Aeon's EVE

I like to think that this is not just a pretty title, even if Syrkos Technologies' (virtual) reality is still far from a full-fledged society. However, the current trend of players joining that like our total freedom philosophy makes me think that we may be going somewhere. Not counting the members that kept or created their own corporation and joined the Joint Venture Conglomerate [JVC] alliance (Sytek's sidekick - thanks again, Cyber), the corp is boasting a whopping 22 members. While that is not quite enough to take on Goonfleet yet, it most certainly is a nice start. Besides, we do not exactly aim to enter any size competitions.

Sytek is over two years old now, and when I opened it for applications about ten months ago, I would never have imagined to create such a movement. At start, I thought lone wolves like myself were a rarity, now I can see that a lot of players prefer going solo for any number of reasons. Even though there is strength in numbers, and EVE being the harsh place it is, it is still possible to be successful on your own. Many of these pilots take pride in their independence, and I can relate to that. I take pride in having gotten this far myself, but that does not make me superior to regular players - it is merely a different way to play.

Of course being a lone wolf means you will probably not end up with a ship like Chribba's Veldatar anytime soon, but chances are you still dream of it occasionally. You know yourself well enough to grasp it is just that - the stuff dreams are made of (or is it? :)). Still, it does not really bother you. You can be perfectly content with what you have within your reach, and that is quite a handful already if I am to judge by the exuberant lives some of our members live :)

I am quite happy to say that so far Sytek has lived to exceed my personal expectations. As much as I wanted its members to keep their independence, I also wanted to keep mine. The small community we have built has no hierarchy, and auto-manages itself pretty well in my opinion. We have a healthy mix of older and newer players, and over time I have come to realize that this is the ideal multiplayer experience (from my personal point of view). We have done some joint missioning, help each other out when we need it, and share our adventures. Like every other corp, some come and some go to test out new ways to play, but the core team is growing steadily. The income the 2% tax give the corp allow me to pay for all our offices, and now that the corp has grown, slowly (as in extremely slowly) build up some funds for future projects.

The way I see it, not having to feel bad for not logging on regularly or having to contribute and work for the corp makes the game more enjoyable - at least for the lone wolf player type. Many players in EVE enjoy being part of a bigger family and to strive for something bigger. I see that as the beauty of EVE's game world - there are niches for just about every player type. Granted, there are quite a few niches I could happily do without, but let's keep things interesting :)

On a sidenote, Aeon is back to running COSMOS missions and Loreena has taken up manufacturing again for a while. COSMOS missions do not pay much at all for the time you spend in the related complexes, but then it is a lot more relaxing if you do not always play for profit. A good example would be a trading trip Loreena made lately: she dusted off her Wreathe "Trainspotting" to make some in-system buy/sell runs of Antibiotics in Alakgur (lowsec near Rens). For some unfathomable reason, someone was selling way below NPC value with good buy orders in the station right next to him. I was happy to oblige him, even if in the end it "only" gave me about 1 million ISK. It was definitely fun though :)

Almost a year in the making (on and off), and finally completed: a short story freely set in New Eden.

24 chapters with a grand finale, which are available to read right here:

http://eve.aeonoftime.com/stories/

Synopsis: "Meet Tarellek Malear, engineer on Alea Zatar's Abaddon class battleship "Anthea" and his peculiar relationship to the ship's pilot. Discover more about the intrepid crews manning these massive ships and see how the people behind the scenes help making a difference in a fight. Follow the ship and its crew as they rush head-on into a suicide mission and strive to survive against insurmountable odds.

Pitted against the ruthless Angel Cartel commander Agdelger Ruflaner, Alea escapes into an uncharted rock field prone to EM storms and an even more dangerous secret at its core."

"What the hell?!"

Those were my exact words when I had a look at a 1/10 Drone complex in my missioning system lately. Somehow I never checked out any drone complexes since I started the game, as everybody kept saying that they are completely useless. No interesting loot, no bounties, you name it. Well, I'm glad I checked one out even if pretty late into the game. I'll let you judge for yourself, I took a few screenshots of the main room in the complex (they are pretty dark, full view is recommended).

And I added two new unrelated screens as well:



I think I'll have to take a closer look at stuff that like this that everyone else seems to dismiss :)

EVE Online's world is quite vast, and as a result a lot of a Capsuleer's life is spent jumping around the place to get where you need to be. More often than not you will need something that's quite a few jumps off, like that module you need for your ship's new fitting. I often find myself hopping around between regions as well, especially since most interesting contracts seem to be on the other end of the universe :)

In those cases, if your cargo does not require a cargohold bigger than about 130 m3 you should think about building yourself a ship specifically for those trips. You will be amazed at how much easier your life can get!

But first off, let's look at what makes the difference when jumping around (ordered by importance, assuming you're on autopilot):

1) Warp speed
2) Turn rate
3) Base speed

The warp speed is the most important part, as you spend most of your time flying through systems on your way to the next stargate. Many systems are pretty big, meaning you will have to warp 100+ AU. If you want to speed things up, warp speed is key. Turn rate makes you initiate warp faster after jumping through a gate, and the base speed will reduce the time your ship spends on the 15 kms the autopilot uses as a safe warp zone.

There are a few ship classes in EVE that have increased warp speed, I have compiled a short overview:



As you can see, the fastest warping ships are frigate-sized specialty ships with 13.5 AU per second. Every race has them, so you will not have to cross-train to get the fastest one out there. But let's take a better look at the selection of ships that gives us:

Covert Ops:

Anathema (Amarr): 282 m/s
Buzzard (Caldari): 306 m/s
Helios (Gallente): 320 m/s
Cheetah (Minmatar): 381 m/s

Interceptors:

Malediction (Amarr): 435 m/s
Raptor (Caldari): 415 m/s
Ares (Gallente): 450 m/s
Stiletto (Minmatar): 435 m/s

Covert ops have the big advantage of being able to fit cloaking devices so you can move around undetected with your valuable cargo, but personally I prefer the comfort of the interceptors - but the choice is yours, both work pretty well even if interceptors are quite a bit faster base speed wise. Let's have a look at how to fit one of these beauties to make the most of it. I will take the Malediction as example, as that's the one I use.

High Slots:
Whatever you like / can fit

Med Slots:
Any Microwarpdrive you can fit
Anything else you like / can fit

Low Slots:
Inertia Stabilizers II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Rigs
Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I

This fit gives you 19.4 warp speed, about 680 m/s base speed and around 4.500 m/s with the Microwarpdrive (depending on skills). There are a lot of variations to this fitting, the key being the two rigs. If you need more cargo space, replace or remove the overdrives as they greatly reduce your cargo space.

You might ask what the Microwarpdrive is for, well there's a little trick I use :) Put the module on one of the F1-F12 keys, and then once the autopilot is engaged, press the microwarpdrive key and block it with something so it stays pressed. That way, when the module can be activated (when approaching a stargate), it will automatically be activated and one burst usually gets you to the stargate in a jiffy. Another use is if you autopilot semi-afk and occasionally engage the microwarpdrive to speed things up.

With a ship like that, hopping between regions becomes almost bearable :)

Aeon realized lately that he had not been faithful to his bloodline, the Vherokior tribe. After all these years, his highest standing is with the Brutor tribe, and even Caldari Navy has better standing than his own family. I do not exactly know why it suddenly became an issue, but I knew he had to do something about it. Of course the Minmatar faction standing was sufficient to access virtually any Vherokior agent including level 4 ones, but Aeon eventually settled for a couple of good quality level 3 agents in Teonusude.

The logistics of running level 4 missions were just too much of a hassle then, so these missions were a welcome worry-free change. Loreena even left her manufacturing ventures and moved out there with him, providing support with Tatonka (Orca). Having mobile corporate hangars and a ship maintenance bay makes a lot of things much easier. Aeon just brought Skullplitter (Absolution) along, as I have really grown fond of this missioning powerhouse. It shrugs everything off that these level 3 missions can throw at it - with the right amount of caution that is. Triggering all waves in The Blockade at once for example stretches its tanking capabilities pretty thin.

Once everything was set up and a number of missions later, the Vherokior tribe standings were already climbing noticeably. For some reason that felt very right, and I think Aeon wants to make them even better than his Brutor tribe standings. One should not let his family down like that to begin with, but then Aeon did not exactly lead a simple life. Since he rescued Loreena from the wormhole collapse in the now defunct Aramea system, he has wandered around pretty much aimlessly. It is time to go back to the roots now, however. With all the recent events in New Eden, I think he just needed some stability. He just cannot fully grasp how Loreena fits into the whole picture yet, even 922 days after he brought her back to Ammold and she eventually joined his operations.

Strange how in this world, any place you stay for a while starts to feel like home - the crowded Lustrevik already seems pretty far away. Teonusude is a nice enough spot, even if the luxurious Vherokior Tribe Treasury station does not really fit Aeon's idea of a permanent home. Ammold will always stay Aeon's spiritual home however, the one where it all started. It is even doubly significant, as it is also where it all started anew after his trip to Aramea. He had gone there with death on his mind, but out of the billions that died that day, he rose to live a new life. Loreena made that possible, and in a very real sense, she is all that keeps him alive. Of course he is not directly conscious of the strength of the link between them. Aeon has never bothered with feelings, he usually just shrugs them all off, concentrating on the tasks at hand. Incidentally, that accounts for his occasional puzzlement when he tries to understand how she fits into his life.

I think he is still quite a tortured soul, trying to believe without much success in some kind of divine intervention that made him and Loreena be the only survivors of the cataclysm - but all the while fiercely refusing to accept he could be worth the trouble. His instincts had saved him, but why? All he had wanted back then was to get a sweet kiss from death, yet his very own instincs had betrayed him. Thus is the nature of man, questioning himself and everything, even established certitudes. A rock solid atheist like Aeon suddenly contemplates the existence of "divine intervention". Mind you, all this confusion is relegated to mere footnotes in his life when he has a task to fulfill. Then his mind becomes a beautiful display of the finer arts a human brain can bring forth. All the training and experience he has gathered so far have made him fearfully efficient in everything he touches.

One could argue that his choices have not always been inspired, and I would tend to agree. However, who can say for himself never to have blundered? The people of New Eden live in a wretched world, eons from the once innocent life on their lost homeworld. What have they all become, and where are they going? It is a question that Aeon contemplates occasionally when he is in a melancholy mood. Is it a pointless question? What can a single pilot achieve to change things? There are those that command millions in battles of interests, harbingers of death for the conquest of one or more pieces of space here and there, bound to be lost and retaken again endlessly. All races confounded, their achievements are great. The universe itself sometimes seems to tremble in their wake. But from a distance, it all sounds hollow and soulless. In Aeon's eyes, they all lacked a goal - a vision. In the end, no matter how much destruction you sow, something will rise from the ashes and bite you back. So why bother? For money? Fame? Personal gratification? Those are the modern career choices.

Aeon sometimes likes feeling sorry for himself. In those moments, he sometimes gets the impression that his goal in life must be hiding somewhere around the next corner. It would be something beautiful in its simplicity, something that everyone could strive to reach. He had felt that way when he had entered his first wormhole. That proved to be a vain hope however, wormholes now being the same cesspools than so-called civilized space in his eyes. I think Aeon knows he is growing bitter constantly brooding on these matters, so he keeps his mind occupied with other things. Loreena will always be his biggest occupation of course, in part because she can erase all his fears with a single smile.

And there we have the heart of the matter. Aeon is a consummate judge of character, but Loreena remains a mystery to him. From the death of her homeworld and family to all the lows they have lived through together since then, she has taken it all in stride. She picked herself up every time as if she could see something in her future he could not see in his. She seemed to have what he lacked - a goal. Of course they talk a lot with each other, but even though they both seem curious about the other's deeper thoughts, neither dares break the chemistry. He also often wonders why she stays with him and follows him in all his ventures without ever questioning him about it. He knows it is not merely because she feels she owes him that much for saving her, that is a feeling that usually does not stay for so long. No, there must be something else. With her skills and experience, she could easily reach for the stars. She loved him of course, just as he loved her - but that was not the reason either, he could sense that. Their relationship could be described as unconventional to say the least, hovering between platonic love and carnal passion, but all within the confines of their own minds. There is a mutual unspoken agreement that simply living out their passion would break everything apart - so they were both effectively doomed to live partnerless lives. One might sneer at a setup like that or even laugh at them, but I can guarantee that a look into their eyes and history would make you drop to your knees in sudden understanding and grief.

I like to think nothing is ever set in stone, and things may still take a turn for the better. In the meantime, Aeon and Loreena continue to make their way in New Eden, surviving against all odds - better than many, worse than none other.



Author's voice-off: "I fear this may sound terribly cliché and cheesy, but it is nice to see these two characters evolve in their own world. Granted, they are merely pawns in a game I play - they cannot exist without me. I hate puppet analogies so I will not go that way, but somehow they are extensions of myself and they live the life I would have liked to live if New Eden was a reality. Even if you do not roleplay as such (or even hate it), as soon as you build a character you start roleplaying simply through the projection you make of yourself in the game. Imagining yourself in your ship, flying through space and even picturing your opponents are all aspects of roleplay. Even though I do not really roleplay in the game, I like to immerse myself in it and give my characters a semblance of life. In a very real sense, that binds my virtual life's ethics to my real life ones, and sometimes I miss out on some of the shadier aspects of the game. I do not mind though, I have always been true to myself and enjoy the experience a lot more that if I had to jump into a custom built role everytime.

Somehow the term chivalry comes to mind if I had to characterize my way of handling ingame relations. I think this comes from the fact that I love fantasy just as much as science fiction and can relate to chivalry-like ethics pretty naturally. Everything is possible in EVE anyway, so it is good to be able to live this out without any real drawbacks. A healthy dose of paranoia is essential of course however, this is the Internet after all :)

I would love to hear about how you see the game!

Comment your thoughts here directly, or give me a link to your blog posts / websites and I will read them and link them here."


Update 11/05: Added screenshot and Wikipedia links.

One of the constants in New Eden is anguish. Whether you are transporting all your virtual life's worth around in your cargo hold or are flying a shiny beast of a ship worth more than a luxurious planetoid, danger always seems to be omnipresent. Unless you are far enough off field to be all alone in a system, I can guarantee that the danger is real.

For those of you that are following Aeon's adventures through the captain's log, it should be clear by now that I am a highsec-hugging carebear. Even after over two years of more or less successful ventures into the harsh reaches of New Eden I still feel the anguish myself. Since Loreena bought her Orca "Tatonka", I have been obsessing over how feasible it is to gank a ship like that in highsec, as well as any other ship for that matter. A very interesting talk with a pirate friend familiar with highsec ganking managed to answer most of my questions, which I thought I'd share.

I have rewritten the topics we discussed in FAQ style:

Q: First off, what is a highsec gank?
A: It is a lightning suicide attack usually involving several attackers to take down a ship before Concord succeeds in destroying their own ships. The aim invariably is to steal the victim's cargo or fitted modules, exert revenge, or for the sheer heck of it.

Q: And that behavior is allowed?
A: Last time I checked, there was not much that is NOT allowed in EVE :) Jokes aside, it is indeed part of the game mechanics. High security systems do make this a pricey sport however, so chances are you are safe in your T2 fitted frigate or cruiser (unless you chance upon a bored or mad pilot, which cannot be entirely excluded).

Q: How much does my cargo have to be worth to make me "gankworthy"?
A: As a rule of thumb, anything worth about 250 million and upwards is interesting (200 million is a bare minimum if the gankers have to split the rewards). Multiply that figure by the amount of pilots required to take down your type of ship in time, and you get the maximum value you should be hauling in that ship to avoid being ganked.

As a quick reference:
Orca: ~ 6 BS ~ 1.2+ billion
Freighter: ~ 20 BS ~ 4+ billion

Q: How do gankers determine the worth of a target?
A: Usually they will scan your ship with a ship scanner and a cargo scanner for a list of fitted modules and rigs as well as all the items you transport. From there, a quick glance appraises the total worth of the lot with a few items being key triggers, like implants or faction POS towers to name a few.

Q: How long does a gank take?
A: Not more than half a minute, usually more about 20 seconds. First they determine what you're worth (see above), then they coordinate the attack. Depending on your type of ship and the amount of gankers the time to take you down will vary a little, but as soon as Concord is on site even a battleship will not survive longer than approx. 14 seconds - or 12 seconds for, say, a Brutix with an 800mm armor plate.

Q: What do you need to gank an Orca?
A: About 6 battleships.

Q: What do you need to gank a freighter?
A: About 20 battleships, a bare minimum of 14 if they are built for alpha strikes. Needless to say such a gathering is not easy to organize logistically.

Q: What is the single most effective way not to get ganked?
A: Do not haul things AFK if you are not prepared to lose them! Warp to 0 is your best friend.

Q: Is warp to 0 a safe way to avoid being ganked?
A: It is near impossible to catch anything that is not AFK.

Q: I am transporting some valuable researched BPOs, won't that make me a prime target?
A: No. The cargo scanner module can only show a list of items with their names, there is no way to distinguish a blueprint copy from an original. As a lot of blueprints are copies anyway, blueprints are mostly dismissed. Remember, you have to evaluate the worth of the cargo in a few seconds!

Q: So what are the safest highsec haulers?
A: Almost any transport ship or an Orca. Also see below.

Q: Which ship would you ideally recommend for transporting highly valuable goods?
A: A Bustard can get up to 10.000 shield hitpoints, which goes a long way for survivability in case you should not be able to avoid a gank. Plus it's built as a blockade runner just like the other transport ships, and from experience those ships have escaped more often than not.

Q: Can a cargo scanner scan all cargo spaces of an Orca?
A: Yes, everything. The usual cargohold, corporate hangars and the ship maintenance array. However, it is impossible to tell rigged and packaged ships apart, or to find out what modules the ships have fitted.

Q: I want to transport some officer modules worth billions. How do I best do that?
A: In the case of modules, I can only recommend an Orca. Fit the modules to a ship, and store that in the Orca's ship maintenance hangar. There will be no way to see that you are in fact transporting those modules, as the cargo scanner makes no distinction between packaged or rigged ships.

Q: I want to maximize my chances. Do you have a tip for fitting my Orca?
A: Yes. You have a lot of hitpoints on that ship, and the consensus seems to be that fitting a Damage Control Unit II in lows will do the trick. If you want to overdo things, add an Adaptive Energized Nano membrane as the second low slot to improve your armor buffer, and put a Large Shield Booster in mids. You will not be able to run it for long, but in a timeframe of 20-30 seconds, it can make all the difference. Besides, if the gankers see you have those modules fitted they might just rethink the whole affair.


That's about it! Feel free to add any questions you may have, I will try to answer them. Also, if you have more insights please just post them here and I will update the FAQ.

I recently discovered Alexia Morgan's blog, and beyond an interesting read a while back she also started interviewing EVE Online bloggers to post their profiles in her blog. The idea is rather simple: there are 12 questions to answer, you can send your answers in by email. She then schedules your interview for posting on the blog.

It's a great way to discover the other bloggers out there as well as get some good advice from pilots active in every aspect of the game.

You can read my blogger profile here:

Blogger Profiles 22: AeonOfTime

You can also check out the full list of profiles, and if you have your own blog, you might want to have a look at the EVE Online blogroll sponsored by CrazyKinux.

I was finally able to resolve the issues Internet Explorer users were having, namely loading the page, then getting a message that the page cannot be loaded. Weird as it was, this was caused by a javascript include that IE had trouble parsing.

Anyway, the bug has been fixed - should you encounter any other problems, please tell me.

- Aeon.

A few key excerpts from the most recent dev blog about the upcoming NPC AI upgrades in the Apocrypha expansion:

We want to offer our players true PvE challenge, requiring real team effort and proper gang coordination.

(NPCs) have comparable player attributes and thus require variations of PvP fits to engage.

(NPCs) are going to make logical target choices depending on the most threatening targets available.

Ho-hum. I do not know yet whether to cry for joy or shiver in fear. Are my solo playing days over? *gasp*

No really, good stuff. I am always up for new challenges, and even though I fear change just like a lot of other players (which are usually terminally prone to forum whining), I am actually really looking forward to this. Of course it is sooo comfortable just to warp into a mission and take out one pocket after the other with your logistic support ships orbiting unmolested... but it does turn into a mindless grind after a while. We do not even have to press F1 through F8 anymore, a simple F1 is enough with weapon grouping. You can even map a key to give your drones the attack order.

By the way, this should be terrific news for all who complain that EVE is becoming way too mainstream and WoW-like (blasphemy!). NPCs with player attributes and a hint of intelligence? Uh-oh. That you need variations of PvP fits to engage? Oh my. Now THAT's going to give EVE's learning curve a further leap into the upper reaches of the MMO comparison charts. Just imagine those already inflated egos bragging about how they dispatched that Sleeper spawn with a mining laser and a civilian shield booster.

And I thought Hoborak Moon was a rather tough nut to crack - he just has a slightly better fit than others.

Go on undeterred, guys. I am a carebear at heart, but hell - I wish you would implement these changes in one go. Upgrade all NPCs at once, and let me watch the NvP* fragfest. I will gladly join the thrill!

* NvP: Npc versus Player

As Cyber from New Eden Diaries (and faithful corp member) was kind enough to point out, the recaptcha module I use gave Firefox and Internet Explorer users trouble. I was able to fix the plugin configuration, sorry for everyone who got this nasty surprise after writing their comments!

On a sidenote I invite you to visit Cyber's blog, he has just started writing but he is putting a lot of effort into it, and it's a good read in my opinion. Plus he's got an awesome design which I did for him, and that I still have to finish *self hint*...

UPDATE: the blog is finished! Cyber still has to clean up a few things here and there but overall I am quite happy with the result.

Putting aside the fact that the Orca in EVE Online has none of the aggressive traits of its earth-dwelling sea mammal counterpart, it is indeed good news. When the new ship was announced, I was very enthusiastic about a new ship class that was obviously targeted to gang mining as well as corporation support and transport. Aeon himself already had all the required skills being a part-time miner, but having him fly the ship would have defeated the purpose of gang mining with Loreena. She had zero mining skills to start with, so it was more logical timewise to have her train for it than for a Hulk. To make sure I was not plunging head-on into a fool's errand, I set up a client to play on the Singularity server and had Aeon testdrive the ship. My first impression was that for an industrial ship, it looked pretty sleek. A short trip outside the station showed that it was slow, which was to be expected... The rest was pure bliss though. I was not able to test everything, but as there were a lot of other pilots on to test the ship the local chatter answered my initial needs for information.

I started Loreena to train all the prerequisites, which incidentally means she can now also fly mining barges, which is a plus. By the time she had all the required skills a few Orcas were available on market, but as usual with new items at prices beyond reason - some even above 1 billion (the BPO price). From then on, it meant waiting. A friend of mine active in capital ships production told me they would eventually settle around 450 mil depending on mineral prices, so I gave it my best shot at patience. I had been mining for quite a while before that, and liquidating some unused assets catapulted Aeon's wallet up to an all-time record of 1.1 billion, which did not exactly help the patience bit. It was only about finding my breaking point from there.

I observed the price evolution, and the decision was quickly made when I saw one for 630 million ISK. I made a few inter-regional pricechecks and eventually bought the ship right in Lustrevik, next door to Syrkos Technologies' headquarters. A trip to Jita would only have saved a few million, so I decided those 20+ jumps were not worth the trouble. Still quite a ways off the 450 mil mark, but it was good enough for me. Besides, having all that ISK in the wallet made me nervous, with all the other shiny stuff I could buy. Incidentally, it made me realize that Heimatar is quite a competitive market compared to Jita. Rens is often cheaper for tech 2 modules than Jita, if not on par with going prices there. Not enough to make a lot of profit, but enough to make it feel good to live in the area and know Jita is not the holy grail.

There was something thrilling about buying something that big after the Abaddon almost a year ago. I logged in Loreena, and checked the price three times to make sure there was the right number of zeroes in it (not that a missing zero would have been an issue). Then the market deliveries window refreshed and there it was, together with some Frozen Food, Frozen Plant Seeds, a bit of Wheat and 70 Tourists that were probably amazed by the huge packaged ship. I did not check if any of the frozen seeds disappeared, but I for one would surely have made myself some popcorn to watch the ship being assembled. For the first time in quite a while, christening the ship felt meaningful, and reminded me of the joy from my first acquisitions. After an albeit impatient solemn moment, Loreena was in space in the "Tatonka" (from the root Native American, meaning "large bull") and en route to Sytek's Lustrevik headquarters for a short fitting session. After whipping on a hasty fitting, Loreena warped out to an empty moon and together with a few corp members, we tested the ship's functions.

Impressive, dr Watson

First off, the ship is huge. As usual in EVE you won't realize this to its full extent until you see some other ships next to it - even battleships are relatively small compared to the Orca. As a mostly highsec pilot, it is refreshing to have a "heavyweight" ship other than the existing freighters allowed to fly around there. Especially since the Rorqual and all the battle-oriented capital ships are restricted to low- and nullsec. Beyond the mere aesthetic points, what seduced me is primarily the solid mining gang support. A lot of players thinking of buying an Orca crunch numbers like how long they will have to mine to get back the cost of the ship, but I have a much more pragmatic approach: I take decisions by gut. Otherwise I would probably not have bought it, and missed a lot of fun. Friends of the pew-pew will doubtlessly wonder behind which asteroid the fun in this might be hiding, but sitting in a belt with that ship is just awesome. Loreena keeps it within 1.500 metres of Aeon's Hulk, that way Aeon can move his mined ore directly into the Orca's corporation hangar without even having to drop a jetcan. Try stealing that ore :)

Here is a quick overview of the Orca:

• 250% tractor beam range bonus (~71 km), 1000 m/s speed
• 500% survey scanner range bonus
• 5% cargo bonus per level
• 3% gang modules bonus per level
• Transportation: 81.588 m3 with 2 x Expanded Cargohold II and 3x Cargohold Optimization I rigs at my current ICS II
• Transportation: 40.000 fixed corporation hangar space on top of raw cargo space
• Transportation: 400.000 m3 for assembled ships with rigs (so up to BC size)
• Full-fledged command ship, can fit all gang modules
• Can fit three gang modules out of the box
• Corporate hangars that can be accessed by up to 10 members simultaneously
• Fitting and storing / undocking ships in space with the ship maintenance bay
• Docking/undocking ships in space
• Not easy to gank (10.750 Shield / 6.900 Armor / 46.000 Structure without skills)
• Limitation: Ships in ship maintenance bay can only carry charges in their cargohold, no regular cargo
• Limitation: Maintenance bay can only carry assembled ships

The gang modules make Aeon's often short mining sessions a lot more profitable (with a theoretical maximum yield bonus of 45 to 50% depending on skills and implants). There are three Mining Foreman modules:

• Harvester Capacitor Efficiency, -2% capacitor need of mining turrets
• Laser Optimization, -2% mining cycle duration
• Mining Laser Field Enhancement, +2% minig laser range

Of course these bonuses are subject to the related Leadership skills and ship bonuses. Loreena currently gets 10.6% from all three with Mining Director V. On Tatonka I use 2 x Laser Optimization and 1 x Field Enhancement as I have no need for the capacitor bonus. I could go for all-out cycle duration, but being able to mine up to 18 kms away without moving around is worth it. What I also like about the ship is that it is not an easily gankable ship. You need a lot of firepower to take one down even without any defensive modules installed. I am not keen on losing the ship though, so following some recommendations I always have a Damage Control II fitted and active. On top of that, as I do not use any survey modules or midslots at all I fitted a permarun Large Shield Booster II. Handy to tank rats... and more.

Of course it all depends on how you use the ship. My case is pobably not very widespread, with only one Hulk in the mining gang :) With a ship like that, I prefer to be safe than sorry. You should not fly around with all your assets in the hold anyway, that is a gank waiting to happen. When I need to transport things I try to keep the total value not too high, and NEVER do it on autopilot. I have been ganked once before that way, it was a lesson well learned - but I digress, back to the topic at hand. Battleclinic has no way to post a fitting for ORE ships, so here it is the old way:

[lowslots]
1 x Damage Control II
1 x Power Diagnostic Unit II

[medslots]
3 x Cap Recharger II
1 x Large Shield Booster II

[highslots]
2 x Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization
1 x Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement

[rigs]
3 x Cargohold Optimization I

Beyond mining

Trust people to use it for everything it is NOT made for, but as a command ship the Orca is not limited to mining tasks alone. You can fit any of the available gang modules, and some players successfully use the ship as missioning support. It has a 75 m3 drone bay, which means it can actively participate in fights if need be, and it's a great salvager with that 70 km tractor range and increased speed. It can carry all the ammo you will ever need and you can even store ships for different tasks in it to swap around in space. Want to change hardeners for the next room? You do not even have to dock. It is not exactly what I would do with it, but it is always good to think outside of the box... Which is exactly what some pirates did when the Orca was released. As far as I know they used a small glitch that allowed the ship to transport -10 security status characters into highsec, and would warp into belts, undock with ships from the maintenance hangar and gank some unsuspecting miners. That glitch has been fixed since, but it further demonstrates that as boring and repetitive that mining can get, you should always keep your guard up.

Well I think this about wraps the subject for now, I wrote a lot more than I started out for. As always, feel free to comment. I would love to hear how you use your Orca, or what you are planning to do when you eventually get one.


On a sidenote, Aeon really has to train Veldspar Processing sometime soon... 2 years into the game and he still cannot mine Veldspar properly, and that with the current market prices! Chribba, if you hear me, I know - I'm not worthy :) Seeing how fast I can strip a belt on my own now, it is kind of depressing to have to leave all the veldspar asteroids behind. The ship and gunnery skills have gotten a lot of love lately, so I think it is only fair to focus back on mining for a month or two.

I have not posted much screenshots anymore, so here is a catchup collection!

I have a habit of linking all relevant items in my posts with the EVE online item database, and to my dismay I discovered right now that having been replaced by the Evelopedia official wiki, the old links do not work anymore :( I don't know why they did not at least offer a redirection or info page, but the result is that all these links are now effectively dead. I will have to take the time to review all those links, but it's a massive undertaking.

The old database used item IDs, the wiki uses canonical names, so there is no easy way to automate this. I'll update this post when I know more. Sorry for the inconvenience!

- Aeon.

A short newsflash for everyone that might have missed this (like myself): the long awaited ingame browser-compatible wiki is live and kicking:

http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Main_Page

Dubbed "Evelopedia", the big plus is it has a complete items database as well as a search that actually works. I do not know if you tried making a search on the eve website recently, but since they changed that to the new google search appliance I cannot seem to find anything anymore. You cannot limit your searches to the item database there anymore, which makes it pretty pointless. All you will ever get are results from the forums as there are a lot more entries there. In the new wiki, searching for "Abaddon" will give you a separate list of item database matches, that's infinitely more useful.

Many of the articles published still have a "hastily written" feel to them and are not very complete yet, but as paid accounts can edit most of the pages (with moderation from the devs), that should change pretty soon. I tried finding some additional info on scanning for example, but the Scanning guide really only brushes over the basics. Scanning with probes for ex. is not explained at all, so if I find some time I will give it a shot.

Regardless of the current shortcomings, the wiki is a welcome newcomer in the efforts to better document EVE. I do not know what will become of the existing EVE wikis, but the official wiki is bound to get a larger following, especially as it is intended to be seamlessly integrated into the client in the future... Chances are that the larger freedom in the unofficial wikis will keep them alive for a while longer though. You might find info there that the official wiki will never have, but contributors will move to the official wiki eventually.

Check out some of the other EVE wikis:

- eve.grismar.net
- eve-wiki.net
- eve.wikia.com


UPDATE: (28.01.09)

The wiki offers some interesting possibilities indeed. I found out yesterday that characters and corporations can create dedicated pages that are thus viewable ingame. I did so for AeonOfTime and Loreena Syrkos as well as for Syrkos Technologies. I had been looking for a comprehensive corporations repository lately, and while the list in the wiki is not searchable it is a good reference if you want to know more about a corporation.

Maybe this is CCP's way to remove the character limit on ingame biographies... it would still be a bit lame, but I am honestly happy with the wiki in general. Kudos for that, guys.

"EVE Online's cheat mode"

Of course there is no such thing. Or is there? I am starting to think that logistics ships are indeed EVE's god mode. I recently ran the level 4 mission "The Assault" against the Serpentis, and even though the first room does not have to be cleared I was more than happy to clear it anyway because of all the nice bounties. I have to admit that I am pretty lazy though, so I logged Loreena on and she joined Aeon's Abaddon in her Oneiros. Her logistics skills are all maxed out now, for remote armor, shield and capacitor support. Boldly Aeon got full agro of the room, and the combined on-board armor repairer plus Loreena's three tech 2 remote armor repairers took on the whole room's damage.

It was not the first time I ran this mission with Loreena along, but this time I actually marveled at the list of ships in the overview. Aeon was merrily tanking 12 battleships at one point, as well as a heap of battlecruisers, cruisers and frigates ("small fry" as some pilots call them). On his own he would have lost the ship a few times over already, and this was just with the three remote armor repairers - for emergencies she also has five armor repair drones on board.

You might argue that taking a logistics ship as support to one of the best tanking battleships out there is way overkill, and I would tend to agree with you. For some mysterious reason it feels incredibly good though... For my defense I have to say that using lasers is not exactly the best weaponry against serpentis, so clearing the room takes a long time - during which Aeon has to sustain a lot of damage. Taking Loreena along makes the whole thing a whole lot safer and enjoyable. It's not that I don't like the occasional adrenaline rush - but I am a carebear that likes a cosy cave after all :)

Here is a quick comparison of the logistics ships in the game (bonuses take into account the race Cruiser V requirement):

Guardian (Amarr)
750% bonus to Energy Transfer Array range
750% bonus to Remote Armor Repair System range
100% bonus to Armor Maintenance Bot transfer amount
-65% power need for Remote Armor Repair Systems
-50% power need for Energy Transfer Arrays
15% reduction in Energy Transfer Array capacitor use per level
15% reduction in Remote Armor Repair system capacitor use per level
Fitting: 6 / 2 / 5
Dronebay: 25 m3
Speed: 209 m/s

Basilisk (Caldari)
750% bonus to Shield Transport range
750% bonus to Energy Transfer Array range
100% bonus to Shield Maintenance Bot transfer amount
-50% CPU need for Shield Transporters
-50% power need for Energy Transfer Arrays
15% reduction in Shield Transport Array capacitor use per level
15% reduction in Energy Transport Array capacitor use per level
Fitting: 6 / 5 / 2
Dronebay: 25 m3
Speed: 192 m/s

Oneiros (Gallente)
750% bonus to Remote Armor Repair System range
750% bonus to Tracking Link range
100% bonus to Armor Maintenance Bot transfer amount
-65% power need for Remote Armor Repair Systems
15% reduction in Remote Armor Repair System capacitor use per level
10% bonus to Tracking Link efficiency per level
Fitting: 4 / 5 / 4
Dronebay: 50 m3
Speed: 214 m/s

Scimitar (Minmatar)
750% bonus to Shield Transport range
750% bonus to Tracking Link range
100% bonus to Shield Maintenance Bot transport amount
-50% CPU need for Shield Transporters
15% reduction in Shield Transport capacitor use per level
10% bonus to Tracking Link efficiency per level
Fitting: 4 / 5 / 4
Dronebay: 45 m3
Speed: 253 m/s

If you look at these ships, you will see that there are two ships in each support category - The Oneiros and Guardian for armor support, the Basilisk and Scimitar for shield support. The Guardian and Basilisk focus on armor/shield and energy support whereas the Oneiros and Scimitar focus on armor/shield and tracking support. Tracking support is less commonly used, so the most popular ships in this list are the Guardian and Basilisk. Bonuswise these ships are all the same though, there is not one that is "the best" for armor or shield support, it depends solely on the role you need the ship to play. Loreena for example flies an Oneiros because it has a goodly dronebay, is fast and can be armor tanked.

Now let's have a look at what skills you need to fly a logistics cruiser (I'm assuming you want to go for T2 modules).

Ship skills
- Electronics II
- Spaceship Command III
- (Race) Cruiser V
- Long Range Targeting V
- Signature Analysis V
- Logistics I

Armor support
- Mechanic III
- Repair Systems II
- Remote Armor Repair Systems IV

Shield support
- Science II
- Engineering III
- Shield Emission Systems IV

Tracking support
- Electronics III
- Sensor Linking IV

Granted, especially the ship skills are not exactly cheap timewise, but then again they can't hurt to have. I never regretted training Loreena for logistics, and that Elite certificate she has now sure looks good :)

So what can you expect to get from all this? Taking the Oneiros as an example, I can easily permarun 4 x T2 Medium Remote Armor Repairers, which represent 4 x 192 HP every 4.5 seconds (768 HP total). I have not come accross a single level 4 mission where I had to use all four repairers, which is why I put a salvager in the fourth high slot. With a range of 51 km on the repairers, Loreena can go salvaging even in the heat of the mission. Even if she gets targeted, with an AB speed of 660 m/s and a small armor tank she can even sustain quite a bit of damage herself. Even tanked Hoborak Moon once while she was webbing him...

As a conclusion, logistics are a good investement whether you mission solo and have the luxury of a second account or want to take on a prized role within your corp. Comments welcome as always, also check out the loadout on battleclinic for Loreena's Oneiros.


[EDIT] Updated the links to the item database, updated the Oneiros loadout.

Nothing better than a seasonal break to put a few things back into place. I played through Mass Effect three times, an all-time record for playthroughs of any game I have ever played. There were no precedents at all, even. I started a second character in Morrowind, but stopped playing shortly thereafter. If you like scifi (which is likely if you play EVE...) and RPGs, I can only recommend Mass Effect. It turned my world upside down there for a while, and a game with some girl-girl action can not be all bad, now can it?

But let's get back to the game at hand. Aeon is only ten days away from Amarr Battleship V, which will help a bit (5% more turret damage and 5% more armor resistances), even if not tremendously considering the time invested (34 days total). However, if I want to take Aeon further into the realm of EVE's ship goodness it is slowly becoming a must-have. If he ever manages to decide which way he wants to go that is... it merits some thought.


Catching up

News have been scarce of late, but a number of things happened before I took my summer break that are worth noting. Sharon Valer11, an alt of my good friend Serotta Ortot, had joined Sytek for a while - "hiding out" as he used to say, to avoid being flagged as a macrominer. A name with numbers in it and virtually no standing when he bought her, I can't blame him... But I do blame him for leaving the corp again to create his own :) Sharon's boobs were a ray of light in the corp, even if none of us were allowed to get near them (sorry, insider joke).

Now Sharon runs her own POS with highsec research slots, I will post some details when she is ready to go public with the research services. Highsec research slots are always a nice commodity, so this may be interesting to a few people I think, myself included. And it is always good to know who you are dealing with, in this case a great friend I know I can trust.

On Aeon's front I made a few expenses (read "OUCH") and bought a second Abaddon to be able to manage two different fittings, one with beam lasers and one with pulses including two different rig setups. The pulse setup is my current favorite, it packs a way heavier punch albeit at close range.


PvP, here I come!

Well, not really. I still do not like it, but I wanted to learn a bit more about it to at least have a fighting chance if Aeon has to defend himself or to protect corp buddies in need. I dusted off the Aeonizer, and spent quite a while searching the battleclinic loadouts for PvP setups followed by a heavy-duty EFT session. I ended up with a pretty unorthodox setup for my usual playstyle (sorry, this one's staying secret for obvious reasons!) and only needed a few testdrives.

I got to make a few sparring sessions with a more experienced corp buddy, and while the fights themselves were all pretty even (I won one, the other two I think he would have won) it showed me that I am not quite as defenseless as I always believed - especially since his char is one year older than Aeon, and he regularly takes PvP courses. I still lack the experience, but I know the key elements now. I am still not going into lowsec/nullsec anytime soon though - not until I have found a way to earn ISK that suits me and my playing time, other than mining :)


Wreaking havoc

Yes, that's definitely what I intend to do. Run some level 4 missions, snoop out some complexes in highsec and blast everything that so much as looks like a red dot in the overview. I have to catch up on my quota of angel ships per month, so I will have to squeeze my agent very hard as long as some level 4 agents are still in highsec - hint at the current forum discussions on how all level 4 agents should be moved to nullsec. A load of horsedung in my opinion, I don't think CCP will shoot themselves in the foot like that. Add a few more level 4 agents in nullsec, maybe. But not remove them from highsec altogether.

Now that Aeon has Heavy Assault Ships V, I also have to dust off my Zealot again and try to build a fit that works. I currently use the ship for probing (don't laugh - I have a perfectly sane reason for doing so!), but I have to really put that skill to use. I think some EFT sessions are in order :)


LTT design

On the ever-present sidenote, I did a design for the LTT (League of the Tiger and Tentacle) corporation website, which I still have to slice and splice to build the website with. We hang out in the same channel ingame, and when they saw the Sytek website they asked if I could make one for them. They had to wait quite a while to get it, but it's finally here.

The challenge in these designs is building something attractive that will still work in the ingame browser. That's why most of the graphical work is done in the header and footer - the content part is simplistic on purpose so that it will still display alright in the browser. You can have a look at the design on my DeviantART page.

If you want one for your own corp, I am open for commissions. Evemail me for a quote - I can do both the design and development. I use a homebrewed, EVE-specific framework built on PHP that the Sytek website runs on. Beyond that, I also provide professional RL web design and development via my france-based company, Mistralys.