Meaningful Activty In EVE

Last night I decided to do a little mining in a low sec belt somewhere in the Minmatar Republic in a Procurer. After pulling a load of Glazed Hedbergite, I noticed that I had a level 4 storyline mission, War Materials, waiting for me, with a reward of a +4 intelligence learning implant. I was mining anyway, so why not stock up on Kernite? At 8000 units required per mission, I decided to just mine kernite the rest of the night. I wound up with 37,000+ units of kernite, enough for 4 missions. Considering how often I'm running missions for the Thukker Tribe, that might last me the rest of the year. Then I can go back to mining the good stuff.

After turning in the ore and receiving the implant from the agent (worth approximately 20 million ISK), I decided to look at the new activity tracker introduced in the November release. My first reaction was "WTF? I didn't do any mining in high sec!". My second reaction was "Grrr Amarr!". Let me explain.

Grrr Amarr!

The activity tracker is not tracking where the ore is mined. Instead, the code checks the type of ore mined and classifies the location in that manner. No problem, right? In the Minmatar Republic and Caldari State, the low sec ores are hedbergite and kernite. However, kernite is found in 0.7 systems in the Amarr Empire, so the activity tracker gave me credit for mining in high sec.

For those wondering the three ores the activity tracker considers "low sec" ores are jaspet, hemorphite, and hedbergite. The Amarr and Gallente low sec ores are jaspet and hemorphite. Jaspet is available in all low sec systems while hemorphite and hedbergite are only available in 0.2 security systems and below. That means for those concentrating on the activity tracker, mining in either Minmatar or Caldari 0.3 and 0.4 security systems will not increase the low sec totals at all.

Fortunately, I have real reasons to mine in low sec. But I do have to take care in my mission running. With the advent of Abyssal deadspace, I have a need for Thukker Large Cap Batteries. I could just buy them off the market, but why do that when every 16 missions I run for corporations in the Thukker Tribe give me a chance at a +4 learning implant?

Another way to track activity

Last night's mining activity allowed me to finish a storyline mission for the Thukker, boosting me to 5.12 standings with the tribe from Great Wildlands. I'm not sure what good such high standings provides, since I have over 7.9 with both Thukker corporations and I don't trade in Great Wildlands. I do have to take care with my standings with the Gallente Federation. I can get a two-run Federation Navy Comet blueprint copy at 8.5 and I have not redeemed the tags to pick it up. Running storyline missions for the Thukker Tribe slightly lowers my standings with the Gallente Federation. I really should start the Gallente faction grind to take care of getting the faction BPCs from the COSMOS agents in Sinq Laison.

Last night struck home the difference between the new activity tracker and the old school ways of tracking activity such as the size of your wallet, standings with NPC corporations, and kill mails. The activity tracker shows a player that he/she did something. The pre-activity tracker measures showed a player accomplished something. In a game like EVE, the difference between the two is important.