The wonderful worlds of alts and caps

So yet again my need for real world money and almost endless amounts of overtime has taken its toll on my gaming however throughout it all I've managed to set up a few things with my two alts, yes I know it seems a little excessive however going forward it is my hope to create a steady revenue stream to help finance PvP with my main, Mia.

As I've mentioned before alts are a great way to branch out into different areas thus allowing you to stay focused upon a single area for a character without the need to do off remap skill training, in my case this was to set up my Planetary Interaction in w-space and fine tune it to where I have all the materials I require whilst having some extra I can sell to fellow corp mates. My other alt, my k-space hauler, has expanded his mining repertoire to include ice mining and is currently working on his refining skills, I'll let you put the dots together there but I think its pretty obvious what I'll be making ;-)

So what else can you do? Well as a Unista I like my corpmates have to deal with the near constant threat posed by High Sec war dec corps, generally they are just seeking cheap kills via easy ganks however this can pose a serious threat to new members who are generally a few weeks old and have very few revenue streams. This is where an alt can step in, first up is creating a hauling alt, this is something almost everyone in EVE does and allows you the safety of staying in an NPC corp and avoiding those annoying war decs, that said you've still got to be aware of ganking, this is especially true when using the recently revised haulers with their large specialised holds and their potentially expensive cargoes.

But what about your main, what have you been doing I hear you ask, well a lot of POS spinning as I help out with the Titles Department, reviewing Freshman and Sophomore title requests for the most part, doing a little scanning, running some sites and fortunately getting in on some PvP action along the way, granted I've missed some awesome fights, including this recent attack on a site running fleet which came out very ISK positive, thankfully one of the fleets I managed to make was one of the Uni's infamous Dragon Slayer events, my trusted Neutgeddon, along with about 15 others, helped our fleet carry the day against The Cursed Few, neighbours of my fellow Unibros at our Null Sec Campus in Syndicate, the best bit is there was fraps available from both our side and there's,

I hope you enjoy the videos and until next time, fly recklessly.

Mia o7

W-space fun

So once again the trauma that is real life has taken its toll on my ability to contribute to my blog, curse you new job with almost unlimited overtime! On the plus side I've still been making enough time to get involved with E-Uni's Wormhole Campus (WHC), to say I've learned much is an understatement and the level of cloak and dagger tactics is always exciting.

In the last month or so I've joined a POS group where I can store more stuff (not much of it shiny just yet) including a couple of T1 logi cruisers, and as its w-space these are the veritable Exequror and Augoror. I've also got a couple of battlecruisers for site running and general PvP but lately the Logi bug has gripped me again. As part of my general plan for this character I want to specialize in sub-capital ships, with the Pre-Odyssey push for Destroyers and Battlecruiser skills to Level 5 I've got those areas covered however I've decided to go back and try and round out the cruiser and frigate skills to the same level. This will open far more Interceptor and Assault Frigates to complement the Gallente ones I currently fly as well as getting access to the various Tech 2 cruiser such as Logistics, Recons etc. and perhaps more excitingly Tech 3 ships such as the Legion and Proteus.

It's taken me some time to decide on what I like doing and I find the w-space community to be great, not only within the Uni but also from various small contacts with members of Future Corps and TRECI, to that end I've been able to look at what I want to do in w-space and Logistics is first on the to-do list. My first goal is to finish my various support skills relating to fitting and logistics in general, sadly this means the level of pew from my guns and missiles will not see any great strides forwards for some time.

Flying a T2 logistics ship was always something I wanted to do but the relatively large ISK requirements between T1 logi cruisers and the T2 variants was putting me off somewhat, so much so that I couldn't really decide what to do for a bit (read July), thankfully w-space is full of many ways to make ISK, as mentioned before I'm looking to move my PI from Low Sec to w-space, the same alt is currently training up to use Codebreakers and Data Analyzers but for my main there has only been one way to make ISK in good amounts and that is to shoot sleepers.

Thankfully most members of the WHC are happy to run sites so on average one or two ops per day is normal in addition to PvP roams or shopping trips where we prod War Targets etc. Due to my somewhat unbalanced schedule I've not been running sites consistently but suffice to say I've not been unhappy with the payouts, so much so that I'm not in a position to comfortably fly a T2 Logistics ship and not be bankrupt should I need to replace it.

That's all from me until next time, fly dangerous o7

Sleepovers and apprenticeships

So the last few weeks have seen much activity on the E-Uni's Work Fair, especially from TRECI who have been running regular month long apprenticeships for Unistas who wish to experience living in a C5 wormhole. The great thing about the forum is that you can see what Corporations and Alliances are looking for, both in terms of skill points and experience but also in some cases like Appetite 4 Destruction (A4D) out of game attributes such as age, attitude and values.

The work fair is a great place for corps and alliances of any size to make themselves a little more visible to the wider community of New Eden, especially as it is frequented by not only current and former members but also many people who just come looking for a little advice, whether that be the 2 day old noob who wants to try his hand at PvP or the 2 year veteran looking to find a new home for his industry alt.

I've been looking at various ads within the work fair area and will freely admit that I find the TRECI apprenticeship a great idea especially as it lets people immerse themselves in what I would considered high end game play due to the trust and teamwork required just to survive in such a dangerous place. This perusing has once again led to minor changes to my skill queue, don't worry it was just a case of moving things up a bit not actual additions, mainly my scanning skills.

The reason I've got these changes in now is twofold, first as I currently reside at the Uni's Null Sec Campus being able to probe down various things like hostile ships but also sites to run is essential for generating content. These skills will also allow me to practice finding signatures quickly and perhaps in the near future move a few things to the Wormhole Campus or take part in the Future Corps sleep over, tentatively scheduled for July at the time of writing.

Why do I want to try these things, because its an area of game play that until now I've not really been concerned with and often there have been others with probes to do scanning making it a low priority. Now though its an area I want to get into, sadly like many others the Odyssey change has led to huge influx of players trying exploration so I doubt I'll be doing so to make lots of ISK but who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.

One final point, which also partially explains the lack of blogging, is a new post within the Uni that I have taken on as part of the Titles staff, having learnt some of the basics of how things work I would strongly suggest that anyone who wishes to attain the graduate medal, teach, or generally make themselves a better player, to give one of these apprenticeships a go, generally players who return from TRECI, Agony Unleashed, Future Corps (and other) hosted events go on to be some of the Uni's finest pilots before moving on to pastures new or joining the illustrious teaching staff at E-Uni.

If you're not a member of E-Uni, perhaps you're not to fussed or are waiting to get in, then remember have a look and see what corps are looking for and see if this matches what you want to do and the best bit is they generally have a public channel which you can join, allowing you to talk to the very people who you may fly with one day. So go out there, engage with various communities and if in doubt, go for it, push yourself and your capsuleers career to the next level.

Sneak sneak, boom!

Another fun filled week of mission running, Null Sec pew and a lot of time watching YouTube, mainly Rooks and Kings. The complexity of this game and the magnificent tactics and stratagems that are used at all levels continues to inspire me, so much so that once again my carefully laid out skill plan has been thrown into turmoil.

I should start by saying that my plan for this character was always to be a sub capital pilot with an ability to, eventually, utilise all frigate to battlecruiser hulls with battleships as a long term goal. Sadly my path to doing so has been fraught with many changes in direction as well as some tough decisions around when to train BC and Destroyer to 5 even though I use neither with any frequency at the moment.

I'm sure most EVE pilots will come to a point where their original goal has been surpassed, mine being to fly Interceptors with T2 guns, as the once grand goal is relatively easily achieved. I say this as a character which is exactly 7 months old and still with many areas to explore, both in a spacial term and in an in game experience sense. For me I've come to the conclusion that my next short term goal will involve Covert Ops craft and more specifically Stealth Bombers.

The idea was first seeded as I read through E-Uni's Work Fair section of the forums and noticed the number of Corps who ask potential recruits to be able to fly a Covert Ops ship, either a Stealth Bomber or a more traditional Covert Ops Frigate for scanning. This was then compounded by my various YouTube searches following some discussion into Stealth Bombers and a fantastic Blog post by CSM memeber Ripard Teg.

So here I am, 7 months in and still as clueless about so many things and learning new things every day, I'd like to think I've got a handle on quite a few things however as I delve further into the tactics and fighting styles of some of the longstanding Corps and Alliances of EVE I find that I have but scratched the surface.

There we have it, full speed ahead for some Stealth Bombing goodness in my future I think, until next time, fly dangerous o7

Mia :)

Making a move

So its been a while and since my last post Fanfest has taken place, details of Odyssey have been released and I've taken the leap from E-Uni's Low Sec campus (LSC) to Null Sec campus (NSC).So many changes both for the game and myself.

Many capsuleers within E-Uni often find the move from Aldrat to Dudreda a massive leap however to any Uni member who is considering the move I would say go for it, I've found many of the LSC guys to be very helpful and insightful, this must be tempered with the understanding that you have to create your own content. By that I mean you need to go out and explore, organise fleets or even just fit out some ships and go seek out 1v1 fights in Factional Warfare space, if you're not willing to do that then you'll be very bored from all the station spinning.

For me the LSC was, and still is, nice but there was something of a mini exodus with a number of pilots I know moving to the NSC I decided why not give it a try, the logistics of moving was surprisingly simple with a number of exciting fights in such a short space of time. Granted the danger element is certainly higher than Low Sec as any random neutral could open fire with no adverse consequence to them, it certainly keeps you on your toes and I've found it reinvigorating especially with new enemies many of which bring gangs to our own backyard.

As for my alts, the month has been quiet, PI sales are currently going okay however the recent spike in prices appears to be bursting, thankfully my small scale mining ops (solo or dual boxing) have allowed me to use some Battleship BPC's to build 4 ships which I plan to stash away until after the Odyssey patch, granted it may take some time to see the market costs to rise however I am prepared to be patient. Well that or fit them out and get them killed in some glorious Uni related fireball no doubt.

That's me for now, promise to make the posts a bit more regular and hopefully I can regale you with tales of my Null Sec PvP adventures :)

Until next time, fly safe o7

Missions, Hauling and PI

As you may be able to tell from the large gaps between my blog posts my time for casual writing has been minimal as of late due to the final run in to the end of term at University, thankfully things are getting finished and my free time is increasing again, yipee!

In the meantime I've been trying to get myself some passive ISK by doing low intensity activities that can be running in the background and only require minimal input. To this end I've been moving stuff around for Mia using my alts Orca, mining with my alts Mackinaw and setting up a few planets for PI with, you guessed it, my alt. Suffice to say my alt did get the training queue back for bit to round out some useful skills but on the whole has been steadily making ISK which I will no doubt waste in a ball of fire and ship wreckage but I guess that's what you get for playing at internet spaceships :)

I'm not going to give people guides on how to set up PI as I'm not an expert in any shape or form but if you are interested I suggest checking out Seamus Donohue's excellent video which can be found here and the more recent articles by The Mittani here, there are various ways to do PI and I myself am trying out a couple of things so I may put my pennies worth in later.

As far as mining goes I'm not sure you can be an expert at mining but I guess there is a balance between effort and profit. If you're just selling minerals for profit then Veldspar and sometimes Scordite are usually king when it comes to the HighSec ores, if you're manufacturing however you need to look at the minerals you require and decide if its cheaper, and simpler, to mine common ore and sell some of it to just buy things you need or whether its best to mine the relevant asteroids to get the minerals you need.

Recently my plan has been to fill a Mackinaw every 30 minutes or so and dock up unload then repeat, if I go for Veldspar though the ore size is so small that I would need to lock new asteroids and start strip miner cycles every 6 or 7 minutes or so, not so bad when you're actively paying attention however as I was trying to write a report I went for large Rich or Azure Plagioclase asteroids which would mean I only had to start my strip miners one more time, a perfect way to make ISK or gather materials for production.

Thankfully in the last few days I've been able to get back into the swing of things with E-Uni operations and move a large percentage of my assets to the Low Sec Campus, a great place to meet experienced pilots and get used to not having Concord as your safety net, suffice to say I've not regretted the actual move from HighSec. I would strongly encourage any new Unista reading this to put a jump clone at the LSC and get a few frigates down there as well, perhaps a few destroyers or cruisers depending on your cash flow, try it out, don't be scared to lose a ship or two and be active, you'll learn so much more by doing and it helps cement the information from classes, so what you waiting for, go now :)

Until next time, fly dangerous o7

Space, the final frontier...

Due to real life Uni deadlines my time for roaming and organised fleets has been somewhat curtailed so I decided that it was time to maybe get back to my roots and grind out some ISK for the future.As I've mentioned before my original character for EVE was a miner, and to be honest he's about average at best, so I jumped into my Mackinaw and started chewing through the belts, a great way to make ISK when you've got to write reports.

This got me thinking about other ways I could go about making ISK and with the belts in the nearby systems being hit by some serious mining fleets I thought about practicing my scanning skills to find a Gravimetric site and with the help of a friend from my alts corp we found one in the very next system. As we landed at the site we found a single Retriever ripping into the low sec asteroids that I'd normally not risk going to get. So the race was on, word was sent to fellow corp members and soon we were attacking the site with 4 Exhumers with Orca support, in less than half an hour we emptied the site and went back to our own ISK making things.

Me however, well I got thinking, why do I always rely on others for the scanning, Exploration  is a  fantastic way to not only practice your scanning skills for use in combat (more on that in the future) but it can also yield some fairly lucrative sites, many of which cannot be tackled by the lone new player. Depending on your corps activity you may be able to get a group together and run such sites, although I would suggest avoiding high level DED sites until you know what you're doing.

As I found out the interface used for scanning is one that while tricky to get the hang of is in fact fairly simple once you get used to it, that said though the right skills like in any other area in EVE will make a massive difference. In game skills such as Astrometrics, Astrometric Accqusition, Astrometric Pinpointing and Astrometric Rangefinding are all vitally important and unlike many areas of the game this small suite of skills can be trained to reasonable levels relatively quickly. To that end, and to have a change from PvP, I decided that this is an area I will be working in the coming weeks and months to master as I really like the potential for finding the hidden riches of EVE but also for use in PvP when using Combat Scanner Probes, a skill that always seems to be in short supply at least within E-Uni from my fleet experiences of the last few months.

Until next time, fly dangerous, make it so ;-)