EVE-Mag.com

I’m not a bad person … You just make it easy!

Published on 30. Jan, 2009 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

I haven’t written in some time, and that’s primarily because I’ve found a lack of things that I feel I could comment on, as the other writers on EVE-Mag have already covered them by the time I think about them! Now, however, I feel that I’ve found something that I could speak about…

… Wardeccing. Primarily, wardeccing people that seem to be a target for your corporation and you. Does this make you a bad person? That’s generally a matter of opinion, and I’m going to express mine. The fact is, a wardec on a corporation that apparently has money, flies good ships but isn’t very PvP central may seem like a waste of effort and time, but let’s just say that you’re in it for the money and for the fact that you love to watch other people explode, like me.

Our corporation recently put a ‘dec on a corporation that regularly seems to fly Tech II ships, Harpy’s, Astarte’s, the sort like that. The problem is for them, they seem to primarily run them for missions, and while this makes them a lot of money, it seems to be that they were not fully prepared for the whirlwind that we brought down on them. For example;

• We locate a few of them in a system, and we rather gather our forces.
• We idly harass them for an hour or two with smaller ships that can’t do much damage, just to irritate them into action.
• Myself and another, both in a thorax, wait a single jump away as the others move in larger ships.
• Given the go ahead, we jump in, warp up to the Astarte – Whom is sitting at a station, folks! – then begin shooting away.
• He returns fire, and my thorax takes a beating, but I stick at it, keeping him distracted until… His friend in a Harpy undocks, apparently now eager for a fight.
• The others jump in and immediately warp in, locking up the Astarte as he is closest to station. My thorax goes up, I get to sit there for a minute in my pod as the Astarte explodes into pretty lights. I dock.
• I hear that the Harpy has been blown up as well, and I’m given a share of the loot.

I came out of that, after rebuilding my thorax completely, about maybe 10-15 million ISK richer. Not a big haul, you might think, but for me it is. I’m not an industrial, nor do I really have the patience for mining, but sacrificing a ship to blow other people up? I can do that. We were polite, no smack talking, just a ‘gf’ and some congratulations about in ventrilo. Does this make us bad people?

I mean. Let’s be honest. If you make it easy for someone to make a profit from blowing you up, then it isn’t them that’s the bad person. It’s you. For being a big enough target to garner the attention. Piracy, wardec, can-flipping, it’s all just a part of the game. You might not like it, and you might think that horrible, despicable people might do it then cackle with glee as they go out into their terrible lives RL… We don’t, really, by the way. I try to get involved in those three things I said as much as I can, because of the buzz they give, knowing I could be blown up, but I also have the chance of making ISK and another kill from it.

We’re not all bad. Just that we’re morally bankrupt when playing a video-game.

Ebonezer Skrewed.

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My Veldspar brings …

Published on 12. Dec, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

… all the dupes to 0.4 Space?

Picture credit: Michael Bravo

Apparently so.

Allow me to elaborate a little. Pointing to the fact that my computer recently suffered a massive hardware failure — processor died, had to be replaced — and the fact that my computer is being replaced, having to find a really old replacement processor was quite a pain. I did it, however, and begun calmly floating through the world of EVE-Online once more. So. I’m sitting there, sitting in Mara beside a gate out to Piekura, sniffing and sipping lemsip and muttering about the manflu… I noticed that I was being targeted! Curiously, I looked over to the side, investigating who would target me while I’m obviously well prepared to warp out, assured that my armour could at least take one hit and then I’m gone. Lo’ and behold, an individual by the name of SiTodd. Now, something that must be noted here. SiTodd was sitting about 105km off, and was also blinking red. Now, I’m busy sipping my lemsip, as well as doped up to my eyeballs in decongestants and other flu relief substances, so I couldn’t really be bothered. I was half considering just hopping into Piekura to save myself and him the trouble of sitting around …

… And he warps off. Okay, I mulled through my mind lazily, he’s off to find better hunting. Good luck, and all that. Then I get an invitation to a conversation, I accept in curiosity. So begins this conversation:

[22:17:05] Ebonezer Skrew3d > Yes?
[22:17:07] SiTodd > hey there
[22:17:22] SiTodd > i have a favour to ask of you if you’re not to busy…
[22:17:29] Ebonezer Skrew3d > Mhm?
[22:18:01] SiTodd > i’ve just finished mining some veldspar, could you watch my cargo container while i go and collect my badger?
[22:20:36] Ebonezer Skrew3d > Of course I will come help you, Sir. Considering that thou has a standing of -9.5 and is in a corporation named ‘Carebear Poachers plc’, I’d be more than delighted to help out an individual such as yourself collect simple veldspar in your badger.
[22:21:09] SiTodd > nice attitude, i would have even paid you for your troubles
[22:21:13] Ebonezer Skrew3d > Why, it must be so that you’re an upstanding individual of the highest caliber and utmost decency!
[22:21:36] SiTodd > so you’ll help me then?
[22:22:07] SiTodd > ok then

So. Lets get over the basics here. SiTodd, an individual with a standing of around -9.5 has decided to go and mine veldspar in a 0.4 sec space, and has happily put it altogether in a container, and he sits there and thinks to himself, “Hm. I need a hand to transport this! I know, I’ll ask that individual that I saw over sitting ’safely’ at the gate to come and look after this Veldspar container while I go and get my badger!” Or, well, probably not. He’s looking for some poor sucka to come over so he can pewpew them into oblivion. I’m sure we’re all in agreement about that, right? So, I decide to try and at least get some humor out of this. It also leads me to think.. People honestly fall for these kinds of tricks? Still? I could probably see it happening to someone who’s brand new to the game, but I still hope that people have the common sense to take a look at the cautionary warnings that CCP has happily placed around the game now to help the poor newer players avoid getting blown up and ruining their experiences of the game before they’re more or less ready for it. So I’m curious, and I put out a question. Have you ever seen anyone get tricked by something like this? Have you ever been tricked yourself? Share your experiences. I’m sure it’s something we can all learn from.

Note: I generally use US spelling, but that’s out of sheer laziness. I’m going to have to stop doing that, otherwise I’m going to get little witty responses like this before someone leaps out of the conversation, thinking ‘Hah! Hah! I haz tha last wurd!’

[22:22:15] SiTodd > p.s. it’s spelled “,calibre”.

-Ebonezer Skrewed

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I Can Haz Ghost Training?

Published on 15. Oct, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

by Ebonezer Skrewed … Apparently CCP has decided NO MORE and have put an end to the ‘Ghost Training’. What is ghost training you might ask? Very simple. When someone reaches the end of their account time, what they did was find the biggest (as in: Would take the longest time to train) skill, they would start it training, and then let their account run out of gaming time, letting their skill continue to train in their absence. That is Ghost Training, and apparently, it’s out!

So what are we to do now!? I hear some cry from the EVE-Online forums. Apparently, people are angry, people are upset, people are mad… because they don’t get to continue training their skills while giving CCP no money. Right. Let’s look at this from a logical point of view, one that may cause some upset. CCP is a company, correct? They work as a business to get money, just like any other company. Blizzard is a company, Games Workshop is a company. Both have released an MMO. To train skills in both – as far as I can recall – one must either constantly hit bad things or spend in-game money and constantly grind a particular ability or skill to raise the said ability. If your account runs out on either of these… What happens? Oh. Your skill stops training immediately, because you aren’t there to do anything about it.

Why should it be different for EVE-Online? I understand that it is a much different game when you try to overlay it on top of each of these MMO’s, but one must realise that CCP is a company. A company out to make money. They are not getting any money coming in if you train a skill and let it go away and raise itself while your account is deactivated. They are losing money because you haven’t bought a new time card, you haven’t given them money … yet people expect to still be able to ghost train their skills. It’s a curious way of thinking…

… One that I do not agree with. Yes, I don’t have all the money in the world to spend on things, but if I want to play EVE-Online and get stuff out of it, I have to put in the time and dedication that a game like EVE-Online requires so that I can gain the maximum benefit – while still having fun. I’ve cringed a little when I’ve seen people argue about it on the channels in game. How it isn’t fair. How CCP are robbing us. Well… They aren’t really robbing us. What they’re doing is ensuring that if you want to get things out of the game, you’re going to have to put money into the game. That pages their wages. Keeps the server running. Keeps the free additional parts to the game ‘FREE’. Yes, we know that by paying money into the game as per a subscription assists in paying for these. Yet Blizzard have released add-ons that you actually have to pay a separate CD-key for. Then you have to put the CD-Key into the game to access the additional content. Does CCP do this? No. Will they? I heavily, heavily doubt it. Yes, they charge a bit extra than other games so that they can keep it running. Yes, they give us an hours downtime each day – To which I respond to those bitching about it, I know that sometimes World of Warcraft realms can be down for an entire day, if not more – so… Really. People. Expect to pay for what you want. If you can’t pay for it, don’t play it. You do not need EVE-Online to survive.

I guess, really, that’s where my main complaint comes in. People complain about EVE-Online not having this, EVE-Online not having that. Yes, generally they’re decent complaints, yet the Dev’s have stated what they’re trying to aim for, trying to do, yet people demand it now. Which is unfair. These people have jobs to do, these jobs take time, your account payments pay for their wages, so these people that ghost train may not cost additional money, but they are not giving in money, which results in less money going into CCP, which results in maybe a job being cut. No, I am not saying this is fact. I’m just saying it can happen. Let’s not be too harsh on CCP here people. They’re just people. Trying to make a living. Funnily enough, what they do to make a living brings me a great deal of happiness, pleasure, and I have gained a few friends through doing it. Funny, that. I’d happily pay for it. In fact, I think I will go buy another 60 day time card. Later.

Ebonezer Skrewed

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Alts and Stuff

Published on 06. Oct, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

by Ebonezer Skrewed … So. I’m sure everyone who plays EVE-Online for longer than the trial has at least one alt, where they will go and try out something else. I know a good number of people who have more than one account and have all of the alt slots on their accounts filled! “Mines”, is a simple little Gallente Miner. He’s not the best ‘race’ for mining, nor does he have the best skills. In fact, I think he has the basic set of skills for someone who comes out of character generation with mining on their mind, but he does what he does best, and I’m quite happy to mull about and mine basic Empire for ore as ’something else’ compared to possibly sitting around in station on my main character going ‘Pewpew’ and making silly finger-gun poses at the screen at the other people who are docked in the same station as me.

Anyway, I was flying around inside of Gallente space, minding my own business, idly mining Veldspar and other minor ores that give a quick few ISK to alleviate some boredom, when suddenly … a wild can flipper appeared! Shocked, this can flipper dared to come up to my can where I was putting ore into it, and did as his name said. He flipped my can! He dared to bring himself over to me?! Well. I really couldn’t fault him for it. I’d probably have done the same if I were in a can flipping mood. After all, I was in a small frigate and I appeared to be very lightly armed (if armed at all) and I was just begging for it.

Instead, I opened up a conversation window with the guy. I introduced myself, said hello, I was a bit bored and all. He laughed, going ‘Bored and mining, hmm, what a coincidence!’ or something along those lines. Either way, I soon got talking to my supposed can-flipping aggressor, and he decided to warp off instead of harassing me, saying something about a Brutix and how all their pilots were ‘trigger-happy’. We kept chatting along anyway, and eventually got to talking about can-flipping and PvP in general. We were talking about Amarr and Caldari, and he was polite enough to actually give me hints and tips on how to best make my Caldari Caracal-flying main character more viable for PvP in general! Well. This was a sudden turnaround from what everyone says of can-flippers, that they’re obnoxious and terrible individuals of a vindictive nature. Actually, the can-flipper in question was just bored like I was and was having a laugh for something to do. Strange, isn’t it, that we did it in completely different ways, but still well within the same EVE Online universe? Just goes to show how people play the game differently.

So, my interest in my Caldari main renewed, I took his advice, gave him 20 million ISK just because well, I figured that if he’s going to go flying around in an Amarr ship in Gallente space, picking fights with Brutix’s and anyone else who was silly enough to get in his sights, he best at least make some profit off the whole thing, shouldn’t he? That, and his advice made me feel like logging back onto my main character. So here I am, back in my main character, and I look over my skills and realise … well … he was right, after all! So now I’ve started to train up another skill, knowing that it’ll make me more viable, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll catch that Can-Flipper on his alt or main, and using the tips he’s told me, instead of him killing me, it might be the other way around. Either way, I’d like to bump into that guy again.

So, Amarr Can-Flipper. I will raise a glass of Quafe to you in salute!

Ebonezer Skrewed

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Late Nights and Skills

Published on 05. Oct, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

by Ebonezer Skrewed … EVE-Online is one of those special games where you get to train and learn skills and just leave the game for a while to play. Some people find this a disadvantage to the game, other people find it a major boon. I’m one of the people that finds it a great advantage, since at times I find it difficult to sleep, I can sit up for a few hours on EVE-Online when it’s late at night, go over my skills, see what I need to train, what I don’t need to train.. And count the downtime on a level 4 skill ticking towards completion.. Or in this case, Scout Drone Operation level 3 (2 hours, 37 minutes, 40 seconds at the time of this typing). There’s the thing about EVE-Online though. Training is in real-time, all the time, any time. You can stick on a skill before you go out for the day, and depending on it’s level and your learning skills, it may already be done before you get back home. Or you may have to wait a little, but that’s just life.

That’s part of the immersion of EVE-Online, and part of it’s allure to those who hang on two different sides. Those with ages to dedicate to the game, and those with little time to dedicate to the game. Both are important to the game as a whole, and both play in entirely different ways.. Yet with the addition of real-time learning from the get-go of EVE-Online, it allows for everyone to get into the game, get the skills they want and need, and to push on and grow. For those who don’t have much time, you can log on, play what you need, stick on a skill to learn and then you can log out for the night and come back the next day, or the day after that depending on how much time you have free, and your skill should be learned and you have more time to dedicate to playing the game, instead of running around trying to find a teacher and learning the skill then and there, preventing you from just getting on with the game. (2 hours, 30 minutes, 30 seconds)

For those who have the hours and hours to dedicate to the game, learning a skill can appear like a hassle. You may have minutes – or hours – to wait before you have the skill you may need then and there, but the pro to that is that you don’t have to run and find the teacher to teach you the skill, and you can continue about with all the other business you’ve got going on in the game while the skill gets trained without you having to divert your attentions to it. This means that you can have a constant inflow of ISK while your skill trains up.. Then, when it’s trained up, you’ll most likely have a greater flow of ISK incoming from that skill being trained, and you gaining the benefits from it. (2 hours, 27 minutes, 50 seconds)

For me, though, the time ticking down is like counting sheep late at night, knowing that if I go and nod off now, when I wake up later, that skill will be done and I’ll be free to go about and play the game as I want. I get to look forwards to playing the game with the new skills and advantages that I have, in this case, scout drones that I can use to raise the DPS output while I hammer away at some poor soul. Or maybe I’ll run missions and use the drones to pick the mobs off while I concentrate on the heavier hitters. We’ll see. That’s the joy of the game.

2 hours, 26 minutes, 10 seconds.
That’s a lot of sheep.

Ebonezer Skrewed

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The Voodoo that EVE does

Published on 03. Oct, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

by Ebonezer Skrewed … So right now it’s 10:00 AM EVE-Online GMT time. Considering the fact that EVE-Online doesn’t take into account daylight savings, I feel rather blessed to shamble out of that pit I call a bed, grab myself a cup of coffee, mumble about how cold it is because I left my window open … And then I click on ‘Play EVE’ on my taskbar. You’d think I’d open up my internet browser, check my e-mails, but no. Click EVE, log in for a bit and then go about and do the other business in my life.

It’s strange how EVE-Online manages to take up so much time or importance in someone’s life who manages to get into the game, isn’t it? When I started playing out, the thought of waking up and putting on EVE-Online was furthest from my mind. I think the primary thoughts where ‘Oh god, why did I stay up so late’ and ‘Coffee or toilet, which one ranks most in my mind’. Now it’s ‘I’m tired, grumpy, lets stick on EVE before the downtime comes on and stick on the kettle for coffee’. So while I sit here, cold, with somehow the sun beaming in through my window, i ponder how EVE-Online has evolved past the point of being a simple game to most of its players beyond the 14-day trial/new player stage. It’s part of their life. You can log on, and just imagine yourself in a massive world filled with all sorts of strange wonders.

And Pirates.

There’s another thing about EVE-Online. More or less, you’re openly welcomed to do whatever you wish. Most games have you playing on one side. The ‘Good’, and the ‘Bad’. I’ll point out the newly released MMORPG Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. I’ve always liked the Warhammer fiction, but it does paint the two sides very brightly. You have goodies, and you have baddies. In EVE-Online there’s generally only one colour: Grey. You’re a grey. You can do good things. You can do bad things. You can do a mix of both and keep that colour of grey for a while, or you can decide ‘I want to be a goodie-too-shoes. I’ll hunt pirates and run missions!’, or you can decide ‘I want to kill and rob people of their precious work and dedication for my own profit and benefit.’ Does that sound overly harsh? It shouldn’t, because I kind of enjoy the ‘rob, pillage, get rich’ part of this game.

I can hear my kettle boiling in the background while I type away at the keyboard, watching my ship float in space beside a docking station. I’ve never been to this solar system before, I do, however, fondly remember the mission that brought me here. A corp mate was having trouble finishing off his mission. The ship he was trying to chase down was about the same speed as him, and he had to be within 48 Km to launch his drones at it. Or something along those lines. Me, in my smaller, faster ship, was called in to generally just ‘bump’ the thing to slow it down, an then use my missiles to help knock it’s shields down. We bumped it, got in close enough to launch what we had at it. Then I went and got a cup of tea, because that thing was tanky.

Eventually, the ship blew up, I made a nice 1 million from half of the bounty for the ship, I got to take my pick of the loot and I shuffled off to this station I’m at the now. I didn’t have the big ship that the other guy had. I didn’t have the tanking ability that my corporation mate had, as he’d been tanking for around 30-odd minutes before he asked me to come in and help, but I was useful anyway. You can play the white side, black side or grey side, but there’s always a benefit to having someone to help you, or you help them, no matter what side or colour you decide to paint yourself as.

Now, my kettles boiled, so I think I’ll go have that cup of tea now…

Ebonezer Skrewed

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The Middleman’s View

Published on 02. Oct, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed.

by Ebonezer Skrewed … I neither consider myself a newbie nor vet of EVE-Online. I in fact hold myself to the demographic of middleman. That doesn’t mean too much too many people. From the point of view from a newbie or a veteran, I’m that kind of guy that floats around and does nothing in between bursts of small activity. My name is Ebonezer Skrewed, and for all intents and purposes I’m a college student, or a bum, by most people’s standards. In the day and age of people hustling and bustling back and fourth between work and EVE-Online, I once again fit into the middle demographic. I sit and study during the day and then I play EVE-Online at night, having no real job at this moment while then moving in between studying and playing EVE-Online. Perhaps some day I’ll be a vet. Not now, though.

Viewing EVE-Life from the middle
When we look at things nowadays, we have to understand the fact that from the point of view from a Vet, they already know almost everything to be known. They might not use it well, or even adapt to the situations well, but they more or less know it. Such as point webbing, how to properly shield tank or armour tank, all of these things that require ISK and time, for a new player, these things are out of their range yet. They’re stuck being either the tacklers, or starting miners, or level 1 mission runners, scraping up enough ISK to get a proper frigate, dreaming of the time when they can grab their first Caracal, they dream of being the one’s leading the fleets.

What about us, in the middle? We’re the one’s who have got enough money to get a Caracal, have spent enough time to get themselves some skills and to start hitting out at the world, but from the point of view of a vet, we’re still too small, still need more to learn, more to spend time learning, need more money for better ships. Our set-ups suck. We don’t have the money or skills for Tech II. From the new player point of view, we’re the one’s that are the stepping stones up to them being in the big leagues. Or we’re the real villains, since we can’t pick on the older players, we instead prey on the new while we sharpen our claws for the time when we can take on the old vet’s at their game and win.

From my point of view, however, I float in between the world of the vet and the new player, and it’s a strange world to look at from both places. You learn enough skills to get yourself out from the new stage; you’ve got enough money to have a Caracal with a decent rig-up – in your opinion. You’ve got the skills to be a threat to an unsuspecting player at your level, or, if you’re really lucky, an older player who isn’t exactly designed to be a primarily combat character. We’re the one’s who are picked up into the gangs and fleets as the cannon fodder, those who can afford to lose our ships since our bodies don’t have the most expensive implants, or our ships don’t have the most expensive gear. We’re the citizens of the EVE-Online universe, looking up at the managers and bosses, waiting for the time when we can get promoted, or we’re looking after the babies, the new players, nurturing and letting them grow so that we can achieve the rank of ‘Vet’ with the support of others.

With our skills and our ships, we push and struggle to grow into what we might finally become. Some of us have an idea of what we want to be: Pirate, Trader, Miner, PvP’er, all of these things are viable options for people in our situation, but we try to spread out and do everything so that we can have enough money to do the main thing we want. Unlike Vets, we won’t have multiple accounts or be running multiple instances of the game so that we can have a mining alt active while we run missions on another character.

We’re the run of the mill of the EVE-Online world, the stuff that floats in the middle, undecided if we’re going to rise to the top or fall to the bottom. It’s a big universe out there, and we are the one’s who are reaching out to take the place of the one’s before us.

Life’s good when you’re in the middle.

Ebonezer Skrewed

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