EVE Online

One of the big hurdles I’ve been struggling to, um, hurdle (I guess) in EVE Online is the whole process of a Level 4 mission. They are the big money makers and they give loads of standing and loyalty points, so if you’re going to do missions at all, you want to do Level 4s if you can. My usual process with Level 4 missions was first, to obtain the mission. My standings with the Gallente Federation Navy is so high that I can get these missions nearly anywhere in Gallente space. So that’s good. Then I get my Dominix battleship ready. Make sure it is repaired and insured, loaded with drones (it is a drone boat, after all). Plenty of ammunition in the hold. ...

I just love this picture, I don’t know why! I think it might be the best picture I’ve ever taken in the World of Warcraft. It’s the dead boss at the end of the Orange Crystal part of Maraudon. I’ve been to the Orange Crystal side about a half dozen times now; Purple Crystal once. I think I’ve outgrown Uldaman now, I never get offered it any more. We just started with Zul’Farrak tonight. ...

Here’s the question. You’re an EVE Online player, and you need to buy a ship designed for seeking out and exploring wormholes. You go down to Honest Skeeve’s Used Starship Emporium and Deli and look over their probe frigates. You base your buying decision on which of these important factors? You have the skills to fly the ship. The ship can fit high tech cloaking modules for safety in dangerous space. ...

I don’t really like making posts about EVE back-to-back. It IS my main game, these days, but I am oft reminded of some tips to EVE bloggers I read on CrazyKinux’s blog a few months ago: Nobody wants to read about how you did a level 4 mission. I try to keep the day-to-day out of the blog. But corp-mates have insisted I repeat yesterday’s wormhole adventure twice, so I might as well just write it here. ...

In the end, the only way we can ensure the EVE economy functions as the finely oiled machine we have come to know, immune from the whims and disasters that strike the real world, is for each of us to step up and make it our business… to make it our business. Case in point. I’m flying courier missions in the Kador region of Amarr space, trying to improve my standings with CreoDron as I start on the long, slow road to invention. Occasionally they toss a combat mission in with the interminable and meaningless trips to travel hundreds of parsecs just to buy some cigarettes, or oxygen, or dirt. ...

I got it into my head a few weeks ago that for true success in EVE Online, I really needed to take control of my consumables. Ammo is no problem; I have that covered. Anyone can make normal ammo right out of the box, day one (and they probably should). But my real need was for Tech II drones. ...

Since we started flying Wednesday Ops Nights with Holowan Industrials, the phrase “usually, it goes better than this” has become as legendary as “I have a bad feeling about this” and “at least it’s not raining”. (I was riding my bike home from work a couple of weeks ago and it was raining so heavily I could barely see, and the gusty winds seemed to be against me the entire way. I couldn’t help thinking, “well, at least it isn’t SNOWING.”) ...

I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to play Dragon Age: Origins until I’d finished Torchlight all the way through. Not that this was a huge burden, but I do hate leaving good games unplayed just because another game found its way into my computer. I knew I was getting to the end of my quest to thwart the power of Alric, Ordrak and the power of Dark Ember when I hit the Black Castle far, far below the shaken inhabitants of Torchlight. You want epic loot? EVERYTHING is epic in the Black Castle. Epic Common Sword. Epic Worn Shoulderpads. Epic Broken Dagger. Epic Clump of Kitty Litter :) All the valueless, vendor-trash loot was epic! The final battle against the awakened Ordrak was satisfyingly, er, epic. ...

Reader Kinolyen pointed out, correctly, that running Minmatar missions wouldn’t do much to improve my standings with Amarr and Caldari, who hate me. Since my standings for both are below -2.0, I can’t get ANY missions for either faction, and both are just on the verge of sending bullets (of love, no doubt, in the Amarr case) at me whenever I accidentally fly through their space. ...

As much as I like picking up Caldari and Amarr dogtags from my kills and selling them for lots of ISK to pilots who pretend loyalty to those violent races, it’s getting to the point where I can hardly warp into Amarr or Caldari space without warnings to move off or be shot down. Since I do like running trade routes into Caldari-owned Jita for spare change, this could become a problem. Only my training in Diplomacy lets me dock at 4-4. ...