I Can't Hide From AI

Time for a quick aside about the blog. People may have noticed I've stepped into the AI pool using first Copilot and then the Google AI. I use The Nosy Gamer to practice skills I wouldn't get a chance to practice otherwise. Well, the time for practice is either over or about to get increased a lot. We are getting the enterprise version of Google AI at work. 

What does that mean for the blog? I plan on experimenting a bit more with things like infographics and other data visualizations. A great source to play with are EVE Online's monthly economic reports, the latest of which came out yesterday. Also, I've always wanted to diagram how Final Fantasy XIV's crafting is a bit like EVE's industry, if simpler.

An example infographic for healers

I have a few other ideas, but things are settling down to an old idea. The blog is a place to record ideas and facts I find interesting. Hopefully other people find them interesting as well. A lot of people look down on the use of AI, but at this point I really need to learn and master the new technology. I might as well do so working on a subject I'm interested in instead of some dry old tutorial I'll forget a week after completing.

FFXIV's Cosmic Exploration - The Final Crafting Macros

I am finally on the home stretch of my grind in Final Fantasy XIV's Cosmic Exploration content. The High Mobility Vacuum Suit, received for obtaining 500,000 cosmic class points in each crafting and gathering class, is only 1,850,000 points away. With 2/3 of the grind complete I'm basically locked into completing the goal. 

I figure if I can devote 2 hours a day during the week and 4 hours a day on the weekends I can have the mount by the end of November. That's only about a month later than my original estimate of Halloween but still leaves me 6 weeks to finish up the Dawntrail content.

A gold cup means complete

My strategy was simple. Get halfway to 500,000 points on all classes then a final push for each class to the goal. I started with fishing because I did so well I didn't want to interrupt the momentum. After that I started with the non-specialist crafting classes. Characters can have up to 3 specialist crafting classes which provide the class with bonuses:

• Craftsmanship - 20
• Control - 20
• Crafting Points - 15
• Access to 3 unique actions

I currently need to grind a little over 600,000 non-specialist class points and 7,500,000 specialist class points. After hours and hours of use I have the following 3-part macro for the non-specialist grind doing the lowest reward tool mastery missions. Those are the fastest I can do, with a macro time of 86 seconds. Theoretically I can get 16,900 class points an hour but I usually slip down to 15,000 points per hour. Hydration and getting up every so often to stretch your legs is important. Here is the macro along with stat, food, and medicine requirements.

Non-specialist crafting macro 

Craftsmanship - 5933
Control - 5470
CP - 649

Food - All i Pebre (HQ)
Medicine - Cunning Craftsman's Tisane (HQ)

6900/22100/45 pt1

/ac "Reflect" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Duty Action II" <wait.2>
/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Advanced Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/echo Macro finished (1/3) <se.1>

6900/22100/45 pt2

/ac "Trained Perfection" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Advanced Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Trained Finesse" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/echo Macro finished (2/3) <se.1>

6900/22100/45 pt3

/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Duty Action II" <wait.2>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/echo Macro finished (3/3) <se.1>

I found that having alerts as each part completes is more important to speed than trying to get the macro down to two buttons, which is important for the next macro. I have to state I have not used the specialist macro yet. 

Specialist crafting actions

The specialist macro saves 2 steps and uses the specialist action Heart and Soul. Each time I use Heart and Soul I consume a Crafter's Delineation. I figure right now I only have half the amount I'll need but at only 30 cosmocredits each I should be okay.

Shaving 8 seconds may not seem like a big deal, but I figure the specialist macro will cut 4 1/2 hours off the grind. That's either 2 weekdays or a Saturday or Sunday.

Specialist macro

Craftsmanship - 5953
Control - 5490
CP - 664

Food - All i Pebre (HQ)
Medicine - Cunning Craftsman's Tisane (HQ)

6900/22100/45 pt1

/ac "Reflect" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Heart and Soul" <wait.3>
/ac "Precise Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Trained Perfection" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/echo Macro finished (1/3) <se.1>

6900/22100/45 pt2

/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Duty Action II" <wait.2>
/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Duty Action II" <wait.2>
/echo Macro finished (2/3) <se.1>

6900/22100/45 pt3

/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/echo Macro finished (3/3) <se.1>

Like I said at the top of the post, if I can maintain my schedule I can finish by the end of November. Then I can get my mount, show off I earned it while the content is still current, then park it in the garage. The goal, while nice, isn't really the point. Completing the journey is what makes the grind worthwhile.

Squadron 42 Now Has A Steam Page

On Saturday Cloud Imperium Games took a huge step towards legitimacy. The studio's first planned game, Squadron 42, debuted its Steam page 14 years to the day Chris Roberts announced the game to the world at GDC in 2012. The game has been slightly delayed from its planned November 2014 launch but Squadron 42 now has a Steam page.

Most of the world has no clue what Squadron 42 is. And no, Squadron 42 is not the "Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything," no matter what CIG may say. But the Steam page does have a description.

Enlist as a rookie in the UEE Navy and step into a cinematic, single-player space adventure where you are at the center of the action. Live, work, and fight alongside your crew, brought to life by an all-star cast, as the story unfolds across fighter cockpits, capital ships, space stations, frontier outposts, and the front lines of a galactic war. Through intense combat, sacrifice, and the choices you make when it matters most, you will earn your place, your rank, and your legacy. You don’t watch the rise of a hero. You become one.

A very generic-sounding game, right? A video naturally appears on the page with some screenshots.

The pretty good trailer should help attract attention, especially with all the stars appearing. The cast would have been much more impressive 10 years ago when the game was originally planned to launch. How much the delay costs in lost sales is something we might find out next year.

Any loss in star power the cast lost probably was made up by the technological advances made in PCs over the last decade. From everything I've gathered Squadron 42 will really benefit from running on high-end PCs. From watching Star Citizen over the years I really don't trust the minimum specifications posted on the Stream page. Also, I think the game still needs optimization. The computers for the event participants in Manchester this past weekend all had 5090 video cards and still encountered issues. 

SQ42 is one of the few games currently on the market I have concerns about my computer running with acceptable performance. I own a machine with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070Ti graphics card with 16 GB of video RAM, an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 X 12-Core processor, 64 GB of DDRS RAM, and 1.8 TB of hard drive storage. I'm just glad that the game is coming out in the first half of next year. I'm afraid what the requirements would rise to if CIG was given 2 more years to develop SQ42.

The surprising thing to me is that the Steam page still lists a release window (Q2 2027) instead of an actual date. I suppose the launch date announcement will kick off the 42 day advertising blitz window mentioned at the event. But for now I have the game wishlisted and followed on Steam. We'll see how things pan out over the next year or so.

Explaining EVE Online's Crimson Harvest - Real Life Origins

One of the topics I've explored over the years is the real life holidays that in game season events help celebrate. Fenris Creations got me started on the topic when the studio, then CCP Games, introduced players to The Yule Lads. Probably not an interesting topic in conjunction with a game developed in the United States like World of Warcraft, but my two main games are Final Fantasy XIV and EVE Online. Japan and Iceland have different traditions.

Today's post looks into the real life holiday behind EVE Online's Crimson Harvest, which runs from 6 October to 3 November this year. When I look at Iceland I don't really think holidays except for The Yule Lads and the big New Year's fireworks display that rivals the point defense batteries on citadels. So I started down the rabbit hole.

Asking Gemini about Halloween in Iceland brought up an interesting fact. Unlike the United States, the big dress-up in a costume holiday is Ash Wednesday. 

Ash Wednesday, or Öskudagur, is the Icelandic version of Halloween. Police ask drivers to be particularly careful today with all the children out and about. 

Though Ash Wednesday may be a religious day in many countries, this is not the case for most people in Iceland, especially not for kids.

Every Ash Wednesday Icelandic kids dress up as witches, cowboys, princesses, punk rockers, trolls and everything in between and go about their home towns in flocks. The tradition is visiting companies and singing in exchange for candy.

Doing a bit of digging led to an article from the University of Iceland that let me know I asked the wrong question. I should have asked not about Halloween but All Saints' Day.

Around the year 1000, another festival was created under the influence of religious civilisation, named after the Cluny Abbey in France. This was the Mass of All Souls, which was established on November 2. It was intended primarily to help the souls of the poor.

This was at the same time that the church in Iceland was becoming established, and this emphasis has therefore been part of the Christian world of Icelanders from the beginning. In the 17th century, the holiday was known in Icelandic under the names "sálnadagur" and "heilagar sáilir", but in the 1707 census the current name was introduced and has remained so ever since.

As before, the Mass of All Saints looks to those who in past centuries, and also more recently, have strengthened Christianity, that is, to famous religious heroes and saints, especially among Catholics. But on the Mass of All Souls, the mind is more tied to all those we personally knew and loved but who have now passed away. In the Icelandic National Church, these days merge, are as if one, and prayers are prayed for the souls of all the dead.

This was a bit of a surprise as the Icelandic National Church is Evangelical Lutheran and the feast days are from the Catholic tradition. But Protestant denominations do celebrate feast days, just differently.

I do want to point out another interesting fact. Due to changes in the law in Nordic countries, All Saints' Day in Iceland is celebrated on the first Saturday of November. So while the end of the Crimson Harvest coincides with Halloween, the event ends, at least this year, before Icelanders celebrate All Saints' Day.

I'm going to conclude with an analysis of the similarities between Crimson Harvest and All Saint's Day. As I have started doing I'm going to turn to the Unofficial Official AI Sponsor of Fenris Creations, Google DeepMind. I don't know religious festivals well enough to make the connection, so I turned to Gemini.

Once again, posting the response from an AI might be cheating but I want to put things that interest me on the blog.

---

While the Crimson Harvest is primarily Fenris Creations' in-game vehicle for the real-world Halloween season, its lore and structure share striking parallels with All Saints' Day (1 November) and the broader Allhallowtide triduum (All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day).

The similarities emerge across theology, calendar timing, and factional framing:

1. The Core Duality: Holy Sanctity vs. Profane Darkness

All Saints' Day was historically framed as the church's sacred light reclaiming the dark, liminal turn of the season associated with All Hallows' Eve.

In EVE Online, Fenris codified this exact duality by structuring the Crimson Harvest as an ideological war between two factions:

• The Sanguinary "Evil" (Blood Raiders): Symbolizing profane sacrifice, heretical indulgence, bloodletting, and the macabre—the grotesque side of All Hallows' Eve.
  
  
• The Canonized "Saints" (Order of St. Tetrimon): An ultra-orthodox monastic order founded upon the canonization of St. Tetrimon (who slew the Mad Emperor Zaragram II to preserve holy scripture). They enter the fray specifically as an ecclesiastical purge, framing their crusade as righteous martyrdom and holy purification against heretics.
  
  

2. Martyrdom, Saints, and Religious Zeal

All Saints' Day originated in the 4th–7th centuries (solidified when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Roman Pantheon) specifically to honor all Christian martyrs—those who spilled their blood for the true faith.

The Amarr religion and its offshoots are heavily modelled on medieval Catholic and Byzantine martyrdom traditions:

• The Order of St. Tetrimon views their fight against the Sanguinary Covenant as holy warfare. Pilots who align with Tetrimon are essentially participating in an armed veneration of orthodoxy, purging apostates in the name of canonized martyrs.
  
  
• Conversely, the Sankar blood-cultists hold their own twisted concept of bodily sanctity: they believe human and clone blood is a literal sacred vessel containing divine essence, viewing the draining of bodies as a holy communion rather than murder.
  
  

3. Veneration of the Dead and Relics

A defining practice of All Saints' Day (and the following All Souls' Day) is visiting the graves of the departed, lighting candles, and venerating sacred physical remains or relics.

In the Crimson Harvest:

• Event progression revolves around recovering physical bodily tokens—such as Mutated Blood Samples, Tetrimonic Warclone Blanks, and neural lattices from destroyed clone transports—which are taken to faction shrines and item traders for blessing and reward.
  
  
• The 50% pod implant drop mechanic turns destroyed capsuleers into literal containers of harvestable relics left behind in the wrecks of dead clones.
  
  

4. Direct Calendar Alignment

In the Western liturgical calendar, All Saints' Day falls on 1 November, closing out October's threshold period.

The Crimson Harvest mirrors this exact timing: running across October and closing during the first week of November (3 November this year). The in-game event reaches its highest escalation and final reward tier during the exact days that real-world Allhallowtide and All Saints' Day are observed.

Explaining The Crimson Harvest - Patch Notes and Dev Blog

Today is the beginning of the Crimson Harvest annual event in EVE Online. Normally I would try to combine the latest dev blog and the patch notes into something both useful and informative. But since both s dropped this morning and work is busy at the beginning of fiscal quarters. So I figured I'd turn to the Unofficial Official AI Sponsor of Fenris Creations, Google DeepSpace, to mash up the two.

I don't think Gemini did a bad job. So what I am going to do is be a little selfish. I'm in the middle of a big grind in Final Fantasy XIV but I still want to participate in the Crimson Harvest. I'll include this year's trailer, which turns out to be the latest episode of The Pulse. Then I'll finish with the event information. Since the event is running for 4 weeks (6 October thru 3 November) I'll use this article as a reference instead of trying to search through all the Gemini chats.

1. Crimson Harvest: The Bloodgates Are Open (Oct 6 – Nov 3)

The Crimson Harvest event is now live, centering around an escalating three-way war: Blood Raiders are invading Pochven through spatial rifts in pursuit of Triglavian blood, while the Order of St. Tetrimon and native Triglavian forces fight to halt their expansion.

Long-Term Stakes & Story Consequences

• If Blood Raiders Win: They will establish a permanent foothold and continued presence inside Pochven.
  
  
• If Order of St. Tetrimon Wins: Triglavian minor victory status will be officially cleared from contested systems in Amarr space.
  
  

Allegiance, Standings & Faction SKINs

Capsuleers choose their allegiance in the Agency, earning points along their faction's seasonal track:

• Blood Raiders: Grants Blood Raider Crimson Mark SKINs for Triglavian hulls (Damavik, Vedmak, Drekavac, Leshak).
  
  
• Order of St. Tetrimon: Grants Tetrimon Crimson Mark SKINs for Triglavian hulls (Nergal, Kikimora, Ikitursa, Leshak).
  
  
• Standings Rules Clarified:
  
  
  • Defeating Triglavian NPCs inside Criterion of Fitness sites does not harm Triglavian Collective or EDENCOM standings.
    
    
  • In standard combat complexes, defeating rift Triglavians incurs no standing loss, and destroying Drifter/Rogue Drone escalations awards positive Triglavian and EDENCOM standing.
    
    
  • Warning: Attacking Triglavians guarding Pochven-style wormholes in lowsec/nullsec will cause a negative standing hit with the Collective.
    
    

Combat, Exploration & Sites

• Criterion of Fitness (Solo): Accessed using Criterion Ciphers recovered from Crimson Harvest sites. These are timed, 3-wave solo combat encounters available across highsec, lowsec, nullsec, Pochven, and wormhole space; faster clears increase rewards and risk triggering elite boss spawns.
  
  
• Crimson Gauntlets & Tetrimon Bases: Standard combat sites return across empire space. Unstable rifts can trigger sudden escalations featuring Triglavian, Drifter, or Rogue Drone reinforcements (even in highsec).
  
  
• Hollow Outbreak Sites (Upwell / Avalanche Wrecks):
  
  
  • Class 1 (Highsec, Pochven, Wormholes): Geared toward Tech I frigates (ideal for AIR Career pilots).
    
    
  • Class 2 (Highsec, Lowsec, Pochven, Wormholes): Up to Tech II frigates and Tech I destroyers.
    
    
  • Class 3 / Hollow Origin (Lowsec & Delve Nullsec): Up to Tech III tactical destroyers; keep an eye out for fleeing automated shuttles carrying extra loot.
    
    
• Exploration / Hacking Sites: Located across New Eden (especially Delve, Eugidi, Angils, and Essin). Look for bonus hackable Triglavian containers for rare loot.
  
  
• New Pochven Wormholes: Roaming Pochven-style wormholes spawn across Blood Raider lowsec and nullsec regions, defended by armed fleets.
  
  

Rewards, Loot & Store Offers

• Akoman Attack Battlecruiser Blueprint: The capstone prize of the seasonal track is a BPC for the Akoman, the first pirate attack battlecruiser (carrying battleship-grade weapons alongside Blood Raider energy neuting/drain bonuses).
  
  
• 90% PvP Loot / 50% Pod Drops: Outside highsec (lowsec, nullsec, Pochven, wormholes), player ship kills drop 90% loot, and pod kills have a 50% chance to drop implants.
  
  
• Trader Turn-Ins: Mutated Blood Sample containers can be traded for blueprints for new officer modules, faction modules, remote armor repair mutaplasmids, accelerators, and SKINR components.
  
  
• Daily Logins & Totality Day: 21 days of login gifts including skill points (large cache on Day 21), accelerators, and daily-exclusive Crimson Mark SKINs. CCP teased special Triglavian offers arriving for Totality Day on 13 October.
  
  
• EVE Store & NES: Crimson Harvest Packs and NES store offers featuring the new Sanguinary Savant SKINs.
  
  
• Late-October Escalation: The event escalates during the final week, adding an extended track with extra rewards.
  
  

2. Accompanying Version 24.01 Patch Notes

The Version 24.01 update introduces major balance and structural changes that directly affect event navigation, combat, and hunting:

Ansiblex Jump Bridges & Force Projection

• Capacitor Dependency: Ansiblex gates now have an internal capacitor pool (1,250 TJ) that recharges over ~6.25 hours and cannot be recharged or drained by ships.
  
  
• Jump Costs & Multipliers: Ship classes consume between 1 TJ (shuttles/haulers) and 19 TJ (Marauders/Rorquals), with distance-based jump multipliers (0x within 5 LY of the alliance capital up to 15x beyond 20 LY).
  
  
• Access Rules: Restricted strictly to the alliance holding sovereignty in the starting system; capitals can no longer use Ansiblex bridges (Rorquals, Freighters, and Jump Freighters are still allowed).
  
  
• Cyno Jammers: Reduced to 1 per system (down from 3).
  
  

Pochven & Wormhole Space Updates

• Pochven Wormholes: Extra-Pochven wormholes now feature a 75 km warp-in distance, 30-minute phase shifts (down from 60 min), and roaming scout NPCs. Intra-Pochven wormholes received major buffs: 750M kg mass stability and 12-hour lifetimes.
  
  
• Site Balancing: Observatory Flashpoint optimal fleet size reduced to 12 (reducing total payout by 20%), while Vigilance Points increased to 12 (increasing total payout by 20%). Stirring NPCs now deal double damage to player drones.
  
  
• C1–C3 Wormhole AI Overhaul: NPCs now split damage and EWAR across targets, use MWDs strategically, orbit dynamically, and will ignore player pods, Zephyrs, and drones.
  
  

Insurgencies & Factional Warfare

• Insurgency FOB Timers: FOB armor reinforcement timers slashed to 2–4 hours (down from 24 hours), and campaign duration shortened to 7 days to eliminate stalling tactics.
  
  
• Reward Shift: Winning the Insurgency now pays up to 1,500,000 LP (over 4x the prior maximum), shifting incentives away from farming individual sites.
  
  
• New Complexes: Added Moderate ADV-3 complexes and Small AF-1 complexes (Assault Frigates only, where all NPCs have warp disruptors fitted).
  
  

Ship & Combat Fixes

• Lancer Dreadnoughts: Substantially buffed shield/armor resistances across the Bane, Karura, Hubris, and Valravn.
  
  
• Paladin & Golem: Fixed inertia modifier values.
  
  
• Rampant Drone Fabricator: Structure and swarms are now immune to smartbombs and heavily resistant to Disruptive Lances (5% damage taken) and Vorton Projectors (10% damage taken). Boss waves can now spawn an Infested Drone Naglfar fitted with a capital energy neutralizer.