Oh My God, They Decked Chribba!

On Tuesday CONCORD Preservation and Recovery wardec'd Otherworld Empire. Otherworld Empire is owned and operated by Chribba, a beloved member of the Eve community. If you have ever used Eve Files to host a graphic for a forum signature, Eve Search to search the Eve Online forums, Eve Agents to locate an agent to do some mission running, or Eve Offline to track announcements about downtimes or server population, you have used a site created and run by Chribba. Throw in his 16 ship capital fleet devoted to mining Veldspar, the most common ore in New Eden, and you have a character sure to attract affection.

Now, when Chribba was wardec'd, he knew he couldn't defeat his adversaries himself. Due to CCP's rules, he cannot use his capital fleet to defend his high-sec player-owned stations. So instead of hiring mercenaries to defend the POS (which he has enough money to do), he decided to make a little stop in the Crime and Punishment forums, post the wardec, and then offer up the chance to have a little fun.

Naturally, the denizens and pirates of the C&P forums decided to run off and help Chribba. This should be fun to watch. The thread is already turning into an epic.

Faction Warfare Footage

Fresh from YouTube comes some footage of some faction warfare between the Gallente and Caldari militias (with some pirates mixed in) in the BlackRise war zone. For those of you unfamiliar with Eve Online's faction warfare, FW is CCP's version of realm vs. realm (RvR) made popular by games like Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online. The difference is that Eve's faction warfare is a stepping stone to playing the Great Game (to use an analogy from European history) in 0.0 space while in DAoC and Warhammer the games are all about the conflict between NPC empires.

I'm posting this video because it is extremely well done. In most pew-pew videos made by players in Eve (and most other games) the UI is usually visable, and in Eve, the UI will take up half the space. Not so in this video. I highly recommend watching this one.

Enjoy!

The Christmas Spirit In Eve

Here's a story from the Interstellar Correspondents that's in the spirit of Christmas. Merry Christmas and enjoy!

Free Jump Clone Access Service Celebrates First Anniversary
reported by: ISD Aarosin Pazuli | 2009.12.24 20:03:07

New Eden - Estel Arador Corp Services [EACS] recently celebrated its first year of providing free jump clone access to capsuleers from all over New Eden.

During the year, EACS has helped provide over 4000 capsuleers with free jump clone access, "There were 4032 clients in the first year, which is way more than I expected before I started the service," said Estel Arador the man behind this venture. The service currently provides access to approximately 447 jump clone facilities scattered throughout many regions in New Eden. EACS provides free jump clone access to capsuleers who otherwise would be unable to obtain them due to the high personal or corporate standings required.

To use EACS or any other jump clone service is simple; train the skill Infomorph Psychology to the appropriate level depending on how many jump clones are desired, join the service corporation, fly to a station they have high standings with that provide jump clones, pay the 100,000ISK charge to the clone providing corporation and the clone is now available.

EACS currently employs Estel himself, being in charge of management and policies and his "little nephew, who is CEO and handles the day to day operation." In the past capsuleers were allowed to join the corporation and stay long enough for them to effectively raise the EACS standings but in recent time Estel has stopped doing this, stating "It's increasingly difficult to find people who can raise more standings than they drop". Now Estel personally works through a great deal of missions with low level agents to build standings. Currently EACS are working on raising their standings with the Caldari, they will then be able to provide jump clone services at even more stations.

Unlike most of their competitors EACS provides their access service free of charge. So far the industry has made little response to the EACS. One of his colleagues "Genji Ancient" Estel says, "wished me luck and said it was noble to offer it for free." As of right now Estel has no plans to create any other free capsuleer services. Previous plans to create a free public blueprint library were scrapped when he realized that "people would be able to cancel each others production jobs. If there would be a way to solve that, I'd start such a service immediately."

A Change In Direction

I haven't posted for awhile. Partly because things got crazy at work. Just to give you some sort of idea, I've got 15 days of vacation I haven't been able to take and will lose because my company doesn't roll unused vacation over into the next year. Hey, stuff happens and I partially did this to myself. Next year I'll just have to make sure I plan my vacation time well in advance.

But another reason for not posting is I've been playing Eve Online. I've discovered that playing Eve isn't just about sitting in front of a computer logged into the game pushing buttons. I've spent hours playing with EveMon planning out skill queues for characters on both my accounts. And I've spent a few hours more using the Eve Fitting Tool trying to get the most out of the ships I fly. I've even opened up some spreadsheets trying to figure out profitable trade routes.

But I just don't spend a lot of time doing solo things. The writing I have done lately has been on the Eve University forums. One of the requirements for getting titles and roles is to post on the forums and I've been trying to put some quality work out there. I think I can get the "Student" title now but I've got an idea for a forum post that I think I'll submit as soon as I've written it. But it wouldn't be correct to say I write just for the titles. I'm actually learning more about how to play the game by reading and participating in the forum debates.

So am I just going to fade away into New Eden. I don't think so. One of the things that attracted me to Eve Online were the in-game stories. So what I think I'm going to do is post the stories, both the totally fictional role-playing back stories as well as the news reports of what players are actually doing, that are produced by the volunteers of the Interstellar Correspondents of the Interstellar Services Department. Occasionally I'll try to post something intelligent, but right now I'm just going to school on one character and flying a hauler around with another. The stories I find on the login page to Eve are a lot more interesting. I'll post one of the Chronicle stories below just to give you an idea. I hope you enjoy it.

ISD: Interstellar Services Department A Department of CONCORD

The Admiral closed the holo-conference connection and glanced out the window. Darkness had fallen and two of New Caldari’s moons had risen.

“Continue personal journal,” the Admiral said. A small flashing icon appeared in the bottom corner of the holographic display.

“The divisional leaders’ meeting this evening was productive, not all good news, but productive. STAR is reporting an increase in new pilots coming out of the various academies and an increased workload. I wish the academies would give a bit more real-life training instead of simulations. Piloting a Mammoth in a system with a lower CONCORD presence is much different than racing a souped-up Burst between here and Matigu. STAR needs more personnel to give these new pilots the assistance they need.”

‘The Communications Relay Commission is reporting an increase in faster-than-light message traffic. Their fluid routers are handling the load fine, but a slight increase in funding and resources may need to be considered in the near future. Spurious and illegal traffic is declining due to their efforts and some activity has been turned over to the SCC for further action. There are going to be some very annoyed CEOs and CFOs enjoying some time in the penal colonies.”

There was a knock at the door. The icon on the screen remained steady at the Admiral’s “Pause recording” prompt. “Enter,” the Admiral called out. An aide de camp walked into the room carrying a black striped folder.

“Sir, AURORA is reporting an increase in Angel Cartel activity in Curse.” The aide passed the folder over to the Admiral to look through. Graphs of souls lost, ships and cargo destroyed, projected economic impact to trade in the region and other information was dispersed through dossiers of Cartel agents, activity reports and intelligence.

“Forward AURORA’s sanitized findings to DED for action. Make sure the intelligence is clean. We don’t want to lose another AURORA agent. Don’t make the same mistake your predecessor made.” The Admiral handed the folder back.

“No, Sir! The information will be clean with no possible ties to our sources.” The aide tucked the folder under his arm, saluted and left the room.

“Resume”

The record icon on the holo-screen started flashing again. “The boys in the Technology Division want a closer look at the Transcranial Microcontrollers and see if there are any manufacturing ties to the Sansha devices. I have to agree with the Bug Hunters, the Inner Circle made too quick a decision on their usage. The Bug Hunters are also working on some other issues, the notification after a successful jump installed in the last pod flightware upgrade caused some pilots migraines and they got that removed quick enough. They bust some major butt working on these things.”

The Admiral paused for a moment and rubbed his eyes. The record icon continued to flash next to the clock. “End personal journal, bookmark and close all files, shut down. Time to head home.” The holo-projectors blinked and went dark.

What's Happened To My Corp Over The Past 2 Weeks

Not a lot has happened in my gaming life since the last time I posted. I haven't listened to gaming podcasts and I canceled my SOE Station Pass account yesterday. All I've done gaming related is play Eve Online.

I'm discovering that a good corporation makes all the difference in the game. Eve University is one of the good ones. If you are new to Eve I highly recommend making it your first corporation. Here's a quick update on what occurred to the Uni between November 1-11.

Nov 1 - Was war-dec'd by a corporation called Warsmiths. A war-dec means that a corporation has declared war on you and thus can attack your corporation's ships anyplace in New Eden. Without that war-dec (or other similar mechanic in place) the NPC police force called CONCORD will destroy your ship if you attack someone.

Nov 2 - A Unista fleet locates the CEO of the Warsmiths in his corporation's home system and destroys his heavy assault cruiser.

Nov 3 - A member of Warsmiths enters Eve University's home system and a merry chase ensues with Unista fleets chasing the Warsmith. After a few hours he lets a fleet catch up with him and proceeds to use smartbombs to destroy 1 destroyer, 21 frigates, and pods (kills the pilot) 22 pilots before the rest of the fleet destroys his Dominix battleship. I get home from work after the smartbombing and am part of a fleet that chases the Dominix pilot (in another Dominix) around the system until he logs off.

Nov 4-5 - The pilot of the Dominix posts the destruction of the Uni frigates and pods on YouTube. (He put up a more polished version on Nov 11). Over the course of two days, Eve Uni fleets camp in the Warsmiths home system and the Dominix pilot loses a Rupture (cruiser) and Crow (interceptor) while the University loses an Atron (frigate), Rupture, Caracal (both cruisers) and Harbinger (battlecruiser).

Nov 6-7 - No action for the blockading Unista fleets as the Warsmiths either stay in their stations or avoid the Uni fleets. (On Nov 6 I take part in one of the blockading fleets.) The Warsmiths retract their war declaration on Nov 7, ending the war early. The war doesn't officially end until 0:22 GMT on Nov 9.

More importantly, while searching for possible Warsmiths POS (player owned stations) located in wormholes, University intelligence assets discover 2 POS owned by the Dynaverse Corporation. Dynaverse Corporation is one of the corporations who took a mercenary contract to fight Eve University back in April & May and destroyed the Uni POS in the Uni's old home system of Korsiki. Plans are formed to give Dynaverse a little payback.

Nov 8 - Two Unista fleets totaling more than 130 ships invade the Dynaverse-controlled wormhole and quickly put both Dynaverse Corporation POS into reinforced.

Nov 9 - Seeing that the Unistas have the entrance to the wormhole solidly camped across all time zones and with no hope of escape, the Dynaverse Corporation forces inside the wormhole surrender. The Eve University commander allows the Dynaverse pilots to keep one ship each and whatever the ships can carry in exchange for unanchoring the two POS so that the Unistas can carry the POS, all the modules, and all the leftover ships and odds and ends back to the University.

Nov 11 - The operation ends with University scouts staying behind to help people in the U.S. and Canadian time zones home. I took part in the initial fleet and was one of those who needed to be guided out of the wormhole since I was at work when the main fleet pulled out of the wormhole.

I've written a better account of this period, but because it uses material from the private parts of the Eve University forums I can't post the article here. Let's just say that Eve is an interesting place.

Sunday Odds And Ends

I'm back to posting. Hopefully work will settle down, but the less said about work, the better. I probably will not post every day, but that just depends on time.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been listening to more game radio and not too many podcasts. Online Gaming Radio's Tuesday night EverQuest 2 block has been a staple of mine for a long time, but I'm also listening to Eve Radio and New Eden Radio. Except for the classic rock it is not exactly my kind of music, but the music does fit Eve Online. And quite frankly, I'm more interested in the on-air talent anyway.

In Eve Online, I've joined Eve University and attended a couple of classes. So far I'm liking it although the Uni has enjoyed peace since I've been in. I'm a carebear, but I've got a couple of Rifters fitted for tackling and am training up my EWar skills to be effective in Vigils. Okay, as a Minmatar player that means target painting, but hey, pilots flying missile boats will like me.

In EverQuest 2, I'm seriously considering canceling my account. I don't really have time to play a lot and I'm getting bored with crafting in the game. I've been doing it for over 3 years and industry and trade in Eve is new and fresh. Last night I was playing EQ2 and I wasn't having fun. I'm paid up through the end of the month, but I don't really see myself playing anymore. The hardest part of giving up the game will be giving up a character I've played so much, so I'll see if I can really give it up.

UPDATE: Eve University was wardec'd at 11:56 GMT today. Looks like it's time to prepare for war.

Witty Ranter Under New Management

In podcast news, Adam has given up hosting duties of The Witty Ranter to the hosts of the Free Play podcast, Riknas and Andras. The first episode was released yesterday on VirginWorlds with Adam and Virgin Worlds own Brent as the guests. The subject was MMO closures and the discussion ranged from recently closed games to those who are in trouble with a few detours in between. I'd suggest giving episode 17 a listen and I'm looking forward to where Riknas and Andras will take the podcast.

Another Article on Virtual Economies

I was doing a little web surfing today and ran across an article in The Guardian about virtual economies. The article talked about Second Life, China, and Eve Online. Yes, the article made the mandatory mention of an Eve scandal, in this case the Eve Bank scandal from July. But the article did mention CCP's chief economist Eyjólfur Guðmundsson. While a lot of talk centered around Second Life's $600 million economy, there is a reason Eve gets so much coverage. While the economy in EverQuest 2 is receiving some academic study, Eve is a very sophisticated economy that is seriously studied by the game developer. You can read the Q2 2009 Economic newsletter that came out in August for some examples or just watch the video from Dr. Guðmundsson's presentation below.





But I'm not just using The Guardian article as an excuse to post another Eve video. I was also reminded of an episode of Shut Up We're Talking from 2008 that also discussed owning items in games and what that could mean to players. Some of those fears of politicians looking to our games as another method of taxing us continue on as an article on Ars Technica discussed how proposals to institute taxes were posted on the official U.S. Internal Revenue Service back in January.

So virtual economies have been attracting attention for a while now. The question is how much is the real world going to intrude into our games? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Gate Camp Escape Trick

Ever since I started playing Eve Online I've heard that using the autopilot will get you killed. Yesterday I learned a technique to use if a pilot encounters a gate camp that requires using the autopilot to escape back through the gate, especially if your ship is equipped with a micro warp drive (MWD).

If a player encounters a gate camp and attempts to immediately jump back through the gate, a message appears on screen telling the player that he is between phases and can't pass through the gate. This message can be bypassed by using the autopilot. Just follow the below steps.

1. Stay calm. You're cloaked. Use the time wisely.
2. Open "People And Places"
3. Under "Search Type" select "Solar System"
4. Under "Search String" type the name or first few characters of the system you want to jump back through.
5. In the results window that pops up, right click on the name of the system and select "Set Destination"
6. Click on the autopilot button.
7. Once the ship decloaks, activate any speed boosting modules, preferably an MWD, and make a run for the gate.

This technique does not guarantee a pilot will escape a gate camp, but it will give you a fighting chance.

Sunday Odds And Ends

I'm writing and posting this a little earlier than usual because I have to go to class. Class on a Sunday morning? That means only one thing; I've joined Eve University in Eve Online. I'll be writing more about this in the days and weeks to come, but I really like the idea of learning how to play the game right.

On the podcast front, Massively Speaking #72 was a first in that Shawn Schuster did not appear on the podcast. However Sera Brennan and Kyle Horton filled in ably for the ailing Shawn. On another front, the Van Hemlock podcast has re-introduced the topic show. I really enjoyed Van Hemlock #72 in which Tim and Jon talked about the role of stories in computer games. My schedule has been a bit hectic this week, but I am listening to No Prisoners, No Mercy #46 featuring a look at Aion and interviews with Giskard of The Engineering Guild modding site and MMO pioneer Richard Bartle as I write this. Sister Julie really has a thing about shooting Teletubbies.

As I mentioned before, in Eve I've joined Eve University. No more just flying around the galaxy for me. Now I have to follow some rules. That's okay, because one of the things new students are encouraged to do is set up their overviews properly. Hmm, that's something I've wanted to learn how to do since the first day I logged in, so I've already managed to accomplish one thing on my first day. And because I'm a natural carebear, I've made the decision I'm going to participate in all the corporations wars. Wait, what was that? A carebear going to war? That's right. I gotta learn sometime, and in the middle of a war seems to be the best place. That does mean following the war policy which will interfere with my carebear industrial ways. Of course, I have a second account so I can get around those restrictions to get more isk if needed.

In EverQuest 2, I'm still suffering from the blahs after reaching max level on my ranger. At this point Eve is new and shiny and I'm learning new things while in EQ2 I'm basically killing time until the next expansion. I'm still logging in and my woodworker is still making good plat selling ammunition. I've stopped making totems as the competition is willing to take less of a profit on them than I am. But I'm getting the itch to run some more quests so hopefully sometime this week I'll find the time.