Sunday 30 September 2012

Retribution

CCP have announced that the 4th of December will be the date of the next expansion known as Retribution.  They have an official page up with little information but linked below is an article from Massively which explains more.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/29/ccp-unveils-eve-online-retribution-coming-this-winter/

I'll comment about it later on but always have to laugh about it being a "Winter" expansion as by the 4th of December it'll be damn hot here!


Friday 28 September 2012

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Stormy Times

The storms were closing in and reliable power was becoming a luxury.  I had the weather RADAR image refreshing from the Bureau of Meteorology every ten minutes, the fastest it can and watched the rain front approach from the south west.

This was the first storm front in many months and after only receiving a millimetre or two of rain for the whole  month the rain would be welcome.

In game I'd finally received the IP details for the chat server after weeks of asking, maybe somebody noticed my null sec downsizing?  This meant I was finally able to login to voice chat and go on roams, though this was slightly difficult as all but one or two ships has been stripped of fittings and left with just rigs.  I resisted the urge a couple of nights prior to just sell them all and move on, that offer from the people in the "Boystin Pocket" was intriguing and gnawing away somewhere in the grey matter.

Sitting in a system a fair distance from the front line, the previous day I had torn down my null sec PI installation as sales were sporadic, the call goes out for a roam or camp.

I have comms again so in theory this is something I could do, also being healthy again and not exhausted was a bonus.  Quickly I looked through the roster of ships available and settled on a Gallente assault frigate, fitted it and made my way towards the target system.

Outside, out of game, the thunder was rumbling and lightning flashed from time to time.  The lights still flickered but putting faith in my UPS, which all the important gear was hooked up to, I hoped it would all be okay.  Then of course, perhaps I was more tired than I thought, my realisation that the UPS had failed and died earlier in the year.  It had yet to be replaced.  Once more I looked at the RADAR images.  The front was close, with more behind it, but the rain was losing intensity, it had yet to reach us.

Back in game I reached the target system, having joined the fleet en route, and commenced the camp.  We caught nothing of consequence before DT, and nothing afterwards, but being able to reconnect with the corp was worthwhile after a difficult three months in the real world.

The storm front passed over us that night bringing little rain.  Subsequent days would also promise much and deliver little.

We are still waiting for decent rain.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Vile Rat Fundraiser

A fundraiser to benefit the family of the late Vile Rat aka Sean Smith has been created at the link below.

As of the time of writing roughly half of the $50,000 target has been reached with 75 days to go.

http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=9332&url=benefitforseansmithsfamily

Sunday 16 September 2012

Housework


Cleaned up the front page a bit by removing some of the dead blogs, most had not been updated in a year.

Diary of a Pod Pilot
a merry life and a short one
CrazyKinux's Musing
A Mule in Eve (link no longer exists)

Suggest some new ones!

Saturday 15 September 2012

Boat Foot Mouth

It would appear the in game character, and Goonswarm FC known as Da Big Red Boat (DBRB) has been a dick head* again.

Not sure if dick head is one word or two.  I'll go with two for emphasis.

DBRB is easily the most outspoken of the Goon FC's and some blue will either not join his fleets or leave if he takes them over because of past behaviour in fleet chat and Teamspeak.

"(9:35:03 PM) directorbot@goonfleet.com/directorbot: Attn: Elo Knight of black legion and Super twinkey of Nc.DOT have decided to be bitches of the highest order. They used last night, time we all spent grieving and :smith:ing over vilerat to shoot our structures and taunt us in local. Tonight IRC has called a level 4 cta, the highest possible and nc.dot and elo are telling their people they must show up. They think we will be too busy crying and sad to fight them and they are trying to abuse our friends death

SHOW UP TONIGHT IN A SUBCAPITAL, SLOWCAT, SUPER CAPITAL, IBIS. Show these fucking bitches that its not cool to use vilerat’s surprising death as a strategic objective and goal.

Subcaps are forming at 0300eve, we will be using drakes, tengus, tornados or other ships I call for. Be in umi with multipul ships. See you tonight.

*** This was a broadcast from dabigredboat to all-all, replies are not monitored ***"

It's stunning to see him screw up again and again.

/me shakes head

* retrospective article language warning

Thursday 13 September 2012

Vile Rat

Recently it was reported by the worlds media that a citizen of the United States lost his life in an attack on their embassy in Libya, a country that is emerging from a civil war.

Later reports have updated this to several citizens including the ambassador.

One of the people killed appears to be an Eve Online player called Vile Rat in game or Sean Smith outside of it.

Unfortunately the news that this person was Vile Rat came from the news desk of Goonswarm so a large amount of disbelief must be reserved until more reputable sources, using independent reporting, supply us with the information.

It would seem however that the news is true and the person known in game as Vile Rat has been killed in Libya.

Real world events don't often intrude into the Eve Online universe.  The most recent example I can remember is The Mittani's rant which ended up with his in game suspension.

Obviously this is a very sad event for all those involved.

Vile Rate was the number two man in the Goonswarm leadership.  It's hard to see how this can change the day to day operations of Goonswarm as they are decentralised.

However the long term prospects are more unclear as Vile Rat could have provided the brains and strategic long term planning that an impotent figure head like Mittens cannot do.

If I had to put some money down I'd say his loss will be mourned and it will be business as usual after a week or two at Goonswarm.

Links:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/12/us-usa-libya-smith-idUSBRE88B1F720120912

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-12-us-official-killed-in-syria-was-a-senior-eve-online-player


Monday 10 September 2012

Flailing at the Wind


Sure Eve Online has sexism, racism, anti-semitism, and many other things that end with -ism but I'd be surprised if you could find a MMO out there which didn't.

It's a reflection of the online culture and our times, people have frustrations and the anonimity (often an illusion of) they feel lets them express themselves in ways that many other find offensive.

Is this behaviour correct?

Hell no, but good luck stopping it.

Ban it from the forums. They'll use unofficial forums making your own a ghost town.

Ban certain terms "in game".  Then work around words will be used, assuming you don't drown in false positives.

Police voice chat?  Yeah good luck with that.

Essentially the only useful thing to do is don't hang around with arseholes, or better yet shoot them in the face.

In game of course.

Sunday 2 September 2012

Evemon Development Ending?

It would seem the current developer of Evemon, the popular third party tool used by players of Eve Online may be calling it quits.

He writes,

"My absence is estimated to last for at least a month with the possibility of it lasting more than that or even being permanent."

With luck he'll be at it again soon but considering the amount of time already spent I wouldn't be surprised to see him call it a day and walk away.

Eve Online forum link is here and Battleclinic link is here.