Regular Updates Weekly

My name is Hallan Turrek. This is my blog.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Shine On

Instant karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Everyone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you're everywhere
Come and get your share
John Lennon - Instant Karma

Continued from Working Double Time

"Oh come on," Shae said as she and Mynxee were pouting.

"It's not even a roam. We'll go find some targets in Evati. You can take that Hound out,"

"I uh, I don't think so actually," Hallan put his hands in his pockets. He fingered the box again.

"Got something better to do?" Shae put her hand on her hip and smiled.

"Actually uh, I need to see Ronin,"

"Why?" Mynxee looked concerned.

"I think it would be best if I didn't say,"

Shae shrugged her shoulders, "Ok. We can have fun without you too,"

The two girls walked down the hall towards the Hellcats' hangars and Hallan turned around and headed towards Ronin's office.

__________________

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Ronin was holding Hallan's resignation in his hand. He was not happy.

"I can't do this anymore,"

"That doesn't explain anything really. Hope you know that this isn't an easy in and out," He tossed the datapad to the side, "You leave and it's hard as hell to come back,"

"I know,"

"Good luck then," Ronin stood up and put his hand out. Hallan shook it and stood himself as Ronin spoke again, "See you at the party tonight?"

"Wouldn't miss it,"

__________________

*CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP*

Hallan slapped the alarm button and smiled.

"Alone again," he said to the empty room.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Working Double Time

'Cause the walls start shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And we were making it and you -
Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long

Continue from Comfort Coming.

The By Jove's jukebox was cranked to it's highest volume as the bar filled with people. Hallan sat at the bar and sipped slowly on a Quafe.

"You've got to have parties like this more often Hal," Flashfresh had some tatoo'd Brutor chick standing behind him. She'd been following him all night. He was grinning ear to ear.

"You don't think it's a little loud?" Hallan yelled over the noise.

"Hell no. Where did you get this music?"

"Came with the bar,"

"Cool," Flash had already moved down the bar and was standing just behind some Gallente girl who was sipping on a very colorful drink.

"Hal," Korvan sat down next to him, "What's up man?"

"Hey," Hallan stared down at his Quafe.

"She isn't worth you getting this upset over,"

"I dunno, I liked her,"

"There'll be others,"

Hallan toyed with a small box as he started at his drink.

"What's that?" Korvan said while leaning in closer.

"Another of the many things that came with the bar," Hallan held it up in the air in front of him. The box was small and black, with a red button on the top.

"Looks simple enough," Korvan said before taking a drink of his beer.

"You'd think so, but nothing about the previous owner was simple. He was Jovian. He told me to press it if I ever felt like things were hopeless,"

"Well?"

"I've never felt quite that bad but I've been thinking about it today. He says it only works once. It's all it ever needs,"

"That's hilarious. It probably doesn't do anything," Korvan smiled and stood up.

"Probably not," Hallan slipped the box into his jacket pocket and stood up as well.

"Hallan! Come over here," He heard Mynxee's voice through the crowd, which was growing somewhat more quiet.

He worked his way to the window that Mynxee was standing by. She was squinting at something in the distance.

"What's up Mynx?" Hallan said to her back.

"Do you see what I see?" She asked and moved to the side for Hallan. He leaned into the window and looked where she pointed. Tiny specks of darkness on the star were starting to appear.

"That's where we found that wormhole today. It's...," As he spoke the sun visibly darkened. A fleet of ships came out of warp next to the station. He didn't recognize their markings.

The entire room became quite in moments, the ancient music in the background the only ambiance. Lances of light struck out from the fleet as the entire station rocked. The lights went out and only the now dim light from the star lit the room. Suddenly the fleet fired a number of missiles at the station as well. Hallan spotted one that looked to be taking a very unfortunate course.

"Everyone get out of here!" He screamed as it streaked ever closer to the window.

The rush of people left him no room to maneuver and he reached into his pocket and pushed the button on the box the Jovian had left him. Nothing happened, and he cursed silently to himself.

There was a crash, then a rush of air. Then silence.

_______________

*CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP*

"Hallan! Hallan!" Resika shook him as she called his name, "Wake up!"

"Ugh," Hallan opened his left eye and squinted at her as he spoke, "What."

"Your alarm's going off,"

"What the hell?"

Monday, May 25, 2009

Comfort Coming

The radio's playin' some forgotten song.
Brenda Lee's coming on strong.
The road has got me hypnotized,
As I spin into a new sunrise.
Golden Earring - Radar Love

Continued from Sweet Sorrow

"Found it," Hallan said over comms, "Bearing 419 by 423,"

"Just warp to it," Mynxee chimed in, "We'll follow you,"

Hallan smiled inside as he engaged his Hound's warp drive, "You know I always found it a bit odd," Hallan continued.

"What's that?" Shae asked as her Myrmidon came out of warp a few hundred meters from him.

"Well, every time I've been in one of these wormholes, there are sleepers inside,"

"And?" Shae let the question hang for a moment.

"And isn't that odd? Every single one. Not a one in normal space. They're only inside the wormholes,"

"I don't get what you're driving at," Mynxee's Hurricane finally landed on the gate.

"What if they're the ones opening the wormholes?" He cleared his throat, "What if that's how they travel?"

"I've faced a couple of them. You do not want that to be true," Mynxee's voice betrayed her impatience.

"Alright, go through. Engage the Hulk and Raven on the other side. Hulk first. I'll keep a point on the Raven,"

"Roger that," Mynxee's voice said sweetly.

"On it," Shae said as her ship disappeared.

Hallan moved his ship into position and passed through the shimmering hole in space. The Hulk and the Raven were sitting on the other side, about ten kilometers away. The Hulk began to align to warp as Mynxee and Shae nailed it down. Hallan's targeting computer came alive, but he missed a lock on the Raven as it flashed off his overview.

"That's not possible," He yelled into comms. The girls sighed audibly but poured the damage on the Hulk.

Hallan moved his ship into the Raven's last known position as he locked the Hulk and fired a torpedo at it in vain. He deactivated the launcher just as he bumped into the cloaked form of the Raven.

His targeting computer found a lock this time and his warp scrambler came alive. He began a quick orbit before calling up his ship database to check against his target.

"Ladies, this is a Navy Issue Raven,"

No one said anything as the Hulk began to disintegrate. The pod was locked and dispatched in short order as the points and gunfire converged on the stricken beast of a ship.

"We going to ransom?" Shae spoke up as it dipped into armor.

"He's to close to getting back through the wormhole. We'll ransom the pod,"

The Raven lurched forward as an explosion rocked it's engine section. It's front half twirled through the wormhole as it's center broke up. The pieces began to bounce off the sides of the wormhole as the energy of it's engines dissipated. The front half exploded halfway through in a shower of light and debris. The escape pod simply disappeared in the mess.

"Hallan, long range sensors are picking up a huge fleet headed this way. Unknown transponder signals," Mynxee stopped for a second, "That means Sleepers. We'd better move,"

"Back through guys, forget the loot,"

"Oh of course," Shae sarcastically added.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

EVE Blog Banter #8: In the Year of Our Awesome

Welcome to the eighth 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 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 here . Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from me, Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks: "What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."

Eight words: Bear Cavalry... In Space, Oh yeah.

Did you just crap your pants? I just crapped my pants.

I know what you're thinking, Bears can't survive in space. Try to tell them that, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. More accurately I think you'd be dead. Don't fuck with the Bear Cavalry.

They're so awesome I'm capitalizing it every time I say it so I don't incur their wrath.

Many people would ask here, "Ok, I'm sold, Bear Cavalry sounds pretty damned awesome for a game about internet spaceships, but how would it move around?"

It'd be propelled on pure awesome. I have an artists rendition of what that would look like.


It makes a lovely desktop background as well. Bear Cavalry are just that damn good.

Now how do you balance this in a way that makes the game still playable, since they're like great and stuff. It's simple, make them really hard to get. I know what you're thinking: you make things in Eve, not get them. But lets be honest with ourselves, is there any component in Eve that could make up such an awesome construct?

It's like one quarter pornstar hooker, one quarter flying sharks, one quarter pirate ninja zombie robots, and four quarters awesome. How do you quantify that? You don't.

We'll just say that when you reach a certain level of awesome ingame(as judged by a panel of Pornstar Hookers), a Bear Cavalry bursts forth fully formed from like your forehead or something.

I'm going to go clean up my pants now.

Other Banters:
  • CrazyKinux's Musing, EVE Blog Banter #8: Care for a little game of SecWars?
  • The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, Wow, that new thing is so shiny!!!
  • I am Keith Nielson, EVE Blog Banter #8 - Return of the Top Gun
  • Once More from the Beginning, 8th EVE Blog Banter May 2009 Edition
  • A merry life and a short one, EVE Blog Banter #8: In the Year of Our Awesome
  • Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Planets
  • Helicity Boson, Bantering the blog
  • Achernar, Unique adventures
  • Ecliptic Rift, OOC: EVE Blog Banter 8: Standings and secondary factions
  • The New Edener, EVE Blog Banter #8
  • Journey to New Eden, Eve Blog Banter #8: What new mechanic should be added to Eve?
  • Life, The Universe and Everything, Blog banter 8: mentorship
  • EVE Guru, EBB 8: Yarr! Prepare to be boarded!
  • The Ralpha Dogs, Greed Is Good, Greed Works
  • Rifter Drifter, Blog Banter 8: Strategic Gunnery
  • A Mule in EVE, Expanding EVE
  • Letrange's EvE Blog, 8th Blog Banter
  • Roc's Ramblings, Blog Banter #8
  • The Nude Nerd, Blog Banter #8
  • Scop's Log, Blog Banter #8: "We're caught in a tractor beam! It's pulling us in!"
  • Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #8: Charisma Tanking
  • Industrialist with Teeth, EVE Blog Banter #8: It’s Like Tetris for OCD People
  • Diary of a Pod Pilot, EVE blog banter #8: Killing in the name of
  • Talk Unfraid, Physical Communications
  • Saturday, May 23, 2009

    Inglorious

    I was just passing through a system when I caught this gem of a conversation and I decided to add a comment of my own.

    Some Dude > owned by a kessie
    Some Other Dude > and a basilisk
    Some Other Dude > gf, much fun friends
    Some Dude > what you making things up
    Some Dude > there was no bassie
    Me > Nobody cares. Shut up.

    I loved the Bastards, but it was a bit taxing at times to hold my tongue.

    I like being able to speak my mind again.

    Friday, May 22, 2009

    Sweet Sorrow

    Operator, well, could you help me place this call
    'Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me
    There's something in my eyes - you know it happens every time
    I think about the love that I thought would save me
    Jim Croce - Operator(That's Not the Way It Feels)

    Continued from Shame

    OOC Note: This is the start of an idea I had. Hopefully it's well received. It will run through next week's normal updates with the conclusion next Friday.

    *CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP*

    "Hallan! Hallan!" Resika shook him as she called his name, "Wake up!"

    "Ugh," Hallan opened his left eye and squinted at her as he spoke, "What."

    "Your alarm's going off,"

    "I know,"

    "It sounds like someone's killing crickets,"

    "Meh," Hallan reached over to his nightstand and slapped a button on top of it. The noise stopped.

    "Hallan, we need to talk," Resika was dressed already and sitting on his side of the bed.

    "Oh this sounds good," He rolled over and covered his head with a pillow.

    "I've been thinking about what you said, about being a bad person. Hallan, we can't see each other anymore,"

    Hallan sat up in bed and cocked his head to the side, "So you're too good for me now?"

    "I didn't say that," She shifted uncomfortably, "I don't think I can be a part of that life,"

    "Oh ok yeah. This is about Korvan isn't it?" Resika's eyes went wide at the mention of his name, and Hallan continued, "Yeah I see that look. You thought I didn't know? He works for me, did you really think you were that good?" Hallan frowned as he looked her up and down, "Since you're already dressed to run, get the fuck out of here and don't come back,"

    Resika's tears were a slow trickle as she walked towards the door, she stopped in the doorway and looked back at Hallan one more time, "You were right. I am too good for you,"

    Hallan grabbed the lamp at the side of his bed and hurled it at the door as it shut, "Whatever,"

    Tuesday, May 19, 2009

    I've voted. Have you?

    The biggest danger for a politician is to shake hands with a man who is physically stronger, has been drinking and is voting for the other guy.
    William Proxmire

    I picked this up over on Wensleys new blog. I'm going to be a bit impartial and not tell you who I've voted for. That said, get out there and vote.

    If you're having any trouble at all deciding, check out my interview series. 23 of the aproximately 40 candidates gave interviews. I sent questions to all 40 of them.



    Do me a favor and give Godlesswanderer a bit of traffic, he's the originator of the concept and image above.

    Sunday, May 17, 2009

    Burning a Hull

    I'm burning through the skies Yeah!
    Two hundred degrees
    That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
    I'm traveling at the speed of light
    I wanna make a supersonic woman out of you
    Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

    I've been killing Serpentis out in 0.0 for a few days now. Lets take a look at my Harpy. Tanking is keyed against Serpentis.


    Lets also look at what I hope to use eventually:



    This is a modification on an earlier build that had about half the DPS but double the tank against Serpentis.

    I'll have to kick up Advanced Weapons Upgrades to 5 and Hybrid Turret Rigging up to 4 to get this to fit. I'll need to use the +5% powergrid implant as well. For those of you that wish to take issue with the use of void ammo, calling it unrealistic to base DPS figures on it, remember that I'm in a frigate shooting at cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships.

    My experiences with it so far are good.


    Strategy is mostly straightforward. Ignore everything but the battleships(or battlecruisers if that's all you can find). Approach them with booster and MWD running. Once you hit about 10k, kick off the MWD(unless it's very near the end of a cycle). Pull into an orbit of 2250(with your MWD off, it'll settle into about 2600 Meters) and fire away. Watch local and wait.



    I stocked up on nothing but Void before I left, but there are a few elite frigates that give me a bit of a problem by webbing me and then sitting at 9.5k. With maxed skills I can hit at over 11k with Iron charges. Right now they'd be just inside my range if I had any Iron charges. That brings me to the next issue.

    I'm wondering if someone who flies transport ships would be willing to do a resupplying run out to where I am. I'm not that deep in 0.0 really. I'll pay you for your trouble. I think a single giant container ought to do the job. I'll load up the Ammo into the container in the nearest high sec system. You do your own scouting and you'll need to be online with me to give me the bookmark(or you can just fleet me and we'll go to the location together). Payment is upon my receipt of the goods. You'll need to be able to anchor the container. If you're interested, start a conversation with me ingame. Don't bother sending a mail, because we'll need to be online at the same time.

    See you in space.


    PS: This is Monday's Update a bit early. See you on Tuesday.

    Friday, May 15, 2009

    Behind Blue Eyes

    Great. How did I end up as the bad guy here?
    Duo Maxwell - Gundam Wing

    Well, now that that is over with.

    I think it's time I actually let you guys know about something I did last week. I'm no longer a member of the Bastards. There was no falling out. I didn't get bored. I didn't find something better.

    I got tired of being a bad guy.

    My personality doesn't lend itself well to piracy I think. I can enjoy it in the moment, while I'm flying. I can enjoy it when I write about it. Then I think about it and realize there are real people out there that were just trying to have some fun.

    A war's different to me, we both know the stakes, we both know the risks. I joined up with the Gallente millitia, but I've yet to actually do anything in it.

    I'm ratting up my sec status in 0.0 right now, and making a fair bit of money doing it. When I hit a sec status that lets me into high sec I'll probably get back to running missions for a while.

    I had briefly toyed with limiting the blog to a post a week, but I decided against it. My traffic is important to me.

    My fiction will continue it's current arc, and this gives me some creative options to work with.

    Expect big changes in Hallan's life.

    Good Day.

    Wednesday, May 13, 2009

    Interview with Mazzilliu

    What is your ingame name?
    Mazzilliu

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    www.mazzilliu.com is the main site. It links to the eve-o thread and everything else about me.

    So, how long have you been playing?
    A bit over 3 years

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    After about a month in an empire carebear corp just starting the game, I saw an ad for Sniggwaffe(Sniggerdly's recruiting corp) and decided I like killing stuff more then I like mining asteroids. So I joined that corp and I've been in the same circle of people ever since. During that time I've done just about every sort of PVP imaginable. My fondest memories are of my smartbombing faction nanophoon that could solo interceptor fleets until the first speed nerf ruined that idea. Most of my PVP time after that has been spent in interdictors and rooks. I also used to spend a lot of time stealing ships out of deep safes, and putting alts in enemy alliances and stealing stuff from them too. I guess the majority of my eve career could be summed up in one word- greifing.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    Maybe prior experience finding my way around the airport so I can get on the plane to Iceland...

    Seriously though.... it's a video game council. I cant think of a single way this will relate to real life except in getting personal exposure. So long as you know how to play the game you know what needs work and what doesn't.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    Pretty funny the first time, but would like for it not to happen again. The root of the problem is the CEO interface, which has been an issue ever since there were CEOs. The rights to disband the alliance(and a lot of other nasty things) is bundled with the rights to set standings. When you deal with people that can walk away from the corp at any moment with no repercussions, a system like this is bound to cause drama. It needs a complete overhaul, or in the VERY LEAST there needs to be new roles added that used to be relegated only to directors- setting standings for example- so you don't need a full director to get some relatively menial tedious work done. And for a large alliance with a lot of standings, it IS really menial, tedious work.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    Went way overboard. By doing something so drastic they make an entire class of ship and a skilltree instantly worthless in medium to large sized fleet battles. That's a lot of wasted skillpoints.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    Looks like they are finally fun to fly. I see PL guys going out on stealth bomber ops pretty often, and they aren't particularly overpowered, just a fun ship to fly now. I think CCP hit the mark on that one. They never had any use before this buff except as highsec suicide gankers.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    Really don't care about RP. I know if you gave storyline control to me and my corp a lot of the characters would get killed off pretty quickly, and the rest of the story would talk about how much their loot sold for and how much they cried about losing their stuff.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    Not like I'm a mining expert, but I'm guessing that probably has something to do with how much of a pain it is to haul that crap anywhere. I'm just glad a lot of minerals come from mission loot, because most people are not going to be willing to suck on roids all day as a prerequisite to flying ships.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    I kind of liked Privateer's idea of wardeccing all of EVE. But to me, wardecs aren't a huge issue because on the small scale people can just disband corp or join noob corps if they REALLY want to avoid it, and on the large scale alliances move their empire logistics out of the alliance as a general practice. And there's not really a good way of getting past this problem, because you are wardeccing an entity when the people behind it can always join or leave as they please, or divide operations between different entities.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    What I take issue with the most is how nerfs and buffs are implemented on the live server. From what it's looked like, after they do all their testing on singularity and playing around in EFT all day they figure out what is the “most balanced” thing, and then impose it, in its entirety, on the live server. That might be fine if you're trying to create balanced level 4 missions, but PVP in large organized fleets with hundreds of people, with an experienced FC and the ensuing lag cannot be replicated on the test server, no matter how many calls bug hunters will make to encourage participation. The only way to reliably determine the outcome of a change in that environment will be to simply make an educated guess, and observe the outcome. Because at the end of the day, most players don't spend their time on the test server.

    Some specific examples:

    I'm sure in EFT the “new” rook and falcon are awesome jamming with missile DPS machines, but in every real fleet battle, they aren't going to survive 5 minutes into the fight. CCP should have first tried only putting in, say, a third of the actual range nerf they implemented and studied the outcome- do people fly the ships less often? Does the usage rates and market price fall in line with other ships in a mixed fleet? Has the forum whining died down any?

    Same with the recent speed nerf- did the people who did ship balance realize interdictors generally won't survive past one bubble in a large fleet fight, and huginn/rapiers were nerfed into worthlessness despite not being an overpowered ship to begin with? This has huge repurcussions for large fleet battles. It's a lot harder to tackle a lot of battleships when they can just kill all your dictors and MWD out of the remaining bubbles- and in heavy lag, warp disruptors don't even cycle so there's no way to tackle anything reliably. Webbing specialized ships, with their current bonuses, are resigned to being worthless at a longer range then regular ships with webs on them.

    And speaking for nerfs even further in the past... when they added scripts and effectively nerfed a handful of modules, they made no concessions for ships that specialized in those modules that would be made less effective. Nobody flys an arazu or lachesis in fleets seriously now for its sensor dampening abilities. And the few people that did fly curses or pilgrims in fleets for their tracking disrupting, don't anymore.

    In summary, I just want there to be a more active monitoring of ship usage on the live server by the devs that do the game balance, and smaller changes made more often. Forum whining isn't an accurate measure of what needs to be balanced, and responding to it with a drastic measure that's only been studied on singularity is even less productive.

    Anything to add?
    Vote for me please.

    Interview with Gaetring Xana

    What is your ingame name?
    That would be Gaetring Xana. Xana is actually the first name. :)

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    I don't have one, sorry.

    So, how long have you been playing?
    A little over a year and a half by now. I started in October 07.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    Well, a little bit of everything really. Well, almost everything. I haven't played in 0.0 space as such yet.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I'm not really sure. It's hard to apply real life experiences to a game of this nature.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    Ironically, I try to stay out of or at least away from the alliance politics. :) I'm not saying I *condone* actions of that nature. It's just that things happen that shake up the game sometimes and one has to be able to roll with the punches.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    It was overdue. I don't personally fly caldari ships so I wouldn't have that particular experience from the pilot's perspective. On the surface of things it appears to be better for the game as a whole.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    I'd really love to go out and play with one of these! They've always looked like a lot of fun. I'm not so sure that switching the bonuses from cruise to torpedos will 'enhance' the experience.. but time will tell.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    I've always thought that stories should generally come out of the minds of the people who created the game. However, that doesn't mean there isn't any room for player inspired content.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    Me personally? No, can't say that it does. However, that would be something for CCP to look into if it's causing an overall market 'problem' that isn't fixed with the normal fluctuations.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    They need work as well as the whole corporate management interfaces. As far as what specifically I can't think of anything offhand.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    Unfortunately, that answer depends on how you define imbalance and what your particular beef is. Most of the issues I can think of aren't really 'balance' related so much as griefing or bugs or even poor design choices. One would hope that after 5+ years of development and gameplay things would be relatively balanced.

    Anything to add?
    Thanks for your time. I wasn't expecting anyone to want to interview me. If you have any other questions feel free.

    Interview with Admiral IceBlock

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1039545
    http://www.noint.net/csm/

    So, how long have you been playing?
    Almost constantly since August 2003 with a few short breaks inbetween the years. I started with the character IceBlock which I later terminated due to security status and Admiral IceBlock was born right after.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    Mining, plexing, npc hunting, pvping, roleplaying. Pretty much everything besides financial IPO stuff.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I have been a member of the student council aswell as been apart of the russ council during my last year.

    What is russ? It is the most awesome time for norwegians where alcohol is consumed for almost a month with full party and girls every single day. My job as a member of the council was to make sure that everybody had fun and to organise events for my school.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    I find it hilarious considering who BoB is/was and what they have been doing in the past. You reap what you sow!

    What do you think of the re-balancing of ECM?
    I always found falcons sitting 200km out very unfair. They are now inline with the other recons. For the whiners out there; no other electronic warfare could remove a whole ship without destroying it.

    What do you think of the re-balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    Stealth bombers are now usefull. I think the balance was very good and brought something new into the game again.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    Players should have a large affect on the EVE storyline. It is the players that makes the sandcastles in the sandbox called EVE. But since we haven't had anything resembling a storyline since 2004(?), anything is better than nothing ...

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    Yes it does bother me. But the question is; is it the miners, the market or CCP's fault? I believe that it is CCP's fault to that degree they introduced capital ship component BPO's which require ridicilous amounts of tritanium. The increase in minerals are based on percentage, so for lower needs it seems "fine" but gets way out of order as the amount increases.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    I dislike it personally. I like it the way it was before; before the big big nerf.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    POS sovreignity, POS sovreignity and POS SOVREIGNITY! I think everybody hates it to the skies, but it is required due to CCP forcing it onto the playerbase.

    This is something I have proposed to fix it back in 2006. I have been an everlasting hater of POS sovreignity ever since its introduction.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=388151

    I still believe what I wrote is in the right direction. My aim is to get boring POS grinding out of this game forever because it adds nothing to the game except for tedious static grinding. I believe everybody agrees on this one!

    Anything to add?
    Northern Intelligence is recruiting! xD

    Interview with Torda

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    Dont have one :(

    So, how long have you been playing?
    About 2 years now.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    Just about everything...........

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I've lived life on this planet for 42 years now, done many things and been many places. Been many things to many people, and the depth and breadth of my experiences will take me from here to there and beyond.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    Well, things happen. I've only heard rumors, so I dont really have an opinion on the subject.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    Rebalancing? that was a rape lol

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    Time will tell.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    It could be broader, perhaps a forum thread for players to voice their ideas would be a good place to start.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    No, not really, but what does bother me is that the current set up of mineral distribution is not consistent with reality. Ores found based on security status is non-sensical at best, and ludicrous at worst. There has to be a better way to work this thing than the current system.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    Hmm, well theres problems with it as with most things in life. My current big gripe is that a corp that is war deced should not be allowed to join an alliance immediately to avoid the dec and force the decing corp to prosecute an un-winnable war against a much larger foe.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    Hmm, that will require some thought and study on my part.

    Anything to add?
    It can be better, if we work together for it.

    Interview with DJ Hijak

    Links to your forum thread and site.

    http://hijak.newedenradio.com – contains no CSM stuff yet

    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1056884

    So, how long have you been playing?

    Since Dec 2005

    What have you done in Eve during that time?

    Learned how POS’s work

    Helped setup an alliance in 0.0 (Pure Blind)

    Learned more aspects of industry such as Market trading, invention, contruction (T1 and T2)

    Taken part in fleet ops in 0.0/Low sec for different alliances

    Explored a few Wormholes

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?

    Being a broadcaster on an Eve community station I have a good ear with a bunch of the eve player base, and a good medium in which to discuss topics with players and gain insight into their opinions on different subjects.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?

    I think the bob/Goon fiasco was a great move by goonswarm on the part of tactics/espionage. I do feel that it has brought a strange balance to the 0.0 alliance politics with regards to how all the other alliance are now operating. As for the renaming of Kenzoku – I do not have all the info to make a comment on that topic

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?

    ECM is really powerfull in PVP, Rebalancing “slightly” should be taken into consideration. It is currently almost impossible to not get ECM’d in PVP to the point where fleets are fielding tons of ECM ships in order to gain the advantage

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?

    I think Stealth Bombers change to Siege missiles is alright. I didn’t fly Stealth bombers a lot before the change. Siege missiles/torps are a bit slower, but the change to bombs is nice.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?

    I think players should have some impact on the future story of Eve. The extent of which should be determined by the amount of activity provided by the player base (IE amount of people participating in an story-driven event)

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?

    I think that lowsec mineral should be more profitable, since it is more risky to get them, unfortunately the market is set by players, and tritanium is used by everything.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?

    The war mechanics could use a bit of overhaul.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?

    I cannot think of any imbalance that is really big at this time.

    Anything to add?

    Nothing at this time

    Interview with Happy Joymaker

    What is your ingame name?
    Happy Joymaker

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1038984
    Not doing a web site.

    So, how long have you been playing?
    I have been playing eve for about 2.5 years.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    A lot. I have been a part of a major space holding alliance, and was in charge of coordinating things relative to alliance level POS assets, from fuel purchases & deliveries, to providing mods for the towers, to making sure that the towers were installed with the mods, along with doing all of the same things for my own corp. I have fought PVP in 0.0, empire wars, and was involved in faction warfare for significant periods of time. I have done the mining thing, done the trading thing. Run cosmos missions, run level 5 missions regularly, and run criminal faction missions. I have explored wormhole space, done 10/10 plexes, and participated in titan kills. I was also the assassin in the recent tournament (didn’t do too badly for being stuck in a BS when at the time I only had BS3 and Torps3, when I am nominally a command ship and below specialist). I have done a lot.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I work with politicians, as well as holding political office at times. I understand the nature of large organizations from the inside. I have played video games since pong, before the Atari 2800 system was released. I am also the president of a small civil engineering firm, understanding business and the needs of business.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    CCP did a mistake in doing the name change. They have admitted it. Let’s move on. It is unfortunate that CCP has a game where it took a flawed game mechanic to effectively dislodge BOB from Delve. There are some serious flaws in the game, such as absente ownership of space. Hopefully, with the new sov changes that are anticipated with the upcoming patch, many of those flaws that prohibit newer entities from competing with older ones will vanish. I am neither in favor of Bob or Goons, but it makes great 0.0 politics for those of us in the peanut gallery.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    It was needed. Hey, I am a falcon pilot, so I got really hurt by this – but ya, for balance issues it was defiantly needed. Unfortunately, I fear that it will make the sniper fleets that can hit at the 180+KM range that much more powerful, particularly when combined with the speed changes that were introduced not to long ago.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    I think they are some very good changes. I would have looked at making them able to fit both torps as well as cruise missiles, but a couple of SB’s can really devastate a BS now. I would look at allowing bombs to be used in low sec as well, not just 0.0.

    How much of an affect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    Limited, to be honest. Yes, it is great to think of being able to change the game, but as it needs to be available to all who wish to do so… well, you understand the dilemma. In small ways, I think it is very important for people to be able to participate, but in the grander scheme of things, CCP needs to keep a relatively firm hand in order to guide the game in ways that actually work.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    To some extent. It is largely market driven, and CCP has made it so that Trit is used A LOT. I think CCP needs to look hard at resource balancing, and go back to some of their older ideas of introducing “Super Veld” in 0.0 space so that logistics are not hampered. The stealth removal of the mission that provided large amounts of trit into the game hurt a lot of industrial concerns and places major burdens upon logistics – time sinks for no other reason than to have time sinks. The introduction of the Orca and the jump freighter has helped out a lot, but more balancing needs to be done.

    Methods of being able to mine in low sec effectively need to be introduced, but in such ways as to not remove the ‘pirate’ from the game. Knowing that about 1/3 of all minerals in the game are in essence recycled, not from mining, is also something to be considered. Being able to mine all day in empire is also not, in my opinion, a good thing either – but I prefer to see that become a game mechanic as opposed to a player mechanic. I have many ideas on how to do some of these re-balancing, and by being elected to the CSM, I can effectively work with CCP to help bring some balance to the issue.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    I think it is relatively fair and reasonable. There are some mechanics that I don’t like so much (corp votes, for example), but overall it appears to work.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    The disparity between the older, wealthier players/corps/alliances and the newer – in particular as seen by the ability to have the Dispro Cartel meaning virtually unworked for yet extremely massive amounts of game wealth. Keeping such massive amounts of wealth sources in the game that are static isn’t good for the health of the game. CCP realized this when they made the static plexes above 2/10 no longer static, but have not done anything in regards to this massive imbalance in regards to moons and moon mining. By making it so that Dispro, and to a lesser extent Promo, is so rare, yet so needed for the production of T2, CCP has set it up so that these static resources are disproportionately utilized. This is not a good situation for the economy of eve, nor for the ability of newer players to feel that they can succeed in the game. By having the resources static, and in essence a passive income to such a large degree, it has created a very static playing field that newer alliances cannot hope to enter.

    Changing sov mechanics to no longer allow absentee owners to control large selections of space will be a significant first step. You need to occupy the space to control it. This, however, will not help with alliances that can project might into areas that sov does not play a factor, areas that should be available to up and coming groups to allow them to build (or fail) instead of being sucked up by the super powers to support their endeavors while keeping the newer folks out (it is about as much resource denial as it is resource usage).

    Secondly, changing these resources so that there is no longer the massive disparity and massive wealth will be necessary. Alchemy was an attempt, but it failed in that the economics of it were out of proportion to the problem. You need to run how many large POS’s to make up for a single reaction that uses dysprosium? And what are your overhead for doing so (additional equipment, fuel, manpower, etc)? Right, it is out of whack. The two ways I have seen that can both work is to no longer make the resource static – by either making it run out on a moon, so that it respawns on another moon in the same region (think faction war plexes); or moving it off of moons entirely and into gathering sites similar to asteroid / gas belts.

    Of course, one of the things CCP should look at is the actual usage of the materials. A rebalance of the blueprint needs would also do wonders by increasing other moon requirements while decreasing the dependence upon Dispro and Promo. T3 ships will, also, hopefully take some of the pressure off, but it will need to be more of a longer term, as opposed to a shorter term solution.

    As players gain experience and begin to take notice of the greater eve universe out there, they often feel obliged to sign up with the existing large alliances or forever be a “small fry” out there. There isn’t a way for newer folks to effectively work their way into the big 0.0 game (which is perceived as the end game content), so a lot of people just walk away – after all, how many missions can you run, how many belts can you strip? Eve is a game about social interaction, and these game mechanics so effectively place limits on these interactions that it is broken, and will drive players (read: CCP’s clients) away from the game.

    Anything to add?
    Thanks for reading the wall of text, please vote for me!

    Interview with iulixx

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    My platform can be found at http://www.eve-ro.net/csm/

    So, how long have you been playing?
    I have been playing EVE Online for almost 3 years.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    I have tried everything ... from Industry (Research/Invention/Manufacturing), Mining, Missions runner, NPC, POS Warden (what many people call "carrebearing") to PVP. I have finally chosen a career which is more constructive and less destructive, namely Industry & Mining (at least for now).

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    As regarding politics in real life experience I don't have much to say, but I could speak a little about the qualities which I consider helpful to me: patience, observation spirit, team work, perspicacity, perseverance.

    Like many inveterate players, I have spent a lot of time playing this game. Some time ago (2 and a half years ago) I created www.eve-ro.net, a fan-site dedicated to the Romanian Eve Online players. Soon after it was launched, I started to receive numerous mails from players who were beginners and wanted all sorts of information regarding how to play the game, payment, etc. I tried to explain to them everything as clear as possible and I think I've done a great job so far. I think I can do even better than that, so I've decided to run for CSM.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    You said it yourself... a “fiasco”... and I subscribe to it. I personally take no interest in this aspect of the game. I read the forums very often, but I'm not the “fan” of either of the two opponents in this conflict.

    In any game there are people who have too much of a vainglory... which sometimes cause damage to the progress of things.

    I think a CSM candidate should detach himself from the alliance/corporation he is a part of and should represent the interests of the entire community in the game development.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    It is a quite good start, we'll see what's next... :-)

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    I give a brownie points to CCP for having listened to the players' desires. Of course, there are a lot of ships which are worth taking a glimpse at (Assault Ships, the majority of the Minmatar ships, etc) but everything has a beginning... I think this is a step in the good direction.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    You've touched my very field of activity and I could speak much about it.

    Indeed, Veldspar is the most profitable Ore (ISK wise) in the Empire, even better than the Ore in the Low-Sec. What bothers me (and I think I'm not the only one who has the same opinion) is that it's becoming a more and more... rare resource.

    The majority of the players who have never been involved in mining in the Empire are tempted to think that the Veldspar miners are multi-billionaire. Not true at all! Why? It is simple, the roids are disappearing. The number of miners is continuously increasing, the number of the resources in the game has remained constant and, in some cases, I think they're decreased in number.

    The Empire has become a desert “squeezed” by the players. If you go to almost any Hi-sec in the Empire, you'll see that entire belts have disappeared, the roids are very small (I find it absurd that a belt which spends a few days respawning should be mined in 30 mins. - 1 hour by a player who has good skills in mining). Although, theoretically speaking, a Veldspar hour of mining = (+/-) 17 billions, the things are different. 30% of the time is spent looking for a good belt, 30% mining and what's left, 40% is spent looking for another system in which you can mine... This is the way things are while mining in the Empire. This must be the reason why the price for Tritanium has exploded. Veldspar is more and more rare...

    Let's not forget that mining is usually the first trade chosen by our players. A rookie doesn't have too many skills so he will choose mining, but mining has become a very boring trade for the moment and I think many players give up playing in the first weeks only because of this.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    I consider it highly exploitable. A corporation can declare war to another corporation without any apparent reason. A PVP body can declare war to an Industry body only to claim a sum of money, for example, and there are many other examples. I think it should be changed. When and in what extent, these are matters to debate. I am sure there are a lot of scenarios to be tested.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    The inexhaustible resources - Moon minerals, Supercapitals, Sov and POS Warfare. Eve has become a game of numbers. The more people you bring, the more chances you have to win. How I would change this, I don't know yet, but I have a few ideas.

    Interview with Dan DeGagne

    What is your ingame name?
    Desparo. But I also fly under the name Mining Forman, Spry Jack and a few others

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1065777&page=1
    http://www.eve-manager.com/Desparo

    So, how long have you been playing?
    coming up on 1.5 years. Some good months some bad months

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    Well almost all my time has been as a carebear. Busy roid killing, moon mining, ratting and mission running all while managing a corp of 50 active players and collaborating with other on an Alliance of 275. Its only in the last coule months I've been more into PVP. Not very successfully I might add but learning and having fun.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    In RL I'm a Computer Consultant specializing in databases, user interfaces, and communication.

    I started my list of things that were wrong with EVE 2 days after I started playing and it hasn't stopped growing. The fact that I'm still playing is because there is so much here I do like and a lot of reasons I want to make a larger effort to improve it.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    I think that the disbanding of BoB by a disgruntled director was one of the most hilarious highlights of my time in EVE. I would point out that despite claims that it was Goonswarm who performed the dismemberment, they are only entitled to claim credit for the idea. The action itself was done internally and under accepted rules of EVE and until CCP chooses to improve alliance and corp security to make such activity more difficult it can happen to anyone.

    The renaming twice by GM's on the other hand is very a questionable act. I've constantly riled against what I have considered poor customer service and preferential treatment that some players receive. That this was allowed to happen when so many others have been refused is a disgrace to CCP as a corporation. With GM's being judge, jury and executioner for policies in EVE I think they need to be above reproach. Something they are not even close to achieving at this point.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    I've been expecting it for almost 6 months. When I trained my first PVP alt it was specifically for the falcon because of its superior abilities. The falcon certainly wasn't the undefeated king of the battlefield but in small engagements it ruled and fights degenerated into who could jam who first.
    I do think that the changes weren't too significant to make the ships useless and in fact they made the rook actually useful. It certainly could have been worse

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    Well I think the juries still out on whether or not they have become a viable tool on the battlefield. Certainly a lot of players were happy to dust off the old bombers and give them another try. The 4 fold increase in the prices of Arbalest siege launchers was a good indication. By the way, completely useless against sleepers. One of my SB wrecks is probably still orbiting a far distance sun never having a chance to fire a shot.

    How much of an affect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    I think that many players in EVE like to think that they are part of something and can have an effect on it. That was supposed to one of the goals when the introduced factional warfare. That it hasn't made any significant change suggests that it needs a serious rethink. The disbanding of Bob made more news and a far greater impact then factional warfare ever did.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    I don't know if it bothers me but it certainly doesn't make it easy when our Alliance discusses plans for lowsec and 0.0. Though I agree with CCP that I don't think they should take a hands on approach to controlling the market. They are in many ways responsible for the currently situation. I think they seriously under estimated the appeal of the orca and over estimated the effects it would have on the price of minerals in highsec. When I started back in 07 the price of trit was around 1.75. The climb to 4 wasn't a sudden spike but a slow gradual increase that only continued with the introduction of the orca.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    Its certainly flawed. But I don't see that there's gonna be an easy fix. There isn't anything CCP can do that will make everyone happy. Lots of things they can do that will make no one happy.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    I think many long term players and even CCP under-estimate the value of new players. When you've only been playing for only a little while and everything you own is sitting in the slots of the ship your flying, does it really make sense that your risking everything to play in a universe you still know nothing about?

    Because I think last moments of many of these peoples lives in EVE ends with nothing but a pod and a form email from Security Commerce Commission sympathizing with them over the loose of what was everything they owned. I've been there and only through the generosity of the pirate who podded me in the first place did I continue to play.

    I'm not saying in anyway do I want EVE to become Happy Kitty land or even WoW. But I think that CCP can make some simple changes so that new players can get a chance to experience the incredible wonders (and pains) that EVE has to offer.

    Anything to add?
    EVE owes it success to many things. Some of it is the universe we live in and the unique way we can interact in it.

    But some of it is owed to the fact that its the only show in town at the moment. But its a poor way to run a company and we know that's not gonna last. If CCP wants to keep itself alive in the long run they have to start make some changes. I do think that the CSM is unique for MMO's and an opportunity for players to feel like more participants in its future. Not just passengers on a train wreck.

    Interview with Mrs Trzzbk

    What is your ingame name?
    -Mrs Trzzbk, you're looking at it.

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    -http://trzzbkforcsm.blogspot.com/

    So, how long have you been playing?
    -Almost 3 years (Trzzbk is my main, so I'm using his age.)

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    -Just about everything short of production and super-capital piloting.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    -I play EVE. What other qualifications are people looking for?

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    -I'm in GS so the answer to this should be obvious. The re-naming of KenZoku was a massive mistake on CCP's part because it brought all of the accusations of favoritism back to the surface. However, the name "Band of Brothers Reloaded" is so terrible I wouldn't have minded if they got to keep it.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    -The re-re-balancing of ECM actually. I think they went too far on the optimal nerfs. Blackbirds are pretty much useless now and Scorps have been made pretty mediocre.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    -They took a ship with no real role and gave it another not real role. CCPs ideas of them taking down Cyno Jammers are laughable. I think the change was actually a serious nerf since SBs can hit anything smaller than a BC for any appreciable damage now.

    How much of an affect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    -I would like to see players drive the storyline more, especially Factional Warfare stuff, since isn't the the point? I would like to hear an official position from CCP as to how much they take player actions under advisement when writing new storyline elements.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    -Massively. It's easier and safer to make ISK in high-sec than low- and 0.0 sec space, which is the exact opposite of how it should be.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    -Honestly, I'm not very familiar with them.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    -I guess right now I would have to say the fact that Naglfar sucks so much. I have a whole write-up on that on my blog, but the short answer is: more CPU and 5/7/5 layout.

    Tuesday, May 12, 2009

    Interview with Weazy Z

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1037160

    So, how long have you been playing?
    Since 07/07

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    I have run an industrial corp on one of my alts, been a member of many 0.0 space holding alliances, fced fleets with over 60+ people multiple times, killed hundreds of ships, made a few billion isk, set up posses, run plex, mined ice, tried market pvp... pretty much every aspect of the game, ive covered.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I'm a natural born leader and I have a good background in computer science, so I understand the logistical implications of adding certain features.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    Personally, I dont live in delve, so I don't much care. It has allowed all sorts of strange things to happen since a lot of the major players in my own region have commited large forces to delve (tcf, iron, mm). Instead of being blobbed when you enter one of these alliance's station systems, the fights are usually smaller and a whole lot of fun. Also, it has allowed medium sized alliances to field their capitals in more agressive ways, leading to a huge number of supercap kills and some of the best cap fights in regions such as syndicate and cloud ring without fear that NC will drop 200 dreads on you.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    I think CCP did a great job with this rebalance. Not only are Rooks 10x more useful in combat, falcons are less likely to completly dominate the field since they need to get within 100km rather than rediculous ranges. It allows the fc more versitility when combatting an enemy gang, since now it is fairly easy to burn off and try to pick one or two off.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    Well... first of all, stealth bombers are my least favorite ship in the game. As an fc, having a person join my gang in a stealth bomber is frustrating. They lack a real use-- they cant tackle, can't do any ewar (unless fit with sensor damps, which they have no bonus for), they do really rather puny dps, and they die in an instant. CCP's changes makes them a little more survivable (cov ops cloak is a nice touch), but now they can't even set up at insane ranges, so they die more. Personally, I'd like to see them have cov ops cloaks, cruises, and a bonus to sensor damps. Atleast then they might be slightly useful for a gang rather than a flying coffin.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    Uh... EvE has a storyline?!

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    No, trit is used more than any other mineral and the price is a good indication on the current market health. There are plenty of ways to obtain trit (see- hauler spawns) besides mining veld, its just people are unwilling to take the risk and go out to 0.0 to farm haulers or scoop rat loot. Perhaps the amount of veldspar used in certain items (see-- capital componets) should be lowered due to the pain to move it, but no-- veldspar is fine.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    It should be cheaper :P. If you do not want to be involved in the PvP side of the game, you are free to stay in a NPC corporation.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    I think the biggest imbalance in the game right now is high sec. You can make just as much (if not more) isk running level 4s in high sec than u can in 0.0, and obtain high end minerals from the loot at the same time, with no risk. I think all level 4s should be moved to low sec. You should have to risk your ship to make the kind of isk you can obtain in level 4s.

    Anything to add?
    Thanks for setting up this questionare Hallen :).

    Interview with Herschel Yamamoto

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    Forum thread: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1061630
    Website: http://herschelyamamoto.blogspot.com

    So, how long have you been playing?
    Since late 2006.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    Pretty much everything a player can do outside 0.0 space. I've missioned, manufactured, invented, pirated, worked as a mercenary, traded, explored wormholes, and a bunch of other stuff.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I've sat on a lot of bodies structured much like the CSM is, and I've seen them work both very well and very badly. I have a sense of how to make such a committee work more effectively, and the CSM could definitely use some improvement. It's gotten better, but there's still a lot of room to improve. I understand how the workload of positions like this can inflate far beyond your initial expectations, and am ready to do the work needed. I also have experience communicating with constituents and ensuring that they're in the loop about what's going on.

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    I think it's a shame that Band of Brothers fell like they did - whatever their sins, their role in the history of this game deserved a better end than that. That said, the Goons didn't do anything wrong, and I wish them the best of luck with their new regions. The game mechanics that led to this could use a review, though. High-level alliance work in Eve is fraught with trust issues, but letting someone set standings should not require someone to be trusted with the power to turn off your cyno jammers for a month. As for the renaming, I think it's a simple case of human error. It made CCP look bad, but it pretty clearly wasn't an issue of corruption. Better renaming policies should make sure that something like this doesn't happen again.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    I think it was necessary - they didn't apply too huge of a nerf, and I think the changes are all reasonable. I'd like to have seen SDAs get a bit more of a workover, probably get split into 2-3 modules so that there's actually more choice in ship fittings, but that's minor. Time will tell, of course, but for now it looks good. I do wish the torpedo Scorpion had been added, though - I understand why it wasn't, but that would have been a nifty ship.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    I'm not as sold on these changes. The loss of cruise missiles removed a reasonable role from the ship, and I don't think it was necessary. The bomb changes were eminently reasonable, and went further than I expected at first, to the point where I think they're actually usable now. I personally don't fly bombers, so I haven't had a chance to judge the new changes, but I'm a lot less pessimistic than I was when I heard the initial drafts of the proposal. Again, time will tell.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    There should definitely be room for players to have an impact, but it shouldn't be absolute. Of course, the 0.0 "storyline" is entirely player-controlled, and I think it has often worked out well - there's a few epics that could be written off of that base material - but there has to be limits. CCP needs enough flexibility to make sure that they can integrate new features into the story without upsetting anything, and their creative people have stories that they want to tell as well. There's probably some more room for players to have an impact on the story of the empires, but I don't think it'll ever be as much as some people might like.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    Yes. It's fine that Veld is valuable, but the fact that lowsec asteroids are worthless is a serious issue. Lowsec asteroids get most of their value from nocxium, but nocxium has crashed hard and lowsec has suffered because of it. I have actually proposed a solution to this on the Assembly Hall, and I'd like to encourage people to support it, because I believe it will fix this issue nicely.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    They're functional for what people tend to do with them, but they could really use some work. If you want to harass people, extort money, or tear down POSes, it works, but the mechanics are really bare-bones. I am honestly not sure what direction this ought to be taken in, but the status quo is anemic and could use work. Pay-to-grief is amusing, but it's not the right system to have in place.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    Definitely lowsec. Highsec is worthwhile and safe, 0.0 is fantastically valuable and deadly, and lowsec should fall in between, being valuable and dangerous. It manages the danger, but the value just isn't there. I have many ideas on how to fix this - I don't think one big buff is the right way to fix lowsec, I prefer a larger number of smaller changes, to move lowsec to the right level on the whole rather than just throwing one good thing there and having the entire area sink or swim on that one mechanic. I've proposed no less than three threads to help fix this recently - one to boost lowsec ores(mentioned above), one to let players protect their lowsec space more easily, and one that will have a side effect of putting more people into lowsec as part of a mechanism for faction standing recovery. There are more proposals that could be made, but those three would go a long way to making lowsec better, and are indicative of the sort of proposals I favour for fixing this issue.

    Anything to add?
    I have plenty more info on my website, so take a look around if you're curious about why I'm running or what else I stand for. If you want any more info on any topic, or have any other questions, feel free to drop me a line in-game. Also, thanks to Hallan Turrek for running this.

    Interview with Les Bains

    Links to your forum thread and site?
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1060857
    I'm working on a site

    So, how long have you been playing?
    Soon to be a year on May 19

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    I started the same as everyone running missions later getting bored and can flipping people once i learned the mechanics of it. After a month or two joined a corp which was in a 0.0 alliance and i had my first tastes of pvp but went into it lacking skills or experience. As the months passed i learned a lot from using the directional scanner to 0.0 politics. I came to realize i was wasting my time in a dead end 0.0 pet alliance which i had become a regular fc of. I got annoyed that a 600+ man alliance couldn't get 20 guys for a regular roam or defense so i convinced my corp to leave and join an alliance which was a enemy of theirs and then preceded to hunt them for some time. While i was gone for a week due to personal issues the corp left that alliance due to disagreements with the leadership which landed me in low sec being a pirate for a month which was fun and made me many friends along with many enemies. But low sec soon got annoying due to hidden timers and gate guns, so i decided to go back out to 0.0 joining Mostly Harmless barely two weeks ago which has already become an awesome and interesting home.
    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    I am a very good at placing myself in other peoples shoes to grasp their veiwpoint from experience i have gained by being a Peer Counseler at my college and as a Pshyc Major. I am very good at working with other people and usually getting my way.
    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    I find it a funny and amusing situation that one person could topple one of the longest standing alliances with just a few clicks of his mouse. It is at the same time a horror for every alliance in the game that one discotent person can do all this damage while just being a director with the wrong roles. Something such as disbanding a alliance should be forced to a vote of all Ceo's in the Alliance with the majority winning. The voting would at least give a advance warning and allow for the Alliance leadership to deal with the issue. Alliance and corp control need a fresh review such has been done on many features in the game.
    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    I am very happy with it due to hating the fact that the few times a falcon would miss it's jam cycle they would be too far out for you to reach in reasonable time. Now falcons are more inline with other Force recons but with a slightly greater effective range. It is still too early to tell how the re balancing will affect most pvp as people learn to cope with their new limits.
    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    I haven't flown a Stealth Bomber but have heard good things from friends. The cheaper prices of bombs has made their use a more common sight but still not a very effective weapon due to how hard it is to get them to land where you want them to.

    How much of an affect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    I think Factional warfare especially should be used in showing the balance of power between the 4 races in eve and that the gaining or loss of space should make a difference in the storyline. Also the 4 races along with the NPC groups such as the Gursistas, Arch-angels, etc should sometimes make reference to fears of the larger 0.0 alliances due to their large numbers and wealth.
    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    Trit is the most common ore used in building pretty much everything in the game so there will always be a steady high demand for it compared to other minerals. A possible solution is to make one of the low sec minerals give a higher yield of trit making it more valuable but less then a/b/c ores. In reality it is usually more dangerous to mine in low sec then it is in 0.0.
    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it? Goons.... Jk I can't say there really is one specific thing that imbalances the game but Minmitar seem to always get the short end of the stick. We have to train 3 weapons systems Drones/Projectile/Missiles along with all three tanking systems Sheild/Armor/Honor. Even with all these skill points in the proper skills to fly the ship you still manage to get less DPS and Tank then most ships in it's class. The higher speeds we move at make very little difference once we reach battle cruisers and larger. We do have the ability to choose our damage type but with 10 seconds of dps lost to reloading i hardly see it being that much more effective also considering there with be more then one target with a different resistance weak point.

    Anything to add?
    I apologize for the poor grammar used as this was written during my work day and as i was studying for Finals.

    Interview with Garthran

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1060464

    So, how long have you been playing?
    I've maintained an active subscription to Eve since September 3rd, 2006. Some of that has simply been AFK skill training due to RL troubles, but I've never really left.

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    I was a director for a small, high/low sec industrial corp. In that time I interacted with CVA, Atlas, and Libertas Fidelis. When that corp dissolved, I moved to a friend's corp, Synthetic Frontiers, and mostly sat in station, as I had no home internet at the time. I am now a member of a highsec industrial corp called CINDER INDUSTRIALS. I primarily run missions, but have been known to shoot people that cause problems.

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    Real life? Who has time for that these days?

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    I honestly couldn't care less. Once upon a time I tried to care about 0.0 politics, but then I realized I didn't. That's not to say I am unsympathetic to players who choose to live in 0.0, but its just not my thing.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    I think it was needed. Being able to completely shut down multiple targets, using a single ship, from hundreds of kilometers away? Sounds like it needs a balancing to me.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    I'm ecstatic, honestly. My Nemesis was the first t2 ship I used in PvP. Although it got no kills, it didn't die, either. Allowing me to use a CovOps cloak makes me very happy, as it allows the stealth bomber to perform in a way that is actually stealthy. There is some contention on the swapping of bonuses to torpedoes from cruise missiles, and I can see reasons for both sides of the arguement. I'll wait until I've experienced it better to make a final call in that regard.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    If you mean should players change empire relations, I would have to say no. From a purely roleplay standpoint, capsuleers represent an incredibly small, albiet powerful, group in the universe. As rich and powerful as we are, we're still not so incredible that our opinions alone will change the political interactions of the empires. I think the storyline should change to accomodate players, but I don't think players should be actively defining the storyline.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    Nope. You don't mine in low sec because its profitable. You mine in low sec because you need Zydrine and don't want to mine in 0.0. There's still Veldspar in low-sec, you don't have to mine the lowsec ores.

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    I think that increased maximum dec counts would be fine, along with correspondingly increased rates via the current system. Unlimited isn't going to happen, it will just invite another Privateers situation. I think the inclusion of a built-in ransom system would also be useful. Under normal circumstances (duel systems, for example) I am of the opinion that if you don't trust the guy, don't get involved with him. But with the wardec situation, warring corporations are asking for hundreds of millions, even billions of ISK in ransom from their targets. To have a target hand over that cash, and then have the aggressor fail to honor the agreement, is a serious blow to morale, nevermind the corporate wallet.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    I honestly can't think of a significant imbalance offhand. Every imbalance I've encountered, I've found a workaround for and forgotten. That's not to say they don't exist, but I am not currently able to name one :)

    Anything to add?
    Check out my thread for more platform information. I'd love to be able to represent the Eve community as a CSM, and would be very grateful if you, the voters, found me to be an acceptable representative.

    Monday, May 11, 2009

    Interview with Shatana Fulfairas

    Links to your forum thread and site.
    http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1042683
    am just finishing the website atm

    So, how long have you been playing?
    i've played eve now for roughly 5 years deleted my fist char i made in the game and have been playing constantly for 4 years on this lady

    What have you done in Eve during that time?
    I've actully played many roles in eve online shatana is mainly industry based researching, Mining, Production etc and i really enjoy it with empire mission running etc i was also in one of the first Major alliances Ascendant Frontier and i loved the large fleet battles pos warfare and making and protecting a home and losing it.. there a whole scope of gameplay i have enjoyed

    What real life experiences do you have that will aid you in your elected position?
    Well that a little difficult to answer in one swoop as it brings to mind many qualities and attitudes needed for a good CSM team you need a good abilty to sit and listen for other peoples opinions without shouting them down and dealing with people in anyway with a job etc can help you which i have done in many ways in my life.working with the public is always demanding and fun

    What do you think of the recent Bob/Goonswarm fiasco, including the renaming of Kenzoku?
    The bob/gooswarm thing is interesting i belive the mechanics of the way you disolve an allaince need to be changed to stop it being quite sop easy to to disband one that has been established i will agree with a large consenus that bob should have got their name back but can understand the reasons not for doing it.

    What do you think of the re balancing of ECM?
    i personally dont fly alot of ECM ships and not had alot of practise for them but after listening to my corp/allaince mates they havent really liked to many of the changes with them.

    What do you think of the re balancing of Stealth Bombers?
    Bombers are alot of fun to play with i liked the point of they can now warp cloakedwill need to play with them more again to see how the changes effect the way i fly and play in them.

    How much of an effect should players have on the broader Eve storyline?
    I think some of what the players do within the game should be storylined in conjunction with some of the broader ones they do as i do belive some of the major allaince movments fight's area's changing hands could be reflected in someway within the greater stories.

    Does it bother you that Veldspar is more profitable than any low sec minerals?
    I like that minerals prices like those of real life now and again have sharp rise's and falls like commodites do in the real world.. but having Trit selling for more than isogen and nocxium is to me rather silly but do wonder how this problem could be combated

    What's your opinion on current war declaration mechanics?
    i've not had to many dealing with war declarations but what i have seen does need some carful rethough imho... there silly ones like it costs the same for a 1 man corp to war dec an allaince is a little stupid and pointless and i think the multipliers should be within the size of the corparations/allaiances costs to reflect the war's strength or weakness towards it.

    What is the single largest imbalance in game, and how would you fix it?
    hmm this is an interesting subject there are a few things i see as need to be fixed.. like large fleet battles and the lag, when it takes you ship 3 mins to load onto the grid when you have warp to a battle comprmising over 1200 people in system some end up in pods before they have even cycled their guns once.

    Anything to add?
    i will admit i am a carebear with guns :) most of the time you will find me doing something in the industry side but i do enjoy a good fight and nothing makes people get together better than a good combat op