Soft Diamond

Blog moved

2010-06-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

This may double update but we'll see!

I've moved my blog to the excellent looking (and Eve specific) Evepress.com. The full link to the new blog is here: http://rebeldiamonds.evepress.com and I've imported this page so that my limited posting history should be displaying nicely there now.

JR

Bloody Gate Guns

2010-06-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

I really must remember that GCC and gate guns are not a good combination when in a badly damaged Inty!

Had a total brain fart and jumped into Hisec with red flashy status! Muppet!

War...really is so much fun!

2010-05-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

My SoTF re-application was accepted today so I was looking forward to getting online, especially after a pretty shitty day at work. I logged in and was sorted for Vent within minutes. Vent was busy with talk of a Squid fleet in Tama. I had a few jumps through hostile space so popped into my Enyo and headed on down.

Soon we were engaging with the Enyo getting some nice quick points and the T2 Electrons dishing out the dirt. Eventually we made it back up to Old Man Star where I took an opportune moment to jump into a rather old fit Brutix for DPS. The FC called for some tank to engage a couple of hostiles. I had a couple of T2 reps on the Brutix so figured it would last long enough to engage and get the gang in on the WTs in Tama.

I jumped, engaged a Drake and got him pointed. He soon engaged back and the gang was called in. My tank held just long enough for the fleet to get secondary points on him and his Harby friend.

So within 2 hours of re-joining SoTF I had been on 3 kills (of around 7/8), and lost one...Great stuff and a reminder of how cool FW can be. When it was all over, I was only a few jumps from home, making FW the most accessible combat in Eve for busy people!

Scratched the itch!

2010-05-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

No point messing around. I wasn't overly happy with the game play I was getting in the Alliance warfare stuff (Although I loved being back with the Punks' and I really loved "secure" nullspace with a fully developed military complex...mmmm Much iskies to be made off those Rats!)

Anyway - I've liquidised all my assets in Fountain and tried to consolidate most of them back to around Villore as I'm joining the Factional Warfare guys again.

I'm really hoping my application back to the SoTF folk will go through (Just managed to get in in time before the patch redeployment) and I'm really looking forward to flying with them again.

In related FW news it looks like the Caldari Fleets are getting themselves organised again with a Mutual Defence Pact being signed - which looks similar to the Villore Accords MDP and should mean some rather juicy fights are on there way - perfect timing!

It's funny how secure nullspace was when you're deep in it and in a NAP set up. Coming back to the world of lowsec has been a rude surprise on the need to be ever vigilant in Eve.

I also pulled Rough Diamond out of LAX and brought her back down to Essence. She's also invested the single largest amount I've ever put ina ship and had bought a Fenrir Freighter. She's also working her way towards Blockade runners over the next couple of weeks so could be useful in resupplying Jared as needed.

Only a couple more hours for the patch to arrive and then we can get back to the serious business of internet spaceships again! Woot!

PS: Congratulations to the recently elected CSM as well (I genuinely can't recall who I voted for but I'm sure that with a much higher turnout than before these guys have a real mandate to bring positive change tot he Eve Universe...It'd be good if they could sort that volcano out as well whilst they're over there!!

Uh oh - I feel an itch coming on

2010-05-22T02:25:00.000-07:00

Ecliptic Rift recently posted in his blog about indecisiveness. I can relate to this a lot, and I know that I'm also impatient and like to try new things.

In Eve the amount of paths to take are truly many and varied. What's attracted my attention of late and piqued my interest is the ongoing incursions by the Sansha Nation. These "Live events" being run and controlled by CCP and the reaction to them has been interesting.

In particular the various Faction Corps and the Role Play element of Eve has come alive and I'm kind of liking the stories that are coming out and the feeling of a cause that exists.

I'm enjoying life back amongst my old Corp but I've found that I can't get the most out of the combat. The Ops are too late for me really, I've flown out on a couple but by the time it's all arranged and we get to where we are meant to be, it's normally time for me to log off and cook or eat.

There have been a couple of ops at a time I can manage on the weekend but... it's the weekend and my better half and I have things to do and I have other commitments.

Where is all this leading up to? Well I am definitely going to research some of the RP Corps to see how and what they do, if it's small gang and flexible then I may consider moving. alternatively the FW seems to be picking up again and the Sansha incursions are on their radar (Following Eelis' blog is keeping me interested there still!)

God I'm so contrary and the nature of Eve really doesn't help!

Still I'm typing this as I roll out in a RRBS for a POS save op that should be fun...pity the weather's so awesome outside!

Sansha Raiding (with opportunistic buggers!)

2010-05-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

Well that was a fun morning. After the disappointment of last night when the planned fleet failed to materialise I thought I'd log in and do a bit of housekeeping.

I was shopping in Schmaeel for some drone skills (Sentries) and spotted local chat with warnings from SlaveTama01 that the Sansha Nation was raiding and to stay away.

Well who couldn't resist a challenge like that - so I legged it over to P6 in my little Tristan to be greeted by a wall of red from Frigates to Battleships...Humm I need a bigger ship!

I popped back to Neesher and collected a little Ishkur, loaded it with drones and headed back and threw my drones out to the Nation's fighters. I managed to pop one before a Capsuleer Thrasher warped in next to me...uh oh this isn't going to end well!

OK that was fun...I fancied a bit more of that so off to Neesher again. The only ship I had ready was a Glass Cannon...a Deimos. Not ideal TBH but it's all good fun.

Landing back at P6 in Schmaeel it was crazy - Pod pilot ships everywhere, a good handful of Caldari Battle Cruisers and even some carrier support! Ah well I thought I;d stick around anyway and threw my drones out again. It wasn't long before the shiny Deimos attracted the attention of a couple of Battle-cruisers and before long I was webbed. I was massively impressed by the shield tank those things have as I really expected the Deimos to dish out more damage than they did.
Was great fun even if I was a little ineffective and I can see how the Gallente and Caldari Faction Warfare guys had such a good battle of it the other day. With some organisation that little fight could turn into a huge consensual PVP fest (With the Sansha guys happily farming civilians from the Planet below!) Ah the arrogance of Capsuleers!

JR

Going to lose some ships soon!

2010-05-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

3 Fleet Fit BS' and assorted "support" ships ready to go now and an alliance op today at a time that I can make!

Am really looking forward to getting out there and being hopefully of some use. Still not got my T2 rails or T2 Large MWD yet though so the ships are quite expensive. Should be about 3 weeks I think before I can "fully" fit them in the way I'd want to.

There was a Corp meeting last night that I couldn't make so am eagerly awaiting the minutes from that as it was about future direction (presumably associated with the (delayed) Tyrannis launch.

Followed a bundle more Eve players from my Twitter account as well - I can't believe how many there are out there!

As an aside - I'm becoming an ever increasing fan of EveHQ over EFT. It seems to have a lot more functionality (albeit I found it took time to get used to it).

Long time no post!

2010-05-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ah the perils of Eve and it's approach to levelling up. I was heading for the "Elite Core" certificate and that meant a number of long skills, that coupled with a serious work spike, the start of the cricket season and a weekend away has meant that I've had a bit of Eve Burnout of late.

Additionally the Corp / Alliance headed back to Fountain as Panda and PL started attacking our home systems. Unfortunately I'd just spent a few billion on a load of BS' and support in the wrong system and hadn't been able to get them to the carrier point in time so all my money was gone and it was "trapped" in the wrong place...great!

Anyway - back online now and I soon got some fund together for Jared to buy and build a couple more BS and get them couriered up to the home base ready for some fleet ops. I felt the need after heading out on an Aeternus [SPY] op which became a [BLAST] op and finally an IT op...all in an 1800m range fitted Deimos...not appropriate! Unfortunately (or not!) I had to log to cook for the better half before my shame could be plastered on some PL killboard somewhere!

Whilst building the BS' I had to head up to Amarr Prime where I found a couple of old ships from my first period of time with LAX. A Dominix and Vexor...both with Large Rigs and T1 fittings, I decided to sell them rather than re-use them but it was funny - kind of like looking at an old school photo!

Do any of you guys out there have any old ships lying around? Do their contents embarrass you? Post your fail fits now!!

As I type, Jared's heading back to fit up the Megas ready for shipping. he's got the Elite core certificate which I deem to be a bloody good achievement and really great for fitting. He is about to work on getting t fit T2 Large Rails as that's an old wound that I've not got that yet (And an expensive one when fitting a bundle of sniper fit fleet BS with best named large Rail Guns!)

As for Rough Diamonds - well she's just bought and fitted her first proper mining ships (A couple of Retreivers fit with Strip miners. She'll soon be helping to keep the Mining rank up and is training hard in that area. She's also got some good skills done in the meantime and can now fly a freighter as well.

I'm pleased with her progress as it feels like she's on the cusp of making some real money and also helping the Corp out on the home front!

More posts will be inbound now that I back in the saddle

JR

What's in my Hangar?

2010-04-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Following Eveoganda's post "What's in your hangar"? I thought I'd drop a quick couple of notes re naming conventions for my ships.

My Dad's an ex-Submariner and I spent many enjoyable afternoons at school in the Naval CCF so I tend to follow a fairly traditional line of naming my ships after Royal Navy Ships.

The benefit is that I can use the right ship types in the main for the ships I'm naming (this tends to go a little awry for Interceptors and Industrial type ships but for those I tend to use fast patrol boat naming and RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) names.

It works well for me and means I tend to have a ready supply of names without having to think so hard!

As for what's in my hangar? Well at the moment it;s lots of fleet fitted ships for the NC campaign all ready to be lost in the next few months!

Twitter update - new Eve Online account

2010-04-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

For those (very few!) followers I have I have created a new Twitter account just for Eve updates. @JaredReidel is the new address and @Mannginger will become my real life account for those random updates that make no sense in the #eveonline world!

More War and prepping actions

2010-04-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Excellent - so I've finally managed to get Jared down to the front line (ish) and have been fitting him out for the months of NC conflict that are coming up.

SO far so good, a couple of my old Myrmidons were freighted down by a willing Corp mate. I've also been bombing around blowing a fortune on a few Fleet fitted Megathrons and some smaller ships (Assault Frigs and Inties mainly)

So think I've got the ships ready for combat and all ready to go...one small problem...they're in high sec and Aeternus has been war-decced by a couple of Corps who are clearly anxious to relieve us of our ships. The main issue is that they Enemy Corps are spending good amounts of time in the pipe between my ships and the front...harrumph!

I was able to fit and fly up a Myrm and half a dozen of the smaller ships before the Dec went active but I need to get a couple of the BS' up there and that will take some planning and a scout or 2 I suspect.

In addition as soon as I'd fitted them up I had to go off-line for a few days for a (fantastic) long weekend in Cornwall (Very nice there by the way - highly recommended!). So I'm back now and hoping to see what I can do to transport the ships up the pipe.

In the meantime we're still working to keep the Mining index to a decent level in the home systems. Much to do and so far I've only been on the one roam for the war effort so I need to do more with this.

SWMBO (She who must be obeyed) is away to Spain at the end of this week for a week or so and that should give me some decent n game time so I hope to get into some fleet actions soon!

More updates to come soon I hope

First fight of the War

2010-04-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

I'm lagging behind the rest of LAX in that they've been able to get to the front of the campaign against the NC but workload and more social occasions have prevented me from playing a lot recently.

That's all changed as of yesterday and I spent a long day ferrying clones around to the front and fitting a Taranis for a fast frig roam that was sue at 19:30 Eve-time. I managed to get a series fitted and was going to log for an hour to rest, only to discover that the roam was leaving at 18:30 - some SNAFU in comms there!

Anywho - off we set with me hurtling down the pipe to catch up with the roam which I did after only a few jumps. The roam was well disciplined although you needed to be awake as we were moving quickly. At one point we ran into an NC Dramiel roam. Those things are very overpowered and the situation wasn't great so we didn't engage. We did manage to engage on a POS and picked off a Drake.

We then looped back around to pick up some stragglers who'd been expecting the roam to head at 19:30. Wreck (our CEO) was very forthcoming in his praise that we had 8 LAX members on the roam - a really good turn out and strengthens our resolve for this campaign to fly together and ensure that we're seen to be heavily involved.

I was struggling a little to stay focussed as we have a friend around and I had half an ear to the conversation (and I'd also had a couple of glasses of wine!) but eventually we landed in a nice red system with a jumpbridge threatening to send down a load more.

We again engaged on a POS but I then became de-synced and couldn't warp off anywhere so I quickly logged out and in again, trying hard to keep track of primaries and directions whilst Aura cycled herself.

Eventually I landed back on grid and warped away from the POS towards the new combat zone. I was in warp as the bombs were launched and was warping to 0 so I half anticipated landing only to be popped, as it was I managed to GTFO before the bombs landed. The order was then given to warp to a new spot so off I went, expecting this to be a re-group point only to land in the middle of an enemy fleet almost alone....oh bugger!

Spamming the escape buttons my Taranis was soon down (apologies if this link looks weird by the way as the fitting looks like a Dreadnought fitting on my screen!) but I managed to warp the Pod away.

Real life came along shortly afterwards as I had to log for dinner. I'm about to log in and see if I can extract the pod but I think it's unlikely...thankfully there are no implants so no loss either way.

It was great to be out PVP-ing again and great to finally be part of the SC/NC campaign. Now what need to do is fit and transport a host of new ships to ensure I can get in on the larger fleet fights and add my fire-power (For what its worth at least!)

Another update on Rough Diamond as well - whilst Jared's out playing war I've decided that Rough can play her part and keep the home fires burning. So I've had her join LAX and she will re-focus her skills on mining again. I've flown her up to home base in her Scythe to help the effort to keep the industrial index (and Isk for the war effort) ticking over.

There's a mining op tonight that I hope to get in on but I do want to get to cricket nets as well so there may be a conflict...

All in all it's been a great couple of days and I'm really looking forward to the campaign!

A new face to show

2010-03-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

I was also inspired by CrazyKinux' post of updating his character's pic to do the same with Jared.

I'd never really been happy with Jared's original pic as it kind of made him look like a scrawny drug addict. I'm happier with the new version, but to be honest even that has it's limitations! I do hope that CCP may give us a better mechanism for this at some time...maybe once they finally get around to animated toons for walking in stations?

Anyway for the time being here is New JR (and old JR) as a reminder.

Old JR

New JR

Oh and here's Rough Diamond...clearly much better looking than Jared!

Rough Diamond

The only issue I have now is waiting for it to start updating into Capsuleer and the Eve Forums / website itself...this could test my patience from what I read!

Time for an update

2010-03-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

Reading through the blog pack I noticed a familiar name in the comments. Eelis' "Where the Frack is my ship?" is a newish blog but has got off to a flying start in terms of content IMO.

That has gee'd me up to get my arse in gear and update Soft Diamond on what I'm up to now and also get more involved with the blog pack itself - after all there is plenty to get involved with; from answering weekly questions to jumping onto meme bandwagons to generally just writing more rubbish (something I personally excel at!)

So a quick update on what's going on with the toons then...

Jared Reidel

Jared's gone home! Whilst I admire what Black Claw is doing with OUCH it wasn't quite working for me, and one day when I was pottering in nullsec, slowly chipping away ata Rat Battleship's shields with my Enyo I got into a convo with a few of the guys from Galaxy Punks [LAX].

LAX was my first Corp and I loved flying with them and have stayed in irregular contact witht hem whilst I wandered arounf in Eve and did the FW thing witht he Excellent SoTF and then into OUCH. The old banter started flying again fairly quickly and I knew that it was the right time to head home.

So I sold my shares in OUCH, wished them well and did a mahoosive move from Derelik to Fountain. This was by far the largest move I've ever undertaken but it was also the easiest. I'd heard about Red Frog Freighter services from the Blog pack and decided to give them a go. To say they were excellent is a complete understatement. Their service is one of the true services in Eve (like EACS' clone service) and was incredible value and very timely.

Along with a freighter from LAX my stuff was soon over in Fountain. I on the other hand was not...a poor security standings and some decidedly long alternative routes made me realise I needed to do a bit of work. SO I ratted in null and losec for a while before that got boring (I'd shipped everything over except a PVP Rifter) so it was slow going. I decided to take the chances of the nullsec route and got through a dozen or so gates before landing right into a bubble. :pop:

Waking up in Derelik again I took advantage of the fact I was in my pod and just pod travelled through highsec to Fountain. Once there I then took a couple of weeks acclimatising (and dealing with RL workload) and also doing a bit of shopping. I've recently carrier jumped a small handful of ships into the home system and have been enjoying the delights of a fully upgraded combat nullsec system for the last couple of weeks. So far it's been very relaxing but the Eve juggernaut never rests and there are rumblings in the deep which is making my heart beat just that little faster!

Much more to come for Jared I think and I look forward to keeping the random few who follow me updated!

Rough Diamond

A distinctly quieter life for RD. She also left OUCH as I couldn't split my time between the 2 Corps. To be honest I've lost my way with what to do with her and need to consider carefully. She's trained to a minimum level to fly cloaky ships and can be in some blockade runners fairly soon - given the distance to where Jared and the LAX guys are, this ability may well eb very handy in the future - so she could be a runner for me. She's also got some decent trading skills; but again I've deceided I don;t really have the time / patience to turn myself into an overnight trillionaire.

Mining's a good way to make money and can be done afk / second accounting so I've set her skills in that direction for a bit; but my heart's not really in it at the moment...the isk I can get with Jared in the upgraded combat system far outweighs the mining return at this level. I had considered moving her into logistics skills as that could be useful for neut repping but in nullspace that becomes less valid!

So...I don't know yet! I've got her training support skills (energy grid, basic ship skills to 5 etc) at the moment so I'm not too worried and her time will come; at least when that time occurs she'll have a modicum of skills to support most careers.

Trading in Eve - can I do it?

2010-02-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

So whilst the war rumbles on and Jared gets killed a lot I've been considering the best use of Rough Diamond.

I think she can have a lot of benefit acting as a full neutral alt, however I've changed my mind about how best to proceed. My PC isn't up to running 2 clients smoothly and so the idea of dual-boxing and using RD as a cloaky scout may not be that practical.

Instead, and especially as the war goes on, she could add more value as a trader and blockade runner. I started training up for industrial ship skills and ran a couple of loads of Frigates etc up the pipe but, me being me, my mind soon started to think of the possibilities of trading...

I spent a lot of time last night and this morning examining the market in Rens and Jarizza and trying to work out how it all works. I may have started to figure it out and placed a couple of tentative buy orders, just to see if I've got it right in my mind.

If I have then there's massive potential in simply using RD as a trading alt and just playing the market. I don't want to get too involved at the moment because I know myself and how flighty I can be and tomorrow may offer a new direction again (Eve has so many possibilities!) but it's sufficiently interesting at the moment, especially if I can figure it out properly!

Jump Clones - The wonders of EACS

2010-02-21T08:06:00.000-08:00

So the War has finally led me to getting my act in order and sorting out Jump Clones. For ages I've been able to install them and never did - it all seemed so complicated and I didn't really need them

Well that's all changed now, and the ability to jump to trading hubs, lowsec and high sec is looking more and more attractive.

I've dropped Corp from OUCH for a day or so and joined the simply wonderful EACS (Estoril Arador Corp Services). These chaps have set up an amazing service which means you can join them, set up clones in over 350 stations and then drop corp again - all for free.

If you've not yet got a jump clone, then train Infomorph Psychology (each level gets you one more clone) and use EACS - It's a great service and will make life easier for you in Eve!

War conduct

2010-02-17T22:23:00.000-08:00

I know I'm an eternal optimist and hope that most people are decent sorts but I'm beginning to have my doubts about these Dark Grendal (DG) chaps that we're at war with.

At first I thought this was going to be a fight full of laughs and "GFs" (Good Fight for the uninitiated), esepcially as the DG CEO had stated that his guys were a non-smack talking bunch who were "forced" into the war as we had fraternised or protected a high-sec griefer.

Well we debate the reasons for the war but see it as an opportunity for us all to learn, but (and maybe this is me being delusional) I was expecting a decent open warfare full of mutual respect for a few weeks. What we've got is a few people who camp on station and dock as soon as they get scrammed or start taking damage. When they do kill one of us it's always accompanied by a rather excruciating cry of "mort mort mort" in local.

Last night saw a goodly amount of smack-talk when I briefly logged in for skill updates as well. Somewhat frustrating!

Anyway - I know none of this matters and I'm no doubt a fool for envisioning a decent campaign but it does grate a little, especially them docking all the time - and they war dec'd us for being Griefers?

Ah well - let's hope the work-spike cools down shortly and I can get a good bit of game time in and have a few more fights..."mort mort mort" indeed!

War!

2010-02-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

So OUCH has received their first Wardec. Seriously looking forward to this. I think the reasons are a little dubioud but it looks like a good opportunity to get some pew / death / kills!

Killboard full of red coming OUCH's way! ;)

Kicks off at 07:30ish tomorrow - shame I've got a vertical cliff of work at the moment!

Escape plan didn't go so well!

2010-02-14T04:25:00.001-08:00

So I thought I'd try to be clever and log-in just after down time to see if I could jump the camp...

It didn't work!

Ah well - it's all good learning!

Nullspace Roam

2010-02-14T01:08:00.000-08:00

So I managed to hook up with a few of the guys from OUCH this morning and tagged on to a nullsec roam they were doing. Was all quiet for a bit but then we managed to surprise a Cold Steel Vagabond.

That was all good but we stirred up local in doing so and both FCs got caught in station...interesting. Unfortunately we then jumped through into a choke point system and the exit point was bubbled and camped. We took the cowards way out and logged off in a deep Safe. Must log in later to see if I can extract myself!

All good fun and the Enyo did herself proud with some nice damage

OUCH!

2010-02-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Having good fun with the OUCH crew so far, there's a good bunch of folks in the Corp. We've had our struggles with a few political decisions etc but it seems to be settling down nicely now.

I've been getting myself out on solo roams and my Directional scanning's been getting significantly better. I even managed to get my first solo kill the other day but it's more than a little embarrassing (New player mining in a Badger!)

Still - small steps!

Rough Diamond's training hard to fly a Probe V and then it's on to T2 Frigs and stealthy / scanning. That should help my ability to find safe-spotted players and then the fun really begins!

In RL, work's keeping my seriously busy so the Eve / RL balance is firmly on the RL side of things now - probably for best in the long run!

Wonderings on Goonswarm chaos

2010-01-26T23:07:00.000-08:00

Well - I can't profess to be an expert on these things at all as my time in nullsec is massively limited, but in days past I have fought briefly against the Goons for BoB and have never been a huge fan of their playing style. Which is why I look upon the events of the last day or so with a sense that somehow Karma's come to roost for the Goons. Having said that, I do find the recent events utterly fascinating and another of the reason why I love Eve.

Basically what's happened is that the Goons, (a very powerful alliance who caused great upset about this time last year by orchestrating the collapse of Band of Brothers (BoB) via some interesting game mechanics and some dull thinking on behalf of BoB's masters) have themselves managed to seriously endanger their alliance and existence as an entity by failing to make in-game payments for the privilege of "owning" large areas of space.

This has basically meant that their space has become a free-for-all and they are making plans to somehow organise and retreat with a semblance of order, but that I think will take some doing. Other main block alliances such as -A- and IT Alliance (former BoB) will be wetting themselves in excitement and launching everything they've got at Goons in order to hasten their demise / retreat. There's going to be significant fighting over the next few weeks and some huge losses I have no doubt!

An outcome of this is that the Goons are coming back to Orvolle which is very close to the Area of Operations for Jared. It'll be really interesting to see what their presence does for the security of the area and also the market as they'll be doing some rebuilding (they've already lost a manufacturing system that allegedly had 2 Titan's being created - both now lost)

Will they gank the loal miners or exort them to greater efforts in order to re-stock and re-build? Will the local miners tell them to bugger off after years of being ganked or will they smell the profit opportunity and suck the local rocks dry?

This game we play continues to amaze me with its twists and turns...long may it continue!

Rough Diamond update

2010-01-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last blog post so I thought it high time for an update.

Jared's been getting along fine in FW and I love flying with the SOTF guys, they're a really great bunch. At the beginning of the year one of the Directors had his account hacked and the buggers stole the Corp Wallet and a load of kit from the open hangers. CCP were excellent and soon refunded the isk but weren't able (yet) to refund the lost kit. The way the Corp reacted as a unit to this theft was excellent with everyone circling the wagons around the unfortunate director.

The Corp have also been involved in some Jita and Amaar fun by tanking the respective Navies and then causing havoc amongst the locals. I've managed to miss all the fun so far! Unfortunately one of the main reasons for us doing this is that FW has taken a nose-dive. A couple of Caldari Corps have moved to nullspace and that's left very few capable FCs in their militia so there's not much going on at the moment.

As for Rough Diamond - well things are a bit better for her. My friend wasn't able to come out of retirement and the whole mining thing got boring really quickly so she sat around doing not very much other than trying out the new player experience (this is much improved btw). Then I caught onto the realisation that my PVP skills were actually pretty poor and that I really wanted to improve my solo and small gang skills. I've been reading several blogs (to be linked later) about OUCH, the Open University of Celestial Hardship) who are a new corp specifically designed to teach players about nullsec space and the fun that can be had.

Whilst there's a lull in the FW fighting therefore I've decided to concentrate on Rough and she joined OUCH last night. I flew a single Rifter over and immediately got onto a small gang roam. We eventually caught a Megathron and all was going well until I got cap neuted and was dead in the water. I was unable to escape and so lost my first ship. It was great fun and I learned a load of things right off the bat...This is going to be fun!

Dominion Patch inbound and an update

2009-12-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Ok ok, so whilst the pacth downloads I thought I'd take the opportunity to post an update...

FW is going well and SOTF have been getting some really decent kills. Within a day or so we'll surpass 6000 kills since SOTF was formed, last month we topped the Corporation killboard for Gallente FW (With 767 kills) and this month again we've been going great guns with 700 odd again. Meanwhile my count is creeping towards treble figures at 84 at the moment (A really good efficiency rate though at 99.25%)

Anyway - I've been badgering a friend of mine to re-open his account and I think I've broken him down now, however it turns out he's a Miner and industrialist. This got us thinking about working together in order to make some decent isk. To that end I've created a new alt called "Rough Diamond"

She's a Minmitar and will be focussing solely on making Isk via mining, manufacturing and some salvaging etc. Rough's joined a (fairly small and new Corp) called "Roids of War" who I've only had abrief chat with last night. They've just been given some nullspace access so that has some really interesting potential.

I logged onto their alliance (Honourable Templum of Alcedonia Alliance (HTA)) TS last night and it started the stirrings of excitement for nullspace combat but I'll be patient on that for a bit, although I really like the sounds of the Dominion changes so that may change...

Anyway - it's all good at the moment, I felw through all the new Noob missions which was interesting and I've started the mining in my new home, so let's see how it all pans out!

Dominion changes

2009-11-20T23:12:00.000-08:00

Wow - lots of rage about the latest Developer blog about capital ships. I'm not going to comment on the changes as my time in nullspace is very limited and my knowledge of the balance between Cap ships even more so, but I will comment about 2 things FWIW:

1. Whether the changes are right or not (and let's not forget that they're not even here yet), I feel that CCP made a mistake on the comms of it, and continue to anger players with post deletions. Maybe some positioning with the player base first about the dev work that had gone on and why it was now being overruled with 2 weeks to go before launch.

2. Having said that, I do feel that a lot of this is noise from major alliances that are going through significant changes in the way they play a game that they pay for. This is understandable, but more understandable for me is CCP's intention to widen the game up, balance it out and try to make "all" of the game more accessible.

FWIW - I'm still looking forward to the changes and am intrigued as to how quickly this noise will blow over as people just adapt to the changes

Warning, alcohol can impair your judgement

2009-11-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

So my Corp (Shadows of the Federation (SOTF)) decided to have a bit of a tournament tonight, and as I got back from work early due to an office move, I thought it'd be great fun. So off I went into the market with a bulging wallet and a load of "interesting" fits for T1 Frigates. I must have spent about 1.5 hours shopping, fitting, playing in EFT and Evemon until I was ready.

"Righto" I thought, "I'll just go and read the rules of the Tourney to make sure I'm all legitim...oh Sod it"

That's right, due to a glass or two of finest Red, I'd managed to not read the rules properly and bought a series of Frigates to a Cruiser fight! Needless to say, whilst my Tristan was speed fit, it was only a couple of minutes before shards of ship were cascading themselves in thousands of interesting directions!

Was great fun though and just another reason why I'm really enjoying flying with these folks.

Cheers Gall et al.

Ratting and plugging

2009-11-19T23:12:00.001-08:00

So I played around with my Ishkur last night. That really is a ship I need to spend more quality time with. Speed of a Frig and the fire-power of a cruiser...nice balance!

I did some lowsec ratting and it'll handle a Rat Battleship with ease (and I'd forgotten how much money you get for lowsec rats as well!)

I also did some reading up on implants and went shopping for a couple of new ones. I think I need to get a few hardwire plug ins as well but ran out of time...something else for me to do!

I need to get focussed

2009-11-18T22:53:00.000-08:00

I've been playing Eve for some time and have recently moved into Factional Warfare for the more accessible PVP that it brings. However there are still so many things that I don't know how to use and do in the game.

Below are things that I think I need to do in order to start adding more value to my new FW Corp:

1. Move to Nenn (but leave some stuff in Villore for fleet fights)
2. Workout how to use and then set up Jump clones to enable easy moving between Nenn and Villore etc
3. Sort my FDU standings out (I'm seriously thinking that Wuffwuff wasn't worth it!)
4. Sort my Sec status out

Then there's the usual infinite series of things that need to happen to improve myself but I also want to start adding more value (and Isk) to the Corp so may need to think about that as well.

I'm going to have to seriously lean on the folks in Corp to handhold me through these as I'm a learn by doing kind of guy rather than read a load of text and then make it happen. So...lot's to do but hopefully once I've done it, I'll understand more about certain mechanics of the game but will also be a better Corp asset as well.

Well here we go again!

2009-11-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm a contrary bugger. I've tried this blogging lark a couple of times now and I always run out of things to say. So here's the third attempt.

This blog is intended on being a bit of a record of what I get up to in my dallying within Eve Online. I have to say I love this game and hate it in varying portions. Overall I love it, I love playing it and flying with my Corp mates. I love PVP and getting into fights...other times I hate it as it can be a real time thief.

Overall though it's a good game...nay a great game. no other single game has accounted for quite so much of my time and captured my imagination as much as this one, from the deep dark poltics of nullspace to the frantic blobbing of Faction Warfare via the player driven markets and real economics of New Eden, the game can be an absolute blast and I want to get in and amongst it and share my thoughts with anyone out there who bumps into them.

I've been inspired by the Eve Blogging pack who keep me entertained via the awesome Capsuleer App on the iphone. Who knows where this will lead but for the moment, i will give my tuppence on life in Eve and fighting the good fight against...well anyone who I think I can beat!

Wish me luck and if you've not tried Eve out yet...give it a go!