Post-Fanfest Goals And Projects

Fanfest is an event that always re-energizes me for the year ahead. Combine that with having the foresight to join Signal Cartel as soon as I saw Mynxee recruiting and I'm feeling better about EVE than I have in a long time. I have to echo Marc Scaurus' comments about the great community that the leadership of EVE-Scout Enclave has created.

So, with exploration on my mind, and how my playing reflects in my blogging, what does the future have in store? First, I have a couple of personal goals. The first is that I'd like to record 50 Thera exits in Tripwire in a month. A totally achievable goal considering I did 6 last night. I think I'm getting better at picking out the wormholes just based on the size of the signature alone. The other is to collect 1 billion ISK worth of items from data and relic sites in a month. That could prove a touch harder due to all of the other things I want to do. But, I have to have some challenging goals, right?

Next, I really need to work on fitting ships, and writing posts about them. Would you believe that I still don't own an Astero or a Stratios? Those are fast becoming our signature ships (and probably the reason we collect war decs). Instead, I run around in my old, cheap Cheetah. I had fun writing my "Mastering the Wreathe" post. I'm thinking about doing the same with the Probe/Cheetah and possibly the Heron/Buzzard as well. I also think a review of my Prospect fitting is in order in light of my experiences flitting around New Eden via Thera.

I also have a couple of projects I want to undertake that I'd definitely blog about. The first is related to fitting ships and the progression of fits as players learn new skills. I'd like to collect the signature strength data for various sites in high and low sec. Sure, obtaining a 120 point probe strength is ideal, but new players, or experienced players jumping into exploration for the first time, can't get that right away. If someone has already produced a guide I'd promote that, but otherwise I have some ideas I tossed around with EVE University's Seamus Donahue.

The next project is to get into researching intelligence gathering in EVE. One of the reasons our corp and alliance has a sub 1% ISK efficiency on our killboard is that we tend to run towards the sound of gunfire instead of away from it. Not very bright considering we are an NPHI alliance, but as I've written before, we poke our noses everywhere. Exploring the various ways to find the fighting will help gather more interesting war photography. Of course, others may find the whole process useful for avoiding conflict. I'm going to start with the Broad Intel 101 class session from the EVE University Class Library and then branch out from there.

Finally, I'm still going to write about real money trading. I have a post about activity in the first quarter of 2015 planned for mid-April. Since Team Security did such a good job of wrecking the way I detected a lot of their major anti-bot/anti-RMT actions, I think I need to actually stick my nose into further analysis of the EVE economy. I really need a way to track the inflation rate.

Think I have enough to do until Fanfest 2016? I think so. And for anyone who doesn't play EVE, I should add I've played for 5 1/2 years now and still haven't scratched the surface of this sci-fi world simulator. I have a lot of exploring left to do.