Author: Morphisat

Corp Free For All

Last night Hidden Agenda had their every so monthly – free for all, ‘last man standing’ tournament. These are always a lot of fun. For some people their first pvp experience, and even though they tend to die a little faster, they seem to enjoy it quite a bit.

Belautis entered for me, in her trusty punisher.

punisher1

As you can see, I made a bit of a speed setup, as last time I couldn’t keep up with some people and got shot from a distance. Unfortunately it turned out I didn’t really need the speed. I disposed of one incursus but then got ZenGen on my back, also in a punisher. I couldn’t break his tank, but he slowly broke mine. At the end I had five people on me though, and even a punisher can’t take that much punishment.

Round two should have been a cruiser free for all, but we had to redo the frig one, as some people warped to the wrong place and started battling there ;). I still had an incursus in my hangar equipped with 125mm guns and a hobgob and decided to give that one a try. It lasted much longer than expected but I went down to two people, though I did take a rifter with me.

incursus

The punisher seemed to do very well do, I think 3 of the last 4 standing were flying one, especially due to it’s very well tanking capabilities.

The cruiser free for all didn’t last that long, my arbitrator couldn’t kill a maller fast enough, although it was a decent one on one fight. At least so I thought, there were a few other people on the killmail as well. Vexors did very well here as you can devote a lot of it’s power and cpu to tanking as they use drones for weapons.

All in all a fun thing to do for a corporation activity !

Planetary Interaction on Sisi

2010.03.13.11.27.09

As you can see in the above screenshot I have placed a command center on a planet and build some structures that extract isotopes and aluminum. No skill were needed or anything, I am not sure whether that will stay this way, but that’s how it is on the test server now. You just have to be in the same system as the planet and you can tinker with the plant stuff right off the bat.

The ui seems to be a bit clumsy at the moment, which was to be expected. And ofcourse we only have one devblog to go by, I hope a somewhat decent wiki page will be there once this goes live, since I didn’t have too much of a clue of what I was doing.

But after some trial and error I got some stuff setup. It seems to be rather passive at the moment, like moon mining on planets. And you can create NPC goods like nanite paste in a factory. All you need to do is put those structures down and link them up to the command center. There is no costs associated with the structures at the moment and they do appear out of thin air. No blue prints or anything needed.

One hint: you can click on the resources on the left side like Helium Isotopes and the planet turns blue with 3 striped spots (you’ll know what I mean when you see them) here and there. Those are the spots where you need to put the extractors in order to get the most of ‘em, I assume.

As you can see it’s all a bit rudimentary at the moment, a more flashed out version will be published on Sisi in three weeks, but so far it seems like a fun thing to play around with and earn you some isk. Once Dust 514, I am sure it will be even more interesting ;).

Corp Hopping

Casiella brought up this issue as Question of the Day on twitter. I thought it was interesting enough to make a blogpost about it.

The big difference with Eve and other mmorpgs (as far as I know, haven’t checked them all) , is that your corporation history is being tracked. Everyone can see what corps your character has been a member of. In warcraft or other similar mmos, there is no record of what guilds you have been a part of. There is a site called http://www.warcraftrealms.com/, that sort of keeps track, but it’s not complete and it’s not in game, so it would take more effort. I don’t know if people use it for the purpose of tracking people down.

The other difference is that there is more at stake in Eve. Also corporate theft is an accepted game mechanic. As far as I know, it’s not in most other mmos. You can steal loot from a guild bank in wow, then type /gquit, and that guilt will loose some items, but in Eve you can ruin the work people have been doing for months or years.

BunnyHopping

The downside of this is that in Eve it can sometimes be pretty hard to find the right corp. When I was looking for a new corp, it took quite some time before I found one that sort of felt right. Also, once you have been a member of a somewhat shady corporation, chances are that even years later people will ask about, and it can throw up a red flag. But corp hopping can happen, especially early on in an Eve career when you’re not sure what you want. Or you joined a corp and it turned out their time zones are different, or they’re just not as fun as you thought it would be.

If you still find yourself corp hopping after quite some time in Eve, you might want to wonder what it is that you want to do. It will probably also make it harder for you to find something else. So be careful with too much hopping, don’t get dozens of corporations in that history ;).

The improved blogpack

In case anyone missed it, there was some upheaval in bubble that is the eve blogosphere / tweetfleet over a post by CrazyKinux on the eve blogpack. He originally wanted to cut it down to 20 ‘elite’ blogs. This resulted in a discussion on twitter and on blogs. Most noticeably was the response by Roc Wieler, which then led to CK stating, he’d pick 50 blogs. I also had a post in the making but decided it wasn’t very good and a bit ranty so I decided to delete it.

Today CK posted the new list ! And I am glad to be still on it. I know this blog isn’t the best or top notch ones out there, but we can’t all be ‘elite’ ;). Some post I make still get quite a few comments, and I try to give a somewhat more critical view on CCP and their decisions. And of course the view from a regular player in Eve. Someone who missions, occasionally mines and goes out on corp ops every now and then.

A must read, also on CK’s site is the history of the blogpack. I was among the very first to be in there, and it sure has come a long way. There are some amazing and very insightful informative ones out there, while others are just fun to read. Make sure you check the rss feed on the right side, and put it in your favorite RSS reader. I like to read some posts on the bus on my android phone while going to work !

The new, improved blogpack By CrazyKinux

Tyrannis

The upcoming (summer ?) expansion was announced in a new devblog. As it was to be expected, it will mainly consists of the ‘tinkering with planets’ sub game that was mentioned at fanfest 2009. Back then we were told that it was sort of sim city like game, a side game you tinker with every time you log on for 10mins or so.

Nothing much more was revealed about the planet subgame, so it leaves more questions than answers. Will there be some sort of limit to how many planets one player can ‘own’ ? Or will the startup costs be the limiting factor ? Will there be a mad gold rush once this thing goes live and will all the ‘good planets’ be taken 30mins after Tyrannis going live ? Will losec planets be better than hisec ones ?

What will be produced on these planets ? How will it tie in with the existing game industry wise ? I hope we’ll get the answers in the upcoming devblogs on the subject.

Another part of the expansion will be Eve Gate. This is what the eve fans have been calling Spacebook. EVE Gate will allow you to interact with EVE through a regular web browser. Sounds like an interesting addition to the game, but not something that really changes or enhances the game. Why it’s agile to change a name I don’t know, but let’s just assume that’s some sort of joke ;).

We are working on other optimizations and improvements throughout the game, as usual with our expansions. A task force is working on reducing fleet fight lag, often working deep into the night chasing action around on TQ, while another team is developing an advanced simulation environment for load testing on our local servers.

Once again something that should just be normal operations for an MMO is being touted as an expansion feature… <mumbles something about marketing speak>.

So what do I think of all this ? While interesting, just the planet subgame seems a bit thin for an expansion. I missed the T3 frigates announcement. I guess that fell by the roadside, or maybe they’re still working on them and they might be announced later.

Van Hemlock Podcast 90

The Vanhemlock podcast by @jonshute and @vanhemlock is an MMO centric one. Or at least started out that way :). Recently it’s been chopped up into two segments. One news episode and one where Jon and Tim go deeper into a specific subject, or they just keep on chatting about what they’re playing !

Why am I mentioning this here ? Well, episode 90 is all about Vanhemlock taking the Agony Unleashed pvp course ! So it’s a must-listen for any Eve Online player.

Van Hemlock podcast episode #90

LoSec Roam

Morphisat never much pvped. Mainly carebearing in HiSec. But Friday night Hidden Agenda had a Low Sec Roam planned, I joined to finally get some pvp action with Morph.

Most of the fleet consisted of Ravens, with a few inties, and some other stuff (a thorax and a drake). There wasn’t much roaming down as on the second gate sat a flashy dreadnought ! Apparently it was in Siege mode, as it tanked very well.

But slowly his shields started to go down. A drake showed up (not quite sure why) that got blown up in the process. Then right on top of the gate we were fighting on, a Thanatos appeared ! We switched our focus on his, and he couldn’t tank all the torps coming in. Slowly but surely he went down. Especially the last few bits off his hull seem to take forever though. Some people had to warp out as they were shot at by fighters as well as the dreadnought, so damage output was starting to get a bit lower.

thanatos

Later on we had another engagement with the dreadnought, but this time he got more help and it was a little bit much, though a support drake went down.

All in a successful op. ! We had a lot of fun. Didn’t expect to see any capitals at all, let alone blow one up ;).

One Year in Hidden Agenda

Today (feb 9th) it’s exactly one year ago, that I joined Hidden Agenda. The corp I was in previously had slowly bled dry. I had been looking for a new corporation for some time on the forums and I might even have joined the recruitment channel a few times. But I didn’t find anything that I fancy. Finding a nice corp that you feel at home with, is pretty hard !

I made a post on this blog asking for suggestions, and I got some. Of those suggestions, there was only one corporation that actually had non-afk people in the public channel and a decent website, and that was Hidden Agenda. It’s things like that that make a good impression on potential members ! After a rigorous background check I was accepted into HA.

Hidden Agenda

Although I haven’t been very active lately, I have had a very nice time in Hidden Agenda the past year. It seems to suit my semi-solo, but sometimes in-company gameplay very well. There are usually plenty of people on, willing to help each other if needed. There are group activities (mining ops, the odd frig tournament, lowsec security runs), but you’re not frowned upon when you do not attend, or miss one.

Hidden Agenda is one of the oldest corporations in Eve. I think the secret to it’s success is the mix of veterans and the influx of new people, who might even be only a few weeks old. Every now and then someone leaves or slowly fades away ofcourse, that’s inevitable. But the active recruitment by some members makes sure the corp keeps it’s freshness and does not slowly bleed to death. Without new players a corp slowly ends up with just a handful of core veterans, and it’s very hard to recruit people by then, because the newcomers will feel like outsiders, and it’s also hard to offer them something.

In Hidden Agenda, new players are offered a lot of advise, they can come along mining (there is bound to be someone out there in a hulk) and raise their mission standings quickly. Also some of the richers members have been known to hand out some goodies to newer or less fortunate corp members. There are a lot of industrialists in the corp, so chances are there is a good deal to be made when you need something.

Lately the corporation has also been exploring Wormholes. I still have to make my way to one of them, but I am sure one of these days I’ll put together a Drake and pay them a visit in unexplored space !

To finish off this post, I’d like to shout out to Ruffio and Cattis and everyone else in Hidden Agenda who made the past year in Eve a fun experience !

Why I Love Eve

But there is more to Eve than meets the eye. It’s the players, the people. The subculture around it.

This time a special Blog Banter with a few prices attached !

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?

At the moment this is a hard question for me to answer. I have only been playing very occasionally the last few months. Once you have done a lot of all the things Eve has to offer, it’s hard to motivate yourself to get back in the game and do those things again. Exploration, mining, production, Factional Warfare PVP, at the moment I have a feeling I have seen it all. I am a bit Eved out. It seems I am not the only one in the blogosphere at the moment (letrange and rettic posted similar thoughts).

All those things I summed up are the plus points of Eve though, so don’t get me wrong. There is a lot to do, to discover, and especially to learn ! But it doesn’t come by itself, the content isn’t slapped in your face, you have to go out and do research and find everything yourself.

But there is more to Eve than meets the eye. It’s the players, the people. The subculture around it. The blogpack, the tweetfleet, and who knows what else ! It keeps you connected to New Eden even when you’re not playing that much.

funny-pictures-your-cat-is-very-concerned

But lately I have also been concerned about the state of the game. Eve’s lack of decent customer service. People with paid for accounts getting locked out and it takes over five days to get a response. The recent server problems and apparent lack of Quality Control on the last patch (the 0.0 part didn’t seem to work to well if I have to believe all the forum whining, although it did shake up 0.0).

The last ‘expansion’ didn’t add a lot to the game, neither Quantum Rise. At least Apocrypha brought wormholes and T3 ships, but for some reason I don’t like wormholes at all. Maybe that explains why I am a bit Eved out at the moment, even in a sandbox, you need a few new tools to play with every now and then. It could be that this is because of the new console game that is being developed, but I doubt that that is the case, as it is an entire separate development team in China doing that. Which makes you wonder what they’re working on at the moment ? It can’t be Incarna (walking in stations) can it ?

Anyway, I love Eve regardless, and it’s healthy to have players worried about the state of the game, rather than them just leaving, and unsubbing without a word. The Eve Playerbase cares a lot about their game and I assume CCP does as well.

Star Trek Online beta Impressions

Yes this is an Eve blog, but I figured some eve players might be interested in this game.

For the past few days I have been playing Star Trek Online a bit. I am now level 7 and also got a Klingon character, but I didn’t play that one a whole lot.

First of all I was suffering on the ground from weird hiccups and stuttering. Turning off some graphical options seem to have fixed that (dynamic lightning was one of those). Luckily the space part didn’t suffer from any of that.

screenshot_2010-01-16-20-25-48

The first few days were rather frustrating with a lot of server problems. After a few patches this disappeared and I have been able to play lag free. If you do get in that is. The login servers seem to have capacity problems that are currently being fixed in code as well as with new hardware.

The space combat is very nice. You have to manage your shields and rotate around the target, or let it rotate around you. You have diminish it’s shields with your lasers and once they’re down finish him off with your photon torpedoes. Your bridge crew each have some special abilities you can use, like more power to shields or drain your target’s shields, each have a cooldown, so you cannot use them all the time.

The missions themselves seems to be mostly patrol this or that and pick up something or take a scan etc. Usually there are enemy ship where you have to scan. Fun part of these missions is that you are usually automatically grouped with other people. Also there are enemy ships on the map that require a group effort to take down. A bit like the public quests of warhammer. Some missions were bugged, and I wasn’t able to complete them, or I did complete them and it didn’t register right. I hope they get this fixed before release as that is somewhat frustrating.

sto_ui

Ground combat, though in no way as bad as it was in pirates of the burning sea, feels very awkward and clunky. The animations would have been bad in 2001, let along in 2010. Your enemies walk through objects or seem to run while still standing etc.. In short, it still needs a lot of work.

The non combat missions are very boring at the moment. I hope they either scrap them or change them a bit. For example I had to escort a freighter which took about 15mins (also because i had no clue where to escort it to), and absolutely nothing happened ! Another mission on the ground had me tag four, uhm can’t even remember what, but there was absolutely nothing there. No mobs, no enemies, just a sand blizzard and a few rocks here and there.

The character creator is very nice. You can customize your character in almost every way. Along the way you earn skillpoints that you can use. But it isn’t entirely clear to me, what these skills do. And how +9 is better than +3. I hope it is, but it wasn’t very evident so far.

This is getting a bit long, so I’ll wind it up here.  Overall the game has potential. The space combat makes up for a lot of the clunkiness of the ground combat. The missions are fun and character progression is nice. I doubt it has longevity though. It could very well be that after two months, you’re sick and tired of doing the same thing time and again. But it might also get more entertaining as you get higher in level and get bigger ships etc. Time will tell ! At this point I would not pay 239,99 for the lifetime sub. I’ll play the 1st free month and see if I still like it after that.

Other reviews:

Potshot – Star trek not quite online

Keen and Graeve – Star Trek Online impressions

The Vanhemlock site has a few posts on STO as well by @jonshute !

Nice indepth review on A Ding World