Take Me Out to the Black, Part Three
Tuesday saw the release of the latest EVE expansion, The Empyrean Age, which focuses on lowering the barrier of entry for PvP by adding a middle ground between mission running in Empire and roaming the lawless reaches of 0.0 space. This was accompanied by a days worth of downtime during which all out war was declared by the four principle factions in New Eden. Full details of the day’s events can be read here. I could go into detail about how great it is that the Caldari State have retaken Caldari Prime, but that would be incredibly geeky…
Take Me Out to the Black, Part Two
Logged on this afternoon to find that Jim has finally returned. Before I describe what followed, first a little back-story; Jim (Rossignol) is an ex-PCG staffer and currently writes for Rock, Paper, Shotgun as well as other assorted freelance stuff (he’s written a book, too; This Gaming Life). After seeing me comment on some of his EVE related articles in November when I started playing, he sent me an email asking if, assuming I was still playing after a few months, I’d like to join his Corp (the aforementioned StateCorp). I replied, saying sure, if I was still around.
Of course, time, money and repeated deaths conspired against me, and I stopped playing in January. However, a couple of weeks ago he sent me another email, so I took him up on the offer and reactivated my account, eager to try out the other side of EVE Online. Ironically, just after I joined StateCorp, he moved house and was without internet for a while, leaving me kind of drifting (as he’d suggested he’d teach me the ropes). Except now he’s back, and seemingly has great plans for the State. And with that out of the way, details of today’s op are after the cut.
Take Me Out to the Black, Part One
And so endeth my first ‘op’ on EVE. As mentioned way back when, I reactivated my account and joined a small scale Corporation, StateCorp. Tonight was the first night I took part in a bit of PvP hunting (the aforementioned op). After spending 15 days training for Interceptors, I took my shiny new Malediction, Kalendra-ICm Mk1, out for a test ride. Follow the cut for details of how it went.
An Update
What? Why are you looking at me like that? Just what do you want? Oh. You want me to write something? Ok, I’ll give it a go.
Yes, this old thing has been a bit thin on the ground of late, hasn’t it? With good reason. Exams, obviously, have taken up a lot of my waking moments. Not all, but most. Other than that, there’s not been much else going on, at least that I care to write about here (ohh, mystery! How exciting. Not really). I’m sure I’ll have a nice lengthy word explosion next weekend, once my future is a bit more mapped out, but for now it’s just a case of getting through this last exam.
Which is going to be tough. Not because the content is hard, but because there is so little content. And it’s all, once again, wooly and research led. The module changed hands this year, which has resulted in a hodge podge arrangement of lectures, and no past-papers to use as an indication of what ours will contain.
Oh well, it will all be over soon enough. Then there’s just the small issue of FYP feedback on Friday…
In other, more game-related news, I reactivated my EVE Online subscription. Wonder how long I’ll stick with it this time? This time, however, I shall be joining a Corp, which may make things easier. We shall see. GTAIV is going slow. It’s not that I don’t like it, it just pisses me off every now and then. The lack of mid missions saves is still my major gripe. Replaying the same mission 5 times because Niko decides that, no, he’s not going to take cover behind the bit of wall I’m looking at, but instead the wall over there, in clear view of the nasty men with big guns. Right.
More soon. Maybe?
EVE Online
Oh. A note. Shocking. Well, bit bored tbh, need something to occupy my time, so thought I’d warble on about my experiences so far in EVE Online.
I’ve always had a niggling voice in my head, telling me to try EVE out, but it wasn’t till I re-watched Firefly with Kara a month or so ago that I finally caved, and dragged Rob down with me. The original plan was to wait until the Christmas holidays, and try out the 14 day free trial then. However, we caved in and started a few weeks ago. Here are my thoughts so far:
The Good
- It’s very pretty. Even more so with the new Trinity graphics engine. The ships and stations are incredibly detailed, and the backdrops are sumptuous.
- It’s incredibly complex and deep, especially compared to WoW. This could be seen as a negative point, but if anything it just shows how simple WoW really is. In WoW, there was very much a ‘best’ set of gear and a ‘best’ spec for any given class. There’s nothing like that in EVE. One can literally do anything. Take out contracts, run mining cartels, engage in wars with enemy corporations. There’s so much to do. And that’s not even touching on the market (CCP have hired an economist to monitor the market and compile quarterly reports on it).
- When it works, it’s really fun. Rob and I tried a Complex (lit. a dungeon) the other night. It was hard, but enjoyable and really got the pulse racing.
The Bad
- Lack of mission variety. This could be said about any MMO, but it’s especially evident in EVE. WoW has maybe 10 mission templates (Kill X of Y, Bring A of B to C, etc), but they’re so varied in their enemies and locations that you don’t really notice. EVE, likewise, has 10 regular mission types. But they don’t make aims to hide it. Literally, you will be given a mission, complete it and there’s a chance you’ll get the exact same mission again. Also, space is well, pretty empty. The locations you do the missions in aren’t overly varied, and nor are the enemies.
- Looting is a pain in the arse. Often, you’re looking at distances of 5-10km between you and your target, and once they’re dead you have to be 1.5km away to loot the wreck. When you’ve just completed a mission that involved killing 50 enemies, looting the remains can be so incredibly annoying and tedious. Tractor beams alleviate this, yes, but they’re expensive.
- It’s far too harsh, even on simple mistakes. Rob took out a contract that it turned out he was unable to complete. He lost 10,000,000 ISK (the in game currency) in collateral. I accidentally hit Rob with a Smart bomb (a PBAoE weapon, deals damage to everyone within 2km of my ship) whilst we were doing a mission in High Security space. CONCORD (the ’space police’) perceived this as a hostile act, and instantly warped in and destroyed my ship. So that cost me 10,000,000 ISK in insurance and new fittings. Because I’d dealt a piddly amount of damage to one of my group members!
- Twats. Low Security space in EVE is full of gankers. Except, unlike WoW, ganking in EVE is encouraged, and it costs the victim a lot LOT more. Today, Rob and I were doing some mining in a zone with a Security Rating of 0.4 (CONCORD don’t patrol in zones with a Sec Rating of less than 0.5). He’d docked into a station to drop the loot, and I was milling about in the asteroid belt. Until, low and behold, a pirate warps in, traps me and ganks me. And then pod kills me too. Another 10,000,000 ISK down the drain. Woo, and indeed, hoo.
- Following on from the above, there’s not really much to do in High Sec space. You can mission run (gets boring), you can do contracts (most are scams or un-doable by people who don’t have freighters) or you can mine (the ore in High Sec space tends to be of lower quality). But you really don’t want to go to Low Sec till you have a properly pimped out ship. So what do you do? Who knows, I’ve yet to figure it out.
This may, on the whole, sound incredibly negative. But tbh, I think most of my vitriol is directed at losing 20 million ISK in the last 48 hours. I’ll still carry on playing, because when it’s good, it’s really good. And pretty.
