The EVE Online Starter Pack Kerfuffle Over Skill Points, 2019 Edition

I have the feeling I'm about to publish an unpopular take on a subject that has the EVE Online player base up in arms. The subject, ironically enough, involves real money trading. But this time, on the primary RMT market.

CCP is now straight up selling SP directly for cash. Something they promised they would never do. #tweetfleet pic.twitter.com/vTZBNuGpic

— Manic Velocity (@manicvelocity) June 25, 2019

Our story begins, as many have, with a mistake by CCP's sales and/or marketing department. CCP tried to create a $5 package it could sell to new players. The package included:

A Standard Cerebral Accelerator with:

• +3 to all learning attributes
• +20% damage to laser, projectile and hybrid weaponry.
• +20% rate of fire to missile weaponry.

Four SKINs for a tech 1 frigate of each faction
Two Blood Raiders jackets, one for each gender
One million skill points

I think EVE players can see the problem. While the accelerator is limited to use by accounts 35 days of age or younger, the one million skill points were a different issue. Instead of handing out two large skill injectors, which could then be sold on the market, they dumped the skill points directly into a characters skill point pool. By doing so, CCP negated the scaling factor meant to make buying skill points less attractive to older pilots. For example, a character with over 80 million skill points would need to use 7 skill injectors to add 1 million skill points.

@HilmarVeigar what are you doing? This violates everything that originally made #EVEOnline special and is a betrayal of what has kept people loyal over the years. I remember what it was like to hit my first 1M SP in 2003/2004 and now it’s just a button click? #Tweetfleet pic.twitter.com/Kay5kWbWrb

— Seleene (@Seleene_EVE) June 26, 2019

I saw plenty of complaints, many of which left me shaking my head. The first was that CCP was selling skill points. Starting to complain about the selling now, over 3 years after CCP started selling skill points is an example of boiling a frog so it doesn't notice until it is too late.

Here is the method of CCP selling skill points that the people complaining approve of. First, someone has to go to the EVE Online account management page and purchase an item called skill extractors from CCP.

Normal Skill Extractor Prices

Each skill extractor can create a large skill injector containing 500,000 skill points. If purchased in bulk (i.e. the 10-extractor pack), CCP makes a minimum (barring sales) of $4.50 for each extractor consumed. For 1 million skill points, CCP makes a minimum of $9.¹ While a skill point farmer typically does not spend real world currency, each skill extractor on the market originally was purchased from CCP.

The expected end of the quarter sale is going on now

Next, the skill points come from characters with over 5 million skill points, which requires characters on Omega (subscription) accounts. The typical farmer account will require 500 PLEX plus 2 Multi-Pilot Training Certificates (485 PLEX each). Regardless of whether the MPTC is purchased off the market for ISK, or the farmer purchases the 30-day training item using PLEX, someone paid real world money for that PLEX. A farming account uses $53.44 worth of PLEX each month.² To put the amount of money in perspective, a 300 character skill point farm consisting of 100 accounts requires other players to purchase approximately $5300 in PLEX to sell on the in-game market every month.

Finally comes the sale. Most people are not space rich, especially the new players CCP targeted with the starter pack promotion. As mentioned before, 1 million skill points equates to 2 large skill injectors. Over the course of monitoring the skill injection market in The Forge, I've noticed that the price of 2 skill injectors is usually a little under the price of 500 PLEX, once the PLEX is converted into ISK. Using that as a guide, someone who just wanted to purchase 2 skill injectors would purchase the 500 PLEX package for $19.99. When I do my valuations, I use the 1100 PLEX pack ($39.99), which would allow a player to purchase 4 skill injectors. The current valuation of a skill injector is approximately $9/skill injector.

Still, despite the current ability of players to purchase skill points with real world currency (after doing two conversions using virtual currencies), many players were upset that CCP had cut out the player middlemen from the process. The critics point to a January 2016 dev blog that made the following statement:

"It’s very important to note here that this means all the skill points available to buy on the market in EVE will have originated on other characters where they were trained at the normal rate.  Player driven economies are key to EVE design and we want you to decide the value of traded skillpoints while we make sure there is one single mechanism that brings new skillpoints in to the system – training." [emphasis in the original]

I'll give CCP a little credit for not selling skill injectors which players could then turn around and sell on the market, undercutting the existing supply chain. And, if only accounts 30 days or newer were allowed to purchase the starter pack, the skill points so acquired could not wind up in skill injectors, as new players are not going to have the required 5 million skill points required to use an extractor.

Pearl Abyss is publicly traded in South Korea

I personally think what we witnessed was a mistake made by the sales team not exactly understanding the game, combined with an end of the quarter rush to bring in as much revenue in the 2nd quarter as possible. Pearl Abyss is a publicly traded company, meaning the executives in Anyang, like business leaders across the globe, are pushing to generate last minute revenue to make the shareholders happy. And the sales team at CCP are rushing to oblige.

So far, we've seen a PLEX sale on CCP's site, a skill extractor sale in the New Eden Store, and a sale on the starter pack available on Steam in addition to the starter pack promotion on the CCP website. The unusual part of all the promotions is that the starter pack sale on Steam is different than the starter pack sale that created the near riot. The Steam offer only offers 250,000 skill points put adds 7 days of Omega time. The Steam starter pack is now 75% off, coinciding with the Steam Summer Sale. Interestingly enough, CCP put the starter pack on Steam on 23 May with no uproar about CCP selling skill points.

In a dev blog yesterday, CCP Falcon issued a dev blog on the issue.

"We understand that we made a misstep with this DLC pack by not restricting it, and we’re sorry for the confusion and anger that it caused – it’s not our intention to disrespect the years of training that our veteran pilots have put into their characters.

"We also should have spoken with the CSM regarding this pack before we released it. That one’s on me, and we’ll make sure that the CSM are looped into this kind of discussion going forward. We’ve been offering packs like this (including skillpoints) via Steam for a while now, so it was assumed that offering them via the secure website would be received in the same way.

"Maintaining an open, candid, two-way dialogue with the community is always at the forefront of our minds. We pride ourselves on the close relationship we have with our players, even if it comes around to bite us now and again.

"We’re working on improving our early player retention numbers and part of doing so means that we’re going to keep experimenting with various ways to make a new player’s life easier and their first steps in New Eden clearer and more streamlined.

"It’s going to mean different DLC packs, it’s going to mean collaboration with new player organizations in EVE, and it’s going to mean changes to the way we do things and how we incentivize and assist new players who are diving into EVE for the first time so that they have the best chance of sticking around.

"Our goal is to allow more players to enjoy New Eden. More players means more content, which ultimately means a better universe for us all (and a more target rich environment in which to hunt)."

CCP Falcon continued by announcing the future of the starter pack.

"Right now, we’re working on moving this pack to be part of our contextual offers that are sent to those who create new accounts and are classified as new players. This means that soon the pack won’t be available to the wider community via the DLC page on secure.eveonline.com and will only be offered to new players as part of the account creation and onboarding process.

"This will remove the option to buy the pack unless it’s presented to you as you go through this process.

"Hopefully this explains the reasoning for the pack and why things rolled out the way that they did."

I've never been a fan of the idea of skill injectors, wishing that CCP had sold the XP potion type item we call cerebral accelerators instead. I look at the latest outrage mob as a form of locking the door after the horse has already run out of the barn. As Wilhelm Arcturus wrote in his excellent post yesterday, the starter pack isn't the first time CCP has created and sold skill points outside the "approved" process. CCP has sold 50,000 point injectors only usable by characters on Alpha accounts since November 2017. The recent 16th anniversary celebration in May gave away over 1 million skill points³ to Omega accounts that logged in 16 days during the celebration period.

I guess we also shouldn't forget the current EVE Online offer for Amazon Prime members. Amazon Prime members automatically have Twitch Prime accounts. In order to encourage EVE players to activate their Twitch Prime accounts (and presumably subscribe to the channels of EVE streamers), CCP has from late May to 9 July made available the Sunesis Omega Bundle, which includes A Sunesis, a Twitch-themed SKIN, 15 days of Omega time ... and 150,000 skill points.

I'll let everyone rage away at practices CCP has engaged in for a long time. I made my piece with the skill injector situation years ago. Besides, a negative skill injector issue seems to pop up every few months. I know those give me content to write about, but sometimes I wonder if matters will get to the point where CCP pulls the plug on the feature for not being worth all the headaches it creates.


Notes:

1. Packs of 10 skill injectors can be purchased from the New Eden Store for the normal price of 1400 PLEX, which comes out to approximately $50 in PLEX. The current sale price of 1120 PLEX brings the price down to approximately $40 for a pack of 10.

2. PLEX price using the non-sale price of the 1100 PLEX pack.

3. I believe the maximum amount of skill points earned was 1,375,000 points per account.

Six Takaways From The CSM 14 Election

The results of the election for the 14th Council of Stellar Management are now known. Instead of a sleepy, null sec sweep, we saw a fascinating, perhaps even controversial, example of a single transferable vote election. Since CCP supplies both a file with the raw vote totals plus an audit file containing how the voting algorithm processes the vote, I can do a little deeper dig into the results than just note who one. While a lot of would-be analysts are giving their take on places like the EVE Online sub-reddit, I’d like to think I might have some additional insight on trends and events others miss. With that explanation out of the way, here are my top takeaways from the results of the voting.

1. Imperium voting power reverted to the norm. While some people are under the mistaken impression that the Goonswarm election team usually causes 6, 7, or even 8 candidates to win, in reality, the official Imperium vote semi-closely following the coalition’s official ballot usually results in 3 members winning a CSM seat. The CSM 13 election was an outlier, caused by the disqualification of TEST candidate Creecher Virpio. The removal of Creecher after the voting started resulted in The Judge winning re-election. With no drama this year, the Imperium ballot reverted back to only electing 3 candidates: Aryth, Merkelchen, and Innominate.

2. Turnout matters. In single transferable vote elections, turnout is a key factor in the power of a null sec bloc ballot. The larger the turnout, the larger the quota, or number of votes required to elect a candidate. The larger the quota, the fewer excess votes available to trickle down to the next candidate on the ballot. So while voter discipline within the Imperium improved, with 1000 more ballots following the Imperium ballot cast in 2019 compared to 2018, that only resulted in an increase of 70 votes in the trickle Innominate received from Merkelchen in the first round of the simulation. The Imperium vote never impacted below the third spot on the ballot as Innominate won his seat without reaching quota.

3. The 1000/2000 rule in CSM elections still holds mostly true. When people ask whether or not they have a shot at winning a seat on the CSM, I ask two questions. First, can they garner 1000 first place votes. The second, do they have a path to 2000 votes. If the answer to both is yes, then the candidate is a serious contender.

In this year's election, Steve Ronuken defeated Sort Dragon for the last seat, 2332 to 2321. Sort received 1500 initial first place votes, compared to Steve's 920. This year marks the 10th time a candidate received 1000 or more initial first place ballots and lost. Sort also earned the distinction of becoming the first candidate to accomplish the feat twice. The previous candidates who lost while achieving 1000 initial first place ballots are:

CSM 8
1678 - Greene Lee
1616 - Nathan Jameson
1525 - Psychotic Monk
1487 - Corebloodbrothers 
1286 - Steve Ronuken
1213 - Banlish

CSM 10
1099 - UAxDEATH

CSM 12
1291 - Sort Dragon

CSM 13
1091 - ExookiZ

Sort Dragon also became the third candidate ever, and the first since 2013, to achieve over 1000 initial first place votes and over 2000 total votes and still not win a seat. The other two were Nathan Jameson (1616/2430) and Banlish (1213/2173), both in the first STV election in 2013.

4. Vily ends the TEST curse. With Test Alliance Please Ignore’s long history as a large alliance, the fact that TEST has never before elected a member to the CSM might come as a surprise. But since the institution of the Wright single transferable vote system in 2013, some event has always intervened to prevent a member of TEST from winning. Most people who follow the CSM are familiar with the disqualification of TEST’s leading candidate Creecher Virpio last year. But such bad luck goes back to 2013, when, as a member of the HoneyBadger Coalition, TEST voted as a bloc for Sort Dragon, the leader of the coalition. TEST wound up moonwalking out of the coalition shortly afterwards.

5. Low sec tried, but came up short. When people from null sec hear complaints about the domination of the CSM by the null sec blocs, the usual response is to vote their own candidate in. No one who knows what went on during the campaign can say low sec and small gang PvP players didn't try.

The candidate players rallied behind was Stitch Kaneland from The Tuskers. He managed to pick up 937 initial first place votes at the beginning of the election, but lost in the 32nd round of the 34 round simulation with 1504 votes.

6. Wormholers get a representative, with a little help from their friends. After coming close last year, ExookiZ won a seat on CSM 14, beating Sort Dragon by 470 votes. But, the wormhole community needed help to get a representative. The help came from two places. The first was from the low sec/small gang PvP community backing Stitch Kaneland. After Stitch's elimination in round 32, ExookiZ picked up a net 359 votes on Sort Dragon, giving ExookiZ a comfortable lead. But without the trickle down vote from anti-null bloc candidate Olmeca Gold of a net 272 vote pickup over Sort, ExookiZ would have lost in the final round.

News From EVE North

Before I leave Toronto, I thought I would mention some of the news generated from EVE North. I probably will miss some things, or not get some of the details exactly correct, as I am working off my notes and not the VOD of the streams.

First, the CSM 14 election results. I'll break this down further in another post, but 5 out of 7 incumbents won:

• Aryth
• Merkelchen
• Innominate
• Killah Bee
• Steve Ronuken

Steve retained his seat by defeating fellow incumbent Sort Dragon by 11 votes. The new members are:

• Dunk Dinkle
• ExookiZ
• Gobbins
• Olmeca Gold
• Vily

Wormholers got their representative, null sec didn't sweep, and the Imperium ballot is back to only securing 3 seats. Last year's 4 seats was a fluke due to the disqualification of Creecher Virpio after the voting had begun.

On the subject of the new Triglavian invasion content, players are racking up the kills, with an impressive 59:1 kill ratio. I'm not sure exactly who that is impressive for, the players or the new AI behind the Triglavian NPCs. By the time I post this article, the number of NPCs killed will have reached 1 million. Player losses, on the other hand, exceeded 1.4 trillion ISK. To but that in perspective, the amount is the equivalent of 700 months of game time.

CCP also provided an update on the war declaration changes. As of 19 June, New Eden had 480 wars declared:

• 96 mutual wars
• 112 wars with no HQ (existed before the war dec change)
• 272 wars with HQ declared

The wars without an HQ will sunset on 13 August, but the new mechanics should allow for the renewal of the wars seamlessly. The 272 wars were begun using 70 unique HQ structures, with one Astrahus serving as the HQ for 44 wars. That structure, interesting, was not the P I R A T in Piak destroyed on 21 June. CCP also revealed that 49 wars had ended due to the loss or removal of the attackers' HQ structure, a figure expected to increase sharply with the destruction of the Astrahus in Piak.

Last, but not least, comes news on CCP's War On Bots and Illicit RMT™. CCP Falcom provided the following ban statistics for 2018:

• 9502 accounts banned for hacking
• 20643 accounts banned for botting
• 14678 accounts banned for RMT related activity

In addition, CCP Burger noted during the keynote address that over 9.2 trillion ISK was confiscated in 2018.

CCP also announced alpha account changes to help combat botting. The cap on Heavy Drone Operation drops from IV to III, Medium Drone Operation from V to IV, and Drone Interfacing from IV down to III. The EVE University Wiki indicates alpha accounts will face the following effects:

• No longer able to use Tech 2 and Augmented medium drones
• Heavy drone damage drops by 5%
• Medium drone damage drops by 5%
• 10% drop in all drone damage

In addition, CCP announced plans for a revamp of the venerable Vexor Navy Issue. The VNI is used for AFK ratting, with the drone mechanics making the ship the obvious choice for null sec ratting. Also, of botters. From CCP Fozzie's presentation, I get the impression the ship itself won't receive an overall nerf. Instead, the ratio of drone to gun DPS will shift more in favor of guns. The current ship bonuses granted for each level of Gallente Cruiser are 5% to Drone tracking speed and 10% to Drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield. The new bonuses will grant the ship a very high gun tracking bonus and a bonus to active armor repair. Did I mention botters prefer shield tanking? Apparently CCP noticed as well.

The above is not a comprehensive review of the news released at EVE North. Here are a few other bullet points of news I heard in Toronto:

• The 64-bit client beta ends within the next week and 32-bit client support ends by the end of 2019.
• DirectX 12 development to begin, which allows for depreciation of DirectX 9.
• The phase-out of POS in the next few months.
• A new tether state called "mooring" may be introduced.
• Plans to improve the UI & user experience to aid retention (and help existing players).
• We overloaded the scientists infrastructure with our Project Discovery activity.
• The next Aether Wars test to occur at GamesCon.

I now have to pack up and head to the airport. I enjoyed my stay here in Canada, but I'll be honest. I'm looking forward to returning to Reykjavik in 2020.

The Trip To EVE North

Once again, I turn The Nosy Gamer into a travel blog as I attend the EVE North convention in Toronto, Canada. Who would have thought that playing a video game would get me out of the house and jetting around the world?

This year, I started off with a couple of handicaps. I've been ill and need surgery on my sinuses, which is scheduled for July. In the meantime, I have to do a couple of things in preparation, which led to carting around some prescription drugs. I discovered that is really no big deal, at least where the TSA is concerned. I also took a pretty bad fall a week ago and my bruised and scraped up my knee. No serious damage, but my knees are creaky anyway and the fall didn't improve things.

Yesterday started with finishing the packing I should have done Wednesday, but was too busy yakking on Talking in Stations about the CSM election. I was picked up from home around 11 am and whisked off to the airport. It was my first flight on American Eagle and I was impressed with the concourse for the minor operators. The bar was practically 20 steps away, but due to the medications I was taking, I couldn't order a cold one. Thankfully, I finished that prescription this morning, so I'll be able to drink starting tonight.

The flight was uneventful once we took off. Boarding, of course, was an adventure, as the flight attendants had to do the dance of finding enough room for everyone's bags. Due to the problems I have with my knees, I chose a seat in row 1. Lots of leg room, which meant I could stretch out my bad leg. Also, checked bags for business class are free, while the rest of the plane gets charged $25. Considering the difference in price each way was $50, a little cost that was totally worth it.

When we landed in Toronto, the skies had let loose with a credible impression of Niagara Falls. Did I mention I forgot to pack an umbrella? First world problems a resourceful blogger can overcome! But first, I needed to get to my hotel.

The process for transportation was standard. Find the end of the queue at the taxi stand and wait. While waiting, I met up with an expat from the UK who had flown in from Philadelphia. The poor guy was stuck in Philly for a day due to weather, and he had theater tickets. Turns out his apartment was right on the way to my hotel, so we shared the cab. I know Americans might find this hard to believe, but US currency isn't taken in Canada. So he gave me $40 of the useless (to him) paper, which saved him the trouble of exchanging the bills to real money. The ride, including the tip I gave, came out to $85 CAD. Basically, I spent $25 USD for the trip, as my credit card doesn't charge me for foreign transaction fees.

I'm staying at the One King West Hotel & Residence instead of the Marriott Delta Hotel where the event is taking place. I chose the One King West due to its location within the city, as I plan to catch a few of the sites around Toronto. Good thing I did, because while my flight arrived on-time, the storm created quite a traffic jam. By the time I checked into the hotel, most of the stores had already closed. Apparently, a lot of Toronto shuts down at 7 pm, and I really needed to pick up some distilled water (don't ask).

I received an upgrade

First, though, my room. The lady at the reception desk gave me an upgrade with a better view and better amenities. When I walked in the room, all I thought was, "Wow!". I have a kitchenette, complete with a microwave oven, dishwasher, and washer/dryer unit. The microwave comes in handy for warming up the water. I'm just not sure what I am going to do with two televisions, as I don't watch TV, even at home.

My work area

But no matter how nice the room, my life was going to become a little more miserable if I didn't acquire some distilled water. Fortunately, a quick Google search located a 24-hour grocery store an easy 5 minute walk away from the hotel. A real, honest-to-goodness, huge grocery store. So I went down to the concierge desk to borrow an umbrella, and off I went.

I bought a 4-liter bottle of distilled water plus the Canadian equivalent of Hot Pockets (because I have a microwave) and settled in for the night. The store had a sign stating "We sell beer", so I guess package liquor stores are a thing in Ontario, but as I couldn't drink last night, I passed on the opportunity.

The next step after hitting the publish button is to head over to the Delta and register for the event. I've already did a little walking around, including going a block past the Starbucks to go to a Tim Horton's. After a decent breakfast, I'm ready to do a little exploring.

Op success! pic.twitter.com/BMFyqtsrSz

— Noizy (@noizygamer) June 21, 2019

A Quick Look At Whale Activity On EVE Online's Black Market

One of the more amusing subjects that emerged from the recent CSM election was the question of pay-to-win mechanics. Is EVE Online pay-to-win already? Some of the arguments had me cracking up. I was reading one of the channels on the Talking in Stations and someone asserted that no one purchases titans with real life money.

In a world where people spend tens of thousands of dollars on ships for a game still in alpha, people won't spend hundreds of dollars on titans in EVE? Right. I don't have figures on players who do so using the CCP-approved process, but I have a little insight on the black market.

I don't try to keep track of titans purchased directly for cash. But the RMT website Player Auctions provides customer satisfaction reviews which I track. Not all transactions have reviews, so the numbers in the chart above are low. But from the beginning of 2017 to the end of May 2019, I recorded 58 transactions of 75 billion ISK or more. I've always figured titans cost at least 75 billion ISK, so I've used that as the standard for probably titan sales. By that standard, 58 of the sales were probably related to purchasing a titan.

People informed me that titans don't cost 75 billion ISK. Outside Delve, the going rate is 65 billion ISK, with costs within the Imperium down to 45 billion ISK. The below graph is the result of the change in assumptions. The number of titan-scaled transactions jumped from 58 to 201.

One of the peculiarities of the second graph is the decline in the middle of the time period, running from December 2017 to May 2018.  During that time, CCP went a lot overboard on sales to attract a buyer. Even whales need a big enough hazard discount to make buying off the black market an attractive proposition.

Over the years I've gathered a lot of data on real money trading in EVE Online, both the type sanctioned by CCP and found on shady third-party sites. I might have to create more short posts like this instead of writing 10-page essays. I hear EVE players like graphs and charts.

Grumpy About Triglavian Skills

I looked at the skill queue on my main character and liked what I saw.

Six more skills and I'd have Mastery V in all sub-cap ships in EVE Online. January 2020 was going to be a good month. But then I remembered, CCP added those damn Triglavians.

I totally neglected the new Triglavian skills. I can sit in a frigate, but can't run a disintegrator. The only skills I have I picked up running Abyssal sites, and quite frankly, I got a little tired of that. I'll have to pick some up when I get back from EVE North and get the PI colonies up and running again.

When CCP introduces new things to EVE, I'm usually pretty late to jumping on the bandwagon. I have no desire to fly Triglavian ships, at least for now. Maybe I'll find a reason in a year or two. Mostly, the whole collecting skills at this point is for completionist reasons, as the only ships I fly are either Minmatar, Sisters of EVE, or ORE. Well, and occasionally the Arbitrator.

I guess I should welcome the requirement to learn the skills of our new tripartite overlords. I can delay the time I have to make the decision to either stop training on my main or start learning capital ship skills a few months longer. Because as much as I don't fly Gallente ships, I'll fly capitals even less.

My Schedule For EVE North

With the CSM elections out of the way, the next big event on my EVE calendar is EVE North. Held in Toronto on the weekend of 22-23 June, the substitute on the schedule for the yearly event in Reykjavik isn't nearly as big. Then again, as the expansion of a player-run get together, any such expectations are a bit silly. Still, CCP may surprise with some news as it begins the development cycle leading to the next expansion, probably sometime in November. Needless to say, I will plan my schedule in Toronto accordingly.

First is the pre-convention activities. I always try to get into town for these events a couple of days early, and this trip is no different. I arrive on Thursday evening and hope to settle in for a day of walking around Toronto on Friday. I might meet up with people, although I'll have to refrain from drinking Thursday night due to some medications I'm taking. But the prescription runs out in time for me to drink with everyone on Friday.

Saturday is the big day and I might just camp in the Soco Ballroom. The welcoming ceremony and EVE Keynote are basically mandatory. Depending on the description of the "EVE Development Variety Hour", I may take a two-hour lunch. I will return in time for the player presentations running from 1400 - 1630. The Triglavian lore presentation and the New Eden Report's Year in Review are the highlights, but the "Alone in New Eden" presentation has an intriguing title.

The only mandatory session on Sunday is the one at 1000, "Player Experience - Support, Security & Community". I'm not sure exactly what to expect, although I hope a couple of interesting graphs and charts are included. I think the next session I'll attend is "State of Roleplaying". I'm not really sure the AMA at 1300 is worth giving up my two-hour lunch. And, of course, the closing ceremony.

Not really a big weekend. A few hours listening to presentations and 4 days catching up with people I usually only interact with over the internet. But I can use the break, plus I should pick up a couple of topics to write about.

Catching Up On The EVE Story

I'm a little behind the times on the lore of EVE Online. Not the player created history. The story of the empires that sets the background for New Eden. So I thought looking at the latest news article posted on 7 June and comment on the goings-on of our NPC overlords.

New Triglavian Strategy Emerges As Collective Establishes "Minor Conduits"

Yulai, Genesis – A new phase in the Triglavian invasion has developed in the last few days, with it becoming clear that the appearance of sites of space-time distortion across invasion zones is an effort to establish persistent "conduits" from Abyssal Deadspace into New Eden's known space. Triglavian messages heralding the appearance of the conduits were received by a number of capsuleers. CONCORD has designated the sites as "Minor Conduit" locations but the Triglavian Collective are maintaining significant forces at these sites, while continuing to roam across the systems within the invasion zones.

The implementation of Triglavian invasions continues apace. I really like how CCP is conducting the rollout. First, the events are building up gradually, giving the implantation of the conduct a live event feel, although without the live actors present. Second, CCP isn't just handing all the information out to players. Don't get me wrong, I like knowing what's about to hit us on Tranquility. But MMORPGs probably need to retain some sense of mystery. Finally, the phased rollout allows CCP to test each portion of the new content before deploying the next portion. I like hiding technical requirements like that.

Sansha's Nation Launch Incursion in Fabas Constellation; Widespread Landings in Nasreri System

Nasreri, Genesis – New Sansha's Nation incursion operations in the Fabas constellation have included major landings on the third and fourth planets of the Nasreri system. Reports indicate that major cities and colonies on those planets have been raided by True Slave forces and large numbers of people have been carried off in Sansha's Nation vessels. Civil defense has been overwhelmed in the face of what appears to be an opportunistic attack while CONCORD and Amarr forces redeploy in response to Triglavaian invasion fleet movements.

A reminder that just because CCP added Triglavian invasions that Sansha's Nation incursions are still present. What I really need to do is watch for times when invasions and incursions overlap. Sansha's Nation events stick to constellations while I've seen Triglavian invasions cross region boundaries. I want to see what happens if the two types of events overlap, especially since the Triglavians announced they don't care much for the slavers.

Blood Raider Attack on Matar Staged from FOBs in Evannater Constellation; Atgur Mining Operations Also Raided

Matar, Pator – The coast of Mikramurka on Matar has been struck by a vicious assault by the Blood Raider Covenant, with the seaport of Sundsele especially badly hit according to reports. The Blood Raider strike force is believed to have staged out of forward operating bases in the Evannater constellation. Mining installations in the Atgur system have also been struck by the Blood Raiders, with the cultist pirates apparently taking advantage of mobilization and redeployment movements of local Republic Fleet elements.

If Triglavians and the forces of Sansha Kuvakei aren't enough, the Blood Raiders decided to remind everyone they are still around with an attack on the Minmatar homeworld. Oh, and while they are at it, why not attack a system in a high sec island as well? I am bugged a little bit by this, because the Minmatar Republic is the home of the Angel Cartel. To add insult to injury, the Guardian Angels, a division of the Angel Cartel, provides security to the Serpentis Corporation. More Angel content please!

Upwell Consortium Announces Small Arms Contract with AEGIS

Yulai, Genesis – Upwell Consortium Chairman Yani Sar Arteu expressed delight today, as he shook hands with Provost Marshal Kasiha Valkanir, the head of CONCORD’s AEGIS division, at a gathering of defense contractors in Yulai. Shortly after their first time meeting in person the two signed an indefinite contract that marked Upwell Consortium as a supplier of armaments for the spacelane and installation security division.

If Project Nova were still in the news, I'd speculate that CCP's FPS in development was introducing new weapons. Instead, I wonder if this bit of news is intended as foreshadowing for some cool new weaponry coming to the game this fall.

In Other News

Royal Heir Arim Ardishapur Holding Audience for Local Dignitaries at Governor's Palace in Tanoo

Tanoo is a system in the Ammatar Mandate, which is overseen by the Ardishapur family. The system is also 4 jumps from the main trade hub of the Minmatar Republic, Rens. A good place for an incident, if CCP decides one is needed.

Military Governor Takes Command of Defense Operations in Patrie Constellation

To be honest, I don't know the significance of the constellation in Essence. Local flavoring to indicate tensions are up everywhere?

Mobilization of Kaalakiota's Home Guard and Lai Dai Protection Services in Minnen

Another constellation-wide mobilization, this time in the Caldari State region of Lonetrek.

Tribal Council Meeting to Consider Special Powers for Sanmatar Maleatu Shakor

Given the recent attack on the Minmatar homeworld in addition to the Triglavian invasion, granting additional power to the Minmatar leader is not entirely unexpected.

Accusations of Jovian Interference and Collaboration with Triglavians Directed at SOCT

Think some people aren't wondering why the powerful CONCORD are not dealing with the Triglavians?

Packing Up Elder Scrolls Online

With the CSM election underway. I'm just about ready to fly pixilated spaceships in virtual space once again. When covering an election, so much time is usually spent on doing research and updating websites that I spend very little time playing EVE. This year was a little different, as I spent most of my free time playing Elder Scrolls Online instead of EVE.

One of the goals I set for myself this year was to finish the base ESO game and reach 300 veteran points on a character. I actually managed to finish the Morrowind expansion and my healing templar has over 350 veteran points. I've maxed out all crafting professions except jewelcrafting. And I give myself a pass on jewelcrafting as the profession was not included in the original game. In short, I've reached the goals I set for myself when I took up ESO last May.

Perhaps I'm getting sentimental in my old age, but I don't want to just drop my character in the middle of nowhere. Instead, I'm going to mothball the character on the off-chance I want to play the game in the future. And since the game technically doesn't require an ESO Plus subscription, I can keep my crafting research queues filled learning those 9th traits I never got to. For EVE players, think alpha skill queues.

I have probably leaving my character in the best shape of any character I've ever played. She has a big mansion in Wayrest, the capital of the Daggerfall Covenant. In the mansion are 5 crates with 210 slots of inventory space. I still need to put in the crafting stations to do research so I can just log in and log out to update my research queues.

I also did some spring cleaning of my inventory. The ESO Plus subscription doubles inventory and bank space, so I made sure I was using less than half of each. I'm not sure how the mount inventory capacity works, so I may wind up with 115 inventory slots on my character instead of 85 once the subscription ends. If so, I could drop in from time to time to do things, as 115 slots is plenty, as long as I don't pick up a lot of crafting materials.

Oh, crafting materials. The biggest benefit to the ESO Plus subscription is the crafting bag. The only way I can see to replace the crafting bag is to create numerous mules, spend gold to increase their carry capacity, and then swap between them often. Since I only intend to keep my research queues filled, a totally unnecessary effort. But if I ever come back to play, and don't want to pay for ESO Plus, a viable strategy.

My subscription ends Thursday, so I need to purchase the crafting stations, write down some notes on where I left off, and then concentrate on EVE once more. I think I might even write a review of the game. After a rocky start, I came to like Tamriel. But not enough to make ESO my permanent home game.

CSM 14 Voting Starts Today

Barring any controversies over the next week, I can relax and begin enjoying EVE again. The elections for the 14th Council of Stellar Management begin today and run through 17 June. The link to vote is buried a bit on the community site, but you can find it here. The link is probably on the launcher, but I had to leave for work before voting began. Dunk Dinkle provided a handy how-to guide on how to vote.

For those who are just beginning to notice the election and don't know anything about the candidates, I created a Google site with information from the last 5 CSM elections. The one for this week's election is here.

Once again, the podcast/streaming community has covered the election with a series of interviews. Between 3-time CSM member Jin'taan and Talking in Stations, 31 interviews were conducted with 23 of the 44 candidates in the race. One of the candidates Jin'taan interviewed did not make the final ballot, which is one of the pitfalls of having to conduct interviews before the ballot is announced. On my site, I had to delete 16 candidate pages this year. Yes, that many people were either rejected or decided not to run after all. I hear the number was even greater as not all potential candidates posted their intentions on the official forums.

In addition to Jin'taan and his one-man operation, I'd like to give a special shout out to MacCloud, the technical wizard who produces Talking in Stations. He stayed up all Saturday night to ensure that the remaining CSM interviews, including three conducted on Saturday, were posted to the internet on Sunday. A lot of people forget (or don't know) about all the work behind the scenes required to bring a podcast to life.

I'll have a couple of final posts once the election results are announced at EVE North, but for now, I'm finished with the CSM election coverage for this year. I do have a final question, though. What kind of turnout do you expect for this year's election? If you could take my Twitter poll, I'd appreciate it. The poll will run until downtime on Saturday.

Today's the start of the CSM election, running until June 17. Last year, 29,226 ballots were cast. How many accounts do you think will vote this year? #tweetfleet #CSM14election

— Noizy (@noizygamer) June 10, 2019

Thoughts On The CSM 14 Election One Week Before Voting Begins

With 6 days remaining until the Council of Stellar Management elections begin next Monday. I think I am all CSM'd out for this year. I still have to check for updates on the forums, although I think the odds of any additional candidates creating a new threads in the CSM Campaign section of the forums ranges from slim to none. Both Jin'taan and Talking In Stations have additional interviews due out this week. Between the two, 9 out of the 44 candidates have interviews posted so far. I need to keep listening, as some candidates have foot-in-mouth disease. For example, don't say, "I don't care if CCP sells bullets that do a little more damage, frankly. I don't see that as completely destabilizing the game." Wargaming removed gold ammo from World of Tanks for a very good reason. If a game publisher wants to attract players, a reputation for pay-to-win items like gold ammo is counter-productive to that goal.

I also am hearing some big talk from some of the null sec blocs about how they plan to win seats. Legacy is an interesting case study. No candidate backed by Brave Collective leadership has ever lost a CSM race. In Dunk Dinkle, Brave once again has a very strong candidate. Conversely, Test Alliance Please Ignore has never had a candidate win a seat. Last year, Creecher Virpio would have ended the drought but not for some meta-gaming by members of Pandemic Legion. Will Vily break the curse?

Another question is the fate of two incumbents, Sort Dragon and Killah Bee. Last year, the pair benefited greatly from the disqualification of Pandemic Horde's chosen candidate during the application process. With not only the leader of the Horde, Gobbins, running, but Aegaeonos and Arqui Nurbs as well, I don't think Killah Bee can count on help from those quarters. Sort Dragon has the additional handicap of fighing against PanFam at this time, so a big chunk of his support from last year is unavailable for his run for a fifth term on CSM.

The other question is whether high sec, low sec, or wormhole space can elect a representative. High sec's best hope is incumbent Steve Ronuken, who is running to win for a sixth time. Three-time CSM member Mike Azariah is also running, with Lorelei Ierendi, a candidate who's come close with a few strong showings, a dark horse candidate. Low sec only has one candidate, Matthew Dust, lists faction warfare amongst his current credentials to rally around. In contrast, wormholers have several candidates running. If the wormhole community can get together and vote for all 6 at the top of their tickets, in whatever order they choose, a chance exists for w-space to sneak a candidate on. The question is, can the residents of spooky space find that unity of purpose as they did in the CSM 8 election?

One other observation. I won't write an endorsement post or announce who I've voting for until after the election, if then. Like I said at the top of the post, I'm all CSM'd out, and I still have several interviews to listen to. Two more weeks until I leave for EVE North in Toronto and this whole election is over. I think I'll drink to that.