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Showing posts from February, 2014

The Cougar Store: Celebrating a Year of the Cult of Reasonable Prices

The Original Goal Last March I decided to take half of my liquid ISK and invest it in starting a low sec market. At the time, I had little to know idea about what I was doing. I had friends who were market traders and made billions a day. I had tried my hand at market trading in the hubs a few times but I often went away frustrated and burnt. I did not know what I was doing and while well off and comfortable, I was not a massively wealthy player with tens of billions of ISK to throw around on a whim. I didn't care. Now March comes around again and I have held this low sec market for a year.

Missiles Burning in the Night

I guess this complex is mine. I orbit the beacon, confused as to what happened and overlook the situation again. Not knowing how to approach FW I've just been approaching it by slamming headfirst into it. I'm a bit lonely. I'm used to having more company. While I can listen to my boys on coms it is odd not having them in space with me. My Faction Warfare life is very different from the one I normally live. Slowly, I'm learning the names of the systems. I have dotlan up in the background and I'm determined to hover along the front line to increase my chance of meeting someone. It may have been a busy night because space was very empty of complexes. I wandered for a while but I am still leery of Tama. Eventually, I moved a few systems over and saw a suspect and a war target in system. There was a small complex and I decided to plunge into it and see what was up. On field was a wreck and an Atron. I went after the Atron at full speed. MWD on, long point, missiles,

Textures and Terrains

"Oh Sugar, how are you going to fix low sec?" "Dearest, I do not yet know. However, be secure in understanding that I will make bad ideas until I, or someone else, creates a good one." Knowing something needs to be fixed and being able to fix it are two different things. The essential nature of low sec is not truely broken, in my opinion. It is undefined. The lack of definition leaves it floating a bit off to the side. When looking to define it we have to ask what it is. What we call low sec is low security empire space. It is owned by the empires and is, to some degree, touched by Concord. Molden Heath for instance contains the most Concord stations of any region in the game. The fact that the empires hold sway has to be brought into account. Lore is a very useful tool to create with. First, I started to look at some of the difference between Faction Warfare low sec and non-Faction Warfare low sec as actual areas of the game. I've never been a fan of turn

Written in the Sky

An impromptu post written on my phone. That is why I have the blogger app installed. I received a mail from a supporter of my CSM9 run. It contained an image link. Created by Comrade Blade, one of the instructors at Eve Uni and their low sec campus he decided to throw me some support on dscan. Thank you. Update: Got permission to name the creator.

Third Party Services

I was approached by two people that I know very well to be their third party in the exchange of a high value asset. I was rather honored. I was to be given a large mount of ISK and something expensive with the expectation to give it back. I of course, said yes. I then asked if I could write about it. They chuckled at me and told me that they expected that part. It amused me. I was more excited to write about the happening than anything else. Some might wish to take said items. But, I've built a lot of my personal reputation off of trust. It's sometimes an awkward task considering the piracy and PvPing. Some people simply will never belief what I say because of it. And that is fine. Eve is a game with complex trust decisions. I've said it before but repeating myself is fun. There is a lot of trust in Eve. There is a lot of reliance. For every negative thing that happens to someone the chances are great more positive things have happen. It falls under the simple trait of

Send in One Sugar and I'll Double Her

The new capital wrecks are very, very cool. The shattered hulls are reminders of the destruction that happened. It is even better when they wrecks are not yours. Today is a story of how I did something I've never done before. Sometimes, personal growth hits you all at once and today was one of those days. I was working on stocking TCS. I had just gotten my headset situation corrected after an attempt to switch to a wireless headset last night. I was on coms just hanging out stocking my store and running Banished on a side monitor (I will discuss Banished on Downtime Hours ). The boys were floating around. Some were looking for fights and some were doing PvP. We had no real fleet up and no real intention. I love days like that. We're all together, hanging around, playing the game in our little ways yet still an interlinked cohesive whole. In Half a POCO was being bashed. Someone noticed a pod hop out and went to see what was happening. It appears that Kelts Allian

CSM: Running for Office: Week One

They say that to firewalk sucessfully you have to keep going. Be calm. Stay focused. Keep moving towards the goal. I may have learned to firewalk this week. I decided that I would lump the CSM stuff into one post a week. That way I could load the post through the week while the rest of my blog had to stay focused on all of the other random things that come to mind. It also creates a side project that will follow my running process. Last year we had a pre-election which narrowed down the list to those seriously running. There was an application period This year, we do not yet have the rule list but I suspect it will be similar. It also means that not everyone who speaks up to run may be able to run in the final race (depending on number). When I put my "I'm running" post up in Jita Park Speakers Corner I am not sure what I expected. I spent a day and a half wavering between posting and waiting, posting and waiting. It is similar to those days when you get somewhere bef

In the Defense of the State

All bundled up in the war zone I unpacked my ships and started to fit them. My newbie makes me grin. I picked up meta items here and there but I left her fits very cheap. I have decided that it is time to learn missiles. I hugged the mail that Naoru sent me with his missile lists (it is also my stocking list) and stalked Kaeda and Wex for loss mails. I needed warzone fits. Not Jaguars. Not cruisers. T1 missile boats that would burst into flame under gateguns. I learned, that being a newbie is hard. I needed skills. All the lovely fits that I had, I could not fly. I do not mean that I could not fly them in reference to the T2 fits. I was going to drop down to T1 and cheap meta gear. While I might not be effective, I would be properly fit. No, I learned that I couldn't not fit things. Capacitors management, I needed that. Rigs? I couldn't use a single one. Oh, Jury Rigging 3 is going to be another eight hours from now. Okay, I'm all set? Guess who cannot use Micro Auxilia

Moving House

Susan Black wrote a terrific blog post about colonization and new horizons. It is a popular theme and one that CCP has hinted at. I read it and thought about the fun of that adventure and then I thought about the logistics involved in moving house into a new area such as this. But, by moving house, I meant upending my corporation and getting all of our stuff there. Calamitous-Intent has a home system. It is the place where all of our things are. It is home. The place where you know every gate and have a hundred deep safes. You can count how long it will take you two get from one spot to another and do it without even looking at the screen. Home is a concept in Eve and one that many share. It may be a wormhole or a piece of space branded with an alliance name. Some of us never leave home. I spent my first year in Klingt and its surrounding system. We moved to Bosena when RANSM and 7-2 vacated it. But, we did not officially leave it until ROFL came in with planetary conquest and t

A Step Back to go Forward

Let's revisit the past... There is a thread on the forums called, " Loot Spew 4 months later ". It is a thread dedicated to the scatter can mechanic that was introduced in Odyssey. This was part of a two step change to Data and Relic sites inside of the exploration container. Pre-Odyssey, one had a code breaker or data analyzer module. These would run like salvagers done and eventually win their roll and unlock the container. At that time the pilot scooped the goodies and went on their way. Like many activities in Eve, it was not very interactive. It was a point, click, wait, receive bacon action. As part of an effort to bring more interaction into Eve and less watching, CCP created the hacking mini-game and the loot scatter mechanic. I tested and played with both of them a good deal , pre-Odyssey. Exploration was my primary income stream at the time. I walked away rather unhappy with the system. The hacking mini-game is a matter of personal taste. With max skills

Contact Sucess

Last night I was invited to the Angry Gamers Inc Podcast. We chatted Eve for an hour and a half or so before my internet connection said "No" and crashed.  As soon as my husband came home it started to behave. I may not be able to allow him to go out anymore. It's a sad day, but internet spaceships are serious business and sometimes a relationship has to weather the storm. I appreciate them having me on. http://www.twitch.tv/angrygamersinc/b/504794614 Anthony (my newbie) had a lot of fun being in the twitch chat and asking questions and making friends. Gregarious creature he is. One of the things I brought up was the Hyperion that I mailed the other day. It was all part of reaching out to people thing. Well, right after the podcast ended I got a message from his CEO: Hey there, I just wanted to thank you for offering those tips to one of my new corp members. I didn't know he was traveling into low-sec as of yet and that was a very good lesson for him.  It

Soft and Hard Tools

On Christmas Day I wrote about the Corruption of Ideals . This was my own way of celebrating the relationships I have built in Eve. The acquisition of Robinton and Floyde have been nothing but good for 7-2. They are amazing players but more importantly they are amazing people. Their addition to my day is nothing but a net positive. I celebrate. I celebrate their fall from grace into my world. I celebrate selfishly for I have come to adore these two and the time that I have with them. But with a theft comes a loss. That loss was not to me, for I am the thief. That loss was to the environment itself. Low sec is a place of constantly battles between people who are not allied. It is a place to hunt any who wander in and fail to defend themselves through awareness or strength.  It is semi-lawless space and because of that it is also semi-lawful. It is a place where almost everyone is a predator and every predator is prey. A third or so of the members of 7-2 where once anti-pirates. An

The Hand the Harms Helps

I finished the tutorial missions on my alt. It took me a tad bit of time but I have graduated with five million ISK and a recommendation to join Faction Warfare. So, I'm going to go do that. For a bit, I was debating doing the utter newbie thing. I then decided I was dumb. I already have to deal with no skill points and doing lots of new things. I decided not to handicap myself by not using my ISK as well. When I first decided on this venture I thought that maybe I should use one of my randomly trained and never used combat alts. I decided not to. After all, faction warfare is suggested to my in the advanced tutorial missions. It is obviously a place for brand new players. I also had an ulterior motive. I needed to move a Dramiel that I purchased at the wrong station in Jita to the correct station to ship it down to Teon. Shady, shady behavior, I know. I've written a lot of notes about the tutorial missions. In general, I feel that the state of them is very good. I've

TCS: A Cultists Thoughts

Croda ( Markets for ISK ) has made a list of Business Blogs and he was kind enough to put me on it. I felt a bit embarrassed. The type where you rub your toe back and forth and go, "Gee, me?" I've been working on the TCS year end post. It is not very exciting work. Mostly, I am taking screen shots of various regional market graphs. I am very pleased with them. But, with my first, conscious deployment of the CIMM and the results of 1.2 billion ISK, I was feeling a bit down. I wasn't down that CIMM made money. I was down because 1.2 billion ISK is the type of ISK that many people sneer at and call space poor. It isn't that I am ashamed of the amount. It is 1.2 billion ISK I did not have at the start of January. It was that I worried about my Cults message. The reason that I started calling my market practice the Cult of Reasonable Prices is because I was more interested in the social side of the experimenter than the ISK side. The ISK side was important but it

The Song of Stuff

I am going to be bluntly honest. I am one of those people who are fond of their stuff. I'm not ashamed. I like it. It's mine. I have most of my income tied up in my assets. I believe that is familiar for the bulk of Eve. A few weeks ago, Silver was liquidating assets and commenting that he finds it pleasant. I looked at my asset list, something that is becoming mildly horrifying and full of lag and disagreed. On Thursday, I moved back to Isto a few days before the official move op. I knew that I would be working the weekend. With the move planned, roughly, for Saturday the chances of it being done during my work hours where quite high. I didn't want to spend the evening trying to catch cyno chains during one of the games busiest days. I packed up my stuff, solicited Kaeda for a cyno in Isto. With the death of cynos and the time to have small funerals over their wrecks it took about an hour to empty Nalvula. Sugar needs to improve her cyno skills. It was a pain

Sugar Kyle for CSM9

Posted to the Eve Online Forums: I’m Sugar Kyle, a two year player of Eve and a two year resident of low sec. I’m going all in for CSM9 on a basic platform of being a representative for low security space and the people that live there. Low sec is a vibrant facet of Eve and one that I’m here to support. A low sec representative was missing from CSM8 and my goal is to not have this happen for CSM9. I am a member of Calamitous-Intent, a small gang PvP corporation of semi-nomadic nature that bases out of Molden Heath. I have spent the bulk of my time in eve in non-faction warfare low security space. Many would label me as a pirate or outlaw but small gang PvP would be my area of PvP activity. I do more in low sec than spend my time looking for explosions. I run a market in low security space. I disliked the fact that everyone in the region had to jump into high sec to do basic shopping at a station. I put my ISK into the venture and a year later I am still keeping people supplied wi

CIMM: A Month Long Project

The Calamitous-Intent Mobile Market (from here on referred to as the CIMM) was a month long project focused around taking a market with us on deployment. The reasons to have a corporate market: Accessibility of needs Refitting Decrease time needed to get in space Adapting to the organic nature of fleet engaged It makes the boys happy Immediate activity options It is healthy and makes people feel cared for I've been selling things to the people I play with for a year and a half. I started with boosters (at almost cost) and moved on to the Cougar Store (reasonable prices). The CIMM is simply an extension of these activities. I also bring my booster supply along and stock it. For whatever reason, I enjoy breaking the things that I do into their own area. TCS is owned by that corporation (which is just my alts). CIMM is owned by a market alt. My boosters are listed by Sugar or Chella. I tend not to merge the ISK each activity provides.  What I have learned is that if yo

An Exchange of Jaguar

It is Floyde's fault that this happened. I do not think that it was his intent. I'm sure, in fact, that it never crossed his mind. It had not crossed mine. But, that does not decrease the fact that everything that happened it is all because of Floyde. This is the story of how I wound up in an Ares that still had a warm seat from its time with  Gothie Maulerant . On Monday, I went out with the boys. I went out with Altaen before dinner and out with a fleet that Floyde was FCing after. I was in a Jaguar and we were in frigates. Altaen, I will give a honorary frigate title to because he caught up with us. We were going into Black Rise. I was in a Jaguar with limited time. I was comfortable, docking when bedtime came. And so, after fighting this Brutix Navy Issue who gave good fights and a nice chat, I docked up and logged off for the night in Nennamaila X - Wiyrkomi Peace Corps Assembly Plant. On Tuesday, I logged in after work. There where 60 some people in local. Why where

Being an Explosion

Dying to a HS gate camp made me realize how little I know about the activity. My Jaguar, while amazing for the most part is not quite fast enough to make it through gatecamps that are gatecamping. They are prepared for frigates after all. And, jumping into a high sec gatecamp wasn't something that I was particularly expecting. They happen sometimes in Molden Heath but normally, darting through high sec goes smoothly. I'm one of those flashy reds that goes streaking through a system with faction police spawning on the gate behind me. This time, I landed and realized that it wasn't going to go smoothly. Interceptor, Rook, Vigilant. Yeah, well. The ship loss has a surprise factor of zero. And, as I warped my pod off to continue my trip I realized that I didn't expect the gatecamp. I proabbly should have. Faction Warfare areas tend to come with a different fleet type than non-faction warfare areas. They are more prepared for frigates. For, frigates are more common inside

Scraping the Start

TL;DR: Sugar focuses on one topic two days in a row. This miracle brought to you by Jaguars. Jaguars, the frigate of choice. I am one of those people who downloaded Eve to check it out after reading about the terrible things that happen there. It seemed to be right up my alley. I started playing directly after Crucible was launched. It was launched the 29th of November and I started to play December 1st. That means, in my world Attack Battlecruisers have always existed. It also means that I was on board for the change to the item management windows. This was a huge moment, where CCP changed the entire way that we move things around. It also did not go as well as expected and they released it with a lot of usability lacking. That happened because what players do with the interface and what the developers expect them to do often vary. Eventually, this was rectified and the new interface with its trees and ability to move things was born. I like it and slowly my use of it has increas

Starting Again

Player retention has been on the air. I'm as interested in it as anyone who is interested in it. As part of my CSM prep (since retention is an area I'm interested in and half of my not to  terrible ideas are about improving life for newer players) I finally sat down to do the tutorials. I've been meaning to for ages but it is very easy to just forget to do them. After all, these days I log in and alt, autopilot her to where I need her and start pumping skill books and ISK into her. This time I decided to go and do the missions and make my ISK that way and then go to Faction Warfare and finally try some entry level frigate stuff as well as trying to make it in Eve as a newbie again. I've been writing an on going list of thoughts about the tutorial process that I will sum up later. I don't dislike the Tutorials but it is bad when I find myself confused doing basic things. However, along the way other things happened. Such as Rookie Chat. I adore rookie chat. I still