Dark Souls (2011)

We're gonna take a trip down ye olde nostalgia gaming lane for a moment, bear with me:

Remember in the olden days when RPGs did not come with a map, or they came with a rudimentary one and you couldn't expect a full map from Nintendo Power for a few months?  When a game seemed to actively work against you to the point where you thought the game hated you, and you alone?  Secrets and hidden prizes were the reward for exploration and exploitation on a second play-through?  You had to grind through  mobs just to hoard whatever meager XP and GP they dropped just to get an advantage over the next dungeon?  Imagine a time when you didn't have to wait for load screens.  Imagine a RPG system you couldn't instantly nerf.  Remember when death brought a tangible cost to your character, not just in L33T perma-death mode?

Well, dear readers.  I think that I might have found such a game. Dark Souls kept me playing from around 2AM Saturday 04/20/13 to 5AM 04/21/13 - sober  (I played a couple hours of Puzzle Quest waiting for Dark Souls to download) and I think I've barely scratched the surface to this beast. I have checked no FAQs, no cheats, no hints (except for in-game), no game manual, and no one I know has played it.  

Dark Souls is not a loot'n'run, it is not Skyrim, it is not going to kiss your boo-boo when you fall off your training wheels.  Dark Souls doesn't give a fuck if you like it.  In fact, if you don't like it then you weren't gonna hack it anyway, so take a walk down wash-up lane.

Dark Souls can be summed up very simply, "Do it again and do it right this time."  But in a very Kafkaesque way, you are lost and somewhat scared  of what you're doing.

Do I have your interest?

I remember reading about Dark Souls on a couple of "hardcore" gamer and RPG junkie sites back in '11 but I got distracted by Skyrim and all that folderol.  It just slipped through the cracks until Saturday evening, while I was looking for a game to download and play.  For $19.99 I figured, "Fuck it.  Worse comes to worse it's an RPG I can tear through and review."

Load up, character class selection, etc etc, yeah I got this...

During the beginning of the game, what sparsely is a tutorial, I died.  Okay, not a big deal.  Wait, I died again?  Okay...learning a new game, it's a little different than Skyrim and Dragon's Dogma.  Ah ha!  Got the bastards that were killing me!  Huzzah!  What's down this hall way?  FUCK.  I just got one shotted in the "tutorial"?  A peculiar combination of rage and fascination came over me, the likes of which I haven't felt since my early days in EVE.  Okay.  I took a sip of my water and rolled the kinks out of my neck.  Then got killed again.  And again.  And again.  And again.  At one point the rage set in and I stormed in...and got killed again.  And then, the rage turned into, well if you've seen me hardcore game and bulldog a problem, or if you've seen me when I'm past anger and into calculation shut-down mode...that time I didn't die.

Then after I got through "the tutorial" I found myself in a land where everything hates me.  There are no mission markers, no map, no nanny NPCs, no explanations, and no crutches.  In a strange way DS immerses you in the game the same way Ico did.

I could write more about my experiences with Dark Souls but that would take away from yours.  What I have to say is that I haven't been this challenged by a game in a long time (besides some platformers which I suck at anyway).  I have a few problems with the mechanics but I can't tell if that's because of my character class choice (Thief) or just having a gaming experience that won't allow me to be comfortable.

Here's one thing I will tell you.  Every time you use a Bonfire - which acts as a hub for leveling, inventory control, etc, etc - all enemies (except for big bads) respawn.  Bonfires are few and far between, so a route you may have just barely cleared is now repopulated.  It's actually kind of brilliant and I figured out one nerf trick (figure it out for yourself) because you need to not only grind but practice survival.  I'm almost at lvl 35 and can one hit some foes, if my timing is right, but I got careless and swamped and died in no time flat.

Do I love Dark Souls?  Well, the game looks good and the voice acting is excellent.  Inventory control sucks.  For an action-RPG that focuses so heavily on combat I wish I had a few more moves in my play book.  Weapon shifting is awesome though and feels really natural (and vital in combat) between left and right hands.  I normally have a shield equipped on left hand with a bow in a secondary slot, sword and spear in right.  The maps are "small" but dense with exploration and enemies, you'll do a lot of running around/backtracking but through exploration and survival you'll discover links between areas to diffuse the backtracking.

Do I love Dark Souls?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  It is the first game in a long time which almost made me smash my controller into the TV.  I feel totally lost in some areas and it's only adrenaline, luck, and a touch of skill that has allowed me to survive.  I may not love it yet but I will dominate it.

p.s.  Remember in Fallout 3 the first time you beat a Deathclaw?  That satisfaction?  Imagine that feeling every time you defeat an enemy.

p.p.s. It took a strong force of will to write this post and not just play Dark Souls.   

Rock Lobster? Rock Lobster!

No, not a post about the B-52s (as much as I do like B-52s) but about the new ship I picked up in EVE ("Guh, another EVE post?"). 

A while back I started to enjoy mining thanks to the Venture.  Since then I've slowly been moving away from my usual shoot and loot farming in L4s and moved into mining, supply runs, and trade.  I buy crap for sale at bargain basement prices, stuff that not even n00bs or Goons want, reprocess it and stockpile the results until the market gives me a good return.  Okay, I'm a god damn junk man.  I even mine garbage rocks because no one wants them.  Other players have asked me, "Why do you want that crap?  There's no money it."  I've gotten used to replying, "Who's more likely to be mugged?  You, with, a cargohold full of ice and assorted high-end goodies or me, who is pushing a glorified shopping cart around filled with scrap metal and useless crap?"

Most of the time though I have unnecessarily juiced up my shopping cart with speed and handling boosts.  One of my modus operendi in EVE is, "They can't hit what they can't catch."  And yes, once I whooped and do-leet-do-do'd the General Lee's horn while making a quick getaway from a gate.  I'm slowly, slowly learning the ropes when it comes to avoiding gate camps (pirate roadblocks essentially) and some of the subtleties of lowsec transport. 

On the non-transport end of things, and in reference to the ship previously mentioned, I recently got myself into a Retriever.

"Rock Lobster"

Yessir, got me one of them big ole mining barges.  Actually, it's a pretty cool looking ship and I wish that it could be used for combat (one of my current soapboxes is for CCP to make ORE combat ships).  But yeah, I shoot at de rocks.  In a bizarre way it's kind of soothing and I do have fun just kicking back, drinking some beers, and shooting the shit with my EVE buddies.  I'm not gonna make a massive fortune doing this however, I can't tell what my daily income average will be yet since I'm just stockpiling everything.I figure once I can get a certain price point for something, I will sell it.  Even if I make less than a handful of isk on a single item, if I sell several million of them in one go, that results in a nice chunk of change. 

o7, Fly Safe.

Amarr delenda est.

The Ghost Town is dead!  Long live Ghost Town II!

Yesterday was kind of an insane day on EVE for me.  I put in an epic eighteen hour game marathon.  Granted most of that time was spent in transit as I traversed all over the core systems doing inventory control, resource consolidation, and hearing elevator music in my head as I schlepped across the void.  Most of my time was uneventful and I think I might have gotten over my fears of some parts of lowsec.  Lowsec is like a bad neighborhood, as long as you move with purpose and don't attract any attention to yourself then you should okay.  I made a decent amount of profit and mapped out some skills to work on over the next few months.

I also made one of my biggest EVE-fails in my career.  I flew into Amarr highsec with a terrible rating, that is I have such a low security rating with the Amarr that the fuckers have a "shoot on sight" order for me.  Should have been something I had thought of considering how much enmity I feel towards those laser slinging shit-heel slavers.  But no, I was bopping along, ready to take care of an easy storyline mission.  Get to the mission site and there are a bunch of Amarr Navy ships, including two battleships.  I was instantly gang-banged.  Unfortunately I was flying my favorite ship, the Ishtar Ghost Town.  Yes, my favorite ships are named after songs by The Specials (and Big Trouble in Little China). As a Gallente drone boat I often have trouble with Amarr high level ships - primarily because they use a large amount of capacitor neutralizers and generally are a pain in the ass.  So Ghost Town went pop, fortunately NPCs don't podkill, and in a rookie ship I was able to snake most of my cargo and and remaining mods from the wreck.  It amuses me that the last time I lost a ship (over a year ago) it was an Ishtar to the Amarr Navy.

On the upside I was smart enough to have insurance (thank god) and since I've been making solid bank I had a pair of similarly fit Ishtars back at home base.  I've been attempting to set up my regularly visited stations with ships I regularly use so I don't have to fly there and back again just to pick up stuff.  It's an arduous, expensive, endeavor but has made life a little easier so far.  One thing I want to do is have a slew of  specialty combat fit ships available to just hop into instead of swapping gear out every time.

Amusing aside:  I was wrapping up stuff for the night and I decided to pick up one last mission.  As I was in transit to the AO I got that feeling:

Frost: Man, I'm telling you, I got a bad feeling about this drop. 
Crowe: You always say that, Frost. You always say, "I got a bad feeling about this drop." 
Frost: Okay, okay. When we get back without you, I'll call your folks. 
Share this quote

Now friends, in EVE when I get that feeling, I'm 95% right.  Something bad is gonna happen.  But, like the horror movie moron who walks into a dark room to investigate a noise I decided to check out the mission and then bop to the closest station.  I fly in, align to station because there's a nest of drones making angry noises at me, and I'm gonna bug out and deal with it later aaaaaannnnndddd Windows decides that's the best time to update and reset.  I sounded my barbaric FUCK across the rooftops of the world.  Oh, and I was flying Ghost Town II.  That's right, my new Ishtar was left alone.  Five minutes later, I'm sweating bullets and talking to my Ishtar, telling her I'm on my way, just hold together, trying to sweet talk Lady Luck, and I'm back in.  She was at half shields but holding strong.  I realigned to station and put the pedal to the metal.  Swear to God I might have actually cried if I lost a ship like that after the day I'd had.  "NEVER GET OFF THE GODDAMN BOAT, MAN!"

In other EVE news:

Capsuleer Stranglelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mining.  The Venture is one of my favorite ships in EVE and I've been able to make some decent money just by piddling around cleaning up rocks in mission areas or mining while hanging out with people.  I wouldn't make a career out of it but it gives me something easy to do.  It also gives me some time so actually look at some of the environments, which are easy to miss when you're just out kicking ass.

*cue Muzak version of "Girl From Ipanema"*

Hope all of you are well and in good spirits.

In closing here's one of my favorite pictures of Ghost Town and Amarr delenda est.

Oh look another EVE post. Mining and space trucking.

After a six month hiatus from the the harsh mistress that is EVE Online I shuffled back meekly.  I've noticed the emerging pattern of playing for a few months and then taking a few months off and coming back.  It's usually after an update to the game.  Retribution launched 12/04/12 with a wide range of tweaks to cruisers, frigates, and destroyers.  They also added the Venture, an ORE mining frigate.

Pretty friggin sweet for an entry level miner like myself.

I love the Venture for a number of reasons.  I never really gave mining a chance because I never wanted to input the effort to getting a strip miner or exhumer.  Plus big ass mining ships are about as manuverable as a turd with a sail.  The Venture is a peppy little bastard that mines about 5000m3 ore with current crappy skills in about ten minutes (levelling mining skills is pretty quick compared to some of the wait times I have for LV drones and ships).  With refining and yadda yadda I can make roughly ten million isk per hour.  Not that I particularly need the money right now but money is nice.  Mining ain't exactly a thrilling gig but it's a nice change of pace from regular carebearing.  

The call of nullsec is something I've ignored since my my third week of play (06/13/2011) but since I've been thinking about getting into interstellar shipping and smuggling for something fun and new to do (without mucking into pvp).  OK, fine I want the Millenium Falcon.  There, I said it.  The forums have some interesting info about how to take down Blockade Runners and I found a good article comparing builds.  Mabrick wrote an interesting article about the need for overhauling haulers. 

I've expanded my usual AO since stumbling across a small population system kind of off the beaten path.  It's a nice change of pace and allows for an expansion of resources without a risky commitment.  With a longer trade route I'm considering setting up permanent way stations and start preparing to get into nullsec or at least setting up a post near a high risk area.
Fly safe and remember to d-scan always.

Borderlands 2 progress report and assorted game news

Figured I'd post something and since I've only been biking, drinking, and playing Borderlands 2 - oh and going to classes - the only thing I have to post about is B2.  I did cancel my EVE Online account again, mainly for the reason I didn't have anything to do or any reason to do it - and don't yammer at me about null sec, I'd rather be bored than get my ass shot off.  More accurately, I didn't have anything to buy so I just had a big old pile of ISK.  Not like I'm saving my pennies for a BS or Titan or some shit.  I'm sure I'll get back into EVE but for now I'd prefer to have fun.

This game season looks like it's gonna be a good one - particularly for franchises I like:  Torchlight II, Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution, hell - even the new Assassin's Creed looks friggin awesome.  Having B2 kicking of the festivities is a good sign.

Here's a quick rundown of schtuff I've been experiencing in B2:

• I hit level 25 yesterday and am in the meat of the game however I'm in no rush to rip through the story.  Fortunately Gearbox set up a large number of optional side quests and all kinds of explory looty places as well as a brilliant challenges list (and their Badass Tokens rewards)
• I'm beginning to obsess over the challenges though some of them make me want to say very bad words.  The hidden Vault icons are in some cases, challenging as hell to not only find but in some instances get to.  Truth be told the last day or two I spent more time wandering around picking up challenges than I have been playing side or story missions.
• Played a couple of hours of multiplayer with a Gunzerker buddy the other night.  That shit was fun.  Like genuine crazy person fun.  The difficulty and mayhem level increased significantly with only two of us (having four players has got to be batshit crazy).  
• I think I might start a Gunzerker once I finish everything with the Commando.  My buddy was just beastly in combat.  One of the high points was him punching a Goliath into my field of fire.  He's just a beast of a character.
• One problem I have is sometimes dialogue or events will be happening when I'm in combat.  I have subtitles on (I usually have a box fan going) but can't catch what's going on.  Not a huge deal but since there's no journal replay I feel like I've missed some stuff.
• I hate Threshers but love their design and the way they act in combat (and crushing them under the wheels of a vehicle).
• Easy cash money!  Farming Crisilisks in The Fridge.  
• Fun tip, use non-elemental weapons for more damage on Crisilisks.  They seem to sponge elemental effects.  
• Finally found an assault rifle worth a shit.  Still not the greatest find in the world but I always keep an eye out.
• I lucked out and found a number of fuckin' sweet pistols and sniper rifles.  Is this Pandora telling me to just stick with my standard go to weapons?  o.O
• Arena combat is back - not as hell bent for leather insanity as Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot - but tough enough.  Gunzerker buddy and I went through a couple of rounds and it was a little nerve wracking.  Doable but still nerve wracking.
• Looking for peoples to complete driving challenges with!  Either as driver or passengers.
• Singularity grenades are frigging awesome.  Homing singularity grenades that DoT are so beyond awesomeI don't even know if there's an equation for that much awesome.
• Jesper Kyd's score is as good as his other scores.  Top quality work but, how does one put this?, it's similar to other film and game composers, they're doing excellent work that I fully enjoy but I go, "Yup, that's a Kyd score."  or "Yup, that's Goldsmith."  or "Yup, that's Morricone."  I know, I know - nitpicky.

That's all for now.  Hope you folks are well.  Maybe I'll see you in game.  Have a good weekend.

    

Trust in your armor but remember...

"But when a stronger man than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." - Luke 11:22 King James Bible

Since I've been on vacation I've been putting an absurd amount of time in EVE - even by my standards - but most of my efforts have been leaning towards perfecting drone and armor skills.  Gameplay has consisted of transport runs, spending a large amount of time docked, trading and making "Rules of Acquisition" jokes in my head, and carebearing the living shit out of L4 missions.

When on combat missions I try to adhere to a checklist that I've developed over the last few months.  Simple stuff really:

• always have an escape plan, preferably more than one 
• align, align, align
• only commit to combat when I have tactical advantage
• I tend to rely on range and speed.  With my current skills and gear I have an effective combat range of over 120km (which puts me well out of range of 75% of the NPCs I come across) and can juice my Ishtar up to 599m/s
• I only "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" aka launch attack drones when I have tanked the aggro.  No sense in letting my expensive drones get whomped on for no reason.
• I still strongly adhere to my own rule of "cap stability above all else".  This is part of the reason I lean towards a passive armor tank.  If I can run all the equipment I have without having to run out of juice or keeping an eye on cap during combat.
• Minimize risk, maximize reward.  Rule of Acquisition #125 "You can't make a deal if you're dead."  Screw that "Fortune favors the bold" malarkey.
• Never go AFK when you're undocked.  Okay, I'll take a pee or grab a beer while in warp.  Sometimes.
• "The problem isn't that you're paranoid.  It's that you're not paranoid enough."
• Never rely on gear when skills would suit you better.

This last maxim has been on my mind lately since I nearly lost an Ishtar during a mission.  As an armor tanker (can't always rely on speed and range when a half dozen battleships spawn within twenty-five klicks) I often say a well-worn Warhammer 40K line, "Look to your battlegear and it will protect you, as your armour guards your life."  If you think that's dorky you should hear me recite the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear when I'm running cargo through lowsec or in a situation like this:

"I will not fear.  Fear is the mind-killer."

Granted, that engagement wasn't that bad since I had tactical control of the situation but the unknown can always happen (a la "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.")  The engagement I almost lost my favorite ship in involved a large number of frigates and sentry towers that spawned less than five klicks from my position.  I was careless and on the back-foot and for a split second of blind panic I saw my armor melt under withering fire and get into deep structure before my warp drive engaged, whisking me to the closest station.  Now before you EVE players take me to task for not consulting eve-survival.org first, I prefer not to use that site because I feel it takes a large element of risk out of missions.  I enjoy not exactly knowing what I'm heading into (caveat: I usually decline Amarr missions simply because the risk is too high for my tastes) and relying on myself to keep my ship in one piece.  Hell, sometimes I'll scout a site with a shuttle first (especially if I can't come in at range).  It's part of the fun for me.

So why my new concern about battlegear and having to rework some of  my approaches to combat?  Primarily because of my near loss but secondly because I recently broke down and purchased a Dominix.  She's actually not as ugly as I thought she was gonna be but she handles like a box of turds with four broken shopping cart wheels.  If I had been in the Domi when I got short-range jumped I would have lost an expensive ship.  She just doesn't handle well and her speed is garbage.  However, she's a monster tank.  I've read some shop talk about how tough she is and can weather a huge amount of punishment.  That being said, I don't trust her as my battlegear.  Then again, I've been truckin around in a HAC for at least six months and feel really comfortable in cruisers and maybe it's time to shake myself up and try something new.

Another downside to the Domi, and a core issue that's keeping me from moving to the BS, is the painful (nearly pathetic) target lock time she has - against all ships.  It must be similar to the differences between the Enterprise and the Defiant.  Frankly, the Ishtar is a far superior drone boat, considering bonuses, speed, smaller signature, base resistances suck, etc. etc. etc.  However, I like taking the Domi out for a spin because she's such a big moosey and she can really be a jack of all trades.  She can effectively tank while drones dish out the DPS and run salvage in combat.  Not the capabilities of a Marauder but still...

I'm continuing work on my Domi and if I get her to where I feel I trust her I'll post a fit here.  Hope all of you are well.  Fly safe.  o7

EVE Causality in Japanese

Because everything sounds cooler in Japanese.

Hmmm...shippy shippy shippy ship...

I'm kicking the tires on a couple of boats.  Before my brief break from EVE I was considering the Proteus - the T3 cruiser which could be a pretty awesome project to spend the summer working on.  My other option is begin the long slog towards the Kronos.  The Kronos is made for stomping through solo missions without having to go grab the Noctis when you salvage.  The downside to the Kronos is I'm a drone monkey and would be better served by a Dominix.  A downside is the Domi...well, she's kind of fugly and lumpy (in-game nickname is "The Boot").  Not chopped down the ugly tree with her face fugly (*cough* Gila) but she's not exactly my cup of tea.

The primary drawback(s) to getting the Proteus, besides cost, is the simple fact I love my Ishtar.  Now that my skills have begun to do the boat justice I've noticed marked improvements in performance.  There are still some core areas that need major work - putting weeks of time into Drone skills have left me on the back foot in others (new EVE players - take the time to sit down and plan what you want to do in the long run before skilling willy nilly).  From glancing at the forums I noticed that the Proteus isn't comparable to the Ishtar as a PvE droneboat (I'll spend some more time reading because I'm sure there are plenty of folks out there who disagree).  I also have n00b level skills for blasters so fitting it as a blaster boat isn't a current option.  On the other hand it would take me a very short time to get into a Proteus, though I have made the mistake of jumping into a boat with substandard skills and paid the price.  Additionally there's the maxim, "Never fly more than you're willing to lose."  At this juncture my pride would take a stronger hit than my pocketbook if I lost my Ishtar.

The Kronos is not only over a billion isk (vs 240mil for the Proteus) but would take me roughly seventy-eight days to get into.  Well, that solves that problem.

The Dominix is 85mil and would take me an hour to get in (Battleship 1) - this doesn't include Large Hybrid Weapon skills though.  I could slap mid and low T2 gear on her from the get go.  Looking at her attributes for the first time I'm kind of impressed.  As far an armor tank/drone boat, well that's what she was made for.  With a 6/5/7 fitting (high/med/low) I could damn near slap everything and a kitchen sink on her.  Plus with a 375m3/125 bandwidth I'd be up to my ass in drones of every shape, size, color, and possible use (even that deep fryer drone I picked up).

Downsides, besides aesthetics, are mainly based on a couple of practical worries and some less practical. First, it would mean a shift in the way I PvE, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Right now I can dictate the flow of combat primarily through speed and range (the "they can't hit what they can't catch" principle) and judicious use of drones and rails.  I feel that the depressing speed of the Domi (base 109km/s combined with 420 signature radius and 0.1254 inertia modifier) would be akin to pushing a turd up a hill with chopsticks in regards to handling (opposed to an Ishtar's base 191km/s, 145 sig radius, and 0.560025 inertia mod).  The drastic change in these elements would potentially mean being at the mercy of enemy frigates and cruisers (and their ewar).  I suppose I could put my trust in blasters, though in truth I prefer to have the foe dealt with before they get into blaster range (hence my preference in railguns).  I have seen the Domi in action and she proves to be tough nut to crack.  Hell, she's built like a brick shithouse and can just soak up abuse.

I guess for the time being I'll keep on keepin on with the Ishtar and make some long term plans for getting into a Domi.  Still, I miss that new ship smell.
    

After a year of EVE...

"If you look long enough into the Quafe, the Quafe begins to look back through you."

I had my first in-game birthday about a week ago.  Nothing really special happened, I blew up some up some Serps and completed a few more certificates.  I've been finishing off my drone skills (which has been taking for-fucking-ever) and getting back my sea-legs on L3 milk runs.  There was a new expansion,  Inferno, which had a bunch of shiny updates (missles and rockets for what they are worth - I don't use them anymore) and a new Unified Inventory which I can't tell if I like or not.  It seems like a change to something that didn't really need to be changed.  However, EVE's inventory control is magically delicious when compared to SWTOR, WoW, or The Secret World, so I'll just have to get used to it or integrate it to the in station menu and get used to that (even though having it integrated makes me feel like I'm wearing my underwear backwards).

I've reached a strange point in my EVE career.  I'm not really sure what to do.  I still have a small mountain of skills I can put time into in order to make me really effective at soloing L4's and dodgier areas, at least in a cruiser class or below boat.  I'm not a miner.  The corp I'm currently in is pretty small and it's rare if any of us are online at the same time.  In a game that is very much a sandbox and your fun is dependent upon you sometimes it's kind of easy to be at a loss for what to do - especially when you've completed a set of self imposed goals and have to think about what the next set of goals you want to set for yourself are.  I don't need stacks of credits simply because I currently don't need to buy anything and everything I'm salvaging and looting is gravy.  I don't particularly want to risk my current clone (yeah I can get a jump clone) or my current boat in some kooky jaunt across the dark places of Eden.

I'm curious what other EVE players do when they find themselves at a loss for things to do.  Is it time for me to start thinking of going to nullsec?  Is it time to start thinking about getting into a battleship (not that I really want one)?  Time to join another corp?  Should I, gasp, learn to PvP?  Ideas and comments are welcome.

Fly safe, capsuleers.

Burn Jita: Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing or Something More?

Jita is one of the main trade hubs in High Security (HighSec) space in EVE Online and Goonswarm and their allies began launching large scale assaults there yesterday, in a a move titled "Burn Jita".  Today, this evening is when the full assault would begin and last through the weekend.  The reason behind this attack is (that I've been able to suss out) an attempt to shake up an economy that's grown stagnant and a High Sec populace who are under the impression they have some security in High Sec.  Also, because they can. This has made news across the gaming community from EuroGamer to Kotaku and of course the forums are all a flutter with trolling/counter-trolling/pseudo-Occupy rhetoric/"The Sky is Falling" and assorted game mumbo jumbo.  Hell, I'm suddenly up to my knees in EVE again. 

While I do not support or endorse any of Goonswarm's schemes or piracy I am fully impressed with their logistical abilities (not to mention coordinating such a massive operation).  I also support their anti-bot rhetoric.  However it is CCP and their "let the players do it" attitude that really impress me.  EVE is not an easy or forgiving game and as a sissy carebear I spent a lot of time paranoid and eventually never ventured into low or nullsec (especially as I grew further from the "never fly more than you're willing to lose" mentality).  New Eden is a scary place.  CCP keeps it a scary place, it allows Goonswarm to attack the heart of trade in New Eden, and allows schemes, double-dealing, fraud, and multitudes of virtual Madoffs and Toecutters a wide latitude of action.  And that's awesome.  I can't wait to see what happens after this.  Hell I might get back in the pool once and for all instead of being a sissy pisspants.

An aside:

I certainly think the entire "Burn Jita" assault could be more effective if they had just attacked and not said anything about it.  As it is, traders had fair warning and since space stations can't be destroyed their stuff is safe and some can trade remotely between stations.  Hell, in the time I played I never went to Jita.  I always heard it was a spammer shithole to make Nar Shaadar look good so I just never bothered.  My forecast is that while yes a lot of ships are being destroyed (even more so than usual in Jita) - a glance at EVE-Kill shows that most of the ships are garbage noobships and pods (though I'd rather lose my ship than get podded) or the slew of Goonswarm Tornadoes that ate it between 20:51 and 21:22 (apparently they use a Red Chinese human wave attack style aka Zerg Rush or 'Nids).  I'm curious in the long run how this is going to make a serious change to EVE and New Eden.  I can see how this might lead to a decentralization of trade (which isn't) a bad thing but it won't mean much in the long run.  Attacking Jita certainly won't collapse or destroy the economy of EVE (though I'm kind of curious how many people are going to rage quit or suspend their account until the mess blows over).

Vexor, Vexor, Vexor, Vexor, Ishtar! Ishtar!

Finally I am one day away from getting into the Ishtar!  From what I read on EVE-fail and Memoirs of a Carebear I should be in for a good time.  Happy fat kid hand clap glee.  I'll post pics when I finally take it for a spin.

EVE is sometimes very exciting to play.

Holy frickin Moly!

While searching for how to tweak EVE for single large monitors I found this:

A selection of pictures I have taken while space truckin':

The last few EVE expeditions since the Yan Jung Smashstravaganza last week have been pretty quiet, primarily involving me doing cargo and supply runs and getting loot collected into central areas.  There's not a huge amount to do while space truckin in HighSec so I decided to take some photos of schtuff.  I'm actually enjoying the process and once I get back to exploring I hope to get some good shots of anomalies and the like.

Not sure where the hell this was taken.

Pretty.

My God, it's full of flare.

That speck out there?  Yeah, that's one of my boats floating in a whole lotta cold death potential.

I didn't stop and ask for directions in this neighbourhood.

"Tell 'em Large Marge sentcha!"

"Warp Gate Active."  No shit, Aura.

Are we there yet?  I have to go to the bathroom!

The Guns of Brixton lurking.

Large Marge don't cotton to sass talk.

Ghost Town coming back from a salvage run.

The Pork Chop Express heading into high orbit.

The Continuing Adventures of Scoville Bessler: Sco gets conned by Browncoats

I know I was planning not to do another EVE post but the experience I had last night, I just have to write about.

I got conned.  Yup.  I had the feeling it was a set-up but hey, win some lose some.  Now the funny part is not when the pirate lured me off the beaten path (he was posing as a fellow n00b who wanted to practice PVP plus he offered me candy and a puppy and puppy made of candy) and proceeded to SVU me, what amuses me to no end is what happened after he stopped shooting at me and tried to hold me for ransom.

The pirate demanded that I pay him 5mil ISK (the in-game currency) and he'd let me be on my way.  Yeah, right.  Besides the boat I was in with all the equipment wasn't worth 5mil.  So I offered to pay half and the rest when I was safely out of harm's way.  He refused, I don't blame him because I wasn't gonna pay him the other half.  So we are at an impasse the pirate and I.  Then I remembered something I saw during the EVE Tournament, you can set your ship to self-destruct.

"Then he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, *awful* idea!"

What would happen if I set my ship to self-destruct and abandoned ship?  So that's what I did.  I Kobayashi Maru'd the motherfucker.  Sure he could salvage the wreck but I had The Pork Chop Express  insured for the full amount so no real harm done.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.  What a cluster-fuck of a mugging.  My hat was off to the guy though, I haven't fell for something like since I was underage and trying to get alcohol.  I sent him a million ISK any way just for amusing me so much.  At least I didn't get nabbed by these guys:






AND, to things even better, the schmuck (I was duped so I was a schnook) was part of  the Browncoat Mercenary Corp, led by one Saffron Reanolds!  I'm lucky I didn't end up naked on a rock in the middle of nowhere.  I just wish I had been in "The Hero of Canton".  I suddenly felt a slew of people sing, "The man they called Jane."

I love this game, in case you couldn't tell, because of shit like this and other stuff too.  Plus they never make you pay for new content.

EVE Online: the trial ends. Thoughts and an interesting sci-fi concept.

Scoville Bessler ends her fourteen day jaunt in New Eden on a high note, or least a fairly decent middle range note.  I've learned the basics, picked up a few tricks, made some contacts, blew up and salvaged a shit ton of pirates, droids, and Caldari and a couple of Amarr ships here and there.  As a member of the Gallente Federation, currently at war with the aforementioned realms, I haven't met any Caldari or Amarr yet but I don't like what they stand for - the Amarr in particular are a bunch of religious fanatics with a society based upon slavery (though there are also some Machine worshippers that make me happy in my 40K place).  Caldari might as well be called Randians. 

I've got a nice little system of mission grinding/salvage/and sales going on.  I've starting saving salvage for a buyer who constructs her own ships and sells them.  Yeah so I'm a sanitation engineer & junk peddler.  What?  My primary focus with Sco is getting her skills really up to skill before venturing too far astray.  That way I don't have to waste too much money on new ships and gear. 

Once I get my paycheck I might sign up for a month but I'll have to juggle finances first.

The interesting concept I began thinking about a day or two ago was a discussion I had in-game about my avatar Scoville.  Someone asked me if she was a man or a woman.  I replied that Scoville is a woman but that I was thinking of starting a male alt.  The person joked that they weren't sure, in a very polite way, because Sco had both masculine and feminine qualities in her portrait.  Then that conversation was over and we all started goofing off again.  Yesterday, while I was out making deliveries, I was glancing at the conversation box and some people were joking about how few actual women played the game and a lot of women chimed in that they did but then some guy pointed out that a lot of men have female avatars (the guy who was joking with me about Sco) so I jumped in and quipped, "Yeah and sometimes you just can't tell."  Then it kind of hit me that a society - so deeply based around clones and cloning would or could have radically different notions of gender, gender roles, sexuality, etc, etc.  Granted these are still human societies and some rely on cloning and cybernetics more or less than others additionally humans can still be born naturally.  It's not clear what direction I'm going with this, might be aimless rumination.  In anycase I involved myself in the conversation about clones (in particular Sco) potentially not really being concerned about gender, I wanted to make an "Orlando" reference but people probably already think I'm a weirdo.  Especially in the case when a clone in the case of capsuleers (pilots in EVE) have a clone waiting in case of pod death - you're grafting a personality into a body (read the article, it explains the concept much clearer than I can).  So in any case now Sco identifies as herself first, clone-status and gender-status are other people's concerns not hers.  How very Intaki of her.

And that's the end of EVE crazy talk for the time being.  Classes start up soon.  The weather is getting hot.  Hope you are all well.

A combo personal and brief update on adventures in EVE...

If I have been - or if I continue to - maintaining radio silence for the next few days or weeks I'm okay, I'm addicted to EVE.  I know that LA Noire came out yesterday and I've been waiting five years for it to come out and I'm still a Rockstar whore but it comes down to a financial decision.  Plus I know that LA Noire will plummet in price soon enough, even if it's not a GOTY edition (I'm still waiting for the Fallout Vegas edition with all the DLC).  Summer will be pretty slim with disposable income, as it will be for a lot of folks, and air conditioning is vital in Texas but you pay through the nose for it.  Bastards.

In personal news I received my grades for the semester: 2 A's, 1 B, 1 D.  I think D stands for "Didn't care." or "Didn't put any effort." into English class.  Apparently analyzing poems and literature isn't my forte (nor do I give a fuck), though I did okay with drama.  Throughout my entire life, if I don't care then I won't be bothered.  History and Ethnobiology were the A's.  Boo-yah.  Besides I'm not going to grad school to analyze fucking Joyce.  Not that there's anything wrong with that...

School news, whatever, whatever, EVE Online.  I wish I had started playing this instead of WoW.  I'm plugging along in the free demo, got through the roster of tutorials (there were about six or seven), have a good basic set of skills - still have yet to decide which direction I want to take - still leaning towards explorer/recovery/salvage/looter/courier/pirate hunter that I usually play.  Yes I know it sounds like "Firefly" but I was playing this class before I saw it thank you.  Pure Han "shot first" Solo scoundrel...this time I think I'm going for Lando as the ultimate goal.  I've had a massive amount of fun so far playing EVE but I've also developed an appreciation for the pure monotony of space travel, especially in high security zones where you don't have to worry about pirates or PvP waiting for suckers to warp out of gates (I haven't encountered this yet thank god but I've been sticking to high security zones).  I've managed to get a freighter that is pretty quick and cuts travel time by a third but still...whew.  Fortunately even during warp travel there's a huge amount of stuff to do.  Granted most of this stuff to do is logistical, doing business, mapping routes, planning what cool stuff to buy, etc., etc.  so it's not like you're sitting there staring slacked jawed at a loading screen. 

Now paperwork and shuttling gear back and forth isn't riveting stuff so where's the fun?

• Are you the kind of person who will merrily spend hours building a ship a  la Chromehounds?  Do you like tweaking power levels, weight/speed ratios, weapon ranges, and more and more?  Does the concept of creating the ultimate fitting for your bad ass ship, with off-market mods under the hood make you tingly in your bathing suit area?  Oh yeah.  I might not be a gear head, grease monkey in RL but in game?  Fuck yeah.  I usually spend about a hour at the beginning of each play session: checking my settings, doing a systems check, and seeing what new equipment might fit onto my ship of choosing.
• A very, very important and humorous saying in chat that I've seen repeated - usually in response to a player lamenting the loss of their ship - "Never fly more than you're willing to lose" (or willing to insure).  In EVE you will have your ship(s) destroyed (whether or not you get "podded" aka having your escape pod blown up is another issue).  Most players keep a stable of craft for a variety of uses and often (if possible) more than one of the same craft.  My current total of ships lost are - two rookie n00b ships, the freighter Miss Ska Tonic, and the freighter The Yellow Rose of Texas.  So far I haven't been podded but I bought a back-up clone just in case.  I also took out platinum full coverage insurance for my current boat named The Pork Chop Express which is a destroyer kitted out for survey, salvage, and mining.  I'm working on tricking out a freighter for speed but will probably save my pennies for a rainy day.
• The reason I have kept my losses low is because I haven't ventured into lowsec aka Low Security regions yet and chances are I won't for quite some time.  Additionally since my previous losses I have become a lot more cautious warping into unknown space (I taught myself a trick to quick warp in and out of an area - hopefully I won't get caught with my pants down by rats with warp drive scramblers). 
• Deep space scanning EVE does it right.  As many of you folks may know - I game for exploration and by proxy loot.  One of the primary ways to do this is to find anomalies, hidden jump gates, gas clouds, deadspace, derelict space stations, space hulks and the like.  You find those through a process of sending probes into space (right now I have basic probes) and through a combination of luck, skill, tri/quadrangulation, and profanity.  Of course as you gain skills and better gear the process gets easier.  There a certain amount of patience and delicacy involved as well as I had to trick myself in thinking (spatially) in three dimensions on the computer.
• I also am learning how to target multiple bogeys at the same time.  There's got to be an easier way because right now it's like trying to roller skate in a buffalo herd.  I might have to map a controller for combat.
• Amusing - tracking down a UFO in space.  For some reason the idea just hit my absurdity button.

Hope you all are well.  More news to follow soon.  I promise I'll do some movie reviews ASAP.  Promise.

Scoville Bessler

EVE Online - Day 1 of 14: The return of Scoville Bessler

EVE Online - the MMO set in space - that isn't Star Wars or Star Trek.  I remember hearing about this game about the same time I was thinking of starting Warcraft but as we all know I ended up going with WoW until I got bored.  I'm also bored with all the games I currently own and I have until Tuesday to wait to get my grubby paws on L.A. Noire (narf, narf, narf).  So after some poking around on the world wide web I decided to give the free two-week trial of EVE Online a go.

After roughly forty-five minutes of installation (I watched an episode of SVU and ate take away in the interim) I was able to create my character.  I went for my standard Scoville Bessler female template only in EVE Online I spent nearly an hour tweaking her look.  I have to say that EVE has the best fucking character design template I have ever seen.  Seriously.  The level to which you can tweak your character's looks (including excellent scars, aging, and freckles!) is impressive but the ability to manipulate your character's expression is top-notch.  I managed to give Scoville my common expression of the Red Hook brush-off combined with smirk.  I hope I can a pic of her for you folks. 

Now the downside of such awesome character design is that you are only creating your portait.  Your in-game thingie you move around and interact with the 'verse with is the ship you helm.  At the point I am at, I don't have much in the way of ship customization, so basically I'm driving around space in the equivalent of Plymouth Horizon.  Wheeee!  Sigh.  However, I am also thinking of sticking with my crappy ship and just tricking it out with cool tech.  Por la Raza!

So, how's trucking around space?  I'm still in the tutorial but it's kind of cool.  It's a gorgeous game, which is good because I spent a lot of time autopiloting back and forth on training missions.  However that time in transit actually was pretty helpful because there is a galactic shit-ton of stuff to read, look at, and star maps to examine.  I hope I can actually do some exploring with out total risk of being turned into space dust.

One thing I have to say I really dig about EVE is the openness of the class system in that, there is no class system, no levelling per say, it's all how you play the game.  You build skills, talents in order to do what you want to do.  Additionally EVE seems to be pretty solo player friendly, which is always an upside to me.  I also dig the fact that the game world is player driven and created - to clarify a lot of corporations are player run and they dish out missions.  Neat.  I'm looking forward to playing some more tonight.

Add:

I've done a bit more searching around and reading of guides, watching official tutorials on teh youtube, and I'm starting to feel a little daunted by EVE.  I think I might be getting that "this is gonna be addicting" feeling.  IDK though, the monthly fee is $14.95.

Add 2:

Jesus - this Fleet Commander is awesome.  This is watching South Koreans play Starcraft.





Impressive space combat:

New MMO new lingo, what the fuck is "carebearing"?  I like "ratting" as a term for hunting NPC pirates.

Yeah, I think I'm just gonna stick to flying below the grid and not get involved with any intergalactic conflicts.  Hmmm...now should I be a bounty hunter ratter?