15th Movember

So I spent a few days out and about in lowsec FW space without much luck getting into a decent fight.  I'm managing to resist the urge to charge in at any ship that presents itself, unlike during my previous attempt to get some solo PvP in the summer.

The downside is that I spend a lot of time going 'nope, nope, nope,' and moving on.  I'm guessing as my skills and capabilities improve I'll be able to take on more prospective fights.

I'm still flying Liar (from previous post), and finally found a fight I thought I might stand a chance in - normally I wouldn't dream of taking on a Catalyst in an Incursus, as they are likely to be blaster fit, the same as my Incursus, but have massively more firepower and are designed to take out frigates.

However, in this instance the pilot was fairly new so I was hoping he'd be T1 fit and not have great skills, with fingers crossed I piled in.

He quickly shredded my shields once I'd closed in and unleashed my drone.  My armour repper was able to recover most of the damage to begin with, but couldn't really keep up with the incoming damage.  Then I remembered to Overheat my guns(!) as I was in structure, my repper pulled me back into armour briefly before there was a flash and a Boom!

I was pretty sure I'd died, but my repper must have completed it's cycle just in time! I scooped the loot, dropped a "gf" in local and warped out just as a harpy landed almost on top of me.  I thought the Harpy had caught me, pretty sure I saw the scram icon over my ship but my warp drive had already started.

In retrospect I should probably have kept towards the edge of my scram range to let my drone do it's job, though I couldn't have known that the Catalyst didn't have and repair modules nor scram fitted!

Anyway I lived to fight another day and I made another donation to Movember.  I've now matched my previous number of kills, but in half the time.  Hopefully I'll get a bunch more over the next few days.

9th Movember

I didn't get into space as much as I'd have liked last week, but I have this week off work as we've got builders in at home. Turns out Monday daytime (EU timezone is a little bit quiet), but I decided to do a bit of ratting on the side whilst looking for a fight. I was in an Incursus renamed to Liar and set off wandering through low sec. I found a Serpentis Clone Soldier Trainer at a belt with a 1 million isk bounty and a tag. Nice start, but not what I was after.

I few systems later I landed at an outgate to see a Nemesis jump in and cloak. The pilot was fairly new so I decided to hang around in system. There was only the two of us. I toured the belts in case he was ratting. nope, and no more clone soldier trainers. Nemesis pilot was still in system, but sensibly enough not showing on dscan.

I decided to fly to the sun and then align to my original outgate. Then I checked my evemail. I really should turn my sound on when I'm not playing in front of the TV next to the missus, however if I read my mail in space, I always make sure I can see my overview and ship status, so I quickly spotted the Nemesis when he decloaked and engaged me with his target painter.

I set a tight orbit and burned the 20-odd Km to his ship, releasing and engaging my drone as I did so. His first salvo took about 1/4 of my shields, but I figured I was too small & fast for his Torpedoes to do much damage. As soon as I got into web & scram range I activated the modules and then turned on my Blasters once I got closer.

It didn't take long. Boom!

I scooped the loot dropped a gf in local. The guy knew my ship was too small, but he'd done 30 jumps without a fight and couldn't resist...I know how that feels! I let him know it was for a good cause (I have details about Movember in my Bio). He's supporting Movember too and wished me well.

I dumped loot in station and carried on. Donation to Movember made.

Movember - Day 1

For the month of Movember I'll be having another go at focusing on solo PvP, as well as sporting a handsome 'tache to do my bit for raising awareness of Men's Health issues.

During the month, I shall be blogging about my exploits here and for every successful kill I'll be donating £3 to Movember (I had 3 kills on my killboard at the start of this month).

All of my ships will be named after Queen / Freddie Mercury songs

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the release of Bohemian Rhapsody, so it only seemed fitting that my first foray was so named.

Suffice to say, it blew my cobwebs off and got my blood pounding...I landed on top of a fairly new character flying a Catalyst in my Merlin.  He promptly warped off whilst I  exiting warp, to be replaced by a Kiting Atron.

I never landed a shot, but I was quite pleased with managing my ASB, even surviving through the reload cycle.  I managed to get out of scram range briefly, but I was too slow on the warp button so I eventually died.

Second ship was fitted up and I took my incursus, newly re-christened as "It's a Hard Life" and headed off up towards Arnon.  A few jumps in there's a lone guy in system, I scan him down to a FW mission, so prepperd my modules and headed in.  He must not have been paying attention as I landed about 50K away and lit my burners to get to him, expecting him to warp out any second.

He eventually woke up and engaged me when he was about half armour, but it was too little, too late.

I dropped a "gf" in local, but didn't get a reply.

Almost a month since my last post...bet you thought I'd packed in and given up!

Sorry to disappoint but I'm still here.  Been away for some holiday time with the family, work is also piling up and will continue pretty much as is until mid September when it'll either slacken off or I will :)

I took a couple of weeks away from Solitude to try and get more solo PVP experience (I even won a prize!) but only ended up getting one solo kill for 12 deaths!  Still plenty to learn there.

In other news I have now proved myself enough to the Gallente Federation Customs L3 agent (running her missions in my trusty Vexor) that she's passed me along to her L4 friend.  I'll need lots more training and a much bigger ship before I can safely handle those missions solo, so for now I'll move onto L3 missions with Federation Intelligence.

I came back from holiday to see I'd finished training Gallente Frigate 5, I'm just rounding off some support skills before moving into Covert Ops and Interceptors, then start training for some bigger ships (see above).

In other news, both alts are making nice passive profit from PI, involving only a few minutes work per week.  Alt #2 has now stopped training (trained decent PI skills plus blockade runner).  Alt#1 is currently training for an Orca.

Fly casual,

Zeb

Still here

Two weeks since my last post, but I'm still here, still in EVE pretty much every day, but for the last two weeks I've not been in Solitude at all.

July 1st saw the start of a month long YOLO SOLO event - go out and find as much solo PvP as you like, get blown up, blow up other people, have fun and make sure you write up your (mis)adventures.

There are mystery prizes, as well as 1st, 2nd & 3rd for most solo kills.  I've even managed to win one of the mystery prizes so far as I blew up someone who'd previously blown me up.  Nice, and the extra 25million prize was promptly spent on more ships to get blown up.

In the last two weeks I have managed to gain 1 solo kill (as above) when I tried to act as bait in a battle venture. Unfortunately for me, I suck and the guy was able to destroy my Venture before I could take out his Thrasher (I was hoping for a T1 frigate).

Unfortunately for the guy, he then decided to hang around in the belt and take on the local belt rat.  I had an Incursus in station in the next system, so I went straight back and blew him up, then scooped the loot from both our wrecks...and won the additional 25million as mentioned earlier. Result!

Other than that kill, the previous two weeks have been littered with my wrecks;

Incursus   Tristan  Merlin  Algos Incursus#2  Incursus#3  Incursus#4  Algos#2  Incursus#5

I don't have a good ratio of Kills:Deaths (1:10) and I've lost more ISK than I've blown up (something like 40million lost vs 6 million killed), but I've enjoyed every explosion.  After every fight my heart is beating faster.

Hopefully I'm also learning and improving. Even after only a small number of fights I feel that I am managing the engagement better, I'm not dictating the fight on my terms yet, but I am understanding what's happening.  I'm managing my modules better (though I did spend one entire fight repeatedly turning my guns on and then off before realising that I hadn't actually locked up the ship I was 'engaging').

More kills will come, no doubt and at the end of the month I'll be back in the peace & quiet of Solitude...with the occasional trip out looking for trouble ;)

My first PvP kill, quickly followed by my first solo PvP kill

Took an incursus out on a small gang roam around some FW areas last night, eventually got into a fight and we scored our first kill in a week long small gang tourney, unfortunately that one kill resulted in all 4 of us dying.

We were doing OK until the confessor turned up, one of the Tristans was this close > < to exploding, honest!

We'll only get better, last longer and put out more damage as we get more practice and in particular as my skills increase.

This morning I decided to get some practice in before work and set out on a short roam.  I soon found a breacher at a small plex, I warped to it and saw the breacher at the gate.  I took the gate and waited to see if he would follow me, he did but I didn't manage to land my web & scram and he pulled range, released his drones and started in with his missiles.

I set my drone onto him, targetted and killed his drones and tried to close distance.  He was maintaining range at 18-21Km.  My Optimal was 6K, falloff at 11K

He killed off my drone, I tried burning away from him then closing distance again but couldn't get close enough to land my web or scram.  I was able to keep repping his damage though by pulsing my repair module...until I ran out of paste. at which point I switched to continuous cycle.  My armour whittled down pretty slowly.

I tried OH my AB to either close distance or get out of scram range...and burnt out my AB.

Then his mate turned up in another breacher and landed 2Km from me.  I switched targets, landed web & scram and OH my guns.

I then noticed my cap was pretty much gone so spent a few cycles of having repairer, web or guns going.

Pretty sure I got the 2nd breacher into hull, but he was able to bring his shields back up. Then the inevitable happened and I warped my pod out.

Definitely a good fight!

lesson learned - bring a mix of ammo so I can vary my range.  more paste - that fight lasted long enough for a reload of the repairer I think.

Anyway, I reshipped and went out again.  this time I found a lone Atron at a large plex.  I warped in at 10 (forgot there isn't a gate for larges), landed 14Km away and burned towards him fully expecting him to warp off.

I landed OH web & scram, set my drone on him and opened up with my guns.  Took off the OH to web & scram once I was close enough.  Everything went straightforward, he didn't even take down my shields.

My first solo kill!

Not a great fight, but I'll take it and a nice way to start the day.

incidentally, I received an evemail from Crake Gaterau (who annihilated me a few days ago in his Stratios that I thought would be piloted by someone with much lower skills).  It was a short note offering encouragement, letting me know he was around for any advice I needed when it comes to PvP and accompanied a 20million isk donation to keep my PvP going.

Much appreciated Crake, I bought some more hulls and modules this morning, they'll all be used in PvP!

a couple more fights

Just a short post about a couple of fights I got into recently

Firstly I went on a short roam around some FW areas, avoided cruisers this time, jumped into a small plex and orbited the button hoping someone would come for a fight.

They did.

I lasted a little longer than my previous fight, fumbled with my ancillary armour repairer, managed to loose my Drone on him, thought i was orbiting at 500, but when I checked his distance saw he was at about 28K.

I think I need to avoid Screaming Hayabusa pilots for a while :)

I then went on a longer, meandering roam through lowsec and ended up in Everyshore (?) before docking up for the night.  no fights, did't find any other ships at any celestials, boring.

This morning before work I decided to head back through lowsec to the FW area and my staging system. 

I was running late but found a Condor in a plex.  Myself and 2 other pilots in local.  I decided to warp in with my Atron and see how it went.

Closest I managed to get was 15K, I was able to rep my armour back after each of his volley's landed, but couldn't get close enough to hit him with my blasters.

I pulled range and warped off, chucking in a gf afterwards.  He agreed it was a good fight until I ran off, but seemed to take it good naturedly when I said there was no point hanging around to explode when I couldn't hit him.

I was fairly pleased that I managed my modules ok, I was able to recognise that it was likely to end up with me exploding if I continued and I was able to disengage and escape.

Thinking about it afterwards, if I'd overheated my Web I wonder if I could have burned close enough to him with my MWD, to stop him running so I could get closer to hit with my blasters.

I was also running with a warp disruptor for the longer range, probably may have been better with a scrambler instead (not sure if he was running a MWD or not).

I should also have thought about swapping out ammo to a longer range variant as I was managing to keep my armour repaired OK.

on to the next!

Back in the Uni

I put my 7 days outside of the Uni to good effect and went on a spending spree resulting in a hangar full of ships (Algos', Incursus', Atrons and Merlins mainly, with a few Tristans for good measure) with lots of mods and ammo, as well as a jumpclone all installed in a station in Stacmon.

These ships will all die in explosions whilst I attempt to give PvP a go.

I then decided that I should focus on manufacturing etc as that was my initial intention when joining eve, with some combat on the side, rather than combat as the main focus with occasional industry on the side.

I applied for a Industry mentor when I got back into the Uni and started my PI alts training Industry skills.  I also moved their cheap office to a not quite so cheap, but still inexpensive office in a station with a full suite of Industrial facilities.

I traded over all of Zeb's blueprints and resources, as these guys will now be making stuff instead.  I also splurged on some new original blueprints and put out some buy orders for cheap resources.

Both these alts will be in cloaky haulers within a couple of weeks, with decent production & trade skills.  Alt#1 will then continue training for an Orca.

In the meantime I went out for a roam around lowsec FW with a couple of corpies, but we didn't manage to find a fight.

I then went out solo later, managed to avoid obviously experienced characters and didn't hang around in systems filled with guys from the same corp.

Eventually I spotted a cruiser piloted by a new character. Hoping he had a lousy fit I warped to the plex he was in.  The cruiser was there as expected, but piloted by a much more experienced pilot who appears to be PvP focussed. As he was sat at the warpin point (I landed about 3K away) I engaged anyway and lasted about 3 seconds (seriously, I launched my drone, but didn't get time to hit the F key to send him in!).

Lesson learned, don't believe everything you read.  At least I didn't freeze this time, I had a plan and executed it...just wrong opponent.

I left EVE Uni!

So, last week I dropped out of University...but don't worry, it's only temporary.

I realised that it would be cheaper in the long run to have two accounts and to move Zebulon's character onto a new account.  This way I can keep Zebulon training and at the same time I can train one of my alt accounts.  And all for less than the cost I have been paying (a plex per month for multi character training).

I'd like to get both PI alts into cloaky haulers (39 days each) plus at least one of them able to fly an Orca (another couple of months training at least).

However, in order to swap a character between accounts they have to be part of a NPC corp (cheaper to transfer Zebulon to the new account than it would be to switch both alts to a new account).

So I left EVE Uni, started a second account via a buddy invite, converted that 30 day trial to a full account with three months training (there was a sale on so only cost £23.99).  The upgrade also gave the new account 1 each of the 4 scanning frigates, a couple of blueprints (yacht & diplomatic shuttle) plus the 2 Mordu's Legion jackets (his & hers).  As an added benefit, by using a buddy key and updating from the trial to a full account, I also received 821 million isk :)

What I hadn't realised was that swapping a character between accounts also requires you to pause training on that character, and once the transfer is initiated neither account can access that character until transfer is complete (about 12 hours).

Ho-hum.  Anyway, that meant that the superfluous character that I had to create on the second account got about 12 hours of basic combat training...I hope she appreciated it as she's not getting any more!

Due to the way WAR! mechanics work, if you drop out of a corporation which is currently embroiled in a war, you can't rejoin that same corporation until you have waited 7 days (I guess to stop people constantly dropping and rejoining corps to get around war targets etc).

All being well I should be back in the Uni in about 3 or 4 days.  Until then I've been on a shopping frenzy (821 million isk does burn a hole in your spacewallet).

I've decided to dip my toe into the murky waters of PvP and so have bought a bunch of ships and fittings (most of which I can't fly for another few days).

However I did take a not particularly well fit Tristan out to lowsec for a while yesterday to see if I could get into a fight.  It was harder than I thought, but when it did eventually happen I partially froze, didn't execute my plan and got blown up.  However it was great fun, my heart was pounding and my opponent offered me words of encouragement.

What I'd planned on doing was trying to keep an opponent at about 15-18Km and let my drones do their thing.  As it was I orbited at about 2k and didn't attempt to take out their single drone until just before I died.

I'll try and remember for next time.

How is EVE different to other games?

I was browsing around the official EVE Online forums at lunchtime when I came across this and felt the need to keep it and share it:

CCP Falcon wrote:
Okay, so what follows is entirely my personal opinion.
It's not a case of not "catering to the tearfilled entitled", it's a case of us staying true to the core of what EVE was built on.
Some of the people complaining in this thread have valid points about the fact that they don't feel safe. Simple fact of the matter is, that you're not suppose to feel safe in New Eden.
Eve is not a game for the faint hearted. It's a game that will chew you up and spit you out in the blink of an eye if you even think about letting your guard down or becoming complacent.
While every other MMO starts off with an intro that tells you you're going to be the savior of the realm, holds your hand, protects you, nurtures your development and ultimately guides you to your destiny as a hero along with several other million players who've had the exact same experience, EVE assaults you from the second you begin to play after you create a character, spitting you out into a universe that under the surface, is so complex that it's enough to make your head explode.
The entire design is based around being harsh, vicious, relentless, hostile and cold. It's about action and reaction, and the story that unfolds as you experience these two things.
True, we're working hard to lower the bar of entry so that more players can enjoy EVE and can get into the game. Our NPE (New Player Experience) is challenging, and we're trying to improve it to better prepare rookies for what lies out there, but when you start to play eve, you'll always start out as the little fish in the big pond.
The only way to grow is to voraciously consume what's around you, and its your choice whether that happens to be New Eden's abundant natural resources, or the other people who're also fighting their way to the top.
EVE is a playing experience like no other, where every action or reaction resonates through a single universe and is felt by players from all corners of the word. There are no shards here, no mirror universes, no instances and very few rules. If you stumble across something valuable, then chances are someone else already knows where you are, or is working their way toward you and you better be prepared to fight for what you've discovered.
EVE will test you from the outset, from the very second you undock and glimpse the stars, and will take pleasure from sorting those who can survive from those who'd rather curl up and perish.
EVE will let you fight until you collapse, then let you struggle to your feet, exhausted from the effort. Then when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel it'll kick you flat on your ass in the mud again and ask you why you deserve to be standing. It'll test you against every other individual playing at some point or another, and it'll ask for answers.
Give it an answer and maybe it'll let you up again, long enough to gather your thoughts. After a few more steps you're on the ground again and it's asking more questions.
EVE is designed to be harsh, it's designed to be challenging, and it's designed to be so deep and complex that it should fascinate and terrify you at the same time.
Corporation, Alliances and coalitions of tens of thousands have risen and fallen on these basic principles, and every one of those thousands of people has their own unique story to tell about how it affected them and what they experienced.
That's the beauty of EVE. Action and reaction. Emergence.
Welcome to the most frightening virtual playground you'll ever experience.

source :- https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=400977

A Milestone reached.

Actually, possibly more of a milepebble, rather than a milestone.  Today I breached the 2 million skillpoint mark!

I didn't even notice when I passed the 1 million skillpoint mark.

I still have more skillpoints in Drones than anything else, but it looks like Engineering & Shields will overtake Drones during the next week or so.

Incidentally, my current training plan is about 520 days.

I did say I was here for the long haul, didn't I?

my first major cock-up

I'm sure I've probably made others, but just not realised it yet! However, last night I made a bad call, then reacted too slowly and lost my first expensive (for me) ship.

I'd been doing other stuff the last few days (some scanning, data & relic sites, working on L3 distribution missions for SoE with my alt) whilst waiting for my training to get me to the point where I could fully fit a L3 running Vexor.  I was specifically waiting for Tactical Shield Manipulation 4 so that I could fit an Adaptive Invulnerability Field II.

I had the T1 variant on there, but missions required a bit of warping in & out, still.

Skill finished training Monday morning, but I didn't get a chance to login until Monday evening, I swapped out the Invulnerability fields and headed out to test my Vexor in a L3.

Oh, and Avengers Assemble was on the TV.

I forget the name of the mission now, but it had some towers that repaired the NPC ships, plus at least one Stasis tower.

The stasis tower was quite a distance past everything else and webbed me pretty early on so I headed in it's direction intending to take it out asap (though only moving at about 60m/s) I started taking down the other ships on the way.

My shields were dropping slowly, but everything looked manageable.

I was getting distracted by AA on the TV, but paying enough attention to swap my drones onto their next target when each ship went down.

I realised that I wasn't going to take out the stasis tower before my shields were gone so I started to recall my drones with just under a quarter of my shields left, selected a station to dock up at, and then my final shields evaporated! Turns out I'd missed that there were a couple of Heavy Missile towers too and they'd started firing on me.

Drones were in, armour was dropping, so I hit Dock and watched nervously as my armour disappeared.  I've been in this situation many times before I gotten out in 15-20% structure.  This time I was soo close.  I'm pretty sure I got to warp speed just as the last sliver of hull vaporised - "Capsule Ejected" flashed on the screen and then immediately warped to the station.

Poor Vexor.  Poor mobile tractor unit which I'd forgotten to deploy when I started the mission.

Bugger.

Luckily I had followed the golden rule of EVE "Don't fly what you can't afford to lose" and I had a replacement Vexor already fitted in my hangar, I jumped in, renamed it "Vexxed" and headed back into the mission.  This time I paid full attention, warping out as my shields dipped to 50%. I finally cleared the field, looted and salvaged all of the wrecks (including my own).

A valuable lesson learned I hope.

It's still another 4 and a bit days before I get Mechanics 5, another 4 days or so to get T2 drones, but in the grand scheme of things that isn't so long.

I'm still under 2 million SP, I still have over 700 million ISK of the 745 million ISK I started this game with.

And I'm still having a blast :)

Oh my, PI

I suck at titles of my blog posts, ah well - for all I know no-one is reading this anyway :)

I located a wormhole linking Solitude to the main high-sec portion of New Eden and brought my alt through with a bunch of minerals so that I could start producing again, plus a bunch of Command Centres so he could start setting up his PI colonies.

I then dithered and fretted about actually entering low sec space to do the work, I can see the appeal of a 2nd account so that I could have eyes in my target system, but that is quite pricey for what will hopefully only be a few minutes each month.

I'd previously zoomed around the target system in my trusty Atron making plenty of bookmarks etc, I then contracted these over to alt#1.  I finally sent in alt#1 to check out the target system and there was no-one in local so I decided to risk it, swapped into a hauler with all of my command centres in it and headed back in...still empty.

I warped to a safe spot at range, aligned to another and started scanning my target planets, then placed the command centre.  Repeat five times and then warped out...all the time I was the only person in the system. \o/

I was then able to build the colonies, start the extractors and route the resources to basic factories and then onto an advanced factory on 4 of the planets.  The 5th planet is just converting from p0 to p1.

Total cost for the setup of all 5 planets is about 20Million isk.  I'm now checking on them every 2-3 days to restart the extractors and the P2 is starting to accumulate nicely.  The launchpad with the p1 on the 5th planet is almost full so I'll have to clonejump alt#1 back to do something about that soon.

Alt#2 has about a week left training and then they'll be able to do something similar in another system - the planets aren't as good for products to p2, but I may potentially set them all up to just extract from p0 to p1.  Alt#2 is destined to stay local to the PI systems as I can't think of another use for them yet.

I'll then take a few days out from my regular training to be able to do 5 planets, with the possibility of having one of them setup as a dedicated factory planet.

Either way, next on the training plans is for all characters to be able to fly an epithal that can do the cloakyMWD trick.

In other news I succumbed and bought 2 Vexors and a Myrmidon !  Apparently trying to do L3s in a Destroyer is not ideal... I did complete it solo, though I did have to warp out multiple times for repairs.  Mission payout more than matched the repair bill (and then some!) but I conceded, that though it was fun, it wasn't particularly safe, nor quick.

My current training plan should let me fly the first Vexor with a decent tank tomorrow, looking forward to see how it handles my missions :)

fly safe,

Zeb

Settling in

I've had a few days to settle in my new home in Solitude.  During that time I also decided that I'd train at least my 2 possible alts (and probably me too ) into Planetary Interaction as an extra income stream.

I've read up on it via the Uni Wiki and a few other articles and it seems that once you are over the initial investment, it should provide a steady, if not spectacular, income.  The Uni wiki also has a plan to train an alt into PI (and not much else) within 12 days.

I paid to have dual training activated on my account for 30 days and set alt 1 to training - this meant I could carry on training my main character at the same time.  A 12-14 day training plan means I can train both my alts into PI in one month, with only one payment.

However, I now see how useful alts can be - whilst I'm in Solitude I've had one put some extra short skills into hauling and trading and he has been tootling around the main empire regions  buying up cheap minerals for me to give Industry a go.  I'm now tempted to train at least one of my alts into some serious hauling / support skills (I'm thinking Orca pilot or Rorqual, or both...eventually).

It costs a plex to have dual character training on an account (about £16) per month.  Or I could create a new account, swap the alts over and then only pay £10 per month.  But the swap service costs £20 each I think.   hmm

I think I'll stick with the single account for now, leave one alt as PI only and train the other into Orca pilot to start with plus some support skills - this looks doable within 30 days (not that I can afford an Orca !).

I've also started putting alt#1s hauling skills to use - he's being doing Sisters of EVE distribution missions.  Level 2 missions were pretty quick and could be done in an Imicus, but he's now on Level 3s which either require more Imicus trips per mission, or a ship with a bigger hold - I've been using one of the free Nereus' I received from the career and SoE arc missions.

Payouts have increased (to about 100,000isk per mission), though some of the missions have taken me in to Low security space.  The first one I split into 7 runs in an Imicus, but the second time I did this local was empty for 2 runs, so I combined the final 5 into 1 Nereus run and still saw no-one.

I do expect to die doing this though.  I'll have to look for a quick aligning hauler fit...or stick to high sec.

In other news, my main has dipped his toe into manufacturing, bought and researched a handful of Original Blueprints and started production.  Even with pretty limited production skills I made a profit (including costing in the price of minerals, none of the 'I mined it therefore it's free' mentality here).

I did spend quite a while poring over market reports and assessing costs Vs prices using a variety of sources (Market window, EVE Central and EVEHQ to name a few).  Improved skills will llead to higher profits.

I've knocked production on the head for a while until Alt#1 can bring me in a decent batch of minerals.

Accepted into Eve University

My parents would be proud! :)

I'd been running some L2 security missions when I noticed that my name was called for my application interview.

The interview itself was straight forward and relatively short, it was then followed by some admin to get me setup with the correct channels, passwords, forum access and the like, and then that was it - I was a member of the University :)  The members in the general channel were very welcoming.

Since I'd read about EVE Uni and started working my way through their wiki I had decided that I'd like to base myself out in the Solitude region (an island of high security space surrounded by low- and null security space).

The Personnel Officer who interviewed me let me know that their was a campus tour organised for a few days time, and so I joined that fleet until we reached Solitude so I could get here relatively safely.

Travelling in a large fleet was quite the experience, there was a lot to take in (I'm pretty sure that at one point I found myself on the wrong side of a gate in low security space and I spent an anxious 45 seconds holding my cloak hoping no bad guys showed up before the rest of the fleet jumped through - lesson learned though, listen to the FC, dont assume he meant jump).

At each of the campus' we visited we were greeted by the residents and someone gave a run down as to the purpose of the campus, what we could do their etc.  It was all very slick, but the Null Sec Campus welcome was most impressive.

We jumped through the final gate into the Null Sec Campus, but there was no-one waiting for us, until we were suddenly surrounded by bubbles, a bunch of ships decloaked and fired bombs at us!  It turns out the bombs were harmless lock breakers, but I'm sure everyone's adrenaline spiked.

Sisters of EVE arc

My application to EVE University was likely to take a couple of weeks to process, during this time I took the advice I'd found on the EVE Uni wiki and joined a corporation called Estel Arador. This then allowed me to create some jump clones easily (after training the required skill, naturally).  I created the jump clones at nearby stations, then left that corporation and found myself in a new NPC corporation.

I started the Sisters of EVE arc of missions.  These all seem to be geared towards the newer player, however my low skills were causing me some problems.  I asked about in the public EVE Uni channel (as I needed that open to check if my name was called for interview) and someone gave me a fit for a Tristan (one of the rewards from the career missions) that they said should be able to manage the missions, even with low skills.

I checked the fitting window and saw lots of green ticks! woohoo, I could use everything.  I immediately purchased all of the modules off the market and fitted them to my ship.

Then I checked my wallet balance. uh-oh, one of the modules (a shield extender) had cost me 3.5 million ISK!  If I had not used the buddy invite option to gain substantial starting ISK, that module would have taken a significant (50%!) of my total cash! As it happened I was still loaded, but it did teach me a lesson - I now always check market prices closely before purchasing stuff.

Anyway, the fit was great and I managed to complete the whole of the mission arc in my Tristan except for the final bad guy (Dagan).  Dagan flies a Cruiser (I think?), which is bigger but slower than my Tristan frigate. Once I got close enough he couldn't hit me, but I couldn't get through his armour - I was able to reduce his shields, but when I nibbled away his armour he was easily able to repair it back up again.

Reading through reports of others I came across a blaster fit Catalyst (8 blasters!).  I'd also been given a couple of these from previous missions so I docked up, switched ships, added 8 blasters and some ammo and then headed back out.  A Catalyst is a Destroyer, so a bit bigger than my Tristan, but still smaller than a Cruiser.

This time it went much better...until I ran out of ammo with his armour at about 50%!

Docked up again, loaded lots more ammo and tried for the third time! BOOM! got him.

I renamed my Catalyst 'Dagan Killer' and have it in my hangar near Dagan's mission in case anyone else is having trouble I can come out and help.

I really enjoyed this set of missions, and they were quite lucrative - I made about 8million ISK (so the expensive Tristan fit was definitely worth it), plus modules, ships etc

These missions took me a few days and had me travelling all over the place, working for all 4 empires, all in Hi-Sec space.  If you haven't done these missions, and particularly if you are wondering what to do after your career missions, then go see the Sisters at their station in Arnon.

First few days

The first thing to say is that so far the learning curve for EVE has not been as steep as I expected...though that may be that I'm missing some vital learning somewhere that'll come back to bite me!

After an initial tutorial which got me into my first ship and took me through the basics of flying and combat, and learning a few essential skills I was directed to another location where there were 5 Career Agents.

Agents are mission givers (rewards are credits, skillbooks, modules and ships). The Careers Agents provide 10 missions each covering Combat, Advanced Combat, Industry & Business plus an additional 5 missions covering Exploration.

All of the missions were clearly explained, though there were a couple of time where I forgot to install a module or pick up some cargo, which meant I needed to return to my starting station.

As previously mentioned, I'd already decided that I wanted to join EVE University and so before I started these career missions I submitted my application.

An Introduction

Eve Online (stylised EVE Online) is a player-driven, persistent-world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in a science fiction space setting, developed and published by CCP Games. Characters pilot customizable ships through a galaxy of 7,800 star systems.^[2][3] Most star systems are connected to one or more other star systems by means of stargates. The star systems can contain moons, planets, stations, wormholes, asteroid belts and complexes.
Players of Eve Online can participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining, piracy, manufacturing,trading, exploration, and combat (both player versus environment and player versus player). The character advancement system is based upon passively training skills in real time, even while not logged into the game.^[4] 

-Wikipedia (link)

I've been aware of this game for years (it often appears in the gaming press - and even non-gaming press), but it's fiendishly steep learning curve, reputation for 'spreadsheets in space' and general 'hardcore' tag has put me off ever giving it a go.

Until now.

I've backed Star Citizen for a while now, but my current gaming machine wont run it and it's going to be a while before I can afford to buy a decent gaming laptop (luckily Star Citizen is not flagged for full release for a while yet).  My machine will happily run EVE though, so after lots of research on the EVE Online forums I decided to take advantage of a Buddy Offer to start a trial (this gave me 30 free days rather than the usual 14 or 21).

Eve is such a huge game, though, that I decided that if I was going to give it a go then 30 days wasn't long enough, so I subscribed for an additional 3 months. This time gets added on to the end of my 30 days.  As I'd used a Buddy Invite that someone had posted on the eve forums, I was also able to take advantage of a promotion that CCP runs rewarding players for bringing in new subscriptions.  That player in turn donated a substantial amount of the in-game currency, InterStellar Kredits (ISK) to me.  CCP were also running a promotion to encourage subscribers to buy 3 months rather than 1 month subscription, so I also ended up with blueprints for three ships, as well as 1 each of the four racial scanning frigates (all with fancy paintjobs) and a mining frigate.

My previous research had confirmed that the game could be as hard to learn as I'd been lead to believe, but also that there were several in-game teaching corporations set up to specifically help new players.

I chose to join EVE University.

This blog will chart my progress within New Eden.

Wish me luck!