Yosagi Yojimbo - Gallente Exile

Thursday, 10 March 2011

EVENews24 and RMT'ing

EVENews24 has covered this pretty well so we await the CCP response and for further information read http://www.evenews24.com/2011/03/09/in-isk-we-trust-iskbank-com-exposed-thousand-of-customers-outed/ and http://www.evenews24.com/2010/03/09/iskbank-com-client-list/

Obviously unauthorised Real Money Trading (RMT) is bad for a variety of reasons. The typical spread of individuals will be guilty but what will be interesting is which, if any, of the large alliances are also guilty.

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

So, What's the Velocity of a Sheep in a Vacuum?

In the Eve Online version of space we need constant thrust to maintain a velocity otherwise we coast to a stop in a short amount of time.

Gravity does not seem to have an effect as I can approach any celestial body at any distance and I don't have to worry about falling into the gravity well.

In New Eden millions of objects, missiles, hybrid charges, projectiles etc etc have been fired from the ships of the residents.

Where does this all go? Not in a database sense but I suppose in a role playing sense.

I assume they just coast to a halt some distance from the source ship and then just sits there.

Should these objects just continue forever, and every once in a while somebody is hit by some random projectile which on the combat log comes from "somewhere"?

/me shrugs

* The practical maximum velocity of a sheep in non Eve Online space is 2997.5 km/sec. (link)

Monday, 7 March 2011

Reduced Shipping Costs

In this post Disabled Shipping and Blog Recognised I lamented the high cost of shipping to my part of the world as a $19.99 mug would actually cost $101.50 when freight is included.

CCP has finally seen the light and have introduced a new freight option which would now reduce that mug from $101.50 to $32.47 if I choose the cheapest USPS option. This now makes the Eve Store items a possible purchase for me.

However.

What is the USPS like? From the acronym I assume it's the United States Postal Service so with the drop in freight cost are we also seeing a drop in handling quality and speed?

I don't know the answer to this so I'll see what the feedback is and go from there.

That should not take anything away from the fact the shipping is now reasonably priced which makes the Eve Store a viable option for many more people than previously.

Friday, 4 March 2011

Explaining Yosagi Yojimbo

I was asked during a station hit, which was ultimately unsuccessful, the origins of my name for Eve Online, Yosagi Yojimbo.

In 1988 a game was released for the Commodore 64 computer and others called Samurai Warrior : The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo

Mostly a sideways scrolling adventure game it had features of combat and honour which were not present in many games of that period.

Later on I discovered the game was based on a Japanese comic called Usagi Yojimbo, which translates as Rabbit Bodyguard.

By now my interest had been piqued but the best was yet to come. Usagi Yojimbo is itself based on the legendary Japanese figure from the fifteenth and sixteenth century called Miyamoto Musashi.

I strongly recommend you read about his exploits via the Wiki link above, it's well worth the effort.

Musashi is known as the author of The Book of Five Rings which is considered a classic treatise on military strategy, much like Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Time passed.

I finished up with another MMO whose name shall not be mentioned ( WNSNBM ) and decided to try out Eve Online. I had known about Eve for a while but some RL friends were in that MMO ( WNSNBM ) so I spent some time with them.

Then I gave Eve a go in 2007 and promptly fell in love. Back in the C64 days I played quite a bit of Elite so I saw this as the logical modern extension, albeit more complex.

I created a starter character so I could learn the game, that character was disposable and is long gone, I don't even recall his name, but for a few weeks I learned the basics of the game.

One thing I discovered was by default the list of names in the chat channels was alphabetical, so I decided a name that started towards the end of my alphabet would be more desirable.

I thought about this while learning the game, I don't recall the exact process but the name Usagi Yojimbo appeared in my mind, I searched for that name in game and other people already had it, or versions of.

So I thought about how I would say the name out loud, and very shortly I arrived at Yosagi Yojimbo which was unique in game and also the internet, as a Google search for that name will lead you directly to this blog.

At the time of writing I'm now three and a half years into Eve Online. I'd be lying if I didn't say the experience has had its rocky moments but the game is expanding, growing, and I want to see where it leads.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

EVE Blog Banter #25: And By Alliance You Mean Blob?

Welcome to the twenty-fifth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles here.

This month's topic comes to us from @Tetraetc - "Tetra's EVE Blog" - who asks: "Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts, wherever. Would the reduction of the Alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (and the modifcation of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?"

It's about time I jump aboard the band wagon and attempt a serious and thought out response to the recent Blog Banter.

Corporations like clumping into Alliances, Alliances like these clumps as it helps their "winning" chances. Alliances clump with Alliances into power blocs, these power blocs steamroll the rest of the Eve population for a time, but nobody stays on top forever.

Clumps eventually get broken up for a variety of reasons, politics, boredom, game changes etc etc.

Our recent experience with Pandemic Legion (PL) has shown me that Jump Bridges (JB) are over powered and should have their effectiveness reduced. I would like to see JB's only able to move hull sizes above Battleship, everything Battleship and below has to go the long way.

Would this reduce the huge power blocs? Probably not but it would give the others a chance to attack those fleets having to jump through many gates to arrive at the destination. It would reduce the power projection possibilities that are currently available which may, over time, help re-distribute the political map.

Sovereignty (SOV) is a tough one for smaller Alliances. For example we have tried to raise SOV several times only to have a PL smack down fleet which has dozens of supercaps arrive, destroy our stuff, take the station and leave. Sometimes in the time it takes me to perform a bio break!

So what is the fault here? The large power blocs at the moment or the SOV mechanics? I think both but I feel a potential fix to the SOV mechanics could actually be made by reducing the ease these blocs can project their force.

So to answer the first part of the question, yes PVP is currently limited but this may be caused by other factors than SOV and the Alliance structure.

Making it more expensive for Alliances to hold larger space, by charging an exponentially larger amount for each SOV item doesn't really work as all I'd do is split the Alliance up, take the same places but now for much less ISK and create "blue" agreements with the other segments thus tying it all together.

Alliances like to clump and they like to win!

I cannot see how adding or changing the SOV mechanic to Corporation level rather than Alliance level will matter. The Corporations are just a projection of the Alliance and any non-Alliance Corporation who raised a SOV structure would be smashed by Out Of Game (OOG) timers and the previously mentioned power blocs.

The Role Playing (RP) aspect of this I don't have an opinion on as I've never RP'd and I'm not sure I know anybody in game who does.

To conclude, I believe if you want more PVP then a reduction to the ease of power projection would be required which may then increase null sec traffic which should then improve combat possibilities.

Or maybe not, Eve Online players are a resourceful bunch.

Participants: