So I'm back

. . . except now I'm deep in someone-else's space, trying to sort Mal's ships. Except I think I've done all that I can, for now. Mostly because I'm still not trained to get aboard half of them.


n00b notes ... or what I should have found out first

1. If you don't have the skills to fly a ship, the station won't even let you go aboard to see what's there, or to run a "fitting" scan on it.

2. If you don't have skills to use a module, the station will let you unship it, but not fit it back on. You then need somewhere to put it.

3. Freighters will not carry containers, other than their own special breed. So anything you have in a container has to be repacked. And the empty container than has to be repackaged and loaded separately, which means it takes up as much room as it would have done full.

4. Stations also have their own special breed of containers, which don't seem in any way to be moveable.

5. Freighters, based on my brief experience, fly like a brick. That is, they're fine in a straight line, but getting them to align to anything they aren't already pointing at is soooo sloooow. And forget about anything other than "warp to zero" -- in the time it takes to do 15K to a gate a Reaper could probably open you up. No AFB, no shield repairer, no armor repairer.

6. They do, however, carry shiups, once you've a)emptied, and b) repackaged them. Which means forget the name on it, and forget any rigs there once were -- they're gone. You're back to bare hull, and empty space inside.


Fly safe.
Jenni

[Replacement Post]

This was where I was away RL

[MESSAGE BEGINS]
Jenni Concarnadine is not available at present :: she is travelling.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Poniez for rent can be obtained from the local offices of Whipple and Marisu

Thank you

[MESSAGE ENDS]

A Big Thank You

to the person who felt the Amarr frigate in Vullat system.

It would be very handy -- and training the skills for Mal's ships meant I could fly it. SO I did, and it's now enjoying a new warm home in a hanger.

Modified gangurl squee !!! (I think that’s what I’m supposed to say)

Not that I’m going to tell my agent, but while dealing with a noxious little man (look, he had stolen some papers, and he had a troop of unfriendly drones, and some extremely violent mercenaries working for him) for him, I happened across the contents of his luxury Habitant (I must think about buying my own Habitat at some stage, and anchoring it near a Pleasure Hub. Then, maybe, I could relax properly … or improperly, according to Reverend Pastor Bikledine’s latest online sermon, which seems, to my taste, to have a little too much detail about exactly why relaxing is sinful, and we should all instead by sowing and reaping in the fields and vines …. Vines, now there’s an idea ….)

Anyway, among the salvage from his Habitat (which must accidentally, honestly, have strayed into the field of fire at some point), I found two Robot Assembly Modules and a skill book. Neither of which I’ve ever seen before just Laying About. So Ponie Roderigo is looking after them, tucked at the bottom of his feedbag, just in case anyone wants them back, and I’m going to drop in on White Carnation and see if she knows what to do with them.

Then I’m going to have some nauga-burgers and a long draught of Wooden Parrots, and then, I think, a nap.

Bleagh !!

The idea is that I try to mission for 1 million per day :: more if I can get it, but a basic 1 mill.

So, my agent must have found out, and fed me a chain of missions each of them sufficiently below the mark to get me to come back, and most of them against faction fleet NME, meaning minimal salvage beyond tags (which I can't use, really).

Then, just when I was ready to pack in, I was thrown a storyline that wanted ombar. And since I didn't have an ombar field in-system that I knew of, that was my back-stock of the stuff that had to be used. And then they asked me to go after some smugglers. Which I did, and all that they had worth salvaging was Highly Illegal Herbal Substance, which won't sell on the market.

So, I spent the tail-end of the night in the AKFT Bar, drinking Wooden Parrots, feeding oatmeal crunchies to such of the poniez as were in arm's reach, and listening to some guy on vacation from 0.0, going on about how wonderful it was getting ganked by an eight-strong group, that he hardly managed to scratch.

I'm not cure, but I got the impression he was actually recruiting for a 0.0 corp who needed new warm bodies. So, when he looked my way, I made my excuses and left.

On the other hand I did clear 3 skills in one night -- Mal's ships are a tiny bit closer.

Calling for Professor Epps ... (OOC)

This is a game, which means that there are rules.

In-game, a couple of days ago a friend of mine pointed me to an 0.6 system which was heavily ratted. So far I've done three haunts there (and I think the rats have "learned" to stay away), but it throws up the question:
What sort of system maximises the rat revenue ? (without getting yourself killed ?)


Presumably you want a low security level, and a lot of belts (rats tending to congregate at the belts (well, the shootable ones)). But do the surrounding systems affect the calculation ? I'm using the word "calculation", because, in metagame terms, the rats only exist because the EVE game-system programme puts them there, and this is, logically, done through a mathemetical formula which says how many rats, of what size, and how often (plus or minus a random time).


Does the amount of ratting (or rat-farming) affect how many rats come along ? It isn't as though "chaining" happens (so far as I know) in hi-sec, but do the formulae take account of how quickly rats are killed ?


Does the allocation of missions to a system affect how many rats are programmed to materialise ? If so, does the level of the mission have an effect ? (Arguably, since agents will allocate missions to their own system and surrounding ones rather than those far away, if missions do have an effect, then you want a system without a station in it, and if possible with few agents in surrounding systems)


Do the presence of complexes affect the calculation ? Some systems have complexes all the time (the level 1 & 2 complexes CCP have to let people practice, and the COSMOS complexes); others get them according to another calculation.


Is there anything that players can do to attract rats to a system ? Do POSs attract them ? Does actual mining, or do they prefer unmined belts ?


If and it is a big if you could work out some of this, you would then have a means to locate two sorts of systems -- those which are more likely to have rats in thenm, for the ratters among us; and those which are less likely, and therefore ought to be safer for carebear miners [that's an unfortunate turn of phrase, I recognise, since that is what griefers do: they Mine carebears (or their tears), but I'm sure you know what I mean] -- there would be fewer NPC rats, and therefore any change in Local would signal immediate alert and possible decampment, since it would be presumed to be hostile.


What do people think ? Have I wasted my time -- is this formaula already available, on one or other of the 'help' sites ?

Rats and More Rats

My current base system is 1.0 security. So you can troll the belts for all you like, but nary a rat do you see. Which is fine for mining, but less so for recreation.

Babylon Bear, who is a good sort, comm'ed me a couple of days ago, to say she was in a system swarning with rats and did I want a share ?

So I went over there, and she was telling the truth. Not that I'd ever thought she wasn't, but one person's teeming with can be another's, there's one an hour like the buses.
And no, I'm not so stupid as to say where it is: Bear found it, and it's her game reserve

Did three sweeps first night, and garnered a hold and a half of loot; went back next day and got another hold full, and then went back last night and did another sweep and got about three-quarters of a hold. In and among I also swept through a n00b dungeon, to get more practice with my Jag, tried out my CovOps skill for the h*ll of it, and took a shuttle all the way down to Mal's hangar, in the hope of loading up some of his ships, now I can fly Freighter. But he has them all equipped, and apparently I can't load equipped ships. So, I could load some, but lose their meticulous fitting-out, and I could repackage some of the ones I can't fly, and have no idea how they were fitted.

It just means waiting till April, when I can fly them all, ands then buying a *lot* of containers, one for each ship, to hold the fittings (and, in the case of the Machariel at least, the hold-full of Stuff(TM) that he has aboard her).

As I've said before, it's a nice legacy, but I'd rather have Mal back.


And in and among I did one mission, for my (currently) main agent, and made 2 million after bounties but before salvage. So the poniez and I have eaten well ( a little *too* well in the case of Dappled Barney, who's currently being examined by the University, in case they can use him as the reaction drive for a shuttle, 'cause they need a good supply of burnable gas).

Looking for Advice

White Carnation and I (bless her) were talking a few days ago. It looks as if, to get her R&D going properly, she's going to have to frequent lo-sec to get to some right agents. And she asked what would be the best sort of ship to use.

Between us, and trying to think "yarr", we decided that there were two options, but both need a little preparation -- either train up for CovOps, and get a cloaked ship, and hope that no-one thinks she's doing spying runs, or else rely on flying 0th-level starter ships, so that if she gets blown up, she's no worse off. Of course, that means never taking in implants, because she would lose them as soon as she was podded. She has next to zero combat skills, and doesn't want to go the PvP path (as she is a scientist at heart), and she won't be able to afford paying gate fees to every pirate who happens by (and, let's be honest, for a solo pilot it's like danegeld -- once you're known to pay, *everyone* you come across is going to demand their 10M, no matter who else you might have paid off.

So -- which way should she go, and is any one CovOp or starter ship better than others, for the simple "go in, learn what the mission in, come out again" rotuine [sic] ?

Hai! And an [excellent] New Year to all of you to adopt the Standard Calendar.

Jenni has asked me to inform all that she remains well and alive, but somewhat too busy to [make conversation] at the present.

For myself, I am deep in the studies I must undertake to gain [advanced] academic credits and recognition by Research Agents (who, so far, spurn all my approaches).

But I have made time recently to work with the agent that Honorable Jenni [have] found for me, who has been doing research on Augumene, an [otherwise useless] mineral.
So she asked me to mine some, and bring it to her, and then to fetch some data-crystals with material encoded onto them.
A little later I heard that apparently there had been an accident with the researchers, and I was asked to go to investigate. There proved to be an Amarr laboratory, guarded, which it was necessary to destroy, [it being in] Minmatar space.
Eventually an antidote was calculated and I was entrusted with the tasks of obtaining some Minmatar DNA from the destroyed laboratory and then manufacturing the antidote. My first piece of researching -- I am now awaiting [obtaining] the relevant paperwork, which I will go to show to the Minmatar authorities in the hope that they will [certify] me fit to work in their own corporations.

May the Galaxy reward us all in meet [manner] --

Baihua, daughter of Heng, [commonly calling] herself White Carnation.

So We're Back (sort of ... )

Bin away, come back. Have headache. Have poniez. The two may be connected.

Have done some missions -- several of them of the 7-figure variety. I think. Haven't actually checked the wallet recently -- so long as there were ISKies to spend ....

Did the one with the ombar 'roids again. Had DrDrDr come down to help, with his Hulk -- he mined, I hauled. Did the down-time reset on it, all inside the time limit, so got double the ombar for double the time. Can't work out how to mine more without inviting someone else in. Would have asked Mal, but he's gone and inheriting all hiz stuf just izn't the same.

White Carnation was an option, but she was busy studying for an exam she has coming up. She managed to find some tags selling for 200 ISK below the Hek price, and loaded up with them, got into Heimatar and found someone offering 5 times as much. So that was a quick diversion and 200K better off. But her research agents still won't look at her, even to offer her Level 1 jobs. So back to the grind. Anyone with Angel tags is invited to donate them (apparently you can grind standings with them -- don't ask me ... well, not today, anyway).

The poniez threw me a New Year party. There was a lot of musick and dancing, and oat-flavoured drinks, and I remember a balloon. Or a baboon. Anyway, I'm going to go and lie down, and drink a lot of water. In a dark room. A dark, quiet room. Without poniez. Or baboons.

Send coffee in about twenty hours. Oh, and those little nutty biscuits they have in .... in ... oh ****