Summer's here and in Chicago that means one or two long hot spells during the season. We had our first one last week, with four days over 93 F. The weather didn't really feel that bad but I didn't want to do too much. All those games I bought on the Steam sale? Unplayed. Logging into EVE? Only to set my skills queue and to mine ice. Looking back I guess mining ice makes sense when it's hot outside. EVE is real after all.
The weather broke over the weekend but I still didn't feel like doing much. For that I blame CCP. Last weekend was the first weekend of Alliance Tournament XI and except for when I ran out to the post office on Saturday I watched all the matches. Of course, I missed the Verge of Collapse comeback against Outbreak. but those are the breaks. Watching on the Roku gave me better picture quality than watching on either of my computers. The only problem was that the stream would sometimes stop on the Roku and I've have to fiddle a little bit. That's not due to anything CCP did. I think it's a Twitch thing or an issue with the Roku app.
I didn't just watch the tournament, though. I also did my courier missions. In addition to needing the loyalty points for my ammo business I'm back to working on my goal of 9.9 standings with the Minmatar Republic so I can get the 2-run Tempest Fleet Issue BPC. I'm now up to 9.07, just .13 away from having enough standings to get the 2-run Stabber Fleet Issue. If I keep doing the courier missions while watching the tournament I'll reach that goal.
Why courier missions? Because they go really fast and the only way to raise my Minmatar standings is storyline missions. Well, except for doing the level 4 epic arc once every three months. And for completing the COSMOS missions I haven't done yet. And for turning in tags. But the only way that can be repeated over and over is storyline missions. The other reason, of course, is that once a match starts, I can dock up and watch. Or I just watch the time and don't start another mission if a match is about to begin. Yes, I try to practice safe flying.
I should add that I'm not the only one feeling lazy. Over the past two Sundays the PCU on Tranquility has only reached 50,600. The only week lower this year was the weekend of the DDoS attack. I'm not sure if that is because participation rates in the big war in Fountain are going down or if everyone just taking a break. The average PCU does traditionally go down in July and August.
Maybe I'll have something good to write about this week. After today the weather forecast calls for below average temperatures for the rest of the month. I might actually do something exciting or think of something interesting with my mind not melting from the heat.
Would you post some recorded video of your courier missions? I never hear about you getting killed, only making isk and improving standings. Sounds interesting. I found a few vids on YouTube which were helpful.
ReplyDeleteIf you reach 9.9 with Minmatar, how bad will your Caldari standings become? Will you be a Caldari Navy target when traveling to Jita? I've thought about raising my Gallente standings to 9.9, but my Caldari standings are decreasing rapidly, even though I'm avoiding all faction missions. I guess I could run a few of the COSMOS missions, but they're only good once. Seems like the mission system could be re-worked a bit.
With Jita travel necessary for many people, Gallente and Minmatar missioners are at a disadvantage. Perhaps I haven't been playing long enough to see all angles, though.
I've never lost a blockade runner in low sec, whether doing a courier mission or not. Of course, I'm not doing the missions in busy systems like Ammamake or Rancer. Just pay attention and get the muscle memory down so that you cloak immediately after aligning to warp. Oh, and make sure you have instawarp bookmarks made for all of the stations you visit. That did take quite a while.
Delete@Noizy, what kind of ship did you use to make the instawarp bookmarks at the lowsec stations? I've thought about how one might do that efficiently. I could take a cloaky frigate to each station and undock, reach +2000m and cloak up for 5 minutes while flying straight, but seems a fragile target as well. Suggestions? Thank you.
DeleteWhat do you mean by 2-run BPC? I thought I understood how the LP store and faction standings work. Before today I had not heard of a benefit to grinding standing that high.
ReplyDeleteEach faction has a reward for maxing or near maxing faction standings. They are one time rewards, even if you lose standing and regain them. You actually make the exchange with a Cosmos agent.
Deletehttp://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/COSMOS
check the notes column
Wow, did not know that. Thank you for the information and link. This game... always something more to learn.
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