Hello there!

Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no idea what I am getting myself into. I thought I’d know what to write, but am lost for words at the moment, so yeah.

Sweet, so I got that out the way.

A little info about me.

I am a miner (read: carebear). That’s right folks, a soft, cuddly tear dispenser. Well, I was.

You see, I started this character in September 2008 and thought it would be a good idea to float my way through New Eden devouring asteroids. At first all was well with my chosen profession, I was having fun as a newbie and I even managed to find an awesome corp to boot. My first CEO was a top bloke and was always very helpful, he is the reason I have stuck around all this time. If any new player were to ask me today the best way to experience EVE, I would DEFINATELY recommend joining a good training corp, or any good corp that fits what you want out of your time in New Eden. It wasn’t long though, before I had my first encounter with what I thought at the time was pure evil. There I was happily chewing rocks in my shiny new Retriever, when all of a sudden I was in my capsule. WTF just happened? My first suicide gank at 8 weeks old. Welcome to EVE suckah! After that I was a bit angry, but I felt 1 word best described these chaps, starts with a c and ends in unts.

Apart from that little incident, my history isn’t really exciting or important for that matter. I had a brief stay in ANZAC until RL intervened, and more recently living out of a POS in 0.0 with a small group of US shift workers and a few other Aussies acting as the night watchmen , until I found myself getting bored with what I was doing. Our operations involved running plexes, making our wallets fat, while keeping an eye on things in our area, and scouting the pipe for other alliance members. I ended up taking another break from eve after this, as I found myself once again not having fun.

It was around this time that I found a nifty little tool for my iPhone called Capsuleer. It’s a brilliant little app, with the ability to keep an eye on your characters skill queue, wallet and the inclusion of the EVE blog pack. I started reading the blog pack at work when things got a little slow. I read most of them and enjoyed reading what others do in EVE. However there were a few that I really, really enjoyed, My loot, your Tears and Hands off, My loots!

I had another forced break for a few weeks and upon my return I decided it was time for a change. I didn’t want to run missions any more, I didn’t want to mine any more. I wanted something different, I wanted something fun.

What to do?

Hmmmm, I KNOW! NINJA!

Very original, I know, but after reading the aforementioned blogs, the life of a Ninja sounds very entertaining. It’s really just what I need, it’s a new challenge and I can maybe learn how to PvP a bit. There are new skills I need to learn, both in game skills and gameplay skills, such as agro mechanics, baiting, combat and of course, tear extraction.

I have already started my journey as I write this, I scanned down some MR’s over the weekend, which as you know is pretty standard for what I am doing. Unfortunately I didnt get any kills, or tears for that matter. But I got a little bit of love from the locals:

Shung Tsung> im so sick and tired of you freeloader wreck salvaging stealing turds

Shung Tsung> go earn your own buck

Reaichard VonTeese> omnomnom, tears

Prt Scr> fit a throwaway pvp fit caracal and butt rape the fuckers, you got sec status to spare

Shung Tsung> good point though that fuck doesnt deserve so much attention

Reichard VonTeese> obviously I do.

Shortly after that exchange, my admirer Shung decided to call it a night. Not exactly what I’d call tears, but its a start I guess.

So, in essence this blog will be my journal on my progression in my new chosen profession, as well as a platform to ask the ninja and EVE community for some direction. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I will enjoy writing and learning.

P.s.

I am entirely new to blogging. Never kept a blog or journal before, so if anyone has any pointers on how to improve my writing, or anything you would like to see, I am open to suggestions.

Peace out.

In hoping around the Heimetar region yesterday, I decided to make a pit stop in Illinfrik, home to TEARS corp Sect Or, and a place I haven’t stopped in to in a while.

My first scan of Illinfrik got me a couple of hits, including a very, very tasty looking Armageddon Navy Issue. My eyes lit up. Warping into the ANI’s gate-less mission, I found he was running it with a Rokh and Drake, all three from the same corp. Ignoring caution, I immediately set about looting and salvage at will in my rupture. All three immediately locked me up, but sadly no shots were fired. So, I decided to poke around a bit more, orbiting, bumping, and generally harassing them, before moving on.

I popped around to a few more hits, but I just kept coming back to the ILM guys because that Navy Geddon was such a tempting target. There’s one goal that’s been eluding me in Eve, which is to take down a faction battleship. I’ve had a couple “almosts” (including an officer fit nightmare that somehow while fighting I manged to desync from and find myself at his optimal =/ ), but never a solid faction-shiny kill. Industrial Laser Mining, however, was about to change that for me.

Finally, after about the 4th time party-crashing their mission…success! Amazingly, the Navy Geddon was the first one to go red, and I immediately pointed him and started laying down the pew. Of course, soon after both the Drake and the Rokh went red too, and although pretty far away from me, sent their drones out. I had both my medium armor reppers going full steam but I soon realized there was just no way a single cruiser was going to take out 2 battleships and a Drake. Luckily, no one in this party had fitted any points, so I recalled drones and bailed.

Through the whole thing though, I’d been talking to Sarkor Nafaar, Sect Or’s CEO, and he pipped up that he had an alt handy with an Onieros. Perfect. I immediately repped up and headed back to the mission.

Quite surprisingly actually, they were ALL still there, including the Navy Geddon. Calm and composed, I very cooly asked for armor rep assistance:

Aiden Mourn > bring on the rr and warp to me
Aiden Mourn > now
Aiden Mourn > now
Aiden Mourn > nownownow?
Aiden Mourn > naaaooww?
Aiden Mourn > prease?
Sarkor Nafaar > otw
BM Dublyoo > lol, i’m otw too more for moral support

You see? Cool as a freaking cucumber sometimes. Just call me Paul Newman.

BM Dublyoo decided to come along too seeing as he was in the area, with a Cyclone fitted out with 1 shield transfer, purely for aggro-grabbing assistance. As I pointed the ANI, Sarkor’s alt in an Onieros, Sarkor himself in a RR Phoon, and BM with the shield transfer of doom all landed and started reps on my little Rupture; really completely overkill in the rr department, but hilarious.

I was pounding on the ANI but it became apparent soon that there was no way I was going to crack his tank with my DPS. Suddenly though, BM started getting shot at by the Rokh, who he quickly locked up. I kept point on the ANI but sent my drones to assist and two of us made surprisingly short work of the Rokh (was that tank even on?).

For some reason, the Drake was still around, doing absolutely no damage to me, and in no way assisting his friend. Sgi, the ANI pilot, decided he would take matters into his own hands however, and somehow decided that shooting BM’s Cyclone was the next step in liberating himself from the situation, which only resulted in BM now shooting him as well.

Tears started to flow in local:

Sgi > come on guys  I gotta go to work
Sgi > can we pick this up later

Sounds legit to me, right? I opened a convo to see about getting some cash out of this pressed-for-time bear:

Sgi > can we pick this up later I have to go to work
Aiden Mourn > i guess we could work something out
Aiden Mourn > like you turning off your reppers and making this go faster
Sgi > lets do somethin you guys can have the salvage I gotta bolt
Aiden Mourn > hmm
Aiden Mourn > salvage
Aiden Mourn > or geddon navy issue
Aiden Mourn > tough chioce dude
Aiden Mourn > can I think about it?
Sgi > I can tank you guys all day , lets just  fight later , I gotta go
Aiden Mourn > ok cya
Sgi > I will tell my guys to back off  ok

Because they were such a boon to his defense “strategy”. Sgi continued to not get it, and kept offering to “let me” have his mission salvage :p .

Aiden Mourn > ok
Sgi > ok ?
Aiden Mourn > and then you either pay me
Aiden Mourn > or turn your reppers off
Aiden Mourn > I hate to tell you, buts thats the only way this is going to play out
Sgi > take the loot  , thats what started all this
Aiden Mourn > funny how things escalate
Aiden Mourn > the way i see it though, ANI loot is way better than pleasure hub loot
Aiden Mourn > agreed?
Sgi > yeah it is , just wanted to get a mi9ssion in before work , we dont want a war over this and you dont eather, not with my alliance

Uhoh….do I smell a dec-threat? Indeed! I could also begin to smell Sgi’s desperation due to his time-constraint, and I kept pressing him for isk.

Aiden Mourn > a terrifying thought to be sure
Aiden Mourn > for real though
Aiden Mourn > turn the reppers off
Sgi > notice I am not even firing on you
Aiden Mourn > and this will be over soon
Aiden Mourn > ok, youre ging to die here
Aiden Mourn > 450mil
Aiden Mourn > and that changes

Sgi continues to be obstinate though, and I decide on a new plan. Seeing as both BM and I had aggro on him at this point, I left BM to scram him while I warped out to change for bigger pew. Apparently I had a random, and very oddly fit nano-shield-kiting-sort-of Hurricane sitting in a station in Illinfrik, so I decided that would do and grabbed it. Returning with bigger boom-boom power, Sgi really started to melt, and the tears really started flowing:

Sgi > you kill this ship we go to war
Aiden Mourn > sounds like a deal

As Sgi’s tank slowly started to fail, he apparently decided it wasn’t failing fast enough and decided to shoot Sarkor’s RR Phoon. The ANI’s tank bombed at that point and a very shiny explosion ensued.

As Sarkor snagged the loot, BM and I both realized that the Drake pilot was STILL THERE, and proceeded to very quickly lock and dispatch him as well. I returned to my convo with Sgi for more tears:

Aiden Mourn > so….its a date then?
Aiden Mourn > =P
Sgi > oh yeah , the rest of the pvp alliance is going to have some fun with you guys
Aiden Mourn > should i bring something?
Aiden Mourn > wine?
Aiden Mourn > mich ultra?
Sgi > yes please
Aiden Mourn > awesome
Aiden Mourn > well, gf
Aiden Mourn > you actually did ok until you all started shooting everyone
Sgi > that was my best mission ship you know
Aiden Mourn > I would assume so
Aiden Mourn > was hoping for some better drops
Aiden Mourn > but it’ll do
Aiden Mourn > http://tears.evekb.co.uk/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=1545705
Aiden Mourn > so when should i be expecting this wardec exactly?
Sgi > soon
Aiden Mourn > soon as in, “you’re on it right now”? or soon like “you really have no say in these types of matters but youre going to bitch and whine to your CEO and directors about deccing us”
Aiden Mourn > Cause I’ve gotta say, im leaning towards door number 2
Sgi > I have full rights , just talking to the other corps atm
Aiden Mourn > of course

To add complete and utter insult to injury, Orions Lord in corp chat pointed out that beyond the 1.14 billion isk loss on ILM’s part, it appears Sgi dropped his damsel in distress as well.

Aiden Mourn > so hey
Aiden Mourn > while we’re talking business
Sgi > ?
Aiden Mourn > would you like your damsel?
Aiden Mourn > =)
Aiden Mourn > she seems to have dropped when your big shiny expensive ship went poof
Sgi > keep it . dont act like that was easy . it took 3 of you to take me down

lol.

Aiden Mourn > well, it took 2
Aiden Mourn > the phoon was just overkill
Aiden Mourn > but anyways
Aiden Mourn > potatoes potahtoes  I guess.
Aiden Mourn > So…is that a no on the damsel?
Sgi > later I have to go to work
Aiden Mourn > have a super day!

So final tally for ILM stands at 1.14bil in losses (including my much sought-after faction BS trophy), a damsel in distress (and I’m assuming a failed mission now as well), a fail-threat, and a very nice bucket of delicious tears. Also its now been 24 hrs now, and I’m still waiting for that war-dec notification, so if anyone from ILM or Crimson Coalition Alliance is reading this, you might want to drop Sgi a line and see what the holdup is.

Much thanks to BM Dublyoo and Sarkor for the assistance and help. Remember kids, the best ship in eve is friendship (particularly the kind that come with Onieroses ;) )

o7,

-Aiden

This was originally going to be two separate posts: one a funny little interchange with a butt-hurt mission runner who’s Domi I popped, and another as a commentary on the recently brought to light allegations of CCP reimbursing peoples mission ships who lose them to stupidity. However, seeing as they fit together so well on the gray-area subject of aggro-refreshing, I thought they’d play nice together.

Laughing Out Loud:

If you shoot at ninjas, bad things happen. I know this little mantra has been a bit over-played over the years, but this is an eventuality, not a possibility, and solid proof of this came the other night.

Getting bored in Emol without finding much, I popped next door to Ammold to see what sort of trouble I could get into. I tried antagonizing a raven and then a Vargur without much success, and then managed to liberate the ships crew from a Navy Domi and a very belligerent Drake pilot who ended up canceling his own mission rather than pay my modest finders fee for the return of his M.O. Tisk tisk. Fun, but no pew.

Finally, I dropped in on a Dominix, finished with his first room and heading towards the gate to the second one. I zipped over to the last non-looted wreck in the room and snagged a piece of ammo before heading towards the gate. Domi yellow-boxed, popped drones, and then very predictably, went flashy red. Bingo. In my salvage Ruppy, I got my disruptor running, deployed my warrior IIs, and started taking out his drones.

The plan WAS, to bring in the Orca for some fancy re-fitting on the fly, but due to getting THREE convo requests and a phone-call all in the span of about 30 seconds, I managed to warp my Orca to the wrong BM and watched as my Rupure went down kicking and screaming to Kubwa’s drones. Crap.

After that, he of course warped before I could bring in the Orca for real this time. Double-crap. So instead, I settled into a long bout of aggro refreshing hijinx. I’d refresh, then swap to a CovOps and try to find some more unwilling playmates, before swapping into another Ruppy and refreshing again.

Finally though, after about 45 minutes, this was starting to get old and I was starting to lose interest. Pissed, I docked up to take a little food break.

However, in docking at the only station in Ammold, I realized that the Domi wasn’t there, despite still showing in system. I did a quick dscan with my alt still parked in his mission and found nothing. This could only mean one thing: safe spot.

Grinning, I swapped back for a CovOps and sent out probes. When scanning for victims , I always name BMed hits as the ship type as well as the ship’s scan ID. This was coming in very handy at the moment, as I could do a large-probe system scan for a specific ID and then narrow it in. Roughly 25 seconds after deploying probes, I was en route in a cloaked covops to Kubwa’s not-so-safe spot.

My grin turned into full on laughing out loud as I saw Kubwa’s flashy red Domi appear on my overview as I exited warp. Giggling, I BMed the spot and immediately went back to the Orca for the Rupture. Pumped, slightly drunk, and still giggling like a schoolgirl, I warped back to my new friend.

What I hadn’t accounted for however, was that the Domi was moving through this safe spot, so when I came out of warp 50km from him, I panicked. Going for broke, I overheated my AB and started powering towards him anyways.

As the seconds painfully ticked by, I began to realize a little detail that immediately brought a shit-eating grin back to my face: Kubwa was AFK.

Astoundingly enough, Kubwa had apparently walked away from his computer with his ship out in space with a glaring aggro timer staring at him. As I entered disruptor range, I locked him up, sent out my drones, and set into a nice tight orbit. Kubwa’s active tank wasn’t much help with no one actually activating it, and the Domi went down hard.

I sat there clutching my sides from laughing through the whole thing and realized that Kubwa was STILL AFK, his pod just sitting there. I started sending out requests through Corp and Alliance chat for a pod-suicider in the area when my new friend suddenly came back to life:

Kubwa > hrm….interesting?  how am i still aggroed to you?
Aiden Mourn > wierd
Aiden Mourn > magic I guess
Aiden Mourn > nice safe spot
Aiden Mourn > =p
Kubwa > wasn’t a safe spot
Kubwa > i left to go pick up my wife
Aiden Mourn > I’d blame her for this then
Kubwa > nah. think this is petition worthy
Kubwa > seeing as how much longer than 15 mins past since i killed you
Aiden Mourn > not if youre looking for a worth-while response
Kubwa > i’ll get my ship back
Aiden Mourn > no you wont
Kubwa > there’s no debating it
Aiden Mourn > but you might get a well-worded response telling you why you wont

Aggro mechanics are a bitch my friend, but go easy on the old lady for this one.

======

The Elephant In the Room:

Apparently, aggro mechanics are proving to be a bit more of an elephant in the room than can be ignored any longer, with the staggering recent reimbursment by CCP to a carebear who lost his CNR due to aggro-refresh techniques by a ninja he’d shot at.

Aggro-refreshing, for those not in the know, has always been a bit of a gray-area in the Ninja’s arsenal of tricks in hunting mission runners that involves literally refreshing the original aggro timer on the carebear who shot at your salvage ship before docking, by aggressing items in space that belong to them: i.e. wrecks. I do want to make it clear that this has NEVER been deemed an exploit officially by CCP, nor do we at SN endorse using actual exploits in Eve.

In light of this event, Paul from My Loot, Your Tears made an inquiry with a senior GM who confirmed that refreshing aggro is NOT considered an exploit. The GM followed it up though by saying that CCP “reserves the right” to change this feature later.

And thats where the problem lies. In making this a case-by-case deliberation, CCP only brings the aggro-refresh bug to the surface without addressing any real solution to the problem.

Aggro-refreshing is not a perfect system either; its bugged to hell and works like a malfunctioning appliance at best: sometimes you need to change sessions (docking/undocking) between refreshing, and somtimes you don’t. Sometimes the timer resets itself, or even disappears completely and other times its stays visible. And other times, you get the random “GCC bug”, which despite the lack of CONCORD warning, flags you with a GCC timer, at which point you can neither dock or change ships for 15 minutes without getting blown to bits. So there’s no denying that its a flawed tool and I would seriously doubt that its a “working as intended” game mechanic. But that’s where my biggest problem with it is.

What I would like to see is a solid answer, a yes or no response, from CCP. Pick a side, and follow through with it. If refreshing aggro via a wreck or can is a viable and fully intended game mechanic, then fix it and get rid of the bugs. And if IS a bug or exploit that’s resulting in reimbursed ships, then just call it that and we can be done with it. Aggro-refreshing is hardly the only trick up a ninja’s sleeve, but I for one would appreciate a straight answer.

Because as Paul also mentioned on his blog, the real concern in this is “how often DOES this happen?” This particular event has been blown into the public spectrum due the mission runner in question posting about it on his blog, but how many others who’ve shot at ninjas, then ignored aggro timer warnings and been killed have had their ships replaced as well? Seeing as I spend the majority of my time in Eve separating people from their ships, isk, and assets, its an issue that rings pretty close to me, and I’d like to know if its all a waste.

o7

-Aiden

Every now and then, I actually start to feel a twinge that perhaps the Eve player-base at large is actually becoming smarter. Well, make that “less dumb”, but either way, it stings. Luckily enough, I’m usually immediately put back at ease by some absurdly brainless action I witness or hear about in Eve and all is right with the world again. Deadspace-fitted t1 tackle-dessies, someone buying a “Navy” Dominix via station trade (honestly?), a Rorqual getting a beatdown by pirates after attempting to jump via a gate; these are all heart-warming reminders to me that common sense is typically left at the door in Eve.

I was just getting read to log last night when I saw something in corp chat that makes every ninja’s heart a-flutter.

Set Shwayo > need orca pilot in mirliene for theft

Apparently, Set and new recruit Kyle Shephard had discovered a flaming beacon of naivete; someone using their UNPILOTED Orca as a jetcan while they mined in a hulk (remember what I was saying about leaving common sense at the door). It appears that despite countless C&P posts, blogs, and youtube videos canvasing the subject, a certain Ezekiel Oto had somehow missed the memo that an unpiloted ship sitting in space is a ship you are going to lose.

Kyle Shephard > srsly
Set Shwayo > got an unmanned one
Kyle Shephard > I just found him in a belt
Set Shwayo > need a pilot :)
Aiden Mourn > wtf
Aiden Mourn > hang on
Aiden Mourn > i know someone
Set Shwayo > ‘i know a guy’ is how all great capers are SUPPOSED to start :)

All too true Set, and as luck would have it, I really did know someone who I’d just seen in passing in Emol. As I’ve said before, it pays to have secretly pro-ninja carebear friends, as in this case I’d already logged my alt off due to a combination of hot weather, a crappy AC, and an overheating computer that was struggling to dual-client. I dropped my acquaintance a convo, explained the situation, and grinned at the response: we had our pilot. At the request of said carebear-friend, for the purposes of their own security, Set, Kyle, and I agreed to a certain amount of discretion involving our Ringer’s name appearing on blog posts, so from here on out they will be lovingly referred to as “SecretBear”.

As SecretBear made the 20-odd jumps to Mirilene, we assessed the situation. Kyle was dscaning the belt from a nearby planet and reported that our friend seemed to be switching between the Hulk and the Orca. They’d both appear on scan, and then just the Orca for a few minutes, and then both would magically reappear on dscan. Not wanting to spook our mark, we waited until SecretBear could get into system and into a cloaky covops to jump into the belt and give eyes on the situation.

Apparently, Ezekiel was mining into his Orca, then switching to it, scooping the hulk, and moving to new roids in the belt to repeat the process. Now normally in a situation as ridiculous as this, one needs to bump the Hulk pilot away from the Orca in order to board it. The reasoning behind this is that a ship, even an unpiloted one, is un-boardable while it is being targeted (by anyone, not just the owner/friendly). We scrambled to come up with a way to bump the hulk without spooking him the second we land on belt. The problem was, he was sitting right next to the Orca, so the fear was he would simply insta switch the second we started bumping. SecretBear could fly both ships however, so we figured on getting at least a Hulk out of the deal.

After a dicey moment when the mark warped out, we realized he was simply moving to the next belt, and SB followed to wait. The minutes dragged by while we waited for intel. Finally:

SecretBear > he’s in the orca still
SecretBear > Hulk poped out!
Kyle Shephard > YESYESYES

SB got into position to have an unblocked shot at the Orca and began a slow, cloaked approach. Still pondering the bumping dilemma, we realized that a) the boarding range for a ship is 6500 m, while b) the decloaking range is only 2500 m. We couldn’t wait any more, and gave SB the go-ahead and collectively held our breaths.

SecretBear > ok
SecretBear > creeeping up!
SecretBear > I can’t while cloaked
SecretBear > this will be touch and go
Kyle Shephard > cant board?
SecretBear > While cloaked
SecretBear > i think hes afk guys
Kyle Shephard > omg
Aiden Mourn > do it!!
Set Shwayo > roll them dice

We waited…until:

SecretBear > NEW ORCA
Kyle Shephard > OMFG
Set Shwayo > WIN
SecretBear > LOL
Aiden Mourn > WIIIIIIINNNN
SecretBear > lol, that is maybe the most fun I’ve ever had in eve
Kyle Shephard > HAHAHAHA

Astoundingly, the Hulk hadn’t been targeted the Orca at all and SecretBear was able to jump right in. SB scooped the exited covops and scooted off to station while we all did a jig. Sadly, the Orca was completely empty save for a handful of salvage and some t1 cargo rigs

SecretBear > this is one ghetto orca

As I tried unsuccessfully for probably the 4th time to recruit SecretBear into SN, Set sent our newly Orca-less friend Ezekiel a summons for collection of dues due to improper Orca parking and related towing fees and charges :P .

Of course, we all had visions of faction modules and t3 ships packed into the Orca, but I think lifting Ezekiel’s giant thieve-able jet can right in front of him is payment enough to make up for that shortcoming. Seeing as I was really only along for the commentary, I told Kyle, Set, and SecretBear to split the loot and logged for some much needed sleep. Again, a huge thanks to Set and Kyle (not a bad 1st day in corp sir ;) ), and of course to SecretBear for the amazing work.

o7,

-Aiden

Taking a little break here on vacation in sunny San Francisco to sit with a coffee in an internet cafe and do some blog catching-up. There’s something about this city that makes me realize a) how filthy New York is, and b) how much better west-coast coffee is than east coast brew. I like your style California.

Anyways, the other day, I had the pleasure of taking down two belligerently anti-ninja bears in battleships; at the same time. And I’ve gotta tell you, if there’s one thing better than pew-pewing a whiney wheepy carebear into space dust, its pew-pewing TWO whiney wheepy carebears into collective space dust. In saying that however, I realize there might be some trepidation and uncertainty as to how one goes about nailing 2 bears at once, especially when out-classed in ships as well as out-gunned in numbers.

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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 your 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!

I’ve been putting off posting my contribution, mainly because I myself am still trying to figure out the answer. Well, okay, I know a bit. Let’s start at the beginning.

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Well, not quite obligatory. One of my meatspace friends is plugging in for a 21-day trial, and so of course I was pretty thrilled to hear it: he’ll be the only person I actually know, besides myself, who plays. Always the obsequious one, I’m more than happy to dispense advice. But to hell with that, I’ll indulge in a moment of public carebearishness and blog about it! Show the world what I think a new player to EvE should think. (And not the infamous learning curve, though it isn’t a bad warning to those that take this game lightly.)

While it is impressively sized (I needed to train Cranium IV before even being born!) my ego isn’t large enough that I believe I can single-handedly explain how to do well in EvE (or, how not to fail miserably). I can, however, break things down into handy-dandy Things To Remember:

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So Tyrannis is upon us, and while the rest of you have been scrambling to figure out how to conquer and pillage those shiny new planets, we here at SN have been hard at work thinking of ways to exploit and steal from people on a whole new planetary level. Exciting times we live in folks.

One of the biggest Tyrannis changes that we’ve noticed in our profession is the new “outsourcing” model mission agents seem to be using. Hoping to avoid giant cluster-mucks like Dodixie, Motsu, etc, CCP has had its agents start preferentially sourcing out mission to systems surrounding mission hubs. For instance, agents in Dodixie sending their mission-running minions to Aunia, and Fricoure agents sending out to Caretyn and Vittenyn.

How has this affected us? Not really negatively, but really just a change in our tactics that we’ve already begun to compensate for. After about a week, we’ve really started to nail down what systems surrounding the big hubs will reliably have a full stock of victims, er…mission runners.

So to those carebears out there who thought that by cleverly moving one whole jump out from Dodixie they would finally be rid of ninjas, I regret to inform you that we are way ahead of you ;).

Fellow ninja Solomar has an outstanding write-up about these new changes on his recently minted new blog, so rather than me giving you a hacked-out, cliff-notes version of it, I’d highly recommend that you go read his full write up instead.

o7,

-Aiden