Aeon's EVE

Ah, it’s good to be back missioning again – especially since I got to run a fair share of missions I had never gotten before, like “The Damsel in Distress” or “Gone Berserk“. A welcome change, and a perfect test for the Aeonizer (Harbinger). Speaking of which, I am still not entirely convinced by its defensive capabilities. A good benchmark ist the “Human Cattle” mission, which was always quite long but never dangerous with Crimson Skies (Hurricane) once I got to know it. With the Aeonizer, enemies are dispatched faster but I really have to make sure I do not get too close because those shields are gone very fast.

I actually had to do some armor repairs lately, which I never had to do on Crimson Skies. I feel a lot safer in the Hurricane, so I am continuing to level up key shield skills to balance out the difference. I cannot stop thinking about the fact that these new skills actually make the Hurricane a lot better too, so the Harbinger will never be as good. Ideally, I would want a Hurricane with laser specialization

Nah, I think in the future I will train some projectile turret skills to make the most of the Harbinger and the Hurricane, and switch between them depending on the missions.

Having moved around a bit lately, I have discovered a few new station types I had not seen yet – and started to wonder what other marvels the designer team at CCP still have in store.

Somehow I could have sworn that you need Minmatar Industrial level V to be able to fly a Mammoth. Loreena has been training for 8 days already, with 16 to go for that skill, and was quite agreeably surprised when I found out she could already fly one. Very handy indeed, as my buy order for a Mammoth had gone through just a few hours earlier… Figures.

Anyway this ship while not being as pretty as the Hoarder in my opinion (look at that blotchy front when you dock at a station), it is a fine ship with lots of slots to fill. With three cargo expansions and one Nanofiber Internal Structure (to keep a minimum agility) it can fit 10950 m3 cargo. I will have to skill up to increase that, but it is quite good already.

On AeonOfTime’s front, I put my Hulk plans on hold for now. I am on a kind of agility & speed trip, so to make more of Crimson Skies (Hurricane) I have skilled up in Navigation and Evasive Maneuvering. It currently flies at a cruise speed of 300 m/s and 620 m/s with afterburner. It turns very well too, especially with the Type-D Altered SS Inertial Stabilizers module I fitted. I finally have my current agent over 9 standing, so mission pay is getting better and I did quite a few runs that were very lucrative. My next step will be to try and find a level 2 agent now that I have a good setup to see how that fares.

And now for some eyecandy!

Today I ran a mission involving finding hidden documents in a warehouse, and took the time for some sightseeing after dispatching the few Angel Cartel ships protecting their assets there. The warehouse I destroyed was docked to an assembly of several modules including a housing module, power generator, cargo platform as well as a giant pressurized silo. The latter seemed interesting in terms of probable loot, so I began pounding it – and checked out the info a few shots later, seeing that it was more resilient than I thought… And indeed this monster was a hard nut to crack – just as the info stated it was heavily armor plated and its structure hitpoints were through the roof.

Nevertheless, the container gave up after a while of combined laser and missile fire, leaving behind a wreck with loot like capital ship torpedoes that fetched a nice price on the market – definitely worth the time. Hell, I had to make two runs to get it all!

Housing modules

While I was busy abusing the container I played a bit with the camera to have a closer look at the nearby structures and noticed that the housing module had a name: “The PIT”… it seems that its inhabitants have quite a warped sense of humour I left them the cargo platform and power generator, they should be able to survive. I think those Angel Cartel thugs used them as workforce, so they should be better off without them – especially with all those nice asteroids floating around. If the Angel guys come back, my agent will probably tell me to help them find their way to hell again and I will be glad to help.

Ripped Superstructure, part II

A while back, I encountered one of those giant ripped superstructures that look abolutely fetching against the starry skies – and when I uploaded the screenshot, I noticed that I did not even think of flying down the big shaft that leads to the bottom of the structure. Well this time I did – there is not much in there, but it was fun checking it out anyway. It took some fine navigation skills to get Azure Skies (Rupture) down there (at 20m/s), but I managed to wriggle to the bottom and bring back a fow shots. I think the most fun part was hitting the afterburner at the bottom and flying out of there at 570m/s, the walls of the shaft rushing past and finally popping out into the open again. You should try it sometime

Tonight I was in a mood for taking screen shots, so I made a selection that I added to the gallery. The missions themselves were pretty standard – my agents still have to surprise me. At least there were no Ex-employee missions this time, and just one rogue drones mission. While this is definitely fun, and certainly earns me some money, mining is way more effective. I will have to go back to it if I want to find 500 million ISK for a Hulk :/