One Tired EvE Pilot

Ok so its been a long time

2010-05-02T12:12:00.002-05:00

Look I hate typing so I avoid it.

And so I faded BUT..... I could be back soon ( I type alt+0153 and I get this Ö W....T....F????)

Ok so lets do a super fast up date:

Left GC cause I was tired of massive blobs and forced participation, rejoined RELAX EvEs premier drug dealers, been playing with Adobe and created two videos very quickly so they are kinda craptastic
Scanning

Hacking

Enjoying life and EvE once again.

Oh yeah and I'm gonna try to change from written to audio blog. We will see if and how it works out.

Back to eve
Cheers
alaph

2009-12-29T12:32:00.000-06:00

I love chatting in local. Even if Klein wasn't german he would have had no chance of understanding what the hell I was talking about.

=D

-alaph, squeezer of the juice

EvE Online Morning Report

2009-12-28T07:47:00.002-06:00

Ok first up on our tour of EvE-casts is EOMR.
Show host is named Erik Mumm.

So this is the down and the low, looks like you will get 5 daily and 1 weekend show. The dailies are around 5 minutes with the weekend coming in at 25 minutes.
Start date according to iTunes is December 12th.

First off this is a fast and furious run through mineral and fuel prices. He does this well. There is no fluff. I do wish the background music was at a lower level so you could hear the prices better.

He opens with an ad that reminds me of the way that NPR (and hopefully GPR when we can get this going) he then does some interlude music and reads the mineral prices.

Oh wow, listening to show one at the moment (1 according to itunes) the music volume is perfect....I'll have to listen more.

The weekend shows look like they have guest on. I haven't listened yet but I certainly will.

TL;DR

Good show, nice and short. Covers mineral prices. Weekend show has moar content still under 30 mins.

alaph likes this show and will be DLing it as long as Erik keeps it up. Again this is not a fluff show, it does what it says its going to do without going overboard or being dry. Erik's voice is very listenable and his production quality is very good as well. He needs to watch the "ummms".

Cheers Erik, please keep it up, this is one of those things I can see crashing and burning, sorry mate but its happened to better pilots. Everyone else check it out.

EvE Online Morning Report iTunes link

alaph out

Podcast, Podcast, Podcast

2009-12-27T23:00:00.003-06:00

There are actually quiet a few eve-cast out there. I'm going to go through and try and rate/comment on some of them.

Criteria:
Must have a post since Dominion launch or no less than 2 weeks prior.
Must be available on iTunes.

So those are the rules.
I'll listen to the latest offering and if I really really dig I'll listen to a few more. Otherwise your latest offering is what I will judge you on.

Cheers,
alaph

Well that didn't take long.

List of Contenders:

Declarations of War Podcast
EvE Online Morning Report
EvE Online Official Podcast
Fly Reckless EvE Online
Missions Collide
The Planet Risk Show
PODDED Podcast
Unkown EvE

Got caught ratting my ass....

2009-12-27T08:32:00.002-06:00

Reference

So a few corp mates and I were out ratting D4k. I was in my uber rape Drake, Guy was fucking around trying to find the right ship with fit and what not and Tony was cleaning up after us.
Guy finally gets his Maelstrom sorted out and is coming back in to help out.

Im watching the local population all the while and Tony is checking gates and neighboring systems when he goes to drop loot.
After one of his drops he reports that Malkla is on gate in a Navy Comet, not the ship I'm used to seeing him in but whatever. There are about three guys in the same corp in system at this point but honestly I didn't count Malkla in until the Comet was reported.

Am I worried at this point? Ummmmmm NO.
I finish off the juicy rats in belt as Malkla jumps his comet in.
I immediately throw a disruptor his way, send the warriors after him and let the full furry of my heavy missiles go forth upon his ass as started ABing towards him. Once in range I hit him with the scrambler...buhby MWD.
He melted fairly quickly and just as he went pop a Stabber Fleet Issue and his buddy in a Vagabond warped in.

Now at this point the fog of war is thicker as I remember going after the vaginabond and not the SFI, but thats not what the killboard represents so what I remember as a vagina must have been the SFI.

At any rate the sequence of events was the same as for the comet except that he did not melt so quickly. Guy joined us in the Strom just as mister curse warped in. I was pretty bad into structure at that point and I could have sworn we had the Vaga in structure as well but it never went pop.

They let Guy go after deciding they couldn't take him....

I was baffled after seeing the battle report, thats why they call it fog of war though.

I will always trade an insured Drake for two faction ships, so yeah I got "CAUGHT" ratting ;)

-alaph

The Cruor

2009-12-24T19:19:00.002-06:00

[Cruor, PvP?]
Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Tracking Enhancer II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II

Medium Pulse Laser II, Conflagration S
Medium Pulse Laser II, Conflagration S
Small Nosferatu II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

At first I wasn't sure if the Cruor could pull off anything. It's bigger brother the Ashimmu is a brick, see post below.
Calling any frig a brick is just ignorant. They just can't pull it off. So what could I do with this little thing?
As fittings fell into place the numbers started to intrigue me.
3552 m/s
1144.5mm Scan Resolution (locks a light drone in 2.3 seconds and a frigate in just under 2)
The alpha is about half my favorite intie the Crow but the DPS is about double.
Then there is that 90% web.
Of course you have to get close up to do your thing so dropping the MWD for an AB gives you 1317 m/s. That's not bad considering what this thing is designed to kill, ie Interceptors and cloakers.

The thing that I'm looking at in both the Cruor and the Ashimmu though is the grid and CPU. Both have tons of it!!! I'm thinking this is for plates, but I don't want to plate this frig like I do its big brother. The ranges for its primary weapon systems is too short for anything that is not fast and agile.

Unlike big brother the Cruor doesn't benefit much from a faction upgrade. The gains are small at best. So a T2 fit makes sense for this ship.

This is one that will very likely be on the R.E.C.O.N. kill boards very soon™.

Cheers
-alaph

P.S. I also have a Phantasm and Succubus in the hangar so look for fits in the near future.
Happy hunting.

The Brick

2009-12-24T18:32:00.002-06:00

[Ashimmu, Brick]
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II

Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Nosferatu II
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Conflagration M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

56k EHP with lowest resist at 60%
Scan res is around 675mm.
But make no mistake, this thing is a brick. You put it down and don't move it. Hence no propulsion mod.
With faction fit, T2 trimarks and full slaves EHP goes to over 100k with 70% resists.
DPS is low no matter what you do. Alpha is 956 but then drops to 250ish DPS.
Its the neuts and webs that make this interesting. With faction fit you get a range of 15km; 10km with the T2s. So we aren't looking at recon style ranges but the power out put is damn nice.
90% reduction with EACH WEB. 316 cap per neut. The Vampire triples your sustainability to 3 minutes, enough time to kill almost anything.

No local rep? Of course not. The Ashimmu has no cap stability as is so a local rep would be damn near useless. This is not a solo pwn mobile, no sir, it is a gate camp specialist. Get a Gaurdian, a HIC, some fast lockers and some DPS and go have a good camp out. The brick can take the punishment while stopping and draining anything unlucky enough to get in its way.

Will I be flying this? Maybe. I don't think its worth undocking without faction webs and maybe some other faction gear. Low Grade Slaves would be good as well.

Just gotta see but you will be the first to know =D

-alaph

Man needs a mission.

2009-12-22T10:36:00.002-06:00

So our CEO has listened to myself and the other RECON directors and successfully addressed our grievances with our New Year mission. I won't go into the details at this time but suffice it to say that we will be having much pew pew fun while doing what I suggested in the process.

RECON is the type of corp that is a small family. That is important and that is what we want to cultivate in new recruits.

On another note Minor Threat has "followed" us into Aridia.... Wonder what that is all about? Hard feelings Rydis? Maybe not but I'm not ruling it out.

Happy holidays and cheers
alaph

P.S. anyone know of a good source of news for what alliance's are doing in eve? I already read COAD (yes I know its shit) and the SHC boards. I wish we had something like NPR....GPR Galactic Public Radio =D.

It' been awhile.....

2009-12-21T06:21:00.002-06:00

No new updates for far too long. Finals are over and EvE is once again a large part of my life.

So what has changed since the last time we spoke? Well for one I am now a director with R.E.C.O.N. Furthermore REC has joined/formed the Talos Coalition alliance.
We have moved to the Amarrian ghetto known as Aridia and are slugging it out at the edge of Fountain.

I have started the process of going through the Agony Unleashed PvP Course. I hear great things about it and figure why not right. Unfortunately the next class won't be for awhile but here is hoping.

Oh....on the PvP side well let's just say I'm loosing as much as I'm killing recently.
alaph
WA

That last Zealot loss was because I wasn't listening to my FC.
I was in D-4 ratting while the FC found something for us to do. New neut in local, saber on scan, warping to gate safe.... saber in view....
and we sat on the gate.
I was thinking he wanted me to jump so he could follow. He just sat there.....then he locked me, so I locked him.... FC yells "ITS A TRAP" and I don't really listen so I engage after he engages....and ofc I was blobbed =( stupid loss that could have been avoided had I listened to my FC.

I'll end with some training notes:
Wintermute is training up Battlecruiser V in expectation of learning Commandships.
alaph on the other hand will finish Heavy Assualt Missile V this week and go on to do HAMS and med LaZ0R specializations to complete my knowledge of T2 cruiser and below weapon systems.

Good times to be had and its good to be back here blogging again.
Now that school is done I hope to catch up on reading your blogs while giving you something to read as well.

Oh and I've enjoyed meeting many of you in game #EvE Bloggers and on Twitter.
Cheers guys and have holiday filled with internet spaceship violence

-alaph

Holly TweetFleet Batman

2009-11-14T11:01:00.002-06:00

Thanks to that Insane Canadian we can see that the accounted for eve community of bloggers is well over 300 pilots strong!!!

We could form a bloody alliance with that many pilots.

On top of that the #tweetfleet is so picky that my humble little twitter ID is not included nor fits the requirements...what can I say I'm pretty lazy.

The eve-blogger in game channel typically has between 10 and 20 peeps in it and is fairly lively.

We've come along way baby.
Back when I started OTEP in mid 2005 there were only a handful of eve related blogs and even fewer dedicated eve blogs.

CK has always been the spoke in the wheel of our little community and I'm thankful the work and effort he puts into this venture. I do sometimes wonder if he actually plays the game though ;)

anyhow....

cheers
-alaph

Market and Production Changes I'd love to see

2009-11-14T09:26:00.002-06:00

Ok so image this;

You get yourself a blueprint, T1, T2, T3, doesn't matter but you have one in your hand. Now your PE skill at the moment is 0.
Each BP has a maximum mineral need (just like it does now) and since you are PE 0 you have to build at this high mineral cost.... BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
because you are PE 0 you will create a meta 0 item. What I would love to see for meta 0 is a product that has 5 random stats reduced by 10%. If the item has less than 5 stats then the randomizer would cycle through them and reduce the stat by 10% each pass.

Ok so you hold onto your BPO and train up PE to level 5. Now you are ready to create Meta 5 gear (full stat no penalty). Now if you build at Meta 5 you will need the max mineral count for the BPO (research will still help this) BUT you can elect to drop your meta level to save on mineral cost at the cost of producing a lower quality good.
So you run off 10 runs at meta 2 and 5 at meta 5. The Meta 2 products go to Jita, Wal-Mart to the galaxy, while the Meta 5 items get sold to your corp mates.

Ok so how will you the consumer know what you are buying?
Well this brings me to point two.

Right now you have no idea from whom you are buying until you have bought the product. But what if you want to "Buy Amarrian?" or stay away from NPC corp producers? Its hard to do currently. I think we should be able to see the producer, his corp and his alliance BEFORE we buy.
Sure most pilots won't give two shits but at least the option would there for full disclosure. To make it even easier make the market window a tad more like to overview; jumps/item/price/location/player/corp ticker/ alliance ticker.
Ok so when you click on "Show Info" you will see all the data you need, including Meta level and then up top like a ship in space there will be the producer's info.
Certain producers and corps would slowly get a reputation for selling meta 0 junk for meta5 prices. Consumer outrage would be extreme "Why should I have to click one extra button to check quality....WHINE WHINE WHINE"
Ships and modules would have different characteristics unless they were meta 5.

This would be EPIC. and so in the EvE "caveat emptor canis" flavour.

I am so for this....am I missing something? Is there an argument that doesn't contain the words "fair", "too hard", "I'm a crybaby pussy who wishes empire kills were refunded" that I'm missing?

Thoughts and comments welcome. And remember that in EvE the market is PvP >D

-alaph

Big plans for future operations

2009-11-07T10:52:00.002-06:00

Dominion is a month away from deploying and things are a bit slow. RECON and some other corps reformed the Minor Threat alliance after getting soft with Zenith Affinity out in....I wanna say paragon soul but honestly the multitude of regions I find myself in leaves little impression of the actual system.
Now we are perched on the edge of Cloud Ring doing gods know what. Small PvP ops head out almost daily.
I need to get my kill on and stop goofing around.

As for training need I need to get Wintermute into commands and alaph into....well Im not 100% sure tbh. Mutie is also real close to black ops.

Sigh, alot to do

-alaph

[IC] Sweet sweet slumber....

2009-10-19T21:09:00.004-05:00

The station sat below the Crow and buzzed with the energy of thousands of busy inhabitants. Outside the cold dark space was alive with pilot's of the alliance soaring around in the never ending frenzy of collecting ore and ISK.
But alaph slept.
Each alliance differed only in its name and proportion of fighters to bears, each alliance would fade into her NEO Comm record and become a mere flash of neural activity deep in the sub-conscience of her clone.
But alaph slept.
The station hangar had an annoying habit of retaining the bright lights needed for the mechanics and laborers to see what they were doing. They checked over alaph's Crow, filled it's missile bays, replaced the MWD and insured that the warp drive would activate when it was needed most.
But alaph slept.
The computer in her pod was busy imprinting her brain with the subtleties of torpedo flight patterns and explosion radii. Eighteen more days of the near subliminal dronning on...near subliminal but not damn total.
But alaph slept.
One tired pilot, spinning around the station, hidden in her Crow, her pods sensory manipulators completely shut down.
alaph slept.
She dreamt not of torpedoes in endless flight or jump gates along the smuggler's route but instead of a world eons away, lost in the accident that created New Eden. She dreamt of a planet that all capsulers had in there ancestral memories but that none knew of personally.
She dreamt of the ancient home. Too many systems. Too many stations. Too many planets.
Too many restless nights in the hulls of ships designed for death....hers or her enemies.
Too many clones.
And still alaph slept...

I swear I'm not dead....just divorced :D

2009-10-19T13:09:00.002-05:00

Ok, so the divorce is over with, and yes this topic does deserve some attention but certainly not on my eve blog...

So even though school is kicking my ass the divorce does mean that every other weekend will now be freed up for some much needed EvE lovin :D

alaph is about to hit the next clone class, its the one above 54mil (Rho, just logged in to look it up)....and technically I guess Wintermute is about to hit the same plateau. This means that dying will now cost me more than a whole fleet of t1 ships, well ok so 13mil isnt that much but still.

WA finished training for amarr strategic cruisers, just need to get the ISK up to buy one.

I did decide to specialize my two pilots: alaph will be my Cal/Gal specialist while WA will do Amarr/matari. I'm actually looking forward to diving into the realm of gal ships as I don't really fly many of them. This is also true to a lesser extent for caldari ships.
Honestly I think the gal ships are very black and white in looks, they are either gorgeous or hideous but still I can't wait to fly a few of them.

Well, I'll get some more posts up in the near future.

Free at last I'm free at last......now what :(

-alaph

Interestingly Sam Walton is already taken

2009-08-24T22:01:00.002-05:00

EvE...a sandbox open for all...

maybe it is too open. Imagine if you will a future in which corporations blur the line between virtual and real. Walmart makes a move to over take Target in Curse Region while Mc Donalds fights over Venal against bitter rival Burger King Corp.
Corporations joining the KFC alliance will receive a virtual coupon redeemable for a free combo meal at Taco Bell or KFC in RL so long as their mining and or production output remain within acceptable ranges.

Capsuler Sam Walton has stated that WalmartPvP will open all null sec stations to the entirety of the EvE universe so long as pilots join the WalmartPvP mailing list (which includes spam from the real world Walmart). Target has ceded Impass to TJMaxium Alliance and retreated into Catch.

Disney Corp has convinced CCP to rename the droin regions in line with Disney World Corporations wills. Hence forth the regions will be named after Disney characters and TV shows, gates will receive advertisment for Disney products and amusement parks. The 6 Flags Corporation was upset about this development and hotdropped the Epcot Region with 6 Titans. CCP has added gate billboard control to the list of sovereignty perks for the next EvE and Dust patches.

Nike is now including a free game time card with every shoe purchase. CCP has taken another leap in corporate gaming by allowing Corporate gametime cards. These cards will allow players to use the card for game time but will automatically place new characters created using the cards and existing characters into that corporation. Nike is leading the initiative with their new promotion. Mc Donalds responded with the new Adult PvP Meal....Mc Minmitar SUPER SIZE ME BIATCH.

Imagine.....the name Sam Walton is already taken, I just checked it.
Sam, if you are reading this, please tell me you are just some player with a sick sense of humor and not some dark corporate entity trying to find a presentation that will allow you to play EvE on the corporate dime...PLEASE!!!!!!

-alaph

DUST 514!!!!!

2009-08-20T08:53:00.002-05:00

Everyone else is blogging about it so I won't :D Fooled you.

Well today is patch day meaning long down times. Great for going over skill plans in EvEmon or EvEHQ. Also a good time to play with EFT.....or EvEHQ....

alaph is getting ready for a special assignment which will keep her busy for a while. This assignment and a general lack of care about Empire Space have forced my hand on the issue of whether or not to move Wintermute out to RECON. He will be moving out to null sec for much pew pew. Mutie is dred and carrier trained so I can finally get in on that fun WOOT WOOT.

Whats that? You want to know more about what alaph is doing?
Well when its done I'll write it up, but for now you are on a need to know basis...and you don't need to know.

Cheers all
-alaph

Largest CAPITAL fleet fight ever?

2009-08-18T12:58:00.000-05:00

Those are all capitals...
THOSE ARE ALL CAPITALS....
Good gravy it was a massive fight. Reports are not 100% at this time, and may never be, but it seems that over 200 caps slugged it out leaving 150+ capital wrecks amongst the bubbles.For my part I flew into the lag fest of ultra death and within seconds watched my flycatcher melt away.I thought about leaving it at that but the pull of that much gravity does no let one go easily, so back I came in a lowly rifter...
The rest is history.

http://minorthreat.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=4016281

That is just what our KB could gleam of the fight. In order to get the full picture you would need to vist many, many more KBs.

-alaph

Certificates

2009-08-17T05:23:00.002-05:00

When I rejoined EvE I noticed there were these weird little things called certificates on my character sheet. I looked into it and found out that certificates are a way of collecting up the skills you have and showing other capsulers what you can do. They also give a path for future skill training. They list which ships they would be good for. They are even broken down into classes; like standard, elite, ect.

Does anyone ever use Certificates?
Do you collect yours when they're ready?
Do you list them out publicly?

I do. I love the certificate idea. It's like having a resume readily available for future employers right there in game. On the other hand it tells your enemy (if you keep it up to date) what your abilities are.

I still like the concept and think CCP should explore and expand upon it.
For the newer players out there look through them, they could help you when planning the massive amount skills set out before you.

-cheers
alaph

Turbulence

2009-08-14T11:42:00.002-05:00

If I had enough money to pay CCP what it would take I would create a new EvE server called Turbulence.

All systems would be the same. All ships, mods, skilss, et al. would be the same.

The difference; no security rating for systems and no NPCs.....
I would need a game mechanic so that players could research new skills (the ones that are on Tranquility) and scribe them out for other players to buy.

Player creation would remain unchanged except you would start with the basic modules that your generation allowed you to use. From these basic modules it would be up to other players to invent the better ones.

Salvage would have to come from other players.

This would actually work best if we did a direct pull off of Tranquility, had a mass extension of the NPCs and freed up the game to truely be a sandbox.
Make all stations conquerable. All space act as null sec does now.

Also add in a mechanic to allow contracts for peoples lives.

EPIC
I want a darker fully PVP EvE. One were I can't AFK mission whore in high sec without the fear of being attacked.
I want EvE to be brutal.

:(
too many cry baby liberals and corporate types who want more money to make dream a reality tough :(

So instead I'll enjoy my time in null sec. Basking in the glory of it all.

Oh also my Turbulence server would act like WH space in respect to local.

EPIC

-alaph

I dream of Covert Genies

2009-08-11T13:23:00.002-05:00

I have a dream; a dream of little covert-ops and large black-ops operating as they should behind enemy lines. But first a bit illumination if you will

Covert: –adjective 1. concealed; secret; disguised.

HOW IN THE HELL CAN YOU BE A COVET OPS PILOT IF EVERY BLOKE IN LOCAL KNOWS YOU ARE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wormholes have proven the theory and set the precedence. I would love it if local worked all over the way it does in WH space but this isn't a discussion about that. No sir this is a discussion of 16 ships, 4 modules and 1 skill.

Ok first off is this module: Covert Ops Cloaking Device
There is but one minor change I would add to this module, when activated every cycle it treats you as if you were in a worm hole. So for the Barney speed readers: you activate it and you vanish from local until either you talk in local or the module shuts off. If you talk in local then at the beginning of the next cycle you cloak again.

Secondly we need a new version of this module: Passive Targeter II
We shall call our new module Covert Ops Passive Targeter II, and it will be similar to the COCDII above in that the fitting requirements will limit to ships that can fit COCDIIs with the addition that it can only be fitted onto the Covert Ops Frigates and not bombers, recons or black ops.
Can you guess what it does? That's right it allows you to target one ship per level of Covert Ops Targeting skill (this is obviously our new skill and would require Targeting level 5 and Cloaking level 5) up to your ships max number of targets. All locks are broken upon decloak.

Next we would allow two modules to be used while a ship, any ship is cloaked (but remember only our COPTII can lock ships while cloaked ;) ) Cargo Scanner and Ship Scanner.

These changes alone would make Covert Ops Frigates actually live up to their name.
A CO pilot could sit in system and scan down the enemy telling his FC what the ships were fitted with and what precious cargo they had without ever being noticed.
WIN

Now you may think this is over powered but I want Black Ops to be able to fit COCDIIs. To balance things we would remove the bonuses to weapons systems, or something.

Hmmm, well really that is it. I want a boost to Covert Ops Frigates, cloaking, and Black Ops.
This is doable and not that unbalancing....right?
Do you see flaws in my methodology here? Serious abuses of power?
Thoughts, comments, silly jokes?

-alaph

I love eve videos!!!!

2009-08-09T13:08:00.002-05:00

TRULY AWESOME

People who can get the good screen shots and do amazing editing have always made me jealous. When I'm in fleet I'm too damned worried about fighting to get good FRAPS, and the laptop doesn't have FRAPS anyhow.
Back when I used to do FRAPS I had to learn to zoom into my ship instead of my usual habit of zooming all the way out.
Interesting side point here, there are really two types of eve videos out there, the ones that show no interface and just have ships and what not, these are more like movies and great to watch. Then you have the ones with the interface in them, these are more like documentaries and have a slightly different appeal.

What I would like to see more of is voice chat in the videos. For type one you could just use tactical commands and process them so they sound like cross comms from ship to ship, type 2 you just have to put in there. There is a plethora of precedent out there for this but we don't see a whole heck of a lot of it.

Anyhow to the director of the above linked film, damn good job. Reminds me of a Corelli Core video I saw a few years back that blew me out of the water.... sorry no link to it, wish I had one, but put want in one cargo hold and veld in the other and see which one fills up first ;)

-alaph

In my day we had to fly 20 jumps just to get a frigate

2009-08-09T08:40:00.002-05:00

10 Posts for new Players over at Crazy's site got me thinking,

The old OTEP had lots of neat little posts about being a new player and helping out new players and all that, but even if I could find some cached copy somewhere it wouldn't apply to the current generation of capsulers.
We are currently on the 11th generation (12 if beta is included but I'll call primordial capsulers) of capsulers. You can date yourself by the major expansion you came in on. I'm a late 3rd generation capsuler.
8 generations later I feel disconnected from the new capsulers. I have no idea what it means to be a new pilot in this age of New Eden. In my day T2 was stupid expensive and controlled by cartells; there was no warp to 0, so people made ISK by selling massive packs of regional BMs; logging in and seeing 3k pilots online felt crowded; we had to set alarms for when skills finished...OH and we had NO EvEmon...oh no young capsuler, we had to make our own plans; the list goes on...

My point is that we have had a genrational shift in EvE right under our noses. EvE is doing great IMHO, I really like te changes that have come and gone, I like the nerfing and un-nerfing, I like the evolution...Back in my Evolution was a cool corp that a force to be recond with...sorry

So what generation capsuler are you? How do you remember your first few flights...In my day there was no tutorial....SORRY, damn there I go again :D

-alaph....off to nap in his pod

Epic Fail Night OOG

2009-08-08T23:35:00.003-05:00

Well after double commenting over at Ecliptic Rift.....damn more FAIL TRAIN, the double was the last error before this misjudgment of timeline.... anyhow EvEHQ won't update on my puter, I know it has something to do with admin rights and what not and when I reinstalled it had data already in it so it is storing data in more than one place BLAH BLAH BLAH....then there was the whole gif issue, BTW thanks to those who commented about it, CK says you can't see the real me long enough or well enough or something but that was intentional, I wanted it to be ghostly....

there was more fail somewhere I just can't think of where.

On a slightly different topic, I think it's odd that as a gamer I have not been able to fully immerse myself in any online persona. I don't post as Alaph Force or Wintermute Ashpool, very rarely in game I'll RP and yet I have played and continue to play pen and paper RPGs that are not statistic based dungeon crawls that have no depth.
I was thinking about this because of Rifts insistence on only following tweeters who tweet about EvE exclusivly and the post in which he mentions this is labeled OOC or out of character...
For some reason I can't get IC with MMO toons. I tryed it in CoX and had an easier time of it but it was still only a partial immersion.
Is that bad?
Should we want full immersion?
As a Taoist I say just enjoy it, as long as you enjoy it you are not wrong, but what are your opinions? If any...

Well crap

2009-08-08T17:56:00.002-05:00

The Gif did work once, wont seem to loop. this is bloody annoying, its supposed to loop.
Ill get this right at some point

edit: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

Is it working for you? PLEASE leave a comment on the image status....

Ok IF this works this will be cool

2009-08-08T12:09:00.005-05:00

I used GIMP to create a gif for my little photo icon on the side of my blog, if it works then it should be pretty cool. It should cycle between my two main characters with the in between being a picture of the real me, though the in between never comes into full focus....

Lets try it out and see it works

-alaph

edit: Picasa wants to upload it as a jpg so I'm trying eve-files

well fiddle sticks, didn't work :(
need to re-examine the gif creator in GIMP

hehe, did it wrong, can directly upload from the puter Im such a nub

whew

2009-08-08T11:07:00.002-05:00

Just finished a 10 of 10 storyline with Wintermute. The last level was more like a level 4 mission than a level 3 and the Paladin didn't fair as well as I had hoped. I hate that the Apoc family lost it's cap bonus, I loved my old dual LAR uber passive tank Navy Apoc.
I need to re-examine the Paladin before I begin doing L4s in it. Then again right now its setup as a multitank and not a rat specific tank so that is a huge part of it right there.
With the advent of savable setups tough I could save a fitting for each faction type and just click to load what I need, makes things real easy.

L4s take time and effort tough, L3s are AFKable so maybe Im worried over something I wont even need to worry about?

meh
-alaph

2009-08-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

Cane down....pod dieing....life..flashing before eyes

2009-08-06T18:55:00.003-05:00

The alliance formed up for a little roam today out in our neck of the woods. I undocked my hurricane and joined up hoping for some good kills. Our first destination looked promising but as we got closer intel came in that the blob on map was a blue blob so we turned and headed out the other way. After a little traveling we finally came across a decent gate camp which we decided to bust up. The odds were just like we liked em; more of them in bigger ships >) We set about engaging and looked as if we would have the upper hand...until they warped in a support fleet of between 100 and 150 extra pilots.
This is where things got hairy. Our gang was dispersed around the gate and the bubbles that had been placed around it. We had been trying to bust up a sniper camp with logistical support so some of us were pretty far off the gate. When the time came to get out we were split; some of us, myself included, made it through the gate while others had to move around in system and eventually get out as best they could.
Actually I'm remembering this wrong, it's flooding back as I write. We did endeed get split but the gate that some of us jumped through wasn't the camped one it was a different gate in system and it set us, the runners, as the bait that the support gang would hopefully follow.
If they did they didn't go very far. The splinter group headed for a local empire system. On the way there this annoying taranis pilot kept trying to tackle and aggress me. Finally I got fed up with him and was a bit worried that he was trying to hold me while support arrived so I webed, scrammed, and melted the retard. Seriously if he didn't have help on the way then that was the dumbest attempt at a killl I've seen in a while.
Anyhow we made it out to empire and back into null sec. Two jumps out of VOL we came across another gang. At this point our new FC got a little worried. We safed up in system and took a minute to think about what we should do. Fortunately the other part of gang had reformed and was on the other side of VOL... perfect time for Pincer Movment. So we jump in our side...but the other gang was a hair slower coming in and the Gentlmen's club gang was already on gate and ready for the fight. I was nuked fairly quickly....and poded. The lag was pretty bad and I it took me forever to find a way out of all the bubbles...the way out turned out to be a clone vat :p

EPIC

alaph out

2009-08-05T12:47:00.000-05:00

Battle Cruiser gang from the Epic fight I posted about earlier.

2009-08-04T09:15:00.002-05:00

Godlesswanderer posted about rigs recently. His question was about the need for rigs and whether or not other pilots use them. He also linked to a Dev blog about multisized rigs that looks interesting.

As for me I definitely use rigs. Tri-marks and nano-pumps or some such on my mission whoring marauder, cargo expanding rigs on my haulers, and current routers on pvp ships. Price is a limiting factor right now and T2 rigs are stupid expensive but the new multi sized rigs look promising. If CCP is even close in their estimates about cost we could see rigs go from expensive toys to must have mods.

-alaph

This is why I play EvE

2009-08-03T18:25:00.001-05:00

EPIC

All in one universe; all players; all losses are final!!!!!
Bloody brilliant.

-alaph

First Fleet Battle In Months

2009-08-03T06:00:00.002-05:00

I got to join in on my first fleet battle since returning from Afghanistan last night. (Does that sentence make it sound like I got back from Afghanistan last night or just that my first fleet battle was last night?)

I was flying my Crow....which I lost, but I got a kill as it went down in flames....the kill mail shows my pod as the ship used to destroy the enemy Cerberus. GO POD OF DOOM
KM

It was a short but rather sweet way to go and I got out with the alliance. Fortunately I'll get alot more time for EvE now that I have less baggage to hold me back.
Then again school and kids will be around so we'll have to see.

See ya in New Eden
-alaph

Sigh

2009-08-01T19:43:00.002-05:00

With the kids around I can't really do much more than run missions with WA. They are so AFKable its not even funny. I literally warp in, get agro and then deploy drones and walk away. Cleaning up takes the most effort.

But tomorrow I get to actually play EvE!!!!! The kids will be at their grandmother's and I will finally have time to join up with Minor Threat and go out PvPing. I had a Phobos I wanted to try out but I didn't have the highs for it and the journey to get said highs left me in a new clone...I really hate Doril and the Curse pipe :(
Our little home away from home needs better logistics imho. That and I need to train up T2 laZ0rs so I can fly the amarr ships that have come into vouge recently (thats a relative term in this case).

Well hopfully tomorrow I'll have some fun to post about, till then its a matter of chasing around some kids :)

Cheers
alaph

Crow

2009-08-01T07:10:00.002-05:00

Hull: Condor Class
Role: Interceptor

Interceptors utilize a combination of advanced alloys and electronics to reduce their effective signature radius. This, along with superior maneuverability and speed, makes them very hard to target and track, particularly for high caliber turrets.

Developer: Kaalakiota

As befits one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the known world, Kaalakiota's ships are very combat focused. Favoring the traditional Caldari combat strategy, they are designed around a substantial number of weapons systems, especially missile launchers. However, they have rather weak armor and structure, relying more on shields for protection.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Kinetic Missile damage per level

Interceptor Skill Bonus: 15% reduction in MicroWarpdrive signature radius penalty and 10% bonus to Missile Velocity per level

Role bonus: 80% reduction in Propulsion Jamming systems activation cost

Ah the Crow, this and it's brother the Raptor are defiantly my favorite ships in EvE.
I like the aesthetic look of these fighters. They just look like what I envision a fighter starship to look like. On top of that I like the interceptor class ships. Interceptors are designed to be fast tacklers and scouts. Jumping into a gate camp can mean certain death for most ships but the interceptor has a chance to out run the enemy and either get back to the gate or out of the bubble. Speed also plays a role in letting the ceptor tackle targets and not worry about getting hit by larger, slower guns. Let's have a look under the hood of the Crow and see what we get for our money:

CPU and Grid are tight on these frigate sized ships. With my skills I get 187.5tf CPU and a mere 43.75 MW of grid. The joy of the Crow is that it fits missiles which means that you don't have to worry about getting up close and personal (and in web range :p ) while still being able to do some tackling. So we are looking at fitting for speed, tackle, and missiles. The fit is gonna be tight with the limitations of the grid but let's see what slots we have to work with.

3 low
3 mid
4 high (2 turrent, 3 launcher)

Barebones speed wit my skills clocks in at 531m/s. Since speed is the ultimate appeal of these little star craft lets fit up our booster first. Now with the changes that came earlier this year there is finally a debate over MWD verse AB. Back in my Pandemic Legion days there was no debate it was MWD or go home. The Crow, in my opinion, remains one of the few ships that needs no debate. With its weapon system of choice being a longer range, non tracking dependant missile system MWD is the way to go.
I like to drop in the Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arc Jet, with the changes to MWDs theMWD II looks like it eats up 2% less cap but according to EFT we get more cap time from the ole Cat Arc.
Ok with the Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arc Jet in we are left with 164.5 tf cpu and 28.75 MW grid but our new top speed is 3854m/s sustainable....NICE

The ceptors second job is to get a point so let's get a disruptor on this demon. Warp Diruptor II is the way to go. Range is 24 km and it leaves us cap stable. CPU is holding at 120.5 and grid is at 27.75MW. Not too bad so far. Time for some fire power.

With 4 highs and only three launcher points we are gonna be left with an empty high slot after we dump 3 Standard Missile Launcher IIs in there. We are down to 57.5 tf CPU and 3.45 MW grid... ouch. On the plus side our weapon system can hit out past our disruptors optimal and we get a choice of standard, faction, or T2 ammo. I generally go for standard ammo as I know I'm not out there to pop Titans or anything, I'm a scout and tackler primarily.

Ok we still have 3 low slots, 1 high and 1 med to fit out. With our tight grid requirments we might want to think about a Micro Auxillary Power Core, but first let's try out some speed mods and see what a sensor booster does to our mids.

Sensor Booster II (Scan Resolution Script): With this mod we can lock a small drone in 1.5 seconds. Our cap stability is down to 9m 53s... but seriously that is a LONG TIME for a PvP engament. CPU is down to 47.5 tf and grid is left with just 2.45 MW. Good thing speed mods are light on the ole grid.

Overdrive Injector II x 2: No effect on our fittings, and our cap remains unchanged. Using more tan 2 gives limited returns on speed. The first one adds 490 m/s, the second 472 m/s. This gives us a top speed of 4807 m/s.

Anything worth fitting in the high is going to require we put in a Micro Auxillary Power Core... This is the joy of EvE, we have lots of choices. I'm gonna go with something else in the lows and do the heretical action of leaving a slot empty. I'm not an overloader yet so I don't need an offline heat sink up there but that is always an option.

Rounding out my lows is an Inertial Stabalizer II for quicker turining.

Well there it is My lovely Crow and like I said above EvE is one of those great games were options really do exist.

Fly dangerously;
alaph

Total Drama Action

2009-08-01T07:05:00.002-05:00

Ok drama is almost over and I'm getting back into EvE.

You knows what I'd likes to see? Ofc you don't, so I'll tell you. I'd love to see a podcast that focuses on ships, modules and fittings.
I don't think I'm qualified to do this podcast, nor do I have the time or the ability atm but what I could do is do a weekly post about one ship and what I think about fitting it.

I challenge all the EvE bloggers to pick one ship, their favorite preferably, and do a blog post about that ship and how they like to fit it. I'd like to see this done by the end of August.

I'm gonna do the ole Crow, this is one of my favorite ships in the EvE universe.

The gauntlete has been thrown down, Krazy, I expect good things from you ;D

Cheers
alaph

New Title, different location

2009-06-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

Had to play around with it a bit but here is the new location of the alaph blog

One Tired Blogger

New Title, Same Blog

2009-06-22T21:22:00.002-05:00

The new title is to reflect the that this isn't a focused EvE blog.

I still have two accounts, still training them, and may still play.
Life is crazy at the moment and with a new title I feel I can talk about it more without you the reader wondering why an EvE blog has little to do with EvE.

Ok, so back to my goals of one of the earlier posts...post at least 3 times a week, figure out a little more about how to set all this up with linkies and what not, and I think I want to rewrite my profile.

But now its time for work, we have to in process a large number of future Afghan police officers...
Defiantly more on this later, this country is a joke.

Cheers
-alaph

Cottlestone Pie

2009-06-18T22:59:00.003-05:00

Cottleston Pie

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
Why does a chicken? I don't know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fish can't whistle and neither can I.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

 -- A. A. Milne

The version of the song sung by Rolf on the Muppet Show is my favorite.

I don't know if I'll be playing EvE again. My accounts are active but I can't bring myself to log in.
There are more important things on my mind. I might even change the blogs name, then again I might not.
Only time will tell.
alaph

No Heart for EvE Lately

2009-06-06T23:50:00.000-05:00

I haven't been on much this past few weeks. I did a roam at the end of May but that's about it.

I have no heart for it. It's not EvE though. You see I'm trying to reconnect with my wife. We were at the point of divorce, and may still be she hasn't said yet. Slowly we are talking more.
She has consumed me fully. I don't have the heart for much of anything at all really. The process of reconnecting is slow and painful, and I don't know what is in her head. Being thousands of miles apart means that communication is limited.

I don't know when I'll get back into EvE. When my head is clear I guess.
More important things to worry about at the moment.
Much more important.

Afghanistan...the place you DONT want to be...

2009-05-27T06:46:00.002-05:00

Our mission went well...at least as far as enemy contact anyway. I can't drive!!! I'm a medic, I'm supposed to be a GIB (guy in back) but because of tactical reason I have to be the driver.

I've never had combat drivers training, I was never one who went out mudding, I am not a driver!!!
My nerves just don't hold, I'm white knuckle the whole time. People are shouting, I get kicked, a bump is hit way too hard. You have to watch in front of the truck, 100 meters ahead, scan left, scan right, what IS THAT!!!! Shit!!! The whole time your trying to focus on EVERY THING, and everyone else sees what you miss and shout at you "LEFT, DAMIT! DON'T YOU KNOW YOUR LEFT FROM YOUR RIGHT"

I haven't been in EvE much lately because we got back from mission and I had range duty...plus I've been incredibly depressed lately.

It seems like everything I touch goes to shit. And then when I feel as low as I can I see what others do to help me out and hear and see how they try to lift me up and make me better.
And all of this comes crashing down on you. You know these guys care for you and you feel terrible about letting them down.

I'm having my extension retracted so I can get home and be with my kids. When I left for Afghanistan I myself was but a child. A 30 year old child. I have seen things, not combat mind you or the carnage that it brings, but things that few who do not serve will ever see. These things have brought my world into forced focus and I have grown up quickly and harshly.

I might be able to salvage my marriage but I'm not expecting to. I had a great girl and I really screwed things up. She didn't want to extend in the first place but I did it despite her pleading.
I extended for almost two years. So here she is thinking I'd be gone for almost three years. you add to that all the trouble I caused in the past and in the end you come up for no reason for her to be with me.
She met someone when she thought I wasn't coming home and she is or was planning on a divorce. Would you expect her to change her mind?
I hope she does because I love her and I have grown up enough to realize what love really means, but honestly I don't expect her to reverse her course.
I let her know I was coming home but I haven't heard from since then.

Anyway, the long and short is that I have not been playing EvE this week because I have not had the heart for it. Not to mention that my off time is a week time for activity amongst my corp.

I'm feeling better though. I've had time to think about things and my head is clearing up. I'm coming home this year no matter what it takes. I'm coming home to be a father to my children.
If I have a wife then thats great, if I don't then I'll move on. As long as she is happy and we get to both be the kids parents then I'll be alright.

I hope to you amongst the stars soon enough, but for now I'm taking a small break, getting my head straight.

Cheers all
-alaph

RL Missions coming up

2009-05-24T12:34:00.005-05:00

I'll be out of the EvE loop for a few days as I embark on some real life missions.

Those who pray send your thoughts to my team and myself. Those that don't look forward to a mission complete post.

I can't give any details at this time but when I get back I'll try and let you in on my little world here in Afghanistan.

Fly safe, and I look foward to writing to you soon™

Cheers
alaph

Woken Up

2009-05-23T19:04:00.003-05:00

Some one called my Skype number at 0330 this morning so now I'm awake running yet another courier mission on Wintermute. Gotta grind out those faction standings, its over 5 now so I'm getting there but still....

I feel like poop this morning. My sinuses are acting up and its cold for some reason. Not like real cold just chilly really but when you get used to the heat of the the desert cool becomes a relative cold.

More to come.

alaph

White Flag

2009-05-23T13:18:00.002-05:00

"White Flag"

I know you think that I shouldn't still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it
where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of "it's over"
then I'm sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

And when we meet
Which I'm sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I've moved on....

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I originally heard this song on an eve video from a guy who had played since beta. But it pretty much sums up the situation I'm in right now.

Thank you Dido for the song.

alaph....out

My Paladin

2009-05-23T03:45:00.002-05:00

....is currently escorting some Marines to some distant system, but usually it is a monster mission destroyer.
For some reason after the patch the other day my agent keeps giving me too many courier missions.

Oh well it gives me the time to blog about my Paladin, a Marauder class battleship. These things are the most awesome carebear delight ever invented. For one thing it has a HUGE cargo hold, meaning I don't have to change ships to run these Marines to wherever it is they are going...I don't really pay attention in high sec to be perfectly honest, but it also has three high slots for purely carebear modules...and it gives a bonus to one of those modules, the tractor beam goes twice as far and moves twice as fast when mounted on a marauder. Then you have your four LaZ0rs which get a 100% bonus to damage with an additional bonus per Marauder level.

Whew. That was a moputh full. Now what I don't understand is why the Paladin gets a bonus to stasis webifiers? This baffles me but then again so do a few other choices the Dev team have made...I will discuss those later. This is a post about Red Knight, my lovely Paladin.

Here is the fit I'm using:

[Paladin, Red Knight]
Shadow Serpentis Large Armor Repairer
Damage Control II
Amarr Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Centum A-Type Energized Thermic Membrane
Corpum A-Type Energized Reflective Membrane
Corpum A-Type Energized Magnetic Membrane
Corpum A-Type Energized Reactive Membrane

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
LiF Fueled I Booster Rockets
True Sansha Stasis Webifier

Amarr Navy Mega Pulse Laser, Ultraviolet L
Amarr Navy Mega Pulse Laser, Ultraviolet L
Amarr Navy Mega Pulse Laser, Ultraviolet L
Amarr Navy Mega Pulse Laser, Ultraviolet L
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I
Salvager I

Trimark Armor Pump I
Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Acolyte II x15

149k EHP and I can drop the AB for another Cap module if the mission calls for it. Without the AB on it is cap stable at 35%.

After I finish training for my Archon I will begin working on the marauder again. I need to get into T2 LaZ0rs of both flavors and ofc I want to go from 4 to 5 wit the marauder skill.

Some of you may be wondering about that drone bay, currently I'm only running level 3s so small fast drones work best, plus I loose connection every now and again and this insures that when the connection is regained I have plenty of drones at my disposal. As to why I use Acolytes...well lets just say I kinda have an amarr fetish wit this character.

Ok the marines are safeltly in Zith, don't think I've ever been to Zith before but thats neither here nor there, time to go back and get another mission...gotta grind out that standing. 4.89 atm and I need it much, much higher

cheers
-alaph

Paladin
Hull: Apocalypse Class
Role: Marauder

Geared toward versatility and prolonged deployment in hostile environments, Marauders represent the cutting edge in today’s warship technology. While especially effective at support suppression and wreckage salvaging, they possess comparatively weak sensor strength and may find themselves at increased risk of sensor jamming. Nevertheless, these thick-skinned, hard-hitting monsters are the perfect ships to take on long trips behind enemy lines.

Developer: Carthum Conglomerate

Carthum ships are the very embodiment of the Amarrian warfare philosophy. Possessing sturdy armor and advanced weapon systems, they provide a nice mix of offense and defense.

Amarr Battleship Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to capacitor capacity and 10% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers per level

Marauder Skill Bonus: 7.5% bonus to repair amount of armor repair systems and 5% bonus to large energy turret damage per level

Role Bonus: 100% bonus to large energy weapon damage, 100% bonus to range and velocity of tractor beams

Blogger, Picasa, and Google

2009-05-23T03:21:00.002-05:00

So I'm trying to learn all the features available with Google's little suite of tools here.

Like I'm trying to figure out how to get blogger and picasa to talk to each other so I share my photos with you readers.

Also blogger is quiet a change from wordpress. Trying to get the site all laid out properly is gonna take time. Fortunately time is one thing I do have. When I'm not on duty all I have is time.

This started out as a post about technology but it made me realize something. This is what my wife was talking about when she said I was running away from my family by extending my deployment (which I still don't know if it got approved or not?). I do like my free time. I also miss my family but I think she was right that I did want time for myself.
I should have been more attentive to my family. When I get home (you should never say if :D ) I plan to spend as much time with my kids as I can. I mean I'll still have to work and go to school (gonna get my nursing degree) and I won't give up on EvE or GURPS (if I can find a group) but family will be triaged priority one.
If I had done that two years ago I might not have lost my wife emotionally.

Anyhow, I have some free time and it is time to get some faction standings with Wintermute. I need to grind up my Carthum standings so I can get those juicy level 4 RandD agents, yum yum

In my day we had to wake up at 3am to do a skill change

2009-05-22T20:19:00.003-05:00

Well no more!!!!
With the introduction of Apocrypha we got what we had been asking for all those years....a skill planner. I like the way they implemented it to; you get 24 hours worth of start times.
So for example you could load a skill that will take 3 hours, then one that will take 45 minutes, followed by an 11 hour one and finish up with a 28 day skill. Then you would have to wait until that 28 day skill 23 hours and 59 minutes left and you could tag on another skill...

I mention this because my morning routine includes checking EvE Mon to see were I'm at.
alaph has a good 6 days left for energy grid upgrades 5. This is a skill I have put off for far too long with alaph. I started it because I didn't know what direction I wanted to take her. Thats the beauty of EvE....Freedom, it is also one of EvE's biggest hurdles for new players. Us vetrans know that you just set a long skill to train and sit back and take a breath ;)

Wintermute started capital ships today after having amarr encryption methods finish...well actually it will finish in an hour, see I love the skill que.

Fnordian snuck in some shorter skills but she is still work hard towards getting all those learning skills up to 4.

Oh my, I never told you my plan for alaph did I?
I had planned to max out smaller ships, cruiser size and below. I need alot of work on laZ0rs and drones. Instead I will be doing drones but only because I'm going to push for larger Gal ships. I'm moving alaph into the moros and thanatos catagories.

So alaph will be a heavily Gal pilot, Fnord caldari, and WA amarr.....guess the matari will have to wait for now.

Out of game (OOG) I have range coverage today, in 15 minutes actually. This means that while EvE sees its Friday night spike I have to do Saturday morning work. :(
I can't wait to get back to a good Time Zone. Plus I can't really see all of EvE's glory on this laptop, the video card cana hack it.

I look forward to a life of children, GURPS, EvE, and nursing.

BTW running at 0430 may suck balls, but it wakes you up thats for sure.

"Safe journies space fans" -Stephen Hill, HoS

-alaph

Friday Freeday

2009-05-22T12:05:00.001-05:00

Fridays are our off days around here. We do as little as possible.
Today I watched some movies, ran some missions and generally took the day off.

Tonight though the wind has really picked up.
I finally got my Concerta in, I ordered it almost three months ago. Fortunately amazon is faster than the drug company the DoD uses so I get new movies and what not in faster.
I got the Art of EvE Book. Its neat to see how EvE has evolved over the years.

I also just got this blog up and I'm trying to figure out a good way to add pictures to it. Since Google owns blogger and Picasso I'll probably sign up for that so I can get pictures of EvE and Afghanistan up for you guys.

Our internet is shotty out here so I will have to discover the limitations of uploading and blogging everyday.

My current goal is to blog at least 5 out 7 days a week for the rest of May and June. Even if it is a small post. That gets you back in the habit and gets the writing flowing again.
Unfortunately all of the old OTEP was lost including the back ups.

Tonight we are playing Medal of Honor. We do this every few nights as a way to bond. Its fun to go around and shot the people you work with. Plus this late at night for me is a slow period in EvE. I have to wake up early to get in on the US time zone EvE playing.

Because of this I'm training WA up for T2 production. I want to try and build recons for alaph.

Well back to MOH.

Cheers
alaph

Back without any demand!!!!!!

2009-05-22T07:47:00.003-05:00

One Tired EvE Pilot is back.

That's right the blog is back this time hosted by google/blogger instead of on my own server, I'm hoping this reduces the hacking.

When last we talked I was in Korea, or had just gotten back from Korea. alaph was flying with Sni99erdly and Wintermute was doing what he always has done, mission whoring. I think I had just gotten my Navy Apoc when we closed down the old site.

Time has passed since then. I was recalled into the army, that 4 year contract includes another 4 of inactive recall time ;)
My wife has decided to move on and at first I thought I could or would as well but I just can't. I married her twice (we got remarried before I deployed) and so even though I will grant her a divorce I will maintain my vows of marriage. I guess that makes me celibate.

Oh yeah I'm in Afghanistan. Still a medic. I'm in ARSIC-WEST at a little post that does police training. Its a hard job but its rewarding. What finally killed my marraige was that I put in for an extention over here. There is a whole long story to go with all of that but it boils down to me not being a very good husband and my wife not wanting to be alone. I seperated us physically and that caused her to seperate us emotionally. But I made a vow to her and in loosing her I have realized what that vow means, so as penance I will continue to uphold my vow even after she sends the papers.

But you aren't here for tat are you.....no you are here for EvE related stuff.

For this first post let's do a character run down and then further posts will go from there:

alaph force: once the CEO of Taggart Transdimentional, then a drug dealer, then a pirate, alaph now flys with RECON, a group that is based around pvp and small gang roaming. I've only been in for a short time but I like these guys and they seem like alot of fun.
Stay tuned for news from Curse and Derelik as we go on a rampage out there YARRRRRRR

Wintermute Ashpool: Still the CEO of tAMI though currently training to be an Archon pilot. Once in a carrier I plan on moving WA over to RECON and place an alt in the leadership seat of tAMI.

Fnordian Slip: a new character who I am training up for running missions, scanning out ladar sites and maybe T2 production. She is still young and I figuring her out. I do know that she will be a purely missile based pilot, and also purely Caldari. I might try faction warfare with her. She sounds like she will be alot of fun...after I get those stupid learning skills done.

For a great EvE experiance check out Crazy Kinux's Musings
He keeps probably the best, most up to date, and longest running EvE blog.

alaph out