It’s time again for the Steam Holiday sale, and that can only mean one thing: MMO Sales to be found all around! Here is a list of the games you can find on sale at Steam this week, all of which should be on sale until January 3rd. You have a week and a half, so don’t put it off too long!

Please remember that all of these price are in USD.

Mega Packs:

• Everquest: Underfoot Complete Collection (Game + 16 expansions) $39.99 $35.99
• Everquest: Starter Pack (Game + 15 expansions) $19.99 $4.99
• Star Wars Galaxies Complete Collection (Game + 3 expansions) $19.99 $9.99
• Everquest 2: The Shadow Oddessy (Game + 4 expansions) $19.99 $4.99
• Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection (Game + 4 expansions) $19.99 $11.00
• Guild Wars Trilogy (Game + 2 expansions) $49.99 $44.99

More sales after the break!

Titles By Price:

• Everquest 2: Runes of Kunark Starter Pack $19.99 $4.99
• Pirates of the Burning Sea $19.99 $4.99
• Lineage $9.99 $4.99
• Vanguard† $19.99 $4.99
• City of Heroes: Architect Edition (Game + expansion) $19.99 $9.99
• Lineage 2: Gracia Final $19.99 $9.99
• Champions Online $29.99 $10.19
• Age of Conan††  $19.99 $13.39
• Guild Wars GOTY Edition $19.99 $17.99
• Cities XL Regular Edition $39.99 $19.99
• Cities XL Limited Edition $49.99 $24.99
• Fallen Earth $49.99 $24.99
• Guild Wars Nightfall $29.99 $26.99
• Guild Wars Factions $29.99 $26.99
• Global Agenda††† $49.99 $44.99
• Aion $49.99 $44.99

Disappointments

For the fact that holiday sales are supposed to knock people on the fence, off the fence, who may be considering buying your product, there are a number of sales that I take issue with.

In regards to Aion, Global Agenda, and the Guild Wars Trilogy, they aren’t exactly sales as much as they are temporary price reductions. Although any sale is good, taking five dollars off of a full priced game is not going to shift me into the “I have to have it” mode that, say, the Everquest bundle for $5 will. I am not saying that Aion should put itself on sale for five dollars, but the fact that I can get a better deal off of my store employee discount, makes this not much of a sale.

I was also surprised to not see Crimecraft (either edition), nor Warhammer Online on this list. The two titles could use the influx of subscribers that a sale would bring in, what with Warhammer shutting down servers and Crimecraft going free to play.

†According to Steam, activation and download may take up to 48 hours after purchase for Vanguard.
†† According to Steam, Age of Conan keys can not be used on existing accounts.
††† Although Global Agenda is on sale now, it will not be available until February 1st, 2010.
†††† In most cases, current accounts are not eligible to receive additional time by purchasing these keys off of Steam. Check your individual game before purchasing.

I am now flying a Battle Cruiser. These ships are well balanced between speed and firepower, they also have a large amount of drone storage. Currently running a light blaster, Tech2 drone configuration with a duel repair armour tank, typical of the Gallente ship formats. This does mean getting in very close so this ship is great in fleets sat at gates.

Here is a quick picture of the new planets in Dominion, they really are quite spectacular. When you see the cloud formations moving, and the suns position change, as well as populated planets having city lights and detail features its quite impressive.

Finally a quick picture of a recent fleet battle, with over 100 ships taking out a Caldari fleet. Fleets run in a very structured manner, with communications carried out via voice (VOIP)

I looked down at the contract again. It was signed Miranda Tenoba, a capsuleer Hauler pilot whom had not only decided to hopefully donate a Navy Comet to the Advent Celebration if it was within her means, but also had a “mystery ship” enroute to me in Dal.

She had decided even I deserved a Christmas gift.

I smiled. That smile remained all day.

ADVENT DAY 23

PRIZE: Well, these last two days we’ve got a lot of stuff to give away still. Here’s the list:

TASK: The last two days before Christmas are upon us! I hope everyone has finished their shopping! In fact, why don’t you share with us one of your most dreadfully funny Christmas shopping experiences with us! That’s an order, pilot.

Post your entry in the comments below, or email me at adventcelebration@gmail.com. I will announce today’s winner at 10 PM EST.

So the other night I meantion that we, Net 7, recently recieved some unwelcome guests to our neighboring system. These people never asked, started no conversation, nothing. Just dropped a territorial claim unit, and a POS RIGHT NEXT to our HQ system in nullsec! We initially took out their TCU hours before it was set to go online. WTG corp! We left the pos for another night. Tonight was that night. We quickly assembled a capital fleet, and as many battleships as we could gather. We had an impressive turnout! In the end we took out two cruise batteries, and a few warp disruptor before puttng the pos into reinforced mode. Tomorrow we return in exactly 21 hours to return to the POS and destroy it.

Katsumi has had the privilage to fly along capital ships and fleets that she once only dreamed about. Now it’s becoming a reality.

She faces one more path to chose: It’s been a while now, and it’s time I get a capital ship. The choice has to revolve around jumping ability and the ability to haul a decent ammount of stuff. We’ve got carrier pilots, and JF’s.  I don’t know what I want to do just yet. I’m heavily debating between a Jump Freighter, and a Carrier. Both are remarkibly close in training time. I believe there is only about a 30 days difference. In just 3mo. 10 days I could have myself an Amarrian Ark. OR, there is my debate of getting a Rorq. I could fly one in 76 days. I hear they are good in mining too. Something Kat doesn’t do much of, but the Rorq would have jump clone ability, AND i’d get some decent mining skills along the way.

The Rorq would do two things: It’s supply me with jumping ability to get in and out of nullsec quickly and safe, it’d have enough storage to jump most all my ships. Second: It’d introduct Kat into some decent mining ability for when plexing/PVP are not available, or get boring.

However, a Carrier would be great for pvp ops, and I assume it could do a great deal of other things as well. The Jump Freighter would be a great, quick way to get a good hauler, it also finishes Transport Ships & Freighters along the way

Now, Katsumi’s alt… She has under 700k SP. lol. What to do with her! I’m thinking of going straight for capital. She could have one in about 4 months. Technically beating Kat in the race to capital ships. However, if she’s going for capital fights, it’d be a different story, she’d need guns, reps and other stuff as well. Therefore I am thinking of taking her straight to a rorq. Or perhaps an Orca. Though I’m almost certain at this point she’ll be flying a Rorq by April or May, 2010. That is: If I keep her subscription going. it’s getting expensive with just two accounts.

The father.

Let me just start this with a phrase I’ve always, always wanted to use but could never achieve the correct context:

I effing called it.

As of Dominion, WH mining is no longer the best mining profitable task, having been completely outstripped by nullsec mining. For the chain of logic that lead to this conclusion, look no further than the following paragraphs:

I was sitting in a WH belt, mining and thinking about how much I love mining in WHs, when I saw probes on the directional. Entering a professional state of panic, I told my ship to warp to PoS and waited the agonizing seven seconds before my 200 mil ship was safe, all the while asking if the probes were ours or someone trying to kill us for the fun of it.

The probes weren’t ours, so you can imagine my surprise when I wasn’t trapped in a bubble on my way to the PoS; and the greater surprise I had when the pilot convoed me to say hi and not “Grrr, Grrr, you win this time, but we will have your very expensive ship for our killboards. Arrrrgh” or whatever pirates say. Apparently, through some act forgotten to me and him, our respective corporations had set each other to blue, which was strange, as his corporation was a nullsec habiter and we were a highsec mining corp. He revealed himself as an old WH miner that left the WH for nullsec come Dominion, with good reason, so he said. He invited me for a look around his nullsec, as his alliance and all nearby alliances were NBDS. Immediately suspicious, I took my sister gear off my covops, slapped on a normal scanner and flew after him. After flying past an impressive warp bubble on a gate:We made it to his alliance’s industry V system, and he excused himself while I scanned out some gravs. The small ones were easy to get too, and contained about 80k of ABC ores, and the large ones were slippery, but similarly had a goodly amount of ABC ores and some BS wrecks, one of which I found a survey scanner on, one of the items we never seem to have in the wormhole.

The dude explained to me that the belts would refresh themselves about every 36 hours, and were able to support thirty hulks with orca and rorqual bonuses happily, aside from some hostile stealth bombers who liked to AFK in system.

The feeling I was experiencing at this moment was akin to beating your head against a brick wall when suddenly someone walks up and points out a Styrofoam wall a few feet to your left. That… dispenses candy or something when you beat your head against it. This nullsec system had cyno jammers up for five systems in any direction, local chat, an intel channel to point out threats five jumps before they came near, and most mortifying of all, a station where the ABCs that in the WH we had been carefully compressing and hauling slowly to Jita, were being refined at a 4% tax w/ a 100% yield.

In Apoc, the WH was king. It seems that the WH has been king for too long, and I have heard from CCP from somewhere that “We never intended to have long-term habilitation in wormholes”, which would probably explain why grav sites stop appearing in our WHs after a week and a half, and why we can’t set up moon miners.

If CCP wants to shift focus from WH mining to nullsec mining, that’s fine. I mean, Apoc made WHs king, now Dominion comes along with vast changes to nullsec, they’re gonna want attention to nullsec more, and better belts seems the best way to do it. It just seems ta me that they overdid it just a tad. Unless a nigh-infinite source of every conceivable ore type next to a perfect refiner seems reasonable to someone out there?

(Actually, the dude told me that they don’t have enough tritanium for their manufacturing, so they’ve been jump freightering it in. I kid you not)

Similarly heard from the dude, CCP made the belts overly rich because they expected the changes in sovereignty to make everyone and his dog start fighting bloodily over every square mile of space-dust. Since in actuality, the big alliances are consolidating their space to conserve cash and there really being no reason to expand, there’s much, much less fighting than expected, the market is going/already has been flooded w/ lowsec minerals, ecetera. I really hope that CCP makes a few small tweaks to these gravs before WH turns into the equivalent of mining veldspar in lowsec with local minimized, one jump from highsec.

Also, the dude explained to me how to use that newfangled sovereignty button for something other than remembering how to spell sovereignty, and it’s pretty detailed on every concivable system, but it is odd that there’s been seven ships and one pod destroyed in my wormhole’s “region”, whatever that is.

What’s gonna be big in 2010?

1. Cross-platform

Convergence has always been a big story – it’s a nirvana like ‘the paperless office’ which has never quite happened, but keeps everyone thinking.

The world of TV, film, games, internet and mobile… there really is a fertile ground now for interplay. It was great to see Oil Productions’ project for Channel 4 and Wellcome Trust, Routes, win an award at the BIMAs. It’s also interesting to see the platforms expand – Playfish, Miniclip, King.com… and games like Eve Online start to pick up again as Massively Multiplayer Online Games really go massive.

Whatever happened to Second Life? It hasn’t made the cross-over from online tool to mobile-internet-digital constant like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Maybe it was too complex. Maybe its time came too early. Maybe it hyped things up, but didn’t have the follow-through?

The noughties internet tools are all massively simple, fast and converged – where Second Life was complex, slow and over-rated. Learn the lessons. Like widgets on the iPhone app… just a feature or two – a quick stab or a prolonged study of simple raw data. More of these in 2010.

Will they be faddish? Will they stick? An experienced gamer tells me that it’s an 8 week cycle for people to get into a game, do it to death, then move on. I suppose, like a swarm of locusts, they don’t always get to the grassy green patch at the same time, so the grazing with each game takes some time to work through the system.

Club Penguin, anyone? I really don’t get it. Prediction: radical remodelling of that particular Disney expensive asset. But, Playfish and Miniclip will go from strength to strength (and multiple million valuations already!)

2. Alternative currencies

One fascinating explosion alongside online identity is the need for micro-payments. Or, the potential for online trading between participants on a platform? Much of this can happen outside the normal currencies that are national constructs 

3. 3D web

Like the paperless office, there are other old ‘chestnuts’ that have come of age… oft talked about, but always the bandwidth has been too slow. The 3-dimensional web is one such environment that’s been heralded as a nav tool. Way back in 1998, Barclays sponsored a shopping mall that replicated the highstreet stores on a website. The 3d folk are still talking up how they can interpret reality and help us model and map it.

I’m a fan moreso of the London Underground Map. It doesn’t follow reality – but it’s a master of information design. It helps you navigate your travel plan without following the topographic reality.

Same, for me, goes for the 3D web. I don’t want to replicate the Tyneside river bank. I want a tool that is swift to travel, interesting to travel… but mostly I want to get at the data.

I’ve been converted to 3D by my kids on Wii. They travel Ben10’s lairs and levels without a map. Why can’t I find interesting data by browsing this kind of environment.

My wish for Christmas? Online 3D user manuals… how to fix my Toyota? How to fill the windscreen wash? Give me a wiki about antifreeze. I have always loved B2B applications. And, I love a self-help, self-service approach to complex data. I think 3D renders of parts, DIY projects, bus maps… with all the relevant data attached… that’s heaven.

4. Widgetty tools

Mailchimp, eventbrite, tweetdeck… we don’t want complex programmes any more. We want to get in. Do the job. Get out again. Move on. And, if it conforms to this model, we aren’t worried about paying our share.

App Store… that’s the Top of the Pops for the 2010s.

5. More mobile

I recently had my iPhone repaired and went back to a Nokia with no address book, email or web access. I couldn’t even hook up photos of my kid nativity play! Nokia makes phone handsets, not mobile PDA devices. I was bereft of my fully functioning all-connected life. 

Mobile devices are like crack. Addictive. More than that – they are essential to modern life and live/work efficiency. Mobile devices are like air. And, with that hold over us, inventors are going to make ever-more-useful interventions with tools that help make that life richer, more thrilling and busier.

Widgetty mobile thingies. Bigger.

6. E-commerce

If online shopping is big, what is the future of shops? A struggle. Or, is it? I love Re:, it’s a massive shop behind a petrol station in my local village. The founders are big hitters with PR – they get everywhere in the homewares sections of the nationals and the interiors mags. They even featured in Sunday Times Style supplement with their house in the woods this week. I’m loving this – and it’s edited by my new best friend Alex Proud’s wife!

7. Richard Florida theory

Florida made a mint by talking up Cluster Theory for the future of regeneration. He got hired by all the councils in the english speaking world and probably a bunch of Euro’s too. Except, clusters are tough to build as unique selling points if every small city in every corner of the world wants one too… how can everyone be a world leader in biotech, renewable energy and digital? They can’t. And, many cities with under 500,000 inhabitants just ain’t going to compete with the pulling power of the SuperCities. They don’t get to critical mass, tipping point la-la. But, do they stagnate?

If the facts present themselves, then switch your theory. Richard Florida has looked at this. The mobile, web2.0 world means that we are connected wherever we are. So, it’s about the social network – or the social capital that can be created by ‘nodes’ on the network. You don’t need a world-beating cluster… but if you have some world-beating iconic professionals in your village, town, city… then, there’s a hook.

For Tyneside celebs, read Cheryl Cole, Alan Shearer, Ant & Dec, Sting… Geordieland punches above its weight. In business, less corporately so. But, despite this, there are hooks to hang on… there are some pretty impressive folk dotted and spotted about – and the ‘village vibe’ is of such manageable scale that all these guys meet, cross-pollinate and fertilise. In a way that’s more enriching than in mono-culture London. Which is just too busy for folk to kick back, cook dinner and share a bottle of wine with the neighbours. Florida’s latest book talks all about place. http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/excerpt/

I’ve got a busy schedule for today, so I’ll try to keep this entry more simple and to the point.

Progress on the war is still going nicely.  “The One Who Shant Be Named” is still happy and paying, another corporation dropped from the alliance, and we’re still killing and looting.  Current kill count stands at 24 kills and 1 loss for ZPG, so it’s been moderately active lately.  Since the last update, my corpmates have managed to snag:

1 Catalyst (afk at a gate)

1 Drake (afk at a gate)

1 Hulk

1 Retriever

1 Cerberus

2 Pods (of the afk pilots mentioned above)

I will admit that I was hoping for more pod kills.  Perhaps we were spoiled from our previous war, but our current pod kills only stands at 5, that means we’re only successful at snagging the pod slightly more than 25% of the time (24-5/5).  I’d like to see that at closer to half, but the enemy has been very attentive to getting their pods off the scene quickly after the battle and it’s been difficult to lock them even with sensor boosted interceptors.  Kudos to them.  We’ll have to re-evaluate our tactics and see if we can increase that figure.

The only fight I was present for and that I would deem entertaining was the demise of Jethron’s retriever, if only for the fact that a bit of unluck on our part nearly cost us the kill.  We had actually warped to his belt while he was mining, only to find that he had just warped off to the station.  We hoped he was merely offloading some ore, and quickly burned back to the gate and jumped out.  Within a minute or so he was back in the belt, oblivious that we had just been there not 60 seconds prior, and was quickly locked/scrammed/popped.  Shame it was a mining barge instead of that Armageddon or Prophecy I was promised. 

The Cerberus kill was the result of a trap on their part involving us trying to catch an enemy Atron.  While my Ares was quite banged up by the end of that fight, we managed to take him down without a loss on our end.  He had a hardy tank for a Cerb though.  Hats off for being willing to put such a shiny ship into battle against superior numbers.

The last item for this entry deals with a new corporation that has joined up with the UIF alliance:  The Makena (possibly misspelled – unable to check in game at the moment).  I’ve heard tales of them supposedly being a hard-core PVP corp that plans to put us in our place, but the only thing I’ve seen them do so far is die afk at gates.  Did someone forget to tell them that they’re at war?

-Barashi

EVE Online no longer has a sheen of playability, and it’s icon doesn’t inspire procrastination, and when I play it, it feels like a chore. Maybe it’s because I no longer have anyone to talk to in-game, my corps dead, maybe because I’m in a rut. It’s probably just denial, but then is it really worth to keep on moving in a relationship that I don’t get back from?

Relationships are a two way deal, I should be getting back on this. I should be having fun! I give the developers money, I get fun back. So if I don’t fun back, I’m just handing money to some guys in another country. It’s a tad awkward isn’t it?

Maybe I should start seeing someone else? Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, it could fit with my schedule. Maybe I should look into getting in-depth with you EVE Online? Worm-hole space could be interesting, after all, staying in the mining care-bear high-sec has gotten boring. It’s no longer the party it once was.

Much like Tobold’s knowledge of MMO blogging history (Lum invented it, if you did not know…), his understanding of business success also seems to be a little off. Actually I’m going to go out and say the above-linked post is just a troll attempt to drum up traffic and get him more Blizzard freebies, because I believe Tobold is a lot smarter than that post would indicate, but sometimes its fun to play along and feed the trolls. Plus it seems Tobold is not the only one confused on this subject, so in the spirit of giving, here goes.

If one MMO has 300k subs, and the other has 50k, which one is more successful? If you answered anything but “that depends”, you are Tobold.

Because if that 300k MMO cost 50 million to produce, and the 50k one cost 5 million, guess who is going to get in the black sooner? If that 300k MMO need 500k subs to just break even based on all associated costs, while the 50k one needs 40k, guess who is profitable? If that 300k MMO spent 10 million on advertising to boost initial sales, and the 50k MMO spent nothing, who again needs to sell a lot more copies just to break even? If that 300k MMO is losing 5000 players a month, and the 50k MMO is growing at a rate of 10% month-to-month, guess which one is going to have a server shut-down party and an employee meeting in the parking lot? And finally, if you are an MMO dev, which title would you rather be associated with; the expensive failure or the small success story?

Numbers aside, it would be wise of Tobold (and anyone else in that camp) to research EVE’s history of growth, and compare it to the rest of the MMO genre during that time. I’d also look at the number of MMOs growing after 5+ years, because the list is rather short. Actually, the list of MMOs that continued to grow after just one year is rather short itself, although come February it will have another name added to the list, one that both Tobold and Lum wish would go away.

The flight deck was bustling with activity. I had extra contractors on hand to help with the additional workload. Leo, my chief mechanic and Senior Hangar Manager was scurrying to and fro, bellowing orders as he went, trying to get things in order for me.

“An’ there’s still more a comin’ in.” Leo said. “I ne’er seen the likes of this, laddie. Ye done yerself some fine work eer.”

I still really only understood about half of what Leo said to me on a daily basis, but when put into context with his body language and wild hand gesturing, it was enough.

The capsuleers of New Eden had indeed made this a Christmas worth remembering, and already my message center was constantly lit up like a Christmas tree with thanks and appreciation from across the galaxy.

I checked another contribution off the list, accepted the contract, and moved on. Soon I would have to hop into my Republic Fleet Firetail, the Renegade, and begin my hasty journey around the universe, covering all four Empires to collect the donated ships and items; I felt like the fat man himself.

Leo dropped a red hat on my desk, with a white puffy pom pom on top, and white fur trim around the base. “What the hell is this?” I asked him.

“Tis the season.” he replied, a wide grin spanning his face.

Ordinarily I would’ve had some glib and sarcastic response, but my view regarding Christmas had changed a lot in the last few days, so I figured, what the hell.

I donned the toque, and headed for my intergalactic sleigh. So help me, if anyone took a picture…

ADVENT DAY 22

Before we get started with today’s contest, I just want to thank those of you who contracted your donations to me already. Here is our remaining prize list, including yesterday’s prize package, which I don’t actually have in my hangar yet, so please, if you committed to donating, do so as soon as you can.

• $100 Racial Theme Pack from the EVE Online Store
• Mystery Fit Retribution
• 2 Dramiel
• 1 Stabber (part of Dec 21st prize)
• 1 Rupture
• T2 Shield Purgers Arbitrator
• 1 Republic Fleet Stabber
• 1 Scythe
• 1 Rifter
• 1 Year Free Hosting at LoneTrek hosting
• 20,000 units winner choice federation navy hybrid charges
• 20,000 units winner choice republic projectile ammo (part of Dec 21st prize)
• 1 Ishkur Assault ship
• 1 Nemesis Stealth Bomber
• 500 million ISK (100 million part of Dec 21st prize)
• Full set of +4 implants
• Cameo Appearance in a fiction piece by Hallan Turrek
• Cameo Appearance in a fiction piece by Roc Wieler
• 1 Cynabal
• 2 PLEX care of CCP

That’s one helluva list, and we’re going to make some pilots very happy over these final few days. Thanks again!

PRIZE: ???

TASK: The 12 days of Christmas is a very popular seasonal song. Today’s task is to rewrite that song, making it Eve related. Post your submissions in the comments below, or email me at adventcelebratoin@gmail.com. Usually I post the emails I get into the relevant blog. Yesterday I did not simply due to lack of time. I apologize.

BREAKING NEWS

With all the hustle and bustle in the loading dock, a synthpaper reporter managed to sneak himself in with a work crew and snagged this picture of Colonel Wieler before he was caught and summarily thrown out.

* thanks to Orthaanc Isengard for creating this image

Congratulations to Nathan Carver, who has won himself the following:

• 1 PLEX, care of CCP
• 1 Dramiel
• 100 million ISK
• 1 Nemesis Stealth Bomber

So.. back in the days of Silk road Online, Kat has done SOME minor PVP, but never anything large scale. Since joining what was originally a wormhole corp, who lived in w-space since their introduction into Eve, moved out and into nullsec only 1 mo after I joined them. Initially I was sad. I HATED nullsec. Never made any isk out there, never got to take part in any kind of small or large PVP op. My new corporation has been great to me, there are many friendly and helpful folks around to help a nullsec noob like myself, both in corp, and in alliance.

Recently we have been gate camping… Well, ok, recently I have been camping, with my corp-mates. Until this week, i’ve been idle. I’ve been idle with my corp since leaving w-space. But I want to change that! So this week I began taking my interceptors, battleships, and hac out to join them. It’s been quite a week! We gate camped a few nights, and one particular night we got what looked like a moderate assault force. We had bubbled a single gate, and guarded it closely. We had 6 ships total warp in.  4 drakes, a Typhoon, and a Prophecy. We ourselves had several Tengu, a handful of T2 frigs, and me in a Stealth Bomber (my favorite ship, but one I am yet to kill in). We lost two ships, myself and one other, though I don’t believe anyone was podded. We took out the entire fleet, and got MOST of their pods as well! A victorious night indeed!

Vent lit up with joy, and “Good Job Guys!”. So tonight, it started once more. I was in my hac running plex’s when we got the notice that some corp (Who will remain un-named in this blog, since it’s public) set up a SOV structure in the sys next door! Our scouts probed and observed the traffic for a while, wow, a pos as well!

After much debate, we decided to attack! while we didn’t have enough capital firepower AT THE TIME to get the pos, we all went on red-alert, jumped next door, and began to pound on the SOV structure. The invading Corp sent out a few test fleets to try and test us, we were successful in once more, showing our might! After fending them off we eventually took out their TCU! I must say, Katsumi is catching the PVP bug!

I love it, and I love my corp-mates. Hopefully we will continue to show our worth to our Alliance members and those we are blue to. The old corp I was a member of had little success in the system we’re in, which was my initial reason for not joining my new corp in their nullsec venture. But I believe this time, we have the skill, and pilots to do some damage! And we’re not constantly feeding off of our blue’s teet all the time.

We’re a force to be reckoned with, and we’re slowly but surely becoming known!

Can’t wait to log back in tomorrow. I think my Eve boredom has been cured!

-Kat

When I first started Eve, after struggling through the tutorial, giving up halfway through, getting lost twice, losing a cruiser in nullsec, lowsec and to some very prepared rats with a warp scrambler(Still have no idea how that happened), I started mining in, in order, rookie ship, navitas, two navitas’, an exequror, a brutix, a retriever, a covetor, a borrowed mawkinaw and my first hulk, followed soon after by my second, third, fourth and fifth hulk.

With highsec mining, you can practically fall asleep at the laser with no problems (Only practically, lost hulk #3 that way), and with WH mining you need to constantly be aware, but with good returns promised. Grinding level one missions, however, is the most annoying thing I’ve done in Eve since I got into an argument with some Dead Terrorist gate campers on whether or not they were simply stargazing. After they blew up my industrial

“We thought it was a comet about to hit us and took preemptive measures”

With what I would laughably call my combat alt, a month old character able to fly up to Caldari BS and baseline missile skills, L1 missions have that special combination of arduousness and simplicity that leaves me irritated out of my mind. This ironically coming from the person who mines for five hours straight often and doesn’t complain about the monotony.

Even with my inhuman tolerance for boredom, these things are irritating. My alt is compitent enough that her caracal eliminates frigate threats before they even know they’re threats, which was fun for the first ten-odd missions, but every other mission, the frigates take three to four missiles before they’re blown ta smithereens, and when you can’t tell which kind of frigate is going to take three missiles, I usually assign two assault launchers to my first two targets and a heavy missile launcher n target painter to the third and hope my missile find some sort of exhaust port.

And, even with the mission type I’m running (Internal security), I’ll eventually get chain missions with courier requirements, which are similarly samey while different enough it takes conscious thought to work out where to go.

Here’s my problem: with mining, you can unfocus your brain to the point that every three minutes, you drag the ore to the can then unfocus your brain again, hence the name “miningzen”. WH mining isn’t too different. You click the mouse every ten seconds, if your directional doesn’t scream at you, you get to live another ten seconds. The excitement and terror wears off about three days after your last ganking encounter and it’s back to monotonous clicking over and over.

With l1 missions, you have to click the mouse all over the place, finding where to go for the mission, who to shoot/not shoot/look at until you get a complete flashy journal, warp back, ask for a new mission. It’s so mind-numbingly boring while at the same time requiring enough thought that I can’t fall into a stupor while doing it.

While missions are the way they are, I’m afraid to ask CCP to change them or for people to rally behind me for more excitement, since if I do they’ll probably make mining more exciting in a completely horrible way, like make you keep your ship pointed at the asteroid or something silly. What I’m asking from the missioners who read this blog to laugh at miners or for something to do as their t2 fitted domi’s slice through L4 missions, is what Caldari ship n fit should I be using to make this task easier? I’m currently running w/ 4 assault launchers w/ random missiles, one heavy missile launcher, two ballistic controls, a medium shield booster, target painter and afterburner. Suggestions?

P.S. Anyone else find it silly that “prototype exploration ship”, the Zephyr, is one of the ship types acceptable for combat missions?

Fly to the warp-point and wait for your serpantis contact to show up.

(click to enlarge)

Zephyr Information:

The Zephyr is a unique starship design, relying almost entirely on solar winds for sublight propulsion. Super-light sails allow it to ride the torrents of photons streaming through space, and its barebones construction gives it a tiny sensor footprint and almost negligible mass.

Originally conceived by the ascetic Intaki polymath Valsas en Dilat as a demonstration of minimalist starship design, it was never intended as a commercial venture. The recent discovery of the uncharted Sleeper Territories and their myriad wormholes has brought the Zephyr new attention – its mass makes it an ideal exploration vessel.

Valsas remains adamant that the Zephyr never sees mass production, but at the close of YC111 he authorized the Intaki Syndicate to distribute a single hull to every registered capsuleer.

Note: Can fit Prototype Iris Probe Launcher; will not be targeted by Sleeper drones.

It was pointed out to me in the comments of my previous blog post that I haven’t posted in a week! Normally I have a backlog of things to say and screenshots to post, but not this time.

Over the past week it’s been fairly hectic in real life – Christmas parties, friends over for dinner etc. and time in eve has been severely limited.

News from the North is that Triumverate, White Noise, circle of two, the Initiative and Evoke have managed to take the station system in pure blind that used to be owned by The Council. As my previous post indicated, they simply had the numbers in the system before we could get there.

Now they have turned their attention to Mostly Harmless’s staging system of P-2TTL and over this past week have reinforced and destroyed the infrastructure hub, reinforced every pos we had operating in the system and reinforced the station itself.

All the the Northern Coalition alliances are now in full CTA mode and the station was saved. We are now affectionatly calling ourselves Voltron.

My first significant time online since the last post was Monday night where the majority of the time was spent sitting in my Megathron (now named Mr Pewalot due to his t2 rails) listening to intel updates on the superior numbered red-fleet and taking nice screenshots of passing fleet members:

It’s interesting to note that the exploit whereby infrastructure hubs can be attacked when there are an inadequate number of sovereignty blockers in the system is still there at this time. The hostiles started shooting the infrastructure hub in p-2 without dropping any blockers on any of the gates.

heard on teamspeak:

“they’re forgetting to pretend it’s invulnerable”
“hmm – petition them”

Triumverate have been known to use exploits and low tactics in the past. we’ve had to get used to setting our ships to keep the pos towers at range rather than sitting within the shields due to Tri spies knowing the forcefield password and warping in, bumping our ships out of the pos. It’s things like this that make me have absolutely no respect for these guys. Pandemic Legion? absolutely – very fun to fight against, gracious in both victory and defeat. Evoke? also the same – persistant bastards but always respectful and fun to fight. Triumverate? assholes, masters of local smack talk second only to Maru Ka’ge, will use any and every advantage they can get including exploits and things that rest in the grey area such as meta-gaming.

Sorry – that’s the end of my rant.

My first view of a leviathan

On this occasion we were outnumbered about 2:1 but we harassed them throughout the night, mostly with us in bombers, but with the threat of our battleship fleet not far behind it. Our titan carried about 10-15 fitted bombers in its ship maintenance bay and some of us were able to swap out to bombers and got quite a good lot of kills in one go. unfortunately there were no manticores by the time I arrived at the titan and didn’t get on any of those kills . killboard link here: http://kb.eve-42.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=113997

The situation in this system is particularly delicate – there are only 5 moons. we control 3 of them, they control 2. they are gradually killing and replacing our towers and if it turns out that we have no safe pos’s left, there will be no way we can effectively hold this system.

Dark Blood Faction POS’s look mean

I’ll keep you updated as best I can, but I’m also going away to Scotland for Christmas, so I can’t guarantee anything I have tomorrow off work however and I’ll still be fighting into the wee hours of the morning, just won’t be coherent enough to post.

edit: actually, about 45 mins after I posted this we got into a very poorly executed battleship slugfest… and once again I was primaried pretty quickly….

anyway – here’s our post-dominion sniping fleet megathrons: http://kb.eve-42.com/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=114153

Yes, what you see there is my ship going down in flames with two navy megathrons in the background.

This post by Lum is a little funny. Funny given the source, and funny given the ideas within. It’s also funny because in parts it’s more or less a time capsule of, oh, 5-10 years ago? I won’t bore you with all the details between Lum and DF, but let’s lay out some facts before we move on, shall we?

• Number of MMOs Lum has launched in the last 5 years: zero.
• Number of MMOs Tasos has launched in the last 5 years: one.

• Current game Lum is working on (chasing bots): Aion
• Current game Tasos is working on (not chasing bots): DarkFall.

• Current MMO growing in the US/EU since launch: DarkFall.
• Current MMO bleeding out in the US/EU since launch: Aion.

Amusing that Lum lumps SB, Fury, and DF together as one example in the post. Cute, but not exactly correct.

Fury was indeed a shitshow failure, but its PvP base was the least of its troubles. I would start with “The game failed to actually be playable” as my first item to address. I would then address “when playable, Fury was not remotely fun, for anyone, ever”. After that and perhaps another hundred or so issues, I’d start to think about PvP-related problems. I’d also stop calling a terribad medieval Counter-Strike clone an MMO, but that really does not matter at this point, does it?

ShadowBane had the problem of launching in a state that well, also made the game unplayable. SB.exe is a joke, but it’s really not. It’s more like dark humor, because sadly it’s true. That SB in any form was able to survive and last as long as it did is actually a tribute to its open-ended PvP base, considering once it failed at launch its financing was cut and development basically stopped. How many other forms of MMO content could survive YEARS without any meaningful updates?

And finally of course we have DarkFall, which Lum puts in the group above despite the fact that, you know, DF is growing, making money, and rapidly improving. Lum cites EVE in another example, so maybe he got his groupings mixed up?

Lum also mentions message boards and how they should be avoided at all costs by the developers. While 99% of ANY message board is at best garbage, in that 1% you CAN find some value. Consider this: if you were a teenager when Ultima Online launched, you are now in your late twenties or early thirties, hopefully educated and employed, and overall not a 13yr old basement dwelling degenerate yelling at your mom for another hotpocket. If you are the above-described gamer, you’re likely an Aion player anyway, since kids that age enjoy being an emo fairy.

Given that some of today’s MMO players have more MMO experience than some of the devs making the games, it’s not exactly out of the question that they might have an idea or two worth considering. Add in that we are talking about a genre that is still in its infancy, one that (unless you are making an EQ-clone) is still tossing out radically new ideas that may be sliced bread+1 or the next NGE, and you can’t exactly be an SME in MMO design. I mean Richard Garriott might count, but that expertise gave us Tabula Rasa, and then RG flew off to outer space.

And as Lum accurately puts it, given that a PvP-based MMO is more likely to attract the dedicated MMO player, that’s not the worst user-group to get feedback from. I’d safely say the Hello Kitty Online devs can avoid their suggestion forum however.

Looking over DF’s brief history, it would only take a little searching to see that many of the games positive changes (GC on spells, whirlwind) originated on the forums. Again, you don’t take everything written as gospel and write code based only on that, but to assume you can’t get any value out of such a dedicated and in-touch group is ridiculous. Add in the knowledge that had DF failed, those looking for a PvP MMO would either have to return to EVE or, god help us, play an emo fairy, and it’s not hard to see why those who truly are trying to help the game along are willing to put aside personal gain to improve things overall (players with high-end magic asking for magic nerfs, those who favor mounted combat explaining why it needs to be adjusted, etc).

Luckily for DF fans Aventurine does not share Lum’s stance on all of this, and so far DF is a better game for it. Good luck chasing those bots though, give em hell!

(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)

The muffled sound of prosperity and poverty rung through the travelers ears as he hurried himself through the dark lit crowded corridor of the trade hub station.  Jita was one of the most populated systems in the known universe, it was also a very dangerous hub, not just because of the con artists lurking throughout the stations of the system, but also because of the crazed martyrs waiting outside ready to throw their lives away for their proclaimed god of greed.

His time was running out.

The runner had been waiting for the opportunity to return to a pocket of unknown space after taking a reprieve for two days to settle business in other sectors.  Jita was his final stop to sell some large assets quickly and have a quick surgical fix for some head-gear.  The encrypted broadcast took the entire time he was outside to reach him.  That was a problem with these wormhole systems, even with faster than light communication it could still take a day or two to reach your receiver, and by that time, you could miss your re-entry.

The swindling mobs entangled him in a shoulder-to-shoulder web making it difficult to reach the station hangar.  These people had no care in the world for his urgency, nor would they bother to even glance away from the market price tickers stretched across the station walls or look up from their neocom hand-held devices.

The pilot managed to force his way through the crowd and to the hangar bay.  He had no time to equip a ship and wait for alignment times through 32 jumps to reach his point of entry.  A shuttle will have to do.  As he made his way to the ambiotic chamber a ragged peddler sitting in a pile of garbage with what looked like a bowl of mealworms and Amarrian wheat in his hand, threw something at him which stuck him in the back.  The pilot nearly disregarding the item, looked at the peddler who simply turned away grumbling grievances about his current dietary supplement.   As the runner turned to enter the pod chambers he glanced down noticing a holoreel.  Intrigued but without time to analyze the reel, he added it to his personal effects container to be added to his cargo, and entered the chamber.

The cold steel of mechanical automation held him in place.  Like a symbiotic insect the machine attached neuro-communication feeds to his body, and to the back of his head.  The process was strange, but he was used to it.  Once the feed was attached to his cerebrum, the chamber closed around him, and started filling up with ectoplasm.  The ambiotic fluid was warm with a feeling of greasy stickiness.  This was normal procedure, he wouldn’t be able to feel the fluid on his skin again until he became incarnate again.

Undocking any ship in Jita takes a bit of determination.  Undocking a ship full with valuable goods takes luck unless your transport has  capable guards and a decent tank.  The pilot did not expect anyone to bother with him in a shuttle, and he was right.  His mind felt the penetration of cargo scanners on the bulk of his ship, and carelessly leave seeing there were no valuables on-board.

The first few jumps were breathtaking, and then numbing as he propelled the shuttle through the bowels of space toward his destination, he only hoped there was still time.  As he reached the last few jumps to reach his entry point where a guarding sentinel would be waiting for his arrival, his mind traveled back to the holoreel the peddler had thrown at him.  What was on it he pondered.  He made a note to find out once he reached home.

To Be Continued….

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peace; thou stolen away the earth. In the flock of Milcah, the son Isaac had done unto his servants, and pursued as the mighty hunter before the hollow of my soul may go very grievous in pieces. In the angel of Simeon: Jemuel, and thirty years: and went his host, upon the birthright do remember my kindred. And Joseph knew not carry up unto Pharaoh: and encamp by the men of Abraham went up in your money. And he said, I will send, and Sheba, and he said unto the evil case, when Hagar bare me yesternight, saying, Do not

slay, and he called his garment in Haran; and we are shepherds, and twenty found no more hail; and Aaron in thy servants and lean-fleshed, and our brother, shouldest not in their father. And she called his people, and let us two. These are the selfsame day and that Jehovah God made haste; and the folk that their foreskin of the inhabitants of all the voice and this we will pass in array against you. Give me to become great. And jacob did so, and gave my face of Milcah, she went out of the children of the cattle have

pilgrimage. And the house with us; there now it up out of his father, and their father, to pass, when all that Jehovah had eaten throughout all that we saw Benjamin he died, and thy seed all the chief of the man and said, What is this rod, wherewith I will come to En-mishpat (the same is witness betwixt me and Mibsam, and his chamber, and ye spake? Is not give them to face, and we be circumcised among the day there went out of Goiim, that soul may keep this day: and Leah also called every beast thou what

Calah, and buy thee fruitful, and there forty days of the abomination unto you, be for thou say of the two daughters. And the king of thy servants, and the woman, and I have I have lifted up before he was hail, and with her pitcher to his goods, which God hath given all his land. And forty found it was Shiphrah, and I have I require; At the land of silver, and let birds did not a son: chief butler told him in bloom. But he was there shalt not longer hide from the spoil. All the field, and,

establish my lord. Thou shalt thou be called unto the cities of Pharaoh, that did eat. And they have, are the tree in his heart, and all his heart of the eyes were old, and feed their enchantments: and it was with him; But Abram said unto Israel had sent messengers returned from Ur of God hath increased exceedingly, and that it me, and third river only. And God Almighty: be with thee, and there a certain place, because of flies upon the earth. For all the days of the coat in the morning bread in peace unto them, saying,

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At first, when I heard that eve was worldwide in its player base, I thought nothing of it. There were corps that didn’t speak English well, there were language channels for people that spoke other languages, there was some huge russian alliance I didn’t want to mess with, etc, etc.

It’s been a few months since then, and in three years, four weeks of which were spent on an exchange trip in Germany, the language barrier has never been more of an irritant.

Months ago, I logged onto the WH pos to find a bunch of interceptors flying around our guns, exhausting our missile ammo. I politely asked why they were doing this, and they replied that they were showing us why we needed webbers. After a few more minutes, they started talking amounst eachother in German, and me, with my year and a half of high school German, tried to join. Predictably, I was laughed at in ways that I couldn’t understand.

A few weeks before that, I was able to hold a pleasant conversation for a few minutes with Cold Steel alliance for a few verbal rounds before they defaulted to eve-german and totally lost me.

Ad of course, there was the whole Black Wing incident with the carrier bounce and whatnot, but they knew enough English to be confused for a native speaker. Anyway, language isn’t too much of a problem because in WH space, you rarely see anyone and even rarer see anyone who isn’t trying to kill you before you can say “Wie stehts du?”. So, I’ve attributed the four to five encounters with Russian players in the WH to be entire coincidence.

First, we scanned down a nullsec WH that went to the middle of shadow of xxdeathxx territory. We weakened the WH considerably, so all they could send in was a few frigates. They buzzed us, we ran to the pos, they left, we found one of the wrecks in a sleeper site later on. In hindsight, leaving cans named with insults clumsily translated with an online translator wasn’t the most mature response, especially since we couldn’t find them after I launched them…..

Well, if anyone finds an empty C5 with several cans in clumsy Russian questioning your ancestry, you don’t have to care.

Then, we scanned a neighboring WH with a tower called “cool breese” or something, in Russian. Since we hadn’t yet found a way to dislodge the cans, we left a secure can at the WH exit saying “Please ignore insults” with some spirits and tobacco in it. We checked back in an hour with the can untouched and the WH closed.

Anyway, getting to the actual language portion, I was hauling 500 blocks of compressed ABC out a WH in my trusty itty V when I ran into another Itty V doing presumably the same thing.  I opened a convo to say, essentially, “Hi, don’t shoot me, I’ve got 3 cloaked BSs defending me” while simultaneously asking in corp if there was anyone who could guard me as I moved the last hundred blocks out. After the second paragraph of threats and assurances, the dude informed me that he couldn’t speak english and to please type slower. Immediately switching gears out of embarrassment, I pulled up an online translator and through his two years of english and my typing, we managed to say hi. I friended him, in case I needed his advice or translation.

Only two more russky encounters, stand firm.

First, the time I lost my covops in a covops fight was against two russian dudes, one of which linked a video of a person laughing at me and the other said

“Понятно, это как старый русский говорили в советские дорога Россия вилки вы”

If anyone would mind translating that, it’d be appreciated. Anyway, the last and latest encounter was earlier in the week, when, trying to find an exit, I ran into a c6. Subsequently, I ran into another C6. On the third C6, I was getting irritated but found a dark blood medium POS on the scanner. Taking a quick look, the 1.2 bil tower had a webber array, four large laser turrets and four small laser turrets, several biochemical, polymer reactor arrays, ect. I noticed sister scan probes on the directional and went back to the first c6, jettisoning the can w/ the neighboring WH BMs, figuring that he’d find them eventually and if I saved him some trouble, he might tell us, say, an exit he’d found. Eventually, the same number of scan probes he had been using appeared, and I tried drawing him out in local. No luck was too be had, but as I sat 50km off our WH, I watched as a Minmatar covops uncloaked briefly and jumped to our C5. Convoing the pilot, I said hi, explained that our WH had no exits, and asked if he had found any.

He replied that he didn’t speak english.

After a few short sentences he told me that he was russian, so, with the handy-dandy in game browser I opened a free translation software and translated “Can you understand this?”.

He replied with “your talk crazi”.

At this point, he closed out of the convo and presumably closed the WH. I say presumably because I closed out after him and made a turkey sandwich.

It seems to me that people in an international game are going to need translators at some point, and xxdeath is definitely going to need them come Dust, since I can probably count the number of native russian consolers on one hand with four fingers missing (hyperbole).

It looks to me that there’s a niche for people who speak two languages, with a possibility of a “translators channel”, or maybe it’s the foreign corps duty for them to have an English speaker. Or is it just me, and everyone else never has to talk with someone who can’t talk to them? I mean, I’d pay for someone to help me explain a problem to a dude in Deutschland. Not very much, but I’m sure Entity would trade several ships for a translator if he was trying to buy officer mods from a lucky 10/10 plex runner.

Disclaimer: I in no way resemble, know or otherwise interact with Entity. Also, I tried asking in the Russian language channel for translation services and they ignored me >.>

сейф мухи

I’ve finally activated my alt account for Eve Online. This will be my second account, and most likely my final account. I don’t understand why some people need/want several, even as many as 10 accounts. Do they realize how much they’re spending on this game, renewing ten accounts per year??? I think two will work great. It’ll enable me to mine more efficiently, run more combat missions, and plex on my own. I’ll also be able to do some sleeper ops alright as well, by myself. I’ve always ran complex’s and Sleepers in 2-3 man groups. The money is always divided by two or three. Now it’ll all be my isk, and only mine. From wormholes, this could be a substantial increase in income. Plex’s can bring in some pretty impressive money as well, and I can run more missions faster. Although I am learning about all the time and training it takes, to first get a character up to par to be able to take on these ventures. It’s quite a task starting from day one all over again. But in under a month, my new char should be able to be somewhat useful in undergoing these missions. And in just over a month: She’ll hold her own.

Katsumi has recently receiving the Hacking skill, which I hope to be able to use sometime soon.  I’ve done next to none when it comes to hacking/archeology sites. I have however, done many, many wormholes.

I hope to keep both accounts open for atleast a year, and progress further than I have ever progressed before. My biggest handicap in Eve is Financial. I need to learn how to make more money in Eve. I have been a player for over 3 years, most at my age are well into earning wealth and big money. It’s all in the secrets of market playing and trading.

In starting my own, first corporation in New Eden, I’m reminded of several things. The first of which was the complexity of everything – and I mean everything.

But, more to the point is the need for focus. Some members want the corporation to focus on pvp, or nullsec exploration, or manufacturing, or mission running, or even bounty hunting. Then I get asked “What else should we focus on?”

<sigh>

I appreciate their enthusiasm. Even admire it. But, the old adage rings truer still in EVE – “Jack of all trades, master of none.” The same ideal holds true from character development to forming a successful corporation. The division of time, money and resources in following multiple paths of advancement will lead to even less than the sum of their parts.

The trick, if there really is one, is to do just one thing well. In fact, it’s hard enough to garner the time and resources to do one thing well enough in New Eden. The issue of diminishing returns in skill advancement makes for a very long pursuit of even one path.

My thoughts on corporation development is for most of the members to pursue the same path and common goal. Pool the resources. Even if all members are doing the same thing (say, for example mining), division of tasks and areas works well. If all members (or most) are mining, then members can mine in different systems and for different ore to pool a very large pile of wealth.

So, the moral of this story is to enjoy what you do, enjoy the time in which you do it, and you will enjoy it even more if you limit yourself a tad.

As Caine would say, “I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions. “

The gifts had run dry. I had expected as much. There is only so much one person could do in the end, and I had given it my best. Nineteen days of Advent Celebration; not bad for someone who really had no interest in Christmas.

I had asked for help, and some fellow Capsuleers had stepped up and made great donations towards the festivities; that was what started me on this pursuit of “Christmas Spirit” in the first place.

Ah well, I thought to myself. I really didn’t expect it to go any other way.

I had to admit one thing I had come to appreciate was the taste of egg nog; what a delicious drink.

“Scuse me, Colonel, but I hear you’re in need of Advent donations still. Is that correct, sir?” I turned my attention to the pilot before me.

“It is, but I had just resigned myself to the conclusion that Christmas was meaningless, and inherently folks are selfish bastards any time of year.” I smiled coyly.

The pilot replied by showing me a digital contract made out to me. A fully fit T2 Hulk had been donated to the celebration.

It was quite the donation. I felt humbled and a little embarrassed for having reacted so sarcastically.

“Thank you, pilot. This is very much appreciated.”

We saluted each other before taking our leave, I finished my egg nog, then I headed down to my flight deck to look into how I was going to get this Exhumer sitting in Amarr high sec into my hangar bay.

At least the donating pilot knew how to make things fun.

ADVENT DAY 20

PRIZE: Fully T2 fit Hulk

TASK: Sadly, we’re almost out of prizes. Today’s task is really going to put Christmas spirit to the test. Today you’re going to donate something to this contest. Should be interesting to see how few entries there are.

List your donation in the comments below, or by emailing me at adventcelebration@gmail.com. The selected winner will need to contract their donation to me ingame, if applicable. Remember, it doesn’t have to be ingame items, it can be any use of your talents that you wish. Ideas:

- Christmas Eve phone call
- Short story written about that day’s winner
- artwork
- etc, etc

I will post today’s winner at 10 PM EST.

Um, wow! I really don’t know what to do at this point! So many gifts! Screw it! Let’s do this up right, pilots! All donations are welcome and accepted. These coming final three days of advent are going to be something intense!!!

The winner of today’s fully fit T2 Hulk is Edema.

Additionally, today’s winner of the unannounced Republic Fleet Firetail I am giving away is DarkCoro

And finally, today’s winner of 50 million ISK, also unannounced and from yours truly, is Weslon.

I am literally overwhelmed with gratitude to each and every one of you!

There are curious data streams buzzing about.  I keep hearing various reports of… activity within our target corp.  Seems that a decent number of their members were misinformed about our previous dealings with the Gattaca corporation within the UIF alliance, and thus had of us a rather unpleasing opinion.

The story I’m hearing is:

1.  We invaded their wormhole system.

2.  We attacked them in the wormhole system.

3.  We brought in a large group of -10 non-ZPG members with the intent to destroy them.

4.  We “stole” their resources.

5.  We collapsed the exit wormhole and podded their members still stuck inside.

I’ll address these one at a time, and give our side of the story.

1.  This is a half truth.  We did not invade their wormhole.  We had been scanning that system for several days with a prober, in order to determine the nature of the connecting system.  A wormhole system was of no use to us if it had a static connection to highsec all the time – we had planned to farm the sleeper sites and live out of the system completely cut off from normal space for 1-2 months, sites permitting.  We did, however, setup our tower after theirs, though it was within a matter of roughly an hour.  We were watching them move from one wh system to “ours”, and were unsure if we wanted to risk sending a multi-billion isk transport fleet through their occupied system and into the new system they were busy settling.

2.  Again, a half truth.  Our only engagement was actually in the connecting wormhole system, and involved me and one other pilot.  I attempted to pin down one of their scouts outside of the wormhole in my Phobos.  My intent wasn’t to kill him, but to find out if they were hostile or not.  Asking politely doesn’t work the best, and if his corp suddenly appeared with a fleet of PVP fit ships I’d know that they were likely not going to be a good neighbor.  Unfortunately, I missed the tackle and had to result in normal dialog instead.  We had been working towards this system for nearly a week, and it seemed very promising.  I wanted to either scare them off, or determine their aggressiveness.  If I was going for kills, I would have pinned their haulers on one of their several trips through, or the lumbering freighter.  Not a frigate.

3.  We did bring more members into the system after we had established our base.  We needed more pilots to attempt the Class 5 combat sites in the system after an early test proved… expensive.  Some of them were returning members to ZPG that had left for other adventures prior.  I believe only 1 was flashy red, and he’s back to nearly 0.0 sec status now.  They were not in ZPG because they either had roles to drop from previous corps, or were waiting to see how things panned out before rejoining us.  The CEO of Gattaca would have noticed that nearly all of them were previous ZPG members, had he bothered to check their employment history.  None of them were aggressive towards Gattaca, as they were advised of severe consequences if they attacked unprovoked.  I went so far as to provide the CEO a list of our pilots present that were not in our corporation but were with our group to limit confusion.  We brought no capital ships into the system, as they were not deemed needed since their effectiveness in sleeper sites is questionable and there was not an intention of attacking Gattaca’s POS.

4.  This one confuses me slightly.  It was both our corp’s system as far as I was concerned, therefore there isn’t a “theft” if we mine or hack a site.  Regardless, there were a huge amount of mining and gas sites available with more than enough bulk material to supply a group 3 times our combined size.  In addition, the only way we were to be capable of tackling the combat sites were to work together – and there were a large amount of those as well.

5.  This is an out-right lie.  I provided them with a bookmark to the rare exit wormhole that lead directly to highsec.  They used that opportunity to pull up their operations and leave the system, collapsing the wormhole behind them before we had even finished running a supply run to our POS and gathering 1 other corpmate that had been waiting to get in.  If they left any of their members in the system, we were never made aware of it, let alone podded them.  I challenge them to produce any proof of this attack.  I’ll provide fraps showing our corp neocom showing no kills against them until our contract started a little less than 2 weeks ago if needed.

We did everything within our power to extend friendship, and were under the impression that they were friendly as well.  We had set them to blue, set our POS defenses to ignore them (this was not done on their part, or so I was warned – decided not to test that warning ), offered assistance such as fuel or ammo if needed, supplied them with an Amarr battleship (Apoc?  fuzzy on the exact one), and kept them supplied with up-to-date signature lists for the system and connecting systems.  They had provided us a replacement magnate for a member, invited us to their public channel, and helped scoop some loot from a wreck, and even extended an offer to join their alliance.  On the other hand, they also continually made excuses for not wanting to join up to attempt any of the sites, or even mine together, and attempted to feed us false intel on several occasions.

It was a very odd hot-cold relationship on their end, and honestly made us a little paranoid ourselves.  We made sure to keep invisible eyes on them 23/7 to provide early-warning incase we had misjudged them, so it wasn’t so much a surprise when we watched them pack up and leave as it was a dissappointment.  I kept querying their CEO on their plans for the day, and requesting to fleet up for mining/sleeper ops to see what his response would be.  After all, if they had a legitimate reason there was a chance we could salvage our ties with them.  A friendly industrial corp can be a great asset to a corporation that tends to chew through supplies in a regular basis.

They were already out of the wormhole system, but kept up the charade and lies even then.  I removed their blue status, and left their public channel.

That is the full disclosure of our “friendship” prior to this contract.  I have a feeling this isn’t the first time that similar actions have been done in the past, based on the fact that our employer is willing to hire us to war with UIF.  The costs of the war fees, supplies, resources, and our own fees do not make this a cheap endeavor for her.  The other corporations in UIF are barely active, if alive at all, so I doubt the primary target is not Gattaca itself, though I must admit that I don’t know for certain.  I was not supplied with the reason for the war, just the means and incentive to follow through with it.

-Barashi

I just didn’t understand how it worked. Was it Jovian? Terran? Sleeper or some other technology? I had no idea.

Maybe that is why I had such a hard time believing in fairy tales. How could one drunk fat man fit enough gifts in his tiny vehicle, pulled by reindeer of all things (I mean how did they even breathe in space or at such high velocity), manage to travel the entire universe in under 24 hours?

Obviously, Santa Claus was a lie.

DAY 19

PRIZE: ???

TASK: Explain how Santa Claus’ Sleigh works. Present your arguments well in the comments below, or email me at adventcelebration@gmail.com.

I will announce today’s winner at 10 PM EST.

Congratulations to Anjerrai Meloanis who has won a PLEX care of CCP. Please email the character name you want this PLEX to go to. Thanks!

I’ve also just noticed I’m almost out of presents! I need donations please!

Finally I got the mail from CCP that I’ve been waiting for. Five days of free activation, and that free ship.

Time to log in.

Time to undock.

Some of the other, younger pilots are grumbling.

Okay, well it’s most of them. Or at least most of the ones in earshot. They’re complaining they’re always broke. They get no respect. They don’t have certain skills. They don’t have the ISK to get certain skills. Did I mention they are quite vocal about being broke?

They gripe about being nothing more than errand boys (and girls) for their various corporations. “Go here. Fetch that. Bring it there.” This isn’t what they signed on for, they claim. Where are the huge battleships? The glory? The fame? The 12 digits of ISK in their accounts?

Pfft.

Not unlike life outside New Eden, far too many want to get by without paying their dues. For me, the learning is more than half the fun. I enjoy figuring things out, understanding what loadouts do/don’t work on various ships, toying with the market, getting in over my head and finding a way out. Experimentation = enthusiasm in my book.

So it’s off with me to go learn a bit more.