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Showing posts from July, 2013

Burning Bridges

Thousands of bridges connect the players of New Eden to each other. They span countless distances in every shape, form and size. They are made of the glossimer wishes of wasted dreams and love stronger than iron. They are forged with knowledge and without. They are made of convince and need. Some are crafted with the finest tools, each centimeter inscribed with intense detail. At times these bridges are spun from the thinnest strands of shared thoughts. Others are strong enough to cause an entire corporation to risk themselves for someone. Some cannot stand against the slightest misstep and others only seem to grow stronger as they are put under more strain. If anything in Eve is real, it is these bridges. They are woven both consciously and unconsciously. Some are crafted from the sweetness of innocence, edged in last and iced with sweet frost. Across these bridges flow communication. The interactions of players are the traffic that they support. A dropped cup may melt away suppor

Ramblings: Overlapping Rings

[ TL;DR: Arguments based off of only personal taste are too shallow for the concepts the game holds. ] Blood is in the water. The scent of it is in the air. Around it sprawls a swath of destruction. The shattered remnants lay in a broken, mutilated salute to the enormity of power and the force of man. It is not a beautiful thing, this destruction, but it is amazing. Far as the eye can see, a sea of it spins around. Broken forms. Tattered hopes. Shredded dreams. In these moments there is no winner or loser only the echoing memories that brought this into existence. This being the sweep of destruction that glitters under the searing burn of the sullen yellow sun as it slowly swirls in a thick, uncoordinated cloud in space... It was the responses to the 6VDT fight during the Fountain War that caught my attention. At first, I was caught up in frustration. For something that I was not personally vested in or interested in participating, I found the massive fight fascinating. Very fascina

Playing Eve with Sound

When I first started playing Eve, I could drown in the sound. The music fit the feel of space. Undocking in Gallente Space was full of mystery and wonder. It was also gorgeous and the sweeping swirled echoes of the music accentuated the nebula that formed a backdrop for the ships engines and the flickering flash of hybrid turrets. The music soared and swept, roared and whispered under the crackle of the turrets and the bright explosions of the ships. I loved Eve with sound. But somewhere along the way I turned it off and never turned it back on. I’m rather sure it had to do with chatting. Listening to the commands and relaying the information  meant  that I turned out  excessive  sounds, such as the world sounds. And once they were off, I did not miss them. I’m a  creature  of quiet by nature. I do not tend to have music playing and the main noise in my home is the click of nails as the dogs settle down. About a month ago I turned my sound back on for a fleet. I forget why I did b

Want Not for Waiting

With a roaring scream a beam of searing golden light burst down from above and illuminated my body. The intensity was such that every vein stood out in stark contrast against the radiance of my skin. For a moment, the beat of my heart echoed as a thousand angels raised their voice in sweet chorus to my achievement. Power flowed through me, crackling beams of electricity that arched into the air to sear the very fabric of reality around me... My internal view of my skill point achievement and the actual, visual ones are a bit different I guess. Over the weekend, I finished Advanced Weapons Upgrades V. It is a x6 train and took most of the month to chew through. I had tossed it into my queue at the start of the month when I was away from the game for a few days. I used that momentum to  keep going. I have stacks and stacks of skills to learn. My short trains tend to be a week long. While they do not feel long, knowing I can't fit certain doctrines causes frustration at that week.

Colored Boxes

There was a large ball of orange squares ringed with red squares. Intermixed where blue-grey bubbles with the occasional gray or empty square floating about. In the center was an enormous structure that was blotted out by the squares surrounding it. It all made perfect sense and I found it fascinating. Two events were happening in Eve on Sunday. One I found interesting. The other I did not. Many people have the reverse opinion of myself. Many more people were interested in both. I have not followed the Fountain war closely. I've mostly eyed the Sov map with a distracted, distant air of interest. The battle that went down in 6VDT-H today fascinated me not for any personal reason for space ownership or alliance support but for the fact that I watched local count up to over f our thousand people in the system . I watched Mad Ani's stream tick over eight thousand viewers. Over on the ATXI stream there were ten thousand viewers and a few hundred players engaged in a PvP tou

The Secret Life of the Low Sec Hauler

"I don't think it would be fun to spend all my time camping gates," someone said, "unless I have the completely wrong idea of low sec." I'll admit. I do think that they have the wrong idea of low sec. Gate camps appears in all areas of space. They may be hole camps or whatever lingo wormhole residents use. They are not exclusive to low sec. Nor are they the entirety of content in low sec. I'd love to say that they don't exist but there is one in the area of space I live in that is reliably there, every single day. Yes there are gate camps in low sec but gate camps are not everything. So, what do people do? Sometimes, it is not what other people expect. To me, the little things are the most amusing. For instance, I was sweeping ahead of the main fleet. A fleet that happened to be composed of Dominix heading back home. I wound up on a gate and noticed as I was landing a Bellicose and Genosis on scan. I stopped on the gate to get a gauge of wher

Little Things

There is a little things post on the forums for players to list small aspects of the game that drive them crazy. Originally this was made by CCP I believe. It was removed and allowed to die after many things were addressed in patches. Of course, not everything was addressed and a new one created. I decided to contribute to it today. The message that you receive in each section of empire space when you are not supposed to be in said section of empire space is different to the reactions of the other three factions. I think this is a small, but fantastic thing. Because I travel through Caldari to Gallente to Minmatar space, almost daily hauling, I see these messages regularly. Because, I spend the bulk of my time in a outlaw security status character that should never be in high security space, I see these messages and panic for a moment sometimes at the 'you' thinking I've somehow messed up. It is a side effect of not paying full attention to the screen but enough a

And All of Null

When Altaen asked (told) me to +1 for the fleet I was like... uhh... and realized that not only was I the only one in an interceptor for the fleet but I was no longer going to be able to convince Diz not to make me +1. No other interceptors had marked up for me to hide behind. I flickered through excuses and possibilities to avoid the task. After another moment I decided to just roll with it. If I failed I'd be corrected. If I had questions I'd ask. And by now, I had a good idea of what I needed to do. It is probably time to polish some of the skills. It still felt odd. I try to be quiet in fleets and do as I am told. Talking that much and relaying that much information was a bit uncomfortable. I am also bad at interrupting people who are talking. But, posting everything in fleet wasn't always working because not everyone reads fleet. An uncomfortable situation in the sense that it was unfamiliar and new. Somehow I managed to power through and jump into null. And null

TCS: Market Movement

It has been an unexpected side effect that at times, people have begun to seek my opinion on a low sec market. I am not sure if the idea is a common one that many do not pursue or if it is just a side effect of my attempts to share my market with others. It may not be the smartest idea. Detta pointed out that someone may decide to come rain on my parade or stalk my haulers or in some way interfere with my process for amusement if not for simple dickery. I accept those possibilities and continue to babble in my poor, half stunted manner without proper graphs or charts or percentages. The below image is item movement for a popular item. I picked Navy Cap Booster 400s for several reasons. They are a commonly used item. They sell very well. I am also undercut in the cap booster market fairly regularly because it is a very easy market to drop some ISK into and make some ISK. The same goes for ammunition and common modules. I am often under cut by people selling their persona

Empty Words of ISK

ISK makes Eve go round. It may be the force moving a null sec empire or it may be a new player struggling to finance that cruiser he saw undock from the rookie station. It covers every extreme and few, if any, are exempt from its call. Financial solvency has to happen. It may be in the form of a corporation or alliance or it may fall upon the shoulders of individual members. Someone, somewhere, has to be able to afford the things that are needed. It is a very true thing that later in the game, once a player has settled in, ISK making becomes more of a chore or a task than a frantic moment to moment way of life. But even then, each player will have their own skill set when it comes to making ISK. Similar to real life, some people forget where they came from (when they were poor newbies) and other's remember it and use it as an example of what they do not wish to go back to. I was listening to a conversation, early in the morning before work, where a player who used to str

I Launch into the Sky

In December of 2011 there was a can in high sec that changed my life forever. I was a week or so old and travelling around Gallente space mining. I had learned about anchoring secure canisters and I was very excited to start this awesome way to mine in a more secure fashion. I did courier missions as well. I was new and small but I had already subscribed to the game for the next three months and I was excited. This particular can was located near Dodixie. I feared Dodixie. Every time I docked at the trade hub I passed through raging battles and iridescent explosions. I knew that death was just someone noticing my Catalyst and snuffing my little ship. After all, I had entered a PvP environment and I expected to die. This can, however, was located near a gate. My overview was absolutely virgin and included everything in the game. Everything in space interested me and on my main screen I could see that the can was an advertisement for a corporation. A corporation with a minimum of

A Change of Chat

I've been cleaning my house and of course that made me want to revamp the blog a little bit. It is the middle of summer after all and that's the time for spring cleaning. So, blog is changed about a bit. A new color scheme! These types of things make me excited. Also, a change of chatroom. I've spent the last two weeks going over chatroom names so that I can give THC2 its public chatroom back to being its public chatroom. I'm not capable of doing anything obvious like naming it after the blog or TCS. I'm remarkably creative at random things. Detta wins the suggestion contest with Spoonful of Sugar. I found it adorable. I've adjusted the about me to the side with that info. To find me: Twitter: @chellaranier Email: chellaranier at gmail.com G+ : ChellaRanier Eve Mail: Sugar Kyle Chatroom: Spoonful of Sugar Ta da! P.S. For those looking for intel and spies (hahahaha) have fun!

Rambling: Personal Importance

[ TL;DR: Sugar is having a serious day. ] A week ago or so, I was reading an application for someone applying to get into a corporation. The application and the corporation were not mine. I did know the parties involved. It is fascinating how you can watch at the parties involved and wonder if they see what you see or react in similar manners. When I have spent my time speaking to people interested in THC2, I focus my process upon a basic principle. Will the person fit in. Does their personality seem to or appear to have the potential to suit the personalities of others. No amount of game skill or assets will compensate for someone no one wishes to be around. While that may not scale as quickly or importantly, for a small group who live side by side and depend on each other for daily basics, it is important. Groups can shatter, their core rotted by only one individual. While we do not know who may be that negative aspect sometimes various aspects of screening can make it show up.

Learning to Mission

I was dying and it was a bit unexpected. My shields shattered in a flare of exhausted energy. My jaw was still clenched and my ears rung from the screams of the waning sirens as my first line of defense evaporated. Great chunks of armor were sheered away by the hot beam of laser fire. My Tempest rocked with the explosions of launched death of a dozen cruise missile batteries.   “You’re fine,” came the calm voice of Morita. “I’m in warp.”   “75% armor. Disrupted of course. I can’t hit anything.”   “11 AU. No worries.”   “50% armor. I’m going to warp out."   “Okay.”   “Nevermind. I’m pointed. Overheating my hardeners.”   “9 AU”   “25% armor. Pointed. Webbed. Disrupted. I’m also neuted out and my Hardeners are going to die shortly.”   “I’m landing.”   “Structure.”   “This may be bad.” The Archon’s reps landed at 75% structure. Blissful beams of energy swept over me and started to push back the bright bars of red. The frigates dropped point and I warped my

Complex Companionship

The other day, in local, a random day old character said that THC2 ( The humbleless Crew ) was a pet corp for 7-2 ( Calamitous-Intent ). When day old characters know that two groups work together such as THC2 and 7-2 I suspect that they may not be true one day old accounts hanging out in low security space. In fact, I wonder with amusement if someone has planted yet another alt into the area that we live to keep watch of our activities, movements, and numbers. It is a task that would bore me to tears before I even created the alt. But, there I was, with this comment placed into local. I immediately tabbed to my other monitor and demanded from Altaen and DP that I get a new, blue collar on twitter . After all, if I was a pet, why did I have no accessories? Part of the reason of having pets in games is to have something else to accessorize as well as be adorable and follow you around. I fill the adorable field quite well. And I fly with 7-2 frequently I feel that covers the followin

Le PewPew: So... This is a Tornado?

I am always apprehensive in new ships. Mix that with a FC who I am comfortable with but not yet familiar with and every action I do I double thing and fret over. Did I pick the right gate? The proper warp path? Did I hear jump? Align? Did I hear the gate right? The names are unfamiliar. I don't think I've ever been to Placid. I haven't been this tense in a long time. Every action makes me twitch with nerves. I'm nervous enough that my responses are a bit slow and I'm second guessing myself with each movement. My last showings in artillery ships have been poor. Instead of avoiding it and moving to a tackle position I decided to push past my issues and not default to my familiar comfort. I like the FC even if I am not comfortable with him as a FC yet. I do not know his voice, his manners, his terms, and all of the dozens of little things that come from constant work under a FC. But, I am comfortable enough to do what he wishes and lose ships under his orders. But, m

Bounty Pool Focus

Earlier today I wrote some words about my curiosity over the  motivation abilities of bounties . Altaen responded with this comment : "I agree...for most of those that were already participating in PVP in a regular basis, bounties do not really motivate at all...but I do think it's really cool that there is some ISK trickling in for the PVP I would have been doing anyway. And it's entirely possible that there are plenty of people that weren't already PVPing frequently could actually fund some cheap PVP frigate replacements off of even infrequent successes while learning to PVP." He made a series of good points. I am pleased that he commented. In many ways, Altaen is my polar opposite. He is male for one. That may be a major fact point in him being an opposite creature to myself but beyond that, Altaen is a PvPer, fleet commander, solo pilot, prior-anti-pirate and chronically broke because he'd rather blow up other ships and lose his ships in the process

Bounty Pool Pull

"You should just set your ISK on fire and toss it out of the station undock." -Sugar Kyle Such was my comment to Naoru after he placed a 20 million ISK bounty on me after we discussed that he kept wasting his ISK on placing bounties on randoms. Not that the ISK has not brought him tears. It has. In fact, as of today his bucket is overflowing enough that hopefully he will produce a blog post about it over at Flak Bait  at some point soon. Maybe he can consider my eye rolling to be tears as well. I rarely pay attention to bounties, my own or anyone else's. Occasionally I have one slapped on me by someone I know. I find the entire event a waste of good ISK. In doing so I did disregard the placement of bounties for other reasons, such as tears. I'm not much into tear extraction and it is rarely a motivation for me. It made me think. What is the motivation for placing a bounty on someone these days? It makes you feel good? You feel as if you struck back? What part