EVE Online

I’ve come to realize, over the years, that I really suck at MMOs. Easily distracted and easily bored, the sort of long-term, intense concentration that is the mark of the truly successful grinder is impossible for me. I can’t be the only one; the newer crop of MMOs seem made for people with short attention spans. World of Warcraft’s “Looking for Dungeon” tool lets you defeat the ultimate evils of Azeroth half an hour at a time. EQ2’s newest mission maps reward you if you can finish the entire instance before the necromancer is done buffing her pet. ...

Last night, the first phase of the Ishtar Project ended – I flew my Ishtar out of Amarr, where I’d bought a contract on one for 130m ISK last week. I could have MADE one, but the Ishtar blueprints just SELL TOO FAST and for too much for me to waste one by turning it into a ship. They are selling so fast that I think it would probably not break the market if I started buying the datacores I need to invent them instead of waiting the week it takes for my research agents to come up with enough. ...

I am playing too many MMOs, it’s true… but there’s some good gaming out there. In EVE Online, the Ishtar Project saw a minor victory as I sold my two run Ishtar blueprint for 30 million ISK after only a couple of days on the market. That worked out incredibly well. In another stroke of luck, I put another Vexor blueprint in for invention and produced ANOTHER two run Ishtar blueprint. This one I will likely keep to make the Heavy Assault Cruiser of my dreams. ...

Although invention in EVE Online can be lucrative, my main motivation is to make stuff I can use. My first foray into the invention world was Hammerhead II medium drone blueprints. I’d make the drones from them and sell them for a >500% profit. That was good, but it could be better. It’s been a goal of mine for some time to pilot an Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruiser (HAC). Fast guns, fast ship overall, plus a lot of tanking ability and the best drone control of any ship in its class, able to single-handedly clear plexes and level 4 missions. A Dominix battleship in a smaller, more agile package, essentially. ...

The survivors of the destruction of the USS Alvarado had discovered scantily-clad native girls along with an ancient wreck of what appeared to be a Starfleet vessel. Putting that mystery aside, the crew got busy, their work cut out for them. Parts 2-4 were originally one really long comic. I split it into three parts and added a little more to make it easier to read. Next stop for the STO crew: Jita. There is no way they can prepare themselves for the mercantile capital of New Eden.

When last we met the crew of the USS Alvarado, their excursion through a mysterious wormhole had ended in tragedy when an immense ship of unknown origin destroyed their starship, leaving them stranded on an alien world. It’s terrible how “romance scantily-clad, willing, beautiful green-skinned alien girl” is not a dialog option in ground missions in Star Trek Online.

In Part 1, the largely Andorian crew of the USS Alvarado, while exploring a newly-opened wormhole, found themselves trapped in the lawless domain of EVE Online’s nullsec, within targeting range of a Gallente Erebus, a Titan-class ship. Thanks once again to Longasc for the use of his semi-Sovereign class heavy cruiser. The Erebus shots were made with the Show Info tool within EVE Online. Explosions done in Star Trek Online, because it costs too much to explode a ship in EVE. Screenshots taken with FRAPS, collected in Picasa, cropped and composited in GIMP, text and certain other effects added and the whole thing published with Inkscape. Free tools are the way to go.

Thanks to Longasc for the use of his Sovereign class heavy cruiser for the exterior shots of the USS Alvarado.

Named “Hathor” after the Egyptian goddess who welcomed the dead to the afterlife, the first Helios covert ops frigate born of the collaboration between Tipa Pinneau and Ethomas rolled from the Federation Navy yards in Eglennaert last night to the cheers of the workers. It rounded the station twice before cloaking and heading to parts unknown. I don’t know if there’s any way I can make back on Tech II ship building what it cost to get in the business. I did manage to get an Incognito Ship Data Interface for only 32 million ISK. The datacores for the invention attempts were supplied gratis by my research agents. The Imicus blueprint copies that form the base of the Helios blueprints were copied from an unresearched Imicus original blueprint. My one success in four tries at a Helios bp resulted in a very poor quality product. I’ve since done some material research on the Imicus original, so perhaps the next one will be a little better. ...

Into the whirlpool, where matter vanishes Degenerate star, arm of Orion An iron sun, the forbidden circle It’s a mountain, it’s a black horizon…. Blue Oyster Cult, Heavy Metal (Black and Silver) If there’s one activity which defines my EVE corp, it would have to be manufacturing. We do missions – a lot of them – but they don’t define the corp in the same way. We rarely ever do PvP. But we’re always making things. The corp makes its money in researching blueprints and selling high quality blueprint copies, as well as the occasional production run. My own experiments with invention and production have been wildly successful; 90% success rate on Hammerhead II blueprint invention, and I sell all the drones I can make at amazing profit margins. ...