Friday 31 December 2010

Fortnightly Photo #6 - Tengu: Dawn of an Era

Click to make biga
Its the holidays, for some that means more time for eve but for me it means more time with family, friends and most importantly the beach. So for this fortnightly photo I just created a simple background incorporating my favorite eve ship, the tengu.

If you dont like it, give me a better idea :) I can only come up with so many ideas, so fast and sometimes they just dont come when i need them to. So leave a comment below with a fortnightly photo you would like me to create. It can be any type of image you like.

Fly safe,
serenity one

Friday 24 December 2010

The experiment

Firstly let me start off by wishing everyone a merry Christmas or just a good holiday if you don't do it. I hope it all goes to plan and everyone has an awesome one. Oh and also have a happy new year :) I personally am looking forward to Christmas because out of my stocking i will be getting a brand new gaming pc :D

Right now that thats out of the way lets get into my little experiment. Basically I was in a great little corp called southern cross coalition that had around 40 players and was a real blast. Unfortunately the CEO stopped playing as much so i moved on to Metalworks which had about 450 players when i got their. I did have a bit of fun to start with but definitely not as much. So what I am doing is going to another small corp to check out the differences and see which i like the most.

The corp I have chosen is called United federations, which is a small Australian mission running corp which has about 40 players. I have moved all my gear from 0.0 already because all i had to do was stuff it in my carrier and make a jump to low sec :) Also my roles were dropped yesterday so i should be in the new corp within the next 24 hours.

Now i thought i would right up the positives and negatives of large and small corps which i will update after a month or two in the new corp.

Small corp                                                   

Pro's:
  • You feel needed for the corp to succeed.
  • People care and will usually help you out.
  • Get to know people better because there aren't hundreds of them
  • more to come!
Con's:

  • Not always people on to talk to
  • Not always people on to do stuff with
  • more to come!


Large corp

pro's:
  • Always someone to talk to
  • so many players there's bound to be like minded ones.
  • huge fleet fights (could also be a con)
  • More to come!
Con's
  •  Too many people talking at once
  • Too many people doing the stuff you like so you miss out.
  • Your treated like a porn in an army
  • more to come!
If you have any pro's / con's to add please leave a comment.

Fly safe,
Captain Serenity

    Sunday 19 December 2010

    Fortnightly Photo #5 - Minmatar desktop BG

    Click for a bigger version


    Here is the last desktop backgorund of the series. Next will be some other art inspired by eve. Sorry about not actually posting this on Friday, i forgot, what with the holidays and me not being at home and all that but here it is now. I hope my Minmatar friends like it.

    I actually like this one the best out of all four of them, In my opinion the colours contrast each other well and the simple design with rough edges brings out the true sticky tape and glue feeling of minmatar ships. hope you like it too.

    If you have any ideas for future Fortnightly photo's please comment below. If you would like to see the other backgrounds or some other art, use the following links.

    All artwork

    Caldari Desktop Background
    Gallente Desktop Background
    Amarr Desktop Background

    Fly safe,
    Serenity one

    Friday 17 December 2010

    Update #7 - Facelift

    The Neocom is finally having a face lift. Its about bloody time!

    As soon as i saw the above picture i thought, "rip off". Its exactly like windows 7! not that thats actually a bad thing, windows 7 looks pretty cool. I just thought it thats all... :)

    The thing i dont like about what they are doing is, their releasing a beta version straight to TQ. yes a BETA verison! They said it will be easier to test when you are actually playing. Lets just hope there arent any huge bugs like all their other releases.

    In other news as you probably know if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, my alt is training exhumers 5 so i can sell her as an uber hulk pilot. So the night before the patch to take away learning skills it has 20 days 16 hours to go. Guess what it has after the patch? yes... 4 days! That means i will be able to train every ore skill to 5, round out the mining drone skills and maybe even get some production skills, or scrap metal processing.

    Also on my main i trained a bunch of engineering (energy skills) to 5 so I have a lot of cap stability now :) That also knocked over 20days of my tengu plan. The one where im maxing all the related skills. Im pretty damn close now :D

    Thursday 16 December 2010

    Eve blog banter #23 - Force Fed


    Welcome to the twenty-third installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

    With Incursion giving us glimpses of what Incarna will have to offer (the the Character Creator), this month's topic, by @Minerpewpew, comes just at the right time. He asks "What are your thoughts on how Incarna will effect the current EVE Online social dynamic?" I'd like to see this questioning go a bit further. How will this affect EVE's player base? Who will Incarna attract? New players to the genre? Seduce old players back into the game? Will we see new players come in that will never leave their station? Please explore to the best of your abilities!


    Im going to talk a bit about the two upcoming expansions. Lets start.

    In eve you dont have to do stuff you dont want to. You can be a miner and ignore combat because sitting there stroking rocks turns you one so much more. Or perhaps that bores you to the point of tears and you rather the fast paced world of small gang warfare. Whatever your play style, whether you play in a frigate or a titan you dont have to play the other parts of the game that you dont like. This is actually one of the main reasons i like eve so much. There are (almost) endless possibilities of what you can do so you can pick the stuff you like and discard the rest.

    So with incursion it seems to me like it is being forced down our throats like broccoli when your a kid, no ones likes it. Seriously what was ccp thinking? As a PVE player I do like the concept of the sansha invasions but when they take over your system you will have to drop everything and fight them off, otherwise there will be negative impacts. Lets hope that there aren't to many of these incursions in o.o because it could be a real pain in the ass for alliances already fighting each other for sov and now sansha is coming to stur it up a bit as well.

    Now for incarna. I think it will make people more attached to there character because instead of it just being a round blob of metal which you cant really relate to, you can relate to a humanoid character. This could be the pink fluffy expansion that gets more females into the game as they can spend time created stunning characters. Incarna may also attract some more WOW'ish player that like that play style of running around depending what sort of things you can do in the station.

    For people who already play the game, the hardcore players if you will it will affect in a different way. Incarna could just turn into a more sophisticated version of spinning ships in station for theses guys. There are definitely possibilities for some good station content but the main game is out in space. So I guess im saying it could be a bit of a waste of development hours that could have been spent doing something truly awesome to reward the longtime users.


    Thats my view and im sticking to it.

    Participants List:



    Fly safe,
    Serenity one.

    Wednesday 15 December 2010

    Trading: its fun :)



    you know i never really got into trading in the past but right now i dont feel like scanning for plexes or anything because its hot weather and im always at the beach. So instead i spend a few minutes a day doing some trading and in about one day i made 23mill :) Yes its not the big bucks but its actually fun.

    Im still way new too this but so far its going well. One thing ive learnt is buy low sell high. So keeping this in mind i went out and bought 4 drakes for 26 999 999. The next lowest sell order was 29 980 000. I then turned straight back around and put my own sell order up at 29 900 000! Now sprinkle with magic dust, bake at 180 degrees for a couple of hours and you've made 5.8mill.

    Someone else had then made a lower sell order than mine over night of 29 899 999. I thought 1 isk wars only happened in jita! No sweat though I just changed my sell order to 29 800 000 so they would think twice about going lower than me again and wait another couple of hours and bam! you got around 11mill.

    This is really beginner stuff but it was a bit of a gamble spending 108mill on the ships in the first place. Now that it worked im going to look into some other items see where else i can make some isk.

    If you have any tips for a wannabe trader, please let me know in the comments section. Otherwise ill just keep stumbling forwards and hopefully find my way to the pot of gold under the rainbow.

    Till that happens,
    Fly Safe,
    Serneity one

    Friday 10 December 2010

    Gooder eve: Ingame fitting tool

    Another response (or addition) to evoganda's "Gooder eve" series.

    So in game we have to fit modules to a ship to see the exact stats because there are so many factors affecting them its hard to calculate manually. This can be very costly if you get the wrong items or the ship doesnt have enough cpu for them all and it would save a lot of time being able to make up ship fittings and see exact values for dps, tank and speed ect. and show you the numbers like they will be when your in the ship.

    You may be saying, why not just jump onto EFT or EVE HQ and test a few fitts. Well heres the answer. they are not accurate. there i said it. If you have ever used both tools and compared the info it spits back out to you, well its just not all the same. Dont get me wrong, they are both very good tools and I am so grateful for the ppl that made them, an in game fitting planner would just be so much better :)

    We already have the ability to save fittings and share them with others and it tells us if we can use all the items in the fitting, So it shouldn't be that hard to make it pull the pilots info and show the stats for the ship and mods fitted. It would be really handy when sharing and making ship fittings with others too because all the stats would be right in front of you as you swap items in and out and you wouldnt have to export the fitting then import it to EFT to see your own stats.

    This in game fittings planner would also help people playing on mac computers. This is a concern to me because roughly half my play time, i play on a mac and it seriously pisses me off that i cant do a simple think like plan ship fittings. I have to get a corp mate to do it or just wait till i can jump back on a pc.

    Some features that would make it a breeze to use would be things like drag and drop for instance. Simply drag an item from the market or from inside your hangar onto the fitting planner and the stats pop up. (comment below with any other ideas like this)

     So pretty much i think it would benefit the game by if a ship fitting planner was added and i would like to hear your opinions.

    Fly smart,
    Serenity one.

    Sunday 5 December 2010

    Free ISK, Free Ships, Free Beer!

    FREEEE ISK!


    Im a long time member of Evebowl forums where they hold many lotto's,  competitions and  have many great guides (its the forum for the eve guides website). There are lotto's ranging from free 10mill ones happening every single day to ones with huge prize pools such as the carrier / freighter lotto.

    Now just the other day they added a feature that i really love. Its called Evebowl cash and it works like this. Every time you reply to a thread you will receive 1 point. Every time you start a thread you will receive 3 points. the points are worth 2.5 * less than 1mill isk, for example 10 points / 2.5 = 4mill isk. How sweet is that! you get payed to enter free lotto's and chat with me in the forums!

    The points can be spent in the Evebowl store on ships or you can convert them into isk by sending the points to me with a comment cashout and the character name eg. CASHOUT: SERENITY ONE. I will take 10% out of this then send the isk to that character.

    You think you want to try this out? Its simple. Follow the steps below to get setup and i will even send you two free points!

    1. Go here and register for an account. 
    2. Enter one free lotto here
    3. Make a new thread here with your name as the title and tell everyone a little about yourself (doesnt have to be long)
    4. And finally leave a comment in my thread here, saying that i invited you to Evebowl and i will send you some points.

    Hope to see you there,
    Serenity one

      Friday 3 December 2010

      Fortnightly Photo #4 - Amarr BG

      And now for the 3rd in the background series, Amarr! The previous ones in the series are, Caldari and Gallente.

      Click for a BIG version!


      I hope you amarrians like this, if not screw ya! No but seriously if you dont like it or you have some tips or anything like that just leave a comment. Also leave a comment if you do like it :D

      I am nearing the end of this series (just the minmatar one to do) so leave a comment if you want me to make something specific otherwise i will just go back to random eve inspired artwork till i think of another series i can do.

      Till next time,
      Serenity one

      Wednesday 1 December 2010

      Tengu Tactics

      Click to make HUGE-MUNGOUS


      So Ive had my wonderful Tengu for about 2 weeks now. I went and bought myself a buzzard to complement it so i could scan down plex's to run. With just about maxed skills It takes me around 6 minutes to fully scan down a plex so if I pick the right signature to scan down it is quick cash.

      Unfortunately It is not that easy to find plex's. In those two weeks I have scanned 12 systems everyday and only found three plex's, The first was a Guristas troop re-invigoration camp (6/10). From this one you get a 19th overseas personal effects (I think) worth 50mill + you have a chance of getting some pithi type loot. I was pumped, i thought i could make a bill and pay back my tengu in one or two plex's. Oh how wrong I was lol. All i got from that was the personal effects. Still 50mill for 40minutes of plexing + however long it took me to scan all the systems before i got there is pretty decent.

      My second plex was an 8/10 (Piths penal complex). This one would be harder than the first and would have a definite drop of some personal effects worth 80mill. The 8/10 doesn't have as good drops as the 6/10 can but you could still get lucky. Which I was not... Yep again all i get is the personal effects.

      The Last plex i scanned down (yesterday) I bookmarked it and quickly drove over to where my tengu was parked. When i came back there was some bloody people in it! They had been in system when I was scanning so I guess they probably were already doing the plex before i even got there. This sucked a bit. Well a lot because i had got really excited when i finally found one after a week of nothing.

      Next time there are people in system when i find a plex i will cloak up so they cant see im in a scanning ship and ask in local if they are ratting. that way if they say yes, they are ratting i can go get my tengu and i should be able to get the plex. If however, they say they are plexing I can warp to the plex and check out the first room to see if they really are doing it. If they are really doing it I will hang my head and continue on my way.

      EDIT: I just found my fourth plex :) got a 19th overseas personal effects and a dread guristas large shield booster. All up worth 80 - 90mill which im happy with (although a pithi booster would have been nicer.

      TACTICS:

      6/10
      With a cheap (1bill) fit like mine you warp into the first room and sit there, killing the couple of cruisers. The 2nd and 3rd rooms you can do the same, just move around if you start taking to much damage (which you wont unless you suck at fitting them). The 4th room is the only one where you may see a light spattering of red on your shields that will quickly dissipate if you drop a jet can and orbit it at around 10km.

      For this purpose i carry with me 100 tungsten charges that I found in a wreck i looted. drag the charges to an empty spot in your cargo while pressing shift. you can then select how many items you want to separate from the stack. Type in one and hit enter. You can then create a jet can simply by right clicking on the single tungsten charge and selecting jettison. To make orbiting easier so you dont have to right click and select orbit then the distance every time, you can select the can in space and on your overview controls, right click the orbit button and select the default distance you would like (mines 10km). Now when you jettison a can just select it then hit the orbit button and you will orbit at 10km! whoa that's sweet right!

      Once the update comes out where you can map a command to any key you could easily make orbit me "O" so all you have to do is select the jet can and hit "o" to start orbiting.

      8/10
      In the 8/10 it is very similar (warp in -> drop can -> orbit can -> kill shit!). One difference however will be your priority killing list. Just to make it clear if you are webbed you are dead. Speed is your tank (as well as those nice shield boosters :D). When you warp in your priority will be to kill things that are webbing / Neuting you. If web / neut towers have you red boxed kill them, otherwise if they are not attacking you, you wont need to quite yet (if at all). Next will obviously be frigs (Webbing frigs -> scramming frigs -> other frigs), then onto cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships and finally any bosses.

      In the final room there are too many enemies for this tactic so fly directly away from the groups of enemies till your about 80km from them all the while killing of frigs. once at this distance maneuver around them in a big circle by double clicking a few degrees towards the enemies when there distance starts increasing. If you use a fit similar to mine you will have no trouble finishing them off like this.     

      Hope you enjoyed this post or it helped you out in someway. Once i find a 9/10 i will report if i can do it solo and how to do it. A quick not: you cannot solo the last room of the maze (10/10) in the tengu.