Risk vs. Reward No Longer Applies?

I didn't feel well last night so I skipped the pub crawl and read the dev blogs that CCP Fozzie put out last night.  After reading them, my reaction was...

W. T. F. ?!

Why the reaction?  Because pilots no longer have to probe down gravimetric sites.  They can use the ship’s built-in anomaly scanning equipment.  This is important because now the new ore sites are just a little more difficult to find than asteroid belts.  As I do my mining in low sec, this is rather important.

At the same time the ore will contain extra low end minerals.  Here are the new mineral concentrations for the ore found in low sec sites:

• Crokite: 38000 Tritanium (+37669), 331 Nocxium, 663 Zydrine
• Dark Ochre: 25500 Tritanium (+25250), 500 Nocxium, 250 Zydrine
• Gneiss: 3700 Tritanium (+3529), 3700 Mexallon (+3529), 700 Isogen (+357), 171 Zydrine
• Spodumain: 71000 Tritanium (+67810), 9000 Pyerite (+8590), 140 Megacyte

Is that enough extra reward to make up for the increased risk for mining in an ore site?  I don't know, although I'm inclined to say no.  Perhaps that is because of the increased risk in mining in low sec belts with the "Tags4Sec" feature.  Apparently no one mines in low sec belts to CCP decided to just turn them into PvP areas where players can fight over the rats that drop the security status tags.  For miners, that is definitely a rise in risk with no increase in reward.  I guess those of us who mine in low sec belts had it too easy.

I guess I should be thankful that us low sec players will benefit from a feature put in for null sec players.  At least I'll can still mine the low end minerals in low sec and not have to go to high sec.  Of course, the changes don't help when I am mining to get ore to finish up a storyline mission.

I plan on attending the resource rebalance session today so I'll find out more.  I really want to find some way to work the new system because right now I think I may have to head back to high sec.  I really don't want to do that.  High sec sucks.

Fanfest 2013: Day 1

The first day of Fanfest 2013 is in the books and I managed to somehow attend all the sessions I originally planned.  I think I'll have plenty to discuss for weeks to come, but for now I'll just record my day and what I took away from the presentations.

My Fanfest 2013 Schedule

This year I'm a little happier with the Fanfest schedule than I was last year.  A year ago my schedule had holes in what I wanted to see, which worked out because I could just walk back to my hotel and take a nap or blog a bit.  This year I'm staying at the Hilton, which is two miles away from Harpa.  Fortunately for me the schedule makers smiled down on me and left me with a full schedule on all three days.

So what does my schedule look like for the next three days?  Let's see...

The Celtic Cross

Something that is becoming something of a tradition at Fanfest is the Tweetfleet meet up the night before the convention begins.  I went last year and the bar, The Celtic Cross, was packed.  I decided while wandering around Reykjavik on Monday to go ahead and check the bar out before the huge wave of Eve Online fans arrived.

Upstairs at the bar

I got in early and was able to poke around and take some pictures.  Then a pair on Canadians, a pilot from Get Off My Lawn and his brother, came in and started playing a game that apparently is popular in the local bars.  For 1,500 ISK the bartender spun a wheel and where the wheel stopped is what they got to drink.

A winner!

Their first try netted them 1 meter of beer.  One meter of beer turned out to be 13 rather large glasses of draft beer.  Not bad considering the typical beer wound up going for 900 kr. 

Eventually more pilots came and went, with a few surprised that people were talking openly about things like Maelstroms.  That's one of the nice things about Fanfest.  People who usually only get to talk about Eve with people over Mumble or Team Speak get to actually talk to others face-to-face about internet spaceships.

After six beers, including one I won when I split a spin with the brother from Canada, I walked back to the Hilton, my trip a success.  I had successfully remembered how to find the bar, met some Eve players, had a good time, and had enough beer in me to help get my internal clock adjusted to local time.

Back In Iceland

I arrived in Iceland a few hours ago.  When I think about it, attending Fanfest is a little strange.  I'm a rather casual player yet this is the second time I've traveled to this volcanic island floating in the north Atlantic.  The existing theory is that going to Fanfest is an indication that a player is hard core because Iceland if views as so remote.  Following the antics of the players and the devs, I guess I'm hard core.  Actually playing the game, I'm casual.

I'll get more into Fanfest later in the week.  Right now I'm luxuriating in my room at the Hilton.  Booking my trip three months in advance didn't get me into a hotel that is close to Harpa, so I am two miles away.  In exchange, the shower is much better, with water that isn't scalding and actually comes out fast.  Also, I actually have more than one outlet that I can use, which is coming in handy for both using my laptop and recharging my iPhone and iPad and other electrical equipment at the same time.

One thing that shocked me a bit was that I'm charged for using an internet connection in my room.  1,500 ISK is not a lot in Eve, but is a bit for real life.  This isn't the first time I've been charged for internet in a hotel, though, so once I got over the surprise I looked at the bright side.  The internet connection better be good if I'm getting charged for it.  So far, so good.  I'm currently listening to Eve Radio and I couldn't listen at all at the hotel I stayed at last year.

Enough about the hotel, what about the weather?  People following the Tweetfleet on Twitter will know about the constantly changing weather.  This morning was cold and snowing.  Now it is 43F/6C and sunny.  My plan of wearing layers is looking like the right choice.  Once I finish this post I'll be roaming around the city since I never explored this section of town.  I hear the mall and even the zoo is in this area.  I hope people don't mind pictures because I think I'll wind up posting some.

Of course I'll have a few thoughts on Fanfest 2013 as the week goes on but for now I'm just acclimatizing to Iceland.  The weather is really not an issue since we've been going through some cold weather in Chicago before I left, so all I have to do is get my internal clock adjusted.  That shouldn't be too much of a problem, especially if I go drinking tonight.  I have a tendency to wake up early when I've been drinking.  So until then, farewell from sunny/rainy/snowy Reykjavik.