Slayfoe’s Bull recently hit 3m skillpoints. A pittance say many an old player but quite a threshold for me. I understand the scale of the game much better. It is quite carefully balanced between giving quick access to lots of ships but requiring time to be able to fly these ships well. My current strategy to rush to BS to be able to do L4 missions and make money seems flawed. When I discovered that my shell of skills was quite hollow (and my 1st BS blew up!) I went back to learning the basics – Electronics, Engineering, Mechanic, Gunnery, Frigate and Cruiser. These are all (cruiser excepted) rank 1 skills, with my current level of attributes it takes about 5 days to get level 5 in any of these skills. The exception is cruiser V that will take 20 something days and will be perfect to learn while away in Turkey on holidays.
Where is all this leading you might ask? Well, there is a lovely Gallente techII cruiser called an Ishtar. It is a drone carrier and as hard as nails hence it’s classification – Heavy Assault Cruiser. It is also expensive and will make a perfect ship to take on Serpentis.
To get there I need to train skills that will allow me to fly other little babies on the way… to get the names I got sidetracked into on evewiki and realised how many small ships are available to fly and how many ways one can specialise.
Hmm priest…er…logistics (Oneireos – techII logistics).
While I am here I will give a list
Frigate
Tech I – EWAR, mining/trading, combat, improved combat
Tech II – assault ships (hard frigates)
Tech II – Covert ops (generic and stealth bomber)
Tech II – Electronic attack ships (remote sensor dampening)
Tech II – Interceptors (also known as tacklers)
Destroyer
Tech I – frigate killer or salvager
Tech II – interdictor (interdiction spheres to stop warping)
Cruiser
Tech I – EWAR, support, blaster boat & drone boat
Tech II – Heavy Assault Ship (blaster and drone versions)
Tech II – heavy interdictor (interdiction sphere centred on ship)
Tech II – Logistics
Tech II – Recon ships (cruiser versions of covert ops)
Then it just goes on into the larger ships which, frankly, are a little expensive for me to be playing with atm. As I said above, getting the skills to fly them is one thing - getting the skills to fly them well is another proposition entirely. I can fly a BS but I can't fit (or shoot) a large gun... The same will apply to recon ships (few EWAR skills), logistics (need remote armour reppers) or anything else on the list.
Then there is the ability to do something with tech I modules vs the ability to do something at Tech II.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Losing my first battleship
Slayfoe made the jump from battle-cruisers (BC) to battleships (BS) in the last week and promptly got it blown up. It was a shiny new Dominix, the standard of Gallente Drone missioning and it managed 3 L4 missions before KABOOM!
I had moved everything to Auvergne and the Q18L4 FIO agent in the one and only station in the system. With great excitement I took my first mission which turned out to be against drones. It was a real adrenaline thrill which, when approached carefully was quite manageable, so I promptly took a second which was also fine – nice standing gains and nice payouts.
The third mission was a shock that I escaped from and asked for help with. Mono and Jorgi volunteered to help out. This was when the trouble started, I was main tank and feeling quite nervous about them losing their ships, the first room complete we jumped to the second and Jorgi aggroed a group I wasn’t fighting. He took the heat as long as he could before jumping out, I got the aggro and before I knew it, was in need of jumping. I called out to Mono to run for it and lined myself up. Nothing happened. I can only guess that the frigates in the second group had scrammed me in the excitement and I hadn’t noticed.
Jorgi very generously contracted me a brand new Domi for free. It is safely parked in Auvergne until I have better skills. The insurance payout was for 60m so I went and got myself a new Myrmidon that I felt safer and more capable of flying competently.
I have since only helped out in other peoples L4 missions. I now realise how carefully balanced the game is. The difference between standard modules and tech II versions or even named versions is quite high. I have since fitted out my new ships with capacitor rechargers II and armour repairers II, next up are the armour hardeners II and with this new improved tank I should be able to get back into the new Domi safely.
I had moved everything to Auvergne and the Q18L4 FIO agent in the one and only station in the system. With great excitement I took my first mission which turned out to be against drones. It was a real adrenaline thrill which, when approached carefully was quite manageable, so I promptly took a second which was also fine – nice standing gains and nice payouts.
The third mission was a shock that I escaped from and asked for help with. Mono and Jorgi volunteered to help out. This was when the trouble started, I was main tank and feeling quite nervous about them losing their ships, the first room complete we jumped to the second and Jorgi aggroed a group I wasn’t fighting. He took the heat as long as he could before jumping out, I got the aggro and before I knew it, was in need of jumping. I called out to Mono to run for it and lined myself up. Nothing happened. I can only guess that the frigates in the second group had scrammed me in the excitement and I hadn’t noticed.
Jorgi very generously contracted me a brand new Domi for free. It is safely parked in Auvergne until I have better skills. The insurance payout was for 60m so I went and got myself a new Myrmidon that I felt safer and more capable of flying competently.
I have since only helped out in other peoples L4 missions. I now realise how carefully balanced the game is. The difference between standard modules and tech II versions or even named versions is quite high. I have since fitted out my new ships with capacitor rechargers II and armour repairers II, next up are the armour hardeners II and with this new improved tank I should be able to get back into the new Domi safely.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Losing my 3rd ship
My wife is away in France at the moment so I have more time than I usual to indulge in my current MMORPG fixation. The current focus of my time and energies is Eve Online.
I have fallen in with a corporation of nice English lads by accident which has given me a pool of experience and people to talk to in the evenings. Though I entered the game with the intention of giving PVP a go I have never really felt ready – always a skill short or money short and on top of this the guys are really pleasant and I don’t want to hurt any feelings by moving on. So, as a natural liberal democrat, I chose the Gallente and was bashing away at improving my Federal Intelligence Office (FIO) standing. I was undertaking level 3 missions in my pride and joy, my Myrmidon and had risen to a standing of 5.8ish.
I was beginning to bore of logging in and sending my drones off in another round of kill the rat when I found out about Cosmos missions on Monday evening. It was described on another BLOG as an attempt to ‘questify’ Eve. I carried out one of the missions which gave me some blueprints (for meta level 7 gear!) and serious amounts of standing. I now stand at 6.61. I need 6.90 to use the quality 18 agent near the corporation base. Unfortunately I don’t have a ship to do them in. So rather than hang round getting bored, I went and helped out Smint get his rating with Quafe up a bit then wandered over to Chi and Harkennen to help them out.
In the mistaken belief that they where playing in frigates, I bought myself one to go and play on even footing. Seeing has how my drones skills are high, I settled on the Imicus with it’s drone bay of 15 cubic metres – or 3 scout drones. I then picked up a level 2 mission (The Seven) which was done before you even realised it had started. As the two of them looted the place I went off and got another mission.
This one went rather pear-shape. In an enthusiasm I warped in, picked up all the aggro and before you could blink, my pod was floating in a cloud of dust. Scratch one new Imicus and tech2 Hobgoblins. Notes for self. The cap in the Imicus is tiny – the guns and armour repairer chewed through it in no time. Point the frigate away from the rats, AB on and let the drones chew everything up.
My skill training is focused towards flying an heavy assault ship – the Incursus (October 08 - I think I meant Ishtar). Never mind that I don’t have the money to buy one! It requires a whole pile of basic skills to be level 5 (Engineering, Gallente Frigate, Mechanical, Weapon Upgrades) which will be good whatever I end up flying. Before this though I am working on electronics 5 – this should allow me to train up cloaking! Each of the level 5 skills takes bout 6 days to train so it will be autumn before the Incursus is gracing the skies with me at the helm.
I have fallen in with a corporation of nice English lads by accident which has given me a pool of experience and people to talk to in the evenings. Though I entered the game with the intention of giving PVP a go I have never really felt ready – always a skill short or money short and on top of this the guys are really pleasant and I don’t want to hurt any feelings by moving on. So, as a natural liberal democrat, I chose the Gallente and was bashing away at improving my Federal Intelligence Office (FIO) standing. I was undertaking level 3 missions in my pride and joy, my Myrmidon and had risen to a standing of 5.8ish.
I was beginning to bore of logging in and sending my drones off in another round of kill the rat when I found out about Cosmos missions on Monday evening. It was described on another BLOG as an attempt to ‘questify’ Eve. I carried out one of the missions which gave me some blueprints (for meta level 7 gear!) and serious amounts of standing. I now stand at 6.61. I need 6.90 to use the quality 18 agent near the corporation base. Unfortunately I don’t have a ship to do them in. So rather than hang round getting bored, I went and helped out Smint get his rating with Quafe up a bit then wandered over to Chi and Harkennen to help them out.
In the mistaken belief that they where playing in frigates, I bought myself one to go and play on even footing. Seeing has how my drones skills are high, I settled on the Imicus with it’s drone bay of 15 cubic metres – or 3 scout drones. I then picked up a level 2 mission (The Seven) which was done before you even realised it had started. As the two of them looted the place I went off and got another mission.
This one went rather pear-shape. In an enthusiasm I warped in, picked up all the aggro and before you could blink, my pod was floating in a cloud of dust. Scratch one new Imicus and tech2 Hobgoblins. Notes for self. The cap in the Imicus is tiny – the guns and armour repairer chewed through it in no time. Point the frigate away from the rats, AB on and let the drones chew everything up.
My skill training is focused towards flying an heavy assault ship – the Incursus (October 08 - I think I meant Ishtar). Never mind that I don’t have the money to buy one! It requires a whole pile of basic skills to be level 5 (Engineering, Gallente Frigate, Mechanical, Weapon Upgrades) which will be good whatever I end up flying. Before this though I am working on electronics 5 – this should allow me to train up cloaking! Each of the level 5 skills takes bout 6 days to train so it will be autumn before the Incursus is gracing the skies with me at the helm.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
How to beat stagnation
I have managed to get things together and my medium term goal of flying a Myrmidon has come to fruition. Not only that, but while away for a long weekend in Prague, I got my skills together to be able to fly Hammerhead II drones.
Now I find myself meandering through missions and rapidly boring of them. They are simply to repetitive and not hard enough to interest. My skill training is meandering as well as I decide I want to fly Iteron V’s then Gallente battleships then Ogre II drones. This all comes down to not really knowing what I want to do. The corporation are lovely and interesting people but don’t appear to be keen on the fractional warfare (FW) aspect of the game and getting into PVP was the main reason for getting into Eve. There are 2 lads in the corp that go off and do their own thing on 0,0 space – I might have a chat with them over the next few days and kit up a frigate or two in the expectation of loosing them. Some excitement would be good and might be the solution.
Some Eve-online blogs are really funny, here is one that I enjoy http://www.ironfleet.com/2008/01/04/score-point-to-ac-me/
In WOW I gave notice to FWE that I would be taking the summer off, after all the fun and games of the latest guild split I really can’t be bothered to log on. Nexxuss (the GM) got defensive about my post but hopefully it can all start over come autumn, Dougal might have some time by then as the baby becomes more independent.
Now I find myself meandering through missions and rapidly boring of them. They are simply to repetitive and not hard enough to interest. My skill training is meandering as well as I decide I want to fly Iteron V’s then Gallente battleships then Ogre II drones. This all comes down to not really knowing what I want to do. The corporation are lovely and interesting people but don’t appear to be keen on the fractional warfare (FW) aspect of the game and getting into PVP was the main reason for getting into Eve. There are 2 lads in the corp that go off and do their own thing on 0,0 space – I might have a chat with them over the next few days and kit up a frigate or two in the expectation of loosing them. Some excitement would be good and might be the solution.
Some Eve-online blogs are really funny, here is one that I enjoy http://www.ironfleet.com/2008/01/04/score-point-to-ac-me/
In WOW I gave notice to FWE that I would be taking the summer off, after all the fun and games of the latest guild split I really can’t be bothered to log on. Nexxuss (the GM) got defensive about my post but hopefully it can all start over come autumn, Dougal might have some time by then as the baby becomes more independent.
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