Friday 25 February 2011

Fortnightly Photo - #7 - Drink Flying™

Drink Flying, brought to you by the Guristas Pirates.
 You can click the image for a larger (900x700) version... It was too big to fit in here...

Ive been a bit slack with the whole Fortnightly Photo™ series, mainly due to not much time but also because I just couldn't think of anything to make! I thought I should make something nice for you all seeing as ill be away for the weekend (going gliding again :D) and I finally came up with this idea and through it together in a couple of hours.

The part that took the most time was making the beer pooring out of the bottle. Its cool, I learn a new technique every time I make something for my blog :) Hope you like it!

Cya next time o/

Previous Fortnightly Photo's:

  1. Tropica
  2. Caldari Desktop Background
  3. Gallente Desktop Background
  4. Amarr Desktop Background
  5. Minmatar Desktop Background
  6. Tengu: Dawn of an Era Desktop Background

Thursday 24 February 2011

Update #13 - Enlarged Char portrait

First off, if you didnt know, you can now mouse over anyone's portrait on eve gate and click the little magnifying glass symbol to get an enlarged version which is quite nice. Below is how big it comes out, which i think is around 512x512 or something near that.

Also Im impressed with the new contract system. I have to admit that it does have a few bugs or anoying thing but hey, its a beta. I havnt checked out all its new features but one thing i like is that pop-up box has gone away where you had to select what exact item you were wanting.

Anyway thats really all for today. There hasn't been many Dev blogs or much news floating around. if you have something interesting be sure to let me know :)

Wednesday 23 February 2011

PL Has good tactics



So we were shooting a POS with a JF on standby ready to haul our goodies to safety. This faction loot, worth around 2bill would help fund and setup our new home. There was only one problem... PL had their own idea...

After an hour - ish of pos bashing the tower was finally in low structure and the a cyno was going to be lit in the next few minutes when all of a sudden 5 PL dramiels and a heretic come into system.

We are already off grid by now because we weren't sure what ships they were in but on seeing the dramiels and heretic we turned around and tried to catch them. Now Im sure dramiels are fun to fly when you are the pilot but they are pesky little things when you dont have any fast tackle and your all in slow drakes. They are like bloody flies buzzing around you! They kept nipping in and out so fast there was no chance of catching them so we warp out once again.


This time we get a good warp in on them and I am licking my lips in anticipation of the coming fist fight. We all land on grid and in a mad rush of control clicking I lock everyone up and start shooting. We have points on multiple ships and its looking good as we lay waste to a hound, and then...

You guessed IT! PL uses their favorite tactic and drops several capital ships on us (and most likely a lot more on standby) and the heretics bubble goes up.

This was not at all unexpected, we just thought we could kill a few of them and bug out before they did hot drop us but unfortunately 4 or so of our drakes died and PL ran off with the pos mods and shot the stuff they didnt want. Nice tactics :) I congratulate them on a job well done even if it didnt have the best outcome for us.

Dont drink fly!
From the Angry CareBear

Sunday 20 February 2011

CCP = the wind - Response

If is strictly is to draw in new players so that a new player has an idea of how things function in eve, excellent, but SAY so.

Once we know WHY something is being done, we can connect the pieces together, and develop a cohesive "this is why CCP is doing this"

I am 1/4 excited and 3/4 worrying about Incarna. Being able to get out of my ship and take a walk around in my captains quarters, involving a couple of rooms that dont do much at all wont be that fun or accomplish anything. The possibilities for future expansions, however will be numerous. So numerous that I am thinking, where the hell are you going with this CCP?

We could be able to customize the rooms, our characters, build shops (brothel?), play mini games, out of pod pve / pvp ect. ect. What I am worried about is that it will be a bit of a flop like PI was at first or worse, be so good that nobody plays internet spaceships anymore.

If CCP doesnt have an end goal with this then I can definitely see why they are telling us shit all... Like the dev blog they just posted with a few pictures and a couple of scribbled down notes on a napkin.

If they do have a goal though, why not share it? This is such a big change from any other expansion after all so why not tell your faithful users whats happening on that little icy island. The worst that could happen is you get some player feedback about what will be accepted or rejected.

Its just a thought...

ps. I wasnt only talking about incarna...
and the origianl post by A mule in eve

Wednesday 16 February 2011

FICTION: Preparation



I am standing, the faint glow of the holo-screen in front of me softly touching my face. On all sides of me are other contestants, standing, nervously waiting for the contest to begin.  I am sweating now. If I didn't do this I would have ended up like my family, I try to reason with myself. My family are already enslaved by the amarrian off-worlders who will work them to do death. My jaw sets as I imagine the things i will do to them when I find them.

A bell rings out, signaling that we are about to start and bringing me out of my fantasy. A metal cage lowers itself slowly from the ceiling and i try not to move as wires are attached to me and the gaming apparatus is put into place.  A drop of sweat slowly finds its way down my furrowed brow then teeters on the end of my nose, about to take its final journey, plummeting to the little pool of sweat that has collected underneath me. I wish my existence was as simple as one of those molecules. But then again, in a way they are also prisoners like me.

Soon I am completely wired up and the last piece of equipment closes in slowly. It is egg shaped from the outside, a capsuleer would know it as a pod. This is a pod that has been adapted for use outside of spaceships, specifically designed for brutal games. Suddenly my vision flickers and dims to blackness as the pod seals with a hiss. A liquid starts running over me, I think it is sweat but it is really pod goo. This is it, I think as I take a deep breath. My last breath, unless I win...

Sunday 13 February 2011

My blackberry is not working...

Great little skit by Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield. Enjoy.

Update #12 - Beetles...



...and bugs

The past releases, Team Best Friends Forever has been working on large features, our latest being Incursions. Next release will be different though; next release we'll be trying to track down all the small things that annoy you and working to correct them.
 I am really excited about this update. It fixes a lot of small stuff that was getting on my nerves. Heres a brief overview of the upcoming bug fixes and changes.

Incursion 1.2  15th February 2011
Remote Destruction of Jump Clones
Remote authorization has been added, allowing players to dispose of unwanted or unneeded jumpclones directly from the character sheet.
Improvements to Buying a New Clone
When buying a new clone, options with insufficient skillpoints will be grayed out as a warning.
Region & Security Status Displayed When Buying a Clone
When moving your active clone to another station, the list of possible destinations will contain the region and security status.
Sell/Buy Window Settings
The state of your sell window (normal/advanced) will persist (remember your last used setting) on a character basis.
Market Window Displays Outpost Information
Market orders in player-owned outposts will now display the system name as well as the station name on the order.
Asset Search by Distance
Your assets list can now be sorted by number of jumps so that you can easily view your proximity to locally stored assets.
Drag and Drop Into Closed Containers
You can now drag and drop items into closed containers without having to open them first.
Character Portrait Saves Return
Say "Cheese!" It is now again possible to capture portraits of characters in-game.
Improved Overview Settings
Priority modification in Overview settings now has drag and drop functionality.
Agent Removal Confirmation
To safeguard against accidental removal of needed agents, a new confirmation message has been added which pops up when players attempt to remove one.
Starmap Autopilot's Tab Now Easier to Adjust
The 'Autopilot' tab in the Starmap now has drag and drop functionality for sorting waypoints.
Clearing All Waypoints from Space
A new right-click menu item has been added to the route label in space, so it is now possible to clear all waypoints without opening the Starmap.

The ones I am most looking forward to are as follows. Remote jump clone removal, clearing way points from space and also the changes to the autopilot tab. With these i will finally be able to delete some clones that are locked away in hostile space, not have to waste time hitting f10, waiting for the map to load then right clicking to clear my waypoint and planning waypoints will also be a breeze! what are you looking forward to?

Also one last thing. A quote from a recent devblog about incarna:
we're happy to say that we're coming to a place where we can begin dialogue about actual features and gameplay that's been in development. We’ll kick it off with a blog from the team working on captains quarters next week that should lead quite nicely into several presentations at Fanfest
This is so exciting! It will be pretty sweet if you can customize your quarters ect. It will just be something cool to tinker around with on a rainy day :)

Friday 11 February 2011

New corp. New play style.



I wanted to wait till I got my first kill with my new corp till I posted this but a lot of real life stuff has got in the way (homework mainly). So I had to settle for posting it after I killed an ihub. Killing the ihub wasn't all that fun but it was good to get out there with some corp / alliance guys and get something worthwhile done.

So the new corp I joined is called psykotic meat (PKME) which is part of convicted alliance. Pkme is an Australian timezone pvp corp part of an Australian timezone pvp alliance :)

I joined pkme around a week ago now and it has been great fun. I am really enjoying the new play style even though I haven't killed much yet. I'm sure that will change soon though :)

Now onto the part about corp size.So as I said in my other post about corp sizes and all that I dont like Large corps. I dislike massive corps because they very impersonal, sort of cold, like a big machine just grinding for the benefit of the overlord so I thought that maybe a tiny corp would be better. well it wasn't. I think perhaps I rushed into the decision of joining my last corp and it didnt end up be a very good one. Not many people were on and there were a few other reasons that i wont go into. That experience made me spend a lot more time picking my next corp. I probably thought about it for a week or so before finally deciding on PKME.

So far PKME seems to be the perfect size. The guys in it and the alliance are good fun and the corp / alliance (which I cant tell you) are really exciting :D

The future looks good. What does your future hold?

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Thursday 10 February 2011

Funnies

Enlarge!
Thought I would just share this picture that made me crack up. So very true. Hope you like it too :) A couple of more substantial posts are on there way.

Monday 7 February 2011

Part of the Blog Pack!



So I logged onto my computer after an average day at school. Checked my emails, didnt see anything exciting. I changed some skill queue stuff on my different characters. Entered a few free lotteries then didnt have much to do... So I checked my emails again. Omg! There was a very exciting mail waiting for me indeed! heres what it said;

This comment requires moderation

@CrazyKinux commented on Theres this thing called life... - http://captainserenity.blogspot.com/:

Welcome to the EVE Blog Pack. If you could write a little something about it, I'd appreciate! Cheers!
 What! I read it again then jumped for joy and high fived the air beside me (maybe i should have kept that part to myself) I was actually in the blog pack!

My goal when I started writing random stuff that nobody was reading on my blog was to get into the blog pack. I though If i made in there then at least a few people would read my blog. To my amazement a few people have already been reading it and your continued supportive comments are really appreciated! Seriously its actually an awesome feeling when someone says they like what you wrote or made ect.

So stick around more stories, tips & tricks and randomness that I post. Hope you like it :)

Sunday 6 February 2011

Trading - its not as fun as i thought.

Ok so yeah i did make a bit of money off trading. I turned 50 mill into over 150mill. But what i have figured out is all that small profit margin trading stuff is of the queer persuasion. I like the solid deals where i can buy something and turn straight back around and sell it. for more.

I recently fond a great set of trade systems. In on the raven was selling for pretty low price. In the other the raven was selling for a lot higher price. The beauty of this spot is that the two systems are in different regions so you cant see that you are getting ripped off without doing a bit of research.

So i bought a couple of ravens, made the 5 jumps necessary to get to the other system, put up a sell order and bam! I had made over 15mill per ship :D


I am going to stop doing the small margin trading stuff and only do some trading when I find a good deal like this one. Its funny, a lot of isk can be made from people too lazy to travel a few jumps to get something cheaper.



Ok so here are the skills you should train up if you are going to get right into trading.

Marketing  allows to setup remote sell orders.
Procurement allows to setup remote buy orders
Daytrading  allows to change orders remotely
Visibility  increases maximal effective range of buy orders

The ranges for the above 4 skills:
  • level 0: limited to current station
  • level 1: anywhere within current solar system
  • level 2: 5 jumps
  • level 3: 10 jumps
  • level 4: 20 jumps
  • level 5: entire region
Trade +4 additional orders per level.
Retail +8 additional orders per level.
Wholesale +16 additional orders per level.
Tycoon +32 additional orders per level.

max = 305 order

Accounting reduces default tax rate for 10% per level from 1% to 0.5% at level 5
Broker Relations  reduces broker fee for 5% per level from 1% to 0.75% at level 5
Margin Tradingdecreases amount of ISK you have to place in buy orders. values are:
  • level 0: 100%
  • level 1: 75%
  • level 2: 56.25%
  • level 3: 42.18%
  • level 4: 31.64%
  • level 5: 23.73%


Good luck with your trading!

Friday 4 February 2011

Theres this thing called life...

I havnt posted in a little while, oops! This thing called life got in the way of playing eve or posting. I dont usually post about my real life but I thought I would just share this part seeing as its the reason I didnt post and it is very exciting (for me at least :D)

I went away for 2 days to bathurst soaring club (in case anyone knows it) and started learning to fly a glider.


It has always been my dream to have a career in aviation and be some type of pilot whether it be a helicopter pilot or commercial pilot I wouldn't mind.

I recently found out that my hours in the glider will go towards my powered plane hours as so it is a great hobby for me to take up. I will be going up there every second weekend and hopefully go solo soon!


The other thing taking up my time was going into year 10. It is an important year for me because I need to do well to get into the selective school I want to go to so I decided to set up good habits and do all my homework ect. fun :)

I can also learn to drive (a car) in about a month so I will be able to drive up to the gliding club and back which is 3 hours away and get my gliding hours and driving hours up at the same time :D

Sorry If this bores you. Back to eve next time.

Also this video is of some gliding aerobatics, in case you dont know what gliding is, or if you want to see some cool shiz lol