HonorBro

It's been a few days since I posted, I am an artist irl and get slammed with Christmas commissions this time of year. It's great, but my time to blog is the first thing to go. I have been loving Eve lately, again the idea to throw everything to the wind and reinvent my char has paid off in a resurgence in my interest and enjoyment of the game overall. There is a sadness that goes along with finding your passion becoming dull, repetitive, or uninteresting. It's great to know that setting a few new goals relieves that feeling. I have been living in Black Rise for quite some time, the quick access to content was nice as a solo pilot, and it was easy blend in with the mess of militia in the area. Fighting both sides is good for content and kills, but eventually the area has become overrun with these giant groups of pilots, and being the solo guy is a lot more of getting blobbed that gf's. In addition to all that, many of the giant blocks, some former null groups, h...

In a week, my main will turn two years old. I know this isn't a huge milestone, many people have played Eve far longer than me, and two years might be considered 'just getting started' to many, but it's worth some contemplation. After two years, I am close to 60 million sp on my main, and 30 million on my main's support alt, and about 11 million on my hauler/industry alt. My support alt is training into combat links at the moment and after that I plan to start the long climb to cyno 5, so she can make for a better hunter. My main is well on his way to training for a capitol ship, with only a couple weeks remaining until his skill are up enough to fly it properly. After that he'll be working on a marauder. Across my accounts I have around 16 billion in liquid isk, and close to twice that in assets. I have a bad habit of building fleets of ships, and then letting them gather dust in hangers, I have been thinking lately of liquidating some of those fit...

While overall, I am a friendly and easygoing guy, I also find myself to be somewhat antisocial. In my real life, I have never been one to go out for the purpose of going out, and I hate sitting in restaurants and bars. I'm not really the kind of guy to get in a vigorous discussion with a random person. I'm not introverted by any means, I enjoy other people and make good conversation in the right settings, I make friends easily, and overall I think people are good. I just wanted to mention all this because it's important to realize that we all do what we do in fundamentally different ways, and that my opinions and experiences with corporations in Eve are very likely to have differed from yours. With the Ascension update, we are surrounded by new players, eager and ready for content and glory within our universe. Every forum is filled with ads for rookie corps, and most of the advice is centered around finding a group to help you get your footing. All the major organization...

Today Alpha clones fly among us, and whether you think this will be of great impact on New Eden or not, it is a big difference in the basis of the game going forward. This update is a strong upheaval in the basic meta of the game, on par even with the introduction of skill injectors. While there is a good chance that this will not greatly effect the numbers of 'actual' players in the long term, the thing that really plays into the meta in my opinion is the fundamental change in the psychology of the game. While some Alphas will be easy to identify, most will certainly not be. Older players returning, or inactive alt accounts of current players will be the new norm. Is that four year old militia in that plex an Alpha or Omega, you aren't likely to know. Is this thrasher trying to bait you, or just bad? When we started with skill injectors, we changed a similar fundamental assumption within the game. Before then, you had a good idea what you were getting yourself into wit...

The Ascension update was pushed back an extra week in a dev announcement today, as CCP scrambles to put a layer of polish on what is the most involved update to the sandbox in recent history. This is the hammer on what has been a huge year for updates within the game. CCP's roadmap over this time has been both ambitions and, for the most part, a positive change in my opinion. These have been large updates, and they have all been accompanied by plenty of documentation as to the features that were planned to be added, well in advance. This has been necessary in many cases as player feedback is an important part of the evolution of Eve. All that said, I have really been missing the opportunity for the individual to get involved in the history of Eve, there doesn't seem to be much left to discover. When I started playing Eve, the Caroline's Star event was just happening, Drifters were awakening, and making their presence felt across the cosmos, and there was a lot of uncerta...

  On an ideal night, I'm out for blood and pod goo, but I'm finding the longer I play the less people want to fight me. Sure, the guys in pimped out faction frigs are always happy to drop in on a t1 frig, but I sure do like to get a fair fight out of an unsuspecting pilot. I've started to need to either force fights, or trick people into fighting me. Here are some ways I accomplish this. Be Engagable. So much goes into being seen as an easy target, but really the biggest one is going to be what ship you are in. Go too hard, and you will certainly deny yourself content, or at the least be forced to punch above your weight. In my mind, unless you are out for some particular purpose, faction ships (frigates especially) have little place in the current solo or even small gang meta, especially if you are chasing the proverbial gudfight. There are certainly exceptions to that, for example if you are sending a tackle scout ahead to tie down targets, or if you are cloaky aster...

I'm just joking with you, but hey, why do the Amarrs get all the love in this game? The latest event is underway, and we are again fighting Bloody Omir for the glory of the Empress. Right up front I will say, this is an excellent event, and the balance of reward drops is just right. It inspires capsuleers of all ages into space, and creates content aggregators in systems that would otherwise go unused. This is absolutely an event done right. It seems petty to be bothered that the Amarr are again at the forefront of an event, but I guess I am. We all crowded into amarr two weeks ago for the coronation ceremony, the Golden Fleet is still parked there. Not long before that we were witness to the tournament that determined said ruler, a tournament only the Amarr were welcome to participate in. The purity of the throne event just wrapped up, and I really like the white skins, very Star Wars, but this next event is dropping two more flavors of Amarrian ship skins? The roleplay ...

Sir Elton John is singing in my ear as I sit, a cloaky bastard in an Astero, just outside a novice plex. 'Losing everything is like the sun going down on me'. The song reminds me of Eve, and I get to thinking a good Captain shouldn't let losses get to them too much. It's all just ammo to use and abuse for our enjoyment right? My thoughts are interrupted by an atron on grid, he lands 5k off me and punches into the plex. The moment he disappears off-grid, I uncloak and punch gate. This technique almost always works to catch a target by surprise on the beacon. The fellow gives me a good fight, but his t1 frig is no match for my faction bling, and he dies in a fire. I jeffed in local, and headed out to the next system, thinking that this new fit was going to work out just fine. It's a little expensive, but I should be able to kill a lot of my fellows and travel in relative safety. Definitely worth the faction mods. I died in a blaze of mediocrity to a code gateca...