A Sebiestor Scholar - Zargyl

Moved

2010-08-04T14:10:00.000+02:00

I moved my blog over to EVEpress at http://zargyl.evepress.com

Please do look for me there :o)

Camera drones for the win

2010-07-02T10:23:00.000+02:00

When doing stuff together with corpies I do like to do screenshots and use these for news messages in our shiny new corp forum. I can't post the stories here, but I can give you a few of the screenies.

A Thanny and friends visitis a Haven.

Dragonfly oh dragonfly.

Sadly I can't yet pilot a carrier (working towards it though), but this is my precious atm: the Vaga.

Burn riod burn 0:-)

Proteus vs Serpentis cartel ships. Hint: don't bet for the poor Serpentis pirates ;-) (Its a friend's ship though sadly not mine /me hopes for a Loki someday though )

Me in my stout Cane guarding a bubble.

These screenshots also show quite nicely what my corp does and what I do when not trying to find nice people to join the Black Thorne Corporation.

Tyrannis: The Ice Age

2010-06-29T12:43:00.000+02:00

With the coming of Tyrannis in the New Eden cluster, quite a lot of planetary bodies experienced radical changes in their climate. Take my corp’s primary planet for example. Our infrastructure hub It seemed to orbit quite a nice and lush paradise that would make for a nice shore leave.

But then it seems like the winds of change came and that same, nice world was drawn into an ice-age.

I am not sure what happened. I fear it could have been space-dust blowing from an opening wormhole, getting caught in the gravity field of the planet and obscuring the sun. It could be our destruction of nearby asteroid belts as well. Somehow asteroid shrapnel, rock pieces and dust from the processing factories of the exhumers could have fallen down and wrecked havoc with the ecosystem. Both scenarios are very dark ones, and should probably warn us, that we capsuleers should try to be more considerate and more aware of the consequences of our actions!

I hope my endeavors on that ice planet will help restore balance to it again by slowly melting said planet’s ice.
At least I do hope I don’t end like the now infamous Omvistus from the report of a rather unfortunate planet.

I do like Planetary Interaction (PI) and am quite fond of that chronicle! I am looking forward to see what the next iteration on PI might bring. Especially I am hoping for some kind of consequences/impact on actions in PI. So that we can see who are Tyrants and who at least try to be benevolent. Perhaps we have only seen the benevolent side yet? And the Tyrant-side is yet to come?
Let’s pretend it might be and envision capital planat-eaters (like Star War’s World Devastators) or orbital bombardement, or looking at the coming Dust514 battles from dark rooms in orbital command centers Incarna-Style together with said mercs and discussing strategy and logistics. One can always dream, correct?

Data Crystals: PI goody for PvE Storyline Content and Roleplay?

2010-06-28T10:45:00.001+02:00

This is an idea I had of a small little gadget that could be used for a lot of interesting things: Data Crystals. EVE includes as small utility notepad, but it yet doesn’t have a method of storing and exchanging text messages in-game. In-game text messages are mostly shared (aside from eve-mail and chat ofc) by two methods:

In missions/exploration we tend to get pop-up message windows.
For players to exchange text either cans or bookmarks are used.

What about a small goody (perhaps made out of miniature electronics or chiral structures in PI) that would help enhance content and widen the options for both of the cases above? The gadget could possible look like a data chip or crystal, with the possibility to right-click on it to edit the description text (just like the "change name" option for ships and cans) to simulate the text data contained in the chip.
Possible uses would/could be:

Storyline information: Aside from those pop-up windows in missions these items could be part of mission loot containing further hints to other missions/sites. The text wouldn’t be "lost" like the info-text if you click "ok".
Background info/hints: The crystals could hint at background info for use in the events which are gathering momentum now.
They would ease setting up scavenger-hunt like player-made events.
They could be used for in-game roleplaying or help players "script" their own mission for events (like setting up cans containing a data crystal with cryptic information and so on).
It would be a way to leave messages in wrecks after other players destroy your ship (also for roleplaying).

To limit their impact on storage capacity on the database side, at least the player-created messages that can be stored in those cans should be limited to e.g. 140 characters and they should be reprocess/destroyable.

I hope this idea would not use too many resources/time for CCP to implement and could have uses in a variety of scenarios.
A further possibility would be to enable the text to be "ecrypted", needing either a password or an application of the Hacking skill to "open". Uses for that might be:

Mission loot that that contains hints but can't be accessed till another hint is found (in the form of the password) thus creating a kind of PvE puzzle either for one player (for missions and epic-missions) or for a group of players (for events).
Enabling players to do the same (though players should not be able to edit the text of pve content data crystals).

What do you think? Would this fit better into the Ideas part of the eve-forum or better into Assembly Hall?

Zargyl's Tyrannis

2010-04-09T12:54:00.000+02:00

Soon Tyrannis will be upon us and I have to admit that I am quite looking forward to it as the possibilities it might start giving us are endless. In my mind I already see huge cloud cities harvesting gas from those gargantuan gas planets, dark steel bunkers huddled on precarious precipices near ocean-like magma fields on those lava planets, floating cities slowly caressing the endless waves of ocean planets and so on. All full with people looking upwards to the sky either fearful or thankful of their capsuleer masters who visit orbital command centers that overlook their planetary empires.

The last part could probably be done in conjunction with Incarna and much of that “vision” stems from the epic command-center-view from the Dust 514 preview. So I do hope it will be possible for capsuleers to visit those command centers and direct their planetary empires from there as well as interact with Dust mercenaries (or at least be able to view their planetary facilities from orbit).

The Tyrannis teaser trailer hints that we will be able to choose to be tyrants or benevolent leaders. Tyrants are mostly despots ruling over people and benevolent leaders are mostly benevolent to people (and not necessarily recources). It is not so long till Tyrannis now and I still miss any information about people. All we have yet are some sketches regarding resource gathering. So I would like to present a possibility for people to become a “rescource”:

Crews!

What about those? Our ships do have them, from just a few for Frigates to probably thousands for capital ships. We do have some types of people already in the game, but not yet the kind of people that could come from planetary academies. Most tyrants will probably only try to exploit people to get the highest output in materials extracted from planets. In the teaser trailer we do indeed see the Tyrants flying towards planets in mostly industrial and cargo ships. The same trailer those shows the benevolent leaders moving towards their planets in combat ships! So perhaps they hope to fill their “crew quarters” (which could be similar to the drone bay in-game) with people happy about their rule and hungering to see the stars abroad ships piloted by capsuleers?
The nicer the capsuleer is with the planet the higher the morale of those crew members will likely be. Whereas those capsuleers more into their darker selves will probably try to use slave crews (which would need enforcers as well).
Similar to leadership a more motivated crew might also impart some bonuses to ship handling as well (whereas a rebelling crew might lower the same stats).

Aside from this idea I also do hope my dreams of seeing huge cloud cities, picturesque high-tech facilities on pristine worlds and floating wonders on ocean worlds might get realized! Some specialized ships might also be cool though. They could be something from landing craft (to see the surface facilities scrolling by) to huge capital-ship monsters for rescource gathering (like the World Devastators - capital-scale exhumers for planets integrated with industrial facilities - from StarWars).

In closing I don’t think that this vision of mine depicted in the beginning will be fully realized at first, but as it is similar (at least I hope so) to view expressed in Torfi’s interview I hope that we will sometime be able to see that. The info to date doesn’t show much in that regard, but I guess it can’t harm if one does hope (and of course the hidden agenda of this is indeed to perhaps poke readers in this direction).

For more posts on Tyrannis don't forget to look at all the other cool Tyrannis posts that are part of CrazyKinux's Tyrannis contest.

Semi-interactive world events using Pashanai as an example

2010-04-08T10:17:00.000+02:00

When we got the breaking new about events happening in Pashanai (Genesis Region) I was quite excited as something seemed to be happening. And I am sure I wasn’t the only one (e.g. Casiella also tweeted about the events). I couldn’t resist traveling there to see the damaged station for myself (even though again EVE Travel seems to have gotten there first and already published a nice report about the sight). I can’t help myself (even though I am Minmatar), the Amarr certainly know how to build impressive structures.

It saddened me to see the destruction wrought (allegedly by Minmatar terrorists no less). Guys killing civilians living there, as well as innocent slaves held captive there, can’t be the way to free those of us still enslaved to the Amarr! Whatever their color extremists are always bad for any culture or religion (and sadly Matar extremists are no different it seems).

Anyway back to the topic: I really like the freedom to visit a place in the news and see for myself the change wrought (in this case sadly for the worse).

OOC: EVE has quite a rich back-story which makes for quite a colorful stage setting for players to interact with each other. There is a gulf though between the action and player interaction taking place in the front and the stage being displayed behind them. But in more and more cases this gulf is getting bridged. Planets are one great example for that: They make for quite an incredible stage (especially since Dominion), but interaction is limited. With Tyrannis at least a part of this is going to change and we are going to do more than just being able to warp to planets.
With other “stage elements” the gulf is even bigger, as you can’t even “warp” to storyline events. The same holds true for the most pivotal characters of the back-story. An idea to bridge the gap to them might be in making them interact-able via epic-mission arks (as proposed in an older blog post of mine).
For world events like the Pashanai disaster the gap is already closing a bit insofar as we do see the events having an impact in the game world (at least in regards to the station model). This does still feel like a bit of a stage setting you can’t really interact with. Truly interactive (like GM-driven) events are too work-intensive, but making such world events “semi-interactive” would be cool!

Ways to do that (with Pashanai as an example could be):

Enabling us capsuleers to help in the evacuation of residents (by setting up NPC courier contracts with “residents” in them for example).
Enabling capsuleers to help injured people there (as above but also with e.g. Sister of EVE contracts or buy orders to bring in medical supplies).
Setting up event-based agents in space. This could be new reporters asking players to dock at the station and report back. This could be someone from the Theology Council asking the players to help investigate the event.

Especially the last one could even be a small epic-ark kind of story. The Theology council could ask for an eye-witness - who was seen exiting the station shortly before the explosion - to be found in a nearby system at a mission-site. This could be an unscrupulous merc paid by shady underworld crime lord. This then could lead to the site of the terror organization and to the player perhaps foiling another such attempt by intercepting a courier run with new explosives. We might even get some new hint when doing it (like hearing a servant tell how the Empress got a strange look and mumbling something in an obscure tongue before calling off the scheduled meeting at Panshanai).

Thus the damaged station wouldn’t be “just” a stage element but would provide a point of interaction between players and the story (thus heightening the “immersion” of the players in this dark game-universe).
What do you think? What would your ideas be for possible “interaction points”?

Rally time

2010-04-04T18:51:00.000+02:00

I have organized my first corp event (that is not "just" a mining event like my Lonely Roids ops before)! I set it up as a peaceful rally to celebrate my first year of membership in the Black Thorne Corporation.
I sponsored, organized and commented on this birthday rally, that was actually more than "just" one race, it consisted of a few smaller races. The ideas for two of those races were actually not mine but the idea of Julius Rigel, who organizes similar ones EVE-wide.

The first competition was the Boomerang. The boomerang was to practice manual sub-warp flying and involved burning towards a turning “line”, turning sharply after it and racing back towards the start/finish line. It was really fun commenting the flight!

Boomerang

The second competition involved warp-speed flying in a triangle. A triangle of three systems had to be traversed three times, with the start/finish being one of the stargates. It was fun to comment on the flights of the pilots, even though I sadly didn’t see all the course. We had one participant doing a side-trip, but even with that it was a close one.

Stan's Atron

Inqy's Crusader

Slingshot

The third part of the competition involved a bit knowledge of the political landscape surrounding us as well as the current corp activities. 7 Questions had to be answered. Among the questions (shortened versions of the) were:

Old President of the Gallente Federation: Souro Foiritan
The main of the founder of the BTC: Calsak
Amarr Empress: Jamyl Sarum I
The new president of the Gallente Federation: Jacus Roden
Name of the system of the last mining op

A second part of these questions was to find out a system name using certain letters from the answers of the above questions.

Stan already solved that one after I presented the i of Niballe.

Now that the system of the last part of the race had been found, the participants moved there and tried there luck with navigating the dangerous Slingshot (an S-shaped curve). For this part Anming was able to join us as well.

The whole race was a fun time on voice and all played along quite nicely and even got drawn into the action. So thank you Julius Rigel for the nice idea and Quintrala as well (without reading about your races I would never have thought about organizing my own).

Gone Ratting

2010-03-29T14:56:00.001+02:00

Seems like this poor Republic University alumnus is quite active at the moment with lots of projects progressing nicely. Only this diary here seems to suffer a bit from that. I’d like to rectify that by showing you a few data grabs from my camera drones to explain what is going on.

The first shows my trusty Gilgalad tanking the brunt of the damage while helping to bust wrongly imprisoned civilians out of a Sansha holding facility.

(Yes Reap that is your Nighty on the pic :-) ) It is always nice to happily chat away with corp mates while flying together and I seem to get better with that - which is the first thing I am happy about. The second thing is that I already had the chance to set up my very first cynosural beacon.

I even survived waiting those 10 minutes sitting duck. It would have been totally worthwhile though, because I could see a majestic carrier up close (Keris you do have quite some cool ship!).

Yeah and as third is the charm, I did manage to get out into lawless space and visit my corp’s small (but very nice) sanctum there. I did travel in the fast and nimble interceptor that can be seen here taking in the sights of the system.

Thankx to my corp mates I already got a nifty piece of Minmatar technology out there (thankx again to Az!) and did my first ratting against the Angel pirate cartel that tries to waylay civilians gathering raw materials from the local asteroid belts.

This btw is the picture of the very first "rat" I engaged with my Cane. And I have to say that I quite like ratting. Especially for someone with not too much time to captain his ship it is much easier to find the time to visit a few belts than to get through one huge mission, so I am quite happy atm.

Hope you are having a relaxing time as well!

The Quafe Conspiracy

2010-03-11T13:54:00.000+01:00

My last exploratory mission to see the fabled EVE Gate, which is quite literally the origin of our people, is already so long ago, that I thought I should do another one. I consider myself a good Gallente citizen (as the Gallente Federation was so nice to allow me to live under their sovereignty, the corp I am in is also quite happy to be there, and my contacts - especially in Federal Customs - are the best I have). As a good citizen I of course followed the abdication of the Gallente president with quite some concern and the resulting new elections even more.
Just before the new elections did take place, I did notice some interesting developments: Out of the lime light in Gallente low-security space there suddenly was more activity then before. Most of this activity was centered to new Roden Shipyards Manufacturing Centers being constructed. Jacus Roden, the owner of Roden Shipyards, also happened to be the most visible contender for the Gallente presidency. Not long after that the build-up, his winning of said elections was announced. Coincidence or no coincidence I wonder.
Curiosity got the better of me and finally - a few months after the actual election - I did take a look at one of those shipyards. I was hoping that now, after the fact, my visit wouldn’t draw too much attention anymore. The target of my investigation was in the Heluene system and I did find quite some activity going on there. Most impressive was the Obelisk freighter docking at the manufacturing yard.

It is quite a dangerous undertaking to bring an Obelisk to a low-sec manufacturing facility! Especially with no noticeable protective fleet around that is quite some undertaking. But the most astonishing part was that there was a huge Quafe advertisement to be seen there. This makes me wonder: why such a huge advertisement for a secret low-sec manufacturing facility? And even one from another company? Might Quafe - the company famous for its beer - be involved in Roden’s way to power? And why would a starship (and terraforming) company have a secret agreement with a beer company?

Any ideas?

Aside from that it was really nice to see some change going on and interesting to see that the company of the new Gallente president seems also to be helping with naval patrol duties (those Roden Shipyard’s Megathron battleships with their distinctive coloring look really nice btw).

For another travel report to a Roden Shipyard Facility please do look at the interesting one at EVE Travel!

In the Wolf-Pack

2010-03-07T13:28:00.002+01:00

My being a bit silent here doesn’t mean I haven’t been up to stuff – to the contrary I did advance quite a few of my plans nicely. One of those was to finally take a Wolfpack Seminar at Agony University. And this is exactly what I did. My basic seminar has been over half a year so it was nice to manage to be on another of those interesting Agony Seminars (took me long enough anyway, though part of that is also due to me not finding a course set up for my timezone before that).

It was quite a special seminar and I thankful to Agony that I was able to be in it. The first special part was that it was in the new format (spilt over two evenings). This is quite a nice idea, as the huge block in the Basic seminar I took was quite difficult to manage. It is easier to find the time for 2 shorter evenings than the time for a 8+ hours monster session. Not only that, but it is much nicer for concentration as well.

The second special part was that it was the first wolfpack where Azual was the primary theory instructor. I wouldn’t have guessed that it was his first time though as he did it quite professional. He did manage to blend quite a lot of experiences and examples into the theory which was very educational and made it easier to digest as well as much nicer to listen to.

The pack undocking.

The third special part was that it was the first time Granger FCed a class. So this was another first as well. In my PVP basic the FC was Caldak and it was really nice to see different FCs with different styles in action. If I had to choose I’d say I liked Granger’s FCing better as it felt a bit less heavy-handed, but I guess that’s personal preference and depends on the style you like.

Wolfpack in warp.

I was happy that I did understand quite a few things much better than on my first basic roam. Among one thing was that this time I actually new which system we were in. On the other hand though I still didn’t get all those reports that came in from the various scouts, so thumbs up for the incredible job the FCs do by being able to go with that much information (and I am sure there isn't a logic processor implant that helps with that) and form strategies and decisions from all that.

Upon entering a system where the largest fight of the day was held I did encounter the problems which have been reported due to stargate electronic loop-backs into our ship’s computers. So I missed that but I still was happy as I felt like I was participating (a t2 sensor booster helped in that regard as well 0:-) ).

Another nice thing: I could do a bit celebrity-watching:

TeaDaze’s elite frig.

Ofc I wasn’t "only" happy to see Tea but quite a few other faces I did recognize, like Guy Fletcher, Scrivet and glepp whom I remember from my Basic course as well as Aether who was then "just" an Alumni but got back into Agony it seems not so long after the seminar. As far as faces go: Babyface UK (an ex-corpie of BTC) you didn’t manage to hide from me as well ;-)

At the end of the day I even managed our suiciding against the coordinated Stealth Bomber strikes by Evoke. So not only did my rifter survive the basic course but my Trasher did survive the wolfpack seminar as well. I guess I must be doing something wrong.

My flight home the other day:

Thankx Agony and my corp (Black Thorne Corporation) as well (as the corp payed for the nice seminar 0:-) ).

EVE Blog Banter Special Edition: Why I love EVE

2010-01-29T10:03:00.000+01:00

Below is my answer to the question raised in the special installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to CrazyKinux.

The gaunt Sebiestor with the spiky hear in his blue armor lets his grey-blue eyes linger upon the hull of the Myrmidon levitating by its maneuvering jets alone in front of him in his home station. If one would look at his face, the smile lingering on it at that breathtaking sight would betray how proud he is of this - his newest creation. The Sebiestor turns away from the balcony overlooking the hangar and hurries off to the lift that will take him down to the hangar.

A few minutes later, while the station facilities together with his crew undock the battlecruiser from the station, he already is happily chatting with his friends via tight-band NeoCom hookup about what to do next - together with them.

I guess the above sums up quite a lot what it is that I like most about EVE: It is a game where one can communicate with lots of other people and do something together with them. This would be true to any mmorpgs and I guess that is why I like playing them so much. EVE is special as its genre is special: Sci-fi where most other mmorpgs are fantasy games. That is also why EVE can live together so peacefully with them (they are a different genre that speak to a different player base).

The second part is that EVE allows the actions of players to have consequences. You can build your own things (actually if you don’t do it someone else _has_ to do it for you). Not only that, but the things you build are there to stay (if not destroyed by others) and all others can see/interact with them. You can even build structures (like POS’ - or even stations) that would endure even if you yourself would stop to play. There are no “rounds” after which everything gets reset, but everything is persistent everything is there to endure. I don’t play in 0.0, but the possibility is there to try to build your own “empire” out there in the stars. I guess that is what I like most about EVE: that it is persistent and allows the players not only to interact with the game-universe but to change it themselves!

I guess this will get even better when planetary interaction comes and would be even better if there were other things to build which would change the environment (like all the ideas about smaller player-owned structures).

EVE Blog Banter #14: Dreams and Hopes

2010-01-24T09:44:00.001+01:00

Welcome to the fourteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The first banter of 2010 comes to us from the EVE Blog Father, CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves “What Now?” What will I attempt next? What haven’t I done so far in EVE? Was it out fear, funds, or knowledge? Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so? Is there a fledging mercenary waiting to come out of its shell? Or maybe an Industrialist? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

For me the last year was incredible, so many things have happened: the youngest generation of Minmatar slaves was freed by Empress Jamyl Sarum, wormholes opened up in quite an epic (if catastrophic if one remembers the lost Thukker caravan and the destruction of Seyllin) emergence. It was also the year where I emerged from the shadows and went into the light that is my current corp.
I am optimistic that this year (my second year in Black Thorne) will be as nice and interesting as the first in which I started with a Scythe and Rupture being able to fly just the first level of missions to piloting a Hulk and Maelstrom able to help the local government agents in much more difficult missions (just to name one line of progression).
What hasn’t changed and what probably will not change is that I am still wandering through New Eden and looking at all its wonders and sights, that I am still excited when I learn something new, see something new. Our universe may be dark, but it still does hold light in the form of good deeds you can see and nice people you can meet.
So my hopes are up for lots of interesting stuff to happen. I am hoping for lots new stories to read from all of you, I am hoping for those “Burning Life” stories, I am hoping to be able to complete my mission to help the Angel pirate faction against the anarchist pirates that are the Guristas, I am hoping to have a nice time with my corp mates and hope to be able to help them in lots of ops. This year will also be the one where I will try to make my first tentative steps into the regions where we Capsuleers reign free.
Lots of hopes, hm? Well, I guess as the past is our memory, the future is our dreams and hopes. Bearing that in mind I do hope for a nice and exciting year for all of us hoping together and dreaming together and together looking forward to the additions that will come to this universe of New Eden.

Below a list of other participants who weren't as late as I am with the banter.

List of Participants:

CrazyKinux's Musing - A beginning is a very delicate time...
The Wandering Druid of Tranquility - Words, words, words…
My God It's Full of Stars - What Now?
The Elitist - Plans for 112yc
Into the unknown with gun and camera - Show me the money
Ecliptic Rift - Enabling the future
Inanity and Doom - New Year's Resolutions, New Eden Style
Break Vol - Blog Banter #14
Guns Ablaze - What Now?
Adventures in Mission Running - The Way Forward
Diary of a Pod Pilot - Things I want to do
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - The Year That Will Be
Roc's Ramblings - WordPress ate my blog
Vive Virtual - Frontier Living
A Mule in EVE - Next on the chopping block
Prano's Journey - I Peer Into My Crystal Pod...
Life in Low Sec - Expanding the Franchise
The Light of Stars - Testing the claims of CCP
A Memoir From Space - A New Direction
The Chronofile - Blog Banter 2010
FlashFresh - What now for Flash?
EVE Opportunist - Fyreite in 112
Mike Azariah - Jiorj
Yarrbear Tales - Year in Review
The Independant Analyst - The Year Ahead
The Travels of Black Claw - Where ma I going?
Warp Scrammed - What to do this year
Sered's Lives - Searching for directions in 2010
Finders & Keepers - New Tears, Same Great Taste
The Captain's Log - To Dream of the Future
The Lathspell of Mithrandir - Resolutions
The Midnight Sun - EVE Blog Banter #14
EVE What? - New Heights to be Reached
The EVE Chronicles - New Year – New Blog – What a way to start the Year!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T12:58:00.001+01:00

Merry Christmas!

Merry christmas to all of you form my corp and my humble self. The pic below was done for the corp homepage:

The middle part with the ice is there to fit the season. The other smaller pics are telling a bit of our corp-story. We do cater to beginners mining Ospreys (upper right-hand corner) in fleet with the other miners (lower left-hand corner). We happily run missions in fleet as well (poor Golem get’s “eaten” by a Maelstrom (upper left-hand corner) and do build capital ships (lower right-hand corner).

As Maeve posted quite a lot nice camera drone pictures, I would like to follow suit and show you some of mine from my recent travel through New Eden.

Sarum Prime, my desktop background atm. I really like the design of those Amarr stations (and that as a Minmatar – shame on me, but I guess I can’t help it).

Followed by the nicest station of all (well as far as dark scenery goes):

(Sadly it got a bottom undock so it’s “just” looks).

Scooting by one of those incredible plasma planets:

Be that as it may: I wish you all relaxing holidays!

Dominion and its incredible planets

2009-11-24T14:45:00.001+01:00

I have to admit it: I just had to look at the new planets for Dominion myself and they indeed look great!

A friend from corp though got even better pictures made as he went much closer than I. It was nice to see the UI improvements as well. Especially the fleet finder and the mail system look great! As I don’t use the in-game browser anyway, I am not too frilled by it, but it was high-time for an update of both (mail and browser).

The new Asset window is nice as well! Finally we get a bit more help to search through all the stuff strewn all over New Eden (I especially like the tabs that let you e.g. show only modules or ore).

So I am quite looking forward to Dominion. Only sad thing is the Mothership affair which sent those behemoths back onto the drawing board. The affair - in addition to quite an outcry among the players that actually hope to use those ships - probably only got so big because it was a bit badly handled by the responsible developers. Just found an article about it on a German MMO news site called Buffed titled: “EVE Online: Full speed back captain.” (Which sound's a bit too drastic though).

Scholarly pursuits

2009-11-24T14:07:00.000+01:00

Since first hearing about our history in New Eden during a presentation at University (it was actually the first presentation I saw there) I was interested in our origin and the mythology surrounding the EVE gate. It took me quite a while but after quite a bit of preparation I was finally able to fulfill my wish to see the fabled system of New Eden that not only gives this part of the galaxy its name, but also is the fabled point of origin for all of our people.

In my trusty Z1 Ranger the trip was quite uneventful and I only encountered one gate camp in Antem. The camping force had a Broadsword with them no less, but as they were aggressing a Hyperion class battleship, I slipped by unmolested. I did feel sorry for the crew and pilot of the Hyperion though.

When I finally reached the system of New Eden I was taken aback by the beauty of the spectrum stemming from the EVE Gate!

What kind of collapsed wormhole creates a phenomena like that? One that can be seen throughout a whole star system no less? The energies involved are astonishing and probably more than those released by a sun! There has to be some leakage still from the connecting point of the wormhole as the energy released into the visible spectrum has to come from somewhere! So even though it is collapsed it still looks very much .. felt very much alive.

And then there is the emergence of wormholes into Sleeper space .. are those two events connected somehow?

What do you - my esteemed readers - think about that?

EVE Blog Banter #13: Exploration mission

2009-11-16T11:42:00.006+01:00

Welcome to the thirteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The first banter of this 2nd year of EVE Blog Banters comes to us from Zargyl from A Sebiestor Scholar, who asked the following: On the EVE Fanfest 2009 page are pictures of prizes for the Silent Auction that was held during the event. One of these photos was entitled “Design your own EVE mission”. My question now would be what kind of mission would you write if you got that prize? What would the mission be about? Would it be one using the new system of epic mission arks? What would be the story told by it? Feel free to expand upon his questions and put together your very own mission!

My first blog banter!! That does make me a proud Scholar I guess. And then I am probably the last one to post on it .. not so proud anymore but I can blame my missing game-time to that. Anyway here it goes:

The reason for my idea as well as a few quite general ideas for missions as well can be seen in my previous blog post but there are quite a few others as well. As the actual question does aim for a more specific mission below is a short possible plot for an exploration mission I would try to create if I’d get that cool price mentioned:

The investigation

Dear friend. I hope I can already speak to you thus? After all the other missions you did for me and my company? I would ask one more of you which I wouldn’t trust to anyone else. Please just don’t tell the media, but we have lost all communications with a research starbase in a deadspace pocket in . We don’t know what happened, but we do fear the worst. We would ask you to investigate the research center and find out what happened.

I have one further piece of information for you, which is to be kept between you and me. I am only divulging it in case it might be vital for your investigation: The research team there was investigating the eruption of wormholes and a possible connection between them and the EVE gate.

Fly safe!

The mission site itself would show a ruined research POS in a glittering cloud of debris within a ring of telescopes - some wrecked and in pieces and one intact. Around the site there are a few clues strewn about that get drawn from a pool of clues by chance (so that even if a pilot should get this mission twice or thrice, the actual subject studies by the company and the actual dilemma that happened is different).
This is the vital part as I am not a fan of repeating missions. One of the first missions I got myself was Rancorous Researcher, which was great the first time I went through it! (As it wasn’t just about blowing some npc ships up). But it felt a bit strained after I got it the fourth time from the same agent.

Ideas for clues for the missioner to find (and how to get them) are (not a complete list, just 3 ideas to see what type of clues I would like to put into the list of possible hints that are chosen randomly):

The intact telescope houses a container that can be hacked open revealing a document that gives the hint in its description:
Datalog day 38: Finally our long-range telescopes scanning the Genesis region found something worth mentioning: There does seem to be a correlation between the energy spectrum of the anomaly called the EVE gate and the anomalies called wormholes. We will investigate further.
Datalog day 42: Our investigation into the spectra is going well; we hope to be able to send our data soon.
Datalog day 43: Our scanners are showing the same energy lines emitting quite near us. Could this be a wormhole opening in this very system?
Datalog day 43 part 2: It is confirmed, we are getting a spectra that has an incredible correlation with the ones we are investigating!
Datalog day 43 part 3: We have located the source of the newest emergence: Its growing stronger as well. It seems we have found a way to find wormholes before they open up! But this one it’s opening … oh no it is opening right here … *transmission lost*

Aside from the wrecked POS there are also industrial shipwrecks and among those a small wreck that can get salvaged (like in a salvaging site). Only this time you don’t get normal salvage but a piece of “mysterious salvage” that gives a hint to its origin and the fate of the station in its description (and that has an icon similar or even identical to a piece of sleeper salvage):
Unknown damaged drone processor block: This piece of hardware shows it has to come from a drone, but it looks like it has been modified by some unknown source.

A third hint / or option for a random hint would be a lone surviving scientist in a cargo/escape-pod that hopes to get rescued. His pod is hidden between two other wrecks and when flying near the passenger send’s a tight-beam message to the player’s ship (which gets displayed in local): Mayday, mayday I am in an escape pod near you, please help!
A few seconds after that the local chat says: But please be careful THEY are still near ..
When rescued (when the can is opened and the scientist transferred to the player’s ship) the scientist says via local chat: Thank you very very much . I owe you my life! But please let’s go away fast before THEY find out that we are here.
Gathering the hints the randomly chosen hints completes the mission (getting the data core with the log, getting the mysterious salvage or getting the scientist – at least those three would be my first ideas for a list of hints). But the mission doesn’t end there. When aligning to warp away, rogue drones de-cloak/warp-in/spawn (mostly frigs that do have warp scramblers and immediately try to use them) blabbering in binary in local: No information shall escape.

When the player returns after the fight to the agent he would be highly interesting in the findings and perhaps mumbling to himself about them (in the text message when ending the mission). The text itself would be dependent on what clue was gathered and would hint (perhaps at a still further mission).
Examples for that might be:
- Who would have thought that? Sleeper tech modified drones? Was it the Sleepers themselves …
- So something form the EVE gate is messing with space continuum and creates the wormholes? But why just now? Has the EVE gate been modified? If so, who was it? Perhaps Jovians?
- Interesting report from that scientist, rogue drones overwhelmed the facility, rogue drones being directed by a Sleeper drone?

So much to that mission of mine. Which could hint at quite a bit storyline stuff, or even provide a hint to contact some other agent (like the certificate missions do) who might start the PC on an epic arc or that does reveal a bit of the EVE backstory through missioning (which would be a nice way to involve players with it). It also might be the first of a new type (encounter, courier) of mission: the exploration type.

List of Participants:

1. CrazyKinux's Musing - Your Mission, should you decide to accept it...
2. Zen and the Art of Internet Spaceship Maintenance - First Blood
3. The Elitist - Guristas Invasion
4. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility - ...It's another episode of Design Star: EVE Style...
5. Level Cap - Epic Battles
6. Roc's Ramblings - The Cave of Time
7. Aether - Teach a man to fish...
8. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - Mission: Tangled Webs
9. Adventures in Mission Running - I can haz spaceship?
10. Nuke Thoughts - EVE Blog Banter 13
11. Diary of a Pod Pilot - Distressing The Damsel
12. Guns Ablaze - Dynamic Missions
13. Achernar - Confidential Report
14. Escoce - EVE Trader - Missions with player adversaries
15. Hands Off, My Loot! - Blog Banter #13, no witty title
16. Inanity and Doom - A question of impact
17. Cle Demaari: Citizen in EVE - See the Universe
18. A Starry Eyed Pod-Pusher - Wormhole Extreme!
19. Mike Azariah - Missioneer, not mouseketeer
20. Casiella - EVE Blog Banter 13: FW Epic Arcs

Epic ideas for epic missions, part 1

2009-10-15T09:30:00.002+02:00

Apocrypha's addition of Epic mission arks using a new mission technology that provides more ways for us to interact with agents was great! For that it does merit the "epic" in its name. The possibilities with those new type of agents are endless and as of yet not fully realised. That is why I am starting a brainstorming list of my own with ideas for these kinds of missions:
These epic missions would be quite an interesting way to introduce new elements of the EVE storyline to players. Don’t get me wrong: Novels and Chronicles are all great and hugely appreciated (especially for the scholarly types like myself) but actually being involved yourself in one of the events would be even greater still!

Signature Characters

One vital element of the EVE storyline are EVE’s signature characters. So it was only fitting that my start into dreaming about possible epic arc missions began with these by posting an article about "Meeting Signature Characters in missions?" on the eve-o forum:

First of all I was quite happy to read the rediscovered scrolls dev blog and am really looking forward to see more epic mission arcs. In regard to players interacting stronger with the core storyline elements of the EVE universe I guess a highlight of some such arc might surely be the meeting of an EVE signature character (like as a mission "agent"). Examples might be:

For an Amarr character e.g. it surely would be epic to be able bring a report on sleeper activity to Jamyl Sarum herself.

For a Minmatar it might be as epic to step onto an Eldar Titan and get a nod from one of the legendary elders e.g. for helping in the survival of a forgotten Minmatar tribe.

A Caldari might be honored to get an interview with a megacorp CEO upon getting a report from Heth to deliver (with the choice of either helping the CEO or Heth).

A Gallente would surely be honored to get a letter from his President for a secretive meeting with and advisor who might propose a secretive mission.

And so on and so forth. Even if this interaction is more like PC-agent interaction (well cut-scene would also be HUGE but probably much more time-intensive to implement) I guess such an interaction with the EVE signature characters would help a lot immersing players in the interesting backstory of the universe they are playing in.

I do agree with Sep’Shoni (who replied to the post) that it would be overkill if used too often. It would just be a nice reward on its own to be able to meet an important character.

Storyline Events

The ideas for epic missions don’t end with signature characters though. Events in the storyline could also be integrated into these quite nicely to strengthen the bonds the players feel with the EVE universe and to make the story feel more lively.

This already has been realized as both the Empyrean Age novel and certain chronicles mesh quite well together with the events of the Blood Stained Stars epic arc which is great! Sadly we as of yet haven’t seen its continuation.

Further ideas would be:

Sleepers

All the vital questions about them and over ancient ones haven’t been answered yet. It would be really cool if we as players could discover a bit more info on that for ourselves (even before that said information gets released in a chronicle or novel)!
What about finding a mission item at a sleeper site that gives a clue as to what these mysterious beings are up to? It could even be the start of a mission (like the clues were a start to head to Sister Alitura)?

Jovians

Same as Sleepers I guess. We even had a bit involvement of these enigmatic evil beings already and they even got a cool mention during Torfi’s breathtaking Fanfest presentation.

Pirate Factions

We will also probably soon see these speed-boat missions for pirate factions which sound really cool. The possibilities for these are great as well - especially if it involves choices like to either try to enter a pirate fraction for real or just to try to infiltrate it. In that regard I btw liked the Caldari starter mission that does tempt you with flying with the Guristas.

So far a few first ideas. What would be your ideas for epic missions?

Recruitment: Black Thorne Corporation

2009-10-13T16:39:00.005+02:00

Having found Ombey's U'K's recruitment post and Wotlankor's recruitment post at his blog I am hereby trying to do my own for the nice corp I am in. So here it goes:

Who we are
Ultimately BTC is a corp of no pressure. Pressure was the one thing Calsak (http://www.eve-search.com/search/Calsak) or founder hated about the 'old life'. BTC its members will never be forced to do anything they do not wish to do. Whether this is to move into low sec, PvP or mine for no return. BTC will always attempt to give members a choice.
Unlike some other corps BTC is not a dictatorship, opinions and polls are always at the front. We want the member's opinions and questions are always welcome. All we ask is they are polite and constructive, we will always listen to suggestions and reply with thoughts whether for or against it.
Jastra sums up nicely what we are: We are a mature empire based corp offering you a relaxed and friendly environment to do whatever you want to do (well as long as it is not against our policy of course).

Our Policy
Speaking of our policy the vital part of it is summed up quite nicely by this:
We are an anti-pirate, anti-griefer corporation. We operate a NRDS (Not Red Don’t Shoot) policy within the low sec systems in our home region.
We do not condone or support theft (ore or loot), can flipping or any form of scanning. Anyone found carrying out any of these activities or breaching the engagement policy will be removed from the corporation.
For a full version of our policy please consult the policy on our forum.

What are our aims and goals?
Black Thorne is primarily a Production and Trading corporation. We specialize in Mining, Production and the trading of Trade Goods and Player Produced goods. We already have an extensive library of blueprints and a healthy corp wallet while also boosting the income of its members. We currently build and sell Freighters, ORCAs and Capital ships to order and are in the process to expand that.
If asked for a motto for BTC (Ticker: BTCL) I would probably answer with something like "A corp should be there for the players and not for the corp", meaning that we aim to provide a friendly atmosphere for members to grow and have fun in and to help them in their (your!) endeavors.
This means in effect almost all income generated by the corp is filtered back to members using various schemes and to provide services (A concept I personally like very much).

The schemes and division are:
Mineral Purchase Scheme (we also do fleet mining ops)
Top Mission runner awards (with lots of mission nights in fleet)
Logistics (Freighters, Jump Freighters, Carriers)
Production Division (capital production, rig production and salvage, ..)
Jump Clone Service
Research POS
We by the way also do Fun Events and PvP roams and do operate a voice server 0:-)

How does that work?
Well take for example the mineral purchase scheme and the capital production division: The corp does purchase ore mined by members to build ships and the isk then is invested back buy minerals mined by the players (and so on and so forth).
Or take the salvage and rig production division: Members can sell salvage to the corp and from that salvage rigs of all sizes are built to order for members.

Like more info?
More information about us can be found at our recruitment thread or our webpage and forum. Or just visit BTC Public for a friendly chat.

Mallinthas our friendly - even though you wouldn't see that from his looks alone ;-) - CEO

Maelstrom unleashed

2009-10-08T16:33:00.003+02:00

Sadly my time within a capsule was quite limited recently with lots of pressing businesses planet-side. Well I guess such endeavours do help one not to forget the lives of those having to live that life all the time with no chance to steer a starship by thoughts alone.
I did manage something though: I mined once in a while and used the ore reaped from the roids to build me the ASS Gilgalad a Maelstrom class Minmatar battleship (ASS stands for A Sebiestor Scholar’s btw). With the short time on hand it took me over three weeks to get the ore, but it felt doubly as nice to finally undock a ship I can proudly say I produced on my own.

Maiden Flight of the ASS Gilgalad

That was already a few weeks ago and I am happy to say that I already was able to help my agent a few times with that ship and my corp mates even more often with the missions their agents sent them to do. Finally I can play a more vital part in corp ops when we try to quell the advances of Serpentis pirates near our home!

My ship side by side a crop mate's Paladin with the fleet commander’s Domi taking the brunt of the attack.

Planetary control

2009-08-18T13:14:00.004+02:00

This is my entry for the EVE blogsphere project by CrazyKinux dubbed planetary conquest:

The small arrowhead-shaped craft that is the Aeglos doesn't disturb the currents of light. It just creates a small ripple of light as it comes cloaked out of warp. Like the ripples on the surface of a pool, where a fish swims not too far below, the light from the nearby stars only gets refracted for seconds before growing still again as the craft descends into orbit around the small planetoid.

In the tiny crew-pit of the Cheetah-Type frigate the small crew is bathed in the dim red of the emergency lightning. Their agitation can be seen as their shadows seem to flicker over the bare power cables and rusty engineering tubes that seem to cover the cabin like a spider’s web. Fingers hastily scramble over adjustment knobs making sure all power outputs are in passive mode. All eyes are on the sensor reading displays checking to see if the cloak is holding even with slightly flickering power readings. The planetoid seems to sit peacefully in the darkness of space. A collective sigh of relief can be heard as the readings seem to indicate that the cloak is holding.
That sigh is shattered by a blinking alarm-light: Collision Alert!

"We have a collision warning!" screams Talkyn the lanky Matari crewman responsible for the senor readings. Taryn her brother at the pilot console turns around "Captain! Evasive maneuvers?"
"No it might break our cloak if we go start maneuvering too fast!" Talkyn responds.
A bit of panic can be heard in Taryn voice as he replies to that "I’m not sure about that, but not firing up our maneuvering thrusters will decloak us for sure if we get too near to that ..." his fingers scramble over the sensor adjustments trying to find out what doom might await them so close by. "... that wreck."
"Captain?" Taryn asks not directing that question to anyone in the room in particular but seemingly to the surroundings in general. "Arw captain this is not the time to sleep in the goo of your capsule forgetting about this whole ..."
"Stop bickering and just stop the ship brother," Talkyn interrupts.
Taryn fires up a bit reverse thrust and the frigate slowly begins decreasing its forward velocity with its cloak flickering but holding.

***

Zargyl would have been nearly totally blind suspended by cables in the viscous liquid that fills the tiny capsule near the main ships cpu were it not for the direct input from all the ships sensors as well as its camera drones fed via implants directly to the neural pathways stimulating sensory input into his brain. Suspended there the Aeglos seems like an extension of his body and he relishes that sensation. It is just as if one could glide on one’s own power freely through the vastness of space with its shining nebulae and glittering stars.

He was just scanning through a Roden Shipyard’s terraforming document - a thesis sponsored by the Jacus Roden fund for advances in terraforming - when the Aeglos came out of warp. Before the crew even registered that they were out of warp he was already recalibrating sensor modules for passive intrusion into the planets cybersphere. The ship might look old, but its scanners, analyzers and codebreakers were not and he was browsing through the planetary newsfeeds before his crew had even established orbit. The news was abuzz with articles about the attack on the planets defenses. The floating cities dotting its surface were still protected by immense shields but the exosphere was full of wrecks from the first attack regardless. Anxiety was high that the satellites forming the defense grid might not be up to the task of repelling a secondary invasion fleet on their own.

Before he could reflect on that he saw the wrecks strewn around with their always decaying orbits. As his faith in his crew was quite high and he felt the crew would just stop the Aeglos and stay in orbit he didn’t initiate any thruster commands himself but instead concentrated on gathering as much data as possible on the planet’s status for later review and hopefully insights into the mood of the populace. As warfare is not all about fleets but information as well he then proceeds to upload a few video clips to a reporter showing the latest inroads his corp had with stemming local Serpentis incursions.

One can only hope that those would help steer the media away from the resent terror. Coverage of things done and small battles one might help alleviate at least a bit of the terror the successfully repelled attack might have instilled in the population.

___________

The word planetary conquest paints quite a vivid picture in my mind. On one hand one full of devastation wrought by battles over supremacy in orbit or battles over who can exploit planetary resources by strip mining and flying off from skyhooks faster. On the other hand there are huge super capital projects like terraforming and colonization, of building skyhooks and whole cities in orbit or on the surface and of setting up defensive satellites to form a defense grid as an added security layer to orbital defense platforms and planetary shields.

I am eagerly looking forward to all of this, especially in the form of player made satellites, defense platforms and skyhooks. Perhaps with skyhooks sprouting various modules from those for docking mining barges and transports to those needed to set up terraforming projects up to those needed to install and build station-like orbital facilities. Skyhooks are probably the "cheaper" way for trade, resource exploitation and exploration. For capital-scale projects like overseeing terraforming endeavors, colonization and governing said planets orbital stations are probably the way to go (they surely can incorporate a splendid view of the planet as well as overviews regarding the various projects).

Planets should as well play a vital part in sovereignty and here (aside from who controls the planets, or who has space superiority in the form of POS’) I would also like to see another, perhaps less epic but still viable variable added as well: the mood of the population: Their preference who should hold sovereignty. Especially when planets boast a huge population their views should and could have an impact as well and thus factor into the formula as well. The above story features someone trying to gauge ("scan") the mood of said planet.

This preference could include many variables and one of those might be capsuleer activity in the surrounding space. E.g. if the population sees capsuleers trying to help them with stemming threats from the various pirate factions or from drones (by ratting and missioning for example) chances are that the population will see them and their alliance in a more positive light. If the population sees capsuleers involved in building infrastructure fro them to use that as well might help. In effect the impact of these activities might help with sov for populations of planets and therefore with system-wide sov itself.

At least it would be a way as well that capsuleers actually living in a system could help/impact on the sov-system.

EVE Blog Banter #10: Butterfly Effect

2009-07-30T16:12:00.005+02:00

Welcome to the tenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's banter leans a little, OK a lot, on the academic side. It comes to us from xiphos83 of A Misguided Adventurer, who asks the following: " Victor Davis Hanson argues that western culture, comprising of ideals such as freedom, debate, capitalism, and consensual government, are what make western society so successful at waging war. These ideologies create a warrior who's direct participation in government, ability to think freely, and desire to remain free, fights harder and is willing to suffer more than his conscripted foe. Though a military must remain a structured oligarchy to fight a war effectively, why in a world where military conflict is as familiar as breathing are there so few alliances that embrace these ideologies when governing their members?"

A scholary banter, just the thing for Zargyl I guess, will try to stay IC this time as well:

Capsuleer culture is probably not the most traditional culture as it has only recently emerged with the technological breakthroughs possible through Jovian "seeding" of their Capsuleer technology to Caldari scientists and the adaption of said technology in all four empires.

This tech makes us capsuleers effectively immortal while flying in a capsule-equipped vessel. With the threat of violent death looming at us taken away, quite a lot of things do change. One of those things that change is motivation. The most vital human motivation changes from survival to something else. That something can be as varied as we as humans are varied. Examples would be: duty, honor, friendship and fun. These new motivations supersede survival.

Another thing that must be taken into account that for those planet-bound cultures and governments are much more ingrained into society than for those that can travel near instantly between stars. This makes it easier as well to just fly to the place/culture that is most appealing to us capsuleers.

Alliances as well are for the most part "just" the sum of their member corporations. Meaning a capsuleer can become a member of a corporation. And corporations are probably not the culture or government that the above mentioned Victor Davis Hanson mentioned in his theory. So the question is probably: How do capsuleers choose their corporation? That depends on 3 factors:

Firstly it depends on their personality. For the most part capsuleers will just chose a corporation that fits their style of living (be that industry minded or more combat orientated, be that more peaceful or more aggressive).

Secondly it depends on their friends. Friendship is always a powerful motivation and friends do like to spend their time together and therefore will quite likely join the same corporation.

And thirdly it depends on their motivation. And only in this – last – part does the actual style of government in said corporation fit in at all. One such motivation is Fun. And if the corporation-culture can supply that to its specific capsuleers it will prosper.

So for capsuleers standard ideologies are not as vital as in planet-bound culture and their governments therefore have to provide different necessities than for planet-bound cultures. Hanson's argument therefore is applicable only in a different way. Those capsuleer corporations or alliances that do bring forth warriors who fight harder and are willing to suffer more are those that hold true and support their member's motivation (like Fun and Friendship).

One thing I would like to mention as well that can also make quite a difference is: Luck/Fate. Just watch the cool Butterfly video. The hero of which most likely found himself a corp. He did so not by anything as complex as trying to find the corporation/alliance with a corporate-culture that fits him the best, but found his by pure and simple luck/fate:

Butterfly Effect in EVE - YouTube Video

PS: Allow me two questions please: Any ideas how best to post that long list of other bloggers and not having to link to all those pages manually? And with what code do I embed that video directly?

If you like to see how others have answered that (quite a few not too dissimilar to my answer I saw, just go to CK's bookmarks.

Rogue drones

2009-07-22T13:14:00.005+02:00

Yesterday evening I was able to fly together with corp mates and for a few missions. The most memorable part there for me was the fight against the drones of a quite huge and awesome-looking hive. What a sight! I was quite awed by it and felt really tiny in my small Cane.

I was happy not to be there alone but with friends. Below you can see our stalwart mission commander approaching the hive quite fearlessly in his Vulture.

After that frontal assault another corp member flew a bombing run in his Caracal against the drone bunkers flying dangerously close to the gigantic structure.

One sight especially gave me the creeps: The use of a pilfered Domi hull which probably got invaded by drones, got its crew annihilated and got converted into a horrific and somehow shadow-like [1] looking huge drone body.

*shudders*

These drones really are a danger to civilized Gallente space. I hope to soon be able to help my corp mates again safeguarding civilians from such a threat.

[OOC] 1) As quite a fan of TV-Series Bablyon 5 I especially like the look of those invested ships. They do look quite similar to the shadow-invested ships from that series. (BTW if you haven't seen B5 already: watch it! Its the best sci-fi series there is that tells an epic, compelling story spanning all five seasons!)

My first travel into 0.0

2009-07-16T17:07:00.002+02:00

As mentioned previously I am a peaceful scholar and not really interested in aggressive actions against fellow capsuleers. I do wish to help friends and civilians alike against aggression and possible criminal activities by other capsuleers. To do that it has become quite clear that I have to get to know more about ship to ship combat against possible aggressors. As the Agony Unleashed University came highly recommended for just that I applied for a course there. It wasn’t easy to get a free place in those sought-after trainings, but I managed to get my first (and likely not my last) training course (a basic training one) last Saturday.

It was quite an experience! Agony Lt. Commander TeaDaze was our instructor for the first part that involved a bit theory coupled nicely with examples and tips. And this was "just" his first time as primary instructor! I am quite looking forward to hear from him as a commentator during the next Alliance Tournaments.

After that part we were handed over to Agony Commander Caldak for a roam into the fast reaches of lawless space. It was the first time I was in such a huge fleet. Even though the ships flown by us students were “just” frigates it was quite a sight.

Under the quiet but assuring and commanding aegis of the FC Caldak I felt quite safe even though it was my first travel into the lawless reaches of space. I was quite happy that this first trip was into the Great Wildlands. As a Minmatar I already have heard a lot said by our nomadic breathen the Thukkers and I was eager to visit their lands. Sadly though I didn’t see any of their nomadic caravans. Instead we had contact with other capsuleers who weren’t seemingly not too happy to see us being lead to their territory (though that is actually Thukker territory) for training.

Well to be fair I have to mention that we did get a friendly wave in local communication channels saying: welcome newbies - which was quite nice. When our brave scouts reported seeing an Avatar Class Titan though, excitement grew. Sadly that epic monstrosity of a ship was piloted away and I had to leave the class to head for a station to catch up on sleep. Adrenaline alone can only get a poor scholar so far. It was only later that I heard that the same Avatar made an appearance. Looks like it used its colossal array of weapons against the frigate fleet (in the process though also damaging his own support fleet quite severely). I have to admit that I am a bit sorry that I haven’t seen this sight – even though on the receiving side. I would really have liked to see this ship and have made a few measurements during the activation of its weapons.

T'was quite a night!

For more information you might consult the Agony University student communication system boards.

My first death

2009-07-08T12:55:00.001+02:00

I was hoping I could stay in my original body a bit longer, but sadly that wasn’t the case. Well I have to admit that first death didn’t feel too bad – strangely so. I was thinking that the feeling of dying would be an experience that would alter me forever. But it was over quite fast and I am not much changed. Quite intriguing this Jovian cloning tech. You might ask how did I die? Well it was my own fault and my inexperience as it was my first real combat fight as well. I ordered my tiny Rifter off to help a corp mate whose Chimera carrier was under attack. I went to take point against a Falcon that was jamming him. I guess we were hoping to take that ship down with the help of two Dominixes so that the carrier might be able to get out. The opposition was too tough though and it was over quite fast (not too much chance against 2 Redeemers, a Hurricane , 2 Thanatos’, a Chimera, a Falcon and later on a Moroes as well).

Being me I also was more oogly eyed looking at all those huge ships and not paying too much attention to the status reports my crew gave me. I feel quite ashamed because of that. I couldn’t even escape in my Capsule as I tried to warp to the wrong stargate (the near one were we fought and not the other one farther away). Anyway I should have better tried to warp to a planet.
Still quite a loss for the corp but also quite an interesting experience for me seeing so many colossal ships!

Above the evidence that I was more engrossed in collecting data on the other ships instead of watching the combat.

In conclusion I would like to say that I am atm preparing to participate in a PvP Basic course from Agony University soon so that – even though I am no combat pilot – might help defending my corp better in the future. I am quite looking forward to the training course :-)

[OOC] EVE Blog Banter #9: Slaves

2009-07-05T17:05:00.001+02:00

Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

"Last month Ga'len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith "WebMandrill" Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completely from EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?"

__

Being quite a newbie I am not yet too engrossed in many of the game mechanics, so this is quite a difficult question for me. Lately I was able to destroy the ships of Amarrian Slavers in a mission. As slaves are illegal (and quite rightly so) where I live, I couldn’t take them with me and set them free at a station, which I found quite unfair (especially to the poor slaves). So I would propose to take away the game mechanic that makes them effectively un-freeable. Instead I would like to propose that it should be possible to free them. As most of these poor souls are probably addicted to Vitoc, a mission where you could get a possible antidote would be nice (could be a storyline/epic arc even as the Vitoc antidote ties in quite nicely to the events described in the Empyrean Age novel). When said antidote is applied to the unfortunate slaves, they could be changed to “Freed Slaves” (that are legal in Minmatar and Gallente space but perhaps not anymore in Amarr space).
Well just a though.

If I were to judge I would btw vote for the idea set forth by Morphisat about taking away the randomness of T2 blueprint invention.

__

A list of all the participants can be seen in CrazyKinux's post about the banter.

The Blood Stained Stars

2009-07-05T16:29:00.007+02:00

It was quite an experience to set out for such a huge undertaking as to help Sister Alitura up in Arnon with her investigation. I would try to persuade everyone to try it out, as the mystery unfolds quite nicely. It also starts with quite a bang.

Above the explosive start can be seen.

Such a start did get me hooked immediately. But first things first: If you do happen to do combat missions for the agent of your choice and that agent is rated by the authorities as level 2, your chances are quite high that you might get the mission named: Humble Beginnings. This is the start as the evidence found in it points you directly to Sister Alitura of the Sisters of EVE Bureau in Arnon.

Quit early a connection between unknown and quite mysterious rogue drones and these events are made.

Only much later do you get to know more what happened, as the search for an eye witness gets quite complicated. To read more about the events immediately prior to your involvement I would suggest reading the report called Depth of Field (but only after the missions and better in the right order: starting with chapter 1 and reading up towards chapter 4).

The investigations lead to quite interesting sites which I – your humble Scholar – found quite fascinating and breathtaking. Below you can see my stout Thrashy exploring one of those.

One of the highlights of those investigations was the breathtaking site of a proud Minmatar Carrier, that somehow got stolen.

I have to admit that I didn’t engage as that isn’t needed. But it was quite a sight nevertheless.

Even though just a humble explorer I still had to captain Thrashy and its crew into combat, which went quite well (even it got tight in a few cases). The site of the most difficult battle can be seen below.

When I was able to finally corner the villain the fight against him was also a fitting conclusion to my trobles.

Dagan disembarks the station heading to his last engagement.

I don't want to spoil your investigation, but I can reveal that this is not the end. The meeting afterwards as well as quite an interesting revelation regarding Dagan and Alitura "concludes" the mission with quite a cliffhanger.

So I conclude in full hopes to see the story advance and to find more clues in the future!

If you like to know more and get tips for each step in the investigation I would recommend the writings of Keith Neilson.

My first op: Lonely Roids

2009-06-22T16:08:00.004+02:00

See all those huge roids tumbling in space, always alone and without company? I am sure I would feel lonely if left alone for so long with no one to talk to 0:-)
What about visiting them for a nice chat?

Those were the words with which I advertised my first corp mining event (together with the banner I made for it). I have to admit that my try to get the roids in our home a bit more company was a bit spontaneous, so I was doubly surprised when actually a few corp mates did participate. The op actually lasted a lot longer than planned as well. We normally do quite a few corp mining ops for fun (and profit) but my op fell into a time where no new mining-op was announced when at the same time quite a few new people joining the corp. And as a mining op (with a lot of relaxed chatting) is the best way to get to know each other, I tried to improvise one. And it worked! :-)
Lots of new people made for a more varied "mining"-ship approach, which I liked as well. Below a new member in his miner/hauler Wreath

and here we could even witness the maiden voyage of a Rokh

All in all a quite nice op (if I might say so) 0:-) Though I have to admit the official one we had the week after was much better (e.g. with more Hulks and Orca support).

EVE Blog Banter #8: Signature Characters

2009-06-04T12:47:00.003+02:00

OOC:
Welcome to the eighth installment of the EVE Blog Banter , the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here . Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from me, Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks: "What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."

Well I guess there exists a universe of ideas already that all do have their positive and negative sides. Among others it would be really nice to see more of planets, to perhaps see more about our crews (who they are, if they are happy or if they are slaves, if they could be freed – if slaves – or cared for better I am sure the performance of the ship would increase as well). There are ideas about planetary rings, and comets as well ideas about fleet maneuvers. All of those look very promising and sound quite nice! My addition to these cool thoughts would be a better integration of the rich background story into the game itself. One way to do that would perhaps be to create missions where it might be possible to meet EVE's signature characters.

I spelled out the idea already on the EVE-O forums in this thread:

First of all I was quite happy to read the new rediscovered scrolls dev blog and am really looking forward to see more epic mission arcs. In regard to players interacting stronger with the core storyline elements of the EVE universe I guess a highlight of some such arc might surely be the meeting of an EVE signature character (like as a mission "agent"). Examples might be:

For an Amarr character e.g. it surely would be epic to be able bring a report on sleeper activity to Jamyl Sarum herself.

For a Minmatar it might be as epic to step onto an Eldar Titan and get a nod from one of the legendary elders e.g. for helping in the survival of a forgotten Minmatar tribe.

A Caldari might be honored to get an interview with a megacorp CEO upon getting a report from Heth to deliver (with the choice of either helping the CEO or Heth).

A Gallente would surely be honored to get a letter from his President for a secretive meeting with and advisor who might propose a secretive mission.

And so on and so forth. Even if this interaction is more like PC-agent interaction (well cut-scence would also be HUGE but probably much more time-intensive to implement) I guess such an interaction with the EVE signature characters would help a lot immersing players in the interesting backstory of the universe they are playing in.

A scholar goes exploring

2009-06-04T12:31:00.005+02:00

Things are progressing quite well! Not only corp-wise but also personally. I still have to find a hacking site yet, but my first expeditions in my rusty but trusty Probe frigate went quite well. Actually I could pilot a Cheetah as well, but I guess I first will practice with that ship.

Above my trusty rusty Probe: Z Ranger 1 above an interesting planet that does look quite habitable.

I already found a small site with a few Omber asteroids that went on to help me get the Isogen needed for a building project (made me a Vexor that I sadly can’t yet fly). There you also see my new pride: the Covetor. Said ship is atm in the process of being redesigned into a Hulk. For this I’d like to thank Zino (quite some corpmate)!

Z Curufinwe in action before she went into Zino’s factory.

Probes launched from Ranger 1 also managed to find me my first salvaging site which can be seen below:

But this was not everything. I got lucky as well and found a Serpentis Hideout and a Serpentis Lookout and – just yesterday – I got lucky to find a Serpentis-Phi Outpost! The latter I was too cautious to try alone. But a nice and helpful corpmate (Swisstuck) helped me. Together with him it was quite a breeze.

Above shot of both Swisstuck’s vessel as well as my Cane at the Serpentis Outpost and below the spectacular fight against my first Serpentis Faction Battelship (the explosions wrought by Swiss’ ship were quite spectacular).

Capsuleer: The datapad app for pilots

2009-05-19T12:30:00.002+02:00

I do use my portable datapad for easy reference and lookup about the status of the cybernetically injected skillbook dataware from which I try to learn in my spare time. The code I used for that was actually once the one called "EVE Tracker", but I did start using Capsuleer as well. At first the plus side of Capsuleer was the nice graphics as well as the date and time information when a certain skill would be finished and fully absorbed into my brain. Especially the information when that was scheduled to be by date and time (as compared to just giving an ETA in days/hours) was nice. The plus side of the EVE Tracker was still that I also got more information about all the skills.

But since the Capsuleer code got updated to revision 2.0 it really shines and is quite some nifty peace of software! Especially as it now also has integrated a lot of skill information. It even allows me to get connected to over pilot's public logbooks - a feature that I use quite a lot now.

As I am quite a happy user of this code I was quite happy as well to see that a lot of other people are using it as well (which is kind of a thank-you for the huge work the authors Pyjamasam and Roc Wielder put into it). But instead of us happy users thanking them - as should be the time honoured fashion to do things - they did thank us for using it (some strange world we are living in ;-) ). The thank you involved quite a nice collage with the capsuleer logo made up of pictures of pilots who make use of the programm. And look what I found:

A picture of myself made it into that collage as well! 0:-)

EVE Blog Banter #7

2009-05-08T09:40:00.001+02:00

OOC:
Here we go: my first try at participating in Crazykinux's blog banter. His question to us players was:
"What 3 things haven't you done in EVE and why? Would you be willing to try one day? Why so? Why not?"

As I am quite new to the game, there are a lot of things I haven't done. A few of those are things I will never consider doing and other things I am looking forward to do someday. I'd like to begin with one from the first category:

Griefing/can-flipping/pirating
This I will never do. I do play this kind of online game to be able to interact with other players and to do things together with them, to help them to have a fun time with them and to find friends among them. I am quite sure others are also playing this game to have a fun time, to relax and have a nice time. So I do find it quite wrong that some players seem to find it fun to ruin the fun for others. Sorry but ruining other ppl's time is not among my definition of having a nice time. Just the same as hurting others is not my definition of having a nice time either. I do guess it is too easy to say that destroying other ppls ships/play-goods is nothing personal if you don’t see/know the person on the other side, but one shouldn’t forget that there are other persons on the receiving end of this kind of "fun".
e.g. take can-flipping (which did happen to me already): Imagine the time it takes for a poor frigate to get a can full of ore. Even in my Retriever it takes about 1 hour for me to fill a can solo. Now along comes someone who just "flips" the can so that I am no longer safe to get the goods I mined back. I just have to cut my losses and warp away. I do hope that was fun for those ppl to ruin my (about 1 hour) game time in the evening where I was hoping to relax a bit from work. It sure wasn't fun for me. Sure I got over it, but sure as well I don't have any love left for any type of greifer. May that greifing come from can-flipping or pirating or ganking transports or what have you.

I am sure most in-game griefers who like to ruin other ppls spare time are much nicer in real life, but I am sure as well that being a greifer in a game shows also a bit where your real attitudes lie. Either that or they are are too dumb to know that the ppl whose time he ruins are real people as well.

After this rant off to 2 things I would like to do sometime in the future:

I would like to explore a wormhole together with others (e.g. my nice corp mates) and secondly I would like to be more of a help to them when doing missions. Well actually both of this goes in the same direction so I do hope it might count as only one of my 3 available points 0:-) because as a third thing I would like to do is be more the scholar that I am and exploring the universe.
One project in that regard is surely going to be a visit to the EVE gate in a Covert-ops ship :-)

Corp mission night: One report of many

2009-04-30T08:53:00.005+02:00

I am still training up and preparing myself to help my corporation with clearing criminal influences near our offices. But even though I am yet not much help I was still invited to join and could watch with awe what my corp-mates were doing. Here is a report of one of these endeavours that my sensors picked up while I watched the battle:

>>> Data connection opening
>>> Subject: Battleship fleet sighted in Sol
>>> Sender: Serpine Sol Inquestor 389
>>> To: Serpentis 3 HQ
>>> Transmitting data

Around 2000 hours a battleship fleet has been sighted prowling the nebulae of the Sol region. It was quite an ominous sight.

Due to electrostatic interferences of these particle clouds my team had trouble localizing them. Our cov-ops sensors were to weak to penetrate too far into the clouds. When we finally found out were they were haeding, we immediately alerted the local station to scramble their fighters and followed the fleet invading our territory.
Finally free of those clouds we could make out their signatures: The fleet arrayed against us was made up exclusively of ships of the Black Thorne Corporation. Intel suggest they are mostly miners, so we didn't investigate them. That was quite a mistake of intel as it turns out!

Following is an inquestor probe feed of the invading BTC fleet facing our ships.

Sadly the fight didn't fare too well. Here you can see one of your battelships being hammered quite heavily by incoming fire.

They didn't suffer any losses and our ships were smashed. It was terrible to behold! And they didn't stop there but did advance on our Station in system as well, smashing the stations defences with ease.

Our station sits undefended! I am awaiting your instructions how to proceed! What? Looks like I was discovered! There was a rupture hiding between those battleships. It is targeting me ...

>>> Transmission closed

Ruin

2009-04-25T21:08:00.005+02:00

I just read through the new chronicle called "All These Lives are Fit to Ruin". I have to admit it was quite a read and one that made me thoughtful as well. Are we Capsuleers really that unthinking of other lives? I do fear so. But I guess it's always better to look first before your own door (or however that saying goes): I do think that I so far only shot at those things that really matter to the outcome of a mission. But I fear that there might have still been a bit collateral damage that could have been avoided. That story at least opened my eyes to these matters. I hope now to be much more sensitive to such issues (concerning not-military structures). And regarding my crew ... well I guess most of us don't think about their crew too much. I guess I will try to get to know them better. Capsuleers don't have to be monsters, they are human still. I am human still. Or better: I want to be human.
What do you thin about that esteemed reader?

Tepet's Pride my first T2 ship whose crew sadly died when I was doing a mission versues Mercs that warp scrambled me.

All these Habitation Models survived my visit btw 0:-) And here is also the first picture of my new pride (my first BC which is self-made as well) :o)

Mining ops Part II: A Miner's Life

2009-04-22T09:37:00.011+02:00

A Miner's life is not bleak but can be quite fun when in the right group. I guess that is why I am such a fan of corp mining operations.
Here a few excerpts from things happening:

Hulk of Fire!

In the peaceful reclusion tht is Solitude the roid belts don’t have to fear loneliness. To the contrary! They had to fear for their life! For the BTC mining fleet does descend upon them. Even though mining is quite peaceful it can bet stressy as well. Especially for the haulers who have to hurry to keep up with the output of the many Hulks in attendance.

Those same Hulks must have put their processing facilities in overdrive to eat away at those roids as fast as they were. One of them was actually too enthusiastic and one could see fire shooting out of his Hulk.

Mal valiantly tried to put out those flames with a blanket, but just before he would have had to evacuate the ship reprogrammed drones were able to put out the flames.
Aside from that incident the operation went quite well and the miners even found the time to reprogram a few drones to serve tea. 0:-)

Newbie Hauler

On one of those mining operations I was honored to try to be the one to haule all the ore off to the safety of the nearest station. That was quite a night! It began when our master-miner Greg called all of us (those that were willing at least) to attack the roids of Solitude. And attacked they were with a lot of ferocity so much that your humble reporter who for the first time tried to haul was hard pressed to keep up but was never able to.
Here you can see the beginning of the end of said asteroid field with the miners sitting like a dark spider in the middle building their net of destructive mining laser energies.

It was quite difficult to manoeuvre through that net safely (and that was before certain Warrior drones were ordered to attack said poor hauler to entice him to haul faster ;-) ).

Here you can see the hauler trying to exit the mining HQ as fast as possible.

It was nice that Mrex brought his Orca as well one to clear away the most hauling-heat btw.
And here you see 3 Hulks huddling conspicuously close together.. what plans might they have hatched? Perhaps we will see during the next mining mission .. ;-)

Apocrypha – Life goes on

Even though the beginnings of Apocrypha were quite disastrous – not only for the poor people of Seylinn – even with the emergence of the anomalies called wormholes life has to go on. And life did go on! One way to show that was by doing something relaxing – like mining.
Below you can see the BTC miners diligently destroying roids and looking at their new awesomeness as well as the nice new technical effects. 0:-)

Here the most valiant miners of that night. Even as they came under attack by Serpentis Frigates they did just continued their mining exercise undisturbed.

The Serpentis spying upon the miners before it got surrounded by drones.

Mining ops Part I

2009-04-22T09:07:00.007+02:00

One of the first things I could participate in the Black Thorne Corporation were the nice mining ops. Below is the report of the first one were I could participate. It was held in early February:

The dark of space, glittering stars, softly glowing nebulae and peacefully flying roids huddling together in a belt. I do guess being in Solitude they hope they might survive the aeons. But the solitude is scattered by the arrival of the master miner of the Black Thorne: Greg.
Unafraid of those huge roids he flies really close and starts his job.

I am really happy he didn’t get crushed between those huge roids!
He isn’t left alone though for long. Others do come: One of these is a huge lumbering demon-whale of a ship to collect the remains of the first roids to fall. The mining force grows more and more and majestic ships, like the one below, unleash their barrage of destruction against the roids - all for the glory of the Black Thorne.

The fleet is steadily increasing on and on. Here you see a powerful Gallentean workforce arriving as well.

To judge the size of that ship, just take a look of the tiny can trying to eke out an existence near the huge ship.

But the true deathbringers to roids are the immense hulks the epitome of nightmares for them. Here you see two of them flying back to back defending the can resting between them.

From the bridge of this huge orca the whole op is being coordinated.

The formerly huge belt is diminishing fast - as can be seen in the background. But as the stalwart miners are not black-hearted, they do decide to leave a tiny rest of small roids alive and head for another site where they might bring destruction for roids.

It is a hidden place which was found only due to Swiss’ diligence. Some might wonder why the operation was shifted to this site. One might think it could have been to stay on the move to better hide the operation from environmentalists who might protest against this crass destruction of natural resources.

The setting sun in the background of this drone-cam picture completes this news-feed.

BTC - My new corp

2009-04-20T15:52:00.003+02:00

After that fiasco in Caldari territory I was quite downtrodden. But luck was with me, as I found quite a nice corporation (The Black Thorne Corporation) that would have me! And I am quite happy to be there as well! It is like an industrialist corp should be!
Below my application:

>>> Burst data connection opening …
>>> Sender: Zargyl of the Sebiestor
>>> To: Black Thorne Recruitment Office
>>> Sender Code: z7786893r
>>> Transmitting data
>>> Data transmitted message opening

Dear honoured Sirs,

after reviewing datafiles from library databanks I found quite interesting hints about a corporation called Black Thorne. Further research into the matter revealed more interesting details that made me small time research student and pilot write this application to you.
Due to the fact that I am a pilot - though not yet a good one I have to admit - I was honoured to be able to study at the Republic University where engineering, industry and science were my top fields of study.
After my time with the University was up, I wanted to see more of the world outside, explore, help others and do a bit mining to help me grow. I don’t want to do this alone and found a nice corp called C.O.R.E Research Expedition with headquarters in The Forge. That was quite a small but active, and friendly corp of social and mature people. I liked it there. But then came the time of the war and they were quite aggressively trying to help the Caldari State. Anyone who could not achieve a high standing with that state had not many chances to rise there (as well as the fear of being expelled). And as I am of the Minmatar and not yet a combat pilot able to take on the higher priority targets to rise in esteem high enough and fast enough. I am now searching for a new corp who would have me.
Therefore I can emphasize with your corporation’s founding. Furthermore as a Minmatar I also do emphasize with the problems of the Gallente Federation against the likes of a certain Mr. Heth, as the Gallente Federation was the only one actively helping my beloved Minmatar Republic.
I am no combat pilot and more of an inexperienced but enthusiastic and friendly industrialist who would like to grow together with others in a friendly environment. Therefore would like to apply for membership in your corporation in the hope that soon I might be able to do my part as well in the larger picture of the universe (as well as corporate life).

Best Regards,
Zargyl of the Sebiestor

>>> Transmission closed.

Thankfully I got accepted! *jumps happily around* This now is Mallinthas my new boss:

If all Amarrians were that open-minded I am sure there would be no cause for war between the Matari and the Amarrian people. He is also a great diplomat and I would nominate (if I had that kind of influence – which I don’t have) him as an advisor to Empress Jamyl Sarum.

Of things past Part III: Further old missions

2009-04-20T15:41:00.002+02:00

Amarr in Caldari Space?

Upon arrival at CORE HQ I did set out to explore the surroundings of my new hope. One of the most interesting things I found yet, were the ruins of an ancient Amarr outpost. The repercussions of such a find are quite large: Does this mean Amarr had not long ago such a presence in Caldari space? Or did that space belong to Amarr before it fell under the sovereignty of the Caldari people? Who did wreck that station? Or was it just left behind?
Or even more intriguing: Was it perhaps lost in a singularity in space and transported to this location?
Lots of questions. What would be your theory esteemed reader of this message?

Caldari – Matar Diplomacy

One of the things I tried in Caldari space (aside from trying to find out why the Jovians bequeathed the Caldari people first with capsuleer technology) was to work for a betterment of the Caldari – Matar relations. That work sadly failed. Only once did I find a bit hope, and that was in the mission below:

Mission-wise I also quite liked the Rancorous Researcher. Only to find out that quite a lot researchers were rancorous (got that mission about 4 times) I was a bit dissuaded. I hope that I will never end that way!

Of things past Part II: Old corp

2009-04-20T14:57:00.003+02:00

As I mentioned in my first post, after only a short introductory excursion into space, I was a bit overwhelmed and went back to University. It took me nearly a year before I tried a second time. I guess I had to, as I had quite a bad conscience that I had wasted the resources the Republic invested into transformation into a Capsuleer. That was it (and that they kept sending me reminders of the glory of space) that made me reconsider and try again. And guess what: My research at the Republic University into the life of a Capsuleer proved worth it! My second escapades in space went much more smoothly and I started to like the feel of a ship around me, the feel of being more than myself of being an integral part of a spacecraft.

It didn’t take me and my renewed interest long to come to the conclusion that I would like to explore the universe together with others, so I began searching for a corporation that would have me. And I found one: The C.O.R.E. Research Expedition in far away Caldari Space (in the Forge actually). I did like the name of that region (The Forge) hinting at a place for industrialists and I did like the info the databases presented about that corp. That was why I undertook that 30+ jump journey away from my home into a possibly hostile Caldari space.

This – one of my first pictures - depicts myself at the end of this journey before docking at the CORE HQ:

The corp was small but with nice and like-mined people and I felt quite welcome as well. I even got a shorter trial-time than normal and was approached for an officer’s post within days of that. Being my humble self I of course declined at first. But after the third invitation I did join that august group. It was nice to see how many things were happening and how an, albeit small, company could advance! I tried my best (newbie that I was and newbie that I still am) to help in any way I could. The problems started when those advances were going faster and faster. One indication of that was the restructuring of the message boards: Threads got restructured and posts deleted. The second indication was paranoia: Well I guess a bit paranoia is healthy in such a dark universe as ours, but still .. I ended up as what I would like to call a “voice of reason” that was trying to defend members form various accusations (like being too inactive, a spy, someone disguised for someone else or what have you). I did try to be reasonable and always was the one to point out the positive sides of the various accused members. I guess I did fail in that (being reasonable) as I was asked twice by the director to leave the corp if I couldn’t life with his decisions. That did hurt my enthusiastic self quite a bit. (As a side note: all the various accused members I defended were cleared afterwards, though most left - probably because of the accusations vs. them).

The final straw came when it was decided to more and more embrace the ideals of the Caldari State and to show the state how successful the corp as a whole was to advance the goals of the State. As quite a new member, being able only to fly a Frigate I fell behind expectations. One day I found myself demoted on those grounds (even though there was no rule and no dead-line set for upholding the tenants of the Caldari State sufficiently).
That was the final straw. Even though I got reinstated one day later the damage was done and I was gone. It was quite a hard choice to make, but frankly it was the only choice. I tried to end my associated with the CORE as nicely as possible (even though I was quite furious) and even suggested a few nice things as kind of a positive parting-gift. It wasn’t seen that way and I earned quite a few questionable remarks when unveiling my decision to leave. Those were quite eye-opening though, as they tried to make me look bad. This was not achieved (actually it was the other way, as those unfriendly replies I got made the corp look bad) so that thread got deleted.

But enough of my old troubles, off to nicer times. If you want to know more, just mail me though.

In closing a picture I made for that corp:

Of things past Part I: First missions

2009-04-16T14:36:00.002+02:00

This actually stems back from my time in Minmatar space where, when exploring a system for an agent of mine I did had quite some exciting encounter. From quite far away my sensors made up a ship of unknown type. It seems to have spotted me and vanished immediately. The rumour has it that it might have been a ship of the ancient ones known as Jovians.

Wow was I excited! If I didn’t have this image in my sensory storage I wouldn’t have believed my eyes. I hope to someday follow up on this.

(Only much later did I find out that what I saw was probably just a drone – still the excitement from that nice mission is still there.)

Me myself and I

2009-04-16T14:25:00.002+02:00

First I guess a little bit about myself is in order: I am quite an enthusiastic and open-minded (some might call me naïve) young Minmatar student nearly fresh out from Republic University. Actually I might appear a bit older, but even though I passed the tests to become a capsuleer for quite some time now, upon passing said tests, I didn’t venture into space much. Actually I only left my home station once for a first tutorial. The experience was quite overwhelming and so I decided that I wasn’t yet ready for space and returned to my studies for one year more. So you might still call me a newbie - for that is what I am.

Though newbie that I might be, I am looking quite wide-eyed at all the possibilities the universe is offering and I hope to be able to share my adventures and experiences with you via this text-feed and its journal entries.

Why did I have this idea about text-feed messages now you might ask? Well recently I saw a dark girl named Selina Starfire at a station near my new home. I waved to her but she looked away. My luck with girls I guess … Still even though she just passed me by and didn’t want to talk to me, I was able to find out more about her in a database entry. Said database entry then led me to quite a nice blog of hers. I guess the long hours of research from my days at Republic University finally paid off ;-) Seeing this interesting blog with so many well written stories, my interest in trying myself on one was piqued. The rest they say is history (well ok perhaps in my case only a pitiful try - but still a try nevertheless).

Myself on the move with Trashy my stoutest and most often used ship.