Three Years In Eve

Today marks the 3-year anniversary of the day I started playing Eve Online.  Time to look back at the past year's events and set new goals for the upcoming year.  While Fanfest was great for reviving my interest in the game, these anniversaries help me focus on what I would like to do for the following year.

So what have I accomplished over the last year?  In game, not much of interest, really.  Besides chasing or abandoning the goals I set last year, I just flew around and admired the sights.  In what is becoming a tradition, I lost my most expensive combat ship at Christmas again but when I looked back on the events I saw the random number generator was kind to me and generated an interesting PvE storyline.  Weird, right?

Most of the really interesting things that happened occurred out of the game.  The events started when I made the pilgrimage to Reykjavik and attended Fanfest in March.  What an experience!  Iceland is a beautiful country and as an English speaker I felt comfortable running around town.  The event itself was great and made even more memorable when CCP Sreegs mentioned The Nosy Gamer in the Security presentation.  I met a lot of people and found out second hand about life in null sec.  I know that the Alliance panel will probably leave a negative impression in many minds, but DNSBlack is a really good guy and I can see why people want to fly in Dirt Nap Squad.  And The Mittani, as I found out on the pub crawl with the devs, isn't a ~horrible~ person when he doesn't have his evil space despot hat on.  After Fanfest I'm convinced that The Mittani is the greatest role player in Eve.

The Nosy Gamer itself became part of my Eve game play following Fanfest after CCP Sreegs pointed to the blog in a forum post answering those requesting botter tears.  Following that I actually made the Eve Blog Pack, the feed at the Eve Online Bloggers Portal and syndication on Eve News 24.  I think I did have an impact on the discussion sometimes, especially with my coverage of the troubles botters had after the introduction of the unified inventory system.  The nice stack of ISK I've made in the arrangement with EN24 isn't too bad either.

So how did I do with the goals I set last August?

Cool ships:  I was doing pretty well in my goal to obtain every Minmatar sub-capital ship except for the Panther and the faction ships until Crucible.  Once the Tornado was introduced, I lost the interest in collecting ships.  I just don't like the new tier 3 battlecruiser and having such an expensive ship just sitting in a hanger just killed the thrill.  I'd rather buy a Scythe Fleet Issue.  Needless to say, I failed with this goal, especially since I took the money I was going to use to purchase a Tempest and started buying mining ships in anticipation of Inferno 1.2.

Manufacturing:  Another area I had mixed success.  I succeeded in setting up the infrastructure to start doing tech 2 manufacturing but then OTEC happened and tech 2 industry became unviable in high-sec.  I did do a lot of material research on blueprints, including all of the tech 1 Minmatar frigates and cruisers.  I also completed setting up my datacore mining operation, which of course was nerfed in Inferno.  I wound up doing a lot of preparation work but didn't put anything on the market.  Some would call that a failure.  I'm calling it an investment in the future.

Wandering Rose:  When I set my training goals for Wandering Rose last year I wondered if my goals were too ambitious.  The answer was yes.  The first goal was to get her Elite Core Competency certificate.  I have one more skill to learn and I'll have the goal complete by the end of the month.  The second goal of learning leadership skills so she can fly command ships is complete.  I only learned the advanced leadership skills to IV so I cannot use tech 2 gang links or mind links, but I reached my goals for the year.  The final goal was to improve her industrial and trade skills.  That I accomplished, although I didn't complete the qualifications for all the Minmatar starter profession certificates to elite.  I just had more important things to learn than Marketing V. 

Get out of my comfort zone:  Given the way Eve is developing, I'd like to bring this quote from last year's post back.

"I've gotten really comfortable in Heimatar and Metropolis.  I don't need to leave the Minmatar Republic, but I probably need to spend more time in low-sec.  The way the game is developing high-sec is going to receive a series of nerfs over the next year and I need to get over my fear of space where people shoot at you."

I felt that way about CCP's vision for the game back then and I feel that way today.   But I'm starting to get sidetracked into a discussion of the future and this section is about the past.

I've definitely spent a lot of time in low-sec over the past few months and even uncloaked and shot at rats in belts.  However, I still haven't flown around in ships that can't cloak.  And I failed to go into wormhole space.  But I think I succeeded in getting out of my comfort zone.

Role play:  Total fail!  I didn't even try.

The Year Ahead

Most of my goals for the next 12 months will all fall under one overarching theme: move out of high-sec.  Currently my plan is to establish myself in low-sec, but I don't want to rule out the possibility of moving to 0.0 or w-space if the right opportunity presents itself.  To accomplish this I play on doing the following:

Ships:  I really need to get a strategic cruiser.  I will definitely pick up a Loki in the next few weeks.   For Wandering Rose she'll start learning Gallente skills so she can fly a Viator.  While I love the Prowler (the true "I Win" button in Eve), I'll need a blockade runner with the capability to transport packaged cruisers.  This is a change in focus from previous years when I was just collecting ships.  Now I want ships that will serve a purpose.

I have a ship goal not related to moving out of high-sec.  I want to learn how to fit my ships better.  As part of the goal I'll take all of the Minmatar combat ships I own, fit them and then run a couple of missions or maybe exploration sites to see how they perform.  I might even post the fits so people can laugh at them offer some constructive criticism.

Skills:  I need to learn more support skills.  In addition to the general defense and electronic warfare skills I need to learn the exploration skills like Archaelogy, Hacking, Salvaging and all of the Astrometric skills to V.  I have the training queue already set through December 2013 so this goal should be safe barring a disaster like getting podded after forgetting to update my clone.

Industry:  I think I have done enough researching of blueprints that I can finally begin the manufacturing plan I originally wanted to implement a few months ago.  The plan won't be that profitable, but hopefully will pay for expanding my collection of blueprints.  Also, I might try building and selling in low-sec.  The revamped mining ships will help as I won't need to transport raw materials through low-sec gate camps.  Also, while others will say I'm stupid for ignoring the opportunity costs, having the ability to acquire most of my own raw materials will help shield against price fluctuations on the market.  Besides, this is Eve.  Always have a plan B.

I am also on track to complete a two-year goal I set for myself last year to aquire the blueprint copies for and manufacture the Republic Fleet Firetail, Stabber Fleet Issue and Tempest Fleet Issue.  I want to acquire the blueprints from the agent so I need to continue grinding Minmatar faction standings.  Currently I am up to 8.3, almost enough to obtain the Firetail bpc.

Exploration:  I will get serious about exploration this year.  I have the skills in the queue and almost have the money to buy the Loki and maintain a sufficient cash reserve.  I will also look into implants.  The new mining ships will help give me additional incentive to do so.  I also will look into running missions for the Sisters of EVE.  My standings with the Sisters are now over 5 which means I can do level 4 missions.  While grinding the LP might mean an extended stay in high-sec, the scanning gear is worth it.  Oh, and the Minmatar level 4 epic arc gives some nice scanning probes at the end in addition to a nice bounce in standings.

Blitzing missions:  I need to learn how to blitz missions.  I know that should be easy, especially with the use of EVE-Survival, but I never assume that a skill is easily picked up.  I've heard several null-sec veterans say they have trouble with missions.  I have the same problem when I don't run combat missions for a couple of months.

Too much?  Last year I set a lot of goals and knew that I wouldn't accomplish all of them.  This year I think I've scaled back and made my goals more focused.  One thing I'm sure of is that I'll have a memorable 12 months to write about next August.