So, umm, Hi.....?

Well, it's been a while hasn't it....

Subsequent to my last post two and a half years ago a lot has changed!

I've had lots of real-life changes and boy has EVE changed. Hopefully a few of your stalwarts are still out in space. I've seen that good old Miura Bull & Kirith Kodachi are still out there and several familiar faces still in the Tuskers. o/ guys.

Out of game I've moved house several times, got married, and got a Spinger Spaniel (Humphrey). I'm still living in Cornwall in the UK though and still work at the same place too. Though I can't remember what job I had back then so guess that might be different now. Can't imagine leaving Cornwall.

In game, well much of my last post still stands really. Ship changes galore and the trusty Rifter isn't too well balanced against the other T1 frigs out there anymore. Crimewatch changes and how much are plexes nowadays? Over a billion iskies! There are loads more changes but summary to say I felt like that noob just logging in in the first week of play wondering where to start.

Thankfully I've persevered and am enjoying EVE again. I've been back through most of my ships in Hevrice and brutally pulled them apart in an effort to find loadouts that will work. Old rigging had to be scrapped as they just weren't appropriate anymore and one hell of a shopping list from Jita! I can't say that it all works, but it's a start and I'll learn and tweak accordingly.

Coming back to EVE I found that Kirith wasn't in the Tuskers. It wasn't a big surprise as inactive members are periodically removed from Corp. As I'd left a post on the corp forums before I un-subbed I was allowed to reapply and rejoin the Tuskers. It still feels like home and has the same air about it. I haven't had much opportunity to get on corp comms yet sadly as my headset had befallen some mischief wile I've been away and frankly sounded to other that I was in a blowing gale when i spoke. New headset arrived yesterday so all sorted on that front now.

Now, being back in the Tuskers there aren't many members still based out of Hevrice. Lots of members have moved several jumps away and are based there. Hevrice still feels like home to me though and I'm a little reluctant to move. That's saying nothing of the roughly 100 fitted and rigged ships I have there in my hangar! No small feat to move even with a couple of carriers at my disposal. I'm slowly moving a few hulls over but it's going to take time to work out what I want to house there.

Since playing properly three years ago I trained a number of skills I can't remember even thinking about while not quite being active and in space. I keep being surprised at having things like Electronic Attack Frigate at V for example. Coupled with my own  skills there are new ones that I can train and new modules that exist. Hull rigs, drone damage mods to name just two examples. I have so much to learn!

Anyway, I've waffled quite a bit for this post so hope to be back with more to say. Back to spaceship violence and to add to my kill tally for September, 76 so far!

See you soon

Sustainable Solo Piracy

Prompted by some recent posts by fellow bloggers and also by a couple of conversations I've had with other players in game on the question of whether solo piracy can be self sustaining I figures I'd talk about it a little.

I've always held aspirations for Kirith to be self sustaining, well that overstates it actually. It would be better to say that when I started out with Kirith I wanted him to be self sufficient. For the first eight months he actually was. Somewhat coincidentally this change in sustainability occurred around the time I joined The Tuskers!

As I've said before, out of EVE I'm an accountant which tends to result in me wanting to create a spreadsheet for pretty anything EVE related. Therefore it probably wouldn't surprise you that I maintain a log on a spreadsheet of every ship I've flown which links directly to the kills it caused and the isk efficiency of every ship. Sad, yes. True, also yes.

Overall Kirith's efficiency when we look at the cost of losses versus the income generated from module drops from those I've destroyed it appears that my piracy career has cost me around of 800 million isk, this while my actual lifetime efficiency is incredibly high at around 95%.

So what useful conclusions can be drawn from all this information which I have at my disposal?

Statistics by hull type:
Assault Frigate: 92% efficiency, Isk loss of 382 million
Battlecruiser: 98% efficiency, Isk loss of 133 million
Battleship: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 156 million
Cruiser: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 167 million
Destroyer: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 35 million
Faction Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk loss of 136 million
Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 155 million

Kirith doesn't really fly ships with added bling, so very few faction or deadspace modules have formed part of this isk sink. I consider that I fit ships fairly frugally albeit not as much as I once did, but still I mostly fit a meta scram over T2 on the basis of cost vs benefit.

Kiriths drop into negative efficiency occurred when I started flying T2 frigates, by the third Jaguar loss all my months profitable flying had been undone. Granted, I state a cost to me of 800 million isk which is not the truest reflection as it ignores the ransoms of over 600m which I've received over my career.

There are other pursuits which a soloist can do while actively hunting. A couple of examples being ratting and anomalies, the rewards while certainly not high are reasonable and are an excellent way of getting people to fight you.

When I first set out as a pirate I needed all the isk I could get, I meta 2 fit my Rifter and they cost me less than a million isk each. I also ratted despite originally not actually being able to destroy a Battleship rat in my low skilled Rifter. In addition I looted everything, including making return trips if necessary. None of these secondary income streams are reflected above.

Now that I have other income sources I'm far less concerned with sustainability almost to the point where I don't think about it at all. If I wanted to be more sustainable and efficient I would stick with fleets and gang work. This strays from my heart which is more of a soloist and as I like to fly with some degree of reckless abandon it would change the way I play the game significantly.

Can piracy be self sustainable? Simply put, yes it can but with some considerations:

• Fly T1 hulls, preferably small ones.
• Carefully fit your ships and don't spend where you don't need to.
• Balance the risks when considering your targets.
• Some ratting doesn't hurt, when you find yourself with a Battleship rat pop it for an easy 500k isk.

Factoids

• Most profitable ship: S&M Freak, an armour tanked Thrasher bringing home a profit of 61 million isk.
• Biggest loss: Duellist, an active tanked Tempest I took out to spring a trap which got swiftly overwhelmed losing me 156 million isk.
• Most efficient ship: A cheap meta fit cookie cutter Rifter which took down 257 million isk total in five  ships back in 2010, achieved efficiency of 96.3% as it only cost me 955k isk in hull plus fittings!

Any stat's you'd like to know, shout out

Dr Thermaplugg

Bought myself a neut Abaddon recently. Why is probably the questions that comes to mind, rightly so too I'd imagine.

For starters I can't even use small lasers, let alone large ones and that's before we entertain Tech 2. I have Amarr Battleship trained only to level 3 which is totally sub-optimal to get the most out of one of these behemoths.

So based on what I have said so far we can determine that I'm not going to be performing feats of heroism or great dps magic in it!

What then? I bought this mainly because previously when Tuskers have fought a carrier, the call for neuts goes out. Wanting to be able to provide whatever a given fleet needs  I furnished my hangar with one ready for the fabled "next time".

Admittedly I've only ever been online for two Tusker carrier kills and in both of those I was in a Frigate as they were quite a long time ago. Obviously my repetoire of ships I can fly has increased dramatically since those times, however now I can be certain that if that call for neuts goes out I can answer. You can probably now guarantee that when it does I'll be asked for a dps ship. Well, assuming I'm online anyways.

Here's the fit:

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Damage Control II

Ship Scanner II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Conjunctive Radar ECCM Scanning Array I

Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Large Egress Port Maximizer I
Large Egress Port Maximizer I
Large Egress Port Maximizer I

Vespa EC-600 x5
Hobgoblin II x5

The Darkblade Crime Family

I talk about my alts pretty frequently. Though I'm not sure that I've ever said what each of them does despite being asked on occasion. Time to put pen to paper.

I use a total of five alts across two accounts:
 

1. On the same account as Kirith. Back when Kirith went outlaw, which lets face it didn't take long! I needed someone to haul ships and supplies to low-sec. This alt was made to do just that with a Hoarder. Since being in The Tuskers & since flying larger hulls I haven't needed or been able to use the Hoarder, tending instead to use corpmates logistics or my own Freighter which another alt flies. She now mostly sits in a station doing station trading with very few market orders.
2. Also on the same account as Kirith. This one sits in Jita 4-4 and very rarely undocks. This character can only fly basic frigates. Used predominantly to buy and sell for Kirith. When loots get shipped to Jita she receives and sells them and conversely she buys the ships and supplies for Kirith being sending them to him. In her spare time she station trades with the basic number of market orders.
3. On my second account and originally intended to be of all things a mining alt! It's even trained too fly a Hulk and has one too, the theory was to mine whilst afk. Even afk I found this pretty tedious especially when I had to frequently log out to my prober. Plumping for a far more passive source of income I retrained him as a station trader operating out of Rens. He's been docked there ever since. His trade skills are one level from maxed on a single skill though I only use around 70 orders daily. All he does nowadays is station trade and the odd contract trade.
4. On the second account and operates as my prober. Contrary to popular belief does not fly a boosting ship! All I do is probe with it, though I really would benefit from maxing out his probing ability one day.
5. Last one on the second account. She flies my Freighter when needed which is occasionally at best. Otherwise she runs Caldari Navy level 4 missions in a Drake when I'm unable to pirate due to real life circumstances. She's pulling together the isk for the Thanatos she's training for.

Hope that clears things up

The etiquette of the good fight “gf”

Lots of bloggers talk about combat etiquette in EVE; it’s a topic that comes up regularly. It is general practice for the dastardly pirates that are members of The Tuskers to offer a good fight (gf) after any fight. The preceding fight may not have been good but good etiquette calls for some recognition.

I might congratulate an opponent on attempting to withstand an overwhelming assault, likewise the same to an opponent who has defeated me. Of course if you or the opponent is podded, gf is generally challenging to offer in local! Though it has been known to be sent in the mail afterwards.

Recently I was chilling in my Rifter in Adirain, a favourite hotspot of mine. I see another Rifter on scan, I know who the pilot is as I recognise him from around and about the area who likes to fly pvp fit Rifters. Clearly he’s seen me on scan too. He is bouncing from place to place and settles at the sun. He’s been there around 30 seconds when I decide that he’s indicating that he wants a fight by not having moved off.

I warp to the sun and sure enough he’s there. We engage each other and before long his Rifter is destroyed. It wasn’t a close fight but I offered gf in local. I was somewhat surprised then when the pilot said in local that it wasn’t at all a good fight and that of course he didn’t stand a chance against a pilot with superior skill points.

Tuskers are forbidden from engaging in local smack talk so any statement in local I make always tries to be well thought through before being said. Therefore I had to consider what I said carefully if I was going to respond. I felt that I needed to say something. After a few moments pause I asked why knowing that I was in space that he had chosen to wait at the sun and also chosen to engage me when I landed at the sun. Unfortunately the pilot didn’t want to justify his comments and simply left system but not before the following parting statement…

“It’s always the fucking Tuskers”

I actually took that as something of a complement to our Corporation.

The Importance of Effective Communication

It's one of the biggest aspects that differentiates business as a whole, piracy in EVE can be consiered a business and therefore I would say that this topic title is appliicable and it is just as critical here as it is in the real world.

It is also an aspect of EVE that has provided me with much consternation since my return to the game.

As a corporation, The Tuskers use a mix of verbal communication through Ventrillo, and written communciation through corporation channels. The preferred method of communication being over ventrillo and it is insisted upon that if you are online in EVE then you should also be on vent. An excellent rule.

This morning provided me with a superb demonstration of why this is so important when I logged in to update my skill training to find an Armageddon in a belt in Hevrice. I had no intention when I logged in to undock, but curiosity bit me to see who was this other person in local. I should have logged into vent to advise my corpmates but I didn't. There is more than one reason for not doing so, the first was not really a good one and the second, well I'll come onto that in a minute. Ultimately I undocked, warped in on the battleship and sprung a trap. Losing a Hurricane, an avoidable loss had I advised my corpmates I am certain and we probably would have come away with the big "W". Once I was engaged, I put some comments in a text comms channel but these were too little too late.

Over the last couple of days I've seen this sort of thing happen a few times, admittedly this is the first time I've done it myself. I don't know the reason for it, or why there is a reluctance to use vent as its such a powerful asset, not using it costs iskies and pride. I imagine part of the reason for not communicating about targets, and I know I am guilty of this on rare occasions is the desire to get the solo kill. But really, we're a corporation and a team who should be working for the "greater good" and not individual benefit. I know for one that I should listen to my own lecture here. Today is the marker in the sand for me personally, and I want to rid myself of this bad habit.

Unfortunately for me, and the second reason for me not being on vent is that I seemingly have developed a technical issue since re-subscription which prevents me being understood by everyone else when I speak on vent. Don't get me wrong, I don't speak swahili or anything and my communication skills are very good, they have to be in my job. My vent is normalized and connected/logged in just fine. I can hear everyone else clearly, however when I speak a proportion of people can hear and understand me just fine but a bigger proportion of people say that either they can't hear and/or understand me. It's doing my head in to be honest and I wish I could fix it. It is having a detrimental effect on my ability to work with and effectively contribute to my corporation and is just completely doing my fruit in! I'd love to hear any suggestions on how it could be fixed. For the record, my headset is just fine.

Seeking Skilled Comrades

Just in case it has escaped your attention, the esteemed low sec pirate corporation The Tuskers, of which I am counted as a member have reopened recruitment recently.

The Tuskers are as I mentioned above a low-sec pirate corporation. All of the pilots operate both solo and as part of small gang warfare. Typically we don't fly around in huge fleets and it is unusual that we are found in battleships, battlecruisers being our favoured vessel of choice for gangs.

We are a friendly bunch and camaraderie is high, I'd consider The Tuskers to be quite professional in the way in which we carry out our piracy. We do not smack, we always honour ransoms and duels.

If the above appeals to you then take a wander over to our recruitment forum here and have a read through the application process.

The process is pretty in depth and we like to test not only your skill, but also your knowledge and character too. Skillpoints too do not a 'leet' pvper make so do not be deterred if you don't have the likes of 30 millions skillpoints! I don't think I had ten million when I joined!

I hope I'll see some of you on the forums soon.

o7

Tusker Interview #10

The latest interview by Romeo Blakstorm is now up here. This weeks interview is with the highly successful in house kamikaze pilot and director of a number of EVE videos Issamailkin.

Check it out to find out what goes through the mind one of our more kamikaze style pilots.

Tusker Interview #9

Interview number nine in Romeo Blakstorms Tusker interview is available hot off the presses here.

Be sure to go have a read and get the latest scoop on a Tusker member.

Are you ready for a war lads?

Today just before downtime The Tusker Bastards Alliance received devastating news. We find ourselves the subject of a wardec. As you will imagine, the following 24 hours will be spent gathering enough provisions to see us through this mighty siege that we can expect, the women and children have been ordered into secure locations deep within Hev V. We await the delivery of white flags which shall adorn our vessels during this coming war. Surely the agressor shall not violate the flag of truce?

Yeah........Whatever!

Who in their right mind wardecs a pirate corp who can be shot anywhere by virtue of outlaw status anyway. Issuing a wardec on a pirate corp gives the agressor a significantly weakened fighting position as we can freely shoot them now under sentry guns. Not that we are complaining, in fact I think we can offer them an open invitation to the Tusker BBQ's that regularly take place in Hevrice. Mr Snypes cabin crew usually provide the entertainment and Kishin, boy can that lad cook a rack of ribs. We look forward to seeing all of you Nostradamus Effect boys in local sometime soon.

Mr Snypes

The Tuskers seem to be renowned for their blogging, you enter a system and frequently are greeted by comments about Tuskers and blogging. Usually complimentary comments I should add, rarely negative, sometimes its just why do so many Tuskers write blogs?

Fellow Tusker and pirate of some significant repute Mr Snypes has recently gotten a blog up and running. I would recommend heading over to have a read, it's one of the most amusing blogs that I read and always makes me smile. Especially as when I read it I seem to read it with the voice of Snypes in my head!

PS. The pictures of his cabin crew certainly add some appeal too...

Tusker Interview #8

For those that have been heeding my advice and checking out Romeo Blakstorm's Tusker interview series, this one is a classic and one of my favourite yet.

I heartily recommend that you check it out here

Tusker Interview #4

Another of Romeo Blakstorms' superb interviews has been posted today. This time CEO of The Tuskers Ka Jolo goes under the spotlight.

Read all about it here

Tusker Interview #3

Romeo Blakstorm, fellow Tusker has posted another in his series of interviews with The Tuskers Corporation members, this time his interview is with yours truly.

I heartily recommend you read the interviews over at LIFE AMONG THE PIRATES. The Romance and the Reality.

Topping the Campaign boards

I'll start by saying, what a week! Achieving 30 kills in a single week and all solo has got to be good going.

- 10 Pods
- 9 Frigates
- 3 Cruisers
- 2 Battlecruisers
- 2 Destroyers
- 2 Noobships
- 1 Industrial
- 1 Interceptor

All these kills have now put my on top of our current campaign scores & kills, sure I may not stay top scorer for long but getting there for me is probably a one-off that I'm really pleased to have done. Ordinarily amongst such successful pvpers I don't stand a chance of getting to the top of weekly scorers or killers. I would like to get 100 kills in the campaign, just as a personal objective. Thats going to be tough to achieve though.

I've had my share of losses this week too though, lost a ship to a POS (don't ask!) and lost a couple in fights with a Republic Fleet Firetail, the first fight saw us both bumping into a station and getting screwed over. The second fight at a planet was totally epic, my Rifter tanking over 6000 damage during the fight. It came down to a fight over Structure which I lost. I believe following talking to the Firetail pilot after the fight that his ship had faction/deadspace fittings so that makes me feel somewhat better, it was such a close fight though.

My alt I mentioned last week has been doing well for me with her trading in Rens, up to 37.5m ISK profit for me now which is very pleasing. I have also taken out a 21 day trial account to see if I can make a decent amount of ISK in those 21 days through mission running for around an hour per day. Currently the trial character has a net worth of around 18m so things are looking good, at the end of the 21 days all ISK will go back to the Darkblade crime family.

I'm going to stop posting about each fight, at least for this week as it would take too long and you probably aren't that interested in the more mundane ones. Thus I am going to select my personal highlights from the week. Although I have bagged two more Battlecruisers they were really easy kills so don't deserve any further mention.

First Interceptor Kill
This was the pilot of the Caracal last week who had wanted revenge on me but got ganked in the process. We danced around the system a while and whilst i could get to his location he was reluctant to engage me. He said that me chasing him worried him because he thought I knew I could kill him. After several meetings he jumped system with me hot in pursuit and again we danced around the system. Eventually though he engaged me and was doing a nice job of orbitting and keeping range slowing eating my shields. I decided to attempt to break orbit with some manual pilots and overheating of my mids, well it worked and i caught him just enough to shut down his MWD, it was quickly game over from there.

Smacky Pilots
I've had the misfortune this week to run into some pilots who felt the need to smacktalk in local following loss of their ship or indeed during the fight. I am a Tusker and I will not rise to it, though it has to be said that if you smacktalk me don't expect to have the offer of a Pod ransom. Here follows the rollcall of shame:

1 - Kreagan Longstrider
2 - Tysirus Hayden

Dual Rifters
The last time I fought two Rifters I died without killing either, yesterday however I fought a couple and killed both and podded one (who couldn't afford the ransom). The fight was also pretty comfortable for me, meaning no disrespect for my opponents. No overheating or micromanagement was required. I take this to mean that my specialisation in Matari Frigate combat is starting to pay off.

Why does EVE captivate me so?

Welcome to this special installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by myself, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to me. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

When you’ve been roaming New Eden as long as I have, it almost feels like home. That’s how familiar it has become over the last 5 years. Not that I have done everything or touched every aspect of this most amazing of virtual world, far from it, but it just feels as though it’s always been there. And always will be.

Whether you’ve logged into the game every day since its launch in 2003, or you’ve taken one or several sabbaticals from your capsuleer career, you’ve always come back to New Eden don’t you. Why is that?

We know the EVE Online Community is unique in so many ways, and that EVE Online is like no other MMORPG out there. But what makes the game special for you?

What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see a continuous growth in its subscriber.

To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?

The Contest

Write an article letting us know why you love this game so much and get a chance to win one of these 10 amazing prizes courtesy of CCP Games!

* 1st Place: $100 in EVE Store merchandise
* 2nd Place: $50 in EVE Store merchandise
* 3rd and 4th Place: $25 in EVE Store merchandise each
* 5th through 10th Place: a 14-day EVE time pass each

The Prizes

$200 in EVE Online Store merchandise and six 2-week EVE time codes

The Rules

I’ll be judging your articles based on their quality, structure, approach, originality. Other criteria are as follows:

* Contest is open from now until Sunday January 31st 11:59 PM EDT, 2010
* Submit your article (title and URL) in the comments below, before the contest expires. I will be using the date and time of your comment as the time stamp for the contest.
* No offensive or racist language will be allowed.
* You will need to link back to this post in your article introduction, as in typical EVE Blog Banter fashion.
* The winners will be announced on February 5th, 2010.

Why does EVE captivate me so?
It hardly seems like it was nearly six months ago that Kirith graduated as a Capsuleer and set out to make a name for himself out there in the big black void of space. His sponsor through the academy an established Capsuleer who shall remain anonymous who is also a good friend OOG had convinced me to give the EVE 21 days trial a shot.

Equipped with a small amount of isk a great desire to be an elite Frigate pilot I started out in Rifters mostly Meta 2 fit. With only the basic skills to fly and fit a Meta 2 pvp fit Rifter I moved onto Learning Skills for what seemed a very long time. I tried out Faction Warfare as I deemed my skills too low for solo pvp but that fell flat on its nose as it was loads of talk in chat for next to zero action. I wasn't in Faction Warfare for more than a few days before deciding to bite the bullet and attempt to sail the seas of Low-sec space.

The day I made that decision I entered an area of space I had idenfied as a good base of operations, only a single large pirate alliance (M34N) in the locality and otherwise pretty quiet with a number of adjoining high sec systems. Kirith hasn't left Low-sec since, so that will give you an indication of how much I felt at home here. Sure I send the hauler alt out for supplies into high-sec but Kirith now is a permanent Low-sec resident. My first day was a baptism of fire, and brought about my first ship loss. Undaunted I reshipped and set out to build some combat experience.

Initially while I trained my learning skills kills were very hard to get, but not impossible and at the same time those I got were incredibly rewarding and served to give me huge gains in tactics, ranges and target acquisition skills. Once I started to build my combat skills the kills came in thicker and faster and my confidence built where I would go after bigger fish. Today I don't have huge numbers of SP, only 8-9m, but those that I have are all focussed around Minmatar Frigate combat and mean that I have a good chance against characters far older than I, take a chance and you never know what you can accomplish. Sure I lose ships but that all part of learning.

It's this ability for a character who is very young and by other MMO standards "low-level" to take on someone older or "higher level" in ships that may be bigger, better equipped and far more expensive than my own and stand a chance and indeed many times walk away with a victory that is one of the facets that makes EVE so brilliant and utterly different from other MMO's that I have played.

Recently I took the decision to apply to the The Tuskers and I was very pleased to be accepted, I have not looked back since. Without a doubt the community and team spirit and cameraderie within the Corp take the game to a whole new level from flying Solo and is something that I haven't experienced in any other game on any platform. I am sure that this of course is the same in other Corps but is yet another reason why I feel I am here to stay with EVE.

Yet again comparing EVE to other MMO's, at least in terms of pvp in no other game is pvp so brutal in terms of its consequences, sure in World of Warcraft you die in pvp but then your repsawn and get back into the fight and there is very little consequence, Get killed in EVE and were talking the potential loss of ships it's taken you weeks/months or even years to buy and fly. If this concept was applied to Warcraft I guess the equivalent to an EVE pvp ship loss and podding would be losing all of your gear and dropping back 10 levels.

All my experience in EVE to date has been in Rifters. There is whole raft of ships for me to fly and this doesn't even scratch the surface of the many other aspects of the game I haven't even tried or perhaps thought about or even know exist.

The scope of this game is enormous. Yes sir, EVE is here to stay and I plan to stay here with it!

o7

How Jump Clones Work (For newbs like me)

The Tuskers have a couple of bases of operation in the galaxy and I also have my "home" system which I'm fond of so I thought it would be great if I could easily avoid travelling ~40 jumps to get there, then another ~40 back should I choose. The answer; Jump Clones

For a few days I have been looking at Jump Clones and their workings. I was loosely aware before doing some research into the subject of what they were for, but had no idea how to get them, set them up and use them. Well now I think I have worked it out (please let me know if any of this is incorrect and I'll change it).

- You need to have trained the skill Infomorph Psychology to at least level I. Level I lets you have one jump clone, level V lets you have five jump clones.

- To get jump clones, you or your corporation need to have standings of 8.0 or better with the owners of a station which offers cloning services.

- You need 100,000isk for each jump clone you wish to purchase.

By far the easiest way to get the standings for jump clones is to join the Corporation "Estel Arador Corp Services", which is free. This corp has excellent standing in many parts of the galaxy. To join this corp you need to:

* Right click your portrait in the local chat frame and select "Quit Corporation" then "Remove all roles & grantable roles".

* Wait 24 hours for the roles to clear.

* Apply to join "Estel Arador Corp Services". You can find them using People & Places -> Corporation search -> Estel Arador Corp Services -> Right click & show Info -> Apply to join

Once you are a member of EACS:

1 Check out the list of stations here: Linky
2 Fly to the station you want to install a jump clone in.
3 Click on the Medical Bay
4 Choose the right hand jump clones tab
5 Select install
6 Confirm the payment of 100,000isk
7 If you want more jump clones, fly to another station from the list and repeat steps 2-7. You cannot install 2 jump clones in the same station.

You can use the clones as soon as they are installed, but can only clone jump once every 24 hours. Each jump clone is initially devoid of implants, though you can install them and they retain them as normal until podded. You can only install the implants when the jump clone is "active". You don't need to keep the jump clone in the station that it is initially installed in, it works just like your normal clone and you fly around just as normal and can leave it wherever you choose. NEVER however clone jump from one clone to the other in the same station as one will be destroyed and lose implants.

Once you have your required number of jump clones, it's time to re-join your normal Corp and go about your business.

I have trained Infomorph Psychology to III and this is how I will deploy the clones:

Undisclosed System : Heimatar
Undisclosed System : Molden Heath
Undisclosed System : Verge Vendor

With these in place and appropriate ships and modules at their locations I can jump around as I see fit and avoid making any (more) silly mistakes getting out of a camped station by simply clone jumping somewhere else. I'll also have a mobile clone which I haven't found a home for, Jita perhaps!

I haven't done all of the above yet, I'm waiting on role cooldown before joining EACS and I still don't have the hardware in place in Molden Heath yet (nor the isk to put it there).

November Character Review etc

First, apologies for no posts for a few days.

I'm now a Tusker, granted I haven't been online for more than an hour or so since becoming one but OOG commitments have prevented this and it's something that I hope to remedy in the coming days, weeks & months. I have a lot of reading up and setting up to do. Setting up of channels, Ventrillo etc and reading up on the forums of anything and everything (within reason) that I can. I'll be heading back to forums after making this entry to keep on reading as I beleive that I should at least be upto speed before doing anything else.

Next, the eagle eyed amongst you will notice that my bounty has gone (/me sad panda). It happened the evening that I dropped my Tuskers application in, exiting the station I found it camped by a Devoter, Harbinger & Moros. The first time I managed to redock and in hindsight I should probably have logged off and tried later, but I tried a second time and was bumped out of the docking area and nuked to oblivion, my Pod was locked super fast too and again think I was bumped away from docking, in the blink of an eye I was back in Aralgrund station with no implants. Fortunately I only lost a cheap mix of +1 & +2's, but I can't afford to replace right now so it is irritating. Part of the reason I beleive I lost the Ship and Pod is that I was trying for the first time to use my desktop PC to play EVE after I had recently upgraded the memory. It just can't handle EVE aswell as my laptop and lags too much, thus I doubt i'll be trying that again for anything but safe runs on my hauler.

So, as I mentioned in a previous entry I intend every month to post a short character review on Kirith. Kirith to date after taking learning skills to optimal for the "Rifter plan" has been building a solid base of skills to support his Rifters, this is a plan that will continue to be followed so long as my willpower stands. It's massively long at nearly 440 days total but I don't beleive that Minmatar Frigate skills can be improved much/at all beyond that and the skills picked up will of course benefit hugely when stepping into different hulls in the distant future. Here's a pie chart of Kirith's skill spilt as at a few minutes ago:


Currently Kirith is training: Acceleration Control IV

Tempted to apply to the Tuskers

I have to say I am very tempted at the moment to apply to the Tuskers. Many of the bloggers that I follow are applying there, and I have oft been tempted to apply before. The only factor deterring me from applying has been voice comms, which I have mentioned in a prior blog post. Well times change and it now has become a possibility for me to don a headset and join TS/Vent. I daresay that throughout the course of today I'll make my decision on whether to apply or not.