Contributing.

I know that this is not even remotely interesting for most of you, but here goes anyway:

Not only have I started playing EVE Online again, this time I’m even contributing. I’m a member of a corporation, and the corporation is a member of an alliance. Being a member of an alliance means that you have to participate in fleet and mining operations. Since I really don’t know how to blow up stuff in the game, I can’t really attend any of the fleet operations unless they need bait or canon fodder. So my way of contributing is through mining operations and this weekend I joined one for the first time.

It’s interesting to see the way the operation is organized. The mining barges and exhumers used by the miners are sitting ducks in the asteroid belts and they need protection from rats and enemy ships. The fleet commander also needs to make sure the gates to the solar system are secure and haulers are needed to transport the mined ore from the belt to alliance storage facilities. All in all quite a complex logistical operation. I think I counted about 60 players in the fleet when it was at its largest.

Personally, I think I’ll mine a little on my own right now.

Back in Space.

Since Grand Theft Auto IV kept me busy during my designated gaming time for a while, I didn’t play EVE Online much. Except for logging in to start training a new skill whenever my character finished one, I didn’t play at all. But now I’ve finished the GTA IV story line missions and since I’m not much of a multi player person, I’ve left the streets of Liberty City and returned to the vast EVE Online universe.

And what remarkable timing it was. Just a day before I finished GTA IV, my Icelandic heroes at CCP released another free EVE Online expansion, Empyrean Age. To be honest, I’m not too up to date on the story line behind the expansion, but it introduces the concept of Fractional Warfare - great stuff if you like to blow things up, but not so interesting if you’re a care bear, like myself. You should go ahead and download the official trailer to have a look.

Pass the Exam.

Yay. After two weeks of the flu and a nasty cold I’m finally back at the gym. If I had made any progress since I started working out a the gym, it was all gone now for sure. Right now I’m only working out for half an hour, but I think I got to pump it up a notch. I’m only prepared to use an hour max on the actual exercise, though. Getting back and forth, changing to workout gear and the shower afterwards take a good half an hour in addition to the workout - and I want to play some EVE as well!

That’s the main reason why there has not been many updates so far this month. After work I tend to sit down and run a few quick EVE missions and when I’m done with that it’s not much creativity left. The nice thing about playing EVE is that you can always set small goals that’s fairly easy to accomplish without too much effort. Right now I’m training to be able to fly the Covetor, the next step up from the Retriever I’m flying now. In between that I’m running missions for a corporation to raise my standings with them, which in turn means they will take less of the minerals I get when refining ore at their stations. I, for one, find it all this very entertaining.

Sheet.

Yes, I’m still playing EVE. Yesterday I joined my first non-NPC corporation, Phoenix Industries, and they seem like a fine bunch of people. I moved all my stuff to one of their offices in .5, and all in all it was a good 100 manual jumps before I had moved everything to the Ebo system.

To be hones, I’m not sure how clever it was to leave .6 and fly to .5 because I can’t mine solo there with my current equipment and skills. Even though joining a corp means more team play, I enjoy the solitude of solo mining. Just not when I run the risk of being blown to piece by Blood Riders.

If you, like me, enjoy EVE, you probably also want to keep track of what skill book you’re currently reading to avoid wasting precious training time. There are tools for available for all platforms that help you with this, but they all have to be installed and that’s not always something you can do. Take the iPhone, for instance. Therefore, I took advantage of the EVE Online API and created the EVE Online (Basic) Character Sheet. Simply enter your User ID and API Key and you’re good to go. Use del.icio.us to bookmark the page when you’ve entered all your info and you should be able to check your training status whenever you have web access.

All Your Ore Are Belongs To Us!

I finally got my hands on a Retriever. In the foreground; a giant secure container, a necessary tool for efficient solo mining in .7 and below. In the background; a Hulk, the überminer.

Gine is at work and I’m playing. Too bad I have support and a very bad gut feeling I have to head for the data center tonight. I have no idea why.