Tag: blogpack

BB 36 The good the bad and the ugly

“With the Inferno expansion upon us, new seeds have been planted in the ongoing evolution of EVE Online. With every expansion comes new trials and challenges, game-changing mechanics and fresh ideas. After nine years and seventeen expansions, EVE has grown far more than most other MMOGs can hope for. Which expansions have brought the highs and lows, which have been the best and the worst for EVE Online?”

First of all let me state that I entered the world of Eve during ‘Cold War’ right before ‘Red Moon Rising’. Since I didn’t have a clue what was going on back then I can’t comment much about those two expansions, let alone the very first two ‘Castor’ and ‘Exodus’. Castor must have been exciting though, bringing in T2 components and ships !

I had to consult the wiki page on Eve expansions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansions_of_Eve_Online to check what features were actually in what expansion. Then it hit me that 2006 – 2008 must have been the golden years of Eve looking back at how much effort was put into these expansions, and how many features they had compared to the very meagre ones CCP released the past few years. Here is a summary of the ones I remember best and enjoyed the most.

Revelations I

Think this is my favourite, it had so much in it, Exploration, Invention, New battlecruisers (ie. the Drake) and battleships, and rigs / salvaging. Also the voice over IP thing was in this, that didn’t really catch on until later, when factional warfare was released and FW fleets started using it. So much new stuff to do and find out and to train for, it was pretty insane looking back on it now. Revelations II didn’t bring that much new features to the table, only overheating comes to mind.
Links to Rev I features:
http://community.eveonline.com/features/revelations/
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Revelations

Empyrian Age
This one introduced Factional Warfare that I really enjoyed a lot when it came out. So this was one of the most game changing ones for me. Especially since I didn’t have a lot of pvp and fleet experience before. I was a proud member of the Minmatar Fleet (and still am in my heart) ! One of the best times I had in Eve was in this period, also met a lot of nice people back then.

Trinity
20 new ships and a graphics engine update ! Also the infamous boot.ini feature ;).

Quantum Rise
Not as big as the previous one, but still nice, the Orca was introduced, very nice ship for us miners at the time. Grouping of modules and  more graphic updates. Also some stuff like StacklessIO was tauted by CCP, but I never understood why serverside things were introduced as features for an expansion.

Apocrypha
The introduction of T3 and wormholes / sleepers ! As it turned out the last major expansion that really added new content. Since I never cared much for wormholes I didn’t care that much for this one, but I know it is widely regarded as one of the best expansions for Eve.

What followed then were a bunch of lacklustre expansions that were lacking in real content and quality control wasn’t so great either. This all accumulated in one of the worst expansion in MMO history Incarna which introduced (or failed to do so) ‘walking in stations’ and the ‘real money monocle’ store. But enough has been said about this I guess, if you want to know more, google around or go back a few pages on this blog ;).

So here we are, some of my favourites and some bad and ugly ones. The other participants of this interesting blog banter will be mentioned below.

Start Post at Freebooted

Inferno Campers (happy or otherwise):


A scientist in Eve has written an excellent summary on BB36.

BB26: Sometimes the sum of the parts …

Welcome to the twenty-sixth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so 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 crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s topic was proposed by @KatiaSae of the much praised “To Boldly Go” blog. Katia asks: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As an astrophotographer, I’ve found it in the stars and planets of New Eden. Where have you found it? Perhaps you’ve found beauty in the ships we fly? Maybe it’s the sight of profits being added to your bottom line? Or maybe it’s the pilot portraits you see in the comm channels? Where ever you’ve found it, write about it and post an image.” Don’t be afraid go beyond the simple visual aspects of EVE as well. Is the EVE Community in itself a thing of beauty? What makes EVE the game, the world, the Community, so appealing to you?

This is a tough one ! Where to start ? I decided to pick three

First of all there is the graphics, just a pic here from a while ago which also appeared in one of the earlier episodes of EON. Don’t think I need to add more explanation :). It’s a joy to fly around in Eve.Manticore

Second of all is the community. Eve’s community is different from a lot of other MMOs. It’s difficulty and steep learning curve attracts different people. Yes we too have the forum warrior / whiners, but overall it’s a much more tight knit community. I don’t know of any MMO that has something comparable to #tweetfleet for example. Or just an active blog community. People might be fighting each other in game but still be very friendly outside of it.

Third of all is the progression you make. Although this sort of fades a bit when you have been playing for a long time, it’s just a joy when you can finally fly that ship you always wanted. Or to finally be able to do exploration properly, or use those tech II crystals (for the miners amongst  us). The time based skill system is very friendly to those who can’t spend 23/7 in the game. You always progress (as long as you keep paying), you don’t have to kill 10 space pirates.

Last but not least: all of the above (and many more) combined in one game. Sometimes the sum is more than it’s parts ! And that for me is the beauty of Eve.

Participants for Blog Banter #26 :

  • CrazyKinux’s Musing: Beyond nebulas and shiny ships
  • Freedom: the beauty in EvE » A Mule In EvE
  • Achernar: The bike and the barbecue
  • where the frack is my ship?: Blog Banter 26: Love at first sight
  • BlogBanter 26: EVE … beautiful … « One capsuleer against all
  • Blog Banter 26 « Mad Haberdashers
  • » Blog Banter 26: Beauty of EVE – To Boldly Go To Boldly Go
  • Down By Law: Blog Banter #26: “The Beauty of EVE” (OOC)
  • Blog Banter #26 – Beauty « Roc’s Ramblings
  • Banter #26: Beauty is in the eye of the markets | Diary of a Garbageman
  • Progression’s Horizon: Blog Banter 26- Carry It With Us, Or We Find It Not
  • Blog Banter 26: The Beauty of Eve « A Scientist’s Life in Eve
  • Freebooted: BB26: The Beauty Between the Lines
  • Eve Opportunist: EBB #26 : Beauty is destruction.
  • Blog banter #26: EVE shines, and not just visually « Diary of a Pod Pilot
  • Learning to Fly – Spinning ships since 2003
  • BB26: Beauty, in certain conditions | A Missioneer in Eve
  • Dying in Lowsec (One Hauler at a time)
  • EVE Blog Banter #26 – Beauty « Evehermit’s Blog

    • 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

    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.

    BB #5 – Me, Myself and I

    This month’s topic comes to us from Mynxee of Life in Low Sec. She asks "Alts and Metagaming: Is playing two accounts who are logged in at the same time and work together (hauler/miner, explorer/combat associate, trade alts in trade hubs) a form of metagaming that is ‘ruining the game’?"

    This might be true in other games, though I cannot think of a good example at the moment. But in Eve it’s just very handy to have a sidekick ! Also the game lends itself much better than other mmorpg’s. The client is not too heavy on the computer’s resources and you can easily run 2 or even 3 windows at the same time. Windowed mode works fine, so you can easily switch between them. Furthermore, a lot of activities where you can use an alternative character, aren’t too stressful that you have to keep your eyes and hands on the keyboard all the time, like in some other games where you need to press keys all the time and have to resort to technical utilities and tools in order to sync your movements.

    morp_bela

    So for what purposes do you use another account ? Quite a few possibilities come to mind. From my own experience, the idea behind my alt was to pursue another career in Eve and have her go another direction. A combat alt who would do pirating and maybe even go to 0.0, while Morph was missioning and doing industrial stuff in Empire.

    But somehow that plan never worked out. The combat part did though, she can fly Gallente, Caldari and Amarr ships very well (Minmatar are next on the list). But she now aids me in missions, and hauls in mining or does some other transports for me.

    Another good usage is Factional Warfare. A fw alt to get the grips on pvp, who is financially supported by the main is a nice way to go and enjoy other areas of the game. I did this for a while and it works out fine.

    Continue reading BB #5 – Me, Myself and I

    Eve Blog Pack RSS Feed

    As some of you might have noticed, the Eve Blog Pack google reader feed that CK so kindly provides, is not compatible with the RSS feed reader that comes with the vanilla wordpress distribution. A work around is to setup a feedburner feed and let feedburner convert it to RSS 2.0 so that the widget now picks up the feed correctly.

    The link to the RSS 2.0 feed is at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/eveBlogPackViaCrazykinuxInGoogleReader.

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