I've been playing Eve continuously for almost a year now. This is the second longest I've ever played a MMO (behind 18 consecutive months of SWG). My corporation has gone from four people to over ten and we recently joined an alliance.

So there we are the other night doing some mining. And as we're moving ore back and forth from the asteroid belt we keep coming across members of our alliance. I casually inspect them as I do everyone, checking what they fly, what their security rating is, and so on.

The first one has a slightly negative rating and a small bounty. Interesting, I think. But thats cool. I continue on. The next one has an even worse security rating and a bigger bounty. Huh, must be together I think and move on.

The third one has a bad security rating and a bounty of nearly 185,000,000 ISK (the currency of Eve). Thats a LOT!!!! I have had at most in my position maybe 60,000,000 ISK before and that was rare. The Exhumer I was in was scarcely worth more than that guy's bounty.

So I mention it to my corp-mates who also express surprise that many of the alliance members that have seen and inspected also had negative ratings and bounties.

Huh, I think to myself. We joined a pirate alliance. Does that mean we're pirates? Arr matey and all that jazz? Paint that ther' parrot on th' side o' me ship, for' ah keel-haul ye!

I haven't blown anyone up yet. And I haven't begun preying on other miners. So perhaps I'm not a pirate afterall. But I haven't been attacked recently so maybe being allied with the pirates is a good thing. A bonus. The silver lining, as it were. They probably blew up and scared off the competition.

Or maybe we sold our soul to the devils. Time will tell. Until then, maybe I'll keep one eye on the rocks, the other peeled for danger, and a loaded gun under my pillow... er, fitted, heated up and ready to fire.

So as I mentioned in my previous post I recently joined up with Lucky Hydra Corp (LHY) part of the SMASH alliance. Arriving out in TDE I didn't realize how interesting things were quickly going to get; here I was in 0.0 with only 10mil ISK, flying a T2 equipped ship that in a fleet would be declared Primary the minute we engaged (Scorpion). What can I say in my eagerness to get back in to the fight my pre-planning wasn't the best. It was after a couple of days that I realized that I needed to get some cash fast.

So whats a guy to do but take advantage of the situation I was in and Rat like I have never ratted before. I headed out to drone space to meet up with a few other LHY members. Getting out there was touch and go as I had to go though some fairly dangerous territory. Arriving out there we spent a few hours ratting for drones. I was surprised by two things first at how relaxing this turned out to be. Second I was surprised at how well my ship was holding up with it's minimal DPS. The Scorpion only has 4 launchers so it's fairly limited in it's DPS (I can't rat BS Spawns in regular 0.0 space as I can't break their tank.). However using T2 Paradise Cruise missiles I was able to generate enough damage that I was able take 1 and 2 BS Spawns in Drone Space. While there would be no way I could have done much solo due to the speed at which my cargo hold filed up. With an group and a nearby POS side we gained enough alloys and salvage to probably build a couple of new battleships.

One plus (and negative) of the night was that I had remembered to bring a salvager with me. For much of the Op I was the only one who could salvage much of my time was spent salvaging. During this time I began to think of how many of us spend hours cleaning up after missions. I couldn't help but think how awesome Salvaging drones would be. Think on it while you would be limited on what you could bring by drone space it's a choice between DPS and efficiency. The balance makes sense as well; you can take up drone space or high slots. While no It seems to be a bit of an over site by CCP after all there are drones for just about everything else why not salvage? I hope this is something that if they aren't considering they will in the future.

While I am able to much with the Scorpion, I was quickly realizing that other then a few situations it was of little use out in 0.0. I needed to start looking toward something else, which brings up the question of what? Do Where do I go, up till now I have primarily concentrated on Mission running and some small gang PvP. Fleet PvP is a new thing to me and I think It will bring me back to Ravens eventually I think. I have been looking at training up Amarr or Gallente ships to help add to my arsenal of ships I can use. Tomorrow is another day and we'll see what it brings...

It's been some time since I last blogged (Blame work ) and I haven't had much time to play EvE Online. After several months out of game I decided to reevaluate where I was with the game and what I wanted to do with my character. I have been working my character towards PvP and PvP ships in general (Currently 2-3 days from flying Interdictors). While Ivy league had/has been evolved in many wars over the last few months the majority have been from small 3-10 man corporations these wars mostly involved camping these corps in their stations. Having had my first taste of 0.0 Ratting and Life early on in EvE when Eve University was part of the Big Blue (TBB ) I decided that it was time to move back out.

With this decision well in hand It came down to a decision of where to go, several options were open to me as a member of IVY. After talking with a friend who was in a Corporation called Lucky Hydra (LHY) who was part of SMASH and playing with some of the corp members I decided to take them up on an offer to join.

So over this weekend it was with some regret I decided to leave IVY and apply to Lucky Hydra at their Headquarters in Earwik (Metropolis). After some fumbling with the interface to get my Corporation right and privileges removed so that I could join.

Not to go on to much of a tangent but this is one area I feel could do with a look by the developers of Eve, the recruitment tools and instructions for joining a corporation felt incomplete and not very user friendly.

So logging on Monday night I found I was a new member of LHY, after some checking I decided to move myself out to TDE4-H (in Geminate) as my main system of Operations in 0.0. arriving there after a 26 Jumps and a Gate transfer I manged to set myself up. Overall I have been impressed by SMASH they seem decently organized and many of the players seem to be top notch. As to LHY they seem to be as good a group of people as any I have gamed with. My first night out I went ratting in UG- however the pickings were slim though I did get some nice drops. Over the course of the last few days we have entered in to a new war with Murder Death Kill (MDK) and it looks like FERGE attacked one of the systems SMASH recently captured from them last night with a 170 ship fleet. With these events it looks like it will be both a busy weekend with lots of combat to go around.

As I get settled over the next few weeks I'll be blogging about my experiences in 0.0. I also hope to help dispell some of the misconception that many have about living in 0.0.

So I recently moved out to Aramachi to run level 4 missions with a new agent at the Aramachi II - Moon 4 - Caldari Navy Testing Facilities. So far I have found my new Raven set up has been able to handle these mission with no major issues, there have been some sticky situations but overall I am very pleased with my set up for mission running. My current set up is (Going off memory here):

High Slots:
6x 'arbalest' cruise launcher I (This is giving me around a 9.2 ROF with my current skills)
2x e500 prototype energy vampire

Medium Slots:
1x xlarge shield booster II
1x Target Painter I
3x Mission Specific Active shield hardeners
1x shield boost amplifier II

Low Slots:
2x power diagnostic system I
3x Ballistic Control System I

As I said I was pretty happy with the setup overall though I need to work on my electronic skills so I can better fit items using more CPU (I often have issues fitting the NOS due to CPU shortages). However currently I am working on my Evasive Maneuvering V so that I can get in to Interceptors for an additional (and slightly cheaper) PvP ship option, so my training once EV V is complete will probably work a bit toward this rather then electronics.

Mean while on the corporate from Ivy League just celebrated their 3rd anniversary (3/15) at training new players. To celebrate this members will be touring around the Eve staging mock battles. You can go and post a Happy Birth day message here Eve Online Forum Post.

Tomorrow is Patch day for the Revelations 1.4 patch so I probably won't be playing much, but look for more later in the week.

So I figured I would give an update it's obvious that CCP realized they were taking a bit of a hit amongst the community and I have a feeling Ungulf wasn't the only one to quit over this one. First a bit of an update on the Orignal issue Since I posted Kugutsumen the hacker who orginaly uncovered the cheating had all 5 of his accounts banned by CCP. He Posted his communication from CCP on his website about the ban, I am not going to post the letter (you can find it if you want) but let me say it doesn't put CCP in a good light and frankly makes them seem somewhat petty. As this came to light SirMolle of BoB posted the real name of Kugutsumen on the EVE-O Forums causing another uproar and calls for SirMolle to be banned (though I have heard if he has or hasn't at this point.).

In response to this whole incident CCP's new Director of Internal Affairs Arkanon posted both a blog and to the forums to answer some questions about his new position:

The Blog:
http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=429

The Forum Post:
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=475706

While it's good that they are making some changes the manner in which they handled the original issues still leaves a bad tates in the mouth. Both the timing of SirMolle's Post and the Ban of Kugutsumen don't help the matter in the least. However that CCP have started to talk about this and what they are doing going froward looks like it may go along way to restoring the some of the Faith lost amongst the community.

Recently due to the launch of the WoW Expansion and Training of Cruise missiles 5, I have been playing a bit less Eve. When I logged on tonight I saw an unexpected surprise my last friend active in Eve had quit. His reasons were similar to many I have seen from other guild mates with an added twist. Now to set some background...

WARNING EVE POLITICS INCOMING!

It has long been rumored that members of the Eve Development team had been involved with their personal characters in some of the major alliances in the game. This included Band of Brothers (BoB ) one of the largest and most notorious Corporations. Recently it came to light through a post in a external forum that one of the members of the Eve Development team gave BoB several Valuable T2 BPOs that gave BoB and advantage and helped them win there recent war. As one would expect there was a huge uproar both on the Eve-O boards and off. Many defended CCP and took there side in the argument that it was just more bashing of BoB, while others took the opposing side. In this case I like many were surprised to find that some of the allegations were actually True! Last Friday a Post by a Eve Developer calling them selves CCP t20 posted the following Blog. Minutes later the CEO of CCP responded to the post with a Blog of his own letting everyone know what they were doing as a company to prevent this sort of incident. I read this with interest and like many I have to admit some disappointment with the softening of there stance toward events like this, while I am a strong believer in forgiveness there is no greater way to undermine the credibility of your development team then to allow some one to remain on the team who has crossed that line and abused there position.

So it was on that note that Ungulf who had been getting rather board in Eve (the game isn't for everyone) sent a Corp mail stating that he was leaving the game in part due to the boredom and in part to take a stand against this weak position that CCP has taken. Sadly Like many stances players take when quiting an MMO I am sure that it will be ignored by CCP and they will not return to the tough stance they once held.

Now I myself don't plan to leave Eve I still enjoy thee game (in part because the incredibly complex and evolving political system that exists in Eve) and truly look forward to see what both the Players and CCP do in the future. While I may disagree with the stance that CCP is taking on this Cheating by a Developer it's my sincere hope that this is as stated a truly isolated incident.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out:
http://www.white-wolf.com/index.php?line=news&articleid=629

This is an interesting development for the game. I'm excited about it; I'd love to see pen and paper miniatures games/RPGs about EVE. (Easier and faster to be able to set up a bunch of BSes in a board game then it is to level up the characters to do it! )

The other part of it would be "Will there be White Wolf MMORPGs?" and I'd have to think they're considering it.

I haven't always been the biggest WW fan so my hope is that they don't screw up the pen and paper side, and that the additional focus on WW-related properties (if it does happen) doesn't diminish from EVE.

A number of my friends that joined at the same time as me are starting to drop out. It's a bit depressing...but they're bored. None of us are in a big corp, really, other than some in EVE U, and I think that's part of it. (And our time in EVE U was mostly dealing with lame bored pirates who'd declare war constantly on us. Not so much fun when you're still in a basic frigate, trying to learn the game. I put them in with CliffyB's description of cheaters in the Gears of War article in EGM this month.)

But I got small hybrid turrets to 5. That means I can work on the weapon specializations. For the meantime, though, I also wanted to get Caldari Cruiser to 5, but that'll take close to a month. So, instead, I decided to get one more rank in Will and one more rank in Perception first. We'll see how much it gets sped up.

I guess I understand my friends - I haven't played much either, just updated skills. Then again, I haven't played much online of anything, just a few minutes here or there. Just no time...