EVE Journey

Bunch of site updates added to spruce up the look and feel of the website. Ga’len over at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility wrote about new services to enhance the EVE blog experience. I took a look at the code to implement Pluggit buttons over at Podlogs and it was pretty easy to get it going.

I’ve been using the Pixeled WordPress theme to great effect but have given it the EVE treatment by adding graphics from my travels in New Eden. There’s a total of 20 header images and 6 background images which are rotated via crontab so that each visit should bring something different. You can view all the images here or just be surprised

These are my favorites, a Megathron during a fleet warp and a backlit shot of the Brutix while gas cloud harvesting in unknown space.

I’ve always been fascinated by the ship names in Eve in particular those of the Gallente variation. Kyle Langdon has compiled a very useful reference here. My favorite ship for its nimble tackling duties is the Ares (Interceptor): God of War (Greek). Unfortunately, the Megathron and Dominix which I often fly doesn’t have an equivalent.

*Update*

Kyle has another great post about Minmatar ships here.

Just got 60% success on the 6th batch of T2 modules for total of 420 modules. This time round, I’m running a whole new set of modules and increased the success rates with better meta items during the invention process. Last batch came up to 54% for total of 540 modules for 102.5% returns. This new batch won’t do so well with stiffer competition in the hub markets but still a respectable 89%. Selling stuff in Empire with its higher velocity is nice but 0.0 trading is definitely much more profitable if you can stand the longer wait times.

I’m still undecided to get into T2 ship production without good skills and a whole lot of gambling with the random luck in invention. T2-005 is currently on hold even though all the materials are ready. Will be nice though to be able to make HACs for Mica when he starts to lose them Gallente Starship Enginnering IV is training with Minmatar Encryption Methods IV and Minmatar Starship Engineering IV planned.

Marriage, the union of 2 souls. Our new CEO awarded the “The Wedlock Trap” medal to our outgoing CEO as he’s getting hitched. Note the white flag, a rather clever use of the decorations feature recently implemented.

CCP has a great idea on working with the player base to help shape the world of New Eden. Every six months, a vote takes place to elect members to the CSM (Council of Stellar Management). This is the second time I’m voting and after reading the past council notes, I’ve decided to vote for Omber Zombie.

Articulated Sky has also kindly created a banner to create awareness of the process.Take a look and use it in your blog post to spread the word. Power to the players!

You may also want to view candidate interviews done by Hallan Turrek.

I've Voted. Have you?

Just got news from my contact in Jita that while trying to get into the system, CONCORD offered to tow her ship out to a less populated system. This seems to be a new feature since previous attempts usually met with long queue times.

With research project management 3 trained, I can now talk to 4 agents. Seems each of them has a problem each day that requires my attention. Requests range from simple mineral acquisitions (8100 units of Tritanium) to courier missions for them. While I’m inclined to ignore them, it pays off to help them out since they reward me with double the research points for the day. The missions are once a day so its not that bad and they also count towards the storyline mission count.

*edit – just noticed some enterprising traders selling tritanium for 8 times the normal market value at my research agent’s station!

During my stay in 0.0 with Sylph Alliance, I quickly realized the benefits of production and trading to support getting ships blown up in fleets. Starting from basic ammo and modules trading and slowly moving toward production when Production Efficiency V was trained, this helped to provide a steady income.

However in 0.0, you’ll quickly realize that most people there fly Tech 2 (T2) ships with T2 fittings. I looked towards skilling up into that area and got most of the science skills trained up to 3 or 4 to help increase the chances of invention success.

Key skills
PE V (Perfect manufacturing)
Science V (Copy time)
Engineering V
Mechanic V
Electronics V
Electronic Upgrades V
Race Encryption IV to V
Related Science Skill III to IV

Useful Skills
Metallurgy V (ME research)
Trade Skills
Industrial/ Freighter Skills

With some help from corp mates, we managed to get a nice process going with everyone pitching in to help out in the process outlined in the following diagram.

Now that I’m back in Empire, I’ve taken a look around the regions where I operate and quickly set out to get back into T2 production. This consists of six to eight T2 modules so on average it requires approximately 300-350mil ISK capital to get things going. From there, the process of copying blueprints, purchasing materials and production begins.

My last batch of eight types of modules had an invention success rate of 54% for a total of 540 modules. After manufacturing all of them, I passed them to my contact at a mission hub and thus began the sales process. Latest reports show that the investment has been recovered with profits of approximately 102.5%. Not too bad for some time and effort spent working the science and industry slots.

Combined with working for Duvolle Labs agents for datacores, this should provide a nice steady income stream. Next is to keep working on Gallente Federation standings so that a research POS can be anchored and this should alleviate the bottleneck with long wait times for Empire copy slots.

I’ve managed to get in touch with agents for CreoDron and Duvolle Laboratories. They have kindly sent me on lots of courier missions and encounters with Serpentis pirates. After every 16 missions, another agent (storyline) drops me a message regarding some important courier or recon mission to undertake for the Gallente Federation and so I have slowly built up my standings with them from 3.43 to 5.05.

Apparently there are also data center agents who will accept criminal dog tags that will help boost faction standings. I talked to some with the dog tags I had and those gave a nice boost along the way.

Unfortunately, my attempt to engage in missions with COSMOS agents in Sinq Laison ran into problems as there seems to be communication issues with Preaux Gallot. I shall attempt it again when the issues are resolved. For now, I’ll continue engaging the Duvolle agents to get in touch with Sitaleere Beene. With research project management trained, I’m now able work with a few Level 4 agents boosting my datacore needs. I have my eyes set on working with Core Complexion next since they have some nice agents to work with.

While in Empire, I’ve managed to hire an assistant to help do some mining in a quiet corner of Sinq Laison. This helps maintain the mineral stores while I’m busy missioning. Have not talked to Mica much, he’s off working with Sisters of EVE as there seems to be a demand for their scan probes and launchers. Last I heard, he had managed to talk to Inesmir Jimud in Gicodel. I might join him for missions there soon once I get my work done at Duvolle Labs.