Monday, December 24, 2012

War!

The past week haven't been that pretty. I hear 450M is the weekly contract. Yet we're getting wardecked from to day onwards.

We don't expect it to hold up, after all they are mostly griefers looking for easy kills with great killboard stats. But that's not really going to happen.
Of course if I undocked a hulk on a daily basis as I've been doing for a while with Concord to protect and serve. They would have it their way.

But I'm not going to do that. Not sure what I'll do, but mining sounds like a no go. Of course the rest of my fleet fellows are unaffected, and will continue as usual and promise to include me as possible.

All this isn't something overly new. Since the expansion I've noticed an increase in griefer ganks. The last one I encountered I had a minor chat with. He was coming from test so intelligence wasn't something I expected in the first place. But anyhow here's his perspective:

He wants a 1B bounty on his head. the means to do so is to miner gank in Highsec.

He was flying 2 destroyers (I suspect him of having an alt on board) mostly T2 fitted.
Of course he was successful in both popping my hulk and the pod. still going back I salvaged a full T2 setup to fit on a Thrasher. (couldn't have been cheap the ammo alone...) 

Having a minor chat I understood he either
a. wasn't aware of the price tag on his riggings
b. was sponsored.
Of course seeing where he comes from that makes sense, but still he could have done so with considerably less expensive equipment.
I was flying a hulk, I ended up taking little under 8k total damage, in 3 strikes.
I was flying in 0.5 so concord was at least 30 seconds to arrive.
So essentially 3 weapons cycles dealing 3k. Raw damage. I'm doing 500 pr salvo using 5 launchers. He was 2 setting my meager skills to do 1k which is 33% of what he did.

Anyway that's not the point. He got a kill mail on my hulk around 200M, losing 2x 25m that's only 150 for a barge kill. Not very effective in my book, guess they let anyone in to Test now a days.

He's not going to take my focus any longer anyhow.
My point is that this behaviour is becoming prevalent. Since the expansion I've seen the take down of 5 Exhumers. That's alot. and it's not exactly cheap, yet it's still within coverage I hear. But then again if we gather 400M pr week, we can drop an exhumer pr week and still make a profit.
For now I'm in a mack (it's cheaper, yet even more boring then a hulk. But let's see, if we're to relocate during Christmas also let's see.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Getting there.

So another week has passed.
I'm starting to gather the mining fleet intell, as I'm now being an active part of that fleet I figure I should atleast get paid a decent part share of the "loot".

So this weeks intell was 445 million for 56 million units of minerals coming from the usual 2,5 million m3's of random high sec ore + rat loot.
I want to get a system up and running for that I believe.

So the system we're at currently is as I might have mentioned before, high trafic, good selection of belts, but also high miner density. That's all fine except you from time to time run into the belt raiders that have removed all traces of ore in a 2 jump radius. Also talking to friends, I hear that Caldari Ice products are in higher demands then Amarr.
So I guess we'll be pulling roots eventually.
We finished in nice time this week so I actually had time to mission run a bit. And as with the belt rats, I do notice I have an issue dealing with things that eat up drones.
The Caracal has a 10m3 drone bay and as I've fitted it with Heavy missile launcers and a painter I have a problem taking things down like Angel Vipers (Dramiels) They just don't take enough damage vs their repair rate. Sending small drones after them helps but they don't like drones so they are popped fast. But the Salvage drone I like alot. as long as they leave it alone I'm fine. and i get salvage.

Next week includes Christmas times and therefore I must expect a more condensed working hours schedule, we'll see. The fleet in general calls it 2,5 million ore pr. week. and then they provide me with Plex, and thus far mining equipment. I'm told they have a goal of collecting another 0,5 Billion and then they'll have more liquid funds from the operations. Something about treasuries. But that'll be only another week or so. Then maybe I'll get paid directly. Let's see.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Resettlement

So whom of you have had to uproot everything and move on?

I can't remember if i mentioned it in my last post, that my system was camped by gankers, and I've lost 4 hulk in as many days which is kinda unprofitable or sustainable for longer periodes.
And as any carebear, what do you do? you move....

So I've moved. I was looking for a place with amarian Icefields to go Ice mining and setup a business that way, and I found a pretty okay system. (Hey, maybe I didn't do the work, but I can still take credit as noone else are going public anymore)
Trouble seems to be the balance between high trafic, few miners and decent belt counts. (we're talking High sec, as low and Null sec would have different issues).
So there's High traffic, plenty belts within 2 jump radius from base. All is High sec. But we have way too  many miners around. We even seem to have an established ore rapist.
I see often the 2 hulk + an orca fleets swooping down the systems and removing everything within half a day.

But when they are not here everything seems stable. (I forgot to mention they are an alliance). Still the settlement isn't all the jazz I wanted it to be and maybe... Just maybe I can get a steady off loader with Caldari Fuelblocks. Now to find a caldari system that works out?

This means I'll have to resettle again and I hate that as you need to move things, and you most likely need to carry stuff. Plus it's a new place so you will be unfamiliar with teh places you need to know.
Still for me it's vital to aquire the monthly plex, and with the price in an upward trend that seems to never end... You just need MOAR and MOAR.
It's actually kinda interresting to see the market is in constant growth. Everything keeps getting more expencive over time. Maybe I should start some form of statistics on the prices calculated in Trit rather then ISK. Back when a Plex landed on 300 million isk, the Trit price was 3 isk pr unit I seem to know. Currently the price of trit is 5,5-6 isk pr. unit. and say what's the Plex price currently? 550-600 million. Wonder if the index of 100 million trit pr plex could hold up? Would be rather funny, wouldn't it :)

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Not again!!!!


Yep. I did it again last night.
It's actually starting to become a minor problem. I lose my ship to a mission.

So I figured as i do everyday i log in that I'll run a mission or 2 and get some shut eye.
Behold the mission offer: The Blockade.
Payment 500k
Bonus 500k
Timeline, 6 hours.

How hard can it be I've done that mission a bunch of times.
So pack up the Caracal, undock and let's pop some ships. I'd be a little pressed on tanking as it's a L3 using a Cruiser.

Aligning back to station and start popping, forgot drones 10m3's so no biggi. Missiles away. It's pretty with 4 Scourge Heavy missiles firing and flying towards target. Hit... 50% shield on target, hmm not much but I've got time, got 6 hours. And I have range... 50km's. 52 cutting it close, but 50 for sure...
Getting aggroed, sure they're 45-50 m's away, Nation laser boats, short on range. No problem. Another hit, 95-100% shield, nice, grinding it down. It's what i know. It'll work, just take a while, and think it's 4 waves or something of 2x4-6 targets.....

Blam!!!!! I start taking damage, fast... Sure i active shield tank it's still okay, but weird when up against short ranged. Okay, the Booster plus Amplifier can't handle the tanks, so better focus for warp out points....
3rd hit, 20% armour on target 1... hmmmm Okay, I'm at least grinding it down, slowly but vs. the damage to Caracal I won't take more then 2, maybe 3 per warp. Well it's better then nothing and persistence pays out.
Bounty, reward and bonus, thinking 5-10M but it'll take time.

Grinding away, 6th. salvo or so and the first pops, but and got the Dmg under control . Start working on the next target, best to pop the frigates first, they are plentyfull and fast. 3 salvos and one more pops. 3rd. 4th, and I'm going into armor, so warp out.... That was alot of reds????
Dock up, fix boat, using armor rep to keep the costs down., reenter the fray...
Okayyyy, now we have had reinforcements i suppose, and Local tells me single wave, but from 4 pops, right must have taken down a full wing I guess, so we're now at 10-12 rather then 8.... Hmmm should still be doable.... Align.... WTF!!!!! 75% shield left with tank running? Right, target range? hmmm 20km's on average, okay. Short range, they hurt when in your face. Borg it down and pick off a target...
Righ frigate, gone, warp out, rep the armor again. Just had to manage the 3rd salvo to kill it before warp and it's what the armor is fore right...

Back in the fray, this time, warp in 100km's off site, range it what's working on Caracals....
There's so we're now at 15-16 target's erhhh why?
Ohh they're sending the third wave, even though I've only picked off some 60% of the first.

I've got range I'll manage... hmmm, that's tough one. 5 salvos to get the shields... And... 10% armor pr salvo? with 15% repper?. okay, that'll need more firepower somehow, problem for later.
Picking off targets...got 2, maybe 3 and it's time, watch out for the structure....

Back into it. Better warp to spot as they are now at the 100km mark...
Works fine, I close on them fast but it's okay, picking off an extra frigate, last one actually.
Warp back to station, recharge shields, back to 100.

OUCHHH, 25% shield left once aligned to station, hoping to drop 2nd. salvo before warping. and WTF with all the reds??? 25-30? too many to count under pressure.
I'll need a battle barge...

Got a friend flying a Coercer laser boat, fast as hell, and the damage to go with it. tanking like a bull. She's old so I guess it's a skill issue. Call her up, have her log in and save my arse.
Spending the remaining time optimizing damage output and Tanks with current skill set:
This seems a lot better on paper...
Slower, higher DPS, and better tank (passive)

undock, warp, engage.
hmmm seems wonderfull, maybe I can actually pull it off?
Pop one, warp, pop 1, maybe 2, warp. Seems to be working just keep it up, it's an insane amount of flashing reds though...
Then it happens, she's 3 jumps out and we strike convo, I get stuck in the structure. it takes atleast 15 seconds to bypass that. I last 5. Great... Lost ship... Well. Close to market hub, and I have the reciepe, and I'll need a boat later on so let's go shopping.

________________________________________________
                        1           6.400.000,00          6.400.000,00Caracal
                        5              440.000,00          2.200.000,00'Malkuth' Heavy MissileLauncher
                        2           1.354.984,01          2.709.968,02Ballistic Control System II
                        1              806.778,97              806.778,97 Large Shield Extender II 
                        1           1.703.998,00          1.703.998,00Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
                        1           2.391.998,84          2.391.998,84EM Ward Field II
                        1           1.297.564,00          1.297.564,00Thermic Dissipation Field II
                5.000                   1.144,99          5.724.950,00Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
                                  -  
 Total         23.235.257,83
______________________________________________


Fleet  up and let's go once more, notice the Faction missiles for extra umpfhh

Sure this works, we even got that hard Hellhound thing to drop, took awhile but it died.
That no so great part being that it seems every time we pop one red, a new wave appears...
Still it's under control.
Then I get stuck in the structure once more.

Result: Ragequit

I simply shut down the client, haven't spoken to my friend yet, so don't know if she survived. But ARGHHHH! Just assembled the best boat I could, pooled all my cash into it, teamed up and went L3 mission grinding and we got FUBAR'ed.
I'm Done. Feed up, dirt poor, noticed the Plex price is now 525 ish millions rather then 475 ish.
I'm gonna get me a covetor or at least train for it next. Not going missioning again until I'm in a drake.
So mining here we go. zzzZzzZZzzZZzzZZzzZZZ....
It works and it's safe....

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Ups, I did it again.


Sorry for the wait, summertime tends to be offline time sooo.

I've lost the Cruiser.... Again...Sleeping.... Again....

Yep, it happens. Mission grinding isn't really that exciting and with my already pretty long hours it happens that I fall asleep during warp. Pretty stupid feeling you get when you realize that you've arrived but you're now in a pod. But hey I remember wrongly.

The last cruiser wasn't lost to sleep it self, rather I lost it as I was pushing it... You know that mission where there's a juicy target that with skill and caution you can just do it? Well, don't throw caution to the wind then... I seriously hate it when you see your shield and 50% armor go *puff* in a single volley before you've aligned to anything. Most likely you already know there that the ship is lost, yet still you hang on to the hope that you'll make it out.....

You feel exceptionally stupid when you return in a ligther setup to retrieve the valuable loot, especially as you get instapopped when you arrive...

How often have you been sitting there with an evil look in the eyes stirring at your freshly conjured pod?
Grinding and proberbly also in many other fields, you already know before you see the pod that this is bad, and it's your fault. Maybe not directly, but in the end it's your fault. You made the stupid choise, be it on false information (you choose to trust), griefing players (You choose to trust, or didn't prepare for), Stupid fleet members that do stupid things like activating smartbombs in tigth formations (You didn't leave the fleet).

Rarely have I ever heard of anyone being a trust victim in eve, sure I hear the noob tears flowing, and the salt  of frechly grinded carebears that doesn't get it.

Maybe this is way I like Eve so much. You take responsibility or you die/remove your self from the game. Sure you can always blame someone for your demise, you can even whine and bitch about it.
Any veteran here would know that this doesn't ever help your case, infact it's worsening from your tears, which is a common priced dish served quite often in Eve.

Sometimes I'd love to see that attitude manifest in the real world. And there's alway only one solution. Back on that horse.


Ohhh, you want the kill mails, i know it:

2012.08.20 01:27:00

Victim: Maxx Loproc

Damage Taken: 11938

Involved parties:

Name: Mercenary Commander / Unknown (laid the final blow)
Damage Done: 11938

Destroyed items:

'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28 (Cargo)
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Ballistic Control System II (Cargo)
Power Diagnostic System II (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28 (Cargo)
Kinetic Deflection Amplifier II (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Hobgoblin I (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28 (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28 (Cargo)
Green Arisite, Qty: 34 (Cargo)
Acolyte I (Cargo)
Medium Shield Booster II (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28 (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 5945 (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Ionic Field Accelerator I (Cargo)
Medium Subordinate Screen Stabilizer I (Cargo)
Small Standard Container (Cargo)

And as I was on a mining mission and needed to retrieve the ore, I went to pickup the loot:

2012.08.20 01:44:00

Victim: Maxx Loproc

Damage Taken: 1859

Involved parties:

Name: Mercenary Commander / Unknown (laid the final blow)
Damage Done: 1859

Destroyed items:

Adaptive Invulnerability Field I (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Cargo)
Medium Subordinate Screen Stabilizer I (Cargo)
Green Arisite, Qty: 47 (Cargo) !!!!Mission objectives!!!
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 6001 (Cargo)
Expanded Cargohold II (Cargo)
Expanded Cargohold II (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Small Tractor Beam I (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Suppressed Targeting System I (Cargo)
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I (Cargo)
Medium Shield Booster II (Cargo)
Expanded Cargohold II (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28 (Cargo)
Ionic Field Accelerator I (Cargo)
Acolyte I (Cargo)
Gneiss, Qty: 1953 (Cargo)

Man you feel stupid when you start aligning an half blasted iteron where you just lost a combat cruiser....

At any rate getting the tool back (mission grinding cruiser) I luckyly had my original fitting designs, just needed to fetch everything scatteret all over + I had some improvement ideas.
This is the end design with a few modifications as I'm not done with Shield Management 5 yet and so on:


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The urge to do everything at once.


We all know the sensation that there's something just over the hill that we absolutely need to try out. In the current day and age we are often confronted with additional drives to make us want something specific.

Yes this is mainly Eve-online centric, but I'm still going to touch mainly on general life stuff, using Eve-Online specific themes..

Those that have followed, knows I'm here to suit up a battleship and whore away at Level 4 missions to maintain an ISK stream sufficient to have the Plex's coming each month.
Those of you playing the game for more then 3 weeks should know that simply suiting up won't cut it.
It's all about skills and getting the basic under your belt, yet the basics are exactly that. The basics...

I at some point, detailed in an previous post I had and have plans to hit a mining Barge on the way, as mining seems like a nice middle point in income generation, and the path to fly it isn't that long, least you have to hit the Hulk which is a few months. But some 12 days or so and I'll have perfect skills to fly the Covetor.
And I was nicely on my way.
Filling the void of waiting time, I've been running missions and to do that somewhat effectively you'll need the Social skill tree, I didn't plan to go for the advanced stuff, but at least having Negotiation and Social and Networking. Much to my dismay I haven't maxed them out as Level 4 is a good point and you don't get that much more from the extreme additional training time from level 4 to level 5, after all it's some 2-3 weeks per skill, and the yield is some 5% or likewise. And it doesn't quite help me getting in that Battleship. Set aside the money and standing gains from the higher level agents.
Now a side effect of training those skills is the fact you gain access to the higher level agents faster.
Flying Cruisers and only having the medium Armor tanking skills of a Gallente with okay drones skills but nothing special and the Hybrid small guns you can imagine I'm getting quite useless above L2 missions (sec), yet of course I give it a shot at the L3's as I now have access.

As mentioned awhile back Next step up would be a drake that I've already have a decent fit for and I believe that will carry me just inside the L4 mission group, but with some trouble considering it's low damage output. But I don't think it's that huge a step from Drake to Navy Raven or even a Marauder, biggest issue will be getting shields into place, which I'm working at now.

Having flow a Thorax and a Vexor for a while they seemed like little to no match for the harder L3 Missions and I got my arse whipped several times and trust me the income come doesn't not warrant that frequent ship replacement. also I started noticing my hybrid + drones skills combined with my tendency to be cheap. Just didn't cut it. Thinking my next logical step anyhow was to get into the Caracal or Moa I received as birthday present, I simply loaded up and I've been in a Caracal for a while now.
Quite interesting to fly a missile boat again.
Of course my desired fit is riddled with T2 fittings which isn't as expensive as you imagine, and way more effective, with the Launcher being very specific and rare, thus rather costly.

All this puts me at the dilemma any noob faces with eve.

There's always the next thing you wanna do, and finishing off what ever you've gotten yourself into at the moment is taking it's time.
In most games you'd simply grind it down and complete it and have your perfect Epeen, but with eve things are tied into real time consumption so there's not cutting the corners. If you choose to do something that will take time, real time. Something you can't buy or shortcut in anyway. This often puts people off, yet I like it s you don't have to deal with the people that doesn't have a life and thus have no concept that time it self is of value to someone.

So what does all that have to do with real life stuff, after all it's game stuff, rigth?
Well, sure. In eve the valued currency is in nature time. That's the only thing you can't conjure from nothingness. In real life money, the greens tend to be the thing you always need more of and you can't simply conjure forth from the nothingness.
In both cases it's what is needed to cover the cost of things you really want. and the lack of it tends to be the limiter of what you have/can do.
The thing that forces you to make choices. as you can't have/do everything.
Sound familiar?

What choices do you have to deal with?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Griefers


I went home yesterday with a warm fuzzy feeling after writing my progress blog.

And I went home, well to do my usual house stuff, then to settle down and run some mining for 2-3 hours, and head for bed, well knowing I was on the right track.

The Eve-Online did what Eve-Online does best:
Kick you in the face, spit on you, talk a bit of trash, and kick you in the groin, before starting to laugh about your struggles. Lovely.
Within the MMO universe this behaviour is referred to as griefing. In the real world it's referred to as sociopathic behaviour.

In most games you can just reload and the individual is gone and you don't really need to deal with the person, or you can report them for harassment.

In the real world and in Eve, that's not really an option. The world doesn't really revolve around you, no matter what you are told. So basically you are being bullied, but what can you do about it.
Well you can stand and fight or you can walk away.

Personally I walk away. Fighting is too resource demanding and brings me no joy. I might retain my place, but that hold no value to me. Compared to the resources needed to throw a fight. (Plus these folks tend to thrive on the fight and beating them up with give them pleasure).

It throws a dent in my plans for the 1 million cubic meters for this week, but I have friends, and friends help out when the need is great enough + you've done your own part first.

But back to sociopaths:
Most people hate Eve-online because they are present in fair shares. In fact they aren't blocked from doing their stuff. And personally I'd hate to see something done actively.
As in the real world, going to a bar you might run into what i call an idiot. Someone basically there to pick a fight. Should someone remove this person from existence, just because he's a jerk?
No. Course, who'd be next, and who's to judge the subtle lines?

What I in these situations where I'm being griefed and start to resettle/move on, I wonder why...
Why does anyone have a basic urge to inflict struggle upon someone else, to course suffering in some form.
To my minds eye there's the kid with the anthill and a spyglass. Burn, burn, burn, but why the need to make the ants burn. As usual I start imagine the ants gathering in great formation and teaching the boy a lesson of violence . It never happens because the ants just move to another spot.
There's very few corners in a world after all.

I'd love to see a few comment on this. Everybody has experience with griefing either via a game or in fact in the real world., Childhood tend to be a rich source for it. Please share.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Progress


It's been awhile with no updates.
And that's mainly as I had to resettle.

I started out getting help raising fund, mining. and we choose a 0.9 system relatively close to the starter systems. at the time it seems a good I idea, as i could use most of the time running L3 Missions while someone else simply gathered minerals to refine and sell on the spot.

Quickly it turned into a can-flipping fest. My friend was used to mining big ops and with that you have haulers and protectors, so jet-canning  was something timed for can recycle of one can with a 5 minute stamp, and it would be picked up eventually.

Close to the starter systems can-flipping is more common and loads of income was lost this way. With usual apathy. But I needed to raise above an income pr. hour to keep things going. And I would end up having to focus solely on hauling to deal with the problem.
Also that wouldn't really be an option either when I got around to barge mining. I really would want to care for mining with anything less. and I'm not far from the covetor now, think Mining upgrades, and Barge are the last 2 books (and Astrogeology 5).

Anyway, for the the target is set at 1 million m3 pr week, and I've acquired a Stations vault for easy measure. I usually attend 5 days a week, meaning 200.000 m3 pr session, and I'd like to sleep. So supporting until 3 in the morning isn't an option. But current installations seems to provide well 75k pr. hour meaning 3 hours of focus will do if we keep it up, less once I get a barge (more if I need to do it on my own).

For the number freaks:
First week of June gave 500k highsec ore, refined and sold = 85 Millions (Rough numbers).
Last week here gave 1M of Sec 0.6 ore, and we didn't dent the system much, refined and sold = 180M
Current balance = 315M, Current estimated plex price < 500M.
2 weeks left of june to provide 185M meaning 95M isk pr. week should carry.
I'll try and maintain the 1.000.000 m3 quote of ore, with any surplus being carried over to next week.






















Hmmm, this is hard to read, I must find better display options.
But it's what I'm told to be the default Exhumer / Barge setup, and it makes some sense to me. Yet I don't like the survey scanner and would love to put something else there, but I fail to find anything that will fit. Same goes with the riggings, I don't have the skills for it, but is it worth rigging a vessel like that?

With Hulkagedon continuing forever, hulks aren't really something I'd consider flying before being a Billionaire, and that's not going to happen soon.

What scares me the most is how quickly I fall into the miners role, I keep telling my self it's just while I build the skills for a navy raven able to spew missiles spam. As Curzon Daxx sings it. Yet fact remains that mining at this point seems more of a reliable source of steady income with little to no risk, that even during hulkagedon. And it's not like I even venture low sec or the like. Trouble is that it's just and only isk. Nothing but isk, you don't acquire standing. The coms tend to be quit. Looking at the CAS corp channel that might even be a blessing.

That must begin as my next project, socialization. Wonder if joining a corp would be a good thing. Yet from experience, I need to cover the cost of my account first. With the mantra : Don't expect to bring back what you undock. Undocking from CAS could be expensive.
Come to think of it, mission whoring??? what respectable corp would seek people for that. CAS is safe..
Anyway that must become next project. First off I'll need the Covetor undocked.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hanging out in corp channel.



With my toon "Maxx Loproc" I break my usual RPG style of gaming and will build the social infrastructure on something real. But time has changed since I started online socialization back in the 90's. Yet I note the same things all over.
I've seen corps/guilds whittle and die with great people as the social structure was way to fixed or too demanding for the individual. Yet dropping the intense need to socialize moves the people further apart.

Last week I went corp shopping, doing as all noobs would do: Follow the advise of the veterans so go join the recruit channel...
It took me 30 minutes tops to land a corp that where interested. I joined, was there for 2 days before getting kicked. No reason why, but i assume it had to do with he fact they ran Wednesday mining ops in the middle of my workday. Yea timezones can be hard on you. And I didn't attend + I had some RL issues to deal with so I had relative little in-game time, thing I made 4 hours in that corp channel...

Well realizing my failure to fit in, I simply looked in the adds. Top add was a Swedish corp, (I took my timezone + missioning as interests). Relatively few guys, meaning some 35 ish members. Well that's nothing new to me. And I usually see a few in the corp channel at the start of my evening. Great bunch really, but I thus far haven't really connected. And it made me speculate last night if I should go seek different corps yet.

The answer is no. I'm slow to get on-board, and I haven't provided for the corp yet, proven my worth if I am worth anything. Remember I need to collect 500M pr. month to keep the Plex going. Lucky I have some old connections to help out. As my income is still miserable. 1M pr day is a high average, but time will change...

I can't help but to compare it to my entry to Google+.
At the moment it's so silent and/or irrelevant, but the concept makes me believe I'll receive more content, and later on the right content, and that it'll bring me more interaction in forms that are more social then the current one-way stream.
But as with google and knowing my settlement issues, I keep fearing I land the wrong place.

Do you know that feeling of being utterly misplaced, that's what most of my socialization attempts are like.
Anyway still much work ahead, and little changes. But still I think, and thus ramble.
Thanks for reading.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Path to ruin or redemtion


So this will be my first blog written on a slate. As always notice labels for clues on content.

After some 2 weeks of grinding it, mostly thanks to a friend I've gotten hold of my 2nd plex and of course activate it so I now have valid pilot license until 13th of august. My friend I called upon rather quickly once I saw that gathering those 500 million as required for PLEX these days was a very long shot. My income potential is less then 10 million pr. hour following the relatively secure path of L4 grinding.
First of I can barely fly a cruiser, sure a cruise helps. when you fly it prober. For this past week or so I've had a focus of building rail gun power and pushing the drone skills. Yes, I'm gallente. I did consider Caldari for a very long time, but they don't really pay off until the drake now do they. Especially if compared to the relative flexibility of drones.
As a matter of fact I've already forked way to wide. I'm building the skills for the Drake, meaning missiles and torps, mixed with the drones. It'll be nice. Starting to have fair armor tanking skills, and if I get my shield skills up there, I'll be alrigth.

Currently I'm running L3, I can manage those solo still so not all bad. The income is of course still way too low.
To counter this I've started my Hulk training. It migth just be the market at the moment, yet my friend seems able to generate the needed cash via roughly 2,5 hours of semi daily Hulk mining.
Decent cashout with little to no risk, at the moment it sounds like the best option. I know from reading market and spreadsheets that it's a half decent low/stable income. But using it to sustain a PLEX flow to keep aloft would take a lot of hours. L4 is still relatively safe but the income is potentially much better, not to speak of the standing gains. Of course I run the full palette, I like being able to setup shop anywhere I choose. All I need now is some 60 days and the cash, Hulks are not free.

This will be all for now, next I'll examine the proposed Drake builds, their strengths and weakness, guessing I should be heading for Navy Raven as everyone swears by.....