March 29, 2010

Cross training

What is cross training within EVE?  Simply, it is moving away from your dominant race specialisation and picking a new one to train up.  There are certain combinations that work better than others but everyone has a different set of goals and already trained skills so it comes down to preference.

My most recent training goals were Gallente Cruiser V and getting into Command Ships which needed Battlecruiser V and some leadership skills covered off, so with the last two months of training I have opened up 6 ships:

The Deimos on the left which is a close range high damage dealing ship when fitted with blasters and a sniper when fitted with rails.  Ishtar on the right is a drone boat with bonuses to drones such as larger drone bay, control range and damage.
The most recent ships are the Caldari and Gallente Command Ships, 2 for each race.  I bought the Astarte from contracts a while a go as a fully fitted rigged one was going for the same price as freshly packaged one in Jita.  I intend to fly the Nighthawk through DED Complexes in my local space while having my trusty alt logistics pilot helping out as required.

On to the next phase, cross training and how I select what to cross train.  

The two most popular flavor of the month (FOTM) ships have to be both the Cynabal and Dramiel, so I will look at what I need to get into them since I already have Gallente Frigate/Cruiser to level 5 and have been wanted to try out some Minmatar ships for a while time now.

So the best way to cross train?  Jump on to battleclinic / SHC then to the eve/browse load-outs section or head over to your corp/alliance killboard and take a look for some popular fits.  Most killboards will allow you to copy the skills required for that particular fit right off the loss mail as illustrated:

Click on the EFT fitting



You will have a screen pop up like this, copy the contents

Whip open EVEMon, create a new plan then click on the EFT import


Copy the fit into the left hand pane (EVEMon should auto fill from clipboard), then 'Add to Plan'



Something like this will pop up!











And presto! you now have a skill plan for that ship.  Look through a few other kills/load-outs to get the various fits to make sure you are not missing anything important, then skim off any fat you do not want (maybe the drone skills for racial specialisation).

The ship I used for the cross training example is the Cynabal which gives bonuses for both Gallente and Minmatar Cruiser skill levels, so if you are going to sink 150mil+ on a faction cruiser I would be wanting to have both of the influencing factions skills to level 5.  As a side note, the EFT/EVEMon import will always do the very minimum of skill training, so if you will need to manually add a few extra levels of training here and there to have the optimal training plan.

Thanks to EVEMon, SHC and battleclinic for helping out the EVE community and making apps for us.

March 23, 2010

The places I have been

To catch up on a few things, this is a little picture of all the places I have been while flying around New Eden:


(click to enlarge)

I am missing out on a shit load of places but I imagine that the map will slowly begin to turn from little indiscernible white/grey dots to a redder hue while I run around with the corp that I am in (SPORE) over the coming months.

The redness all over the place comes from corporations relocating, mission running hubs, general travel, PVP roams and sometimes possibly from getting lost...

March 21, 2010

Let me introduce myself

With the start of a new blog and publishing my EVE identity it is only fitting to introduce myself properly, my characters are rantuket and ishtom who are both part of the SPORE corporation.  I am slowly starting to teach myself the ins and outs of PVP and industry.  My game time is limited and I am in the Australian time zone so the easy or frequent engagements are few and far between.

Some specifics on each of the characters:


rantuket

Created on the 22nd of October 2008

Duties: PVP mayhem

Info: rantuket is a PVP spec pilot with the ability to fly Gallente and Caldari ships, currently training Command Ships then I will go back and cross train Minmatar.




(click to enlarge)





Ishtom

Created on the 1st of April 2009

Duties: carebearing

Info: Hulk flying toon who carries out support work with logistics/interdictors for rantuket and my corporation, can now fly JFs and working towards carriers.



(click to enlarge)




For money I rely on ratting income with the hope of faction loot and ice mining to fill any gaps.  I am looking into picking up a few POS's but will wait for the new EVE expansion to see how that impacts the mineral market before dedicating hundreds of millions into a scheme that might not offer any returns for months - if at all.

To those POS runners/owners out there, how are you finding the income stream?

March 16, 2010

Gaming discreetly!

Came across a very cool product, it is very similar - at least from a basic veiwpoint - as using a remote desktop session from a more powerful computer. The problem with using a remote desktop session though is latency, crappy frame rates and usually very poor picture quality.

Vista/Windows 7 slightly improved this from XP with dynamic changes to the display profiles when connecting through a remote session but Gaikai look like they are on to a winner. They have been in beta for a while but their product does look great if they can actually deliver it.

A demo of the service:





My #1 thought: EVE at work through your favorite browser

March 15, 2010

Blog Banter Sixteen

Welcome to the sixteenth 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 to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the
Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: "Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you'd like to share with the wider Eve community?"


The skill tree and how to plan effectivly would be at the top of that list. Coming from pretty much any other MMO or RPG a player would expect to be slowly integrated to the skill tree and for that skill tree to be self explanitory and semi-self starting. EVE however offers none of this from a new pilots perspective, I recently went through this block of information with my uncle who is trying to pick up EVE for the second time so I will stick with the info I told him.


Time not effort rewards players with higher skills, the effort factor increases faction standings (a whole different topic) while; 'planning' + 'time' = results. That brings us to the first stub: PLANNING. Plan well and plan often. A good skill plan is the basis of anyones time in EVE who is serious about enjoying the game, thankfully there are several applications out there that help us create, manage and maintain a skill plan outside of the game.


The two applications I am familiar with are EVEMon and EVEHQ. I personally use EVEMon as it is what I started off using and it is really all I need for the time being. EVEHQ offers a lot more functionality and features such as ship fitting and jump planning on top of the character management. the key to skill planning is to pick something you want to fly well and then train up all corresponding skills that a good fit for the ship requires. Another way you can apply a skill plan is to train towards certificate goals, I am not sure of anyone who specifically does this but that doesnt mean you cannot give it a try.


My current skill plan is based around finishing off the few skills left that I need to be able to fly Command Ships and looks something like this currently:


You can find more information on skill specifics on the EVE online forums like this thread by Estel Arador, through the EVE wiki; skills guide and usefull links.


I also wanted to cover the overview but that has been done a lot in the past so I will dig around and look for someone who managed to explain it much better than I ever could.


Participants:




  1. CrazyKinux: The Three Pillars of Wisdom
  2. The Elitist: Helping the new guy/gal
  3. Hands Off, My Loots: Nothing Needed
  4. Rantuket: Blog Banter 16
  5. EVE Opportunist: Nooby Cluey
  6. Into the Unknown With Gun and Camera: EVE University
  7. Zero Kelvin: We’re the young ones!
  8. I am Keith Neilson: Set Your Destination
  9. Prano's Journey: Just Like the Very First Time
  10. A Merry Life and a Short One: No Seriously
  11. Yarrbear Tales: Nublet 101
  12. A Mule In EVE: If I only knew
  13. The Planet Risk Show: Dared to be Bold
  14. Diary of a Space Jockey: WTH did I get myself into?!
  15. EVOGANDA: Why?
  16. A Memoir From Space: 16th Blog Banter
  17. Death’s Sweetest Kiss: Who What When Where Why How??
  18. Freebooted: Beyond the Shortcuts
  19. Learning to Fly: Noobing
  20. Caldari Outcast: My First Blog Banter Post!
  21. Roc's Ramblings: Financial Survival
  22. Diary of a Pod Pilot: Free Knowledge Inside
  23. Nullsec Carebear: I could've been less of an idiot
  24. Facepalm's Ramblings: Something Smells Fishy
  25. Kirith Darkblade: Do you wish to know more?
  26. Autopilot Disabled: I'm still starting...
  27. Finders & Keepers: Relax
  28. Confounded Capsuleer: What have you got to loose?
  29. Clan Oriana: Sixteen
  30. Flashfresh: EVE Blog Banter #16
  31. Rettic's The Chronofile: You Make EVE
  32. Diary of a Bored Spaceman: Past Imperfect
  33. Chocolate Heaven: Known Unknowns
  34. Victoria Aut Mors: Blog Banter #16
  35. Where the frack is my ship: If I knew then what I know now...
  36. The Lathspell of Mithrandir: Hindsight is 20/20

March 11, 2010

How i got to now, then, now.

So where and how did it all begin?

My first foray into EVE was short lived and lasted not long beyond the first subscription cycle. I was lacking the interest and also lacking the need to get into another game. EVE was shelved and not spared a second thought for years.

What brought me back? No idea.

What has kept me playing? Out of game skilling and the sheer enormity of the game, being able to do vastly different things also keeps it interesting.

Currently I play with 2 accounts although I find myself using the second account much less than I used to. The original plan behind the second account was to having him mining and hauling full time, he was to stay in high sec building the ships I needed cheaply all while making oodles of easy ISK - that turned out too be too much work. The second account is now a full-time support character for my main in a logistics/interdictor role or a force multiplier for small combat ops, one more drake can make all the difference!


The corp I am currently in is SPORE who are part of the COW alliance, due to my primary Aussie time zone I dont see much of the alliance but the lads within SPORE are all top notch. Being in a PVP corp is always fun, had a fair few losses because I am a bit of a nub and skipped learning pvp until I was skilled up enough to fly expensive ships!

The next few posts I will cover off some further details about my characters, my favourite ships and fittings, along with skill planning info.