No plan survives contact with the enemy. In Eve Online, that enemy too often is a player's own ignorance. Take for example my plan to get the blueprint copies for three of the Minmatar faction ships. Late last night I finished getting both Rosewalker and Wandering Rose up to what I hope is the required 9.9 unmodified standing with the Republic Parliament in order to get the Tempest Fleet Issue 2-run blueprint copies. Except that is not the case.
According to the ISK guide I bought, I need 9.9 unmodified standings with the agent that sells the BPC for 30 Angel Diamond tags. But I've assumed that means I needed 9.9 unmodified standings with the corporation the agent belongs to, the Republic Parliament. I did a little further research and according to the EVElopedia, I need faction standing, not corporation standings. But it is understandable that I missed it, because the EVElopedia only has two articles, "Cosmos faction ship offers" and "Makor Desto", that tell players that. Oops.
As much as I hate grinds, I'm not really upset. Sure, I could have used the time better by grinding standings with a better NPC corporation like the Brutor Tribe, but I didn't really lose much, if anything. I was still gaining Minmatar faction, now over 7 for both pilots. Rosewalker now has a corporation he can get jump clones from independent of any corporation or alliance membership. And with my corporation's standings now at 6.98 with the Minmatar and over 6 with the Gallente, I can now anchor POS in high-sec now, with the ability to do so in .7 Minmatar syatems probably a possibility once I accept and finish the storyline mission in Wandering Rose' neocom. And the combined 400,000 loyalty points earned during the grind are enough to purchase a complete set of +5 implants or a pair of those highly coveted Scythe Fleet Issue cruisers that can only be purchased from the LP store.
I now might deviate from the plan. The initial plan was to do another grind up to 9.2 with Republic Fleet. Now that I know I need faction standings and not corporation standings, I might do that more useful grind with the Brutor tribe after all. According to the EVElopedia, I really don't benefit with corporate standings of over 6.67 now that I have standings of over 8 with at least one corporation to get jump clones from. So unless I find something I really like that costs a lot of loyalty points, I have more freedom to do what I want and can engage in a lot of little mini-corporate grinds instead of one huge grind. That is good because I really do hate grinds. This one is just proving to be so darn useful I'll put up with it.
