The Sand Box Journals

Stealth Bomber Guide

2010-08-12T07:43:00.000+01:00

Hallen Turrek has put together a great stealth bomber guide over at A Merry Life and a Short One that is well worth the read.

All Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion

2010-08-09T08:22:00.001+01:00

Well, that's me back from holiday and ready to go. I have as yet not managed to get back into my ship but I know for a fact that lots has been happening whilst I have been away. As Mangala has already commented, we (ACME) are on the move. I do not know a huge amount yet but I have been reading my corp mails in Gate (which is handy when you cannot log into the game) and know that we are moving. Whatever the fundamental reasons for all of this I have to say that I think most of the guys I fly with will be pleased with this; why? Well ACME has grown a huge amount recently and with a total of 13 systems to hand we were pretty full it has to be said. So whatever story you want to believe change is always inevitable and so I am just going to grasp it and move to whatever system we are pointed. Change is always fun and keeps EVE alive and it is even better when you have no director roles etc to worry about. So will keep you posted with what happens. For now though you will have to wait as I will need to log on to find out what is happening myself.

Politics

2010-08-05T23:19:00.001+01:00

On a quick note before I head off for yet more R&R, there are three great sites for raw data on politics and up to date soveriegnty data:

EveMaps contains everything you need and is the central source for the following two.
Verite is the mainstream politic map showing upto date sovereignty data and is mostly widely used
Farlab provides great overall map of New Eden and who currently holds what and is a great alternative to Verite map.

One Grain of Sand Less

2010-08-05T23:04:00.001+01:00

If it weren't for the fact that i am actually on holiday i would be logged in right now. So even though I cannot climb into my ship I can at least send you a small post card whilst I am on relaxing on some small moon somewhere.

It is amazing now how much information you can get, even whilst you cannot climb into your ship. I logged into Gate and read up on the latest posts which are rather significant from a corp / alliance point of view (more on that later when it is common knowledge). A quick check of EveMaps and I have a rough update on the political situation that I am slowly getting to grips with (spent too long in hi/low sec and am trying to catch up fast). A quick run through the latest from the EVE Blog Pack and I am pretty up to date with everything; a main pointer here is that Crazy Kinux is not on the list. After that I log into EVE Metrics to look through my API and work out what to do with my training next (though my training list is already 470+ days anyway).

Well I will be back on in a few days time and it looks like I am going to be busy. Signing off for now.

Fly Safe

KT

Tracking Onions

2010-07-29T14:55:00.000+01:00

Right then, I have looked at just replacing two gyros with two tracking enhancers, whilst running Hail ammo for the Loki vs Wolf scenario. the tracking graphs are below:

Loki 4x Gyros Hail Ammo

Loki 2x Gyros 2x Tracking Enhancers Hail Ammo

and the answer is ... use Titanium Sabot ammo for small fast things. The drop in DPS due to T2 to T1 change is not gonna be an issue for flying tin cans. So time to test this theory tonight and have some of these graphs handy.

More Onions

2010-07-29T13:42:00.001+01:00

Right, I have run the same four scenarios that I ran in The Onion That Is Eve except for this time I have put the Loki up against Rupture and a Maelstrom. This is what I got:

Loki vs Rupture

425mm w Hail Ammo

425mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

220mm w Hail Ammo

220mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

Loki vs Maelstrom

425mm w Hail Ammo

425mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

220mm w Hail Ammo

220mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

The conclusion; well as long as I can set my range the Hail are worth it for the additional DPS, if range, speed (transversal) or signature is an issue then I only need to swap ammo and get my range sorted out. The next check I need to do is on the benefit of a tracking enhancer against a gyro. Its also worth noting, in this instance, that if I can fit 425mm autos rather than the smaller 220mm autos then do it, the only difference is range.

The Onion That Is EVE

2010-07-29T10:12:00.000+01:00

Damn, just when you think you are getting somewhere it turns out that there is more to learn. Onions vs Ogres strikes again! Just when I think I might a little closer to the core I find I am just at another layer; I'm disappointed child playing "pass the parcel" who finds another layer of paper under the one I have just ripped off. Admittedly there is a little sweet in there to keep me going till it is my turn again.

Your starting to wonder what on earth am I talking about right. Well I have finally got round to looking a little more into the Loki fitting I have and why it cannot shoot frigs for toffee. So this morning I opened up my favourite program EVEHQ and started to do a little theory crafting. What the issue is I am not sure but it is time to learn a little more about range vs tracking as I know the level of DPS is fine.

In order to start the test I made three copies of my current fitting, the original remained unchanged with 425mm autos, loaded with Hail. The first copy had the ammo changed to Titanium Sabot, the second and third copies I changed the guns to 220mm autos and then Hail and Titanium Sabot respectively. I then set up a scenario in the HQF Damage Analysis section as seen below.

This puts the Loki against a Wolf, the Wolf is doing a steady 400m/s and the Loki I have set to 200m/s. The Wolf is moving perpendicular (at right angles) to the Loki, this builds in a level of transversal velocity, making the scenario a little more realistic. I then swapped out the four Loki's and looked at the Range vs Hit Chance graph. The results can be seen below:

425mm w Hail M Ammo

425mm w Titanium Sabot M Ammo

220mm w Hail M Ammo

220mm w Titanium Sabot M Ammo

For this comparison, the reality is plainly obvious; the guns are not the issue. Note that there is other areas I intend to look at, but the case in question shows that against a Frigate sized vessel Hail is just not the ammo to use.

I intend to use this ship to run PLEX solo. I therefore need a ship that can do all size vessels without changing fittings, so I need to run this analysis against cruiser and battleship sized vessels as well as with other weapon upgrade modules like tracking enhancers. So watch this space for more checks.

Thanny Taunting

2010-07-28T11:17:00.001+01:00

A few of the guys my Corp (Sp4rtans) decided to taunt a Thanny. The Thanny pilot managed to get himself a GCC timer and so opened himself up for a little fun.

Taking Her Out For A Spin

2010-07-28T08:40:00.002+01:00

Well it has been ages since I got a nice new shiny ship for KT. I always seem to be getting stuff for my alts with KT just doing the same old and raising ISK whilst others benefit. But not today, thanks to a very good corp mate (for jumping back to Jita), I now have a Loki.

This is my first T3 ship, and rather than savouring the moment and putting the whole thing together slowly and appreciating the moment I acted like one of my kids at Christmas and shoved everything together with gusto without really paying to much attention to the subsystems building process, threw the modules in and then sat there in station and spun the thing round for a while. I had not really meant to be online last night, but other stuff got cancelled and well, I acted like a giddy school kid as I played with my new toy. It was only when after a quite couple of minutes on TS did someone laugh at me and ask if I was spinning my ship in station. I blushed and had to admit that I was.

Back when I started I did wonder if I had picked the right race to be honest. Minmatar does come under fire for its somewhat Airfix approach to ship design, however after using an alt that flies other races I discovered I was now pretty much attuned to the resilience of duct tape and speed which you can go. There are some good looking ships in the whole Minmatar arsenal; the Rifter for example is a popular ship, and I am now going to add the Loki to that list too.

Well after getting a good look in station I joined a fleet and ran a few PLEX to see how she handled, check out the tank and also see what the DPS is like. On paper this thing looked pretty good; the tank held easy, with only the use of the hardeners I could easily manage a full wave aggro in the hardest PLEX, DPS though is uncertain and I am going to have to play around with that for a while I think. On the whole though a great ship. I have used a Maelstrom for so long long doing basic PVE that I also have a big game play change to get used to as well so will keep you posted.

0.0 Perceptions

2010-07-27T15:29:00.000+01:00

Well I have just read Manasi's latest blog offering and can say without a doubt that is is true. Having played and loitered around hi and low sec for a long time with the odd excursion into NPC 0.0 and a very rare dash to 0.0, sovereign claimed 0.0 is one of the most calm and peaceful areas you can be in. Especially one that is on the rim of New Eden. I have logged in to find +100 blues in a system, plenty of PLEX to do and lots of ISK to earn. A CTA (call to arms or other ops) are fun, ok so you might lose a ship and even your implants but you would manage that if you got a war in hi sec. So stop dithering and move out now.

Skilled First?

2010-07-27T07:56:00.000+01:00

Heaven forbid I am actually sitting here skilled up to fly my Loki and the ship ain't in my hanger; now that is a first. Ok, I am not completely level 5 maxed out yet (though surprising not far away), but I am ready to take my future ship out, so where is it? I even have the ISK for run a faction / T2 mix until I can afford the real bad boy. I now have to sit patiently until a very good corp mate pops back to hi sec and picks up the parts (a huge thanks for that ... you know who you are), and then I have to wait till I can log on again, which other than the odd skill queue refresh is gonna be a couple of days away ... sigh. I also have to thank said corp mate for going through my load outs last night and coming up with something a little more nasty, so today will be playing with that fitting to get real grips with what is consists of.

Anyway here is to great corp mates and a new ship fairly soon ...

Boosters

2010-07-26T12:07:00.000+01:00

I got an alliance email over the weekend with a brief summary of booster benefits which I have never looked at before. So being the inquisitive type, I decided it was time to educate myself a little more on what they do and how to make them.

In summary boosters are an easy way of boosting a number of your combat related skills without the need for an implant. Be warned though they do have drawbacks that might leave you in a worse position. In order for you to use boosters there are a number of skills that are either essential or beneficial for you to train up.

Biology; allows you to use boosters, the higher the skill the higher the grade of booster you can use. In addition to this, for each level you will increase the duration of the booster for 20%.
Nanite Control; reduces the effect of side effects by 5% per level.
Neurotoxin Recovery; reduces the chance of a side effect by 5%
Drug Manufacture; required to manufacture drugs, the higher the level the higher grade drug that can be manufactured.

A good forum guide for boosters can be found here.

The spreadsheet below provides you with the base data for boosters along with a sheet where you can enter your relevant skills and it will show you what the duration and side effects are for your pilot.

Booster Spreadsheet

As a final entry here I have added a small flow chart that shows you the overall outline for manufacturing your drugs (can also be found in this Dev Blog).

Ship Wish List

2010-07-22T15:44:00.005+01:00

Well with too much non-game time on my hand I have plenty of time to work out what I want to get out in 0.0. Examining my current ships list, looking at what I am missing and the game play out here I have come up with a few ideas of what might be next, I have inlcuded two ships for an alt of mine along with a faction battleship for another toon I have access to. I have not however included any caps for KT yet as I still need to work out exactly what I want from that yet.

Want:

Dramiel, just because. Great for fleet fleets for fast tackle and some DPS with the bonus of having a drone bay in there.

Cynabal for fast cuiser with some attitude. PVP all the way.

Loki. For general PVE and PVP and just because I want to.

Tengu. For the pure tank that this thing has. A real PVE machine.

Rhea for my alt to get some proper hauling capability. Why the Rhea? Well simply because it does have the largest capacity of all the jf.

Rorqual, so i can finish of the industry streak that my alt has been stuck in since the day I started it.

Rattlesnake for another alt that can fly a mean Caldari ship and is getting some rather healthy drones skills.

Grounded!

2010-07-22T11:31:00.000+01:00

There is nothing more frustrating than a grounded pilot. My online game time has been cut significantly due to unforeseen circumstances. To make the best of this I am now planning my next ships fittings and planning new skill queues (my current one is well over a year and that is just filling in gaps).

The worst thing however is the reduced income that comes with this. If I was still in high sec then any real gaming would be gone ... completely. The only thing that makes this worth still playing is the ISK you can make in a well established and upgraded part of 0.0. One of my fellow pilots recently was saying he had just made his first Billion in a day, which six months ago I would of thought completely impossible, yet dreamed of doing. So here I am with much less playing time but still have the potential to earn more than I ever could in hi sec.

Nanite Repair Paste

2010-07-21T14:33:00.001+01:00

For those of you that have been in the game a little while then paste (or Nanite Repair Paste) will not be new to you, and you may already be spending a fortune on this stuff. There is some argument about its value vs just repairing in station, whatever your stance on this (and you can comment here or continue the argument out on the forums), however it exists out there, people use it and it is not cheap (EVE-Metrics quote). Therefore it is definitely worth starting to produce this if you plan on using it in any sort of quantity.

Paste is used to repair modules that have become damaged either through overheating or because you are hull tanking and ran it a little too close to the bone. To repair this you can get yourself to a station and get yourself repaired up or you can use paste to fix your modules (but only if they have not reach 100% damage, in which case they will need to be repaired in station).

In order to use paste you will need the science skill Thermodynamics (requires Engineering V, Science IV and Energy management III). This will allow you to use paste with each level reduces the amount of heat damage you receive by 5% per level. I wont go into overheating in too much detail as there are some great write ups on this already. In addition to this there are two additional skills that will improve the effectiveness of your paste: Nanite Interfacing (requires Mechanic V and Nanite Operation 3) and Nanite Operation (requires Mechanic V). Operation reduces the amount of paste you use per level and Interfacing increases the repair amount per level. These are very worthwhile skills if you are planning on using paste.

Anyhow that is the basics on using paste and skill requirements. To make paste you will need to get yourself involved in Planetary Interaction which came out with the latest expansion Tyrannis. There are some great PI guides out there; EVE Online Forum Sticky ... forum post gives a great source for everything PI. The only thing I found I needed (and you will find this below) was an operational map that said where I should extract what and then where those items needed to be moved to for production. I still need to optimise the balance of extractors and processors per planet to make sure I can maximise output etc., however the planet orientated map below gives a good production base for paste.

Loki Fittings

2010-07-19T16:27:00.001+01:00

Well, as many of you know strategic cruisers bring a whole new meaning to fitting; with five sub systems categories and four version in each category you can create a very large number of potential ship base configurations and that is before you have even added fittings.

As I noted before I am looking at obtaining a Loki as I am already skilled for that. After grabbing a few other fittings from people I have attached my various changes and other make ups. With officer fittings you get some amazing setups but this will come with time. I have also put in the Tengu fit I put in previously as an example and to give an idea of where that tank is going and how comparable the Loki versions are. Your comments for these fits would be appreciated.

Strategic Cruiser Comparison Tables

Loki vs Tengu

2010-07-16T15:03:00.004+01:00

Well,

I can fly a Loki, but seems like the best PVE PLEX ship is going to be the Tengu, so the plan is to buy a Loki now that I can use for exploration and rating and other complexes whilst I train up for a Tengu. By the time I have Caldari Cruiser V and the missile skills I willl hopefully have the funds so I can then fit out a Tengu for running PLEX.

Here is a target Tengu fit, note that this is for PVE not PVP and is set up to run Guristas PLEX:

[Tengu, Guristas Plexing 002]
Tengu Defensive - Adaptive Shielding
Tengu Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Tengu Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Propulsion - Fuel Catalyst

5x Heavy Missile Launcher II (Scourge Heavy Missile)
Sisters Core Probe Launcher

Gistum A-Type 10MN Afterburner
Gist X-Type Large Shield Booster
Pith A-Type Shield Boost Amplifier
Dread Guristas Invulnerability Field
Pith A-Type Ballistic Deflection Field
Pith A-Type Photon Scattering Field

'Radical' Damage Control I
3x Dread Guristas Ballistic Control System

2x Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

The Loki fit here is for solo exploration, so has some tank and DPS but all necessary kit for hacking etc.:

[Loki, Cov Ops]
Loki Defensive - Adaptive Shielding
Loki Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Loki Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
3x 425mm AutoCannon II (Barrage M)
Salvager II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher (Sisters Core Scanner Probe)

10MN Afterburner II
Codebreaker II
Analyzer II
Pith A-Type Explosion Dampening Field
Pith A-Type Ballistic Deflection Field
Gist X-Type Large Shield Booster

3x Domination Gyrostabilizer

2x Medium Projectile Ambit Extension II
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer II

Also have a PVE Loki here:

[Loki, PVE 003]
Loki Defensive - Amplification Node
Loki Electronics - Tactical Targeting Network
Loki Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Loki Offensive - Projectile Scoping Array
Loki Propulsion - Fuel Catalyst

6x 425mm AutoCannon II

Corelum A-Type 10MN Afterburner
Pithum A-Type Medium Shield Booster
Pith A-Type Ballistic Deflection Field
2x Dread Guristas Invulnerability Field

3x Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Tracking Enhancer
Damage Control II

2x Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

War ... Again!

2010-07-16T09:39:00.001+01:00

Why is it that when I join a corp I get war dec'd. Well not that I have joined too many corps (2 to be precise) but anyway there you have it; 100% rating so far.

Small corp has dec'd alliance so will see what that brings. I have no real plans to be down in hi sec atm so unless they are planning on coming out to Branch is gonna be quiet.

Moved!

2010-07-16T09:36:00.000+01:00

Well, after 15 months of playing and being in the same corporation (NERF) I have moved. I have join a few of my old corp mates out in Branch (Sp4rtans) and am now part of the NC (for my sins). So new times ahead and different challenges but am looking forward to it.

I had been thinking about how a new corp / alliance actually moves out into 0.0 successfully and I had been coming to the conclusion that it can but only with difficulty and that is even more apparent now that I am out here. This is further backed up in the latest CSM minutes where they talk about the difficulties of getting new alliances out into 0.0.

Anyway, running various ops out here now and enjoying it though at the same time my online time has been cut back significantly so in some ways I think I will be making the same amount of isk I did before. Anyway lets see what happens; can use the extra time not playing to work on some Loki and Tengu fits.

DIY Charon

2010-06-24T10:51:00.001+01:00

Well she's made and sitting in an alts hanger ready to be assembled and flown. Funny how I always manage to get the ship before I can fly it. Anyway at least there is no fittings to worry about here.

Freighter seem to fall in to an odd bracket; they are officially not capital ships, yet due to their size you need capital construction to build this ship, along with capital parts, which in turn needs a fair amount of minerals. However time and effort can see you make one of these for considerably less than market value .. especially if you have access to capital BPC. Anyway will climb into this beast short and take her for a wallow (could never spin in this thing).

Downtime Again

2010-06-24T10:37:00.001+01:00

Crumbs, its been ages since I posted on here ... will try and catch up on things as life is never quiet; well not until CCP decide to move to a newer server room; this is the longest downtime I have ever know in over a year of playing.

So, I have now been flying this capsule of mine around for over a year, and feel pretty comfortable with most aspects of Hi and Low Sec space. I have yet to really get to grips with Null Sec, sure I flown around a bit, done an Agony Basic course and a few corp roams but as far as I am concerned that does not really cut it. But will get into that in a little more detail later.

Our new alliance is now over six months too, and it is easy to see why there are only a handful of larger, successful alliances and a lot of smaller ones with burned out leadership. Being a director changes your attitude towards EVE a lot, and I have to say, I am not sure if that is for the better or not. The collapse of BOB and Goonswarm is telling and not a surprise. It is not all bad however, we have a great group of capsuleers and momentum is building .. watch this space.

Well I would certainly not class myself as rookie anymore, skills allow me to comfortably run all missions, though would always run a logistics alt for level 5s, and this year should see me close out the final set of basic skill training ready for a longer term future, so learning skills max'ed, elite core etc.

We have been pretty much war free now since the last one I talked about and people have settled into their normal routine of missioning and mining, but I have to say that now I have settled down and am looking at some of those rank 14 skills I feel a little more of a pull towards 0.0. I am happy with most game mechanics and am needing something new and a little less mundane, but always needs to be done as a balance with other stuff, the main thing being isk. Establishing a steady income is a steady task right now and one that I need to be able to achieve without playing 24/7; see what happens. Anyway, this gets me up to date, though I will endeavour to throw more regular write ups in even if they are shorter.

War is over ...

2010-03-17T13:45:00.001Z

I would love to report that the whole war ended with a huge fight and my ship collection in a matchbox but actually it ended up with them ending the war and the last evening was us camping them at a station and them sending out so much smack talk in local that another PvP corp asked them to try dec'ing them. Overall probably the worst war we ever had. Oh well, see what happens next, the next war is never to far away.

Workarounds

2010-03-16T15:21:00.000Z

Well,

I have already discussed a little bit about game mechanics so far with release of the Goonswarm (RIP) guide for ultra deep safes. I have also played around the the Grid Fu guide, also release by Goonswarm, but I have more recently found some other more annoying / intelligent actions that use the game mechanics in a way that is not entirely as planned. I have listed a few below and would be interested to know what other ones people use or loath in the game:

CONCORD Pre-Load
Ok, this is the art or act of pre-loading CONCORD into an area; and driod field for example, so hat they can provide you with a greater level of protection. Achieved by ganking yourself with a noob ship in an asteroid field so that CONCORD relieve your noob of his ship then hang around for a couple of hours. Provides you with CONCORD on your door step whilst you mine.

Insurance Farming
Quick way of turning all those low value T1 modules and ore that you get into isk. Reprocess everything, build a BS, insure it and then self-destruct it. Will see what happens with this with the changes that are appearing on Singularity right now.

Will add to this list as I find more; I have not gone through the whole list of war / combat issues such as station hugging, lofoffski, etc.

War ... again

2010-03-12T14:03:00.000Z

Well we are at war again. We got dec'd again about a week ago and though we are no PVP corp we do have a few thirsty souls who enjoy a good roam and fight. This will be the sixth war I think I have been part of and to date they have never amounted to much; a few roams in the evenings with the odd stand off and fight, but on the whole everyone seems to skirt around each other trying to get some sort of advantage (usually in numbers) at which point the smaller party goes and waits it out in a station.

There are great stories and reports about all the wars that go on in null sec, about the politics and espionage but truly, I wonder how much of this goes on in the rest of space with all the smaller corps warring it out.

We had an instance last night where the war was getting close to ending , various people had talked and agreements had been made but with no agreements on ceasefires or anything else; just left it run it's course and good bye. Anyway a few of the more excitable members of the alliance had already arranged to wander around and see what happen would happen and to their surprise found a small group of WT nearby all prep'ed and ready in the same way we were. I would like to point out that the corp that had dec'd us is a PVP corp and aspires to be another Agony Unleashed. Anyway this small group decides to agress and losses an Onyx in the process. Polite convo ensues in local and people warp off to lick wounds and prep for the next encounters when the CEO comes online into our public convo complaining bitterly and threatening to continue war, destroy alliance etc. Now he can do what he wants and that is fine, I have no quarrel at all with that but I do have some questions that I am sure will never be answered; who takes a fully fitted hictor out in hi sec during a war if they are not planning on using or losing it? Why get upset with a corp doing its best to fight in a war till the end? We has not exactly come out fighting from the start but certainly had lost a number of ships through the week, so why the bitter response?

All in all I am disappointed again (read last posting ... must be an age thing creeping up on me). I have been on an Agony course and loved it. There is a certain no holds barred, raw feeling to the courses and to take it as it comes. The thought of a war with something similar or aspiring to that was a little invigorating ... even if we were turned into pulp and handed out wrecks back in a matchbox, we at least would learn something but this has been disappointing. One thing I did notice as I started to gather the intel prior to the war commencing was some strange behaviour in their killboard and there has been a little more since. I will talk a little about this in my next post as it is not really anything to do with this war but is more related to the tricks of the trade that people employ in the game to help them along. Anyway, will see what the next load of diplomacy brings, fly safe.

First Glimpse of Tyrannis

2010-03-12T13:35:00.001Z

Well if you log into Singularity (Sisi) then you can see the first tasters of what the next release of EVE has in store for you; planetary interaction (dev blog).

Before I go any further I will digress slightly here and talk a little about CCP's last significant release; Dominion. One of the intents of Dominion was to get more people out in to null sec by making things a little more interesting, which it possibly has done for the large alliances that already had a hold out there. The reality was though that it was never (ever) going to get new takers due to cost, and capability requires (e.g. freighters in low sec for deploying infrastructure hubs, etc) and the last CSM minutes have confirmed this. In fact as part of a fairly new alliance that would love to get sovereignty independently (without renting), dominion made it somewhat harder. The best evidence available to back this up is the recent demise of Goonswarm; if Dominion has made null sec more open then we would of seen a great swathe of new alliances popping up all over the place and we haven't.

So anyway back to Tyrannis and planetary interaction. The next step sees us now able to install a command module on a planet, build up a network of excavation / harvesting types modules along with processing plants to make nanite paste at present (though I have yet to find anything else but Nitrogen and Aluminium). For more info on this there is a great EVE university vid up on you tube you can watch (click here to watch). The set up in general is very simple and requires no additional skills, the planetary command centre is tiny (don't know about cost yet as everything on sisi costs 100isk) but is still no going to meet needs of the budding alliance looking for their own little 0.0 space. The forum linked to this update (click here) is already alight with calls for skill requirements etc that are all about people protecting their own space rather than opening the game up and I am concerned that yet again there is little opportunity for us players that have been flying internet spaceships for around a year to really develop ourselves. I would love some of you to correct me in this if I am wrong.

For me though new develops are always good this is definitely a drive towards the implementation of DUST514, and for those alliances that hold good space already this is another income source to bolster yet further their individual spaces. At first I was rather excited by what I saw but the more I reflect on it I cannot at present see what most of us are going to get out of it. Maybe that is just Mr Grumpy talking but we will see.

Ultra Deep Safes

2010-02-22T17:13:00.004Z

Well another report has been made available by Goonswarm (RIP) that outlines what you need to do to creating ultra deep safes . You can get a copy of it from here ... Poseidon Manual.

I have played around with this and looked into how effective it is at making deep safes and now have a couple in different systems that are around 660 AU to the nearest celestial body in the system. I put together the following notes on creating these safe spots:

When you log back in after the Control Q you can make a bookmark as soon as possible. Waiting till your speed has reduced to less than 10km/s (you are still in warp) will only give you a distance of 100k km. Which is not huge when you are looking at getting at least 7AU with each step.
A cov ops (I used my cheetah with an aux power core, 400mm steel and 50mm steel plates) will get you 45-55AU roughly with each step.
To get the most out of each step you should try and ensure your run up prior to quitting is as long as possible that way there is adequate distance to each top warp speed and be able to quite at a good time (just before you decelerate).
Some battle reports talk of deep safes of up to 600AU and I now have a couple at this range though it will take you a couple of hours to make one.

A basic step by step process is as follows:

Find two safe locations that are on either side of the system that give you the longest possible warp distance possible. Would suggest you use safes that are not directly on planets or moon warps. Your going to need the map open and on system display to help you here and as long as you are at a safe you should be able to keep this open.
Declutter the window and make sure you can see you movement across the map.
Warp to the location on the other side of the system.
Hover your mouse over your speed and when you have reached your maximum speed (in smaller systems you may not reach max warp speed), prior to decelerating press control Q. Note that if you do this too late you will create a BM that is very close to the one you warped to so do not leave it too late. Also if you do too early you will end up near the point you were warping to anyway.
The client will have quite so you will need to start it up again an log in as soon as possible. If you take too long you will back at your original location before you get a chance to make the bookmark. So restart EVE, login and BM asap.
Once you have logged in create a bookmark as soon as possible. If you are looking at the map you will see that you have now bookmarked a location that is way beyond the point you were warping to.
You will now have to wait as your ships finishes this warp away. Your ship will then warp back to the point at which you quite and will then warp to the point you originally warped to.
Go back to your original warp from location and warp to your new deep safe and repeat the process as many times as you can cope with before dying of boredom. Remember that combat probes have a radius 128AU and deep space probes have a range of 256AU. It may take you a few steps to start to get a good distance each step (especially if you are in a small system. However once the steps are good you should be able to go from your end point to the new point and create the next step each time.

EVE Online Nomenclature

2010-02-02T14:07:00.007Z

Well there are so many abbreviations that I thought I might try an attempt to get as many in one place as possible. Here goes (if there are any missing then please comment and I will add them).

Ship Type
AF/AS: Assault Ship
BC: BattleCruiser
BS: Battleship
Covops: Covert Ops Frigate
CS/CBS: Command Ship/Battle Cruiser
DN/Dread: Dreadnought
HAC/HAS: Heavy Assault Ship
HIC/Hictor: Heavy Interdictor
Indy: Industrial
Inty/Ceptor: Interceptor
SC: Supercarrier
SB/Bomber: Stealth Bomber

Ship Name
Aba/Abad: Abaddon (BS)
Apoc: Apocalypse (BS)
Arbi: Arbitrator (cruiser)
Arma/Geddon: Armageddon (BS)
BB: Blackbird (cruiser)
Beagle: Eagle (HAC when fitted with blasters)
Bessie/Stower: Bestower (industrial)
Blasterthron: Blaster equiped mega
Cane: Hurricane (BC)
Cerb: Cerberus (HAC)
Cursus: Incursus (frig)
Cyc: Cyclone (cruiser)
Dom/Domi: Dominix (BS)
Harbi: Harbinger (BC)
Itty #: Iteron Mark # (industrial)
Lach: Lachesis (recon cruiser)
Jag: Jaguar (AF)
Kessie: Kestrel (frig)
Mach: Machariel (Faction BS)
Mack: Mackinaw (exhumer)
Mal/Male/Diction: Malediction (inty)
Manti: Manticore (bomber)
Meal: Mealstrom (BS)
Mega/Thron: Megathron (BS)
Moonin: Munin (HIC)
Myrm: Myrmidon (BC)
NH: Nighthawk (CS)
Phoon: Typhoon (BS)
Pilg: Pilgrim (recon cruiser)
Prohp: Prohpecy (BC)
Pun: Punnisher (frig)
Ranis: Taranis (inty)
Rax: Thorax (cruiser)
Ret/Retri: Retribution (AF)
Ret: Retriever (mining barge)
Rox: Ferox
Ruppy: Rupture (cruiser)
Sac: Sacrilege (HAC)
Sader: Crusader (inty)
Scorp: Scorpion (BS)
Sleip: Sleipnir (CS)
Temp/Pest/Test: Tempest (BS)
Vaga: Vabagond (HAC)
Varg: Vargur (Marauder)
Vindi: Vindicator (Faction BS)

Combat, Warfare and Locations
0.0: lawless/null space (outside of empire and lowsec)
Aggro: Attract aggreviation (damage) from all NPCs or opponents.
Bleeder: A pvp setup designed to outlast your enemy
Blob: Large fleet of ships
Bubble: Interdictor Warp Disrupt Probe or Mobile Warp Disruptor.
Camp: A gatecamp.
FC: Fleet commander
Gank: The amount of damage a ship is set up to do. Can also refer to getting "ganked", or killed.
Lvl4: Level 4 missioin tested
Mission Ops: Mission running, see PVE/NPC/Ratting (lots of similarities)
NPC: Non-Player Character (see PVE)

P
odded: Losing pod. Usually to be avoided at all costs.

Popped: Ship is destroyed.

PVE: Player vs Environment

PVP: Player vs Player
Rat: Pirate NPCs
Ratting: see PVE/NPC
Solo: solo PVP, usually self sufficient with ability to tank, gank, and tackle
Spawn: a group of NPCs, or the act of a group of NPCs appearing
Speed tank/Kiting: The ability to avoid damage through speed.
Tackle/Tackler: To Warp Scramble/Disrupt/Web a target. Often used to describe ship setup.
Tank: The amount of damage a ship is set up to absorb. Also refers to character who will take all damage.

Core Fittings
CPR: Capacitor Power Relay
CPU: Co-Processor
MAPC: Micro Auxiliary Power Core
PDU: Power Diagnostic System
RCU: Reactor Control Unit

Weapons
AC: Autocannon
Arti: Artillery
BCU: Ballistic Control System
DD: Doomsday
DLB: Dual Light Beam Lasers
DLP: Dual Light Pulse Lasers
GS: Gyrostabilier
Howi: Howitzer
HS: HeatsinkMag Stab/MFS: Magnetic Field Stabilizer (also MFS)
MPL: Medium Pulse LaserSB/Smarty: Smartbomb

Electronic Warfare
Damp: Remote Sensor Dampener
Distruptor/TD: Tracking Disruptor
Neut: Energy Neutralizer
Nos: Nosferatu
Point: Warp Distruptor
SB: Sensor Booster
Scram/Jammer: Warp Scrambler
TP/Painter: Target Painter
Web: Stasis Webifier

Propulsion
AB: Afterburner
Istab: Inertia Stabilizers
MWD: Microwarp Drive
Nano: Nanofiber Internal Structure
OD: Overdrive Injector System
WCS/Stabs: Warp Core Stabilizer

Rigs
CCC: Capacitor Control Circuit
Poly: Polycarbon Engine Housing

Armour
50-1600mm: (mm) Reinforced Plates (differing materials)
ARU: Armor Repair Unit
EANM: Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Hardener: Armour or Shield hardener, both active and passive
SAR/MAR/LAR: [Size] Armor Repairer

Shields
Extender: [Size] Shield Extender
Hardener: Shield or Armour hardener, both active and passive
SB: Shield Booster
SPR: Shield Power Relays

Factions
DB: Dark Blood
DG/Dread: Dread Guristas
Dom: Angel Cartel (Domination)
Gal: Gallente
Gist: Angel Cartel
Min: Minmatar
SS: Shadow Serpentis
TS: True Sansha

Item Quality
Faction: A rare faction named version of T1 items
Named: Usually best named variant of Tech 1 item
Officer: The rarest and most expensive mods, dropped by very rare officer rats.
Plex/Complex/Deadspace: An even rarer subfaction type of item, dropped by rats inside complexes.
T1: Tech 1
T2: Tech 2
T3: Tech 3

Location
Plex: Complex or deadspace location in space where NPCs are located.

Forum / Conversations
Bbl: Be back later
Lol: Laugh out loud
OP: Original Poster
Pwned: Owned
QFT: Quoted for truth

Communications
Vent: Ventrilo voice communication software
TS: TeamSpeak voice communication software
Eve Voice: In game comms software

Minerals
Trit: Tritanium
Pyer: Pyrerite
Mex: Mexallon
Iso: Isogen
Nox: Nocxium
Zyd: Zydrine
Mega: Megacyte
Morph: Morphite

Other Items
BM: Bookmark
Cyno: Cynosural Field, generated by ships to be used by some Capital ships for jumping
Deepsafe: A safespot which is very hard to scan out, due to being more than 5AU from all objects
Instaundock: A SS that allows for near instant warp after undocking.
KOS: Kill on Sight
Logoffski: Logging off to avoid being killed.
NBSI: Not Blue Shoot It
NRDS: Not Red Don't Shoot
OP: Outpost
Plex: Pilots extension license providing 30 days of game play.
POS: Player Owned Structure
SS/Safe: Safespot (spot in space that's not directly in line with any 2 objects)

Reflections on an Agony Course

2010-02-01T12:45:00.001Z

With a few rifters and vigils packed and shipped to Stacmon I turned up for a bit of fun and to learn a little more about PVP and FCing. I have been out on the occasional roam but usually with our fleet being handed various parts of their anatomy back on a plate. SO this was a chance to go along and enjoy a roam without the risk of losing much.

So who are Agony Unleashed? Well, they are a corp who is doing something a little different than everyone by offering a range of courses that teach other player some basic game mechanics. You can check them out at http://www.agony-unleashed.com.

So, I had coughed up my isk for the course (12 mil for individuals or 10 mil if you set up a corp account) and turn up in Stacmon ready for the course. There is a lot of reading that you need to do before and which though they say they are not going to cover in the course a lot of this is really covered on the first evening. The main things you definitely have to set up are your frigs, your general game settings to help reduce lag and the overviews. You don't have to follow their settings but they are a good starter for ten, especially if you have not done it yet.

The first class night saw about 60-70 if us going through the basics of EWAR, fleeting comms, etc. With a little flying practice. I would of preferred a little more practice seeing effects of the various modules and such like but would be difficult to do this with so many people in fleet and you do get that experience on the second day. There was a little directional scanner test which was very useful (even if you have used and done this before .. it is easy to get lazy and rusty on this).

Anyway the real thing that everyone looks forward to is the roam and we had 103 at one point; it might of been higher. It is fun to see such a large blob of ships flying around together; will get some pictures next time I am flying on one as I will be a little more relaxed. Well we all joined up in Stacmon ready to go and warped off towards low / null sec. I cannot tell the route we took in the end because we jumped around a fair bit based on what intel came in. I will tell you know that this is not the sort of fleet that avoids anything that looks too dangerous, if the scouts find a good size fleet you are likely to try it. I know we did straight off, within about two jumps we engaged a sizeable fleet that paired us down quite quickly; we did get some good kills but meant that we returned to Stacmon for new ships etc as a good portion of the fleet was gone. Once we had done this we headed back out again and this time faired a lot better.

I got my first killmail (Onyx) whilst out on this roam (though it was others that did the lions share of the damage) and was party to a lot of others. There are some things that you have to get used to, which includes; not always clear commands, lots of chatter with intel, lag, etc. On the whole though I cannot see how this would be different from any other fleet up and is good experience in the long run. One other thing did become clear as the evening progressed was that our opponents primary the Agony pilots who run the fleet and this is disruptive at times, especially as the evening progresses and people slowly drop out.

Despite the things that might annoy the average carebear with OCD it is a great course to do and certainly makes things fun. You are likely to be tense for the first couple of hours, so try to relax and enjoy it. Also try and kill something as soon as you get on grid cos if you pause you will miss out. I know I did near the beginning and was soon charging all over the place trying to get my fair share of kills.

I am looking forward to the odd alumni run (once you have done the course, you can come back as an alumni for free and join in both the theory and the roam for free), and would like to get on the other courses too.

Thanks Agony for a great weekend out.

Null Sec Life

2010-01-14T08:58:00.001Z

Well I have hung around null sec now for a week or so and was surprised how quiet it can be if that is what you are looking for.

As a new player, 0.0 has an entirely new set of terminology that does not build a huge willingness to venture out of empire space; gate camps, bubbles, pirates, large wars, etc. I started post release of Aprocrypha but pre Dominion. 0.0 space appeared to be pretty much closed down ... yes there was stories about Band of Brothers (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=990381&page=1) etc. that meant it was not completely out of bounds but for all intents and purposes, unless you join a corp that is part of one of the main alliances it is going to be hard to establish space all on your own.

Reports on renting space (sharecroppers) are certainly not getting the best of reviews: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67275. Whilst trying to find moons that make it worth it are difficult as most of them are taken (I assume). Dominion has changed this to a small degree as held regions have been reviewed and reduced but still, most of the high value areas have remained in the grasp of the larger alliances. See http://www.rifterdrifter.com/2010/01/a-quick-introduction-to-nullsec-politics-part-1/ for a review on nullsec post Dominion (also a good blog in general). Will CCP release infrastructure hub modules at improve a moons minerals? We will have to wait and see. What I did find out in my roaming was that this is definitely a sandbox; if there is a large war going on somewhere else with a large number of ships, it will crash the whole of EVE.

All this aside I have seen a large amount in the last week and learnt a huge amount to; how to avoid a gate camp, avoiding bubbles (or getting out of them when you cannot avoid them), null sec scouting, moon surveying and lots more. Have seen too many macro ratters / miners in low sec (especially in the quieter areas of nullsec) and would still like to see some of the larger battles.

Corp Life

2010-01-14T08:29:00.000Z

Playing EVE and not being in a corp is like having pizza without the toppings. After 10 months of playing I still do not know why it took me 2 weeks to join a corp; I should of done it straight away. I would certainly have a very different outlook on the game had I not joined NERF.

For a new player the benefits you get from an active corp are huge, though it does depend on the corp you join. NERF was a hi sec industrial corp when I joined and in the intervening time we have had four hi sec wars (pretty sure it is four), moved to low sec, started some pvp, grown a reasonable amount (need much more), undertaken extended w/hole ops and had a very (very) short venture into 0.0.

In this time I have become a director (no want to be a CEO) and have the enviable task of getting people together for PVE missions. Actually getting people to mission is not hard, there are regular fleets available ... getting people to do it for the corp is a lot harder (giving their hard earned loot to the corp hanger).

What now though? Who knows ... there are lots of debates going on but one thing is certain we need to grow, we need to change to be able to do some of the things we dream up and so this coming year will hopefully see more change, more growth and some exciting changes.

In summary if your not in a corp ... get in one. NERF is recruiting if your interested and we need all sorts of pilots ... join NERF! if you want to chat.

Projectile Ammo Savvy

2010-01-09T17:35:00.002Z

Well I thought it was about time that I got a little more savvy with my ammo selection. I have therefore put together the table below as a forum of quick reference. Have added what I think is the best selections for the various factions and pirates. Let me know what your experience is and I will update.

Low Sec Roaming

2010-01-09T16:33:00.000Z

Well, spent a large proportion of this week running around null sec and amazed at how empty it is. Having spent the last eight months in high and low sec was amazingly peaceful out there. I realise that I was not in large contested areas but still I did expect to see more people.

Jumped into one system where two guys threw up a bubble as I jumped through but luckily they were in cruiser (or BS, too busy to look as I was trying to get away) sized ships, so just burned out cloaked and jumped on.

Was surprised at the lack on stations and now see why logistics is such a big issue in null sec. JF much needed as well as a good POS somewhere definitely required if am going to take full advantage of everything out here.

Decided it was time to better my PvP skills so am planning on doing an Agony Unleashed Basic PvP course at the end of the month; will let you know how that goes.

Got myself a tempest recently and have realised how much my skill based was shields orientated so back on to core training again. Will help though with sorting out a proper PvP fitted hurricane so time to stop putting that training off.

Anyway fly safe ...

Happy New Year One and All

2010-01-07T16:05:00.000Z

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Life has not been boring at all .. and currently it looks like that is not going to stop. I realise it has been a while since I last wrote on here, is always difficult to keep things up; as writing here means I am not playing EVE or RL has taken over.

In the last month I seem to have managed to do many new things; some good and some not so good. I have spent a fair amount of time roaming around null sec recently getting to grips with the ins and outs of things and breaking down those images of null sec being a terrible place. Our corporation finally sorted itself out and has started up a new alliance; some of our old friends have joined us, we have new friends, and some weren't invited. From here we will see what is going happen; there is lots of ambitious talk at present and I am excited to see what happens.

I lost my first ship due to not paying attention whilst missioning in low sec; I am not going to complain though as I learn a huge amount and also discovered that I am not as bad as I thought I was. It took my aggressors rather a long time to kill my ship and if I had a way of breaking the scramblers I would of managed to get clear. What else did I learn, well in the words of Douglas Adams ... "Don't Panic." With a clear head there are lots of things you can do (even if that is sit and watch your shields slowly turn red). Still I lost the ship which is a shame but onwards and upwards.

My own plans are also getting bigger and I have to say I am going to need to work on my isk for some of those to happen. With this taken into account I guess the next stages for me as a approach my first year are:

Continue to work on my core and gunnery skills.
Train up tech II cruisers.
Get some PvP experience in null sec.
Maybe start some tech II frigate construction.

Well will check on this through the year and see what happens. Anyway hope everyone had a great time over the holidays and fly safe in the New Year.

Scanning Skills Part 1

2009-11-23T17:09:00.001Z

Introduction

Ok so I need to be able to scan, what skills are there and what should I learn when and why? This is just a small post to start this whole topic off.

Fundamentally there are only four skills associated with scanning:

Astrometrics
Astrometric Aquisistion
Astrometric Pinpointing
Astrometric Rangefinding

Before you start you will need science at level 3, however all characters have this as a basic skill at this level so it is easy to start.

Skill Descriptions

Ok before going through the training stages it worth describing the skills.

Astrometrics (Rank 3, requires Science 3)

The skill at operating long range scanners (probes). The skill allows you to use one additional probe per level. Starting with 4 probes at level 1. This is a vital skill and you should aim to get this to level 4 asap. This frees up all the other skills for you to access and also gives you more probes. Ultimately with 8 probes out you can be scanning two locations simultaneously.

Astrometric Aquisition (Rank 5, requires Astrometrics 3)

Skill at the advanced operation of long range scanners. 10% reduction in the time taken for a scan probe cycle. Starting time is 10 seconds. So how much does the standard deviation really affect me? Well if you are scanning at 4AU resolution and an anomaly to reading a distance of 0.681AU then it could actually be 4.681AU away, so when you reduce your probe range for the next scan there is a change you might miss it altogether. This skill comes third in my list of importance and I would suggest getting this to 4 as soon as range finding has been trained.

Astrometric Pinpointing (Rank 5, requires Astrometrics 4)

Greater accuracy in hunting down targets found through scanning. Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% per level. Starting scan deviation is 100% of the total range that the probe is set to. This is probably the least important of the four skills as it does not affect your capability to find something and therefore should be one of the last skills you train to max. It does however provide you with a huge benefit when either chasing down other capsuleers, trying to find that high value radar site before anyone else or just processing the 20+ sites you have found in w/hole space. SO yes aim to increase it but not before you have focussed on the others.

Astrometric Rangefinding (Rank 8, requires Science 3)

kill at the advanced operation of long range scanners. 10% increase to scan probe strength per level. Training this up is vital, your going to need all the scan strength you can get so you should target training this up as soon as possible.

Training

You are going to undertake the process of learning the scanning skills in several stages. Why? Well first and foremost the skills are ranked reasonably high and to train these all the way through is gonna be boring, and furthermore these skills are not the only ones you are going to need whatever active you are going to be doing so expect to break these up into stages. This is going to get a lot more focus in Dominion where there will be specific scanning / exploration career paths so will be interesting to see how close I am.

Novice

This is very much a straight out of the box capability. You have just started playing EVE, get the skill book and jump into a frigate and your away. The draw backs here are that some of the higher value, harder to find anomalies are going to be out of your reach in finding (locking down to 100% and warpable). So you are going to want to get up to beginner asap.

Beginner

This is where you will start to find your getting good at scanning, you have worked out your system for managing the probes and have found a pattern for scanning. This level is good for exploration and will give you a good setup for finding anomalies. You will probably plateau here for a little while as you will now need some of the other supporting skills (hacking and archeology).

Intermediate

Your now getting into the professional scanning, fleet support type of role here. Your skills base is now getting to the point where your ship scanning skills are at a speed where you can scan down pilots quickly and effectively and are useful with fleet scouting and recon roles.

Elite

World is your oyster and it is time to train up on something else. Congrats on getting here.

Covert Operations

2009-11-20T12:13:00.001Z

Introduction
What do we mean by covert operations (cov ops for short)? In summary it is the ability to move around New Eden without detection, or without being detected easily. This however means different things to different people and hopefully I will try and pull together a good overview here of the various aspects of covert operations and dispel any myths and clear up those things that people ask (well I did at least).

Ok throughout this article when I talk about covert operations I am talking about ships and activities that rely on the use of the "covert ops cloaking device" module. There are other modules available, but being elitist about this, who wants a cloaking device that means you cannot move, or at a vastly reduced speed and cannot warp whilst cloaked?

Firstly the ship types that can fit this module are:

Blockade Runner
Covert Ops
Force Recon
Stealth Bomber

What about Black Ops? Well it is not included in this list as it cannot fit the covert ops cloaking device. It is worth noting here however that it does get a "Black Ops" skill bonus of +125% of cloaked speed per level. This would be an increase in cloaked speed of 625% when at level V. So for example if you fit an "improved cloaking device" your cloaked speed would be 356.45 m/s with all skills at V. The basic speed for the Panther is 228.13 when no cloaking module is fitted. Remember however you still will not be able to warp whilst cloaked in this ship and so it is advisable to use the jump to get into the best location possible. For the purposes of further discussion the Black Ops class of vessel will be included.

So what can these ships be used for? Well there is a level of overlap between them, but the common tasks that these ships are used for is:

Alpha Strike
Exploration
Fleet Logistics
High Value Cargo Transport
Scouting
Sniper

This list is not meant to be exhaustive and is based on the details I give for each below, however you might well have other definitions or thoughts that I have not covered here. Let me know and I will update as necessary, but in general this covers the basics. Each one of these activities has a different set of secondary skills required in order to fulfill the roll being discussed.

Alpha Strike
This is what the stealth bombers where made for. I have not included them as snipers as they do not have the tank capacity to remain in place once they have decloaked. The aim here is to get within a sensible distance of a target; say 40km whilst cloaked. Then to revel oneself, fire a high damage payload and either cloak again or warp away. This can be useful in a fleet senario as the lead to a bigger assault where by the Stealth Bomber gets a good amount of the targets shields down prior to the remaining fleet warping in and finishing him off. The use of torpedos here is vital and for nu,, sec bombs are also recommended.

Exploration
This career path is primarily involved in finding anomalies and signatures like worm holes or RADAR sites. This is usually undertaken with a covert ops frigate and requires you to have salvaging, code breaker and analyzer modules on board. Also the ability to scan using the astrometric skill sets.

Fleet Logistics
By this I am referring to the use of the cynosural field generators that allow for other ships out of the system to jump into the system you are in without the use of existing jump gates. You are more likely to use a covert version working with some of the other ships we talked about above. This is usually undertaken from a covert ops frigate, stealth bomber of force recon ship. Secondary skill depend on the type of ship you are flying but will be primarily propulsion skills, why? Well when deploying a cyno you cannot cloak and so need to be able to protect yourself somehow. Fr the frigates especially there is little power left to use any shield or armor boosters and so speed is your better chance. For the force recon ships you are more likely to have a more reasonable combat set up fitted. I will also add the Black Ops ship in here as it is used to create a ump bridge for other cov ops ships to be deployed into a system.

High Value Cargo Transport
Blockade runners are a type of transport ship and are used for moving high value cargos around. These ships are usually based on industrial class I ships and though not able to hold huge amounts of cargo can still move enough around to help fuel a pos or move minerals around in low sec between stations. Speed and cargo expansion modules skills are the order of the day for these ships. With changes made in Apocrypha 1.5 Back Ops ships were also given the potential for POS refueling operations. All the other ships can be used for this but have very limited cargo hold spaces so can only take very small items, e.g. special cargo delivery for a npc mission.

Scouting
This skill set is focussed around obtaining intel in hostile areas and relies on you being able to slip into occupied territory and collate information on opposing fleet sizes and composition, location of gate camps. It can also include scanning down hostile ships that are hiding at a safe spot. the smaller frigate class ships or Force Recons are used for this activity and primarily require good propulsion skills.

Sniper
This skill is very much aimed at the Black Ops ships, though can include the Force Recon (see above for Stealth Bomber). The aim here is to be able to provide a high level of damage from a reasonable range; sitting outside of the targets own range. This is especially true when setting up an ambush on a gate. This is very much a combat based skill and needs large gun related skills.

Common Mistakes, Questions and Key Points

Your presence can always be seen in local, whether or not you are cloaked.
You cannot be scanned down with probes if you are cloaked.
You cannot use any other module whilst cloak is activated.
If you have already launched probes you can be cloaked and scan at the same time.
Your cloak will deactivate if you are within 2000 metres of almost any another item. There are some items that will not decloak you if they are nearby, one of these is corpses. In general though you should act as if anything too close with deactivate your cloak. Probes returning to your hold will not cause you to decloak.
Once you are targeted you will not be able to cloak.
After jumping through a gate you will be naturally cloaked for 30 seconds (please note that you cannot jump whilst cloaked). In order to activate your cloak you will have to start moving. Be ready to activate your cloak as soon as you align or warp to something. This is the main time at which your presence can be located.
When in a fleet always warp to no less than 5km as the person you are warping to may be cloaked and you do not want to annoy him by deactivating his cloak.

If there is anything else that I have missed you you have any comments let me know.

Minimum Core Skills

2009-11-13T16:22:00.003Z

There are two lots of skills that are going to help you progress quickly within the game. The first are the learning skills and these should be maxed out as soon as possible as they will speed up your training.

Learning, +4% to learning speed/level
Instant Recall, +1 memory/level
Analytical Mind, +1 intelligence/level
Iron Will, +1 perception/level
Spacial Awareness, +1 willpower/level
Empathy, +1 charisma/level
Eidetic Memory, +1 memory/level
Logic, +1 intelligence/level
Focus, +1 willpower/level
Clarity, +1 perception/level
Presence, +1 charisma/level

Cybernetics, allows the use of implants for further attribute boost.

In addition to the learning skills you should aim to get the following skills to V:

Electronics
Energy Management
Energy Systems Operation
Engineering
Shield Management
Shield Operation
Hull Upgrades
Mechanic

These will provide maximum cpu, power, shield, armor and structure capacities.

The Sand Box

2009-11-05T11:36:00.000Z

Well eve-life has not been dull that is for sure, I have not even had enough time to get a ship out of station. The biggest thing that has kept me busy over the last couple of days is diplomacy. Why? Well that is the sand box effect for you ...

Picture the following recipe.

A few members of a corp that is part of our alliance acted in a way that is embarrassing to say the least.
A knee jerk reaction by the alliance to this event, included in this reaction is a lot of other issues that have built up over time but not really been addressed.
A corp reliant on status settings of the alliance.

With all of these up in there air you are left with a diplomatic nightmare to say the least. There is a lot of talk about what Dominion is going to bring and for me that is quite exciting (especially now). However I do not envy those that are at nearer the top of some of the larger null sec alliances. I can see a bumpy road ahead over the next couple of months with some potential big changes happening.

As for my corp well I think it is time to review and make the most out of what has happened. Sure might be uncomfortable for a while but it will sort itself out and will turn out one way or another. It is all part of the mix of EVE which I am slowly learning about.

The Power of Two

2009-10-29T23:24:00.001Z

Well I started up a second account before the "Power of Two" offer came out and am wondering what people use their second account for; I set mine up so that I could mine a little more effectively (though I am not a miner in a career sense). My plan then is to use the second account as industry / logistics support. It is a long way off from being perfect but it is getting there. What does everyone else use their characters for? I would be interested to know how they balance them out; logisitcs vs combat, pvp vs trader, miner vs hauler, etc.

With two characters the question then arises about corporations ... should you have both characters in the same corp or should you have them in different corps so taht you can switch between them when the is a war dec raised against your corp?

The other thing that I have found very hard getting used to is controlling two characters ... I am running two clients on a single screen which certainly has its disadvantages but then I have met some people that run four accounts.

Getting ready

2009-10-27T09:45:00.001Z

Well, it is around 20 days to getting the Orca out and about so need to start planning the fitting and also look in detail at my exploration skill base.

Fitting
As I said before there is a layout in Battleclinic for an exploration Orca that got a lot of good ratings. I have been working with this as a starter and am looking at the following:

   [Orca, Orca: Exploration Mobile Base]

   Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing or Improved Cloaking Device II
   Small Tractor Beam I
   Salvager I

   Ballistic Deflection Field II
   Explosion Dampening Field II
   Heat Dissipation Field II
   Photon Scattering Field II

   Damage Control II
   Overdrive Injector System II

   5x Hammerhead II

Hurricane

Cheetah

Retriever

The only question here is could I fit a better set up in the mid slots? If I take this in to a w/hole I would drop the link module and fit a cloak in there which fits fine I have not fitted any rigs in here yet as I will use this to mine as well, though if it works I might eventually get a separate Orca for mining.

I will cover the skills in a separate posting. There are some good guides now on exploration and scanning on the official wiki site which I will link in so that I am not regurgitating already well written articles.

Which grain of sand are you?

2009-10-26T15:38:00.002Z

Rightly or wrongly I have bought an Orca ... after six months of playing I decided that it was time for a little more direction in my training and activity. There is reasoning behind this but I guess it is worth giving a little more background as this is the first post I have made.

It has been six months since my clone made is first tentative steps in to New Eden I have managed to build a reasonable skill base in most things. I can handle myself well in most basic situations but now I need to do something a little more specific. For those of you who have ventured into New Eden you will know how big it is and how complex life can be as a capsuleer; there is no way of mastering everything in a sensible timescale and so I am going to start one of my main careers; exploration. I have a good base for probing, salvaging and hacking. My core skills (yes those ones the certificates tend to direct you too) are ok, but far from perfect.

So with a basic understanding of most things, I have got an Orca and intend on using it for two things ... the first is to mine with and the second is to go exploring. I am not going to talk to much about the mining aspect as this is well understood. The exploration side is not so well used (that I know of and I am sure you are gonna tell me) and it was a friend in my alliance who opened this one up to me. There is at least one setup for an Orca that I have seen that is quoted as being an exploration setup so I can not be that mad.

Why do I want to do this? Well ... you know how it is, you have gone through 12 systems and found nothing but LADAR and Wormhole sites when you come across and great RADAR site. Only this site has more than it's fair share of rats and your cov ops ship is just not ready to handle that kind of DPS (any DPS for that matter). So if I roam around using the Orca to ferry around a exploration ship, as well as a DPS ship and maybe a mining barge for all those Gravimetric sites then I should cover all aspects of exploration without having to stay close to home where all my ships are.

I will find out if this works and keep you posted. I guess the one thing that make me a little worried is the ninja who scans around the system and finds an Orca just floating around that they can fly.

So for me it looks like a bit more exploration training once this Orca is ready to fly.