Low Sec Lifestyle

I am somewhat fusturatedly stuck in the station. Normally, this is not a big deal. I spin my ships, I chat, I do market and logistics work with other characters. However, I'm caught in the AMD camera crashing situation and it is frustrating. I'm going to wait to see if it is addressed at all. The downgrading and such hasn't secured a thing and I am one of a handful of my corporation in the exact same spot. DirectX 9 stutters on full resolution, meaning I went from being able to run five clients on full resolution with DirectX 11 to performance grade DirectX 9. Sigh. Let's move beyond that. So, I play Minecraft instead... ...read twitter and skim the forums and chat about Eve as if I am actively playing it. This forced state of complete idleness is rather unpleasant. But, I can't legitimately figure out a reason to take the risks I'd have to take right now to move stuff. I also wonder if the war target in my chat room will ever talk to me. I keep saying

Excerpt from: Origin of a Spaceship Omen A domesticated, energy predator a foretelling of the future Background Perhaps the most exhaustively explored and inventoried area of space, the Golden Nebula, known simply as Amarr is home to the Omen. One of the most common and easily tamed cruisers, Omen's were domesticated early in the Nebula's settlement. This led to exhaustive breeding programs and fossil records as well as early diagrams and sketches show that the current Omen does not quite look like its ancestors.  Enough similarities exist to solidly document the spaceships move from the wild to domestication. Like many ships native to the Amarr Nebula the Omen is a deep, rich gold that it uses for camouflage. The natural, heavy armor protects it from the particle heavy aspect of this particular, vivid part of the cluster. A fast paced predator, the Omen is not always a heavy hitter but tends to be conscious and steady with the natural tendency of Amarr ships to su

"If you pour water on a patch gremlin does it turn into bogus code?" Such was Kaeda's question to Vanderie as I fanned myself from my near faint as I recovered from my second client crash while warping my jump freighter to the high sec gate. It is the day after the patch with the first hotfix landing this morning and causing its own cascade of problems. Yesterday, we logged out and played DayZ and Minecraft. Then, James found a Paladin in a wormhole so they went and killed that. I was fixing dinner and dedicated to restocking Bosena. It had already taken me two and a half hours to download the patch so I was massively behind. I have these little internal schedules that I make and when I get to far knocked off of them I start to fret. It is the closest to an OCD habit that I have but it is one that I've managed to conquer by telling myself it doesn't matter because normally, they don't. That is why I didn't stock Bosena last night. I wake up today a

"Eve is complicated." “No. Eve is not complicated. It is easy.” I see this comment a lot. A lot a lot. People tell me that Eve is not complicated at all and is an easy game. They say that Eve Is complex, but not complicated. Okay. I decided to start my blog post with a lot of defined words. complicated composed of elaborately interconnected parts; complex (complicated apparatus for measuring brain functions.) difficult to analyze, understand, explain, etc. (a complicated problem.) complex composed of many interconnected parts; compound; composite (a complex highway system.) characterized by a very complicated or involved arrangement of parts, units, etc. (complex machinery.) so complicated or intricate as to be hard to understand or deal with (a complex problem.)   simple easy to understand, deal with, use, etc. (a simple matter; simple tools.) not elaborate or artificial; plain: (a simple style.) not ornate or luxurious; unadorned (a simple gown.) unaf

I have completed the longest train I have ever done, followed by the previous longest train. I feel pretty good about it. A bit proud. There are always those that will say, "Oh you are only just getting that, come back when you've trained Titan Five for the 23rd time." Whatever. I'm happy. Lately there has been idea tossing about getting rid of this skill and shortening that skill. I tend to disagree with them because I don't dislike the skill training program as it currently stands. It can be frustrating and fretful. And there is always the want of now, now, now. But, if we get it all now what happens to the warm, rich satiation of finishing a huge skill train? This isn't the only one I am on. My link alt is on her last specialization link, completing that training program. Chella has a 11 days left on Gallente Carrier V. I'll then start her on Amarr Carrier. My dreadnought alt is almost ready to take delivery of her ship. Even Su

…And while asking why someone totaled up something to celebrate when in my opinion the thing they were calibrating was using a skewed statistics I realized I had, yet again, fallen into the trap of defining other peoples actions by my own terms. It is a common question and many people can come up with dozens of answers. Today, instead of thinking about work I was skimming the jabber conversation focused around the latest massive Sov fight. We’re spectators and sometimes participants but none of us want to participate on the level of being one of the sov blocks. And we’re there, getting results, watching streams, updating those of us (like me) who cannot connect during the day. Everyone is rooting for their own sides. Everyone has a favorite team. We’re reading tweets, skimming news stories, seeking inside information and in general delighted, enthralled, enraptured, and engaged as these super battles go down. I’m reminded of my co-workers with sports. They spout teams and names a

So... Deployment..... We declared war on the people that live in and around the area we deployed to. It is for the normal reasons. Gateguns and station guns when dealing with targets who out number and upship while falconing. It evens the playing field. Using game mechanics and all. Some will say, "If you want that you shouldn't be in low sec."  As long as we can declare war on people I don't see why we shouldn't use a perfectly valid game mechanic to aid us while fighting. When you see sentry guns doing the bulk of the damage on kill after kill and have people who cannot ignore the lure of things sitting on stations and gates one makes choices. The thing is that war seems to br super personal. Maybe there is this vision of us around an illuminated tabel planning destruction. It would be mote awesome than reality. Right after we declared war we got distracted. We got called back to Molden Heath for a few things. We had our normally scheduled roaming fl

I've always wondered if the name of Eve's social groups, Corporations, subconsciously sways people as to their behavior about the corporation. Unlike a clan which is a family group, or a guild, which is as group of people who have the same interest or abilities or similar trait, a corporation is a colder thing. It is a place where people seek employment. They seek work. Also, in Eve you apply to a corporation. Corporations do not invite you directly although a recruiter might try. And, I wonder, if that is why some people soak in the power of the situation or other's believe that the corporation is some god like power to dictate to its membership what may or may not be. I believe most have heard of tyrannical corporations. However, in the end, players leave. Without the members the corporation, even with the most egotistical CEO, dies. CEO does not mean god. The membership may give the CEO that privilege but it is not an assumed right. And it isn't just the CEO. T

Kaeda has weekend ops up for frigate roams into faction warfare. These interest me a lot because I am not well versed in non assault frigates. Plus, I enjoy Kaeda and there is a lot to learn from what he does and how he roams. I'm an observer when it comes to learning and having FCs I am comfortable with to watch and ask question for improve the day for me. I was voicing the fact that I feel I have odd gaps in my flying ability. I spend a lot of time in an assault frigate but that is not the same as flying in a frigate. I spend a lot of time in T2 ships in general and my T1 frigate gap is very lacking. When I first started, gates aggressed you for the full 15 minutes, invalidating smaller ships from fighting in low sec. Even cruisers were hit or miss if they'd survive. That means I learned to fly in battlecruisers and by the time I could fly frigates I stuck to assault frigates since gateguns are still a thing. Time in frigates, in fleets, isn't common. I could go tr

I learned a few new things over the last few days. I learned that when a contract is failed you get back the collateral, the reward, and the 10k deposit to make it. I wasn’t expecting that 10k back for some reason and it surprised me. Also, while inconvenienced that my package did not arrive because it was important, making forty million ISK made me glow a bit. You see, I had tried private courier contracts and wound up inconvenienced, richer, and puzzled as to what had happen. The story transpires like this: I am often reminded that I should use public courier contracts instead of using Red Frog. They are cheaper and just as fast, I am assured. I have used them in the past for moving blueprints and other  small items around where I wasn’t worried about when they made it to where I wanted them. However, the ebb and flow of TCS is such that Red Frog almost always moves my stuff within hours. I tend to write a contract, go out to the gym or store, and come back to find it in prog

The Calamitous-Intent Mobile Market (CIMM) goes online today. I love how I write that out. It should have fireworks and sparkles as well. I've started with a clean slate. TCS is completely split from the CIMM. I moved a buy alt for TCS to Jita and she will now handle the purchases. I will move items (or red frog them) still but the markets and wallets are separate. I took the time to do a bit better with corporate management and set up the buy order alt to have her own wallet to pull from. The same with the listing alts. The goal is to decrease the amount of typos I make and the ISK the broker fees and taxes burn up when I miss-list or miss-buy. As well as the fact that everything purchased and sold are all within TCS now. For the mobile market I decided to liquidate six of the PLEX from the writing competition. That gave me a start of 3.7 billion ISK to create the mobile market. Chella and Sugar sell my boosters which keeps that ISK separate. The mobile market, unlike the Co

Hmm. I'm about to go to bed but decided to empty my mind because I am annoyed. I'm annoyed because I died because I'm stupid and forgot that null sec means we have to behave in this way and that way. I'm rusty at it. And I'm amused, because I'm so hard headed. Mechanics in game will always be a bane. Whenever I find myself hissing through my teeth disliking the mechanics of a type of space (I really, abjectly, hate bubbles) I remind myself that someone else likes it. It reminds me of the high sec arguments that I hear all the time. High sec doesn't suck. Some people love it. Other's may not enjoy it but I don't understand what they enjoy about wormholes and null sec ether. And so, not understanding other people is again the fate of humanity. That's what talking is for. I wound up asking the FC why we took a fight tonight after we realized we were not going to make much of a dent. Asking that kind of question is hard. It is hard to approach

I've never had my own loss mail waved in my face while someone crowed in local that I/we were mad about it. For a moment, just a brief moment, I thought about responding to say "No. Reshipping and coming back is what we do." I then realized that would just be regarded as tears and encourage local smack. I refrained. After all, I had just lost a Vagabond and full set of +4 to a hotdrop. Explaining that the Vagabond was purchased after the heavy Odyssey rebalance and the Pod +4's two years old and the other implants a random selection for Altaen's birthday roam last year (so that my pod would be expensive if/when I lost it) would not get me anywhere but an accusation of tears, 'you mad' or 'didn't want that anyway'. Sure. I'd prefer to have both my Vagabond and my Pod safe and sound but that isn't how things go sometimes. After all, I had responded to a call for additional help and grabbed the first thing that made sense to support the

I said that this deployment I was going to make ISK. Making active ISK in game is something that I miss. While I love my market and logistics I really enjoy the video game part of Eve. I'm a resource gatherer at heart and while it is wrong and evil and should never be spoken about, I've always enjoyed those aspects of Eve. One thing that sprung to mind that I completely missed out on in Syndicate was gas harvesting. If you think mining is boring, gas harvesting is even worse. However, it is something very close to my heart as a booster manufacturer. I've never been able to thin down prices on boosters using the 'my time is free' model because Molden Heath only makes Sooth and Sooth is not commonly used. When I learned that the local gas would be Golden Cytoscerocin and other such goodies, I was excited. The boosters that I make are made with these gases. Plus, simply, ISK making is ISK making. The Venture is a wonderful gas boat. People comment on this now and

Sugar is getting a day off. If you heard her on comms you would swear that death is on her doorstep. She must have caught some sort of new SARS virus . That hasn't stopped her, barely slowed her down actually. As 7-2 begins its new deployment she was logging in cyno's, passing around fuel and moving her mobile market to our new home. Those of us who know her, love her and if you don't know her, it's definately your loss. Calamitous Intent has depolyed once again. We've kicked the cobwebs and drunken haze off the holiday season and jumped to a new home. We jumped last night into Lonetrek with Wagners Flight of the Valkeries playing over comms. A poetic and funny bit of dramatic license by Vanderie. I've never lived in Caldari space in my three plus years in the game. I'm looking forward to getting to know the area, meet new and interesting people and kill them. No sooner had we gotten our bearings that Altaen, not being one to stay docked for long, lande

There is a survey up from Team Game of Drones who want to ask the players questions about the Science and Industry field of the game. They want to know how we use it. What we want out of it. As someone who has been managing a POS for the last year and a half I will answer this. I manufacture boosters constantly and it is a true pain in the ass. I know that the more complex production lines are worse. Nightmares made into living clicks. I will answer this survey. I will do my best to present my ideas and opinions in a productive, consumable manner. I will send it off to CCP and hope that they read it and look at what the players ask and want. The fat that CCP has come to the players and asked for information for their base structure is a neat trap. To not give information is removing any chance of getting opinions and thoughts placed into potential, concrete changes. To enter into the exchange is to become something I often hear lamented at great, bitter lengths, Q&A. “I will

Changes are coming down from on high. I've not spent a lot of time looking at things for several reasons. The most important is that people who are much more capable at running and comparing numbers are looking at them and commenting. One of the first things that I saw when the newest list of changes came out was that CCP is working on nerfing ISK and ISK making here and there. Vov often discusses how he wants a flat 25% cut of ISK in high sec. I argue with him a lot about it. His grasp of economic and exact numbers are better but he also works in the world of min/max. Even when he comes down to more rational levels I can't see eye to eye with him. I float around and sometimes make money and sometimes do not. I never go out to grind cash like many people do. My lack of grind means that I try to leave those figures to those that actually do and understand the grind. Yet, even though I do not grasp the fine details of ISK per hour I still argue with Vov and Detta as they state

There would be no story to tell if not for one of the most basic humans flaws. Impatience The boys were out, as they always are. I was awake, which I should not have been. But, my sleep schedule is still a bit ridiculous and I had reached that point where you are tired but no longer feel it and start to make bad decisions like staying awake and playing Minecraft more. It was probably the early stages of the cold that I now have. But then, I was a bit buzzed. I had gotten in on a little brawl earlier which involved a Vagabond, Navy Ex, and a Thorax . The frigates on the battle-report came from a later 1v1. And I remember how to fly although the dregs of my semi-hiatus dragged at me some and I found myself sneezing off dust as I flew. It was good though, because I slipped back into my groove a bit when Silver found an Orca trying to slip out of the Istodard pocket to high sec space. A quick check showed that it might be a wormhole corporation slipping into high sec. They had fr

Ahh.. Hello there. Come and settle down by my side. Sip a glass of mint tea spiked with synthetic sooth. After all, there are no laws to break today. So curl up. Is the sooth good? It is the best pulled from the clouds created by the reddest of nebula. You came here to listen. You came here to see. What tales lay out beyond that gate? What happens in the dark spaces of low sec? A tale I do have. Come settle down. Have a biscuit. Now understand that this is Floydes story. Stoic being that he is. He is one of the ex-anti pirates. Seduced by the sweetness of explosions and naked of all fetters. And today, Floyde is in an Ishtar. That dirtiest of sexy drone boats is being piloted around Bosena with its cool hearted Captain at its helm. Bosena. Roll that name across your tongue. The flow of it is exquisite. A seemingly simple .4 sec system tucked up against the besom of the empire. It is an unpresumptuous place where mission agents gaily send their contractors to do work. The empire

I'm coming home... coming home.. tell the world that I'm coming home... Islands are nice but I'm done. "Who am I? What am I?" These words have been swirling around me. And today, I laugh at them as I dance in the wind for I am a goddess of logistics and market power. It is moving time. Deployment ahead. For in a weeks time we shall depart the sweet bosom of the Heath for a month. I am activated. Across my desk lay my plans, maps and lists spread as far as the eye can see. Upon them are the marks of my hands. Numbers, lists, movements, values... In my pondering of the who and what and why of Eve they often focus around the fact that I cannot swallow the bullshit story that the only thing to do in Eve is PvP. I enjoy the other things that I am not supposed to enjoy too much for me to accept that narrative. When I'm feeling down and not 'PvP' enough my boys often, without meaning to, revitalize me. And such was the case when, while planing the next

Evel posted a question in jabber the other day where he asked, "When you are playing Eve, which moments of your own play do you enjoy the most?" Where Evel plans to take the information gathered, I don't know. He likes to think and muse on things and wander of with ideas and concepts. I'm a dreamer stuck in reality. My answer was, "I don't break it down that way and can't answer you." This is a regular type of response from me. I like to look at small pieces of a whole without losing the understanding that the entire thing matters. It may be why I have an issue with doing things that are fun now but may have nasty consequences later. How can you ignore the probable future for the exciting now? Similarly, how can I define what I enjoy the most when I enjoy so many things and dislike just as many but cannot take one without the other. So what do I enjoy? I enjoy playing. If I don't, I log off. If I didn't I'd not write and think about