Jump Around

From the East out to the Western shore
Where many men and many more will fall
But no angel flies with me tonight
Till freedom reigns on all
And curse the name for which we slaved our days
Till every man shall his kingdom come
Flogging Molly - What's Left Of The Flag

I was spending a bit of time sending another Guristas pirate to his just rewards, when I heard about the roaming enemy fleet. A mixed fleet with a few Hydra Reloaded was moving through eastern Vale. The FC had already formed a fleet, and I joined up as soon as I'd docked my Nighthawk.

I switched to one of the 4 Drakes I had available and began to move towards TVN. Already well trained in the use of jump bridges, I covered the 10 jumps with one bridge and two gates. I was in TVN in no time, ready and formed up on a gate. Our targets had decided to start camping stations, and they were waiting in ZLZ-1Z. By the time we'd begun moving, the enemy camp had moved up to 5t-KMT station, and we moved in quickly. Disappointingly, the enemy fleet dispersed as soon as we entered local. Well, except for this genius.

So we caught the direction they were headed, and began to move ourselves. The enemy jumped into B-E3KQ and set themselves up off the gate. They had plenty of time to get to whatever range they needed. We were a bit worried about that, but the FC decided to risk it, and we jumped into them.

I had no idea if I was going to live or die, but the FC started to call targets. I noticed a Zealot firing at me, but that was it, and it seemed like the enemy wasn't immediately focusing it's fire, but that soon changed. Our first target was an enemy Tempest, and I took part in it's swift destruction, while our secondary turned tail and ran, but slowly we whittled down their fleet, and 15 ships later, the enemy gave up and warped out.

At this point they were broken, but still dangerous. While the enemy retreated through Tribute, we hatched a plan to catch them again. We took a jump bridge backwards near TVN, and moved up towards Tribute, coming at them in the direction they were plunging headfirst.

Our fun was only slightly ruined once we realized a blue fleet was already camping them in from WH-JCA. We decided to take yet another jump bridge to circle around them and get to IMK-K1.

Essentially they were trapped in W6VP-Y, with no hope but to wait us out. Our probers started to get us warp ins on them, but they dodged us pretty effectively. So we went back to IMK and waited some more.

Then yet ANOTHER blue fleet came down on the gate. After they threw up their own bubble, our FC told us to jump in system again. The probers had a good warp in this time, and they enemy tried to fight a bit. Again things went poorly, and they disengaged a bit more quickly this time.

As far as they knew, our presence meant that the IMK gate was unguarded, and they tried to punch their way through. The blue fleet there caught them, and we managed to get on a few more killmails, as the enemy fleet was effectively obliterated.

After that I went back to carebearing, picking up a Dread Guristas X-Large Shield Booster.

A good day.

Eve News Now: Episode 4

New Mic, New Video Style, New Places! Check it out.

Download here, or watch it here:

Keepin' It Fresh

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head?
U2 - One

I very recently acquired to capacity to pay for two accounts at the same time, and with my upgraded video card... I can also use them at the same time on this computer. That's a positive if I ever saw one.

There was this re-activation offer available to one of my old alts(an Orca pilot I used to pay isk to have around). 5 free days, and then 19.99 for two months. I signed her up and went about using her learning skillpoints to put her closer to a Hulk(before, basically all she could fly was the Orca).

That is right, you heard me.

My passion for PvP has not wavered with my time in Majesta, but neither has my passion for trying new things. The last time I mined, I was a few months into the game and I used an Osprey.

Hallan could actually sit in a hulk pretty quickly right now, but I've got other plans for him. Since I have HACs V and Recons V already trained, I could really use something besides Caldari cruiser to 5. I've settled on Minmatar, and after I do that, I'll go ahead and take Minmatar BS to 4 and train for tech 2 large arties. It's been a while since I've really went into a new ship class, so this should be fun.

I do just have a couple of skills to shore up first, of course. But after that, it's time for a change of style.

Speaking of changes, this blog is now an official eve fansite and stuff. You should also expect to see my next episode of Eve News Now on Eve News 24. I also have a whole new mic, and assuming this cold gets the heck out my system by Christmas day, it should be a nice podcast.

Eve News Now: Episode 3

I breathed on my mic for this one. Promise to god I'm getting a new mic(one that's not connected to my face is a good start), maybe not in time for next week, but for sure the one after. Kinda hoping the hints I'm dropping to my family gets it to me as a Christmas present, but who knows.

Check it out!

I, for one, welcome our new boring overlords.

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
In your palace warm mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
A child, a child,
Shivers in the cold,
Let us bring him silver and gold,
Let us bring him silver and gold.
Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker - Do You Hear What I Hear?

By the end of January, Incursion will be fully released and we'll begin dealing with the effects of the changes.

The Sansha invasion will likely be happening alongside what may be the biggest war in Eve history. Every major 0.0 alliance in EVE save the Drone Russians and the NC are currently engaged to some extent in the southern war. Will the released content get in the way of the player created content that CCP so regularly touts? Time will tell. I think this release moves us much further away from the game I started playing.

If the Incursions are a permanent fixture in the game, I think I may like the game a bit less. This is supposed to be a sandbox game, where you can do anything. Not a game where you either participate in 5/10/25 man raids or you can't play. And sure, we can ignore the incursions, but they'll be having negative effects on the system, and spreading if not dealt with. So far it looks like very difficult content with very little reward outside of storyline(and more cynically, the reward of not having to do that content again for a while).

I'm cool with that for a while, but after a certain amount of time it becomes WoW in space. Except for less really cool equipment for finishing the content.

CCP should never have focused a whole expansion on PvE content. PvE content to this degree makes you wonder why you'll pay 15 dollars a month to enjoy the same kind of stuff you could enjoy in another game that's free.

It's not all bad though. I'm able to see the CSM's influence behind a few "minor" changes like the Rockets, or the Faction Icons, or T2 ammo. CCP's getting behind the idea of fixing the low hanging fruit, which is a positive, since there are a lot of problems in Eve that can be solved with minimal time investment.

As always, and with anything, time will tell.

I love storyline stuff. I also have an affinity for carebearing that most other PvPers would find blasphemous... yet this expansion is my least favorite by far.

That cannot be good.

Eve News Now: Episode 2

Ok then, here's installment two. I tried my hand at the noise removal, I normalized everything first, then lowered the volume on a noise sample, then removed that twice from the final product. Seems to almost remove the noise without completely making me sound like a robot... so I'll stick with it. Also worked on getting the music to voice volumes about right. Oh, and I changed the format a good bit. Focusing on regions or alliances seemed like a bad idea. Now I just go through the week from start to finish.

Let me know what you think.

Download it here.

Learning Skills

With the upcoming removal of learning skills, I'm curious: What are the rest of EvE going to spend the extra points on?

I've got plans to get anchoring five, then put whatever is left in starbase defense management.

What about the rest of you?

Eve News Now: Episode 1

I've been meaning to do this for a long time now, only the tools to really make it easy have only just came out. Simply, it's a 2-4 minute podcast of me rattling off the major news items in Eve. You wanna get caught up really quickly? This is the place. I'm going to get better at editing, I promise, and if someone has an idea on how to get rid of that buzz, I'm all ears. The noise removal on audacity just doesn't do the job(without making me sound wierd, that is).

I'll be hosting it as a youtube channel as well, and if someone else can think of a place to put it, go right ahead. Download it at eve files.

I'll try to do one of these a week, since it's not too terribly time intensive.

My Immersion, It is Broken.

There're all sorts of things going on these days. What was left of the Provi NIP has disintegrated(and as one of the guys that participated in it's formation, let me tell you: not a moment too soon).

The first part of incursion has released, with some nice changes. These were my favorites:

Rockets.
Faction, Deadspace, and Officer Items have a special icon now.
The MWD and AB have different icons.
T2 Close Range Ammo no longer blows.
You can rename a ship without needing them to be active.

But since this is a good day for CCP, I've decided to use it to complain about things, specifically immersion breaking moments in EvE. This will get a bit sciency. Fair warning.

Lets get the ball rolling.

First of all...
Stars aren't pink, and they aren't green. There, I said it. Stars come in 7 different flavors, from hottest to coldest: Blue, White-Blue, White, White again, Yellow-White, Orange, and Red.

88% of stars fall in the Orange or Red category. 6 percent fall into the Yellow-White category, with the remaining 6% reserved for varying Blue and Whites(almost all whites stars, by the way). The dominant color spectrum is one thing... our sun for example has a spike in it's yellow, even if the human eye(without atmospheric scattering of blue) interprets it as white.

Same thing for any star with a spike in the green, it's light may tend to be more green, but the human eye sees it as white as well. Yet I fly through systems all the damn time with green stars. That isn't to say that a star can't form with a heavy amount of some element that makes it green(oxygen for example), but those stars would be incredibly rare, once in a lifetime sights, not commonplace.


Second of all...

Why do our ships decelerate once the engine gets turned off? Unless you're moving in a medium of some kind, that shouldn't happen. You should have to flip around and burn the engines in the other direction to slow down. Instead it's as simple as turning the engines off and waiting to coast to a stop.

Now, if someone threw a chronicle at me that said the engines in EVE are more advanced than asimple propulsion system(They look suspiciously like ion thrusters), and that they work by changing the laws of physics to make you move, we're golden(sure it's pseudo science, but it's Sci-Fi). There isn't one though, and the complete ignoring of physics makes me cry.

Third of all...

We're back to the stars again, according to this article... every system that has a jump gate should be binary, and it should have the gate(s) placed between the two stars. That is not the case. No systems with jump gates have more than one star and the few that do have no gates at all. The pseudo science was questionable to begin with, but they don't even follow it. This is on top of the fact that a huge portion of star systems are binary to start with, but none of them are inhabited. I could buy that none of them have habitable planets(that's reasonable, given the complexities of the orbits), but not that none of them are worth hooking up to for mining. Or perhaps they could use inhospitable planets high in resources to build bubbled(or underground) colonies on. There is plenty of precedent for that in the normal systems.

Fourth of all...

What eve planet type is Mercury? The rest roughly fill their roles(Venus... maybe a storm planet). Mercury isn't a Barren planet, because every barren planet in eve has bacterial life. There needs to be an additional planet type to describe rocky planets like Mercury, and there isn't one. And lets not forget the ice planet orbiting close to a star while the desert planet orbits far out.

A little bit of math and planetary systems would make a lot of sense. That would of course require actual stellar classifications. The information is THERE though, and the math could be done to bring all the systems into some semblance of realism. This is especially easy since every system has but a single star. It's not that hard to just once calculate a size, mass, magnetic field, and age for each body in a system. Rough approximations will do the job. The problem of course is that it would require quite a lot of work, but give very little as a reward.

Which is why I don't really care. Yeah after all that, I'm stating that I don't care. This is a game, and it's important to treat it as such. Sure it's not realistic, but obsession with reality is boring.

Peace.

Interview With The Scampire.

There are two things people want more than sex and money: recognition and praise.
Mary Kay Ash

Long time readers may know: I like to mess with scammers whenever I can. There's just very little in this game more satisfying than playing mind games with someone who makes their money by playing tricks on people. I do this a lot, but this guy seemed to be a poster child for the kind of guys that I talk to. It starts simply enough: with me insisting in local that scammers can't possibly be making very much money. Every time, at least one of them starts a convo with me to prove me wrong.

daddyloonglegs > I made 20 bil in 3 weeks
daddyloonglegs > spamming jita local
Hallan Turrek > You see, there's a problem here.
daddyloonglegs > yep?
Hallan Turrek > You claim to've made a huge amount of money by lying to people. So why would I believe the claim?
daddyloonglegs > well
daddyloonglegs > it's up to you
Hallan Turrek > It sure is.
daddyloonglegs > and I really don't care whether you believe me or not
Hallan Turrek > Because you send mails and start convos with people you don't care about convincing of your coolness?
daddyloonglegs > nope
Hallan Turrek > Well, logically you wouldn't yeah. But here we are.
daddyloonglegs > my business is much more complicated
daddyloonglegs > and it is scam
daddyloonglegs > well
daddyloonglegs > it depends on definitions
daddyloonglegs > I like to call it overpriced sales mkay
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > if you don't believe me
daddyloonglegs > check out this
Hallan Turrek > I don't think you've made any money on this, or at least not anywhere near as much as you claim.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > look
daddyloonglegs > just look
daddyloonglegs > Improved Crash Booster Reaction x 4
daddyloonglegs > Ammatar Slave Trader Insignia x 4
daddyloonglegs > Ammatar Slave Trader Insignia x 4
daddyloonglegs > Brynn Jerdola's Tag x 4
daddyloonglegs > Small Drone Durability Enhancer II x 3
daddyloonglegs > Low-grade Spur Alpha x 3
daddyloonglegs > Small Drone Durability Enhancer II x 3
daddyloonglegs > Medium Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer II x 2
daddyloonglegs > Medium Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer II x 5
daddyloonglegs > Medium Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer II x 4
daddyloonglegs > moar?
daddyloonglegs > and these are only contract sales
Hallan Turrek > Alt accounts accepting it, to make yourself look better to the scamming community? For shame.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > you dude look pathetic
Hallan Turrek > Why thank you.
daddyloonglegs > you think I have so many useless alts?
daddyloonglegs > go check them
daddyloonglegs > convo them
daddyloonglegs > I use alts
daddyloonglegs > to sell shit
Hallan Turrek > I know that. I saw the contracts you "completed".
daddyloonglegs > dude
daddyloonglegs > I know what is a poor null sec dweller's life like yours
daddyloonglegs > ratting
daddyloonglegs > ratting
daddyloonglegs > still no money to afford kewl ships
Hallan Turrek > Yes, I must be a pretty hardcore PvE'er. I admit.
daddyloonglegs > and I make 1-4 bil a day
daddyloonglegs > depends on effort
Hallan Turrek > No you do not, I believe that was my whole point.
daddyloonglegs > I guess it sucks that you have to be killing damn npc 24/7 for a month
daddyloonglegs > to afford such money
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > well
daddyloonglegs > check this
daddyloonglegs > wait
daddyloonglegs > let me log on my alt
daddyloonglegs > almost theeere
daddyloonglegs > lol 1 min
daddyloonglegs > seriously

*Sends me a scam mail with his alt.*

Hallan Turrek > Wait, am I supposed to read that?
daddyloonglegs > I'll trade you
daddyloonglegs > to show the money
daddyloonglegs > if you are that persistant in denying the fact
Hallan Turrek > I doubt you would do such a thing.
daddyloonglegs > I never said I'm going to complete that trade
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > 16,6 bil would be too nice for you
daddyloonglegs > ok almost there
Hallan Turrek > Having money of your own and having money from scamming are two different things. You can make way more money from legitimate trading, after all.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > no you cant
daddyloonglegs > trade thanatisa
daddyloonglegs > for some reason I cant do that
Hallan Turrek > That's not going to happen.
daddyloonglegs > just trade her
daddyloonglegs > why?
daddyloonglegs > lol dude
Hallan Turrek > You really have to ask the question?
daddyloonglegs > well you don't believe me
Hallan Turrek > That's true.
daddyloonglegs > that someone is inteligent enough to make in 3 weeks the amount of money you have to spend 2 years to get
daddyloonglegs > lligent*
daddyloonglegs > and it's your problem
daddyloonglegs > I just wanted to prove you are stupid
Hallan Turrek > Well oddly enough, that's the exact opposite of the case. I don't think anyone would be dumb enough to think you can make more money from scams than not.
Hallan Turrek > Sure it can make some money, and if you're lucky it can make a lot. But you can make more money from legitimate means.
daddyloonglegs > ahahah
daddyloonglegs > you underestimate people's dumbness
Hallan Turrek > I've underestimated yours perhaps.
daddyloonglegs > yeah right
Hallan Turrek > But we can play this game all day long.
Hallan Turrek > There's no way you can prove to me you're successful at scamming. Well there is one way, but you're not sending me any money, so lets just leave it be.
daddyloonglegs > I can show it to you
daddyloonglegs > in the trade window
daddyloonglegs > 16,6 bil isk I have now
daddyloonglegs > 3,4 were spent on expenses
daddyloonglegs > just trade thanatisa
daddyloonglegs > I'll show you
daddyloonglegs > you can have any screenshots
daddyloonglegs > of markets seles
daddyloonglegs > market*
daddyloonglegs > I can prove you are an idiot anyway
Hallan Turrek > Seriously, we're still here? I mean I'm stuck in Jita cause I clone jumped down to buy some stuff. Why are you here?
daddyloonglegs > you can deny the grass is green as long as you want
daddyloonglegs > I like to show idiots they are idiots
daddyloonglegs > I'm proud of myself.
Hallan Turrek > This wouldn't be as satisfying if I didn't know for sure you're dead set on proving your success. If you had it, you could just enjoy it right? But this drive to prove it, means you got nothin'.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > just lol
daddyloonglegs > go on ratting dude
daddyloonglegs > on*
daddyloonglegs > ok dude
daddyloonglegs > I have some serious business to run you know
daddyloonglegs > maybe in a couple of months I'll buy your alliance =p

What this guy fails to realize, and what I think a large number of scammers just don't get is this: The truly successful scammers don't want recognition. They don't feel a need to prove to anyone that they're successful, they just are.

The Northern Coalition: First Impressions.

I felt I could look back at my life and get a good story out of it. It's a picture of somebody trying to figure things out. I'm not trying to create some impression about myself.
Alan Alda

Part One:

Well I can tell you the first thing I've noticed. These guys are organized. Logistics, isk generation, jump bridges... it's all there in triplicate for you to peruse. 5 gets you 10 that they have actual real life accountants(who happen to play the game, of course) doing actual real accounting for them ingame. Joining up is like being swallowed up by this downhill snowball that no one knows how to stop. The trick is enjoying the ride.

Of course, if you read the news or the forums you'd think the NC were the most disorganized bunch of misfits out there. You'd also be under the impression that PL were handily beating the crap out of them in their own backyard(it's difficult for even the Drone Russians to convince themselves they're winning on that front). I think the problem is in realizing just how much of the NC there is. The reason you'll hear them say that losing a ratting super carrier isn't a big deal is because it genuinely isn't. Whereas the average player might think of that as a crippling blow, and some lesser alliances/coalitions the same, around here it's really really not. If they lost 10 of them at the same time, that's a big deal to anybody, but some idiot with a fail fit isn't helping anyone if he showed up to ops anyhow.

We're talking about a coalition a couple thousand shy of 20k people. That's just the full members, not counting anyone else. This may sound redundant, but I'll say it anyway: That's a lot of fucking people. So I start to see why the organization is so important. I also can see why sometimes an idiot might get a hold of a supercap. And why it might not matter too terribly much if it's lost.

Part Two

So this is all observed as a non-combat pilot. What did I see when I got actually involved in some fighting? Lets take a look. Note that you won't get names out of me, even if they're easily found in other ways. FC's are as far as I'm concerned a non-person. I'll refer to them as "The FC" and that's all.

An emergency CTA went up saturday night, and I saw that a bomber wing was being formed as an auxillary fighting force. It's own independant fleet to supplement existing forces and help out in the battles to come. That sounded pretty cool to me, so I joined the fleet and rushed myself to the system of action, R10. Sadly, the drone Russians did not show. Like at all. So the NC downed the SBU's and that was that. We went ahead and made our way to the system that the FC told us to go.

I got a crash course in fleet bomber fitting and tactics along the way. I asked a few questions, but nothing too complicated, as we started to move. I was impressed though by the knowledge the average pilot in fleet had. Most were reasonably to extremely competent in both fitting and tactics, and for the first time in a while, I felt like the noob. But I learn fast, and I'm fairly certain that in a pinch I could work out exactly how the bomb runs/tactics are performed. It'll be a few months before I try them myself though.

We decided to camp a jump bridge in drone space(in R-6KYM) for a bit, and got a few kills doing it, but it didn't take long before we got called away to another emergency CTA. We ran through jump bridges, gates, and even a little bit of empire to make our way to 6OYQ-Z, which is when the fun really started.

After some time of getting set up(tactics that I'll be keeping a bit close to the chest for a bit), we began to do our bomb runs. Over the next two hours, we'd wind up, do some runs and then get reloaded at our POS. Sadly there weren't enough of us to kill much outright, but we were doing more than enough damage to drive the PL fleet off the field to rep. That was on top of the regular fleet doing the same and it helped keep them off the field. We kept on doing it, and after enough attrition the PL fleet eventually left. We outnumbered them heavily in the end, and it was only a matter of time before they left.

Note to PL, pound for pound you may be better than the NC, but don't go engaging someone who outnumbers you 15 times over and then complain that they outnumber you on the battlefield. Deal with it or go home.

I lost my own bomber to a badly timed lag spike right around the time that the rest of the bombers were actually scoring kills. I'm pretty sure my inexperience may've spoiled my own runs a couple times as well, but towards the end I was doing a much better job. Again, for a first outing, I did as well as can be expected. I get the feeling that my much enjoyed "100:1" K:D in bombers may be well out the window if I keep doing this, but efficiency and effectiveness are not equal things.

There was something that struck me as different than anything I'd experienced before. We needed bombs after the first 4 runs. We didn't have bombs but we didn't have to go find a station selling them. Behind the scenes someone was bringing in a can of them for us. That was on the fly as well: someone said to someone "we need bombs to keep doing this" and someone got us bombs. It's the little things that strike me about this humongous organization.

I Joined Majesta Empire

So I had an opportunity to join a mega alliance and I took it. There are a lot of things I can do any time, but getting in an alliance with some people who're familiar with me already is not one of them. A NC alliance is a nice home mostly because they fit in with my theory on warfare in Eve, illustrated by the motivational poster above.

That is not sarcasm, and the "don't blue anybody" crowd can appreciate that thinking or not. I've never understood you, and you'll probably never understand me on this. Suffice to say, I'm going to see where this road takes me. Should be fun.

Advertising Take 2

If you do not like advertising at all, do not read this.

Selling Out.

So, I thought I do my advertising a bit less uselessly. On the top of the blog, there is a link to a site that sells eve time codes. It's linked on the Eve website as a secure seller, and that's good enough for me.

I won't recommend it until I buy one myself, which I should be doing in the next couple of weeks. That said, if you're buying them regularly, or you plan on buying one... use the link on the far right. It'll get me a 5% commission on the sale. If you're planning on signing up to do this on your own website, use the affiliate link on the far right. If a network of folks start doing this, I'll get a bonus as well. If you buy there and have a bad experience, let me know at simpleliberty at gmail.com. Or comment on this post.

I see no reason not to include something like this on my site. The whole idea is to make a bit of isk from this blog, but to do honest work for it. I'm broke ingame right now, so it's a good time to start. I won't use a commission for much other than a time code anyhow.

That said, I'd be open to banner ads on the right and top of the blog. If your corp is recruiting, or you've got a service you'd like to offer, send me an eve mail. I can make funny ads, but if you want something high quality, find an artist first.

I'll be selling 3 spaces for now. A 468x60 at the top, just above the posts(where the Eve Time Code Bit is for now). That one'll be 100 million isk a month. A 125x125 on the right, where the affiliate link is, would be 50 million isk a month.

Finally, I'll put up a 120x600 at the bottom of the stuff on the right for 25 million isk a month. The less intrusive you want the placement, the better the deal.

You've got options, of course. You want something bigger? Pay a little more. Want a long term advertising plan? You'll get a discount if you pay upfront. Want a text ad instead? I can do that.

EvE mail me(Hallan Turrek), and we'll set something up. It's first come first serve, so we'll see what we can see.

The Third Oldest Profession

So I've started to run ads on the site. I figured it couldn't do any harm, but I seem to be getting a bunch of Isk sellers and asset sellers. Is there anyway to fix that?

Edit: I did a bit of research, there is actually a review process available for this. I just gotta wait until it's active. So I'll see how it goes.

Edit 2: This is too much work for too little gain. SUSPENDED. Though I might try the time codes guy.

Star Stuff

Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash,
As we fell into the sun,
And the first one said to the second one there,
I hope you're having fun.
Paul McCartney and the Wings - Band on the Run

So I've always been one to try out weird and crazy stuff. One of the things I've always wanted to try in Eve was to approach the surface of a star. Well yesterday I did just that. Now there's nothing really special about it, it's been done. People've also bounced right the heck off of them too. I approached it and realized something. When I got under 100km, I could use the "look at" command. You can do that with planets too, but they're not nearly as spectacular.



Notice anything odd about it? The part that you see in space, and the actual model of the star are actually totally different parts. Some things you can only learn by trying it out.

Oh and yeah, it took about 16 hours of flying or so to get close enough. But I had to know.

Photos From The Wasteland

To live and not to breathe,

Is to die, In tragedy,
To run, to run away,
To find what you believe.
Green Day - Jesus of Suburbia

I got bored. I also figured if I kept up at the pace I was going, I was never going to get through with this. So I took about 4 hours and went from Outer Passage to Fountain. I hit every region along the way. Here's a photo dump: I snapped at least one quick picture of each region(I forgot to snap one in The Spire though) along the way. It also includes all the images I'd taken so far. I've hit every region in Eve now, and been as far north, south, east and west as you can go.

Here's the zip file.

Here's the fit I was using as well. I should have loaded SOME weapons on it, and it was stupid not to. I realized that about 5 minutes after I got into 0.0. If I wanted to try a speed run I'd skip on the Stabs and go full nano, then rig it for warp speed. Same align time(3.9), almost double the warp speed(from 3 to 5.9 with T2 rigs). Honestly I probably should've done that anyway.

[Tengu, Explorer 1]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I

Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II

Expanded Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

Tengu Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Tengu Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier
Tengu Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Tengu Defensive - Supplemental Screening
Tengu Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer



Now that that is over with, I've put my Tengu up on the market. 300 million ISK in Jita, by the way. Pretty good price.

Oh, and all of you with assets all over the place. Suck it.

I bought a shuttle and now it's time to get started on finding a corp, or recruiting for my own. I've got a couple of ideas knocking around in my head still.

I definitely want to join a giant alliance, eventually, but with Incursion coming, I think I want to stay free to deal with the Sansha storyline on my own. This is the part I'm not sure about. There are corps out there that're already set up for doing this. Do I join them, or work with them while building up a corp? Choices!

I've got some time to think about it though, so I'll come to a decision eventually.

Wandering New Eden: Surf and Turf

If I've gone overboard
Then I'm begging you
to forgive me
in my haste
When I'm holding you so girl
close to me

Dave Matthews Band - Crash Into Me

Immensea and Detorid

So I had to pick a theme for this, and I figured taking a picture of an ocean planet in Immensea was pretty much a prerequisite. Knew I'd be doing Detrorid next, so figured a desert planet to compare with might work out. First off Immensea, system RU-PT9:





I like the style of going in for ever closer views, to get a full sense of the detail. Here's a Barren Planet in RT-9WL out in Detorid:





Again, gotta love the level of detail on these planets.

Next up Wicked Creek and Scalding Pass.

I Bypassed a Historical Moment on Sunday

So, I heard about the huge battle taking place on Sunday, and I deliberately avoided it. As it was going on, By chance, I was literally only a jump away at one point. Turns out the LXQ battle became significant as the largest battle in Eve history. I thought about going in just to say I was there, but with the expected huge module lag, and the unexpectedness of how things go once you jump in to something like that, I decided against it. Was that the right or the wrong call?

And yes, that means the tourism updates you get aren't of where I am now, but only where I've been. Deal with it, cause it's way safer that way.

Wandering New Eden: Mists of Faith

Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
Closer to where I started,
I'm chasing after you.
Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment

Feythabolis and Omist.

This'll be mostly pictures.

First up Feythabolis, I decided to photograph a Amarr Factory outpost in 3L-Y9M.

Here it is in action:






And from a bit further away:





Out in Omist in VULA-I I took a few pictures of my ship as well:





I've also come to the conclusion that not every picture is going to be a goddamned masterpiece, so sometimes I should just snap a picture and keep moving, instead of changing my video settings.

Next up Immensea and Detorid!

Wandering New Eden: Disagreeable Tenors

When you were yourself it always tasted sweet
But sour turned into a routine deceit
Well this drama is a bore
Third Eye Blind - Losing a Whole Year

Impass and Tenerifis

Considering the war going on, it was pretty quiet all through Impass. I was able to snap some good pictures in N-CREL though.

There's a Machariel hiding in there.

He's just waiting for his prey to show up.

Honestly, he looks kinda scary, hiding behind the asteroids.

Ok, the light's not helping.

Tenerifis wasn't much more active, but I was certain I was going to get through it without any good pictures. I found a gas giant that had caught my eye, but it was pretty underwhelming. Then a few jumps from the end of my trip through, I saw this in QI9-42.

Which is a pretty nice picture.

Next up, Feythabolis and Omist!

Blog Banter 22: Lie Back and Think of England

I want you to notice
when I'm not around
You're so fuckin' special
I wish I was special
But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here.
Radiohead - Creep

If you're completely fresh to blogging, let me sum it up quickly: A blog banter is where a bunch of bloggers answer a simple question. CrazyKinux runs ours.

This month's topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why, and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

I hold my unshakable fealty. I think it's disingenuous to say that there's anyone else I'll follow no matter the cost and no matter the reason. That's just not true, I always question authority to an extent. You might not hear about it, but the square shaped peg justifications are always finding their way to the square shaped holes in my head. If that hole's a circle, then you may hear about it.

I find it a bit easier than the average highly competent person to accept though, that there are simply things that I do not know, and that I can expect certain people to make the right decisions without my help.

I do tend migrate to leadership positions for that very reason though. I want to make sure my input is included in the decision making process, because ultimately I like to know that the information provided is being acted upon properly.

So what's does that mean? Does that mean I'd flip sides at a convenient time? No. I might leave if things are going terribly, and I know they won't get any better, but not until I've tried very hard to make things work. I wouldn't join the other side until quite a bit of time has passed though, and I wouldn't harm my old corpmates on the way out.

It's just not in my nature to be disloyal to people. I hold a personal sense of honor about my actions, in life. There isn't some ingame me that's separate from myself. There's me, at a computer, playing a game. So the friendships I've made are rock solid. Even if I haven't talked to you in years, you've got my loyalty(and if you've hurt me, you've got my anger, forever). The ins and outs of how I treat people from my past are so complex they almost deserve a whole other blog post.

Suffice to say that I remember everyone and everything almost as well now as I did when we parted, and leave it at that. People get very hurt when I don't stay in contact with them, but that doesn't mean they don't have my loyalty. In my mind, I might as well have talked to you yesterday.

This means I still remember with vivid clarity that a guy called LTRichard scouted me into the waiting arms of a Burn Eden CynoAlt(piloted by PsychoticTurtle) because he was mad I'd brought Burn Eden down on his head. He shouldn't have done that. My Brutix made it back to the gate, and I didn't engage the Covert Cyno fitted Recon despite the smack he talked in local. So I got away, and that was that. That was in July of 09. But I remember, and always will.

I have never yet, in eve or any other game shown that kind of disloyalty to someone who trusted me. It's not in my nature. But really, if you've wronged a corp, or an alliance... isn't it possible that it's got someone like me in there somewhere... just waiting for the right moment to fuck you over back? It's not only possible, it's likely.

Some food for thought.

State of The Blog 2

Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive.
Albert Einstein

I'm pretty sure he said some stuff in that same quote that completely disproves the point I'm making by quoting him, so I'm going to deliberately leave that part off.

I probably should've left that part out.

And that.

Oh this is getting complicated.

This ain't my first state of the blog and it won't be the last, but here it is. I was inspired by a posting by Kirith Kodachi about his feed traffic to go in search of some information. My blog has a total of 556 subscribers to it's google feed, and 56 other feeds. So the total is 612 subscribers. I used a service called feedburner, which is pretty non-intrusive. I just gave it my blog URL and it tracks all my feed subscribers.

Now again, we've all lost some readers with the shuttering of Capsuleer, but I've seen an increase in my followers and subscribers.

My most popular content so far is the Stealth Bomber Guide, followed by the directional scanning guide which is followed this month(and last) by the One Foxfire Rocket post. That's probably due to my linking it repeatedly though.

I get far more traffic from Life in Low Sec than I do from CrazyKinux, which is a telling statistic. I still get a fair chunk straight from Kinux though.

What I do know for certain is that another guide would be welcome by the community, and that if I post up something with the title "Who Wants a Cynabal" 700 unique IP's will directly visit my blog. Who knew?

Apparently these also help.

In addition, I've finally broken down and started a twitter account. I don't expect to use it much to start with, but I'm sure in 6 months I'll be tweeting about how it's raining outside and I'm not sure if I want to wear a jacket or a raincoat. Follow me there. Or just use "@HallanTurrek" I think that's all you really need?

If you look on your right I've removed the ugly Achura face that was bringing this place down(I may replace it come Incarna). I've also added some ways to make it easier for you to promote posts of mine you like. You can share a post on a number of sites, subscribe to my feed, or follow me like in the olden days.

Have a nice day.

Wandering New Eden: Water Walking

Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Catch and Providence.

I'll apologize that this time around the trip was way more interesting than the pictures I took. I dodged 3 big gatecamps before I made it to HED-GP. I was lucky to have the interdiction nullifier for them, but the bad part was when they started following me. Say what you want about the T3 cruisers, but with a warp speed of only 3 AU's a second... it's pretty easy for people to catch up to you in a pipe. By the time I made it to HED-GP at least 50 ships were in hot pursuit(if local counts were any indication), with quite a few more lagging behind. I'm not sure what they thought I was there for... hot drop perhaps? I was fortunate enough to get into HED-GP a system ahead of the fleet.

I warped quickly to the Keberz gate and took this picture.

Sorry for the lack of quality, but I was in a bit of a hurry. I turned my ass back around immediately, and warped to a safe. No local spike. What does that mean exactly? Did they give up? Unlikely. So I decloaked, and warped to the Keberz gate at 70. I gave any scouts they had a nice look, before cloaking up again. Sure enough, local spiked. Then I warped to the SV5 gate. I landed just in time to see the tacklers dissapear into warp. I jumped through, but the only thing waiting on me were battlecruisers and some logistics. Away I went, unmolested.

I took one quick jaunt into another battleground, Providence, and took this picture of Chribba's new station in 9UY.

Way to go Chribba!

Next up, Impass and Tenerifis!

You Like?

So this is just a quick question, is everyone happy with the tourism posts(Wandering New Eden) I've done so far? Should I mix in some not-the-same-thing posts every once in a while? Opinions are welcome.

Wandering New Eden: A Spiritual Mark

Nights in white satin, never reaching the end,

Letters I've written, never meaning to send.
Beauty I'd always missed with these eyes before.
Just what the truth is, I can't say anymore.
Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin

Esoteria and Stain!

So the trip into Esoteria was quiet enough. At this point in my trip, all my preperations have been for naught. The one bubble camp I've hit so far I could've easily avoided in a stealth bomber, and I've still yet to jump into a camp. Regardless, I'm way less than a quarter done with the trip, so it's a bit early to be assuming the T3 is useless. Next up is Catch and Provi, which are actual warzones right now, so I imagine I'll be getting some use out of the special features.

I've lived in Esoteria in the past, more than a year ago with a dysfunctional outfit called Cartel Syndicate. Some bad things happened to the whole group, but I decided to visit my old stomping grounds, 0-O6XF. Lots had changed, like the whole area being completely dead. I took some pictures of the station I used to live in.

I lost 10 rifters outside this. I could've just stopped undocking them I guess.

What is that S logo of? I vaguely recognize it...

I'm pretty impressed at the level of detail here. Looks like real windows there.

Here's the best part, of course.

Pretty cool station, when it comes down to it.

So from here it was a simple thing to dive into Stain. A few jumps in, I noticed a single planet system(2IGP-1). I figured that was interesting enough.

Lets take a closer look at an ice planet.

Nah. Closer than that.

CLOSER!

Woah hey, don't crash. You're a bad pilot. Jeez.

Again I'm amazed at the level of detail they've managed to achieve. Quite impressive.

Next stop, Catch and Providence!

Wandering New Eden: The Basis of Soul

Crimson flames tied through my ears

Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Bob Dylan - My Back Pages

Period Basis and Paragon Soul

Again the trip was rather uneventful, I dodged a pirate gate camp... if by dodged I meant ignored them completely and kept going.

This Blood Raider Oracle had no idea I was there, which is probably for the best, considering their reputation.

I bet that Lava planet used to be temperate too.

Knowing I was going to Paragon Soul, I decided to add a little caveat to my trip, since I'm visiting every region anyway, why not visit the tips of eve? There is a northern, western, eastern, and southern system that represents the furthest you can go on the map, and I've decided to visit those systems. The west one is back in Fountain, but since I'll be going back there at the end of the trip anyhow, it's still on the list. South is a system in Paragon Soul called LX5K-W. So away I went.

I took just a little bit of time warping around and making safes to get this picture for you, but I think it was worth it.

Just let it happen. The eclipse that is.

This is what greets you when you enter the system. Shoulda just used this.

And that's Paragon Soul. There's an index page for this now, it's below the banner. You're welcome.

Next stop Esoteria and Stain!

Wandering New Eden: Index

This index is brought to you by sexy girls in pirate costumes.

1. Fountain
2. Delve and Querious
3. Period Basis and Paragon Soul
4. Esoteria and Stain
5. Catch and Providence
6. Impass and Tenerifis
7. Feythabolis and Omist
8. Immensea and Detorid
9. AND THE REST.
   

Wandering New Eden: Deep Questions

Starry nights city lights coming down over me
Skyscrapers and stargazers in my head
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting unknown
This dirty town was burning down in my dreams
Lost and found city bound in my dreams
Green Day - Are We The Waiting?

Delve and Querious.

I decided to do a bit of digging, and found the place where KenZoku lost the war to the goons. I can provide a short bit of backstory here.

You guys know most of the story(and perhaps all of it): Basically, when the BoB director went crazy and disbanded the alliance, they reformed under the banner of KenZoku, and reclaimed all their space. Of course, this led to capital warfare in systems that were no longer cyno-jammed. Goons came to town and the two sides fought each other to a stalemate. Then the Bob guys had the bright idea to dock up their carriers/dreads in a station. Almost all of them. Goons bottled up those capitals, and the war shifted in the favor of the goons. That station was the end of the old BoB.

So of course in passing by Delve, I decided to drop by.

Welcome to PR-8CA III - Blood Raiders Logistic Support

Kinda grey inside, like a graveyard...

The blood red color of the system cannot be a coincidence...

Of course, I also took a little side trip into Querious, to ensure I could tick it off my list of null-sec regions. I stopped by an ice belt in K4-RFZ and snapped a few pictures...

A few different kinds of ice in this belt.

That's a plasma planet in the background.

The sun is always rising in New Eden.

Next stop, Period Basis, and Paragon Soul.