Down The Rabbit Hole: Squadron 42 And Computer Hardware

Over the weekend I watched a video about the rumor that NVIDIA was discontinuing the RTX 5090 video card. I don't really follow hardware developments, but according to IGN the card has been effectively discontinued for months, either due to shortages or extremely high prices. The video did jog something in my mind, though. Weren't the computers used in the Squadron 42 demo event held in Manchester a couple of weeks ago powered by 5090 cards?

According to Gemini, the specs for the demo machines came from YouTube creators Morphologist and tenpoundfortytwo and are quite impressive: AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D processors, 64 GB of DDR5, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090s. Since the rumor concerned the video cards, I asked Gemini for the difference between a 5090 and 5080 video card.

The gap between the RTX 5080 and the RTX 5090 represents the largest generational divide between an 80-class and 90-class card in modern GPU history.

In previous generations, an 80-class card typically delivered roughly 70% to 80% of the flagship's performance. With the Blackwell generation, the RTX 5080 features roughly half the physical hardware of an RTX 5090, resulting in a 35% to 50%+ performance drop in demanding 4K and heavy compute workloads.

Yikes! I knew that developers and publishers would use the best equipment on the market for demonstrations, but I didn't know the differences would be so great with the 5090. According to Gemini the 5080 has three critical downgrades compared to the 5090.

1. Core Compute Cut in Half

• The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 GAMING OC runs on the smaller GB203 die with 10,752 CUDA cores.
• The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 GAMING TRIO OC runs on the massive GB202 die with 21,760 CUDA cores.
• The 5090 carries more than double the shader cores, Ray Tracing cores, and Tensor cores of the 5080.

2. Memory Capacity & Bandwidth Halved

• VRAM Capacity: The RTX 5080 drops from 32 GB down to 16 GB. While 16 GB is sufficient for contemporary gaming, it leaves no headroom for uncompressed asset caching.
• Bus Width & Throughput: The 5080 uses a standard 256-bit bus pushing 896 GB/s, whereas the 5090 utilizes an ultra-wide 512-bit bus delivering 1,792 GB/s—literally double the memory throughput.

3. Real-World Gaming Performance Impact

• At 1440p: CPU limits compress the gap, but the 5090 still leads by 25% to 35%.
• At 4K Ultra (Native / Heavy RT): The 5090 pulls ahead dramatically, running 40% to 60%+ faster than the 5080. In heavily memory-bound scenes, path tracing, or dense entity rendering, the 5080 trails significantly behind the flagship.

That's with the next video card down in power. What about my computer? I plan on playing Squadron 42. I purchased my computer in 2024 specifically to prevent issues with new games for a few years. I have the following:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (12 Cores / 24 Threads, 64 MB L3 Cache)   
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super (16.0 GB GDDR6X)   
• RAM: 64.0 GB DDR5 (with a 47.2 GB shared GPU memory pool)   
• Storage: High-speed NVMe SSD

Apparently having an RTX 4070 Ti Super is a big deal because the card has a 256-bit bus. Gemini explained the importance.

Why the Bus Width Matters: The 16 GB Divide

Having 16 GB of VRAM on a 256-bit bus is fundamentally different from having 16 GB of VRAM on a budget 128-bit bus:

• A 256-bit bus allows 8 high-speed memory chips running across eight 32-bit channels in parallel, delivering between 576 GB/s and 960 GB/s of raw bandwidth.
• A 128-bit bus (found on mid-range 16 GB cards) uses a "clamshell" mode—cramming 16 GB of capacity onto just four channels, which cuts memory bandwidth down to 272 GB/s to 448 GB/s.

Under heavy rendering loads like StarEngine, a narrow bus creates a bottleneck regardless of how much VRAM is attached.

I have to admit I got a kick out of Gemini using the term "budget 128-bit bus". But the term fits as Gemini was accessing Steam's September Hardware and Software Survey. Approximately 27.2% of Steam users have a video card with 16 GB of VRAM, but only 7.5% have a video card with 16 GB of VRAM with a 256-bit or better bus.

Gemini had some really nice things to say about my video card, but the card isn't an RTX 5090. At this point I'm going to let Gemini explain the comparisons in the above table. I'm going with Gemini because at this point I'm a bit beyond my normal knowledge.

The 0.40% Demo Island

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 represents 0.40% of all surveyed gaming machines on Steam.

• Out of 135 million monthly players, roughly 540,000 people own the card CIG used on the demo floor.
• Even when combined with its halo-tier predecessors—the RTX 4090 (~0.95%) and RTX 5080 (~1.10%)—the entire enthusiast class priced above $1,000 accounts for less than 2.5% of the platform.
• Put another way, 99.6% of PC gamers on Steam do not own the graphics card CIG used to demonstrate that Squadron 42 runs smoothly.

Deploying this specific silicon for a public hands-on demo is a standard PR strategy: it guarantees consistent frame times, eliminates stutter from unoptimized code paths, and lets attendees experience maximum volumetric effects at native 4K. It demonstrates what StarEngine can achieve under peak consumer computing conditions, while obscuring how the build handles standard hardware limitations.

The reason I asked Gemini to calculate the number of users and not just the percentage of users was to try to determine the market for Squadron 42. And with the RTX 5090, for most people the card is effectively out of reach and unobtainable.

Next, Gemini evaluated my computer specs.

The 0.74% Enthusiast Outpost: The RTX 4070 Ti Super

Nosy's GPU, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, sits in a narrow enthusiast bracket at 0.74% of the survey.

• Approximately 1 million Steam users run this card.
• Combined with the standard RTX 4070 Ti, the 70 Ti-class of Ada Lovelace silicon represents under 1.8% of the player base.
• Nosy's system sits comfortably inside the top 1% of gaming rigs worldwide.

Despite that, the demo floor’s RTX 5090 delivers 2.3× to 2.6× the raw shader throughput and double the physical memory buffer of Nosy's card. When a user in the top 1% of Steam hardware still faces an architectural gap compared to the demo stations, the storefront baseline becomes even more questionable.

I have to admit I feel much better about my judgement about computers. My goal when I bought the system was to future-proof the computer and after 2 years the rig is still near the top of systems in use. But when I looked at the evaluation I knew I didn't have a cutting edge video card. I asked the AI if it hadn't made a mistake rating my computer so highly. Gemini decided to leave no doubt in my mind about how both good and out-classed my computer is.

While Nosy's RTX 4070 Ti Super is a sub-$1,000 upper-enthusiast card that sits in the top 7% of Steam GPUs, it is the complete package under Nosy's desk that enters rare territory. Combining that card with 64 GB of DDR5 (a 5.2% bracket) and a 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X (a 5.1% bracket) places the overall rig inside the top 1% of total systems on the platform. Yet even with a machine that outclasses 99% of combined gaming PCs, CIG's demo floor still leaned on hardware that leaves Nosy's workstation in the dust.

Gemini even gave me two suggestions to improve the performance of my computer when playing Squadron 42. I'm going to list them below as I have the feeling the same advice might help people currently playing Star Citizen. I wouldn't be surprised if this advice is already on the internet. First, advice for improving the performance of my GPU.

Leverage DLSS (Quality Mode) and Frame Generation on Your RTX 4070 Ti Super

• The Rationale: While CIG’s demo floor brute-forced native 4K using the 32 GB framebuffer and massive shader array of an RTX 5090, attempting to run native 4K on an RTX 4070 Ti Super will yield around 45–60 FPS with dips during intense fleet combat.   
  
  
• The Action: Engaging DLSS Super Resolution (Quality Mode) reconstructs the image from a clean 1440p internal render, while enabling DLSS 3 Frame Generation leverages your card's dedicated Optical Flow Accelerator. This pushes projected output to 80–105 FPS, mirroring the visual smoothness of the demo stations without overtaxing your 16 GB VRAM buffer. 

Next comes improving the processor's efficiency.

Mitigate Dual-CCD Inter-Die Latency on Your Ryzen 9 7900X:

• The Rationale: Unlike the demo machines' Ryzen 7 9850X3D—which features a single 8-core die with stacked 3D V-Cache—your Ryzen 9 7900X splits its 12 cores across two 6-core Core Complex Dies (CCDs), each with 32 MB of L3 cache. StarEngine's simulation and rendering threads are sensitive to memory latency; when threads cross AMD’s Infinity Fabric between CCD0 and CCD1, frame-time pacing can hiccup.
  
  
• The Action: Optimize thread scheduling by setting CPU affinity (using software like Process Lasso or AMD's core-parking drivers) to restrict StarEngine’s primary game and render threads to a single 6-core CCD (CCD0). This prevents inter-die communication hops, minimizes cache misses, and stabilizes your 1% low framerates during heavy dogfights.

So if Gemini is giving me ways to improve performance, what about the average player on Steam? Gemini had some thoughts.

The 48.1% Reality: The 8 GB VRAM Trap

While CIG used a 32 GB halo card to show off the game and Nosy's rig packs a 16 GB buffer, the official Steam store page states the minimum requirement is a DirectX 11.1 GPU with 8 GB of VRAM.

That 8 GB figure targets the largest hardware cohort on the platform:

• 48.10% of all Steam users—nearly 65 million players—currently game on an 8 GB graphics card.
  
  
• For every single player who owns an RTX 5090, there are 120 players running an 8 GB GPU (predominantly RTX 3060 8GB, RTX 4060 desktop/laptop variants, and legacy GTX/RX cards).
  
  
• While 16 GB configurations have expanded steadily to 27.2%, 8 GB remains the median baseline for entry-level and mainstream gaming PCs.

In modern game engines, an 8 GB frame buffer leaves almost no headroom at 1440p once high-resolution texture packs, shadow maps, and geometry pipelines are active. In StarEngine, exceeding dedicated VRAM forces the GPU to spill data into system RAM across PCIe lanes, introducing frame-time spikes and asset pop-in.

By listing an 8 GB minimum, CIG presents a storefront specification that appeals directly to the 65 million players in that tier. However, by running the public demo on a 32 GB card owned by just 540,000 enthusiasts, CIG avoided showing how the game actually runs on the hardware owned by nearly half the platform.

By this time, a reader may wonder where Gemini was getting its information about Squadron 42. Simple, really. Among other things CIG posts telemetry information on the RSI website. The AI made the assumption that since both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen use the same game engine (StarEngine), the engine would work pretty much the same in both games. Which led me to take one more step down the rabbit hole I'd wandered into. Do Star Citizen players have better gaming rigs than the typical Steam user?

Predictably, the demands of the StarEngine do push Star Citizen players to run better hardware as seen in the graphic above. Gemini narrowed down the differences to three categories.

A. The 32 GB RAM Self-Selection

On Steam, 16 GB was only recently surpassed by 32 GB. On the RSI Telemetry dashboard, 32 GB has been the de facto community baseline since 2021.

• Because StarEngine's Persistent Universe routinely demands a 22 GB to 28 GB system commit charge, players who try to play on 16 GB experience continuous page-file hitching.
  
  
• The player base quickly self-selects: they either upgrade to 32 GB or 64 GB, or they stop playing. As a result, the percentage of 64 GB users in Star Citizen (~12–15%) is roughly triple that of the general Steam population (5.2%).

Continuously having to read files cached to the hard drive does not sound like a fun experience. Apparently the Star Citizen player base has already self-selected based on hardware.

B. The 3D V-Cache Clustering

When filtering the telemetry scatter plot by average FPS, the highest clustering of stable frame rates sits heavily on AMD processors with stacked 3D V-Cache (Ryzen 7 5800X3D, 7800X3D, and the newer 9000X3D series). Star Citizen players adopt X3D silicon at a rate significantly higher than the general PC gaming population specifically to overcome StarEngine's entity simulation bottlenecks.

At this point the uneasy feeling I'd had researching and writing this article turned into something worse.

C. The VRAM Reality Check

While 8 GB graphics cards represent nearly half of Steam (48.1%), they cluster in the lower-left quadrant of CIG's telemetry graph (sub-35 FPS in landing zones like Orison or Area18). The dense cluster of active, stable Star Citizen backers sits squarely in the 12 GB and 16 GB GPU bracket (RTX 3080 12GB, 4070 series, 4070 Ti Super, 4080, and RX 7800 XT / 7900 series).

And with that I can foresee a possible future. The leadership at CIG pushes for the lowest minimum specs to push sales. Steam users start playing the game with computer hardware Star Citizen players abandoned years ago as inadequate. The normal video game player, having no idea, starts to loudly complain that the game is very bad and in desperate need of optimization. And with that, the general Star Citizen community will go into overdrive to defend the honor of Cloud Imperium, Squadron 42 & Star Citizen, and Chris Roberts. The resulting internet drama and carnage will be awesome (or perhaps just plain awful) to behold.

I took a very long trip down a very deep rabbit hole. But I think I at least have solid numbers. I started off looking at the top of the line RTX 5090 video card and winding up with the relatively cheap video cards used by half the users on Steam. As of now I have a feeling Squadron 42 will wind up like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: a good game with high system requirements that drive people away.

EVE Online's Winter Expansion Fractured Skies Launches November 10th

The mad lads and lasses in Rekjavik went and did it. While some studios shied away from launching titles into the meatgrinder World of Warcraft Forever and Grand Theft Auto VI  have made this November, Fenris Creations is going into the month with guns blazing. The highlight on 10 November is the launch of EVE Online's winter expansion Fractured Skies. But that's not all. The Icelandic studio is also launching the beta of its new extraction shooter, EVE Vanguard, on the same date.

I didn't see the announcement on X until I logged off for the day yesterday. When I read the press release on the Fenris Creations corporate website, I thought, "Wow, that's almost like a news article aimed at players, not games journalists." Then I had a wild thought. Google DeepMind is the unofficial official sponsor of Fenris Creations. What would an infographic made by Gemini look like?

I asked Gemini about the possibility of the Fenris public relations department changing its communications strategy to aim towards the use of AI by games journalists.

Fenris’s operational alignment with the Google ecosystem naturally filters down into operational tooling. Whether evaluating automated visual assets, structuring releases for multimodal scrapers, or managing internal documentation, the modern Google standard strongly favors scannable bullet hierarchies, clear entity labeling, and data-first roadmaps.

Fenris's PR team isn't just speaking to a tech reporter on a 15-minute deadline anymore; they are structuring releases so that scrapers, LLMs, community data-miners, and alliance leaders all ingest an uncorrupted version of their message on day one.

I know the excitement is supposed to center on the message pushed by the developers. But I'm a bit fascinated with the way Fenris is pushing out the message. Fenris is flying into the teeth of some of the toughest launch competition in video games in years. How does the company respond to the challenge?

One of the ways is the initial announcement Fenris made to the media. I'm going to do a copy and paste below. 

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland - October 20, 2026 – New Eden’s rival empires are escalating their arms race, and colossal Conquest Engines threaten to take their wars to a new extreme. Fenris Creations today unveiled EVE Online: Fractured Skies, launching November 10, 2026, calling veteran capsuleers to rally their fleets and inviting new pilots to find their place in the conflict. From day one, four new Military Campaigns, new warships and more accessible ways to get started give players opportunities to strengthen their empires ahead of a four-way showdown in January. The stakes rise again in February 2027 with Conquests, a new era of seasonal Factional Warfare in which pilots build towards a climactic siege and a definitive winner. November 10 also marks the beginning of a persistent connection between EVE Online and EVE Vanguard, as the studio’s sci-fi FPS opens 24/7 paid alpha access and actions on the ground begin creating new opportunities in space. 

Fractured Skies is the second chapter of Theatres of War, the three-expansion saga that began with Cradle of War in June. As New Eden’s empires race to harness Drifter technology and develop devastating Conquest Engines, capsuleers are called upon to strengthen their side ahead of the coming conflict. 

Four new Military Campaigns, one for each empire, begin November 10. Capsuleers can contribute through PvE combat, PvP, mining and exploration, regardless of Factional Warfare enlistment, gathering valuable materials to exchange for ISK, Loyalty Points, faction equipment, achievements and titles. Together, their efforts have the power to reshape the battlefield, unlocking system-wide bonuses across designated star systems from January 5. Those hard-won advantages will help their empires in a massive four-way showdown later that month, before the conflict escalates into Conquests in February.

“Factional Warfare pilots have spent years building rivalries, holding the line and fighting for their empires,” said Bergur Finnbogason (FC Burger), Creative Director for EVE Online. “Conquests finally give all of that a decisive outcome. Get the old gang back together, bring fresh recruits along, and blow up as many enemy ships as it takes to claim the bragging rights. Somebody is going to win this thing, and we can’t wait to see who.” 

“EVE is famous for the extraordinary battles its players create. With Conquests, Factional Warfare gains a more reliable rhythm of major clashes and clearer ways for more pilots to take part,” said Greg Hennessey (FC Okami), EVE Online’s Game Design Director. “Fractured Skies reflects what makes EVE a living, evolving universe: there’s meaningful action from day one, and each new phase raises the stakes as we build towards the first siege. As Warclones complete jobs on the ground in EVE Vanguard, new opportunities open up for capsuleers in space, bringing the two fronts of New Eden’s conflict closer together.” 

For years, Factional Warfare has brought capsuleers together in fierce, player-driven battles for control of New Eden's contested systems. Conquests build on that legacy, introducing seasonal objectives, clear endpoints and a definitive winner in each warzone. Players work together throughout each season to earn advantages for a climactic siege, where rival empires race to destroy their opponent's Conquest Engine while defending their own. Victory earns a lasting monument commemorating the winning faction and its leading corporations and capsuleers, with each new season offering another chance to make history. 

Fractured Skies also marks the first persistent gameplay connection between EVE Online and EVE Vanguard. From November into early next year, completing jobs in EVE Vanguard increases the frequency of temporary combat, mining and exploration sites in EVE Online, giving capsuleers more opportunities to recover materials for their empire’s Military Campaigns. The connection then deepens when Conquests begin, as Vanguard players enlist with an empire and contribute to its Conquest Power through Expeditions. EVE Vanguard’s live alpha opens through the EVE Launcher on November 10 as a paid offering separate from EVE Online’s Omega subscription, with pricing details to be announced soon. 

The first section of the press release above is a pretty familiar format for video game press released, at least from Fenris Creations. The following part is something Fenris started adding this year: bullet points.

Launching November 10:

• Navy Attack Battlecruisers: Four mobile, high-firepower battlecruisers designed for coordinated strikes against larger forces, trading resilience for speed and damage: the Naga Navy Issue, Oracle Navy Issue, Talos Navy Issue and Tornado Fleet Issue, including the long-requested missile Naga. Available through Factional Warfare Loyalty Point stores. 
  
  
• Synchronizer Rigs: Nine new rig sets, spanning the four empires and five pirate factions, reward faction-focused ship builds, growing stronger with each matching faction module fitted. Pirate Synchronizers offer bonuses unavailable on existing rigs, balanced by heavier drawbacks. 
  
  
• Military Campaigns: Four new campaigns, one per empire, run from launch into January, introducing fresh objectives and rewards. Open to all players regardless of Factional Warfare enlistment, capsuleers recover materials from across the warzones and deliver them to item traders to advance their empire’s war effort. Completed objectives unlock temporary system-wide bonuses, while the first empire in each rivalry (Amarr versus Minmatar, Caldari versus Gallente) to finish all four earns command carrier reinforcements for January’s showdown. 
  
  
• AIR Academy Ships: Thirteen free, pre-fitted AIR Academy ships let new capsuleers jump straight into combat, exploration and mining within Exordium, EVE’s PvP-free starter region, discovering what they enjoy simply by flying, without needing fitting expertise or risking their own ISK. Academy ships cannot leave Exordium, unlike the standard hulls players buy to fly across the rest of New Eden. 
  
  
• Stronger Onboarding: Visual updates and a cleaner overview for dozens of popular Level 1 security missions, a set of achievements built around Exordium, and the AIR Career Program’s move into the Achievements interface give new players a clearer path from starter space into their EVE careers. 
  
  
• HUD Redesign: The first phase of EVE Online’s new heads-up display. Players can opt in through Feature Preview and switch back to the current HUD while the redesign evolves based on community feedback. The updated HUD makes ship status, capacitor energy and module activity easier to read in combat. 
  
  
• Achievements and Art: New achievements across New Eden, including secret challenges for capsuleers to discover, alongside a visual effects and lighting pass on a range of frigates. 

Coming in 2027: 

• Empire Showdown (January 2027): An epic four-way community battle brings New Eden's empires into direct conflict. All capsuleers can participate, with bonuses and reinforcements earned during the Military Campaigns giving their empires an edge. 
  
  
• Conquests (beginning February 2027): Seasonal Factional Warfare introduces shared objectives, personal rewards and definitive winners. Capsuleers earn Conquest Power throughout each season, unlocking advantages for their empire ahead of a climactic final siege. The evolving connection with EVE Vanguard will also give players on the ground a stake in their empire’s fortunes, with their contributions helping to strengthen its position in space. 

 

Cloud Imperium UK Ltd Late Filing Its Accounts Again

After filing on time for the first time in 6 years in 2025, Cloud Imperium has returned to its old ways and has not yet filed the 2025 financial accounts for Cloud Imperium UK Ltd yet. CIG is not yet in non-compliance with the law as long as the company properly filed an extension until 31 December 2026.

But wait, I can hear some say, Camural made a video stating the company has filed its paperwork. Sadly Camural has let his hatred for Chris Roberts and CIG begin to fully consume him and degrade his fact-checking ability. His video was built on a Reddit post -- a very questionable source that needed to be triple-checked -- discussing claims made by CIG in the financial accounts of Cloud Imperium Games Limited (Company #08703814). From the paperwork.

Cloud Imperium Games Limited ("the Company") operates from the UK, as a wholly owned subsidiary of its parent, Cloud Imperium UK Limited. The Company's principal activity continues to be video game production and development, and it is the largest development facility within the Cloud Imperium Group. The Company leads the development of both Squadron 42 and the Star Citizen game universe.

Cloud Imperium UK Ltd (Company #08815227), on the other hand, is the holding company controlling CIG outside the United States. In addition to providing the news about Canada and Turbulent, Cloud Imperium UK Ltd is the company in which outside investors like the Calders actually are invested. Also, the 2025 financial accounts will show if the PwC auditors are happy with CIG's accounting of the special put option or declare it a reason for only offering a qualified approval of the accounting. 

Or if CIG issued dividends in 2025. My guess, based on the poor financial situation CIG faced at the beginning of 2025, is no dividends were issued. But we really won't know until CIG files the financial accounts with the UK government. And, contrary to what Reddit may claim, that hasn't happened yet.

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.