Adventures in Mission Running

With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: ”Griefing is a very big part of EVE.  Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game.  What do you think about all these things?  You can talk about one, or all…but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it’s needed.”

Short answers:

Ninja Salvaging: Annoying as Hell. I usually just popped my wrecks if one scanned me down

Suicide Ganking: I love my cloaky haulers.

Trolling: Welcome to the Internet.

Scamming: Caveat Emptor

Long answer: EVE is a hardcore game. Its player versus player combat can be brutal and unfogiving, or so why shouldn’t its market and missioning? Leave it be, HTFU, etc, etc.

Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week 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 out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who’ve been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has you gaming style evolved through the years or months since you’ve started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance – say manufacturing. Let’s hear your story!

When I started playing EVE back in 2006, I had but a simple dream: to be able to fly all the ships in EVE. While I worked on this path, I also learned that there is a difference between being to fly a ship, and being able to fly a ship. So I branched out, working on skills such as engineering, electronics and the like. As I described it back then when asked, “I want to be able to max out the attributes of whatever ship I was flying without fitting any modules.” This became my new path.

As the months and years went by, I continued to hone and learn new skills. Spaceship Command, Gunnery, Drones. All the while in the back of my mind there was the dream, “Fly every ship and fly it well.”

So where does that leave me now? Since I’ve moved out to wormhole space with my current corporation, making ISK hand over fist and getting my claws bloody with some PvP. I also have some skills I have left to work on so I can definitely see myself playing EVE for a few more years yet.

Obligatory pie chart of skills:

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: “Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you’d like to share with the wider Eve community?”

During the four years I’ve been playing EVE, I’ve come to recognize a few key ideas that make playing EVE a more rewarding experience.
Let me share them with you.

1. Always keep your clone up to date
2. Only fly what you can afford to lose
3. There are no stupid questions. Stupid answers? Definitely.
4. It’s only a game. When the Internet Spaceships starts to be too serious a business, it’s time to go outside.
5. If you’re just starting out, DO THE TUTORIALS!
6. Learning skills are good!

I’d go on and on, but I’m working on my brevity.

Fly safe.

This is for CrazyKinux’s Special Edition of the Blog Banter

When you’ve been roaming New Eden as long as I have, it almost feels like home. That’s how familiar it has become over the last 5 years. Not that I have done everything or touched every aspect of this most amazing of virtual world, far from it, but it just feels as though it’s always been there. And always will be.

Whether you’ve logged into the game every day since its launch in 2003, or you’ve taken one or several sabbaticals from your capsuleer career, you’ve always come back to New Eden don’t you. Why is that?

We know the EVE Online Community is unique in so many ways, and that EVE Online is like no other MMORPG out there. But what makes the game special for you?

What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see a continuous growth in its subscriber.

To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?

1. It’s not World of Warcraft. Wanted to get this elephant in the room out of the way first. Bind on Pickup and 40-man raids are pretty much why I stopped playing WoW. You won’t find the first in EVE and you don’t have to join big fleets in EVE if that’s not your thing.
2. It’s the Fisherman’s Friend of MMOs. From the WoW-Europe Forum: “EVE is like the “Fisherman’s Friend” of MMOs.If it’s too hard, you are too weak.” EVE can be a harsh mistress. When a ship is lost, it is gone forever. Get podded with an out-of-date clone and you’ll lose skillpoints. A harsh game that I love.
3. One big sandbox (with landmines). One server. 300,000+ subscribers. Free to do whatever they want (as long as the ingame mechanics are adhered to). Miner. Mission-runner. Pirate. Explorer. Commander of fleets. Spy. You can do all those things if you want. All you need are the desire and the time to learn the skills.  What’s there not to love?
4. Blogpacks and tweetfleet and friends oh my! The player community of EVE is legendary. It probably has something to do with everyone being on the same server. The fact that I have friends and current corp mates from back in the old RUN days is also another thing I love about EVE.
5. It’s a beautiful game. Let me share some screenshots…

Clear Skies broadside

Wormhole operations usually involve a light show

Exploring the unknown

That’s why I love EVE, in a nutshell. As one of my friends so eloquently put it, “you love eve because internet spaceships is serious business, and tehre is so much wicked shit in eve than u can never get bored, get bored with mining then start building get bored with building start missionrunning, et cetera, now geif me my prize“

The first banter of 2010 comes to us from the EVE Blog Father, CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves “What Now?” What will I attempt next? What haven’t I done so far in EVE? Was it out fear, funds, or knowledge? Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so? Is there a fledging mercenary waiting to come out of its shell? Or maybe an Industrialist? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

What is it going to be for me?

A good question. For most of the past four years I’ve been playing EVE, I’ve been in highsec space, running missions for various NPC corporations and factions. I’ve dabbled with PvP corps, but I usually find myself back in highsec running missions again.

Until last November.

The corp I was in was imploding. So I decided to join some of my former corpmates and friends from the old days in the newb corp in their wormhole corporation. Living in wormhole-space, killing sleepers, making ISK hand over fist they promised. Definitely a nice change of pace from running missions. The money is good and defnitely a sense of being “out there” when you’re in a wormhole system. I’ve learned that I really like flying Tech 3 cruisers too.

I like it out here. I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon.

Exploring the unknown

Loki Tech 3 Cruisers

Legion Tech 3 Cruiser

The view from the main POS

Skillwise, my plan is to work on my missile and leadership skills, learn to fly Tengu and Proteus-class ships, and maybe even finish Destroyers 5.

I wrote up a guest column over at CrazyKinux’s website about setting up a mission running Dominix.

You can read it here.

Welcome to the thirteenth 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 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 here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The first banter of this 2nd year of EVE Blog Banters comes to us fromZargyl from A Sebiestor Scholar, who asked the following: On the EVE Fanfest 2009 page are pictures of prizes for the Silent Auction that was held during the event. One of these photos was entitled “Design your own EVE mission”. My question now would be what kind of mission would you write if you got that prize? What would the mission be about? Would it be one using the new system of epic mission arks? What would be the story told by it? Feel free to expand upon his questions and put together your very own mission!

Not satisfied with just hammering out just one mission, I’ll be hammering three!

Actually, it’s three variations of the same mission arc. An arc for level two, level three and level four. What binds them together? The cool, nifty, and exotic spaceship you’ll get at the end! I’m proposing a frigate or destroyer sized hull for level two, battlecruiser for level three, and battleship for level four. The ships themselves would variations of a marauder, adjusted for size.

How do I get a fancy spaceship like that from a mission arc? To boil things down for simplicity, you buy, loot, or salvage various bits and pieces of the ship during each mission step and at the end, you trade it into the agent for a shiny, sexy spaceship.  There would be a variety of mission types, from standard kill everything red in the room to courier missions, to archaeology/hacking sites, and even mining (ugh).

Just a rough idea.

Welcome to the twelfth 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 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 here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s banter comes to us from CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: First there was the MMO on the PC, and now with the recent announcement of DUST 514, EVE will soon be moving onto consoles. But what about mobile? Allow your imagination to run wild for a second and describe how you would see EVE being ported to mobile devices, whether the iPhone/iPod touch, Blackberrys or Android-based devices. Dream the impossible for us!

EVE on my iPhone? Interesting idea. What would I do? Well, I doubt I’d be running too many level 4 missions. I don’t trust my 3G connection that much. I would be willing to do things like check my mail, my sell orders and such. Reading the latest dev blog about COSMOS suggests all sorts of possibilities. Then there’s the nifty apps like Capsuleer that are already out there.

And that’s my 0.02ISK!

Hello.

No, I haven’t forgotten my password to the site. Just haven’t had too much exciting go on to write about. The new level 4 epic arc was exciting. looking forward to running it again in a few months.

Perhaps when winter keeps me inside more I’ll have more to write about.

Fly safe

Terra Incognita

The lights of colony site twinkle in a mountain valley of this unnamed world. Stretching up into the night sky the safety lights of the space elevator mark off the kilometres up to the orbital terminus high above. Amongst the twinkling stars, other ephemeral flashes can be seen. One particular star grows brighter and draws closer until the bomb crashes into the colony and annihilates the valley in a flash of a million suns.

24 hours earlier

The two Gallente woman, a blonde and a redhead, sitting at one of the several coffee houses on the station veranda could be assumed to be business people by their attire. As they sip their coffee and enjoy the starlight streaming though the huge windows, they chat.

“…why they chose that system. A backwater dead-end system that noone ever visited. Even their carebears,” the blonde said.
“How did they find it then?”
“One of their pilots noticed a spike in traffic in that system on the map and went in, looking for neutral targets.”
“So some wildcats set up a mining colony in the middle of nowhere. They worried that one of their enemies will buy it and set up a staging area?” the redheaded woman asked.
The blonde shrugs. “I didn’t ask, and they didn’t say.”
“One of your usual land’n'grab ops with your dirtpounders then?” the other asks, sipping her coffee.
“Actually, they have something else in mind. Which is why I asked you to join me.”
“I’m intrigued. Go on…”

Twenty hours later

“Stiletto One, Hammer Actual. Do you read?” the comlink chirps into the redhead’s ear. She stops walking along the creek and looks up at the space elevator cable reaching into the heavens. Invisible in the blue day lit sky, a battlefleet is hammering at the orbital terminus, draining its shields and distracting the automated defense systems from the apparently quiet world below.
“Hammer Actual this is Stiletto One. Go ahead.”
“How is your nature walk going? Almost at the ground terminus yet?” the blonde, Hammer Actual, asks.
“Going as well as expected. I’m still a couple of klicks away. Fortunately, this rough terrain is hiding me from the automated sentries. Unfortunately, it’s slowing me down a lot.” Stiletto One resumes her trek up the creek valley towards the colony site.
“We landed you as close as we could. Even with our distraction up here, we didn’t want to risk tipping any eyes on the ground by landing you too close. What kind of ETA are we looking at?”
“According to your satellite scan, this valley runs almost all the way to the site. I should be inside and set up in about two hours or so. Assuming no major glitches with the nexus AI, I’ll have it hacked and subverted a couple hours later and your employers will be the brand new owners of this backwater colony.”
“Roger. Report back when you’re in position. Hammer Actual out.”
“Roger. Stiletto One out.”

Four hours later

“Stiletto One, Hammer Actual! Are you there!?” the comlink chirps. The redhead looks up from the terminal screen, frowning with annoyance.
“Hammer Actual, this is Stiletto One. I told you when you called me half an hour ago that this will take a couple of hours. That wildcat corporation left this colony to finish setting up automatically and some of the high level AI subroutines are-”
“Stiletto One. Abort. We’ve sent a drop ship down to get you. Grab your gear and be ready to leave in five minutes!”
“What’s going on? I’ll have this colony ready to hand over in an hour or two.”
“The alliance that hired us changed their minds. They decided that a hydrocarbon mining colony wasn’t worth the maintenance hassles and they’re sending one of their capsuleer pilots to this planet to nuke the ground terminus from orbit.”
“Godsdammit! Roger, Hammer Actual. Pulling the plug.” Stiletto breaks off comms and quickly disconnects herself from the computer systems of the colony. She can hear the roar of the dropship landing through the walls as she gathers the rest of her gear. Suddenly the the lights go red and the primary display flickers to life.

MAR SARA COLONY
SPACE ELEVATOR ONE

INCOMING NUCLEAR WARHEAD DETECTED
4 MINUTES TO GET TO SAFE DISTANCE

“Oh snap,” Stiletto mutters as she runs out to the drop ship waiting outside.

Twenty minutes later

Hammer and Stiletto are standing on the bridge of a Hyperion-class battleship. On the viewscreen, the mushroom cloud can still be seen hanging in the air above the former colony site. In space above, the disconnected, dead, orbital terminus drifts in orbit. It will come crashing down to the planet in a few months, the hundreds of kilometres of tether hanging from it dragging it down into the atmosphere.

Stiletto looks over at Hammer. “We’re still going to get paid, right?”

Terra Firma

[Author's note: It's a good thing CCP announced that Dust 514 game. I was having a pickle of a time figuring out how to integrate some of the ground-based combat elements with EVE.]

Colonizing a world in several easy steps.

1. Head out to 0.0 space. All the colonizable worlds in lowsec and highsec have been claimed already. Sovereignty in its current form has no bearing on whether a world can be claimed.
2. Find an unclaimed world. It won’t have any space elevators installed around it.
3. Scan the potential colony world. This requires the Planetary Survey skill. (2x skill. Requires Survey 4. Speeds up scan speed of planets by 5% per skill level) When a planet is scanned, its quality is determined. The quality of a planet can range from 0 to 5. 0 being the lowest quality and 5 being the best. With better quality comes more resources that can be harvested, etc.
4. Once the world is scanned and deemed desirable, the colonization process is started by placing the first space elevator onto the planet. The orbital terminus is placed within a certain distance of the planet (likely within 5km in the game) and anchored much like an anchorable object is now.
5. Once the orbital terminus has been anchored up in orbit, the actual colonization process is started. The orbital terminus goes into a reinforced mode as the tether extends down to the surface.
6. Once colony is established 24 hours later, active defenses come online both in orbit to prevent landings and/or orbital bombardment and on the ground to repel ground-based assaults. Shield HP reduced to reflect vulnerability of the colony at the bottom of a gravity well.
7. Congratulations! You’ve colonized a world.

Now that you have a world, what can you do with it?

• Install additional space elevators. The maximum number of elevators a colony can support is determined by the quality of the planet. A Q0 or Q1 world can support one elevator. Q2 can support two, Q3 three, up to Q5 with five elevators. Additional elevators increase the defensive and productive capabilities of the colony.
• Terraform the colony. This improves the quality of the world, which is generally viewed as a good thing. However this is not a process that can be entered lightly. A colony has to have at least one elevator installed. Additional elevators will speed up the process. A Q5 planet cannot be improved. A terraforming module needs to be installed in the elevator by a pilot with the Planetary Engineering skill. (5x skill. Needs Science 5, Planetary Survey 4. Decreases terraforming time by 5% per skill level) A terraform module requires a fuel like strontium and the default cycle time is 14 days. During the terraforming, the productive processes of the colony shut down. The defense systems remain online during the process.

Conquest and Combat

EVE wouldn’t be EVE without combat. Colonies will have two battlefronts; the ground and orbital termini.

The orbital terminus can be taken by besieging it with ships. Once the shields are down, dropships can ferry troops over for some exciting boarding action with that Dust game (See why I’m glad they announced it? ). Or blown out of the sky. The terminus has shields and defensive turrets than can be operated with a pilot with starbase defense management to repel attackers.

The ground terminus has automated turrets and can be supplemented with live personnel if desired for defense. A colony can be destroyed usually by orbital bombardment. It can be taken over by ground assault or by covert action.

And those are my ideas regarding implementing planetary control. Hopefully any similarities bewteen other folks’ ideas are a result of a similar science fiction experience.