Impressions of Fanfest

Hello, immense following of loyal readers!  I apologize that content has been hard to come by.  I've been entangled with RL events (week-long swim meet in sunny Florida) and other Eve Projects (now writing for Eve Report; expect articles soon).

Before I embark on FanFest coverage, here is the equivalent of a Facebook status update:

StevieTopSiders is focusing on two areas of skill training.  The first are the skills needed for Core Competency Elite; the second are the skills needed for an Amarr BS to do ratting, allowing him to finally make some money.  Additionally, he has done some home defense PvP, but without scanning skills, he is pretty much useless.  Stevie has lost many ships inattempts to engage bigger ships alone in his Ares.

Now that we have that out of the way, what about FanFest?  Sadly, I am not in Iceland, so I can't speak from personal experience.  What I do know, however, comes from fellow bloggers, EN24 liveblogging, #tweetfleet, and the free streaming.

Null-sec stuff seemed pretty boring.  The only big announcement (which wasn't really a FanFest announcement) was this: the appearance of Havens and Sanctums will now depend on TrueSec.  According to Ripard Teg's conspiracy theory, this is an effort by CCP to get the rest of Eve to break up the DRF, who have numerous hi-value systems.  He cites the placement of Technetium moons in NC space as precedent.  By making NC space more valuable, CCP hoped to give the players reason to break up the NC.  As we all can see, this failed terribly.

One interesting tidbit I learned from a YouTube comment is the return of new ships models.  I have been obsessed with this dev blog, dealing with the textures used on ships, for ages.  I have made post after post in the Eve Forums, scrounging for information, but no one seems to know.  Luckily, when I commented on the new turret video, an entrepreneurial commenter informed me that the ship models had been discussed at an art presentation this morning at FanFest.  Hooray!  Apparently the first ship in the pipe is the Raven.  Meh, would have preferred something not Caldari, but progress is progress.

Finally, make sure that you have all watched the Eve: A Future Vision video.  While I, a huge console FPS fan, am excited by DUST 514, I don't think any of this will affect Eve too much.  Again, we see rendered footage of Incarna, but nothing that couldn't be done from the NeoCom.  Also, we learn that the mercenaries have been hired to attack an installation on the planet.  Will losing a PI center really be that bad?  An interesting point was the capsuleer's death by pistol.  Again, what does this do for us?  Now, instead of losing your ship and implants, you just lose your implants.  Being able to kill people in stations really adds nothing to the game, as far as I can see.

For those of you in Iceland, I hope you've enjoyed your trip.  I would like to go next year, depending on how the college situation works out.  Speaking of which, I have been accepted to Washington University in St. Louis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon University, and Centre College.  MIT is my first choice, but it remains to be seen if I can scrounge up the 50k.

Fly safe!

-Stevie

My First PvP Loss

Hey all!

Lost my first ship today. It was an Ares Interceptor.

I'm of course mad about bringing down my corp's killboard, but I'd also like to say just how exciting it was! A corpmate and I were covering a gate into G-7 (in which an NC. Black Ops fleet had just hot-dropped), me in my 'ceptor, him in his Zealot. We saw Youeh (or something) pop into system. For a brief second, his Arazu appeared on overview, during which I tried to lock, but it was a no-go. He leaves local, so I head to MB, our hub system. I get in there and begin my search. I warp to the WLAR gate (our exit system) from 30km off to avoid the bubbles we have around the gate, though I do get stuck in them a little bit. I align towards the G-7 gate, not bothering to fire up the MWD. I get beyond the bubbles but delay jumping due to the pressing need of finishing off some Graeter's ice cream next to me (+10 if you know where that ice cream can be found).

When I turn back to my computer after like 10 seconds or something, I find that little countdown bar thinggy on my screen, which I thought meant he was locking me. "Oh, crap." I warp to the MB station, but can't! Okay, fire up my MWD II and get rolling at 4km a second. Doesn't work either. I frantically call for help in TS, and a German corpmate readies a rescue effort. I target the Arazu (with difficulty, because the overview keeps moving around due to his Warrior II's) and lay down the point and scram. Ironically, he's pointing and scramming me, which is my job as an Interceptor. I begin to orbit him, fire my small Blasters, and activate an energy transfer array (which is out of range). Damn. I'm into armor, and the oracle of TS tells me to align to station for a quick exit. I do, moving away at 300m/s, spamming my MWD. No such luck, though, I'm moving too slow. Eventually, my Ares dies a sad death, and the German arrives in time to destroy my wreck. I safely make it to station, and my heart begins to slow. I wished my killer a gf, told him it was my first loss, etc. He was nice about it and all, though I set him -10 so I can take revenge on his ass should I ever find it while flying a better ship.

So yeah, losing my first ship was fun.  I just wish it had happened in fleet combat rather than stupid accident.

I'd also like to take this time to express my distaste for for cloaky ships.  There needs to be a disadvantage to going invisible...

Fly safe!

-Stevie

PS- I voted for Ripard Teg for CSM.  You should, too!