post of the year, I figured I would take the time to share some of my Eve New Year's resolutions with you. And I would like to invite you to help with the direction of Sleepless.

I have several topics I have slated for the year, but I would like to get your take on what I should talk about in Sleepless. What I'm looking for is questions, comments, or requests for topics in Sleepless. In that way, I would encourage you to get my attention in one of three ways. First, Email me. The second way to get my attention is through Twitter. Drop me a message @redrickstar. If neither of those two ways are good for you, just leave me a comment. You can comment here on Sleepless or on the Eve Forums on my Sleepless in Space thread in the My Eve section. I love hearing from you, the readers, so that I can continue to deliver content you want to read. I love questions, and even if its more a comment or perhaps some way I can improve my blog, by all means, LET ME KNOW.

Don't make me beg. I will if I have to.

So, now that the public service announcement is over, on to the Resolutions!

1. I will find more time to play Eve (RL sucks!)

2. I will remember to overheat my weapons at the appropriate times

3. I will remember to NOT overheat my mids so I don't burn out my prop and point mods (doh't!)

4. I will continue to keep notes by my computer for fun stories and mistakes to turn them into learning experiences here on Sleepless

5. I will try to be nicer to CCP. Perhaps that way I might actually be featured in a Community Corner. After all, if a guy who posts shit fits got in, why not me???

6. I will get off my ass and finish planning this "other" special blog project I've been secretly working on.

7. I will find more time to play Eve. Damn you Steam sale! Damn you Borderlands!!!

8. I will continue to write good posts that either help you, my wonderful readers, or at least make you think.

9. Pictures. More pictures. And as soon as I can figure out a good screenshot/cropping/editing way so I can hide my location, perhaps I will do more.

10. I will try to be more understanding of people who I think make stupid the norm (none of you, of course!). I'm fairly certain that this one will be the first one I break too.

11. I will track down the guy that stole my very expensive ship and punch him in the face (unlikely).

12. MORE TIME FOR EVE!

And that's about it. Let me know what your resolutions are, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me your questions, comments or requests for topics here on Sleepless!

Happy New Year Everyone!

~Shadai

How To: The Directional Scanner

2010-12-23T21:41:00.001-05:00

One of the most important tools of survival in a wormhole is the directional scanner or d-scan. For the uninitiated, the d-scan is that tab next to the probe scan that lets you see other ships. In wormhole space where there is no local, the d-scan becomes the main tool pod pilots will use to determine if trouble is on the horizon. Therefore, knowing the strengths and limitations of such a tool is vitally important if one wishes to keep his ship intact.

However, this is not always the case. Most pilots I come across just hit the button every so often, not realizing what they are doing or how to d-scan properly. I will be outlining how to use the d-scan, as well as advanced tips and tricks to become even more proficient.

Spot on Predictions for Next Year!!

2010-12-17T02:24:00.000-05:00

This holiday season, instead of getting fat iskies from dumb sleeper ships; or pwning noobs that don't belong in wormholes; or giggling like a child over killing your shiny new Echelon; I've decided on a different approach. I've pulled out my crystal ball I've had in storage (don't ask how long), and although it smells a bit funny, I've used its power to come up with fool-proof stories and predictions from Eve in 2011.

So kick back, grab yourself an egg nog or brew while I pound back a few whiskey shots and lets get to business. And remember, don't take life too seriously, as no one gets out alive anyway.

Domi-nating Sites

2010-12-09T15:50:00.003-05:00

The best fleet for taking out w-space sites is usually made up of T2 and/or T3 cruisers, and/or any BS with logistic support. Unfortunately, T2, T3 cruisers and logistics takes a long time to train for, so how can someone without those particular ships get in a wormhole and take out sites?

For what its worth, you can't get any more bang for the buck then the Dominix.

Why the Dominix?

Walk Softly, Carry Bombs

2010-12-02T16:17:00.001-05:00

When asked what I think the best ship for wormhole defense would be, my first answer would be more ships then the other guy.

Of course, that isn't always the best answer. Or the most helpful.

It is however, the most correct.

But usually if you had the most ships your wormhole space would most likely not be in this predicament right now. So what happens when you are down pilots and are being invaded for sites?

Enter the bomber.

Stealth bombers are ships I recommend that every serious WH pilot should have. Why? I'm glad you asked. Sit back and relax, for I am about to let you know exactly why the bomber is (aside from a fleet of caps in a class 2 wormhole) one of the most feared ships in all of w-space.

Bookmarks, Bookmarks, Bookmarks

2010-11-25T20:11:00.001-05:00

In my corp we've been having a problem with bookmarks. Specifically, the problem is new players we recruit to help in the hole and bookmarks. After asking about, it appears we are not the only one with the problem. So, I've come to help.

Those of you in charge of wormhole corps feel free to distribute this link to all your new players. Vets, read this as well as I've come across some of you who don't know about the 5 bookmark copy limit.

The Sansha are coming, the Sansha are coming!

2010-11-18T18:15:00.001-05:00

With the new expansion forthcoming, CCP is going to introduce a new feature that will have players scrambling against an invasion force of Sansha's Nation. These invasions can happen anywhere, anytime for any reason, from high sec major hubs to null sec back-end systems. There will be no Sansha in W-space from what I can tell. As someone who lives in a wormhole, I'm sure you're thinking “So?”

Does anyone realize how badly people in K-space are about to get their asses kicked?

The Hitchhikers Guide to Wormholes: 10 Facts Everyone Must Know

2010-11-11T19:08:00.004-05:00

There are some universal truths in wormhole space. You got your scan ship, and you are all set to embark on the adventure of a lifetime into the great unknown.

Hold on there, buckaroo.

There are some very important things you need to know about WH space. Even those of you who have been living in W-space for some time can stand read through this list just in case there is something experience hasn't taught you by now.

1. Security and Paranoia

Biggest takeaway here, is just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean that they aren't after you. Wormhole space is not unlike Null sec with some rather large differences. First, sovereignty means nothing. It does not work, and the one that owns the W-space is the one strong enough to hold it. At any point you can be invaded and podded, your POS destroyed and your hangars looted. The attackers can take over the now empty space or can just move on to plague someone else. W-space is 0.0 for purposes of sec status and Concord. Even if you have a high sec hole in your system that leads to Jita itself, don't expect Concord to fly into your place and save your ass.

It ain't happening.

Its almost Sith-like in its execution. Only the strongest will survive through feats of strength, strong tactics, or shady backroom deals and backstabbing. And no one is coming to save you.

What makes it better (or worse, depending on the situation) is the complete lack of local. What makes Null sec easy in my humble opinion is the fact that local can and does work. Got a 50 man fleet in the other system? Well, there they all are, right in local channel. You can count em. Got a 50 man fleet in a WH? You won't have the slightest clue without d-scan or dropping in unexpectedly on their grid.

The takeaway from all of this? Know how to use your D-scan and use it early and often. And just because your paranoid, if you find yourself doing anything that proverbially leaves your ass hanging out into traffic and you see something not right on D-Scan its time to make like a rabbit. Chances are, you are already too late but fortune does tend to favor the lucky or incredibly stupid.

2. Session Change and Wormholes

If you don't have the session change timer up on the UI, you need to enable it now. Now as in yesterday. In the game hit ESC to bring up the menu. On the General Settings tab there will be a box under General labeled “Show Session-Change Timer”. Make sure you put a check in the box. This turns on the timer. The timer will appear in the top left of your UI now every time you initiate a session change. Examples of session changes include undocking, docking, jumping through a gate, jumping through a wormhole, ejecting from a ship, and boarding a new ship. If you don't know what the session change timer does try docking then immediately try to change ships. You'll get that funny and often amusing message about having to wait cause your halfway on board and you need to wait 20 some seconds til the other half is aboard. That is the session change. This is very important in WH space.

It has to do with WH jump mechanics. Understanding this could save your ship one day. Wormholes act like gates with a couple of very important differences you need to understand. Like gates, “jumping” through them leads you to a gate on the other side in the target system. Similarly, wormholes will spill you into another system at the point where the corresponding wormhole is. However, wormholes can be activated to “jump” through by any ship within 5000 km, which is a greater distance then what is required by gates in known space. Also, wormholes will have a visible “activation” that can be seen on both sides of the hole; both on the side you are jumping from and the destination system. This is expressed in a visible “flash” that can be seen when looking at the wormhole as well as an audible tone.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, if you are alone at a WH and suddenly see the flash and hear the tone, but don't see anything pop up on your overview, you know that someone is jumping into your system. If you see several flashes and tones, its time to get out of there if you are by yourself and uncloaked. Second, remember that it works both ways. When you are jumping into an unknown WH you could be jumping straight into a camp.

Finally, one more very important point of wormhole jump mechanics you must understand is distance and the 4 minute timer. When jumping through a gate your ship will land in the system the gate links to anywhere between 20 to 30 km off the corresponding gate. When jumping though a wormhole, your ship will land in the system within 2.5 to 6 km off the corresponding hole. Just like gates in K-space, your ship will have a cloak that lasts for 1 minute. The difference is with gates in K-space you can jump back and forth as much as you want (as long as you don't have the session timer, of course). The only hindrance is your ship has to travel the gate landing distance back to within 2500 km off the gate. In W-space travel, there are no such problems. When you land in the system, more often then not you are within the 5000 km needed in order to activate the hole.

This is where the 4 minute timer comes into play. Upon jumping through a wormhole you can of course immediately jump back through the same wormhole. This puts you within jumping distance on the side you jumped through initially. However, if you try to jump back through you will find that you have a 4 minute timer that is preventing you from warping back. Repeated jumps back and forth change the timer to 1 minute 45 seconds to 3 minutes back to 1:45. Behold an illustration of a high sec to W-space hole and a ship jumping back and forth:

HS side → W-space (no timer) → HS side (4 min) → W-space (1:45) → HS (3) → W-space (1:45) → and so on

Note that this only counts for jumping through the same hole. For example jumping from W-space to HS then back to the same W-space starts the 4 minute timer. But that timer only counts for that HS hole, if the ship warps to another hole in the same W-space, it can jump through that hole without waiting for the timer to finish.

So why is this important? For normal W-space travel, its not. But these game mechanics will come into play when you find a hole camped, which is something I will talk about in a later blog entry.

3. Spawning of Sites/Holes

Sites when spawned in a wormhole will typically last for a while as long as they are not warped to or completed. Once a site is warped to it will despawn in 3 to 4 days. If it is completed, it despawns immediately. CCP has stated that they did not intend W-space to be a permanent place to live. The respawn rate is slow, so after raiding all the sites in your hole, be prepared to raid the neighbors if you wish to keep doing sites.

Theories abound as to what exactly spawns sites. One is that the sites stay the same in the wormhole and slowly spawn based on the very slow spawn rate. The current favorite is once a site is completed and/or despawns in w-space, that site spawns in similar class wormhole in a different system in w-space. As such, people will warp to sigs in neighboring same class holes to start the timer of despawn even if they aren't going to run them in hopes they will spawn in their hole. This theory of course cannot be proven without confirmation by CCP. Until then, we aren't sure exactly what spawns the sites.

4. Wormhole Effects and You

There are six wormhole effects that can affect your ship and fleet. Experienced WH'ers can tell these effects on sight, as each one has a visual signature in the system along with the star. If you are new to W-space or can't tell them by sight (even I get mixed up sometimes), everyone should have the following bookmarked in their in-game browser:

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Wormhole_environment_effects

This site shows what all six look like so you can match it to the visual cue in the system. There are six effects you need to know: Magnetar, Red Giant, Pulsar, Wolf Rayet, Cataclysmic Variable, and Black Hole. This is important for you and the safety of your fleet; for example you don't want to run a shield tank op in a Wolf Rayet. Also note that the WH effects will apply to sleepers, so expect those same sleepers in that Wolf Rayet system to take a bit longer to kill due to the increased resistance.

5. Static Holes

Each system in WH space will have at least one static hole. Some systems will have multiple. A static hole is one that has a letter signature that is NOT k162. A system can have as many k162 openings as necessary. Its entirely possible to find a system with one static hole and five k162 openings. It is also possible on the following day to be in the same system and have one static and no k162s. Go to static mapper or DaOpa's to determine what kind of static hole a system has. I find DaOpa's site particularly helpful as it lists all the possible static signatures along with mass/time and where it leads. If you look up the system in static mapper it will list probable statics as well as activity in the hole. The latter is expressed in the number of jumps through the system, which can give you an idea as to how active the neighbors are.

A system will always have at least ONE static hole. If that static closes for any reason (ie, it was purposely closed or it ran out of time) a new static signature will appear somewhere in the system. This is designed as such to prevent a ship from not having a “way out” of W-space.

6. K162 – Where does it go?

K162's are the back sides of static holes. As stated previously, a system can have any number of k162s. However, unlike static signatures which are so helpful, k162s do not tell you anything about the system on the other side. So the question often becomes, where does this hole lead?

First, start by right clicking on the hole and select “Show Info”. It will tell you where it leads. If the hole goes anywhere in K-space, it will tell you right in the show info box whether it goes to high, low or null sec. However, a k162 that leads to another system in W-space requires a bit more investigation.

First, in the show info box it will say “This hole leads to...” and will end one of three ways: Unknown space, dangerous unknown space, or deadly unknown space.

Unknown space means it leads to a class 1, 2, or 3 wormhole. Dangerous unknown space means it leads to a class 4 or 5. Deadly unknown space leads to a class 6.

Next, look at the wormhole and note the color. If it leads to a class 4 or 5 you can tell which is which by the color. Class 4 is a orange-ish color and class 5 is red. For class 1, 2, and 3 you can do the same. Class 1 is a light blue color, class 2 is a dark blue and class 3 is a white/silvery color. Class 6 is always a deep red color.

The other way to determine where the hole leads is just jump in and look the system up in either static mapper or DaOpa's. However, some times this is not always the ideal solution, and being able to identify the WH on sight is a very useful skill not many possess.

7. Determining Mass/Time of a Wormhole

Each wormhole has a mass and time restriction. The only wormhole with a ship restriction is class 1 wormholes, which only allow battlecruiser and below. Class 2 through 6 have no ship restrictions, just mass limitations. All wormholes will have a time limitation.

How do you determine how much mass or time a wormhole has left? There is no exact answer but there is a way to get a good estimate based information in the show info box.

First, time. Wormholes were designed by CCP to be constantly changing to keep W-space interesting and more fluid. Therefore, most wormholes will only last about a day. The more common wormholes in the lower class holes will last 16 and 24 hours, where as some holes in more deadly w-space can last 36 or even 48 hours. In the show info box will be line that tells you the time status of the WH:

“Life cycle has not yet begun” means you are the first to have just found it and warped to it. Mark the time you found it down, that hole will last the full allotment of hours from the time you landed on grid. After that it gets a bit hazy. “Probably won't last another day” means the wormhole has greater then 25% of total time left. Meaning if its a hole that lasts 16 hours, you have more then 4 hours before it collapses. “Nearing the end of natural life” is a big red stop sign. This means the wormhole has less then 25% and there is no telling how far along it is. It could be two hours, it could be two minutes. If you are concerned about a WH time and set to warp to and check it every hour on the hour, you will know within 1 hour from when it goes end of natural life (EoNL) of its collapse. There will also be a visual cue. When looking at the wormhole, it has a ripple effect or “waves” that emanate from the center of the hole and work outward. As the hole slowly runs out of time, these “waves” go from slow, steady and calm to fast and dynamic. If you see a hole that is EoNL and the waves are going crazy, you best not jump in unless you don't mind being trapped on the other side.

Second is mass. Mass can also be determined by the show info box and is the way that experienced wormholers “close” holes. If the hole “has not had its stability reduced”, then it has greater then 45% of its mass available. “Has had its stability reduced but not to a critical degree” means the hole has less then 45% but more then 10%. If the wormhole is “on the verge of collapse” this means it has less then 10% of the available mass. This will also have a visual cue as the wormhole will physically get “smaller” as it loses mass.

Think of mass as a running total. Every time a ship jumps through, the mass of the ship (including all of its modules, as armor plate adds significant mass) is subtracted from that running total. Closing a WH is usually accomplished by jumping a large battleship through and staying cloaked on the side they don't want to be on. Then the closers will run battleships back and forth through the hole, waiting for the moment til it gets less then 45%. At this point its simple math. Take the holes' total mass and multiply it by .45. This will give you the approximate mass it has left, and subsequently, how much you have to run through the hole to close it. Closers will then (while keeping the BS on the wrong side of the hole cloaked) carefully run ships through it til it hits around 5 to 10% critical. Usually at this point, the cloaked BS then uncloaks and squeezes through the hole, closing it behind him.

This is not without risks, so if you are going to do this, make sure you have the exit bookmarks or a scanner. Or both. Never hurts to be prepared.

So how do you determine the exact total time or mass? First, you need to be on the static side (the non-k162 side). Note the static number and look the hole up in DaOpa's guide or Static Mapper. Notice a pattern here yet? Either one should tell you exactly how much mass and time that particular wormhole has. From those base numbers, you can calculate how much you have left.

8. Know your sites

If you've completed the scan tutorials this is not difficult. Remember Gravimetric are rocks and Ladar is gas and both require the appropriate mining skill after a short initial sleeper clear. Magnetometric (mag) and Radar are more powerful combat sites then anomalies (or anoms for short) you'll find in the same hole. These require a more dedicated clear and specialty equipment. Remember, Mag sites use analyzers and Radar use hacking. Even experienced guys get them switched up. You don't want to be the guy that shows up to open the cans with the wrong mid slot mod.

9. Know the trigger: All about Sleepers

Sleepers are the pve threat inside of w-space. Sleepers are bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter then any pve enemy you have ever faced inside k-space. Some sleeper ships are equipped with MWD and can close distance quickly. They are all intelligent, with the most advanced AI CCP has ever created that allows them to switch targets at will. Sleepers know who your logistics pilots are and will punish them. Drones are not immune, as sleepers will target and kill them. They hit like trucks, their weapons doing Omni damage so don't go in to fight them with a resist hole. Starting at class 3 there are some sleepers with the ability to scram. By the time you take on class 5 and 6 sleepers every single one can scram and web. Sleepers can be found in all sites in w-space, from anoms to radar to ladar sites.

Still interested in taking them on? Excellent. Sleepers only have two bars, armor and structure. They have no shields, and any WH shield effects will consequently have no effect on them. Sleeper resists are 70/70/70/70. This means there is no one type of ammo better then another, unlike k-space rats. So use whatever ammo does the most damage for the range you wish to engage. ECM does work against sleepers, but don't bother with a multi-spectral jammer. Any racial jammer will work on sleepers, so use whatever one is the strongest.

Bookmark what I call the Sleeper Bible: eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=wormholespace

In the bible you will find all the sites broken down by class of wormhole. It will also tell you what the trigger is. Be sure to clear the wave without killing the trigger or things will get really bad really fast if you are not prepared for it. Also, know your escalation points. If you think you can just warp your carrier or dread in and take the site down you will be in for a rude surprise. Starting in class 4 sites the sleepers will escalate by warping in 6 sleeper battleships for the first carrier or dread you warp into site. Each carrier or dread you warp in after that spawns an additional 8 sleeper battleships. If you want to use this effect to farm them, note that each type (carrier and dread) can warp in two different ships for a total of 4 additional waves, six, eight, eight, and eight. Bringing a third carrier or dread when you already have two in will not spawn an additional wave.

10. Don't Leave the Grid!!!!

This part is so important I gave it its own number. Sleeper combat sites like anoms despawn as soon as the last sleeper is clear. If your salvaging, make sure you have the bookmarks to all the areas where the wrecks will be, as you won't be able to scan it down again. As soon as everyone leaves the grid, the site vanishes, leaving just the wrecks which can't be scanned down.

The mining sites will stay up for a few days after the sleepers are clear. The sleepers in these sites do not respawn.

Here's the really important part. Mag and Radar sites will despawn as soon as one of the cans are tampered with. The only way to prevent this is by having someone on grid. If you tamper with one of the cans then leave, the entire site will despawn within a minute, which includes the cans. Do not leave the grid when hacking/analyzing the cans. Make sure someone stays on grid until the job is done, otherwise you could lose hundreds of millions of isk.

Getting Prepared for WH Space

2010-11-04T16:54:00.001-04:00

Interested in wormhole space?

Of course you are, otherwise you would not be reading this blog.

I get the question from the new guys all the time. What kind of things do I need to bring into a wormhole?

My answer is always complicated.

SKILLS

In reality, it depends on the corp, your skills and the role you wish to play in the wormhole. However, in general, I can recommend the following skills: (those of you adequately skilled can skip this part)

If you are just starting, the first recommendation that anyone makes is the learning skills. My suggestion is the base learning skills to 4 and the advanced learning to 3. If you know your going to be playing the character and training a lot, I would suggest advanced to 4. Training any learning skill to 5 takes years to see any benefit from wasting the time to learn that particular skill.

Next you want good fitting skills. Hammer's Blog did a short blurb about this that is very helpful. Anything that allows you to fit more on your ship and get more bang for the buck is pretty key.

Now comes the scanning skills. If you don't know how to scan, go back to the starting tutorial guys and do the scanning set of missions. It is very helpful and will give you the knowledge you need to succeed in a wormhole. As far as scanning skill levels go, you need at the bare minimum Astrometrics 4, Astrometric Rangefinding 3, Astrometric Pinpointing 3, and Astrometric Acquisition 2, maybe 3. Advanced users and those of you wishing for combat probing will need all those support to at least 4 and should all be 5.

After that it really depends on what kind of activity you/your corp wish to do in a wormhole. If you want to build/research/etc you need those appropriate skills. If blowing up sleepers is more your thing, a heavy dose of combat skills is necessary. Looking to strike it rich with ABC ore? There is plenty in WH space but you need the skills to extract it from the rocks.

Ideally, don't expect to just create a new character and jump right into a wormhole. You need a significant amount of training to be functional as well as helpful. And the game experience you learn along the way getting said training will be invaluable.

SHIPS

What kind of ships should you bring into the hole? Well that is complicated too but easier to narrow down. First and foremost, anyone serious about living in WH space needs a scan ship.

Follow along the checklist:

Scan Skills (see above)
Whatever race you fly Frigate 5
Juryrigging 3
Cloaking
A set of Sister's Probes
A Sister's Launcher

Got all that? Great. Get whatever race you fly's scan ship (Amarr – Magnate, Caldari – Heron, Gallente – Imicus, Minmatar – Probe) and fit it with an Expanded Sister's Probe Launcher, two Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade rigs, a cloak, MWD, and some nanofiber internal structures (nanos) or fitting mods if you don't quite have the skills. If you have room, toss in a cap battery or some cap rechargers. Throw the sisters probes in the cargohold and your good to go. In general you need at least 5 of the core scanning probes and as many combat probes as you can use based on your astrometrics. Why cap battery? Because MWDs reduce your cap and some WH systems are abnormally large, meaning if the WH's are on opposite sides of the sytem you might have to jump multiple times to get there. A medium cap battery (if you can fit it) will help alleviate that problem by giving you more cap to jump with. Even a small cap battery will help. But if the MWD drops your overall cap, why do you want to fit it? Because this is WH space, and bubbles can and will mess you up. The faster you can get out of the bubble to warp out, the better. Remember, this isn't a combat/mining/analyzing/hacking/whatever ship. Its a scanning/scout ship. Get in, get out, get better.

This will be your base scanning ship. You should work on getting covert ops 4 as soon as possible to get into the race's covert ops scan ship (5 again, is better), which allows you to use covert ops cloaks; this allows you to warp when cloaked which is really important when scouting other wormholes.

Don't blink about the price of the sisters launcher and probes. They give a passive scan bonus that will help you far more then the small price to pay. If you start in a regular frig you can transfer them over to the covert ops once you've attained the training to use it. Also, a quick note about probe launchers. They come in two flavors, regular flavored probe and expanded flavor probe. Regular probe launchers are easier to fit on ships but can only use core scanning probes. Expanded can fit more probes and can use all three types (core, combat, and deep space) but at the cost of higher fitting requirements, in this case, more cpu. On a scan ship you should have the cpu to make it all fit, so go with the one that allows more versatility.

After this first initial important ship, bring in whatever helps the corp. If the corp does mining, then you'll need ships for that. Corps taking down sleepers will need appropriate team tanked BC, BS or T3 depending on how your corp does business. PVP corps require some different ships. Remember, fly what you are good at, don't try to be a jack-of-all trades. Pick a ship to focus on and get it down, then learn the next one. In the next coming weeks I will talk about ship setups for PVP and for PVE operations.

Now get out there and practice scanning!

Nerf Drake RAWR!! Wait... what?

2010-10-27T15:11:00.001-04:00

This is a wormhole blog and I hate to start out with a prima facia non-wormhole post, but this does have bearing in WH space.

There has been an interesting conversation brewing on the scrapheap challenge forums I've been following for the last few days. I've even read a take in one of the various blogs I frequent. I find it fascinating that when confronted by hardship in the game, the first (and often final) knee-jerk reaction is to scream nerf, petition for said nerf, start troll hate mail, etc.

Let's get the record straight right now. I hate the fucking drake. Its like a fucking cockroach that just won't lay down and die. I swear if a doomsday weapon went off in every known and unknown corner of space only these ships would be left. Hell they even look like cockroaches. I swear, the Caldari people have no idea what “aesthetics” means.

But this time, I actually don't think its the Drake's fault.

And as painful as that is to admit, I did a bit of research to back it up. I set out to prove it needs a nerf and instead think I may have stumbled about the cause. Or at least one of the causes.

Its game mechanics. More specifically, its shield tanking.

Let me explain. First I set about in Eve HQ's fitting tool (I find it gives better numbers then EFT, although the test would work the same in EFT) to build two theoretical ships. In the Battlecruiser class, each race has what I generally refer to as its “tank” and its “gank” style cruiser. Some are obviously more popular then others. For example the Amarr have the Harbinger which is more “gank” and the Prophecy which is more “tank”. Those of you who don't know why I refer to these ships as such, check each ship's bonuses. The Harbinger gets bonuses to damage only, whereas the Prophecy gets a bonus to armor resist. Similarly, the Minmatar has the 'cane for “gank” and the Cyclone for “tank”.

I'm focusing on the Gallente battlecruisers here because I have the most experience with them. Interestingly enough, both the Gallente ships get tank style bonuses; a 7.5% increase in armor rep effectiveness/amount per level. However, most would argue that the Brutix is more of the “gank” and the Myrmidon is more “tank” due to slot layout.

My two theoretical ship builds were a Drake and a Myrmidon. Each was fit to their standard with T2 only and my goal was to maximize 5 areas of the ship: dps, tank, ehp, range, and cap stability. I realize they don't come with points, prop mods or the like. These are merely theoretical setups. Please don't flood my comments with how I fail at fitting ships.

The Drake I fitted for heavy missiles and passive shield tank. This afforded me all five of the target areas easily. The Myrmidon I fitted for an armor tank with drones and Arty's, as they don't use cap and the Myrmidon gets no bonus to any type of guns. First I'll list the fits, then run the number by you. This is all with level 5 fitting skills. The drake setup I'm going to list requires a simple 3% cpu implant, something you can get around by fitting lower requirement meta 4 mods if you so desired.

Drake

6x Heavy Missile Launcher II with Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missiles

3x Large Shield Extender II

2x Invulnerability Field II

1x Shield Recharger II

2x Ballistic Control System II

1x Damage Control II

1x Shield Power Relay

3x Medium Core Defense Field Purger I

Myrmidon

6x 650 Artillery Cannon II with Tremor M ammo

1x Drone Link Augmentor

5x Cap Recharger II

2x Medium Armor Repairer II

1x Damage Control II

1x Armor Explosive Hardener II

2x Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

3x Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I

2x Ogre II

2x Hammerhead II

1x Hobgoblin II

Looking at each ship's numbers, its easy to see why people are jumping to conclusions about nerfing the Drake. With all level 5 skills, these two ships are hardly what I'd consider equal.

The Drake has 88,463 EHP. This can be bumped to over 100k when Field Extender Rigs are applied instead of the Purgers. The Drake's passive shield tank against Omni-Damage is 487.68, which is not bad by any stretch of the imagination. It has solid resists, 66% EM, 79% Kin, 72% Therm, and 83% Explosive. It can spew missiles just over 84km away for 2,870 points of alpha and 467.19 dps. Because nothing is draining the cap except the shield, its entirely stable at 69%.

Those are the type of number that make people love this ship. Considering that setup is less then 100 million isk, its easy to see why haters gonna hate.

On the flip side, the Myrmidon only has 41,883 EHP – less then half of the Drake's. This was because in order to get maximum tank to match the Drake, I couldn't afford to fit plate. Furthermore, because of the guns and armor reps, I don't have enough grid left to fit even 800mm tungsten plate. 1600mm plate can fit on the Myrmidon, but only at the cost of dps and tank, a trade off I wasn't willing to make. Even if I managed to somehow shoehorn in 800mm plate, its EHP would actually DECREASE due to replacing a resist mod. Armor resists are on par with the Drake's shield – 75% EM, 67.5% Kin, 67.5% Therm, and 76% Explosive. The dual armor reps can run indefinitely, bringing its tank vs Omni-Damage to 488.78 dps. With Tremor M ammo, Optimal is 43,470km with 21,875km falloff. That means the guns zero out at 87,220km which is slightly better then the Drake until you take into consideration falloff mechanics and how they actually work. At 80km where the Drake will pound you for its full 467 dps, the Myrmidon is in deep, deep falloff and only getting a small fraction of its dps from guns. Using the holy EFT warrior trinity of Ogres, Hammers and Hobbies (oh my!) the Myrmidon squeaks out only 391.12 dps, and that's only when your in optimal. Drone control limit is 80km, and seriously, have you ever seen ogres chug 80km away? And you thought you got eye bleed from missions. If you switched to sentries, the dps actually decreases to 346.40 with Guarde II as does the effective range, although the advantage of sentries is instant damage on target instead of the eye bleeding speed of the Ogres.

So what does this all mean?

Well the tl:dr version of all that is the Drake pretty much trumps every category. Lets review:

EHP: Advantage Drake

Tank and Resists: This one is closer but neither one tips the scales here, Tie

DPS: Both for alpha and dps, Advantage Drake

Range: Due to falloff mechanics, Advantage Drake

Cap: Since both are stable, we'll call this a tie

Looking at the numbers and comparing them, its easy to see why the masses are chanting “nerf Drake” or “buff Myrm” or whatever.

But I would actually hypothesize that it is not the Drake that needs the nerf. Its shield tanking.

Consider:

With the exception of the Battleship class, a ship can be fit with the “next” larger size up Shield extender mod for a paltry fitting sum. With level 5 fitting skills, a LSE II only costs 46 CPU and 123.75 powergrid, well within Cruiser and Battlecruiser standards. The armor equivalent, 1600 mm rolled tungsten, costs 28 cpu and a whopping 500 powergrid, 4 times the cost of the LSE II!
And its not like the 800mm Armor plate is any better. It costs about half the cpu at 23 but the powergrid cost is 200!
A LSE II will provide an additional 3281 hp to the shield. That 1600mm tungsten plate? 5250 hp to armor. Of course you pay for that extra in the form of 326.25 more powergrid, which on a battleship is easy to come up with but find most cruisers lacking unless fitting mods are used. It is worse for 800mm Armor. It only provides an extra 2625 hp at greater power cost then the LSE II.
LSE II increases passive tank because of the way shield recharge mechanics work. Because you increase the number of total shield hit points but keep the shield recharge time the same, you increase passive tank. Ships fitting shield extenders are essentially double-dipping, improving total EHP all while increasing tank, something that armor can not match.

Of course, shield tank proponents are quick to point out the single disadvantage of shield tanking, signature radius. But is this as big a drawback as we are led to believe? The Drake I have fitted with 3 LSE II brings is signature radius up for sure. But considering they are “large” mods that should be more in line with “large” ships of the BS class, its not nearly enough. It takes 3 such mods to bump the Drakes sig radius to 406, which is 6 over the sig of a large turret. For comparison, an armor fitted Dominix has a sig radius of 420. Each LSE II only increases the sig radius by a mere 25, hardly a drawback when one considers they are fitting battleship class armor buffers to cruiser style ships. Armor tanks suffer a penalty too, one to speed when speed mods are used (mwd or ab). And in general, most people will point out the drawback to speed is greater then the enhanced sig radius.

By trying to maximize trans and keeping both ships at optimal + 1 falloff of a Dominix sporting Ion Blaster II with Antimatter, the Dominix only has a 53% chance to hit the 406 sig radius Drake. Which is exactly what one would expect, seeing how the sig radius of the Drake is larger then the turret and at optimal + 1 falloff you have 50% chance to hit. For comparison, consider the Zealot. When put in the exact same spot/speed of the Drake with same trans, you would expect a much lower chance to hit considering the Zealots tiny (in comparison) sig radius of 125. The real world answer however, is somewhat disappointing at 38%, a mere 15% less then the Drake. This of course is a theoretical number in this situation, but still telling nonetheless.

So what is the takeaway from all of this?

I don't like the Drake, granted, but to say it needs a nerf I feel is a bit premature. Besides, I have always applauded the ability for lower cost, lower skill solutions to dominant situations in the game. In this case, Drake fleets are being used as a counter to the prevalent armor HAC gangs. The main portion of tears seems to be coming from the pilots flying those expensive HACs; and the thought of all those tears makes any pirate salivate. My guess is they are pissed a ship costing less then 100 mil is a solid counter to their far more expensive ship, both in isk and training time. The interesting thing is the armor HAC gangs were a direct counter to sniper BS fleets. I wonder how long it will take someone to figure out the sniper BS fleet is the direct counter to the Drake fleet. And we go 'round the circle again....

My take on all of this is shield tanking seems to be a bit too powerful. It probably explains the dominance of the Tengu as a weapons/tanking platform as well. It needs to be brought more in line with armor tanking, but to do so CCP is going to have to change some fundamental items that provide a baseline for all ships tanking in the game.

Considering their focus on shit like walking in stations, they will most likely not get around to balancing this and instead just nerf the Drake cause its easier.

I do have some thoughts on how to bring shield tanking more in line with armor. My first suggestion would be to increase sig radius penalty. 25 is just not enough for a LSE. I don't know what the exact number is, but I'm sure a 5 to 10 increase would be sufficient. Next, increase powergrid cost for all shield extenders. This will bring them more in line with armor plates. Third, and most importantly, introduce a shield recharge penalty by a set percentage. The main reason shield tanking works so well is by fitting extenders you can simultaneously increase both EHP and passive tank. It also makes shield recharger mods mostly useless. By introducing a recharge penalty, you bring them more in line with armor plates, which add more HP but don't change the “tank”; in this case is the shield recharge rate. After these changes are made you can increase the hp bonus to shield for all extenders, or, if PG cost stay the same introduce a new class of extender, and XL version if you will for the battleship class.

Fucking Drakes.

EDIT: I just realized I left this part out. I originally did an armor tank comparison with the Drake vs the Prophecy, figuring the Amarr armor tank would make for a better comparison vs Caldari shield due to both ships getting resist bonuses to their respective tanks. In short, it didn't go well. The Drake blew it out of the water errr space without it even being close. The Myrm was the closest comparison on those items I was looking at. In fact, when I changed the Myrm fit around and added 3 LSE II and 2 Invulnerability Field II and Shield Power Relay II in the lows I had a Myrm that not only did the same damage as the armor tank version, but it had more effective hit points AND tanked over 900 dps. After I got done I thought it was extremely strange that I could get a better tank out of a ship that got the opposite bonuses. Its not the Drake... its shield tanking.

One man's lone adventure in the dark.....

2010-10-26T13:45:00.000-04:00

Okay so maybe not that dramatic.

Welcome to Sleepless in Space!

Here you will find posts dedicated to Eve Online. I will attempt to hit this up weekly and fill it with information, how-to, and general knowledge about Eve and in particular, wormhole space. Here you will find interesting tidbits about the state of the game as well as how to not get your ass shot off in a wormhole.

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