22 September 2010

College Visit and Blogging

I have not made any posts recently, because I have been swamped with homework, college applications, my Eagle Scout project, and arguably most importantly, Halo Reach.  I will be visiting Washington University in St. Louis this Thursday and Friday, and when I return, I will come back to the blog, also.  After this week, school will have slowed down a lot, and I feel that I will be able to devote more time to EVE.  Until then, sit tight.

Fly safe!

-Stevie

12 September 2010

The Road to PvP

EVE revolves around PvP.  Industrialists build ships to replace those lost in PvP, mission runners are usually PvP'ers making cash, and traders supply the PvP'ers.  CCP itself constantly stresses PvP as a means of advertising, but it is quite difficult for new players to get in on the action.  To jump-start the process, I signed up for the Ivy League Navy, EVE University's defense force.  I was initially wary about committing to a three month tour of duty, but I realize that it will take me about that long to get my PvP skills up to par.

If you're a regular reader, you know that I love to talk about my EVEMon skill plan.  I'm on my final learning skill right now.  I then move to training Cybernetics for some powerful new learning implants, Engineering for powergrid output, Mechanic for structure hitpoints, and Electronics for CPU output.  After these all-around skills are done, I start on Navigation and Gunnery skills.  By the time my 90-day tour of duty is up, I'll be able to fly Interceptors and Battlecruisers with more accurate and more powerful guns.

I haven't been on any roams with my battlegroup, but I hope to have cool stories once I do.

Fly safe!

-Stevie

05 September 2010

The Great Migration

As you learned about a week ago, I joined EVE University.  Wanting to be an active member of the corp and not being particularly happy with my slice of Caldari space around Jita, I moved down to their headquarters in Aldrat.  I sold everything nonessential, including my Tristan and Navitas, and went cruising through the galaxy in my Thorax.  I set up shop, bought a new Tristan, and then laid low for a few days.  Now that I was down here, I realized that there wasn't much to do.

Today, I decided that I'd take advantage of their Jump Clone program, having listened to a recorded lecture on the subject already.  I began to head up to Isikano, where the Uni has high standing with an out-of-the-way NPC corp.  On the way, the corp chat channel started buzzing with word of a Sansha's invasion of Urlen.  Intrigued, I fleeted up with three corp members and headed for the action.  After jumping into Urlen, I aligned for warp and appeared in the middle of a giant blob.  Red Sansha's vessels, mostly neutral players, and a bunch of yellow wrecks littered the screen.

The only useful fittings on my Tristan were the two blasters and the webifiers.  I started by webbing some Sansha's Tyrants, which I firmly believe allowed some people with real ships to kill them.  After that, I started focusing on Sansha's Loyal Raveners, which were webifieing my fellow capsuleers.  I would web them and then orbit at 500m, tearing them up with my blasters.  I did this to a couple ships, but while I was intently pecking away at my fleet chat box, I looked up to see that I was taking massive damage.  In a matter of seconds, I had gone to half armor.  I quickly activated my armor repairer, turned on the Afterburner, and warped to a station.  There, I quickly recovered and returned to the fight.  By the time I returned, it was over.  Apparently, a final Sansha's Carrier had come and been destroyed by the capsuleers.

I surveyed the battlefield, which was made almost entirely of yellow wrecks, which I could not have.  By scrutinizing the overview, however, I was able to find one white wreck from a Ravener that I had destroyed.  Overjoyed, I flew to it and found a shield recharger and some cap charges.  When I docked into the nearest station to log off, I found that I was the proud owner of a million ISK for bounties.  Lots of excitement with pay?!?  Overall, not a bad day.

Fly safe!

-Stevie

03 September 2010

New EVE Online Trailer

All hail the Causality trailer.  Legit shit here.

There is also a contest to win sweet prizes such as:

  • An EVE Online Gaming PC
  • SteelSeries Keyboard and Mouse
  • EVE Online Mousepad and Decals
I have the keyboard that they'll be giving away, and it's awesome.  Be sure to enter!

Now, I hope you were paying attention to the video.  If not, rewatch 1:56 to 2:00.  I think this part is very cool, because it relates to us as players versus the masses CCP is trying to attract.  Simple things like this go a long way to improving the game.  However, fixes to numerous other things need to happen before docking animations.  Fleet lag, I'm looking at you.

Fly safe!

-Stevie