Low Sec Lifestyle

Cheradenine Harper started, what I will now call, a crowd sourced idea and solution when he asked the eternal question: "Anyone know if there's been any mention of being able to unanchor abandoned structures?" In case one does not know what an abandoned structure is, in this conversation, we are speaking about abandoned player (corporate) owned starbases aka POS. A POS, when it runs out of fuel, goes offline. It does not anchor or vanish from space. It stays there, forever. In null sec, low sec, and wormholes they can be shot. In high sec the corporation must be war deced otherwise Concord says no. High Sec and Wormholes have huge numbers of what I called derelict POS. Why is this a problem that needs to be solved? And, with any idea that has a lot of aspects of convenience one has to ask why we want it and if it will improve game play or is it just an idea to make my life easier. In high sec people try out POS and get tired of them. They also put them up to stake

Tonight and the Rest of my Life - Nina Gordon (Lyrics) This is how flying armor ships vs shield ships makes me feel, or so I told Wex as we discussed how I dislike Proteus (because armor) but like Proteus (because I find them interesting). I just don't like to fly  them. When someone says fly  a ship I think about flying it. In space, engine trails glorious against the darkness. Down to the earth I fell  With dripping wings Heavy things won't fly  And such was how I felt as Diz called for armor cruisers for a roam and I discovered that all of my armor cruisers where set up as armor heavy cruisers or kiting shield boats. I didn't even have one of the kiting armor Omens put together. Instead, I had a hangar of shield ships. I know that armor is the meta but.... So.. I have a thing for shield ships... Gleaming in the dark sea  I'm as light as air Floating there breathlessly  I just can't get over the sheer pleasure of flyi

Nine days untill  the polls open. It is amazing how much effort can go into crafting thirteen hundred characters. When I first looked at my CSM application I thought that it would be easy to write the official words. Of course it was not. The limit was the largest hurdle. I had so much to say and so few words to say it in. But, I eventually worked through it and submitted everything last Sunday evening. I sent off my passport at the same time and now it is just a short, but long wait. Tomorrow is the final day of application submissions. Then, on the 3rd, we should find out who actually submitted their applications and passports and passed their background checks. The polls open the following Tuesday. I’ve checked my submission a few times. If I try to fill out the form with Sugar again it tells me that she has already submitted one. I sent my e-mail to the correct place. How I wish for a confirmation email to stare at. For now, i just fret. When I started the run I was worried abo

Normally when I see this much structure I am in an interceptor. This time, I was in a Jaguar at the end of a roam with Wex. It was nice to get out in space after I've spent the last two days of Eve writing about Eve but not playing it. We jumped into a Thorax gang. Or, we where supposed to be jumping through them. I was confused about where we had a pilot third partying a fight. I decloaked and derped for a moment which got me pointed. Realizing that it was a disruptor, not a scram (I love tool tips), I started to burn again. They where huddled on the gate. Maybe I should have burned back. Away was my first through so I overheated and stuck with it. Invul on and burn, burn, burn, as the DPS hit me. Everyone consoled me on getting tackled as they warped off. I was consoling myself as well. Then, I realized that there was no DPS on me and no tackle. I warped off, managing to pick a celestial I was not aligned to because I forgot where I was aligned. I made some safe spots, wen

Niden writes a column entitled " Low Life " over at Crossing Zebras. He sent a question out to the low sec candidates reference an article that he is writing. I do not know what his entire article will be about, but his question struck home. It is a subject I've harped on a lot and one of the reasons that my path has taken me to the path of the CSM. Q: You have stated that you think lowsec is in a sort of identity crisis. Being called the red-headed step child, the black sheep and the stepping stone to null. Many will point at BNI's recent move to null as proof, for instance. Why, in your words, is lowsec in this state and how does it get out of it? Niden My response becomes today's blog post. I started writing about low sec needing an identity in October of 2012 . In May of 2013 , after going to Fanfest, I started to define some basics of the problem as the very old infrastructure that Eve was built upon. The concept that low sec is a middle ground between

Before the refining and reprocessing changes where released to the public my conversations about industry in low sec had come to equal, "We are going to have to do something new for industry to thrive." With the changes my belief is a bit stronger in that regard. What works for high sec and what works for null sec will not always work for low sec. Although we have the same basic things in regards to stations, asteroids, and accessibility, we do not have the same environment. Often when trying to think of solutions or possibilities we try to work within the current game as we understand it. Some things are only going to be answered by change. The problem with change is that our access to it is limited. CCP does not have infinite developers and infinite developing time. Still, that should not completely discourage a player from venturing into the possible unknown to create a possibility. Sometimes, the ripples from that void are reasonable, feasible, and possible. Give us b

Light a match tossed onto a pile of sawdust the Dev Blog announcing refining and reprocessing changes has been explosive. Information and numbers are flying through the air. This is a new methodology that I approve of. THe biggest numeric and production changes are hitting the Dev blogs first. That gives CCP time to change and work the numbers based off of player feedback. It also gives players a lot more time to absorb the future. The numbers we have been running for producing capitals is ugly when with the changes factored in. Those numbers are based off of current numbers and the expansion will invalidate that. Before I panic I will wait. I will wait to see what actually happens with minerals and ore values and where our new point of irritation occurs to build in low. I don't want to gnash my teeth too soon. We thought that capital rigs would cost a half billion apiece but rig prices plummeted to unseen lows. And that's what I want to talk about. Not rig prices per say

Wex invited me to a fleet on Sunday afternoon. It seems that Gajin Sensei has been having carrier shoot events . Snuff Box was going to go and attend this. Live events are often at bad times for me during the day. However, with an invite I rearranged my schedule and arrived home to find out that the form up had been moved forward by fifteen minutes. I hate being late and I knew that I should have taken a Jaguar. However, I'd clone jumped into an empty clone because I was plugging implants in once I arrived. I'd managed to jump all over the place and in frustration, grabbed a Jaguar. This will be important later. Twenty something jumps through high sec landed me on field with about three minutes to spare before form-up. I docked and accepted the contract Wex had gotten together for me earlier. The contract was for a  low grade slave set . I happen not to have one and it seems a normal thing for Snuff. I figure, it may have uses in the future and why not. I'm a big girl. I

CCP Dolan released the CSM9 election Dev Blog ! The polls will open April 8th and close April 22nd. Two weeks! I’ll let Saftsuze express my desire for the election.. I like the image enough that I can forgive him for the use of pink The election will be using the STV system again. Often, you hear people say that multiple people have their vote. STV stands for single transferable vote. Basically, you pick the people that you want to represent you. Your top pick gets #1 and your second gets #2. You don’t get 1 vote for each person. It is a cascading system so that votes are not lost for Candidates who do not gather enough to qualify. I’ve heard people say that they do not want to waste their vote by selecting someone who they don’t think will win. This system is supposed to help that and allow people to pick honestly. In my dream world everyone would sit down and pick the people that they feel represent them not who they think will win, who is the most popular, or who they are to

I find myself in the Seattle airport about to go home. I'm logged into Eve and I remember the song that was played during the Duck Tour I took this morning. At the time, my mind started to blend it into an Eve parody. I love to abuse any type of music. The lyrics are below. The video is above so that you can get your groove on. Song: "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper Lyrics Video "Wolves Just Want To fly Fun" I undock in the middle of a fight My buddy says when you gonna get your fit right? Oh bear I told the CEO we're not the EFT ones! And wolves they want to fly fun Oh wolves just want to fly fun The jabber pings in the middle of the night My FC yells "nerd come get on and fight!" Oh dramiel dear you know you're still number one But wolves they want to fly fun Oh wolves just want to fly fun That's all fleets really want Some fun When the doctrine is done Wolves - they want to fly fun Oh wolves just

I checked Aura to see what skills need to be done. I've had some issues updating skill queues as my hotel connection has been a cruel mistress. I down graded to DirectX9 because I couldn't get my faction warfare pilot logged on without her client crashing. She was loading into the Captain's Quarters because she has never been activated on this laptop before. All of my accounts (almost) have needed skill changes. I've been running Sugar through rigs up to IV one after another. That led up to looking at my skills and seeing that my future Dread pilot was finishing Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration V. Well damn. I was out of excuses. Out of excuses to buy expensive skill books. So, I logged her in, crawled off my ISK, and started plugging in the last pieces that she needs for her dreadnought. Now it is time to do it wrong. I'm getting a Revelation. I've been told to get a Moros. I don't want a Morors. I want a Revelation so I am getting a Revelation. I am

"Sugar, why are there no DCU on the market?" Dave asked. "I'm on a trip and they didn't delist when I last checked on Saturday. But I have a whole cargo hold of stuff that needs to be listed that I haven't done since I'm out of town..." Dave's question was not a complaint or a criticism. I have worked very hard to get people to say something to me when something is missing. That allows me to confirm, deny, or tell them that it is en route to relist. Eve Mentat misses some things on the market pull. It isn't a huge amount of things but it is enough that I've noticed it. I assume hiccups somewhere alone the line. I don't write raging posts about it because Eve Mentat is an amazing tool that allows me to do things I'd not be able to do without it. I also can't create it. Therefore, while I may acknowledge a glitch here and there I am thankful that someone took the time to make it. So, I use word of mouth or word of eve-mails t

Yesterday, frustrated with timers, Kaeda gifted me his POCO empire (and frustrations). Before I wrote about it I asked him if he minded my writing about it. He said go ahead and gleefully, I seized the topic. I was gleeful because sometimes people tell me no or ask me not to write about things. I don't write about everything but I'm somewhat unpredictable and anyone that has read for a while knows that interesting interactions will tend to bubble up to the blogs pages. Part of gaining the POCOs was setting them up. My POCO rates are as such: Corp/Alliance/+5/+10 all have a 0% tax rate. Everyone else has a 3% tax rate. I started taking POCOs in Bosena a few months ago. It is quite an irritating place to shoot POCOS due to it being so busy. My goal was to take all of them but that requires people helping me out and, well, it gets boring. I have some. I may get more. I did it as something of an advertisement for TCS and because it was something I had not yet done. I also

Do classic heroes exist in EVE? Is such heroism even possible in EVE? How would you go about being one without opening yourself wide open to scams? Is the nature of the game so dark that heroes can't exist? How do you deal with that irony? What effect does this have on us and the psyche of new players coming in from other MMOs? Is it something special that we don't have classic heroes, or should we? Are our non classic heroes more genuine? - Cheradenine Harper   And I would add to this, who have we elevated to the level of larger than life heroes ourselves in the game, and do they actually deserve it? - Kirth Kodachi                                                                                                       Blog Banter #54  I think that if you went into the mind of someone labeled a hero they'd not see themselves as such. Often, they are people who are doing what need to be done. Personal reasons, personal morals, personal wants, all of these things come int

One day when I'm old will I remember this day? This day of youth and innocence as the skill queue ticks away? One day when I'm old what remembrances will hold sway? What things will I say used to happen this way? When the day comes that my skills are a solid wall of blue, When level five isn't new and I don't remember another way. That day when I'm old and expierence holds sway, of my thoughts and my responses as I look at each day. Will I remember the time when that first billion was made? Will I remember the joy the first time I can fit, Something for a ship that I've dreamed of taking a trip To a part of space that was known but never seen before this day? Will I remember the stars as they flicker in space? Will I remember the day I didn't know of this place? When my engines cool down to a sullen glow, Will I remember all the things that I once did not know? Will I scream, "Get off my lawn!" As the rookies zip by? Or will I

[ Warning: There are curse words in yon post ] Somewhat loosely related to post about the Eve community is peoples use of words. Amy commented about being tired of the language that people use . Language, what we use to communicate can also be one of the biggest banes of existence where there is communication. I am not shy about admitting that I minimize local to ignore smack talk. One thing CCP added in the Rubicon 1.3 patch is a word filter. I somehow missed it when I read the dev blog about it. I think that I was enthralled by some of the other things added in. However now you can replace your most hated words with something beautiful. For example 'mayonnaise' can become 'the condiment of evil'. This is how the world becomes a better place.

This was a week of waiting, making for a short post! No official election rules are posted yet. I’ll admit that I am itching with anticipation. We have six weeks to Fanfest. People who are following the election cycle are very interested in the voting process. Some have voted before and some have not. This interest in the voting is good. This week has held more interest on my forum thread. Ripard Teg laid out some questions to some candidates. I wound up writing a reply and a longer blog post in response. Questions directed to the CSM come in all forms and flavors. Questions such as Ripard’s, that focus on aspects of morality and culture are fascinating. It is also an understandable question to ask someone who is stepping forward to represent the community. I will admit that I’m having fun meeting people. I’m trying to sync up with a few groups and my channel gets a steady trickle of people who want to check me out. It has lead to a lot of interesting conversations and debate

Things must be going well for the merc corps of the area. This is the second or third time someone has hired mercenaries to kill us in the last two months. This time, it seems that we where shooting someones tower as a side project.  Basically, someone has an op based around a personal goal. These are often POS or POCO bashes. The other day, Floyde made one to kill a mobile depot that was littering a gate and annoying him.  Anyway, Razor had an op for earlier today. I was at work. It seems that he was mailed before the op and warned away from trying to finish off the POS. POS From: ----- Sent: 2014.03.15 17:34 To: ------- Hi friends I want to warn you. Your share of the murder of the stick Alliance RUST will be a complete failure. So you better turn around and walk away) That was like a dinner bell. What might have just been a kitchen sink response turned into an organized operation. The boys had just been told that a fight was to be had. So they went and fought. http://se

[ TL;DR: In which Sugar responds to a morality question presented by Ripard Teg and breaks down the topic into pieces ] "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, nether fascinating nor artistic." The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - A Case of Identity, Page 1, Paragraph 2 About two months ago my mother looked up from a news article she was reading and commented about how terrible the news has become. I picked up my kindle and read that passage to her. One hundred years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that paragraph as Watson spoke to Holmes at the start of a short story. Sensationalism is something that people bring along with them. We are, in general willing spectators to terrible things as long as those terrible things are not happening to us. People

I like Jita a lot. It fascinates me. The hundreds of ships that pour out of the undock amaze me. The battles on the station used to frighten me. The entire organised that is Jita fascinates me enough that I write fiction stories that rotate around Jita. The amusing thing is that in real life, a place like Jita gives me the creeps. I love going to open markets when I explore new places but I loathe the barter that will come with those markets. In Eve, I don't have to deal with the barter aspect and I can enjoy the people watching. But I am not the only one watching people. I am also being watched. Imagine my surprise when I received a conversation invite for my buy alt from someone who wanted to sell me booster gas. They wanted to sell me a lot of booster gas and hopefully regularly. I often feel a bit sad that I cannot oblige someone in that way. I still added their name as a contact and I will try to buy from them in the future. A little bit later, I received another conversat

I do wicked things. I spent the evening buying Police Pursuit Comet skins for my corpmates that wanted them. The blueprints are selling for around 9-10 million at the moment. They cost three million ISK and three thousand Concord loyalty points. I have tons of Concord loyalty points from running incursions. Normally, I buy meta dread modules for people but everyone wanted the new skins so I handed them out. I didn't even do a LP conversion. I just handed them to whomever wanted one. I even sold my Comet hull that's been hanging around for a year to a corpmate at the price I purchased it at a year ago. For shame. For shame. I support the ability to get new skins and my corpmates don't pay high prices for making their toys shiny. I finally stopped spinning in indecisive circles and settled on the second rig for my Ishtar. Unlike many of our doctrine fits, the Ishtar's tend to be more personalized. I found myself dithering. It is an expensive ship that I wanted to fit

"I think at that point its safe to presume that said person personifies said organization's ideals, values and culture," said Dirty Protagonist also known as 7-2's CEO. "Be careful DP before someone sees 7-2 as cuddly, tickling, bloggers," I commented in return. We recently closed recruiting for a bit after getting a handful of interesting and diverse people apply to the corporation. Some have gotten in, some withdrew, and some have been declined. I find the declines the hardest. It is a hard decision. We're here to play and have fun but that decision to not enroll someone at a specific time, for the various reasons that comes along with it, is an important too. Unpleasant, perhaps, but important. Every character in Eve has a corporation history. That corporation history is a semi-readable look into that players activities. Do they go inactive for months at a time? Do they never stay with a corporation for more than a few weeks? Do they have a habit