The circus moves again!

So the Alliance went bust, well faded away anyway.  Once some corps started leaving it was the beginning of the end, so we left also.  However this means I had to move my circus of stuff once again, back to where I was. Urrrrgh, but I got it done in the end.  So to try and improve this for the future I've trained up one of the alts to also fly the Orca, that helps me move stuff.

I've been running combat pvp missions with members of the corp in low and zero sec some more with mixed results.  One high point of my participation is the local price of Myrmidons should increase due to my destruction of several of the Gallente Battle Cruisers as pvp losses.

However we are moving forward, getting new members, trying to make a place for ourselves in our new location, make some corps as blue.

In other news since the patch/expansion I'm now able to post this from "in game" using the IGB.  While it does not support Flash at the moment I am finding it much more useful than before.

Fleet Finder is awesome, a really handy addition.  Planets are gorgeous now, they don't add any playability to the game but damn they are nice.

What will be in the next patch/expansion?

To sell or reprocess? That is the question.

During your time in Eve Online you will accumulate modules like weapons, afterburners etc that you may not need for ship fitting needs.

Turn those modules into ISK!

However be wary of how you dispose of them.  Modules and the market do not necessarily follow the rules of rhyme or reason.  Grab twelve modules, high, mid or low slot, random ones, select reprocess on each one (do not reprocess them at this stage however) and note the amounts and types of minerals.  Then note the sell price on your local market for the module.  Interesting isn't it?

Fire up the spreadsheet you created previously for manufacturing, invention, and make a new simple page.

Insert fields for the current immediate buy cost of all required minerals that are easily obtained in a few jumps, a quantity for multiple modules and a total.

What you are trying to do is work out the worth of the minerals that you can obtain from the reprocessed module as opposed to selling that module on the market.

Sometimes you will see the minerals are worth more than selling the module on the market, therefore reprocess the module and use or sell the minerals, which are often easier to sell than the module.  Other times the module is worth much more on the market than the minerals it contains, therefore sell the module on the market.  The third option that can appears leans neither one way or the other, the choice is yours in this situation, sell the module or reprocess it is up to you.

Now the interesting part.

Often people put various modules on the market for sale at less than what the minerals it contains are worth.  What that means is the following.  You could buy a module, either on immediate buy or a long term buy, reprocess it and then sell the minerals for more. Profit!

Which modules you can do this with is for you to find out.

Happy Hunting!

New Corp and a rescue!

I've been busy.  During one of my many times in the Bar I was chatting with another pod pilot who mentioned the corporation he was in.  They seemed like an okay bunch of guys, with any luck they may drag me out of the mental rut I've been in for a while.  So with little delay I joined up with them, moved my base of operations from Hurtoken to Cat so I can be closer to the new corporation hub.

Since then we have been running search and destroy operations in the more dangerous sections of space, something I'll write about at a later date.

Right now however I want to recount a recent episode where I had to rescue one of the corporation members from a Worm Hole.  Worm Holes are a newly discovered phenomena that in many ways are poorly understood.  One of our pilots decided to explore one, it didn't go well.

I was asleep in my new room in the Fed Intel station in Cat, dreaming about something quite carnal.  The communicator goes off with an urgent tone.

"What the hell is the time and who the hell are you?", I blurt out not really thinking and still half asleep.

"Hey Yosagi. This is Nadir, we have a problem"

"It had better be a big problem to wake me while I'm in the arms of these lovely women"

"Yeah it is, Dunst is lost in a Worm Hole, he has no prober and we cannot locate the Worm Hole in system", explained Nadir.

"Hmmm, what is his ship worth?"

"About 100 million he says, the standard ten percent reward is being offered.  I've tried to locate the Worm Hole but cannot get a one hundred percent lock.  Now I'm calling you".

"Fine, I'll get my shit together and head out.  Which system is the Worm Hole in?"

"Ommare, just next door to Cat so even you shouldn't get lost finding it", Nadir sniggered.

"Yeah, yeah, keep that up and I'll add you to my KOS list, add me to fleet and I'll warm up the Helios.  I'll chat with you in fleet in a few minutes", I ended the communication.

Leaving the room, locking it on the way out, not that their is anything worth stealing but if I found somebody rifling through my belongings when I come back hiding their body is always a pain.  Moving at a jog towards the hanger bay where I think the Helios is stored, I have to get rid of some ships!  I have already sent through the code from my communicator to warm up the ship getting it ready for flight.

There she is, jogging up the ramp, enter the ship, climb into the pod, fire the engines.

"Docking control I am requesting an immediate undocking slot for a Helios, respond?"

"You are cleared for a slot in ten seconds, docking control out", a rather curt response from docking control.

Probably has something to do with my unadjusted security status being negative six point something with them, they'll get over it.

I take the undocking slot, I'm ejected from the station and align for warp to Ommare.  This station is much busier than the Hurtoken station, many more ships hanging around the exit.  They are probably looking for war targets or a fat freighter to hit and loot.  I will have to remember that for the future.

Exiting the warp tunnel, go through the jump gate and arrive in Ommare, I can see I'm now in fleet chat.  Nadir and others are chatting with Dunst who is concerned about the situation but not panicky at this stage.  I warp the ship to a moon, eject six or seven probes and then cloak the ship just in case a ganker or a kill rights pilot decides to visit.

"So, lost in a Worm Hole Dunst?", I ask in fleet.

"Yar, because I'm a fucking idiot", replies Dunst.

"Heh okay, I'll get you out.  Do you know the code of the Worm Hole you are in?"

"No I fail"

"Okay no worries, I'll start probing and give you a count up of the percentage once it begins"

"Sure, okay", says Dunst.

I set the probes in the usual pattern I use, typically four surrounding the desired target, one high, one low, and one in the middle.  Move them around a bit until I get hits on two possible Worm Holes.

"Nadir, I've found two possible cosmic signatures, KYF-264 and VOX-234, which one are you working on?", I ask.

"I could not get KYF to one hundred percent so I've moved to VOX", replies Nadir.

"No worries, I'll work on KYF then, get that to one hundred percent and try VOX next if required"

So I centre the probes around the rough location of KYF-264, which is very rough as I only have it at around two percent at the moment.  As the accuracy of the probes improve I relay that in fleet chat.

"Nineteen percent"

"Twenty four percent"

"What moon are you at Yos?", asks Nadir.

"I'm next to you, just look for the cloaked ship", I respond.  This gets a laugh in an otherwise tense situation.

"Thirty seven percent"

"Forty four percent"

"Go! Go! Go!", Dunst yells over the comms.

"Fifty percent"

"Of course you may not be in the Worm Hole I'm scanning down", I mention with only a hint of malice.

"Defeatist.  Please save me!", Dunst half pleads.

"Seventy seven percent"

"Yos, decloak and I'll go through with you, you fleeted up?", Nadir asks.

I hear the message but unintentionally ignore it as I'm focussed on finding this Worm Hole.

"Eighty seven percent"

"Ninety four percent"

"Nice", exclaims Nadir.

"One hundred percent", I yell quite loudly, very happy with myself.

A few of the fleet mates give me a well done and nice work but I'm concerned.  Dunst may not be in this Worm Hole at all, this might be the wrong Worm Hole.  Nadir wants to come into the Worm Hole also to have a look.  I warn him to make sure he book marks the Worm Hole on the other side so he doesn't share the same fate that happened to Dunst.

We enter the Worm Hole.  Worm Holes do have a local channel but it doesn't automatically show people in local, only those who speak in local, so nobody could be here or the biggest and worst fleet you have ever seen could be only ten seconds away.

"Warp to me now Dunst", I say in fleet chat.

No response.  No ship appears, I hit the cloaker just in case something unfriendly is also sitting cloaked on this side of the worm hole.  An eternity seems to pass, I'm seriously starting to wonder if this is the correct Worm Hole.

A ship appears.  It is Dunst!  Muscles I didn't know I'd tensed are suddenly relaxed.

"Thank god for that", Dunst breathes.

"I'm leaving before the Worm Hole collapses", and he left the hole.

With not much more for me to do in the Worm Hole I look at the pretty colours and the view into probably another Universe and also leave the hole and re-enter normal space.

Set the warp back to Cat, while in warp my wallet light starts blinking, ahh nice the reward, ten million ISK will pay some ammo bills at least.

Entering Cat space, head to the Fed Intel station, request a docking slot which is no worries, set the Helios down and head back to my room feeling pretty happy with myself.

Right now though, I have a dream to catch up with.

Guilty as charged!

Anyway as I was saying....

Much happier with the new corp and alliance.  I've been spending more and more time in low and zero sec which has been fantastic due to the new experiences that are on offer.  I have seen some stupid things though, like people auto piloting and subsequently having their ship shot out from under them, unfitted ships travelling through, getting caught and dying etc etc.  My first kill mail for the new corp was great,  it recorded my contribution as zero damage, go me!  Since then I've been on a few more but my game time has been patchy which is once again disappointing but it is better than nothing.

The expansion is due in the next couple of days, offline time is expected to be 19 hours, how long it actually ends up being we will find out.  The expansion notes are on the Eve website, plenty of changes, graphics updates etc.  I am looking forward to it.

Continuing New Corp Adventures

I've been with this new corp for at least a couple of weeks now.  Things are going slow which is fine for me at the moment as I've not had the available time I would have wished.  They/we have a place in 0.0 for the Alliance which the corp has only been a member of for a little longer than my membership in the corp itself.  So it is a trial basis thing which is understandable.

Something funny has already happened.  The corp sent a message out that new members, of which I am one, are not allowed to go to the 0.0 area until they have passed a test to make sure they will be okay and will not embarrass the corp.  Which is fair enough, especially with the trial situation the corp is in at the moment.  However when this message was posted I was already 15 jumps from high sec in the 0.0 area providing intelligence to the Alliance as a whole via a common channel in the Helios.  So I quietly exited from the 0.0 area and sorted out my high sec stuff.

One thing I'd been worried about was getting access to a level 4 mission agent as the Gallente do not like me very much but the corp is based in  Gallente space.  So once again OMG LABS comes to the rescue, I found a friendly Caldari agent in Scheenins and my high sec carebear ISK stream is now setup if required.

Next goal will be to gain access to 0.0 legally and join some Alliance PVP combat missions.

Changes

I've left the Alliance to try and find fame and fortune elsewhere.  Sad to go but it seemed like the right time.  I would like to try more of the low and zero sec side of Eve, most likely with some PVP and war decs.  I'm chatting with a corp in my time zone at the moment with the intention of applying to join tonight once the 24 hour cooldown for rights from my own corp expires.  From what I've seen so far they seem like okay people, my current/old corp will stay open however as I setup an alt as the CEO a while ago for this purpose.

Last night I made the journey to the corp system in Gallante space.  The Gallante don't like me very much as I've spent so much time in Caldari space shooting up the Gallante Navy for missions.  Thankfully the journey was uneventful so transfer of goods shouldn't be an issue, though I should be able to source what I need locally anyway.

So interesting times are ahead!

In game blog reminder

I'm back from my trip so the blogging should pick up again.  Just a reminder that I also have an in game blog at http://yosagiyojimbo.blogspot.com/ which now has a couple of posts and should benefit from the same increased posting frequency due to me being "here".

* (02-March-2011)  This post was on the Gallente Exile blog which was merged with this blog after this blog post was made.

The Waste

I'm sitting at the bar in Hurtoken station idly watching a dust storm on part of the planet below, it doesn't look very large but it would still be uncomfortable for anybody down on the surface.  The dust tendrils seem to reach out from the source of the storm, trying to grasp something downwind, without success as the storm is forcast to fade in a day or so.

I try not to think of the waste, of the death that surrounds me, however those thoughts seem to find me when I'm at the bar, after a few drinks.

When I lose a ship in combat, which does not happen often, I'm usually able to warp away in my pod, only poorer for the ISK and face I've lost in the fight.  What I leave behind are the bodies of the crew, floating in space, already dead or flailing around and rapidly approaching a death from asphyxiation or the cold.  Depending on the ship I was flying those numbers may vary from tens to hundreds, if not thousands.  I've never met any of them, the pod pilot area of most space stations is quite removed from the normal areas, it is supposed to be easier that way.  From time to time I dream of them, faceless masses I've surrendered to the void in our empire games.

The waste.

Wormholes!

This is an example of a Wormhole entrance in Hurtoken.  Wormholes have expanded the Eve Universe greatly and are being used more and more.  We now have corporations who are living almost exclusively in a Wormhole, have a Player Owned Station (POS) and the various support facilities that enable this lifestyle.

In some ways these people have cut themselves off from the greater Eve Universe while providing materials to that same Universe from the mining operations, missions etc.

This has created more space in high, low and, zero sec space as the more adventurous players are moving towards Wormholes which is making more space for new players etc.

Above you can see my Helios about to explore a Wormhole in a high sec system, this Wormhole is unstable and will collapse within the next 24 hours.  Essentially it is a direct conduit from this high sec system to, in practical terms, a zero sec system with no local chat, truly wide space.

Be aware.

Mining The Black

Sitting in a back water system, watching the local traffic scanner and keeping half an eye on the state of the mining crystals.  I would like to say it's an exciting life but mining for myself or the corporation is boring.  However if you are really unlucky it can suddenly become quite exciting in a horrible way. At the moment their is only three other pilots in system, mining, docked or running their own agendas I guess.  The names are familiar to me and I to them.  We will not be sending each other greetings Holo-Vids any time soon so they are comfortable tenants for this system.  I prefer to mine here as it is a few jumps away from my busy home base, where local numbers can spike at three hundred plus, but here if the local population reaches double figures it is an event.  So I mine into the hold, not really targeting any particular type of ore, just strip mining the belts as either myself or the corporation will need it all given enough time.  The rats in this system are small, and while I do have a full drone hold of combat drones they are rarely troubled from their electronic slumber. The hull of my mining ship, and the resistances of my shields make the local rats an annoyance only, usually I send out a combat drone when I am fed up with the constant pounding of the ineffectual attack on my ship, the rat is destroyed and I recall the drone, leaving me with the constant and hypnotic sounds of the strip miners and the activity in the hold when the ore is brought aboard.

The cargo hold is starting to fill up, soon it will be time to warp back to the station and deposit my ore.  I align the ship to the space station in readiness as the next complete mining cycle should fill the hold completely.  Aligning the ship in this circumstance is really just a small way to break the monotony, but a useful thing to know should my mining activities take me into a less secure system.  The hold is full and I start the warp sequence, noticing that local traffic has reached fifteen.

Keeping an eye on local space as the mining ship starts warping in case I'll have some visitors when I return, nothing appears and then I'm in the warp tunnel.  The warp journey is a shorter one, only 14AU or so and then the shuddering begins as the warp collapses as I hopefully approach the station.  There it is, the same old station, appearing the same old way.  I ask for docking clearance which is approved after a longer than usual delay, sometimes it's shorter than other times.  My suspicion for the delay is academic really, I think it's caused by docking controls intense boredom looking after such a quiet system with little traffic.

The docking control system brings the ship into my docking bay and the ore is dumped in my hanger bay for later refining or transport.  Checking local again the increased pilot numbers seem to have gone, it could have been an attack group or just a coincidence, hard to say.  I undock and warp back to the belt, ready to fill the hold again.

You little thief!

I was busy with some other tasks so I was semi-afk mining, just plinking away at the asteroids, using another corporation member to pickup the mined product and having a pretty relaxed time.

During my mining stint I sent the drones out a few times to rid me of the local rat ships that pound on the hull with their little guns, I was soon surrounded by a dozen wrecks.

I had a few locals warp in and out during my time and this guy looked the same, have a look and leave.

He flew to one of my wrecks and then looted the contents!  On my threat display he was now flashing red, I could legally attack at any time!! 

I laughed and laughed, welcome to two years ago pal, ahh the nostalgia.  Back in the CAS days I saw this quite a bit.

Using one of the faction Minmater Rifters he stole about 5k of loot from destroyed system rats, hardly a fortune.  If he wanted a fight between that and a Hulk he wasn't going to get it from me, I kept mining.

You gave me a highlight that day and for that I thank you.

2 Years In Game!

A couple of milestones in the last week or two. I have reached just over two years in EvE Online and I have also moved past thirty two million skillpoints. Of interest is what the new Evemon is telling me. According to Evemon I am thirty days behind where I should be given the skills I have trained and my current attributes. So from the Evemon point of view, considering that remapping your attributes is a recent ability, if I had the perfect attributes at the beginning of my training, and trained the exact skills I have now I would have reached the thirty two million mark one month before I actually did. Oh well.

Two years in the game. Not much has changed but then again it has, not very helpful I know. From my point of view the change has been gradual but I have found the biggest change to be the massive reduction in lag, especially in Jita and other trade hubs. I remember the closer I flew to Jita the lag would rise and then logging into Jita was a lottery and could take five minutes or more for the ship to appear at the gate so I could warp to station. Now I see 800+ pilots in system with little issue.

My biggest regret is the loss of EvE TV. It helped the immersion of the game to view in game news readers and then it gave us a natural progression to the tournaments and the reporting of the fights. That still happens but I miss the weekly (?) broadcasts.

In the future we have the next expansion which is interesting, walking in stations, DUST 514, etc. As an MMO EvE seems alive, more alive than some others.

DUST 514 and Mini Rigs!

Two thirds through August and we have the news of DUST 514, visit http://dust514.com or http://dust514.org for more information.

Essentially, and little is known at the time of writing, it will tie our current Eve Universe with the console world via a First Person Shooter (FPS) called DUST514 for the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

I can see the possibilities of this but I'm also wondering why should the average console gamer choose DUST 514 over the quite numerous other offerings out there in console land? We will find out more when Fanfest is on and as time goes on, no ETA has been announced for the release of DUST514 at the moment.

With the Apocrypha 1.5 patch we have, amongst other items, received rigs of different sizes, small, medium and large. This should make rigging the smaller and less expensive ships more viable as the cost will not be as great and also the calibration limit should allow more rigs, as the smaller rigs have a smaller calibration amount.

The game is evolving and meeting new customers while catering for the current ones, we'll see if CCP can pull this off.

Megathron Navy Issue bites the dust!

The Megathron Navy Issue that I've had for about two years was finally destroyed last night. In a strange sort of way I became attached to it, a constant companion during the good times and the bad.

Stupidity was my co-pilot on that fateful mission. A level 4, Worlds Collide, about 5k LP and a few million ISK. A mission I had done solo many many times. I was distracted, I was not concentrating and the mission bit hard.

Upon entering the mission I veered right, destroyed the ships to unlock the gate and gain some extra bounty. When I entered the next room it puts you in the middle of the enemy NPC's, they started to agro against me which is fine. My fatal mistake was not to concentrate and destroy all the frigates first. In a Battleship Frigates take a long time to target, 15 to 20 seconds sometimes, though this can be improved if desired. I targetted the Cruisers and Battlecruisers, gained all the agro and started blasting away with the 425mm Prototype Railguns. However the Frigates came upon me quite quickly, webbed and warped jammed the ship and then the problems started coming thick and fast.

When a Battleship is webbed it goes slower, the enemy can now hit you harder, your damage taken increases, normally panic starts to raise its ugly head.

So I've now realised the problem, about 8 Frigates orbiting me, my guns are useless against them, taking large amounts of damage from all enemy ships. I re-target the drones against the Frigates but ultimately their are too many and the ship is lost with only one Frigate left warp jamming me.

It is now a recovery operation. Head back to home base and pick up the salvaging ship, a Myrmidon, put a packaged Shuttle in the hold and head back to the mission system two jumps away. In my haste to try and warp away I was not able to bookmark the location of my wreck as my pod warped away immediately upon the destruction of the Battleship. So my plan is to warp to my wreck using the Shuttle, bookmark my wreck, talk to the agent in the adjacent system and intentionally fail the mission leaving my wreck and NPC wrecks, my drones etc, and take it all back to my home system. This all happens without any issues, I gather the surviving loot from my destroyed ship, use the on-board salvagers in the Myrmidon upon my wreck, and then salvage and loot the destroyed NPC ships.

So the lessons to be learned from this are as follows. Don't become complacent, missions can still bite and Frigates will bring about your demise more often than not.

Deimos Sales in Jita

It has been a while, but here we are again.

What the bloody hell is going on with Deimos sales in Jita? I've noticed a two week cycle where somebody buys a bunch of Deimos's and then sends the prices sky high, also the prices for the materials required to make the ship have increased, and further more the prices for one of the datacores required for invention have just peaked!

For a long time the Deimos has been in a bad way, the Micro Warp issues, which impact on blaster damage have given the ship a reduced usefulness in the Eve Universe. Currently it all seems to be about missile ships, certainly in PVE and also to a lesser extent in PVP, I don't think this situation is new however.

So what can be done? I'm not sure but it would be nice to have some blaster love from CCP.

So why have the prices gone up and why the demand for a ship that is supposedly a worse ship given the nerfs and buffs that have happened in New Eden over the past few years?

/me shrugs

Moving!

Finally I'm moving from the Olo system where I've been based for a very long time, probably a year or so. The Orca is such a nice addition to the game, with its help I can move in only three trips.

I am a hoarder, do I need 16 ships and 13,000m3 of weapons? Probably not, but the Orca lets me move it all!

Lai Dai Grind is Over!

My goal to have access to all the Lai Dai research agents is now done. My last task will be to update all my research agents with the new and improved ones I now have access to. Then I can sell or use the accumulated data cores they have been farming for me.

My next goal is to gain enough Caldari rep to put the POS back up, in my Gallente space era I shot up many Caldari, they did not like me for a very long time.

Caldari State status of 7.0 would be the ultimate goal but 5.0 is a good start.

Invention (Thanks to Bobfish66)

The third information blog, quite delayed but better late than never hey?

This is from a blog by an in game character known to me and some others as Bobfish.

It is dated July 13, 2008 but everything here is useful in our current day and age.

http://newedenpress.wordpress.com/

Rather than re-invent the wheel lets use COPY and PASTE! :-)

----------------

Invention

Overview

Close knit industrial and science corporations have long held the keys to production in the high tech fields until recently. With the release of high performance data interfaces and technical data sheets the once thoroughly controlled market of high tech goods has been opened to scientists and industrial pilots across New Eden. What is this new and astounding science, why none other than Invention.

Requirements

Skills

Invention requires dedication and no small amount of luck as there are varying factors to the success of any one particular science job. The basic skills required for Invention are ;

Engineering 2

Electronics 2

Science 5

Electronic Upgrades 5

Hacking 2

Gallente Encryption Methods 1 (Caldari, Amarr and Minmatar Encryptions are also available)

The above is the encryption skill which is relevant to all of a single races inventions. The ones below are two science skills relevant to the example invention we shall be performing. The italicized skills are ones that directly affect the chance of success and higher training is always recommended in these fields.

Mechanic 5

Science 5

Mechanical Engineering 1

Science 5

Electronics 5

Electronic Engineering 1

With those skills a pilot could then utilize the components required of invention jobs to attempt to output an advanced blue print copy.

Data Interfaces

The components required vary for each of the races just like the encryption skills do. So for reference here are each of the four race data interfaces ;

Incognito (Gallente)

Esoteric (Caldari)

Cryptic (Minmatar)

Occult (Amarr)

And the three types of interface that allow you to work with the complex formulas that are part of this new science are ;

Data Interface – This piece of hardware allows the user to retrieve module data on which ever race it is associated with. Through the use of this interface (which is reusable and only required to start the invention) the scientist can hope to gain the vital information required to piece together a more advanced blueprint from the data of a simpler design, more on that later.

Tuner Data Interface – This allows access to the data on ship rigging and allows inventions in that field.

Ship Data Interface – The final type allows access to that races ship data and allows ship invention jobs.

Datacores

Another element is the datacores. These hold a small but relevant portion of the accumulated knowledge of its field. Through the use of these and the data interface, a user can hope to draw the required data from the cores and produce a more advanced version of the current copy they are working from.

The datacores themselves are available in several ways and the R&D agent method is mentioned in additional techniques.

For our example we will be using a set of mechanical engineering datacores and electronic engineering datacores.

Blueprint Copy

The final element required in the invention process is a blueprint copy. An important detail of the copy is the number of production runs which for modules, drones and rigs should always be maximum, the same is not essential for ships which wont output more than a single run on a success without the use of decryptors. Many of the original copy runs are lost in the upgrade process with a base value output for each item type being so ;

Modules : 10

Ammo : 10 (which equals 1,000 rounds of ammunition) – This one I cannot confirm.

Drones : 10

Rigs : 10

Ships : 1

Process

Check list

Ok before we start working through the process of installing an invention job lets quickly step through the list of items we will need again ;

1 x Blueprint Copy of Hammerhead I (maximum runs, 0 ME / 0 PE)

2 x Mechanical Engineering datacores

2 x Electronic Engineering datacores

1 x Incognito Data Interface

Initiating

Assuming you have found an appropriate station (here we shall use the Algogille based headquarters of New Eden Press) that can install and process the invention job ; first select your blueprint copy, open options with a right click (default setting) and select invention from the list displayed.

Eve Invention Screen

The science and industry interface is pretty simple to navigate, select an open invention slot on the bottom list (figure 1) and select install job in the bottom right of the window. With the new window several options are available ; for the basic test run we wont use a base item or decryptor but these elements are covered in additional techniques.

Several options are present, we’ve already selected the location and the hangar floor is selected for us regards input / output so all we have to do is accept. Of note is the final option “Output Type” which allows you to select which variation of the original item you would like to try for, this is often only available for ships that sometimes have multiple designs on a single hull ; for instance the Thorax hull has both the Deimos and Phobos designs based on it.

Output

(Several cups of tea and a choc chip muffin later) So the little light has gone green on the project by now, select it and deliver the project. Assuming good fortune you should now have a hammerhead II blueprint copy with 10 runs on it, this will be at -4 ME (Material Efficiency) and -4 PE (Production Efficiency) but you have succeeded at your first invention. You can now proceed to produce the items or perhaps simply sell off your newly acquired bpc.

In the following section “Additional Techniques” I will discuss the use of varying the output, how to gather datacores without resorting to the market and reference the different corporations of New Eden that have R&D departments that you can work with.

Additional Techniques

Decryptors

Decryptors allow the inventor to vary the outcome of the project in several different ways including a higher run count, better production or material efficiency and even a higher chance of success. The different decryptors and their effects are displayed below grouped by race.

Amarr

Name	Chance	ME	PE	Runs
War Strategon	1.8	-1	2	4
Classic Doctrine	1.2	2	5	1
Formation Layout	1.1	3	3	0
Sacred Manifesto	1.0	1	4	2
Circular Logic	0.6	-2	1	9

Caldari

Name	Chance	ME	PE	Runs
Installation Guide	1.8	-1	2	4
Prototype Diagram	1.2	2	5	1
Tuning Instructions	1.1	3	3	0
User Manual	1.0	1	4	2
Alignment Chart	0.6	-2	1	9

Gallente

Name	Chance	ME	PE	Runs
Stolen Formulas	1.8	-1	2	4
Test Reports	1.2	2	5	1
Collision Measurements	1.1	3	3	0
Engagement Plan	1.0	1	4	2
Symbiotic Figures	0.6	-2	1	9

Minmatar

Name	Chance	ME	PE	Runs
Assembly Instructions	1.8	-1	2	4
Advanced Theories	1.2	2	5	1
Calibration Data	1.1	3	3	0
Operation Handbook	1.0	1	4	2
Circuitry Schematics	0.6	-2	1	9

Decryptors offer a series of benefits and some offset this with hindrances but what should be clarified now is that the additional runs displayed on the tables are a set output. What this means is if your original output was 10 runs (as in our hammerhead bpc) then it is increased by the number shown on the table and not factored into the equation for how many runs you would get out (This is why you should always use a max run bpc on anything but ships). A better example would be a ship blueprint copy output which always output at a value of 1 and are then improved by the decryptor afterwards.

Decryptors have varying usefulness depending on the choice of invention, on ships they can offer an advantage in both improving the odds of success and also keeping the cost of production down. The same cannot be said for all modules, rigs and ammos which, unless the decryptor was obtained freely via exploration, can eat heavily into your profit margin.

Meta Items

Meta items can increase the odds of success on inventions and are only used in module invention. The reason they aren’t, or shouldn’t be, used in ship, rig and ammo invention is the level of the meta item directly affects the chance increase. Meta item 0 and 1 items have no effect on the formula so are next to useless and only eat into profits and provide no benefit.

Meta item levels 2-4 are usable in invention and since these items can only be bought on the market or looted from enemy kills (from patrolling or during missions for example) they can provide a useful boost to invention chance but only really if acquired without cost.

Research and Development Agents

The final part to this guide is Research and Development agents, here I’ll list the various corporations you can use to gain the datacores you will use in invention. Firstly the corporations available to you are (grouped via faction) ;

Gallente

Duvolle Laboratories

Roden Shipyards

Creodron

Minmatar

Boundless Creation

Core Complexion Inc.

Caldari

Lai Dai Corporation

Ishukone Corporation

Kaalakiota Corporation

Amarr

Viziam

Carthum Conglomerate

-

I will later (in an update) define which corps cover which sciences but not at the moment. The corporations listed all have R&D personnel who you can work for using the science skill associated with the datacore that you want. If you have geared towards invention as above then gaining R&D agents is as simple as gaining the necessary reputation as you will likely already have the skill.

To maximise the gain from an R&D agent the skill level of the science your after and effective standing are the two key attributes to raise, the level of the agent also has a dramatic impact as with normal agents. You can also run the daily (approx every 20-24 hours) R&D mission which normally involves the acquiring of tritanium (due to a budget shortage) or a simple courier mission (because your agent clearly has never moved beyond the lab kitchen). These double your RP gain for that day and help towards gaining additional datacores.

One final skill that will help with R&D agents is the “Research Project Management” which allows you to run multiple agents. Stopping a research project will cancel all RP gained so make sure to use it all before moving agents if you find you need to do so.

Conclusion

This is a really brief guide that tries to cover a bit of every base associated with Invention, feel free to comment so I can improve the article and I hope this guide helps you into the invention process in New Eden.

Links

Various sources were used for reference including my own invention experience ;

http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/default.php ; a great resource for all things EvE and a calculator for invention chance.

http://www.eve-production.org/invention/guide.html ; Used for decryptor name references and a useful first guide for most inventors.

The Violation of my Viator

So I've had my Viator for a few days, it is a fantastic little freighter, agile with a good warp speed. I've been missioning for a level 4 agent in The Forge who has been sending me into low sec from time to time to deliver or pickup goods. Typically I've been making the low sec runs during my night time due to the lower level of folks in the low sec areas.

So this time I have a delivery mission a couple of jumps into low sec, the agent would like me to deliver about 6000m3 worth of goods, no worries. I jump the high sec portion of the journey with no problems, enter the low sec and proceed to the target system. Upon entering the target system I notice a guy in local who has a red tag or skull, not unusual for this part of the universe. I warp to dock with the mission drop off station but as I approach I see this guy sitting at the exit point of the station in a Muninn next to a Pod.

Hmmm this may become interesting.

So I chat with my agent, complete the mission, he's happy, promises me his sister, I tell him I'll add her to the pile, the usual stuff. Then I start thinking about leaving the station.

Here comes the first mistake. To carry the 6000m3 to the target station I fitted 2 cargo expanders which upon undocking I did not unfit. So outside the station the Muninn starts targeting my Viator and begins shooting. No worries I'll just warp away and that will be that, except I'm also warp scrambled, uh oh. So I redock with the station and only managed to take about half shield damage.

Then I remembered to fit the two warp core units in my cargo hold in place of the cargo expanders. Ha! This will bugger him, I'll undock and warp away singing a happy tune.

I undock, I align to warp, he targets me and starts shooting again. I'm warp scrambled again! He also does some more damage this time, perhaps he moved to optimal range with his autocannons. I redock with the station once more.

The vast interior of the station echoes to my curses of low sec, Muninn's and warp core units.

I have about 15 minutes to DT and I would like to leave low sec before it arrives, thinking, thinking, thinking.....hey where did he go?

He's not in local anymore, time to go! Undocking, though while undocking I start wondering if it is a trap, oh well, I get outside the station and warp away. Woohoo! I enter the next system, only one more jump until high sec, and my station camping friend and some more of his red buddies are showing in local, but not around the jump gate. Warping! The destination gate appears, nobody in sight and the ship warps through. I'm in high sec and only two jumps from my temporary home.

My Viator survives for another day.

Research (Reapers Blog)

This was originally posted on the Reapers blog on the 7th of February 2009.
http://www.eve-reapers.com/blog/

Since the previous response was so positive I have decided after the single letter I received and numerous sunsets we talk about research.

Research is a licence to print money.

The short description is as follows. You talk to a research (R&D) agent, that agent does research for you in his/her own time, no further interaction is required if you so choose. The research agent may ask you to help them with a short mission, you can totally ignore this and the agent will not bother you again. If you choose to do the mission you will receive double Research Points (RP) for that day. Each day your RP’s accumulate, with high training you could have 6 agents on the go at the same time, you could easily have 4 with medium training.

Each 50 RP (this is not quite correct, some data cores cost more RP than 50, Yosagi) that you accumulate with that agent, you can purchase from that agent something called a Datacore. Be aware you must purchase the datacores before you cancel the agent, if you cancel the agent the datacores will be lost. When you purchase the datacores all it does is convert the RP’s into datacores, no ISK changes hands.

The Datacore is the “Money for Nothing” (1985 “Brothers in Arms” - Dire Straits).

Many datacores exist, an example would be Datacore - Rocket Science, use the term datacore to search for others in game as typing them all out is tedious, really tedious.

The datacores can be used during the invention process, generally the more advanced the object you wish to try and invent the more datacores will be required. As the invention process is less than 100% successful, about 35% from my attempts, many datacores will be required if invention is your thing.

However you can also just sell the datacores, they can be worth from 200k-400k per datacore, multiple agents increase your ISK.

How do I make this magic money?

Train Science and Mechanic to V, also train the skill for the datacore you wish to produce (eg. Science > Rocket Science, etc). If you are making datacores for ISK then search the market for the one that sells for the most and research that skill, the higher you research it the more RP the agent will give you. If you need the datacores for Invention you can train to produce the datacores you require or just produce the ones that give you the most ISK and then purchase the datacores you need from your favourite trade hub (Jita, Dodixie, etc).

Then you need to find an agent you can help you with the R&D.

Using the internet, out of game visit http://eve-agents.com (also http://omg.la/bs/ for some other Eve Online resources)

Check out the various switches here but take special notice of Region, Corporation and Research Skill. This will take some trial and error but you will find an agent close by who can help you. The bad news is you will also need the reputation with that corporation and agent to use them.

Once this is sorted out you have free ISK, well it’s free after quite a bit of training time and cost, but then it is free! Sorta…

Yosagi Yojimbo

Yojimbo Heavy Industries

Manufacturing (Reapers Blog)

This was originally posted on the Reapers blog, on the 27th of December 2008.
http://www.eve-reapers.com/blog/

Manufacturing – Why, Where, How.

Why

Manufacturing can be a worthwhile profession in Eve Online.

This is actually true, assuming you put the training and research into the skills and knowledge you will need to succeed and make a profit if you are so inclined.

However, before you start looking at skills and training time I would suggest you take a moment and think about what goals you are trying to achieve with your manufacturing adventure. For without clear goals your success is certainly not guaranteed. If you decide to manufacture for your own personal use then the training requirements are lower, should you decide to manufacture for profit then you will be going against many players who have been doing it longer than you and are better at it, probably.

Waste is insidious and is your enemy!

When manufacturing items waste is your biggest concern. Waste costs money and time. Money as you need more materials to make up for the waste and time as those more materials take more time to gather.

Preparation

Training Production Efficiency to V will reduce one part of your waste to zero. You could train it to only IV for personal manufacturing but V should be your goal. Your personal reputation with the faction at your favourite NPC station also has a bearing on your waste level, both in manufacturing and mineral processing, get the reputation above 6.5 and this problem will go away.

Train all the ores you wish to process to V, this will reduce waste in the processing cycle. To do this will also require training Industry to I, Refining to IV (also reduces refining waste across the spectrum of ores), and, Science to III. Obviously training those skills to higher levels will help you in the long run with other pursuits. Science is required to V for example for Research and Invention which will be covered at a future date.

You will become intimately entwined with your favourite spreadsheet package.

It has been said to me that Eve Online is a game of spreadsheets, for much of the game this is just another example of misinformed rubbish, however with manufacturing there is some truth to it. Create in your spreadsheet a list of the minerals you will use and their costs. Also create sections for the items you wish to manufacture. For example I have a spreadsheet which shows me the costs of manufacture for the goods I make, typically Hybrid and Projectile Ammunition, and various ships. So I have a formula to show me the build cost, the profit based on what I think is the local average sell price and the percentage profit I would expect to make. These figures give me a good benchmark to build and sell items in Eve Online.

Where

When you were thinking about what the manufacturing goal was before you would have, or should have, a clear idea of the item you wish to make and also the reasons as to why it is required. Have a look at the market, ask yourself if the item can be bought cheaply somewhere close (avoid low sec markets for the moment), if so then why should you make the item? This does not mean you should not make the item but asking this question can be a useful check and balance against waste. Possible reasons could be:

• The item is too far away
• I have all these minerals burning a hole in my hanger deck
• I just want to!

Lets have a quick look at each one of these.

The item is too far away. This is probably valid for ammunition which is used constantly, but be careful of waste as this could build up over time into quite a staggering accumulated loss if your training and reputation are not high enough, both of these can be built up during the initial production runs however.

I have all these minerals burning a hole in my hanger deck. Be careful with this one as bulk minerals can lead to haste which can lead to waste which leads you to the dark….errrm wrong space opera. Those minerals are not free you know? The quick and dirty formula I work on is the minerals are worth the best price I can comfortably ship them to for an immediate sale, typically 3 jumps or maybe 6 if I’m feeling particularly masochistic that evening. That is what I cost most manufacturing on.

I just want to! (Subtitled - Who filled up my hanger bay with Cruise Missiles!?!)

Making an item for no good reason is probably not a good idea, certainly if that item is made in bulk. For instance if a bulk quantity of cruise missiles had been made and then we have a missile nerf* the demand for those missiles will reduce in conjunction with their asking price. You could reprocess those missiles back into minerals but once again the waste beast raises its ugly head as you will almost certainly have more waste in the reprocessing process.

*Nerf – An action, either intentional or unintentional by a controlling body that reduces the effectiveness of an item and/or ship that adversely, either real or imagined, impacts on the positive playing style of the subscribers. This is usually measured by the rage of the forums, often with posts being all in capital letters and demanding some sort of response from the aforementioned controlling body.

Nerfs are good for business

They can move a large section of the community away from the tried and tested into the unknown, thus creating an opportunity to capitalise on their disorientation, this effect can be temporary but make some money while you can. However it is tricky to figure out where this money can be made and I would say it is more of an art form than a science.

Cost of manufacturing

The cost of manufacturing the item is the cost of all the minerals that go into the item, including waste (both manufacturing and refining) and the cost of the manufacturing facilities in your local NPC station. Often the costs of the station are negligible but are worth thinking about as in the future the costs of the longer manufacturing jobs will start adding up. Your reputation with the faction in that station can help avoid manufacturing waste, bring it to 6.5 or above. Avoid stations that have a refining efficiency of less than 50% as this will also impact on your waste in a major way.

How

How do I find a station to manufacture at? (Subtitled – Wow! You can’t half talk Yosagi!)

Click on the Science and Industry icon on the left hand side of most Eve Online setups. Then select the Installations tab, change the Activity, Range and Type to suit your requirements. For instance you could have those items set to Manufacturing, Constellation and Public. This should then show a list of available public manufacturing solar systems in the local constellation. I find it easier to fly to the system of interest to check the local refining rate, how available the manufacturing actually is (you can do this by clicking on the listed station without leaving your station if you wish, though I don’t mind flying there to gain a feeling for the local system) and my reputation with the faction at that station. Generally your manufacturing base will be close to your main mining systems to help avoid bulk hauling time so this must be kept in mind also.

To manufacture an item use the Blue Print Original (BPO) or Blue Print Copy (BPC) that you would have obtained earlier. These can be obtained from the market for BPO’s only, the contracts for BPC’s and BPO’s (be wary of scams), or somebody you know. Try and obtain a BPC that has a Material Level (ME) higher than zero, a general rule would be 20-30ME for ships and 150-200 for ammunition/missiles. You will probably also get a Production Level (PE) of more than zero, what this does is reduce the manufacture time thus reducing your station manufacturing cost. Not a big concern but all the costs do add up, ME is much more important if I had to compare the two. Items with a much higher ME or PE will not save you much in the way of materials or time for the items I manufacture. The material use curve is steep downhill. For instance I have a BPO of Tungsten Charge L with a ME of 200, the waste on that BPO is only 0.04% after I researched it from 0 ME and 10% waste (this only took a few days). I could research the BPO some more and remove the 0.04% waste but I feel that is acceptable and I can use the research slots in a better way for other projects. Only a BPO may be researched, a BPC is stuck with the figures it has. Research will be talked about some more in the invention blog which is TBA.

Right click on the blueprint, select Manufacturing, select the Pick Installation button, make sure you have your local station selected. Leave your input/output hanger as the default (my hanger) and select the number of runs (manufacturing runs) that you require. With some training these jobs can be started remotely. Select Ok. If you do not have all the ore required it will show in red, otherwise you can select Accept Quote to commence the build job or close to cancel or change an option. Be wary of short manufacture jobs as the stations time is billed in whole hours, so if your job goes for 15 minutes you will be billed for 60 minutes.

Manufacturing station costs are quite low though. For example the station costs for me to make a Rupture are 1,500 ISK, a Deimos (T2 Cruiser) is 21,000 ISK and 150,000 rounds of Antimatter Charge L is 22,000 ISK approximately. The minerals are over and above the station manufacturing costs of course. I have a 9.75 reputation at this station, your results may differ.

Don’t forget that with ammunition the amount being manufactured is a multiple of your input amount, typically 100, so if I manufacture 1 I will actually receive 100 shells/missiles. Most other items are a single manufacture though.

Well I should draw this to some conclusion, I’m sure I’ve missed some items, I would be happy to read comments and/or in game chat to help improve this article as it will then improve it for us all.

Thank you for your time.

Yosagi Yojimbo - Yojimbo Heavy Industries (YHI)

My Introduction (Reapers Blog)

(This was originally posted on the Reapers blog on the 22nd of December 2008)
http://www.eve-reapers.com/blog/

An Introduction
My in game name is Yosagi Yojimbo. Some of you may recognise that name from a series of graphic novels and computer games from years before.
I came to Eve from another MMO called World of Warcraft, you may have heard of it. I knew about Eve while I was engrossed in Wow but not what Eve entailed. Once I had finished with the Wow grind, after a short break, I checked out Eve. This was in the beginning of August 2007. In short I was blown away by the scope of the game and repeatedly kicked myself for not checking it out sooner.
Since then I have my main character, Yosagi Yojimbo, two accounts and some other characters of no real consequence.
I spent some time with VAFO and Valley Forge which had, and probably still has some fantastic people. However the corporation was directionless and after much soul searching I decided to leave and join the good folks known as the reapers.
In the time that passed my skills grew and with Sanjuro and other characters who have left the game since then, left reapers to form our own corporation. One of our wishes was to raise our own Player Owned Station which with the reputation requirements of the time we could not do while still a member of The Reapers. The goal was to raise the station and form an alliance with reapers and perhaps others to help protect against some of the war declarations that plagued us at the time.
Since then our corporation has shrunk with several members leaving due to real life issues. However we continue with our research and development goals to further ourselves and also the other corps in the alliance.
I am currently specialising in the Gallente ammunition and ships, the Nemesis, Deimos and Eos, are my short term goals for manufacture which will be realised very soon.
Why do I like Eve Online?
I enjoy the space based setting, the fact it is not a virtual clone of so many other games out there at the moment. The ability to change what I am doing in the game from day to day if I wish and still contribute to my characters development in a positive way. The offline training is a big plus also. In short Eve has many features that make it a great game.
This blog entry is mostly a test of the blogging software but also an introduction so you the reader may get to know me better. I am usually happy to help in game with information so if you have any questions you can chat or in game mail me.
I intend the next three serious blogs to be about manufacturing, invention and research and they are coming together at the moment.
Thank you for reading this, or listening if the blogs audio attachment gadget works as I hope it does and I look forward to seeing you in game. (currently not available)
Yosagi Yojimbo - Yojimbo Heavy Industries (YHI)
22nd December 2008