Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Eve Blog
Kien
Member Posts: 520
I started playing Eve about a week ago because mmorpg.com gave it such a high rating.
My intention is to start a daily blog, but since we're a week or two behind, I have some catching up to do.
Initial impressions: lots of nice features. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that more love went into this game than any other I've ever played.
The Tutorial
I thought the tutorial was waaaaay too long. I was only planning to play for half an hour or so after initally logging into the game, but an hour into the tutorial I was afraid to quit, because I wasn't sure the game would save my place, and I didn't want to start over at square one (don't worry, if you quit the game will save your place).
What to do, Or the Demise of the Dread Roberts
Initially, I tried a few NPC missions and quickly got bored.
I decided to try my hand at piracy in order to spice things up.
From newbie chat I knew that attacking other players in .5(+) space was bad news, so I decided to hunt asteroid belts in .4 space in my frigate, the Dread Roberts. Two facts quickly became apparent: 1) it can be hard to find other players in .4 space and 2) the NPC pirates (or "rats", as they are called) were capable of chewing me up and spitting me out without a whole lot of effort. This last fact was of great concern for me, because it seemed reasonable that anyone mining in .4 space would be powerful enough to deal with the local rats and, by extension, with me.
I kept on anyway, and after a lot of searching I finally spotted a solo cruiser, but he jumped away as soon as he saw me coming. Coward.
I gave up hunting the .4 systems and decided to try .5 instead. Right off the bat I found a solo ship mining a belt. I attacked without even bothering to see what type of ship it was (I was THAT bored). I engaged thrusters for a quick approach and enabled a warp jammer so my quarry wouldn't get
away.
Things were going great, then BOOM! I was dead. Turns out the police respond within 15
seconds if you're in .5+ space. That was the end of my feeble attempt at piracy.
Comments
More catch-up...
The Corporation
One thing lead to another, and I ended up joining the corporation of the person I attacked. I guess he didn't have any hard feelings for the newbie that had attacked him.
The corp was small, but the people seemed nice so I decided to join even though their tax rate was kind of high (10%). After joining I was a little put off when I told a few rules that corp members were expected to respect. One of the rules was that all equipment salvaged from rats was to be donated to the corp. That was disappointing, because some of that junk sells for good money.
My first few days in the corp, I worked on level 1 NPC security missions, building up my reputation with the NPC agents and making ISK in the process. The missions were terribly boring and really easy. I was glad when I finally had enough rep with a level 1 agent so that a level 2 agent would talk to me. The level 2 missions are identical to the level 1 missions in terms of what you have to do, however the opponents are a lot harder. I got spanked. Then I got spanked again. And again. And again. Finally I gave up and went back to the level 1 missions.
Jan. 28, 2006
The Corporation - on the Move!
I was informed today that the corp had moved their HQ to a system far, far away. I was told to follow. I was sad to leave my home station - I had good rep with the agents in the area and was making good ISK. Still, a grunt has to do as he's told. So, I liquidated the assets I couldn't carry with me, and plotted the 20 jump move.
I ended up in Amaar space. Now, I didn't like this at all. We have a saying in Minmatar, "only two things come out of Amaar space: steers and queers". I don't like having to work with these Amaar, but I don't have a choice as Amaar agents are the only agents around. There's going to be a lot of work ahead of me to get a good rep with these Amaar agents. I guess they sense my bad attitude.
Doing my Part for the Corporation
I was invited to take part in a corp mining mission today. This was my first mining attempt outside the
tutorial. Golly, is it boring. It used to make me mad when I heard about people using macros to do their
mining, now I understand.
EDIT: Moved my blog to my own post.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
Yeah, I also had some problems with an over crowded newbie area. I had forgotten about that.
If you're going to post your own blog you should start another thread - otherwise this thread will get confusing.
Naah, ill just stop writing, im too lazy. You keep writing though, its an interesting read.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
A Note to both of you guys:
There are MANY kinds of agent missions. you seem to be doing courier ones. Look for an agent (set map to my agents) in the Security, Command or Surveilance divisions for kill missions; more fun, almost always 0 or 1 jump only
Jan. 29, 2006
Inter-Corp Politics Or, Welcome to Amaar Junior High
Sometimes people just don't get along. Even in a really small guild (oh, excuse me, corporation) you can pick up a guy that just rubs everyone the wrong way. We have one such person in the corporation. Let's call him "M". I'm not entirely sure why the others don't like M, but I take it he doesn't contribute, and asks stupid questions. I suspect he's about 15 years old.
Now, if you're the corp leader, and you've got an undesirable such as M in your corp, there are a couple of ways you can handle the situation. If things aren't really THAT bad you can just suck it up. Otherwise, you should thank M for considering the corp, tell him it's not working out, and give him the boot.
The way NOT to handle the situation is to make negative comments about M behind his back on team speak and on a "gang" channel (a group channel). Look, I understand it's hard to tell someone he's not wanted. No one likes to feel rejected, and few people enjoy rejecting others. But, I really feel that a clean break is better than the slow and ugly relationship death that M is going to face in the coming weeks.
--
Spent most of today doing missions. Found a good agent six jumps out from corp HQ. I'm doing security missions, and acquire a lot of salvaged loot in the process. I'm required to donate salvaged items to the corp, so every so often I have to load the booty into my cargo bay and head off to HQ. Once there, drop the booty off and return to the agent. It's 22 minutes round trip.
On the plus side, I have over 5.7M ISK, so once I build my skills up I can start thinking about buying better weapons.
LOL
Ok, I am not gonna clutter up this thread too much with my advice, just a quick word to say thanks to the OP for making it, it really is a great read. Stick with it (to both actaully who posted their "blogs"). You have a lot to learn, but I will not spoil it for you. TBH part of the fun of EvE is getting thru the hard times, learning from it, and mastering it. If you have the resolve, the rewards of the game are incredible.
I cannot help but suggest you get a new corp though. You seem to be doing quite well DESPITE your corp, not because of them. That is the wrong way around. Nearly 6 mill in a short amount of time is good going, handing over so much of your hard gained loot is piracy in itself. Don't do it!! For the love of god...I think you will be really good at EvE if you stick to it. Your blog shos the imagination required, the sense of humour, so much more. I hope you stick with it. You seem to have grasped the basics well, now you just need to fine tune some things and value yourself more highly...
Remember EvE is a hard game, in more ways than one. Your services to your corp should be very valuable - ask yourself...if this was RL would I goto work, pay my company 10% (on any deals iver 40,000) AND give them 50% on what I earn on a daily basis?
If the answer is no, then why would you in EvE?
Jan. 30, 2006
The Great Heist
Last night a few of the guys did a corp mining mission. They were mining for about five hours and ended up depleting an entire belt (which I'm told is quite a feat). This evening when I logged into the game I received a corp email sent by the CEO. It seems that someone helped himself to the cookie jar. I don't know how many mins were stolen, or if the theft was related to the marathon mining session (although that seems a reasonable conclusion). I do know that it must have been someone high up in the organization, because newbies like me don't have authorization to remove mins. It's pretty sad that such a small corp already has more than its share of thieves.
Unfinished Business
I've got a level 2 security mission up in Minmator space that's going to expire soon unless I run up there and finish it. It's about 20 jumps away, but I hate leaving quests undone. My ship is on its way there now. Hopefully I won't get destroyed in Onga, I can't seem to route around that system.
Once I finish my mission I'll have to decide whether I want to continue with the corp or not. I'll sleep on it.
A very good read. Keep it up.
I would really have to agree with DraigCoch. You need to find yourself a better corp. The 10% tax is not much to argue about. It really isn't that much as it's only taken from bounties about 35k and primary mission reward (not bonus). But forcing you to donate all your loot is over the top.
Most corp will encourage their members to donate loot they don't need so that others that might have better use for it can take it instead. That's what a corp should be about, helping each other. If the corp is not helping you, there is little reason for you to help them.
I think this might be part of the problem why the corp was stolen from. But it could just have been a random theft. Most corps suffers from them sooner or later. Some player who has decided to move on to a new corp and wants to get a bit of a head start financially might take the opportunity.
Our corp was victim for such a theft a few months ago. It actually ended up being one of the best things that happed to us. In our efforts to make the life of the thief as miserable as possible (we declared or threatened to declare war on every corp he join forcing him out of it, seems we where sucessfull as there are over a month since he last logged in) we found the area in which we currently reside (curse) which is a very refreshing place compared to where we used to live (pure blind). Our corp is doing better than ever and will most likely soon join the new Curse Coalition alliance.
I would recruit you if it weren't for the fact that we live in a fairly turbulent area of 0.0 which means a new player will have more trouble than benefit from it. But in a month or 2 if you still play the game and are interested in the more hard core part of eve with frequent pvp and the riches that 0.0 offers feel free to look me up in game. Name is Hoshi.
"Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
Jan. 31, 2006
Thanks
Thanks everyone for all your kind comments and stories.
Finished Business
I hopped up to Hrober today and finished my level 2 mission. It was rough mission but noticably easier than the last time I tried. I'm not sure if the difference was due to better equipment, better skills, or both.
I learned a lot during this encounter. For one thing, it's sometimes better to jump 30+km away from the encounter instead of 15km. At 15km the rats can close on you while you're still dropping out of warp. At 30km you have time to drop out of warp, take in the situation, and engage thrusters full speed ahead. That last part is important when you've got a frigate.
The second thing I learned is that Angel Webifilers can really lay down some hurt with missiles, but if you get with 1200 meters or so they switch from missiles to a wimpy energy weapon. I guess missiles don't work if the target is too close. I'll file that bit under the "good to know" category.
I was really pleased that the Webifiler kept trying to put distance between itself and my ship. It's always good to see a little AI at work.
I tried another level 2 mission, but in a frigate it's tough work and I found myself having to jump away often in order to heal up. As a result I've decided to go back to the level 1 missions for another week.
Leaving one Corp, Looking for Another
Today I told my CEO that I would be leaving the corp. I am leaving on good terms and without any hard feelings which is good.
When I play a MMORPG I usually end up joining the first guild I come across that has nice people. For Eve, a little more research is required. I spent an hour or two today looking at various corps advertising in the Eve forum. I found a few corps that say they can be everything to everyone. I'm suspicious of this kind of promise. It's similar to a woman on a dating site that describes herself by saying "I'm spontaneous... but I like to think things through. I like to go out... but I like to stay at home too." In other words, I'm not sure you can be everything to everyone and still have a personality.
I found two corps that I liked. I wasn't even close to being qualified for my first choice but I thought the second might take me. I went ahead and sent an email to the CEO of my first choice - I figure I might as well shoot for the stars.
If I get a reply I won't auto-join. I've learned my lesson about that. I have a little list of questions in my head that I'm going to ask before commiting.
Nice thread. Keep it up.
In my corp, for example, we got a 5% tax and we should drop into the corp hangar the loot. I say we should because you dont have to if you dont want. Also if you get something good of course you can keep it for yourself. With the loot, some members refine it and build up munnition for all of us. And from all the loot, we keep the best in the hangar, and the rest is refined.
About ships, my corp give us the 1st ship from frigates to Battleships. Once you lose it, you have to take care yourself. Even though we help each other in any way if somebody needs money or whatever.
I started like you, joined the 1st corp i found wich almost forced me to do so. And i also had the same problems, minning is a must, giving all the loot, etc. Stay away from such corps. A good corp wont go arround looking for people to join them. Seems like its a step for the majority of the new players that join Eve.
Hi m8, yoiu write a good blog here I must say.
However, a short note to offset the three responses given about needing to change copr because of the tax rate and policy on loot that you ahve to give to the corp.
I am in Evolution. A corpname probably not familiar to you, but one that tends to be known widely with older players. Evolution is a highly succesfull corporation that stems from the Eve beta stage. I joined at a later date but wanted you to know this bit before saying the next thing.
In Evolution, I give 90% of what I earn to my corporation. The 10% that I keep I keep for skills and stuff I need to buy now and then, but everythign else goes straight into the corporation. In return, everything I need come to me from my corporation, everything from ships to ammo to tech2 ships and modules to even a dreadnought capital ship if I would have the skills for it.
If you need to change corporations it is because you don't feel like your current one is right for you, but playing this game with an ongoing calculation in your head that tells you wether or not you are putting in more then you get out of your corp is not something that seems a healthy approach to corporation membership.
Feb. 2, 2006
Still Looking for a Job
In a previous post I mentioned I had found a couple of corps that looked interesting. I got a polite reply from my first choice. He said his corp wasn't recruiting at the moment, but he would keep me in mind for the future. I wasn't expecting to get in, so I wasn't disappointed. I sent off an email to the second choice, however I haven't had a reply yet.
In the meantime, I am once again considering piracy. Half of my skill points are in learning, so I'm a little behind in the combat skills I need in order to take down a mining ship. I'm working on buffing those skills up right now. Can't keep training learning forever, after all.
An Uncertain Future
If the second corp doesn't reply to my email, or gives me a denial, I'll have to hit the forums again. A lot of the corps want seasoned players so my options are a little limited. I may have to settle for a corp that is "just ok". As a new player that's probably what I should expect.
Although we don't condone piracy, you may want to consider joining RFAUX (Royal Fleet Auxiliary). Join the channel RFAUX for recruitment info.
contact Mystic Rose on game
ISW we r recruiting pvp-players w/ over 3mil+ SP and with or without pvp experiences to fight in ... *cough* err this is not the recruiting channel ^^ , so contact me ingame if you are interested ...
btw agree with you that missoning was really boring
ZZZ
Feb. 5, 2006
Still Unemployed
I've sent out three notes to various corps expressing interesting in joining, but received only one reply, and that was a denial.
I think the problem is that I am setting my sights too high. The corps that are most attractive to me want experienced players with millions of skill points, while I am just a newbie. I can't say I blame them for being selective. Newbies come and go, while players with millions of skill points have demonstrated a commitment to the game.
The most reasonable thing to do would be to join a mediocre corp and play a waiting game until I have a few million skill points and a good reputation, but this just doesn't appeal to me. I tried one corp that I didn't fit into, and I don't have an interest in bouncing around to various corps until I find one that is "just ok".
To those of you that have suggested corps in this blog, thanks but I want to stay anonymous.
Practicing for Piracy
I jumped into .4 space today to see if I could handle the local rats. They were a breeze and I made good ISK. Also got some nice loot. The fact that I can handle .4 rats makes me more confident about being able to take down a mining ship in .4 space.
I decided to try ratting in .3 space just for the heck of it, but got waxed. I stayed in the fight a little longer than I should have. Most of my equipment was destroyed, so now I have to run around and re-equip. I'm not looking forward to refitting my ship. I've got plenty of ISK but spending money is painful for me. I don't know why, but there it is. I've been tight-fisted in every game I've ever played.
Looking for a Challenge
Eve has a lot of features that impress me, but so far I've yet to feel challenged. True, I've lost a ship or two, but those losses can be blamed more on boredom than anything else. The reason I want to give piracy a go is I am hoping it will present some sort of challenge.
Keep looking for a corp, you'd be suprised what comes your way.
My first corp was pretty cool, but they kicked me out 2 months later, probably because I was so gung ho about going into 0.0 space (There was a free space alliance, the Confederation of Free Stars, back then that allowed neutrals in their space. I don't regret the experience though, kinda miss some of the guys there.
My second corp, I met the CEO in CFS space and he attacked me because he thought I was a spy (I actually didn't know that until I read the chat logs about a year later). That was cleared up, and he was going to attack me again but stopped because I have my RL location in my bio and he lived in the same general area. When I left my first corp, he offered me a position, and now I'm director, it's always been very enjoyable there.
So keep looking, you'd be surprised what you may find.
As far as piracy...
I admit I don't like pirates, but they do add spice to the game. Speaking objectively, it should be a challenge and pretty rewarding if you do it right.
But don't turn to the darkside completely, being a honorable pirate might just give you the means to gain some reputation and join some of your first choice corps
Anyway, nice blog, keep it up!
Feb. 5, 2006 (part II)
Yo Ho Ho - A Pirate's Life for Me
I was in .4 space today killing rats and I saw a solo miner. I wasn't planning on pvp, but can you say "target of opportunity"?
It was remarkably easy to take out the miner... wasn't much of a challenge... but then what should I have expected?
I wasn't watching too much of the fight as it was going on... I was busy keeping an eye on local chat and watching the overview for anti-pirates. Suddenly, the miner ship disappeared off target, yet I still saw the other guy on overview. I targeted him again and he was at full health. I thought "WTF!?! Bug Exploiter!!" Full of righteous rage I opened the guns up again, and it wasn't until after he was destroyed that I realized I had just killed a pod. Oops.
Now, I like pk, but it's one thing to kill someone, quite another to be a jerk. Podding without a ransom demand is jerk-ish. So, I sent an apologetic note to my victim:
I'm sorry about the pod kill. I'm new and didn't realize that's what I was doing. I thought you had forced me to untarget and then healed up. I didn't loot your cargo, if you want to go back for it.
This is the reply I got... I don't think he believed me!
You are on my list. I was attempting to go meet my corp mates.
The ship--well, fair enough. I knew it was low-sec space. But killing my pod earns you a permenent place on my list. Beware.
I have just become interested in PvP. I wasn't until now.
Another fellow appeared on my overview after I realized my mistake. I decided to take off. I didn't have a flee destination pre-set, so I chose to dock at the nearest station. The station blew me away before I knew what was happening. I docked with my pod, then jumped in the newbie ship so I could retrieve my cargo. The station blew me away again. It wasn't until after the aggression timer wore out that I was able to get my stuff.
The aggression timer, by the way, was something like 15+6 minutes, which I believe to be a bit extreme [it was 15 minutes initially, then after the 15 minutes expired it reset to 6 minutes].
ZZZ
Funny stuff. Great stuff. You should look into submitting some writings or a journal to CCP they'd probably put them up on their site as some fan fiction.. You'd have to spruce it up a bit but judging by your quality and technique i doubt you'd have a problem with that.
Make a difference!
Congrats on your first PvP kill, and "D'OH!" at getting killed by the sentry guns afterwards.
In regards to the aggression timer being longer than expected, while the "Global Criminal Countdown" may not reset every time the sentry guns fire at you, the timer to the guns themselves - be it Amarr Navy, Caldari Navy, CONCORD, or anything in between - does get reset back to the full 15 minutes every time the guns shoot you. The important difference to remember is that once your "Global Criminal Countdown" timer is up, you're no longer flagged to other players (i.e. they can't shoot you without taking a security hit and getting criminally flagged themselves) unless they've got kill rights on you, but the sentry guns may still be active depending on if they've shot you since then.
The best advice I can give you is to avoid gates and stations entirely until all of your timers are up, unless you're certain you can tank the sentry fire and that of any players who also happen along. Instead, go to a safespot in between celestial objects. These can be created by opening up your "People and Places" menu and selecting the "Places" tab, then clicking "Create Bookmark" at the bottom while in the middle of warp to another celestial object. Be aware that the bookmark is created at the location you were at when you clicked the "Okay" button in the pop-up window and not at the location you were when you pressed the "Create Bookmark" button.
One other thing of extreme importance that you should be aware of is that waiting out your timer at a planet, moon, or asteroid belt is Bad (mmkay?). Other players can easily find you there, and, moreover, kill you. Also, some moons have POS (player-owned-stations) with their own guns, so you may warp to a moon only to be killed in one shot by a large artillery battery (depending on the aggresion settings the owning corporation has set up) - some of these stations are the next best thing to actually having a Death Star in EVE.
In any case, if you don't already have a safespot in system and you've just killed someone, make one immediately - in fact, make several and warp between them every one to two minutes to prevent your safespots being found by scan probes (always assume the enemy has a covert ops unless you know for certain that he doesn't).
EDIT: I forgot one very important thing: if you log off in space within 15 minutes of agressing another player or being aggressed by another player, your ship will warp off to a point about 1 million km away and just sit there until the 15 minutes are up. This will give people the opportunity to probe your location out and kill you while you're offline, so never log off in space unless you're absolutely certain you haven't shot at anyone within the last 15 minutes and no one has shot at you. Also, be aware that this timer is not shown along with the others. You have to keep track of it yourself.
BTW, if someone shoots at you, even if they don't hit or if they're using a non-damaging module, it's still considered aggression and will a.) set their criminal flagging (unless shooting at a war target or someone who's criminally-flagged themselves, or unless it's in 0.0), and b.) start up their PvP timer.
-Wrayeth
"Look, pa! I just contributed absolutely nothing to this thread!"
Another tip regarding the agression timer. You can hover your mouse over it to get more info about what kind of factions/pilots/corps you are flagged against, and for how long.
it's nice to see people who recount their trials in mmos with honesty and accuracy. so often people leave out details because they're afraid they'll look less 1337 in the eyes of other gamers. we're all newbies at least once (3 times if you play swg) in every game we play. so nice to see some honesty. thanks for keeping up with the blogging and i look forward to reading more.
Might be a good idea to use something like Blogger or www.wordpress.com for this ? Should make it easier to read
.
Anyways, very nice to read this, keep it up.