Nearly a Decade of Spaceship Tomfoolery - Part 1

Morning all.

Posting is few and far between again, Usually due to RL and such however I have a piece I wanna pop out there for those interested.

Back about 9 years ago I started playing Eve Online, My main at the time who I regrettably sold on after 3 years to be replaced with my current hasn't been active for about 4 years now and it got me thinking about where I've been and the journeys in Eve that have shaped this game for me and in some cases my real life.

Originally my cousin told me about this awesome space game which was totally open and single server. I think back in 2004/5. So I started going round his place and watching some of the stuff going on to see if I would like it. I remember watching him fly around in his little frigate and thinking it looked pretty cool. Graphics back then aren't nearly as good as today and visually Eve today is stunning but back then I thought it was pretty damned cool.

As you can see the above photo shows what life was like back in day. One from around 2003 or such and then one from about 2008.


I created a account and had a little play around. Now at the time I was also heavily into WoW running a raid guild so I didn't really have time to take Eve Seriously so I left the game for a few years until Blizzard started to bore me with terrible expansions and money grabbing.

Queue 2009.

I boot up Eve again and start up a new account and my first act is to find out what happens if I shoot NPC navy ships in a Ibis. I explode and die. I will never forget this because for me I think it was the single most productive thing I did for a few years as it made me realize very quickly once you die you're basically stuffed and half your stuff is gone.

The next few months were spent amassing what I considered a small fortune and occasionally being able to afford a plex for 240m. I quickly realized that earnings and abilities in Eve grew with every alt so that's where my plethora of alts grew I think I have something around 18 alts maybe more now I have some accounts on Alpha as I have no need for them currently.

For a while I dotted around Highsec doing industry bits but the call to PVP couldn't be resisted so off I went to live in Lowsec in a place called Ane. My first baptism into "willing" PvP was this wonderful Megathron loss.

It also spurred my hatred for ECM at that point. Damn Rooks.


It was around this time I met a couple of very very long term Eve Friends. People who till this day are still flying with me 9 years later. There has been a lot of people come and go during my time in game but these two in particular are still around and playing the game with me and without them I would have likely moved on many years ago.

I will be making a few posts to try to the best of my ability and memory to write the 9 year story of my Eve career as just a normal space pilot to try and help those who have never played Eve to understand the draw of a game that has kept my attention for nearly a decade.

Moon Goo Bonanza!

Evening all,

So on the 24th of this month Eve saw probably one of it's most game changing moments happen in a very speedy and very smooth ( sort of smooth ) patch.

In the entire history of Eve Online Moon Goo mining has always been a passive income. What I mean by this is Alliances or Corporations within the game would anchor a player owned structure fondly known as a POS. With this they would anchor 2 modules that would mine a moon for resources unattended for generations to come. Back in the "Good Ol' Days" this used to be the most common reason for a all out war over pure resources however in recent future that hasn't really been the case due to the big entities having already sourced a good region and no real powers around or reason to kick them out  or even move out themselves.

Anyway moving on. The  new system in place is one that copies the current mining spree with a few exceptions. The new "Refinery" structures CCP has implemented in the game are to replace previous citadels that were otherwise used for refining. They are specialized and focus bonuses on refining and reaction times. Que more structure spam.

Once rigged they will provide a higher bonus ( Large only ) Then the previous highest refine rate, They also have a timer for pulling up asteroid belts to mine the shortest being I believe 6 days till a belt appears and the longest somewhere around 52. I can't remember the exact numbers. Chunk sizes are dependent on the length of the "Pull".

So now day's instead of leaving a structure up for the month to suck up what was essentially free money for alliances and corporations, they now have to figure a way of getting around the free money loss. For Alliances with a strong industrial backbone like Goonswarm/Test/Brave it won't be so bad ( I didn't include PL/NC in there purely because the only thing they use Rorquals for is killing our supers so... ) However for PVP focused alliances that either relied on the free money moons or had a good chunk of it used for SRP and enjoying the game they now have to seriously consider other avenues like employing industrialists into their ethos in order to continue the status quo.

It will be interesting to see who adapts well and who doesn't and whether or not the new system creates content or just gives carebears like myself another way to buy titans like they're tristans.

Only time will tell.


Rand ~

Finally! TITAN

Hey guys back again,

So after 8 years of hording and mining and ratting and killing things and market PVP. I finally decided to put some of that isk to use in the form of a Titan. I spent ages debating this purchase but as it was considered my "end game" to own one I had the chance and I took it. So about 2 months ago the sucker went in the oven and out came my shiny new Erebus.

I am fully aware that it's basically the worst titan in the game currently next to the Levithan.

A lot of the reason I picked this up was purely a achievement in the game for me. I've done nearly everything else and had every single ship in the game except titans and I decided I'd finally get one. If it dies then so be it I'll buy another!

- Also I haven't been playing much the last two months RL took a reign again as it usually does. RIP.

I got the opportunity to head to fanfest next year as well however I think I have to decline as I am flying back to Tokyo again :D

Harsh Worlds - A New Chapter

Its been a long time coming and the only person who ever reads these is my long time eve buddies

However I am feeling like a story just can't die a lonely death no matter how bad it is. We spend our entire lives each of us living our own stories some ending too soon and some continuing way past what we expect and thus my terrible writing skills come into play once again.

Check it here!

I just realized it's been nearly 2 years to the day since I returned to the universe of Harsh Worlds. Literally by a few days! So read and enjoy!




Explosions against my shields register down through my neural links keeping my pod in touch with the ships system as another victim tries with futile efforts to evade my advances on yet another easy kill. The small frigate class Punisher is unloading salvo after salvo into my Carrier class Thanatos with no effect. The shields shrugging off the laser beams with nothing more then a cursory beep to let me something hit them. To be honest I didn't have to kill him but I was having a bad day.

His hull fails as my fighters tear the last vestiges of hope from under him and I dispatch his pod with no issues. Warping off I initiate the glide into a safe spot I had previously marked on the star map to cool off. Its been a long day and I need to rest.


"WARNING! SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION DETECTED WARNING! SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION DETECTED"

I'm instantly awake and taking in all my visual and audio feeds along with the numerous data feeds thrumming into my skull as warnings flash everywhere. A very old code has been used to access my switched off comm link...I start sending commands to the ships systems to patch me in and find out who is trying to reach on a old Spec Ops command channel that's been dormant since I left the federation 2 and a half years ago.

"Akane pick up the damned comms you solitude loving asshole this is an emergency"

It sounds like it's one of my old team members from back in the day but I don't have time for this bullshit.. They were wiped out long ago and I haven't heard from them since.. Assuming the federation biomassed their main clone when our last mission went south on us.

"Whoever this is get off this channel. You shouldn't even be able to get on it the guy who programmed the security into it died a long time ago" I reply with a large sack of annoyance in my voice at being woken up by something so absurd.

"I haven't the time for your crap Akane. I need your help. Rands in trouble and it's more then even my skill set can manage. Access code Delta, Romeo, One, Nine, One. Access Dusty Meg. Computer reroute full visual feed and prepare for data sync"  He calls over comms. My systems start going nuts as my ship responds to his commands and a visual comes up with him sat on a sofa.

I can't believe my eyes.. I'm staring at a potentially dead person asking for help for another dead person while sat on a sofa.. On a space ship. The scene is just so utterly absurd I can't help but laugh..  but that soon turns to sobbing.

"I thought you were dead you asshole. Why now?" I respond over over the communication link as I start processing all the data coming through. It seems pretty unreal by the looks of what I'm getting in the second comrade I lost Rand is currently engaging a Sansha fleet of massive proportions. That self righteous wanna be hero was always causing us hell back in the day and it seems things haven't changed at all.

"Akane we need to go. I need your help.. and the help of everyone you can get your hands on. I'm calling in THE favor. I need everything.. And I mean everything. His ships not going to hold much longer and if they get his pod he will never come back, ever. We need to move now or we risk losing him for good. I have a Cyno field ready to go but I need more people" Dusty face seems stricken as he types in commands faster then I can follow.

"Send me your fleet data right now also I've sent you a toy it should landing shortly, consider it a parting gift seeing as you're likely to die in the next 10 minutes" I start pouring through the data of his current fleet..  I can be a benevolent kinda guy when I wanna be.
"I should really just let him die. Left me in this shit heap of a low sec system for two god damned years..." I mutter as I start sending prepping to send out a ping. "Fine! Hold on. I'm sending you the comms details. Get connected.."

"SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION: CALLING ALL FLEET COMMANDERS. BALLS TO THE WALL BOYS WE HAVE SOMEWHERE TO BE ASAP. CAPITALS ARE GO. I REPEAT CAPITALS ARE GO. BRING EVERYTHING. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ALL TITANS GET OUT OF SAFE DOCK NOW. PREP FOR BRIDGE AND CYNO"

"Akane.. Um.. Please explain?" Dusty looks like someone dropped a bomb on him. But I'm not about to give away my secrets to this lazy ass, Taking gates with a Mackinaw in zero security scrub. Even if he is a old friend. "Oh that? It's just an old toy and I remember Rand saying once you two were having a race to see who could get one first. Guess he lost. That alone is worth letting you use it." The feed switches off for a moment as he switches into his little gift. The screen flickers back on and the look on his face is priceless. "Dusty I can see the sofa stuck between the bridge doors" I chuckle over comms.

"Where did you even get this?" He asks stunned.

"Oh yea.. I sort of found them. And for each one I found more kind of.. came along. You know how it is. Anyway yea.. Now I just use them for killing people I can't kill myself, But you know it gets kind of boring so it's about time the crews earn their pay." I love doing this to dusty.. it's always fun winding him up.

"We need to go now he's down to 10% Armor as soon as he hits structure he's gone. Its now or never. Good luck. Maybe we'll see each other again. And thanks" Dusty switches off visual and I return my focus to the fleet roster. I didn't realize I had some much stuff. I sigh as I consider the repair bills and send out the command.

"SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION: CYNO UP, I REPEAT CYNO UP! JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP. FREE FIRE ON EVERYTHING. ALL REPS ON RANDUNIP. TITANS GO GO GO. DOOMSDAY ON LANDING. I REPEAT DOOMSDAY ARE GREEN. ANYONE LETS HIM DIE BEFORE I GET A CHANCE TO KILL THAT STUPID IDIOT YOU'RE ALL FIRED"

I fire up the jump drives and power through sub space blindly into the fray and quite likely financial ruin and certain death in my poor mans Thanatos. But at least I'm with friends.

Future Eve and How it will affect us!

Hey all! Im still here just haven't had much to write about with being in Tokyo for a while and then back to England again.

However with the recent DevBlog out regarding the future of structures and the one back in march on the refineries,  I wanted to ping out my 2 cents about the whole thing.

I wanna start with the fact I am a huge fan of POS being removed from the game. They were great back.... Who am I kidding they always sucked. Especially when we had to anchor 500,000 of them to run a empire and then try and find 100 types of materials to fuel them all. CCP do some things correct after all.

A little Eve History -

Player Owned Stations as they were named being a stick in space that have a shield, armor, structure bar were the be all end all of Sov warfare ( Owning Null Space ) back in the day. You had to have a majority of Pos online in a system to own that system. To  take it away from someone you needed to kill their Pos and anchor your own. Queue the F1/AFK Wars. And with only 1 reinforce timer per Pos it could be done reasonably quickly as they have damage cap so if you drop 100 dreads it'll die in no time. You could arm them with a ton of guns and in the day this used to be the thing 1 x Faction tower + as many guns as you could fit. Queue fight scene. However as time went on and fights scaled upwards in terms of player numbers Pos guns mean very little these days apart from a deterrent from the average opportunist.

After CCP removed that limitation and replaced it with TCU/SBU ( We won't get into that as that sucked just as much ) They became basically huts in space used for the removal of moon goo from the moons around planets, as JB network POS. Super Capital safe spots and Industry related Jazz. And really not a lot else was required of them. They were the focus of many battles over what we refer to as R64 Moons like Technetium, Dysprosium etc. Now day's they are the focus of reactions and safe spots for supers to hide in during trades/wars.

Until - CITADELS!

Finally CCP released true player owned stations that were actually stations and not Popsicle In Space.  ( PIS ) First we had the 3 Main stations the Astrahaus, Fortizar and Keepstar. These allowed people to safely dock up  or "tether" an act that originally was meant to keep your ship from being bumped but apparently CCP have no idea what the fuck to do regarding this - Hence a few occasions in the early days of Citadels a lot of reimbursement mails were sent ot CCP for things that had been bumped off the citadels.They come with a huge amount of HP which increases depending on which one you build ( but so does the price ) and they have bonuses geared towards it's attached weapons systems via a rig bonus. They can also fit modules and weapons specifically designed for Citadels + Engineering Complexs.  Either way this was one of the greatest patches ever released in the eight years I have been playing. However, that is until!

ENGINEERING COMPLEXES!

These are awesome. Not only do they allow you to dock depending on your ship size but they have bonuses towards Industry and they have changed Industry forever within Eve. These allow depending on size again to build bigger and better with restrictions though until you reach the top. You have the Raitaru, Azbel and Sotiyo. Each can be rigged just like the Citadels  same with modules and weapons although weapons are not as useful or bountiful due to the fitting slot availability. These were designed with minimal defences in mind but with huge bonuses to Industry related jobs.

Moving on.

I currently run a bunch of POS purely for reactions and that's about it and even then the fueling time for materials and fuel itself is still pretty annoying alongside the anchoring etc thankfully that only happens the once. I also run a lot of stuff in citadels and to be honest having everything in one place is a lot more useful then having everything all over the place a bit obvious but some people are like me and basically have space trash in every corner of the galaxy.

With the advent of the new blog it has been announced that the next structures to appear will be the new refineries, however CCP have stated they will be released when they are ready and not before which I herald as a good omen because usually they lob it out the door before it's finished expecting it to walk talk and take over the world. These refineries will take a way all the need for POS for myself as they will incorporate reactions into a single place and they can be done with multiple characters with the introduction of a new skill. The draw backs and bonuses we won't know until the time comes for the release and test on SISI.

Another thing is they will I believe grant even bigger bonuses to reprocessing and they will be able to fit the new moon mining array. The info can be found here in the dev blog. 

Now what does this mean for eve?

I can't even begin to consider how much raw moon goo is pulled in on a daily basis. At a minimum you will pull in 2400 units of one moon goo a day per tower to move that onto the player base is going to be interesting. I foresee a new breed of miner and a new breed of greed as well. 

With the change over there will likely be a minimum of a week before one is up and online so in that time I am guessing that the current stockpile of moon goo will tide us over until the new one is up and running however I can see prices rising and the T2 modules and ship's market increasing quite a lot. And this of course doesn't include what will happen to the moon goo prices themselves.

It really does depend on how much you can mine in the equivalent time next to a Pos. Ie; Pos will mine 100 Technetium in 1 hour. Does that mean 1 player can mine the same? If so how do you keep that in line with the current output? If you can only mine 100 Tech a hour per toon then is it even worth mining? What about the R8 moon goos? They are worth so little isk per hour people won't bother mining them? So will the balance eventually switch or will all the moon goo level out to some extent? I'm interested to see how it all pan's out personally I think it's either going to be amazing or it is going to break the game entirely in terms of T2 building and reactions for a while.


Any thoughts? What are your hopes and fears regarding these monumental changes coming to us sometime in the future?

Supers and How not to be a scrub...

Boo! Been a while hasn't it?

Ive been playing just you know.. work.. and meh.

So I finally picked up a super not long ago, I ended up going for the Wyvern because the Matigu SeaBeast Skin is awesome, Should have been Caldari's base skin in my opinion but hey.

Anyway so this is a short story about how to not be a scrub and it comes from personal experience. So basically I accepted the contract and went over to the citadal to collect it being all excited I didn't notice that the seller had forgotten to pop in the fuel that usually comes with the contract so I undocked and went to jump to my cyno only to find out that I had no fuel.. Needless to say I was a little miffed that I didn't check... So while I was shuttling some fuel over my corp mocked me mercilessly for several hours and it's now become a corp joke about supers and fuel. So tip number one. Make sure you have fuel otherwise you look like me... an idiot.

Tip number two. Don't bomb your own fighters.

While in the process of figuring out wtf to do with the unguided bombs in a haven I managed to bomb my already damaged lights and killed 2 of them.. GG. YouTube is there for a reason.. Guess I should use it.

And finally when testing out the burst modules fire the interdiction sphere burst projector AWAY from your super. Unlike this guy who managed to bubble his own super in a safe spot. Needless to say I'm still pretty happy about finally achieving one of my goals and going forward I shall endeavor to not be a total scrub lord and do silly things with a fairly expensive ship.

Kinda concerned about buying a titan as knowing my luck Ill jump myself instead of bridging on the first try and quite likely end up dying.

I must admit since eve went FTP for new people it's been nice seeing a influx of new players and the game seems more... active which is great. There's a lot happening and ultimately this can only be a good thing. I'm enjoying playing more and more since the expansions and really CCP are doing a pretty great job, granted there's some stuff that needs fixing but overall the last few big changes have been great. I only hope they don't completely fuck T2 Production with the new moon mining but as always we'll either adapt or complain and then adapt.

Longest roam in tristans ever...

So hello again!

I am terrible, I know posting is far between but hey I persevere!

So I pinged out for a corp roam for Friday night but alas it was probably the quietest night we have had in months and only 4 people were actually around ( It was Vets day and with a pretty heavy USTZ following could explain why, Alongside this, respects to my brother Americans who protect their country past, future and present! )

Anyway not to be deterred by shit numbers I still pushed to go out in our Tristans to die horribly killing something like a claw or whatever. Traveling through Delve we made our way to the JB to drop us at the ass end of Catch, A nice little entry point which has little to no defense during our TZ as the alliance only wake up at like 1am my time. Pushing up into VOLT space we traveled through their new sov down south. Needless to say it was dead. Literally no one around for about 10 jumps. We didn't bother scouting just bundling in and hitting Ice Belts/Mining Belts/Anoms for the most part we found F All. Turns out Catch is about as empty as my cup of what was Tea. However we found this lone defender of justice mining ice in the final destination and quickly dispatched him in what was our moment of glory for the night. ( I almost burnt out my MWD burning in for tackle ) and spent the rest of the evening asking people in local for Nanite Paste.


We then traveled up into North Catch and it was just as dead. Moving into N-8 we found. Nothing. The pocket now being a dust bowl of Nothingness. Having lived there in the past we saw system ADM's at a high massive mining operations and ratting constantly, however now it's like everything died.

Giving up we moved up into Providence passing a Ossim gang on the way who tried to bubble us and caught no one. And several other CVA gangs who caught no one.. Right up until I sacrificed one of our guys for the greater good. And ran away.

Moving into Providence we killed a Cyno on a Citadel because we are obviously big ballers and then promptly all died to a Svipul.

All in all a successful night, But 3hrs of roaming 2 regions in 4 Tristans and only dying at the tail end was a little depressing. Next time I may take dreads and probably still end up with the same scenario.

o7