Baling Wire and Girders

About halfway

2010-08-25T07:46:00.000+01:00

to my Dramiel, if prices stay low.

One quick mission, in between seeing to my ponie factory (and listening to Dr.U going on about how poor the rewards were for manufacturing Construction Blocks) -- Angels (or Ark-Angels) camped out in deadspace, spying on the Utterly Trustworthy Government's strategems.

So I went 20th century on their asses -- salvage was poor and I barely got 1 million out oft he fees -- I think I need a new agent -- either a richer one or a more stupid one.

Hope he never reads this.
J

Confused.dot.whatever

2010-08-20T07:48:00.001+01:00

I'm conflicted.

My carebear soul (which likes the peaceful life) likes the fact that courier missions are pretty safe. Take A from B to C; get paid (with a bonus if you don't *rse around); possibly pick up a mission part of the way back; fly home; dock. My avaricious brain, always looking out for the possibility of getting blown away, dislikes the fact that they pay peanuts, and that there are rarely mirror-image missions at the other end to make the return trip worthwhile.

On the other hand combat missions pay a lot, but take a long time, and kill yer shipz. (And people are supposed to like nipping in and stealing the objective, but so far, praise the Cosmic All, I haven't had that). My brain likes the reward, my carebear soul whimpers and hides under the blanket till it's all over.

What I need is the sort of agent who's willing to pay combat rates to have their holoreels and tobacco delivered, and whose combat missions pay medium well, and are always against one rat in a noob ship that just happens to be rigged with Faction moduels and tons of salvage.

And I know what people will say :: Come to 0.0 -- everywhere's like that !!.

So -- been quiet

2010-08-19T07:37:00.000+01:00

Meh -- I haz ponie-farm, and it takez up time. I have to go and reset the extractors every few days, and then I have to find homez for the poniez. Still, I got a couple of missions done. The Serpentis don't like me a lot more because of their transport ship that had a terminal experience and I gather that I may find my name on a few cigarette cartons up in Mordus space as a "People we'd like to see lost"

Dem Rocks, dem rocks, dem dry-y rocks

2010-08-02T15:36:00.000+01:00

Doing a mission I noticed one or two roids in the last room.

SO I eve-mailed Dr.U and got him to come over in his Hulk, and when I'd finished the rats (Amari scum) I told my agent I'd left some salvage behind, and ducked into my Orca and he and I had an hour popping roids without having to worry about pirates.

And in the end it wasn't really worth it -- veld seems to have gone down in price since my day. So I gave him some ISK and a hold full of veld and we parted company. but it was nice to have someoen to fly with, after all this solo PI.

I hate days like these

2010-07-30T07:21:00.000+01:00

Just a simple little job -- that's what the agent said.

Flew out and found some Serpentis harrassing traffic. Blew them away, and more turned up. And more. Ran out of ammo, and had to fly off, in the middle of the mission no less, to buy more (and then couldn't get the stuff that I wanted).

Finally the Journal said I'd hit my target ship and blown it up, and I got the **** out of there. Left all the wrecks. offered them in local, only to be topld that some guy had been watching me all along. He offered to ctiricise my technique and I but my tongue and didn't tell him where to stick it.

The only consolation was that I reckon I made nearly 5 mill out of it all -- my most ever.

Back in the thick of it

2010-07-21T08:54:00.000+01:00

Ran my 1st formal "mission" in months -- all part of the "buy me a Dramiel" routine (and because the new "factory fresh" poniez aren't, and they don't wash often enough, and I needed the break).

Shooting some Angel rats. Which tended to die out when my heavy guns spiked them around the 35K mark, and even more so when the drones and missiles got in. So, my apologies to their chaplain (assuming that they have one) for all the extra work, and another 500K into each of the wallets (regular and Dramiel fund).

After an RL down-time

2010-07-20T07:28:00.000+01:00

I'm back and I've decided to try to replace the Dramiel I lost ratting and salvaging (when I got mixed up between the two). So last night I clearned 2 PI sites, and tried to sell the product.

Took almost 45 jumps (including 2 unscheduled diversions), but avoided getting Hulkagedded, and made 2 million towards my goal.

So, outward and onward !!

Poniez

2010-07-06T07:33:00.000+01:00

Sold my poniez (almost all of them at the factory) for 400K -- not bad for 2 weeks' production. Now I just have to pay the man for the grazing they did till I sold them, and the lad who cleaned out the hold of my indy -- apparently one or two of them had "minor accidents" during the journey.

In and Out and Back Again

2010-07-01T07:31:00.000+01:00

Don't like jump clones.

Convenient, but the "new" body never fits right.

Still, it was worth it -- Carnation got her mission done and I got a bundle of loot. Those BSs were vicious, but the Ogres chewed them, and the smaller stuff seemd to melt once I got my ranges right.

Amarr slavers -- we hates 'em.

Next job is to redesign my ponie factory -- Babylon Bear wants hamstas !!

Back and Still Frustrated

2010-06-30T07:27:00.000+01:00

The "new" ship looks like something a man tried to sell me once, as a substitute for a Rifter.

“It does everything almost as well,” he said. “You get one less weapon hardpoint, and you can't fit an AFB ... oh, and the hull plating's a bit ... well, insecure ... but -- ”

This one has zero weapons hardpoints, zero shields, and doesn't seem to have any ‘win’ modules at all.

And White Carnation has mailed to say she has a mission she needs help on.

So I'm clone-jumping to one of Mal's BSs, to go Do My Bit.

The poniez will just have to look after theirselves

J

Razza-Frazzing Downtime !!!

2010-06-24T07:34:00.000+01:00

Hates Downtime !!!

Can't even Walk in Station because the Arcanists can't get their Act Together.

Poniez on planet may be starving -- I may be losing ISK !!

By teh way, "Dev" stands for Don't Ever Volunteer.

With regret

2010-06-22T07:34:00.000+01:00

I've had to sell some poniez

The factory has been doing well and I had too many for my field, so I sold some to a nice man who promised me he had nothing to do with stealthhoundfood factories.

That went quite well, but on the way I noticed someone wanted "transmitters" and was offering 10 times what anyone else was. And as I had one or two lying around ...

I hope his wallet survives paying out 9x too much.

And now I have fewer I can start giving my poniez namez.

Getting Some Back

2010-06-16T07:57:00.000+01:00

It took around 16 jumps, but I sold some stuff to buy orders, and made around 170K back from what it's cost me.

And I didn't have to sell a ponie !! So I have around 15 of them now, all frisking about, and making messes on my launch pad. I'm just hoping the Genetically Enchanced ones have the capability to mess in bricks that I can use for construction or something

Later
J

And now

2010-06-15T07:33:00.000+01:00

someone says I can make Genetically Enhanced Poniez (!!)

Don't knoiw what the improvemenbt is but, hey, Genetic Enhancement -- got to be good for something.

Just need the ISK to afford another Command Centre , and the planet with the Right Stuff

I don't Think ...

2010-06-11T07:43:00.000+01:00

... that I mean to say it in quite those words.

Certainly people appear to have got the *wrong* idea.

But
"PONIEZ!! HOT PONIEZ !! GET THEM WHILE THEY'RE FRESH !!"
-- -- I mean, it's not as though it's that offensive.

Is it ?

The Machine

2010-06-10T07:46:00.002+01:00

ate yesterday's entry, which was about finding a planet and starting the production process. But I have rescued it.

And, when I went to look this morning, my foreman said we have 17 poniez in stock, with more on the way. Of course, it's the Wrong Season -- all this ought to have been done for Xmas, so I could give poniez as presentz.

But I haz poniez !!!

[Leet smile]

And we're off

2010-06-10T07:43:00.001+01:00

I pulled one of Mal's pre-packaged Mammoths off the shelf and flew it back, and last night I took it to market, bought a ~~fat pig~~ command centre, and raced back to install it. Then I paid good ISK to set down some extractors and according to my foreman (a nice chap who used to be a slave in an Amarri "colony") there ought to be some processed "stuff" later today. Which I can then, once he and The Lads have finished building an Advanced Facility, use to build my poniez !!! I have also put in a claim on a Lava planet. Officially I'm building something to do with T2 projects, but actually I'm having someone make me big glass tubes, which i can then fill with lava and oil and sell as mood relaxers.

So, PI

2010-06-07T08:49:00.001+01:00

I'm excited (for the first time in a long time).

It looks like the Central Co-Ordinating Patrimony has listened to what I've been saying, because they've announced that, as part of the Land Grab, we'll be allowed to build Ponie Factories.

So I have my eye on a couple of planets, and I've been learning the skills, and I've had some of the refugees in my hangar training, and the idea is to buy the right Command Center, set it up, extract some ... whatever it is (I need to write these things down somewhere) ... and then send it to the bigger factory to Make Poniez.

Which I will then sell, so that every capsuleer can hav their Own Ponie !!!!

Liking the Drones

2010-03-02T12:59:00.000Z

The rogue ones only come out to play a few at a time -- you can shoot some, and then get into prime position for the next lot, without worrying about sniping.

Not like that d*mn repair station and its s*dd*ng stasis tower. Fortunately my own drones can eat tower, and I just have to tank the incoming. And that seems to be possible in a BS.

Overdoing It

2010-03-01T07:24:00.000Z

Okay -- I ought to have known, when the agent offers me about twice what he had been for a mission.

Mind you :: I've *learned* -- I looked it up first, before I accepted it. Four waves, it said -- frigates, cruisers, up to BCs, some with webby things and so forth. And a stasis tower.

But on my side I have Mal's legacy -- in this case a Nevy Issue with 12 drones in the bay, some modules that boost the drones, and four hybrid turrets. And a shield booster (which, being Mal, is an X-large and drinks cap like a dockside wrangler).

So I get there (no gates) and get stasis-towered. Launch the heavy drones and send them to deal with that, while I try to tank the frigates and get some range with my AFB. Then open up on the tower myself, and tank tank tank, till it's gone. that's better -- I can move now -- call back the heavies, loose a flight of lights, and watch as the frigates go down. There's one cruiser here, which I leave till last 'cause the cheat-sheet says that one's the trigger for the next wave.

It goes and they arrive -- at something like 120 km. So I call in the drones for some shield repair, run my own shields back up, and have a wait. Here's where I'd have chatted to poniez but there aren't any (and the man with the kittiez said they were too small to let me have :: they might get in the working of my bigger ships, and never been seen again).

Eeventually they arrive, and I target some at extreme range, fire off a volley or two, and, once I've got their attention, loose some drones. This lot, thankfully, come in 2 squads and neither seems exactly to love the other -- I blow one lot away and then start on the other. Once again, I'm lucky, and keep the drones off the trigger ship till I've cleared the others. Somewhere round the end of here, is where I decide that I can do to have a break, and get my cap back, so I collect the drones (see -- I *can* remember to, once in a while), warp to a station, repower, releoad, and get out there again.

The next lot also arrive at long range and once again prove to be two squads. Unfortunately, somehow, after clearing the first lot, the second ones send for reinforcements -- suddenly I'm overloaded with targets, coming in from three directions, and all angry. Fortunately they all target me, so I can leave the drones out unhindered. This one needs a warp-out partway through (for re-cap) but I go back at 70K range, which means I'm not where they expect mne, and I pick off the two b*tards with target painters quick (actually I'm quite proud, not once did the webby-type ones get within their range, and though there were targetting disrupters advertised on the cheat-sheet, I never noticed any on my HUD overwiew). I was just getting ready fort he foruth wave, when the "Mission Accomplished" flag goes up.

So I warped for home base, and switched ships to one of Mal's salvagers -- an ex-BC I think -- anyway it holds three tractors and 2 suites of double salvagers. Then back to hoover everything up (which took 2 runs and would have been more but there weren't as many Metal Scraps as sometime).

And when I added it all up, the bounties alove were over 3 mill.
So I'm going to lie low for a while, just in case the cartel have my registry number.

Apologies to

2010-02-08T08:15:00.000Z

- - - the wonk who tried to can-thief 3D and I.

I know that you thought you were very clever, sitching out stuff into your can and waiting for us to take it back. And when you decided to tow it away, I know my Orca wasn't fast enough to keep up with you. But you oughtn't to have kept taking a hold-load out of the can, because it kept you red, and you ought to have noticed the drones my Orca had -- I did roll them out twice to emphasise the point.

Warp-scramming me was good ... -ish. If I knew how the gang-agression system worked, I'd have had 3D kill you with the Kestrel. As it was, the dsrones took you out, and then I could warp off.

And, yes, we did ravish your wreck. Next time, please leave better fittings in it. All in all, I reckon you got 2 frigate's-worth of pye, and lost your semi-pimped shiplet. We got the ore we wanted and a killmail to boot.

Oh, and how does your corp CO (who advertises his corp as honest and up for fair fights) feel about you spending time flipping jet cans and losing your ship ?

Best wishes, Jenni and the DrDrDr

Sad Farewell (with shiny side)

2010-02-01T07:36:00.000Z

I have decided to let the Poniez go.

In a manner of speaking.

Where I am currently, there is a colony world, with a temperate climate. They don't actually have poniez there, but they have children, and vegetation suitabler as ponie-food. So, in their own best interests, I have decided to donate the poniez to a childrens' centre near one of the cities. They will get fed and watered and played with,. and I can shuttle down and visit them from time to time.

Means I shall be lonely. Except that there's a man on my station who says he has kittenz ...

Feels Odd

2010-01-26T07:22:00.000Z

Finally took the plunge (as I had the ISK) and flew home and got myself jump-cloned.

There are now 3 of me -- 2 in cryo. And it feels odd -- will the poniez recognise my "Other Me"s ? Time will tell.

Got some scavenging done on the way back to work -- my thanks to the kind people who're blue-flagging their excess wrecks. Makes it far less tempting when you find a yellow can with something in.

Maybe NotAScam

2010-01-22T07:33:00.000Z

Got a million back from Ragnar the Gallente. Posting this in (part-apology) for mentioning I'd lent him ISK.

Apparently, according to the mail he sent me, he's been out ratting and salvaging. Met up with some solid-red merchant who was stealing his loot, but didn't engage, so bad luck to the "oh look, it's a noob -- I can get him to let me blow him away" brigadier.

Poniez well. Napping lots. I seem to be in intermittent hibearnation.

Mine, mine -- it's all mine (all right, ours)

2010-01-18T07:30:00.000Z

A day mining with Ursus -- we hit the belts before anyone else, as far as I know (certainly before the AKFT Bar was open), and gouged out kernite and scordite and other stuff.

Also managed to find a market for some ore only 5 jumps away. So we mined it, and I orca'd it to market to marker (tho' not to buy a fat ponie -- I already have enough of them).

All in all, when we split it up, we'd each made around 4 million. Plus bounties on around 10 rats that dropped in and never dropped out again. fewer than I'd expected, given it was an 0.5 system.

Have a new protegee -- a Gallente who wants to learn Assualt Ships and buy an Ishkur. Except he's no cash. So I may delve into Mal's legacy (what's left of it) and lend him some. Hope it's not a scam.

Hulkageddon note

2010-01-11T08:36:00.001Z

My Hulk's staying docked, but that doesn't mean that me and the poniez are recreation-less.

Spent a week helping Carnation on a Level 3 "significant standings" mission; and yesterday I took out Mal's old salvaging ship to run the belts.

And noticed that, as soon as a ship enters a belt that just has one miner in it, the miner packs up and leaves. Which I'm putting down to the Hulk-gankers. I'm not one, but if I were flying a Hulk, I'd not even be letting a Rifter near -- a Reaper, maybe, but even that gives a "warp to" for the gank fleet.

So, lo-profile and salvaging for the present

Didn't Mine but ...

2009-12-07T07:45:00.000Z

Been having a few Days Off, polishing my ships, and feeding my poniez, and exercising them when the DockMaster's not looking. So far they've only eaten one techie that I noticed.

White carnaation sent me up some traing reels on Scanning, so I loaded up last night and ventured forth. Only got one (1) signature and had major trouble tracking it down; in the end it turned out to be a wormhole entrance. Which I might have tried out but it was getting late and the scanner said it didn't look like it would be there long.

But it looked *very* pretty. I tried to take a picture but it hasn't come out yet.

More Mining

2009-11-30T07:34:00.001Z

Met up with Ursus again, and he Hulk-ed and I Orca-d and we ran a couple of belts low on good stuff. Also lost 2 flights of mining drones between us -- I think I'll reserve mine for 0.8 and above: I can aford to lose them, but when you've named them, and painted them up, and polished them, it's a bit hard when some NPC rat just blows them into smithereens.

No idea what we made -- we collected the stuff, we didn't actually *do* anything with it. That will come later.

Tried some scanning, but I obviously need a *lot* more practice. But according to the patch notes, they're bringing in a scanning tutorial so that will be helpful.

Not looking forward to Lock-In Day again -- the poniez are getting restive, and I'm afraid they're going to run rampanyt across the entire station. Must get in some extra cabana boys to help feed and brush them.

More Holiday

2009-11-18T09:12:00.000Z

Went off to the system with the plex, and found it interesting.

Would have said challenging, but someone else was busy clearing it (and very kindly vacuumed up most of my wrecks before I could bring a salvager in -- well, a Cheetah isn't really built to take a salvager, what with the need for teeth at 2.5k). So I hit the belts (all 3 of them) and popped some rats.

But I think the place has possibilities (tho' it might have more if I werre yarr-inclined, and in a suicide-Rifter). Next thing, I think, is a proper assessment of whether the salvage is worth the time (and whether the local agents offer missions I can enjoy in the mix of ships I have)

HoliDay

2009-11-12T07:27:00.000Z

So, now I've got the Orca, I thought I'd learn a bit about it. I went back to the system I'd loaded up for the COSMOS missions I never did, and collected everything from there, then reshuffled the hold a little and took the Orca and kit down to see White Carnation.

She brought her mining cruiser up a few systems, and we met up, and fleeted and I tried out the "fleet booster" role. She tells me she was making more ore with it, and I was running mining drones while waiting, so it worked out quite well. Till the rats arrived. I lost drones, but we fought them off, and then docked, and all I had to do was unship a salvager from my ship-bay, and I could salvage all the rats.

Ended up with a hold full of minerals, which I went 1 jump ot sell and we each ended up with 900K. And she says that there's a L1 plex a few jumps away, and I just happen to have my Cheetah with me ...

So I'm Richer and Poorer

2009-11-08T10:52:00.002Z

Poorer by about 400M (though some of that I've taken from Mal's legacy

And Richer by an Orca which I should probably now learn how to fly. Or navigate. Or something.

But the poniez have a Really Big CargoBay to play in. (Though the feed bill is enormous -- does anyone out there want a semi-carnivorous ponie for company on long flights ??!!)

Not the greatest of days

2009-11-05T07:38:00.000Z

DDD has gone.

Not like Mal: he hasn't *quit*, but he's Moved On.

Apparently White Carnation and he stayed in contact, and she told him that she'd found a system with something called kerniate ore. And apparently it is worth A Lot.

So he called me up for loan of my Flying Brick (Mal's old one), and yesterday I went out to Klaevik, and loaded up with ore and veld and a couple of ships, and miscellaneous gear (I thought my hanger was messy, but ... !!!), and he loaded up his TRusty Badger, and we flew out to the back-end of beyond (but still in hi-sec) and relocated him to a new station.

Then I had the joy of flying the Brick (an Obelisk, for the trainspotters among you) back to my bit of space, watching all the way for the orange flags we'd been getting coming down. Even to the point, on the way down, of one of them locking target on the Badger, but DDD warped off in time.

So, both my Caldari chums have found their way to me, and then headed out again. I stay in touch but it's not the same.
Except that Carnation has started sending me ISK to repay the loans I made for skillboox, and DDD is definitely coming in on a share in teh Orca when I get it (he sold the veld (because he can always mine more) and made 70M isk in one bite). I'm 2 days off Mining Foreman V, and then I but the Director book and learn that, and then it's just the 40 million for the Orca book, and I'm set to go shopping.

Not that I have the cash yet, but if DDD sends me 100M, and I spend some more of Mal's legacy .... (And I let a couple more poniez go to Good Homez ... )

Neats
J

2009-10-31T14:17:00.002Z

[url=http://www.videogamesigs.com][img]http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/4382/videogamesigs4aec4692de.png[/img][/url]

Been A While

2009-10-29T07:46:00.000Z

It wasn't my intention, it was just the way things turned out.

I've been running courier jobs, mostly to earn ISK without getting my shabooies blown off. In and among they ask me to do combat ops, and once in a while I take one. Which resulted in me having 3 holds-full of loot and salvage. Which I was taking home as and when I passed through the system.

Then I got a 1 m3 courier job, and decided it was daft running a BS or a Mammoth for that. So I podded five jumps and bought a Rifter, took her to my main base, and fitted her out -- and named her Tsangerei after a planet in a song.

And ran the courier job and on the way back decided to look at a drone spawn point. And had fun !!!

I'd forgotten what a joy it is to rat in a Rifter. Turns on a sixpence, bites bum with the best, and (with AFB) runs away as soon as the damage rises. Yes, I know: majorly vulnerable to web/scram, but it's a Rifter, it's worth maybe 3M tops. I might even buy rigs for it. And faction ammo (though it eats ammo like a wolfhound).

So, could we have a little Yay!! for the Rifter and the joy of killing drones

I thang kew

Good News at a Distance

2009-10-12T12:19:00.000+01:00

White Carnation commed me to say that she now has a second R&D agent in hand, and is grinding toward a 3rd.

Meanwhile I'm presently trying to stay afloat by doing L4 courier runs (especially when AKFT paid me back by covering my arriese -- indeed my entire upper two thirds -- in the combat mission I got thrown up). Had to pay for repairs when the entire pocket agressed on me (despite me Running Away at full pelt) and buy a new clone because the old one was full.

So my Orca is no nearer, and all my ISKies in the bank are gone. And may have to sell some poniez as the feed bill is getting big. Is it my fault if I can't resist their pleading little eyes as they look at me through the pet-shop bars ?

Not the Greatest

2009-09-23T07:28:00.001+01:00

of Days.

I was running some Sisters missions, while building up my resolve to quit COSMOS space and go back to ordinary missions (with the Sisters at least I'm working up to earning some boosted probes), and I got led to a L4 agent who was offering non-combat missions. So I did two, in a shuttle, and got away with it, and then a third came, and it was apparently pure reconnaisance, so I took that one.

Gated in and was blatted by two cruisers and a BS. Ran, returned to station. Was going to look up the mission and see what else I might do, but got call from AKFT person who needed help catching Dagan (Don't worry if you don't know the SP -- either you eventually will come across him, or you won't and it won't matter). So I threw up the 7-figure mission, and went to help him in Mal's Megathron.

I tanked, he blatted, I threw in a couple of drones, Dagan went down. I salvaged and handed it over, and went back. And then found that my shuttle ought to have coped, and that I'd thrown away a 7-figure mission.

Snit city. Ponie-cuddling time.

Bless

Not Good News

2009-09-21T07:45:00.000+01:00

I don't know where they heard it from, but according to what I was told ....

I've stayed in the Pator Tech corp since I graduated -- they're good people, they have clean stations, and they do what they can for their graduates. Now, apparently, CONCORD have decided that they have to start charging us (or taxing us) to stay members. They want us to join the commercial corps (which tax anyway), because they say that they protect us by blocking pirates and null-sec gankers, and we ought to pay for it.

So I lose all my friends, and then I lose this protection because the null-sec people simply war-dec hi-sec corps, which means they can kill you as they like and you get no rights against them. My poniez are scared stiff.

And if I'm going to save up for my Orca, I really can't afford the taxes.

On the other hand, had excellent day yesterday with the AKFT, mining and chatting -- mostly mining. Ursus was there, too, which kept my spirits up.

And tomorrow I'm planning on ... well, never mind: don't want the gankers to hear me ....

Back in the Sa-ddle

2009-09-15T13:01:00.000+01:00

The Mega seems a bit better with the Warp Stabs off. I've also diversified ammo (anti-mater being a mite expensive), and worked out ranges. My long-range ammo hits at 40k, my drones can go in at 35k, and my shorter-range ammo kicks in around the 25k mark.

Frigates boil under drones; cruisers seem to wilt under shells, and Mal left me room for a tractor and salvager so I can even hoover my own wrecks most of the time.

Did Human Cattle 5of5; thought about the fleet, but then noticed there are no bounties (because they're Amarr) so I'd have to be sure I could get them all before I'd get the salvage. Decided to leave it alone. Still got almost a mill between fee and bonus. Rounded off the take with a L1 mission: 2 frigates. Didn't even need to fire: drones did both of them. Good fee -- must not have been taken for a while.

How to Get Blatted

2009-08-24T07:32:00.001+01:00

Basically, don't learn the disadvantages of your modules.

I don't blame Mal -- he obviously rigged the ship the way he wanted it. A Megathron. With Heavy Hybrids firing Antimatter and Iron. And including, in the lows, two Warp Core Stabilisers.

Which apparently cut your targeting range by half each time. Which meant that, before I could target a ship, I was looking down its gun barrels, and was well inside the effective range of any of my guns.

Took it into a fleet with AKFT, and found out. Escaped the first engagement, because they drew fire off me; never got into range on the second one (the AFB kept cutting out as well).

First experience of a Command Ship being in-fleet. Kept getting Shield points added, which made me think I was taking damage.

After that I took the Meg for a stroll among some other ships. Unfortunately they were far too heavy and by the time I got out (thankfully unscrambled) I was deep in armour and wondering if I hadn't ought to have structure tanked as well.

Won't be going back there in a hurry. Wonder what works well against 3 BS and a small horde of smaller. The Ogres didn't even have an effect.

Inshal.

Ponie-feeding time.

Combined Ops

2009-08-19T21:14:00.002+01:00

Scoped out an unlisted jump-gate with the CovOps and found it guarded. So I sent the BC in, to clear the guard, and then sent the CovOps through the gate.

Which turned out to be hairier than the poniez wanted -- there were a fleet of ships, but there was also a close-in spotter. Who, when I decided to warp out, turned out to be packing something that shut my warp-drive down, as well as a webber, to kill my regular engines. Fortunately, when I'd stopped Snoball from panicking, I cut in the afb and just ran for it. And managed to outrun the warp-drive shutter-downer's range.

So, having had a day to think about it, I went back with the BC, and shot the guard, and then, once I'd Gone Through, I poured everything at the inside spotter. He (or she, I suppose -- though the piloting was about male-standard) melted and I got to look round, with everything else at about 60 k.

Then I spotted another PC ship -- a strategic cruiser -- my first to get a look at -- had a hole in the middle. Someone was firing at her, and since I had the opportunity, I fired back on his account. And then shamelessly kited along, letting her draw fire, and then picking off anyone who responded. Of course, that left wrecks, at which I wanted to look. Was tempted to use the BC salvager, but didn't want to be stranded when Whoever came back.

So had to warp out, and go fetch one of Mal's salvagers, with tractors. Eventually got all but two wrecks (which were full of scrap metal when you salved them), but then had agression at 40K, and decided to leave those last two and keep my skin whole.

So, just waiting now to get the bounties and then I'll nap.

Happy patch-day everybody !!

Fleeting Glances

2009-08-10T07:54:00.000+01:00

Have had enough (for now) of Just Mining.

And didn't fancy the offer of L4 missioning with a fleetlet (sorry, gals); so I spent the day flying ships back and forth (or forth, and shuttling back), getting my own best set together in one place at one time, to see what I could do.

One BC, one Hulk, one Mammoth, one salvager, one scanner ship, one Assualt Frigate just in case things get needful.

Now I'll see what the poniez and I can do with them.

Though if a first flit is anything to go by ... Put it this way, 16 belts of roids, all of them scoured clean not only of rats but of rat corpses. I eventually found three rats cowering in a corner, and set drones on them (I was in the salvager at the time), and then found none of them had salvage to take. So I suspect that the Real Loot is somewhere else, and I will have to seek it out.

Wish me luck.
J

2009-08-03T07:36:00.001+01:00

Hundredth-and-one post (apparently).

Broke from mining, to go ratting and meet up with the AKFT.

Took the Cheetah into the L1 dungeon, and found it totally empty, so slaughtered everything there, and salvaged. Oddly enough, there was no trigger to the next bit and no Overseer.

Then did some higher-sec belts waiting for corp op time, and then took Mal's Hulk into belts to wreck roids. And the Bear must have pimped up her Orca skills, 'cause my Strip Miners were running about 10% up (or down -- faster anyway) and they seemd to be clawing more ore, so that I didn't bother keeping it in my hold but just dumped it straight into jet cans.

When that had to end (RL Chinese run), I switched to clearing some of my module-loot. In the end, with a trip to Hek and back, and with Bear paying me for mining, I ended up netting almost *9 million*.

So me and the poniez are off to a spa for a day or two.

Then it's back to the mine face, I fear.

So, yes, I've been quiet

2009-06-19T07:39:00.000+01:00

In fact I've been mining.

And, no, I won't say *where*. Suffice to say it's hi-sec, has multiple belts, and most of them have Conc Veldspar, which sells for about 1M per Mammoth load round here. So I've been getting up, mining belts, stacking Veld, and then walking it to a station to sell.

Or, more recently, walking it to a (different) station to refine. Along with not-selling a lot of my back salvage and refining that too. Yes -- I'm trying a bit of manufacturing. One of the containers Mal Garamite left me had some BPs in -- mostly BPCs that apparently fell off someone's hauler (don't ask -- I've never known Mal to agress, and who ganks a hauler and leaves the loot ?). One, however, was a BPO -- for a Minmatar frigate model. So, I've also been stockpiling minerals to use it and build some. Finally, yesterday, someone put up a buy order that covered my "collecting the ore" station, and I was able to liquidate almost my full stock for 10M. Which funded a buying trip of my own for the rare minerals I needed for the BPOs.

So now, a manufacturing line is working to turn out frigates which I then plan to distribute through four regions, a few in each, in the hope that people will buy them and I can get (some of) my money back. My time I won't get back, of course, but it was actually very nice *not* getting shot at. Had one or two belt-rats, of course, but now that I have a Hulk, they don't really trouble me. Also had one or two visits from a corp I know as can-flippers, so I didn't risk jet-canning either. He (or she) who lies low, can often pick up what the bold adventurer overlooks.

See you on the flip :: have to go feed poniez.

Confluence -- Prologue

2009-06-17T08:38:00.000+01:00

I gather, from chatting with friends, that Scriptator's stuff, which I always find well suited to the long hours while mining lasers pound roids, isn;'t as well know as I'd thought.

He's just started a new story, so I thought I'd reproduce it here (freedom of speech and all that), so that more people get to read it.

So here goes:

(This is only the Prologue: the story is, I think, called Confluence)

= = = = =

'Meta' ap Rhys glanced round her, in all three directions, before backing through the door marked "Station Service Crew Only".

Clearly her guesstimate that her problems might not follow her onto the Leisure Group station had not panned out -- or, rather, had panned out to a nugget of purest poison.

A few metres down the service corridor, she came to the hatchway she wanted. Every station needed a means to get things around -- environmental gases, supplies, engineering gear -- without choking up the public areas. Equally, whilst the stations had means to get their service staff around, there were always some journeys that were of urgent priority, and these tended to involve engineers heading towards crises, who were, of their nature, therefore willing to sacrifice comfort for efficiency.

Meta keyed in an access code and, after a second or two, a section of walling slid aside, to reveal a small, coffin-like, space. Meta smiled faintly, and reached into the broad belt which circled her waist, over her biscuit-dun ship-suit. From a pocket she removed a small mask which she fitted over her eyes, nose and mouth. That would serve to protect her from the extremes of the process she was about to endure. Then she keyed a code into a tiny panel recessed above the doorway, watched as a little light lit, and relaxed as the door closed, leaving her in pitch blackness.

Then the entire compartment fell away, vertiginously swerving from side to side, plucking her downwards and away from the public levels, thrusting her through the very bowels of the station and finally depositing her in just another such passageway, but in a totally different area.

Up there, she had been in public space, walking among the patrons. Down here she was in engineering territory, and through *that* hatchway (to which she made her way confidently and with panache) was her destination.

She was just stepping through the hatch (and redogging it after her) when her percom went off. She had thought that she had deactivated the little thing, but when she glanced at the display she saw that an override had been engaged. Unfortunately that also meant that whoever was calling her would be able to tell that she was still on the station.

It was time for even faster action. She ducked into the corridor toward the hangers, raised the communicator to her mouth, keyed an override of her own, and spoke, tersely: "This is ap Rhys, voice-code three-alpha: Jenny, prepare for immediate launch. I will in-pod within one-zero minutes."

"Counting," the voice replied. Meta relaxed a little: she knew she could rely on Jenny. Now ...

She turned sharp right and headed for the pod-bays. Normally she would have had to queue to take her turn, but she had slipped the med-techs a little gratuity when she had docked, and they had given her the code to their private access door. She stepped through, and was immediately in their ready-room.

"I'm sorry," she said, holding out her percom for it to be scanned, "But something's come up and -- ”

"Doesn't it always ?" a tech said, but she was already programming the station to deliver Meta's pilot pod to her own workspace. "Have you had any -- ?"

"No, no, no, and chance would have been a fine thing," Meta replied, summarising all the answers to the tech's form questions. "Gods, there was a wrangler up on Keibler level -- they ought to call that place Adonis level -- or Narcissus."

The tech laughed. "We had one guy -- had to wash him off three times to get rid of the incompatible body-goo he'd put on -- or had put on him. By an Amar noble's wife, he said."

The pod arrived, on its little grav-sled; by then Meta had stripped to her essentials, and was already massaging her implant sites ready to have the plumbing lines inserted.

The med tech briskly ran through the pre-load sequences, and then Meta was sliding inside the DuQuesne-Tracey pod (expensive, but a gift from her great-uncle before he'd died) and the pod-goo was being pumped in.

Meta's audivid implants activated, in time to hear the med-tech announce "Closing pod" and to "see" the displays light up, confirming that all was well.

"I acknowledge," she said. "Capsuleer ap Rhys taking over independant command."

"You're clear to fly. Black space."

Meta sent the command to the grav-sled and the pod accelerated away, towards the hangers.

"Jenny -- I'm in-bound. Where do we stand ?"

"Pre-flight checks at eight-five per cent complete. No red flags, two ambers, both being dealt with. I have used your voice to book a launch slot -- we're scheduled to go in minutes oh-four. We have three priority communications from the station, which I am cycling."

"I've time -- switch copies to my monitor," Meta said. One was a Leisure Group advertisement, which she could discard, memorising as she did the eight-digit code that was the real message. The second was her hanger bill, which she could (just) afford to pay. The third was the one she knew was coming. She flagged it and sent it back to Jenny.

"Use the Kosh on it," she said. That pile of gibberish (encapsulated in arcane vocabulary) ought to hold off her enquiring enemies for long enough.

"Acknowledged," Jenny replied; "I have you on final approach -- podbay doors are open."

The pod slid neatly from its sled into the Rifter's podbay, and as the sled disappeared back station-side, Meta and the pod were tubed down to the command deck. Then all the displays lit, and it was like Meta was home again, queen of her domain.

The launch countdown was at ninety seconds and was still proceeding, and the last pre-flight amber was the Damage Control II which had a habit of sticking until after launch, so Meta ignored it.

At fifteen seconds the docking locks unlatched and the umbilicals disconnected; at ten the Rifter was gently pressored out into the manoeuvering channel and five seconds later Meta got the green light to initiate thruster control.

"This is callsign Juliet-November-Vengix, requesting confirm of launch clearance."

"This is launch control -- you are clear to proceed."

"Take it, Jenny."

It was a curious thing, but the actual launch process always made Meta nauseous -- once her ship was in space, however, she felt invigorated and ready for anything.

"Which way, boss ?" Jenny asked.

"Hepsibah gate," Meta replied. "We've got people not to see and places not to be."

So, my drone training

2009-06-05T07:49:00.000+01:00

finished last night, and I could use those Ogre IIs at last. I'd heard about them all my capsuleer life -- how they ate frigates for breakfast and shat out cruisers as poop.

I though they were in the Machariel, but that turned out to be a mix of light and mediums, so I looked along the hanger and found one of Mal's Megathrons which turned out to have 5 aboard. I went to an agent and asked (nicely) for a combat mission. When he'd stood up again, he told me about an illicit repair station, so I went off.

To cut long story short, it isn't there any more, nor are the missile towers and the stasis generator it had hidden behind cloaks. But those Ogres -- they chewed up some auxiliary power thingummies in seconds, and then, while I was tanking some large gentlemen of the "hey -- that was our station you just ganked", they wandered off and did for the stasis generator without even being asked.
I did have to jump out mid-fight due to not having an armour repper on hand, but they came back when asked, and then, when we went back, they chewed on almost anything that moved (while I scrambled out to a range suitable for the heavy guns I was mounting. Which also proved excellent once I had a range advantage -- like taking out missile towers while the Ogres were still trying to get to them.

The next thing is going to be training the Ogres to carry poniez aboard, and then fitting the poniez with Salvager modules. Then all I have to do is shoot things and sit while the poniez gather the loot.

And all this, when I added in the bounties, was a 7-figure mission. So I'm packing for a trip to go and see White Carnation, see if I can get her to do a few missions, get her head out of the skillbooks.

So that's

2009-05-27T08:14:00.000+01:00

"no" to the HAC, which means it looks as if I'm in for the (very long) haul for the Orca.

Which at 1M per day (when I can get 'on'), is around 1.5 years for the ship and goodness knows how much longer for the skillbooks.

Oh well, it's (supposed to be) good to have a long-term plan

The Question Now

2009-05-26T09:38:00.002+01:00

Actually, it's less *now*, but it soon will be. I'm nearly at the end of training up for Mal's ships (although there's the matter of training up the skills for the mining crystals I didn't realise I was inheriting).

Then I'll need to set a new course -- and probably not in the direction of the Interceptor or the Logistics Cruiser he left me, although those will stay safe and warm in a hanger, in case of need later. The question is whether to move to gank, and save up for a HAC, or stay carebear and aim longer-term for the bigger target of an Orca.

The HAC would be for L4 missions -- well, the ones that Eve-Survival doesn't recommend for the capsuleer who wants to die nastily and bloodily. My BC seems to be able to cope with most L3s and while I have no desire to force myself into the heavier stuff, I gather that there are rewards there, to be reaped. And I suppose, once I've learned how to use it properly, it might be capable of seeing off the smaller PvPer (the one in a nooB ship, for example).

The Orca, on the other hand, would be for mining ops. To act as a mother ship, to move an entire wing of ships -- Hulk, hauler, ganker, salvager -- from system to system, and to carry the loot to a market. I would use the Freighter -- the fabled Flying Brick -- but that can't pick up contianers from space, only from a station, and it also can't take rigged ships. So, if I want to have mission-ready ships I need the Orca. Trouble is, it costs so much.

The HAC would be cheaper, but I'd be running it in combat missions, where I could lose it. And gh*d knows what the insurance would be. On the other other hand, once I can run Ogre IIs, it is possible that missions will be able to be approached differently. And there is also the matter of the fabled 1400s. Will a HAC be able to mount these ? Effectively ?

Either way I need ISK. Which, at the moment, seems to come best from the mining side of the carebear life. I mentioned the plag prices, but I seem to be able to make over a million just with a hold-ful (Mammoth, not Hulk) of veld. But at that rate the Orca will be forever. The HAC would be quicker, but only till I lost it (and all the fittings).

The poniez aren't much help, either :: they're more interested in Cantering On Stations, and getting (or me getting them) some luxury blankets and nosebands, and some Gallente oats.

I want to say

2009-05-22T08:23:00.000+01:00

a big thank you to the guy/girl/corp that's racked up the plag price in my local. Thanks to you, when I got back from looking after poniez, I had time to dive into Mal's Hulk, do three runs to a belt, pull in 3 holds of plag, and sell it for 1 million.

So, having done my quota for the day, I can rest, relax and pet poniez some more.

Can Flippers

2009-05-20T09:20:00.000+01:00

1) Must be sad b*tards. The one who jumped me simply switched cans on me and then sat round. They may eventually have taken the ore -- by that time I had lost interest.

2) Presumably therefore are looking for PvP in hi-sec. In which case, it would be illogical to draw any conclusion than that they are fully ready for anything that's brought to them. If you show up in -- say -- a cruiser (because the can-switcher was in a destroyer), "they" will simply bring in a BS, and so on. The ore is simply a pretext for wanting to gank you, only they want you to Bring the Gank, so that CONCORDE won't intervene.

3) Can be avoided by not using a can. So, the theft is simply by way of an unofficial tax on hi-sec mining. Which given that someone was offering well above the market level for ore in my system, is a fair rebalancing of ISK.

4) Doesn't therefore appear actually to raise any real profit. To steal my can-load took (to my best estimate), the initial destroyer, which then stayed in-system for at least 45 minutes, and (presumably) a hauler to collect the can (unless they simply let it decay and abandoned the ore). I don't see how this makes any ISK of itself -- the time they were there, I could have mined just as much myself.

O-o-C :: Browsing

2009-05-15T08:13:00.001+01:00

I came across this :

http://syncaine.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/lum-and-i-share-a-moment/

today, and found in it an interesting PoV on the yarrs-v-carebears/hiSec-v-0.0 issue.

Some of you may be interested, too

More exploring

2009-05-06T08:17:00.000+01:00

Still don't *understand* what I'm doing. Managed to find 100% site in my home system; managed also to find it manned by Angels. As the CovOps ship has zero weapons, I Ran Away, but not before bookmarking a collidable.

Then I grabbed the BC and went back. Three rounds of Angels later the fighting stopped, and I salvaged. But there was no sign of any sort of organised outpost, and the collibables all came back as neutral.

Then I few out to an old mining ground I know, and tried there -- found a "Drone ... (something)". Which turned out to be a hollow asteroid. Fortunately I'd already swapped to Bear's GunBunny (another hand-crafted ship, that fights well), and I tried assault frig tactics -- get into range and orbit on afb -- which turned out to work well enough. Five rounds of drones, inlcuding one sentient.

But still no luck locating wrecks -- I may need to "up" my Astrometrics (which will need to wait till next month, because this month is 'Learning Ogre II' month)

In other news, I am advised that my Logistics cruiser is going to be unuseful except in fleet ops. A shame, since I dont have a fleet to op it with (unless I put each ponie in its own Reaper, and send them to Scour the Stars)

No Idea what I'm doing Wrong

2009-05-04T08:05:00.000+01:00

Have CovOps ship (not something one usually admits -- tends to get mutterings, and suggestions you're going to be blown apart). Obtained Sisters' probe launcher for it. Then they changed all the probe systems. Bought scanning probes (don't ask me the serial number -- man said they came off a Providence that had an Accident, and not to ask questions, so I didn't). Tried using them and got some responses -- unfortunately I can't afford guns for it, so when the 2 Gistii turned up, I had to run.

Couldn't set a bookmark though -- had a scanning tower dead in my sights, but the UI wouldn't let me bookmark it to come back to.

What I was looking for were wrecks. Didn't find any, though the directional scanner said there were some somewhere.

So I went and bought something called a Combat Probe that, on the box, says it scans ships and wrecks. Took it to my system, checked there were wrecks around somewhere, and tried it.

Zero result. Absolutely no pickup on any wrecks. I can only think I've programmed it wrong. Going to go back tomorrow and try again -- otherwise I may have to complain to the manufacturers that it doesn't do what it says on the tin.

A good Day's Work

2009-04-30T08:36:00.000+01:00

For complicated reasons (to do with a mining mission), I'd docked at a different station (in the same system, but ...). So, of course, there were different agents, working for a different corp -- tribal, ratehr than industrial. So I thought, while the techs were watering the poniez, I would see what work they had. And one of them told me about some documents that had been stolen and offered me almost half a mill to get them back, with a healthy bonus if I did the job quickly.

So I switched ships, went back to him, and took the job (off-loaded the poniez as well, as I tend to find they aren't keen on the battle-y bits). I reckoned that, if there were bounties, I'd easily make my million.

Not an easy job, though :: missile batteries, and substantial enemy -- also my pod interface kept sticking, and the only solution was to jump out and reset it (which meant abandoning my faithful drones as well). After three rinse and repeats, I managed to clear the first area (and recover all but one of the drones). Then I headed for the second area, through a jumpgate, to find heavy gun-drone positions, and some cruisers. Fortunately my current gun-load can be effective even at 40km, so I did my 'ran away while shooting backwards' routine. Then I collected the documents, and headed home, for my dedicated salvager. Nothing wonderful on the salvage (though some interesting components, I'm sure I can use).

But when I totted everything up at the end of the day, even allowing some some minor repairs I had to have done, I'd made over two million ISK. So I may well book in to the spa again, and see about fitting the pod with kumquat goo -- it's all the rage in Jita, they say.

So, clear skies, too.

More "More 'Stuff ~~' "

2009-04-28T08:37:00.000+01:00

A slightly more contentious suggestion:

Spend to save your ISK. You fly a ship (or two) and sooner or later it gets blown up. "Don't fly what you can't afford" -- that's what we're all told. It's true. But you can recoup some of your loss by insurance. You buy it at stations, and for a premium (or a series of) you can get a pay-out if your ship gets destroyed (by pirates, by belt-rats, or by CONCORD). The more you pay, the more you get back.
Of course, it only lasts for a period (90 days, I think), and if you don't lose the ship, you don't get money back. But if you do, the payout will almost buy you a replacement hull, and all that you have to do then is to fit it out.

Salvage -- Not only for the components, but for the modules, too. Stock them up, and wehn you next lose a ship, you may well find you have replacement fittings in your hangar ready. And they don't come "damaged" (yet) -- if it's in a wreck, it's deemed pristine and 100% fit for purpose.
And keep an eye on *what* you salvage. Some stuff you will never (or not for a long time) need -- you may only use projectile weapons, so laser lenses are useless to you. You may well not know how to use a webber or a warp disrupter. You can recycle them, or you can sell them to someone who needs them.
Other things are what are called "named" -- they're like the basic modules you use, but they have different names. Check them out -- often they are the Improved Version of what you're using, and can be swapped in for a slightly enhanced performance. If you do a "See Info" on them, and look at what is called the "meta level", you get an idea. Basic modules are meta level zero. Tech 2 equivalents are meta level five (but they will need further training to use). Meta levels one to four are the Improveds (some modules don't have all four, though). Use and enjoy -- perhaps even sell some to your friends, for a fair price.

Don't throw things away. In Certain Other Games, there comes a point when your stash/backpack/ whatever gets full. In EvE, your hangar is infinite (so far as I know). So you never *need* to just chuck stuff out. And there are other options.

You can sell it. Probably on the market. Right-clicking will offer the option, but you are far from guaranteed to get the best price. The Market will show you want prices are being offered where. Make sure you read the "Sellers" block and not the "Buyers" -- I have myself spent hours dragging stuff to a station before realising that I'd got things wrong way round. You can also post sell "orders" by using the Advanced button on the sell option -- that means the goods stay where you are, you set a price, and if people want them, they come get them (if not, at the end of the time period you've set, you get them back). You will be charged for this, but this is spend to save your ISK again -- you pay a little now, and all being well, you get more back later.

You can recycle it. Again, it's on the options if you right-click an item -- "Reprocess". What you get back are minerals -- what you get when you refine the ores you mine. The station will take a %age, and there are inevitable wastages, but the one is affected by your standing with the station's owners, and the other by skill training -- the higher your standing/training the less you lose. In this case, then, you lose the item, but get the raw materials eventually tro build something else. Or you can sell them. But you can't reprocess them again. Incidentally, reprocessing is the only use I've found for the Scrap Metal you salvage. But it turns into Tritanium, which is almost always wanted.

Or you can trade it to a friend. That way, in due course, s/he can trade you what you need and s/he doesn't, and it all comes round.

Learn your strengths. Most races have things they're *good* at -- it's worth learning what yours are, and building on them. The main example are weapons systems -- the Minmatar ships get bonuses for projectile weapons -- rate of fire, range, that sort of thing. So, if you're flying a Minmatar ship, you want to be thinking about fitting projectile guns, and firing projectile ammo (and therefore learning the appropriate skills). Otherwise you miss out on something the game meant you to have. Similarly, although anyone can *use* a drone, and all races have ships that can carry them, one race gets bonuses for drones, and has ships that carry for more drones. So, if you're that way inclined, and have learned the skills, you buy ships for that race, and benefit.

I will edit this and add some more later
Jenni

More 'Stuff for N00bs'

2009-04-27T08:29:00.002+01:00

(some of which I may have said before).

1. Your corp channel can be your friend. There is a Help channel (to which, I believe, n00bs are automatically subscribed for a while), but in my humble, it gets clogged with idiots and scammers (the latter because they know there are innocent n00bs there to rip off).

Your corp channel (to which you also get automatic subscription) is a tolerable substitute. People there range from n00bs like you to seasoned vets listening in for the h*ll of it. Some will drop tips, many will tell tales of Mistakes they have Made (which you can thereby avoid replicating), and some will even drop the odd ISK to those in need.

There is also the possibility of finding comrades in nearby systems, and linking up to share missions. Two can mine faster than one; two can kill more rats than one. Yes, you share the rewards, but then again, if you (and your friend) can do two missions (safely) in the time that you alone would do one (with risk), isn't it worth it ?

2. You can pick your missions. Agents belong to "divisons" -- Security, Marketing, Legal, and so forth. And somewheres there are multiple versions of a chart that tells you what sorts of missions each division's agents offers -- so many percent kill; so many courier. [edited:: Look at http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=AgentDivisions ]

Armed with that information, you can (to an extent) pick who you go to. Suppose you've just bought a cruiser, and are thinking of level 2 missions. But you're not certain if it's set up in the most efficient manner. You could always try it out ratting (but the rats sometimes stay away). Or, you can find a level 1 agent, who offers kill missions 90% of the time, and do a whole set of try-outs, against live enemies, but of the sort that a frigate or destroyer ought to be able to do. It won't be a perfect test, but it's better than diving straight in and getting Blown Away.

Or, if you need to run missions, but maybe need to be afk for periods (not a good idea, but sometimes necessary, especially after a night of curry), you could select agents that give courier missions. You'll earn less per mission, but (in general) they will be shorter than combat missions, and (if you stay out of lo-sec) you probably won't get shot at. Or you could get your mining ship, and go and work for a mining agent. You'll need something with teeth, because s/he will throw in combat missions, and because most mining involves rats as well. But you will have long(-ish) periods, wehn all you need to do is fill your hold and then either shuttle to station and back, or drop it into a jetcan.

3. Read the mission spec. The agents (breaking the fourth wall here) aren't real people: they're computer programs. They don't know what ships you have or what skills. So, now and again, they will ask you to do things you just can't achieve. Like going Ice Mining, when you don't have the skills, the ship, or the mining laser thingies. Or they will offer a courier mission that will take more space than you have. Sometimes those can be done by splitting the cargo and running the route two or three times, but sometimes it is one or two large units, which you can't fit in. And sometimes the pick-up location for a courier run will be hi-sec, and the destination will be, but the route will require ducking in and out of lo-sec.

In these cases, remember that you are allowed to refuse missions. You can refuse one mission from an agent and not (despite what the on-screen warning says) suffer a loss in standings. If you do, simply leave that agent alone for over 4 hours, and the standings-loss risk will reset. Go and fly for another agent (or drop back into Real Life for a while).

4. Lo-sec is not certain death. It just seems like that, when you lose a ship there.
Some missions (and some markets) require you to go one system into 0.4 space. There is the risk that the gate is guarded; equally there's the possibility it's not. If you use a throwaway ship (a Reaper, say), then all you risk is the fittings (and, obviously, any mission goods). You check the hi-sec side, and Local channel, to make sure that there's no obvious peril, then jump through. And wait. Your UI will show if there are ships waiting: if there are, you're still cloaked. You can either AFB back towards the gate and hope to make it, or warp out (probably to a station, using "Dock" so that there are only seconds before you'll be safe inside). If yuo're on a mission, you wanted a station anyway, to collect or deliver stuff. Your Local will tell you how many people there are in-system, and what chatter there is. When you need to go back, undock, and immediately warp to the gate you want warping to zero.
This means, when you arrive, you will immediately be within jump range, and can go through even if you're being fired on. Do not fire back -- a) it excites the yarr-gang, and b) the gate crews don't like letting agressors through. Just jump in (possibly with shield reppers running), jump through, and jump away (just in case they've put a second crew on the hi-sec side, to try and scare you back through -- remember, they can't attack you in hi-sec without Concord getting p*ssed).

I need a nap now.
Read, enjoy, comment maybe.

Clear Skies
Jenni

I may have found

2009-04-23T07:30:00.000+01:00

what's been the matter lately. I haven't been spending as much quality time with the poniez -- I've missed them and they're missed me. Fortunately, between running missions, I managed to get some simul-apples from a trader in Hek, and that's brightened them up.

Missions ... yes. Had one of those "this will seriously affect your standings" ones, and when I looked it up, the cheat guide talked about heavy missiles and web/scram combinations. So i thought "You can only lose each ship once", so I took it.

Given the option, I warped in at 50 km, and found myself 60 km from the ships, and within 2km of the missile tower. So I opened up with everything on it, and pulled away, which meant that the longer I fired the further into my (or my guns') sweet spot I got. Yes, they *were* heavy missiles; yes, they did a *bit* of damage, but long before the ships could reach me the tower was dust. Then, since all the ships had lock on me, I loosed my drones, and fired at 40k. Believe it or not, none of them got within 25k of me. I had a slight shield issue (down to about 45% at one point) but my repper kept it under control. An implant and 49K ISK -- for about 20 minutes' work (even if the salvaging was atrocious)

So I went home and bought cake and fizzies, and we had a pretend birthday party -- me and all the poniez (except Snoball, who's in Trouble for eating the Health Inspector).
And now it's nap time for Jenni.

See you all soon

Found the catch

2009-04-19T20:45:00.002+01:00

with the super-salvage rig.

Which is that the cargo hold may not be big enough. I could lay out some ISK and invest in Expander IIs, but since I inherited the ship from Mal ready laid out, I would feel a bit disloyal changing it. Not least because Mal was all about survival, and I'd rather not get bl*wn away by messing with the set up.

I was helping the AK with some Level 4s, doing the salvaging. And the hold just kept filling. Mind you, the main reason, if you ask me, was the smartbombs. Which doesn't explain the drones, when four or five of them were fiiling me up. Either I need more room, or there are humungously large drones in L4 missions. With which, frankly, I never wish to tangle.

Ogre IIs. That may well be the training regimen for the medium term.

Come to Jenni

2009-04-15T07:49:00.001+01:00

Found a rogue drone mission -- ran it with the BC and then went back for the salvage ship.

Ran the salvage faster than ever -- 20K pull-in on tractors and sweep wrecks with 2 sals each, strips them out almost before I can get to the wreck to get the cargo. I think the system is pull from far, salvage as they close, and just fly to what's left where there's a can.

Just need to find some more wrecks now -- or make some.

Still Aintn't ....

2009-04-12T18:41:00.001+01:00

Found someone selling Salvager IIs not too far away, and at a reasonable price, so I bought the full lot and fitted some to my salvaging cruiser. Now I just need something to salvage.

I offered to rat for a friends' mining op (they apparently don't need more miners), but they didn't need me, so I ran through the belts and then caem home.

Tomorrow I think I'll try a combat mission and see if that works out

Not Quite Dead in the Water

2009-04-08T20:44:00.002+01:00

RL's been taking me away, but the Skill Queue is kind-of my saviour.

I'm on the fringes of training for Mal's exhumer, and between that and another skill-to-5 I'm training-scheduled up to the end of May. And that's without trying to train some skills and get at least capable of wormholes -- mostly in case I just happen across one.

And then .... well,I'll just have to play it by ear.

Take Care

2009-04-05T18:32:00.002+01:00

Lost 2 ships in one run -- both Concordokkened when the Big C decided I wanted to shoot "innocent" wrecks. I think I'll stop salvaging with any sort of weapons on board. But in fact the bounties for the rats bought me replacements, especially with the insurance pay-out. And the fitting came from stock.

Which reminds me, I now see Salvagers IIs on the market, so I think I may be paying for some upgrades, to see how much better they are.

In other news, I see my protege White Carnation hit a snag when she got booted from the epic arc for letting a mission run out. On the other hand she is Caldari and I gather that her agent was Gallante, which can't have helped.

Take care, little one

Bird Flies Nest

2009-03-21T07:54:00.002Z

My young friend, White Carnation, who was to have been my scientific aide, and who went off to pursue her studies, and useful agents, twenty or so jumps away, has started her own blog, at

http://caldariwhitecarnation.blogspot.com/

where, I gather, she is inveatigating the famed Epic Mission Arc.

I hope she finds that all goes two-by-two for her.

Fly safe, little one :: you will always be welcome back.

Is it really a journal ...

2009-03-16T09:15:00.000Z

... when what you do is just record that Nothing Special Happened.

Went on for a few flys -- nearly lost the Mach when one mission turned heavy. But finished it, and ended up, when the bounties were in, with my 7 figures. Learned a couple of new skills ... and then found I *still* couldn't fly the ship I wanted to. Missed out on the AKFT mining op -- but I can't fly a Hulk yet so ...

And drone-ratted. By which I mean, not ratting for drones, but ratting with drones. One of Mal's ships ( well, several of them, but this one in question) is fitted for salvage -- 3 tractors, 4 salvagers [[If anyone has built Salvager IIs yet, I would buy one]] and no weapons. But it has a flight of lights in the drone bay. SO I was trying those on belt-rats -- which were melting l;ike sno-cones in a furnace. Of course, you only get marginal loot, but it's fun -- or different -- or something.

Going to nap now

Urgh!

2009-03-13T08:36:00.001Z

I *hate* these compulsory training sessions. I mean, I quit Tech School, I'm earning (a little) isk -- and they still want me back for regular training updates.

Got back to the hangar, to find they're switched the ship-fitting system round, and they seem to have painted a dull-light-grey over it all -- I can just about see where the CPU meter is, but no idea, unless I look at the digital displays, what grid I'm using up.

And when I took a ship out, rastting, I find the belts *crammed* with rat-killers and all salvaging anything that doesn't move. Turned round, came back, got a good book, went to sit with poniez. They understand a tormented soul.

OOC -- Maybe

2009-03-12T11:17:00.001Z

I may be okay -- the patch loaded (after 5 hours, finishing while I was asleep) and apparently auto-activated, so that when I was woken, it was ready to try out. Which I did, and got Mr Skipperdoo for my troubles till the titles cleared, and then a tiny bit of lag, before bed called me back.

Tonite I'll try it, and maybe power down the animation settings and see if that improves it. But the weekend looks busy, so it may be Next Week, before normal oepration is resumed, and I can investigate Things. Like Tech 2 Salvagers, that I have been Waiting For. And the Skill Queue. And finding out what happend to Mal's container full of probes.

OOC -- Apoc

2009-03-09T09:30:00.000Z

Hopefully my system will be able to cope with the new graphics -- if it doesn't, Clear Skies everyone and I hope Wormhole Space, T3, and the Skill Queue are all that the adverts imply.

On the subject of adverts, I agree with the various posters who have said that we know CCP can make pretty trailers, but what we'd like are the ones that are drawn from actual gameplay footage, rather than idealised images of what will actually never be achievable

Down Time

2009-03-09T09:10:00.000Z

May not be on for a day or two -- rumour has it that they're closing the stations for a day, for system upgrades, and I don't fancy being out In The Black on my own -- too many yarr-ers out there for my taste, especially if the upgrades affect Concord.

But I'll be back as soon as I can.

So It Goes

2009-03-09T08:26:00.000Z

A mixed couple of days -- went back to Mal's hangar (since I had the time) and collected some more hulls. Dropped a Moa off to White Carnation (since she's going to be doing L2 missions and needs to be alive at the other end), and flew the rest up to my #2 depot.

Then learned the basic skills for using guns on one of Mal's BSs. of course, where I am is 1.0 sec, so there weren't rats to hunt. And his fititng includes a tractor but no salvager, so when I went to where I knew there were rats, I could shoot at them, but not salvage the goodies. But the guns work, and the 4 mixed drones seem to too.

And then, after an extended nap, and an hour on Presidents & Interns, I cut loose to see if the AKFT were around. Their channel was inhabited but otherwise silent, but later Belt Rider came on and I ran hauler for his Hulk for an hour, and mined scordite on the side (it was Bear's rigged hauler, which carries a mining laser up top), and then knocked off to watch CSI - Rens.

White Carnation

2009-03-03T08:28:00.000Z

... commed me last night. She'd got to her new station, and had apparently gone to find some work. Found a mining company who wanted Astrosurveying doing. Except when she signed up, the mission was to blow away some Amarr scum who were planning viral terrorism.

And her in nothing better than a dessie.

But she went for it, and apparently came out alive. The hardest thing, she said, was taking down their slaver ships, which are apparently chelonian-armoured and have guns on just in case.

Very proud of her, especially when I look up the ships she was taking on and find that, as well as frigates, she had destroyers and scram/web interceptory things. And this from a girl whose done next to no combat training in her life. I may have to buy her a cruiser and some skill books if she goes on like this.
And she was supposed to be coming to give me a hand with my bps.

Aitn't Dead

2009-03-02T08:59:00.001Z

Just been Doing Things. Couple of 7-figure missions (even one where, when I measured the stuff I looted & salvaged against the market (without looking for Best Possible Prices) I had made 2M in the one swoop); couple of short haul jobs and a "hand over 10K of ombar and we'll give you a standing boost".

And flying the Machariel -- yes, I know: silly Jenny, it's not insured etc. But the temptation was too much, and it turns out not to be too bad. In fact, as against, say a Rifter, it's awesome. And it has 1400s -- the ones they talk about in the bars, and the fitters' waterholes. Still can't fly Ogre IIs on it, but ...
As far as I can tell, it seems to work best at around 40 km, where it puts holes in cruisers quite nicely. And the light drones I'm flying seem to eat frigs for light snax.

White Carnation has gone. And without my help. She bought herself a Badger and I threw in the cost of some Cargo Expanders, and she packed all her gear (apart from some emergency ammo, and a mining / combat frig duo, in case she needs to shuttle back this way) and flew off to Somewhere Else.

Means it's me, DDD, and the AKFT (when they're around), and assume everyone else is an enemy.

Poniez well enough -- still waiting for me to bring the Freighter back so they've somewhere to run.

Fly safe !!
Jenni

Back -- Briefly

2009-02-27T12:23:00.000Z

Couldn't get my pod straight.

I was going to try flying the Machariel, but the pod was glitchy so I switched back to the 'cane.

Tried to mission and kept dropping my connects. Finally got lined up and spent forty minutes getting pounded by some EoM militants. About survived, and then decided to salvage what I could in a dessie. Had to do three runs before I had everything, and had it born in on me that, again, I have no idea of what's worth keeping, what I can sell, and what I should recycle.

All this time and still a n00b.

And White Carnation's moving out and down, so I'll need to fetch the freighter up to move her, as she doesn't even fly industrials.

The poniez are well -- but why shouldn't they be ? They aren't paying the stabling bills.

Did make 2 million out of the mission though, once I added the bounties to the meagre fee that the agent offered.

So ...

2009-02-13T08:18:00.001Z

Being licked by Pancho (the Wonder Ponie) may not have been a good idea -- I've had a fever for three days now. Been confined to bunk reading skill-boox. May eventually learn to fly Mal's Heavy Drones.

Does anyone know if there are User Guides out there to Heavies, or to Sentries ? Just to tell me what to do with them and how.

White Carnation's gone off -- heard about some missions back down in Essence, and went to look at them. I may need the Flying Brick back up here to move her stuff, if she stays there, and if I don't want to be Mammothing for days to shift what she owns. She's industrious, I'll give her that.

And in other news, I may be Out Of Touch for a few days -- there's talk of a compulsory Republic Military School one-week call up, for skill refreshing. I'm with tech, myself, but apparently, since I fly a BC and a Cruiser, I'm "eligible" (read: conscripted).

Bless me, but life's a beyotch.

Edited: to correct the incomprehensible bits.

An Interesting Couple of Days

2009-02-09T10:34:00.000Z

Went back to missioning -- managed my million (out of 3 missions), and then got one of those Important Faction Missions. I was thinking of turning it down, till I saw that the reward was 5 mill -- grabbed that and flew it as fast as I could. And then looked at my hangar and rearranged some stuff and ended up ducking down to [CENSORED] where I sold some stuff and made another 2 million.

Just in time, when Pancho the Wonder Ponie licked me awake, to find that I had a 10 million ISK bill for insurance. Since it was on the ship I mostly fly (Ourenaris) I paid it, and flew a couple of systems down to where some friends were supposed to be getting a mini-fleet together.

Wandered round a L2 complex for a while, popping reds in my Jaguar for fun, and then went for lunch. When I came back Bear was calling the fleet to arms, so I switched back to Ourenaris, and flew out. It took (the ususal) half-hour to get everyone sorted out, but then we were gang-warped to a gate and told we were going through.

I never did see two of the ships I was with -- Ourenaris is a BC, and I know we had a Drake and an Abaddon somewhere; there may have been another BS, and there was a little thing nipping round that might have been a Caracal -- in fact we may have had two of theose, in serial, one having had a slightly terminal experience with enemy fire.

We jumped.
Into a wall of red. All of them out of range of my guns. I closed in -- too eagerly, as it turned out :: they targeted me and my shields wilted. Aligned for a station and warped out with 25% armour, and set about repping. By the time I got back, there weren't many of them left, but since they had all picked their targets, I just whittled them down. Apparently the corp I was with had a dedicated salvager, so once "they" were all dead, we were recalled to base station pending reassignment.

The next one was the field of drones mission -- all of them 3hp, AC7, so we blitzed that. Then we did two more -- a one-room and a two-room. This time I didn't have to warp out -- I waited 10 seconds after the BSs went through, and then went for ships that were engaged. Got a string of frigs and cruisers on me at one point, but being Min, I just showed my heels and parthian-shot over my shoulder. Still, the 87K trip back to the others was a bit of a bore.

Then people started to go off to watch the Tournament, so we split up. I docked and went for a meal (without Pedro -- the station were a bit snooty about him (or her -- I'm not sure with Pedro)) and when I came back I totted up and reckoned I'd got around 1.5mill in my share of the mission fees, almost a mill in bounty shares, and 4 mill in my share of the salvage.

So I'm thinking I may take the Machariel out for a test fly -- Ghu knows what it will cost to insure her, mind you.

Metagaming

2009-02-05T11:36:00.000Z

Skill queue (that's the way I spell it !) -- Yay !! Even just for 24 hours'-worth, it will go some way towards avoiding the 2am log-in.

Vanishing of BoB -- Mystified. Never wanted to be in 0.0, but troubled insofar as, aren't G~Swarm the lot that send jihadists into 1.0 to kill carebears ? And, if they don't have BoB to wrestle with, aren't they going to go back to jihad for their yarr !! ??

In both cases, need to wait for the "official" line -- just how easy will the queue be, and will it be tied to certificates or similar mechanic ? And how was the AFKAB heist done ? Legitimately, with someone opening the gates to the Horde, or subversively, by impersonation and what-would-in-RL-be-criminal-fraud ??

We need to be told. In the one case, I'm confident we will be, once trial runs have ironed things out. But will it be in March, or is this on the "Ambulation" Real-Soon-TM bandwagon ??

Movet #2.

2009-02-04T09:51:00.001Z

Went all the way back to Mal's hangar, before realising there were no good ships there I could fly.

So I brought a T2 industrial back, and then fitted out a Vindicator I'd shifted halfway and flew that home. Not that I can actually fire the guns yet, but the low(er) lifes hopefully didn't know that. Can't even fly the drones, because Mal was good-to-go on heavies, which I'd been planning on looking at in a year or so.

And I fitted up one of his cruisers and found he'd dedicated it to salvage, so I now have something for mission-sweeping up that isn't a Mammoth.

I feel the need for some ratting coming on. Have my cocoa, and a cuddle with the poniez (who feel a bit Left Out with me away so much), and then maybe a long nap, and then perhaps we'll rat a while.

Movet ... or something like that

2009-02-02T08:51:00.001Z

So, the Machariel is home. Sorry to all the yarrs who wanted a bit of her, but I stayed in hi-sec throughout. And brought cargo with me, as well as the shuttle.

And I re-equipped one of the others, and flew a Mammoth, unloaded, back to Mal's base. Also flew the Brick back.

Didn't kill anything. Hardly saw the poniez, either.

And my training just grew by another month, to use the modules on the ships.

At this rate it'll be a year before I get to fly any of them for real.

So I had to miss out on the mining operation with the Orca -- still haven't seen it in action.

And everyone's going on about wormholes and T3, and I don't see how I can get in on that. Unless I get a clone, and a Rifter, and just go fly-about. Which might be fun. Or not, when I get blown away.

Oh, well -- back to the nappery. And the skillbooks

So I'm back

2009-01-28T08:06:00.000Z

. . . 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]

2009-01-19T09:07:00.001Z

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

2009-01-17T21:44:00.002Z

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)

2009-01-17T09:46:00.001Z

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 !!

2009-01-15T08:07:00.000Z

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, adn 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 thropwn 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)

2009-01-13T09:05:00.000Z

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

2009-01-12T08:11:00.001Z

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

2009-01-08T07:44:00.000Z

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] ?

2009-01-07T08:33:00.002Z

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 is was necessary to destroy, [it being in] Minamatar 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 ... )

2009-01-02T09:43:00.000Z

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 ****

Playtime for Poniez !!

2008-12-24T08:32:00.000Z

Went back to my guv'mint agent (word has he was paying well) and got 2 combat missions one after the other. Fat ones. Put it this way -- the poniez and I (all expcent Snoball, who is In Trouble, after they noticed he'd eaten three of the station's staff -- I *did* tell them not to go in after dark, but he's very good at whinneying in a plaintive manner) will have a good break on what we made.

The first one ended up worth 2.5 million with all the bounties, and the second one 1.25, and I had to keep breaking off, during the salvaging, to drop hold-loads of stuff at stations. Ran out of missiles, but that's sort of inevitable when you fire them off like fireworks.

And got some good sales on the market. Some stuff just isn't worth selling, so I've started reprocessing, in the hope of getting rarer minerals for some building I have in mind.

But that's all in the future. Once the poniez are all aboard, I'm flying off to one of the leisure stations, and Ursus and White Carnation are coming, and we're going to "hav a partay".

See you on the flip-flop, whatever one of those is.

Celebration #2

2008-12-22T08:28:00.000Z

My agent offered me a slaver-hunting mission, which I took because I hate slavers. Anyway, I found and rescued the slaves and then I get told that she (the agent) had another mission for me immediately. It turned out that now she wanted a whole bunch of slavers killing.

So I checked on what was entailed, and set off. Half way through, I ended up in an asteroid belt, and as there was plenty of time left to still get my bonus, and as I had my new mining cruiser a warp away, I put the "killing slavers" bit on hold and fetched the miner. Then it occurred to me that there was a *lot* of ore. So I commed Dr.Ursus and asked him if his Hulk was free. He came down and we tore into a field of ombar. Mind you, the Hulk chews 'roids at a pace my cruiser couldn't match, so a lot of the time, I was doing hauling.

After about 90 minutes we'd both had enough, but I was able to point him to where he could sell a hold-full of veld he'd happened to have, and I've promised him a skillbook or two from Mal's bequest.

Then I went back to slaver-killing. Now, the warning I'd had was that the second pocket aggressed automatically, and were *heavy*. So I looked round to set a book mark. But then I noticed that I was only partway into armour, and had taken out 2 frigates, so I repped, and kept my head down, and let the drones carry the fight, since all the slavers were locked on my ship. And we blew them all away. Good bounties as well, even if the salvage was a bit on the superficial side.

And when I added everything up, I had *2* million ISK, for the first time ever. Which is good because I spent 10 on getting a skillbook from the LPshop.

Now I *need* sleep

Short Note just to celebrate ...

2008-12-19T07:58:00.002Z

... achieving both my short term goals in 2 days.

The Gallente drone skill book came courtesy of a storyline courier mission which paid ISK rather than implants (I think I got a rise in standings, but it's harder to tell when you aren't so sure which faction to look at), and the new mining cruiser because my agent wants me to mine some, and because, when I looked in my main stash, I had almost all the fittings. So I just had to buy the hull and insure it, and then fit it "from stock". Just need the T2 expanded cargo modules, but I'll buy those as the oppportunity comes up and I earn the ISK.

Gave Spotted Julian his birthday party -- not that I'm sure when he was born, but this week's as good as any. I enjoyed the Put the Saddle on the Ponie game, but the poniez preferred playing Guess Which Nosebag has the Apples In.

7 Facts Meme (OOC)

2008-12-17T08:35:00.003Z

Courtesy of Sara Conna

And, due to the fact that everyone I can think of has already done this, I see no point in nominating anyone else (though if I knew where Chribba blogged ... )

1. I was once going to be a lawyer, till Cruel Fate (and a distrustworthy "friend") sabotaged that.

2. Arising from #1, I have actually been inside the cells of the Central Criminal Court in London, and come out alive.

3. I am intensely height-phobic: anything over one storey and I start to feel insecure (So now ask how I can fly a Minmatar ship with only a pod between me and infinity)

4. Inherited from my father, I have a deep-and-abiding love for the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan

5. I've visited (nominally) 4 of the 5 continents: I live in Europe, went to Florida once, did a day-trip stop in Cairo, and have been to China, Brunei and Thailand. Australasia/Oceania will have to wait till I'm retired and can go round the world, as I couldn't cope with the time it would take (Again, go figure: from someone who does 72 AU jumps)

6. I'm a heraldry maven in an English medieval-recreation group called the Far Isles, and over the last year have managed to acquire 2 library-standard texts regarding English heraldry, reading the which properly I *must* get around to, probably the next time EvE has a 3-day downtime.

7. I'm fatter and older than I'd like to be, but the one I blame on excellent food, and the other doesn't seem to reverse whatever I do.

And as a comment to someone else's meme-reply :: Yes, you kissed a girl; yes, you liked it; but ... did she kiss you back ?

So ...

2008-12-16T11:50:00.001Z

I tucked the poniez up with feedbags, and went out to try some L3s again. Except that the 2nd one I was offered was anti-drone mining and I forgot I got good slavage and I turned it down, and went to do some L2s. In and among I ratted, though, and made a small profit there.

Now have 2 goals -- earn enough to use T2 Gallente drones (since I have some); and earn enough to buy another mining cruiser, so I don't have to keep going fetching the same one. Which will end up needing a Mammoth to haul for it, but Mal's hangar has a couple of them, so as soon as I can fly his freighter (dot dot dot)

What he doesn't have is a duplicate of my mining cruiser. Mind you, it's just occurred to me that he had have an equivalent, and since I'm going to need to learn most races' Cruisers to fly what he's left me ...

This is going to take months, but at the end I'll have ships enough to spread round space so that I don't have to go far to get one. Plus he has enough BPs for me to build some more as and when I need them.

As to which, if anyone has minerals and needs some building doing, I have a limited set of BPs ...

I also have an appointment with the strawberry skin-care pool again, and then a couple of lambmint chops, I think.

Later
J

's Done !!

2008-12-15T09:32:00.000Z

Not that I'm saying farewell forever to the Sisters, but I'll take a week or two off away from them (and that plainsong!).

But I did my time, worked my way, earned my LPs, and then cashed them in for a Probe Launcher. Now I just need to find out how to use it.

With that, and a Cloak, I took my Cheetah (which needs a name, better than 'Denture Cleaner') and went to collect Mal's BPs (since I heard that you should travel BPs in something that can get away from attacks). Picked most of them up, as well as a share of his salvage, and brought it all home.

Then went out again in the Cheetah, and tried out the Cloak, by sneaking up on Bear and Chiana while they were mining. Somehow they spotted me (DNK how, but possibly because I shouted out to warn them of a rat).

Was going to do some ratting of my own in the Jaguar, but found I haven't fitted it with a salvager and don't have a spare salvage ship in the system. Suspect I'm going to be converting one or two of Mal's old ship for that job, when I get them freighted back. Which means when I have learned the skills to fly the freighter he has. Which will take a week or two. But then the poniez will have a new and bigger home (and some people to look after them -- I rescued some slaves from the Amari, and they seem willing to ponie-mind, for food.

Short and Shweet -- A good investment

2008-12-13T10:45:00.004Z

[Dictated on the way to the spa]

I may have said that I was grinding for a probe launcher from the Sisters. And that I was trying to do it 500 Lp at a go.

Well, went to see agent, who mentions a merchant gate being blockaded, and offers me 600Lp to clear it. And when I looked things up, it seemed that these guys might be susceptible to explosive damage. So I nipped out and invested in a medium drone with explosive damage, and booted out the one with Thermal or some such (not *out* altogether, just into the hangar for now).

And went, and played with the NME, and blew them away, and got 700K in mission pay and bonus and another 700K in bounties.

So I'm taking downtime off to lounge in a strawberry skin-care pool, and drink Pie-Eyed Warthogs.

See y'all later
Jenni
(who may already have had a couple of Warthogs, but never mind who's counting ?)

Beyond the Game :: GrandChild of Threadnaught (OOC)

2008-12-12T08:20:00.001Z

Okay -- Neither I (RL) or Jenni had anything to do with it :: we don't *do* lo-sec, and we don't do moon mining. Fact is, short of reading up on it, I wouldn't know how to moon-mine.

What irks me is less that the markets were flooded with insta-made whatever-the-h*ll-it-was, and more that people were able to use this mechanism to avoid paying for EvE.

The original poster makes much of this -- hadn't paid for his game in 4 years. And if he hadn't, what makes anyone think any of the other corp execs had ? So, people who in-game were making themselves immensely rich, were also, in RL, getting a free ride. And in the course of this they amassed large amounts of "ill-gotten" gains.
And now "all that has been taken from them" -- true. But the rest of us will actually be the ones who suffer because prices for materials will rise, which means that prices for gear will rise, and we will have to "work" harder to stay where we were. Meanwhile, the guilty ones simply rebook in under another name and IP address and are instantly back where they would have been, because their alt-accounts (Don't tell me, if you had the power to play free, you wouldn't set up more than one account) will be there, loaded with bear, to hand out the skillbooks and gear. Fine, they will have to relearn their skills, but they will also know which skills *not* to hurry learning.

In due course, of course, the panic will die down, and things will re-establish some kind of order. And then, doubtless, the next exploit will come along.

Cynically yours
JC

Not doing too badly

2008-12-11T08:27:00.000Z

My aim, all along this grind, has been to record 500 LP per shift. Which, given I'm working with Level 2 agents, giving me from 60 points a time up, means 5 to 10 missions in quick succession (before they forget who I am and how bad my pounded gundark sarnies smell if they keep me sitting round waiting for work).

And in general it works out well. This last shift, I'd just about done my quota when my agent calls me up (rather then me having to go ask for work). Turns out there's a suspicion of smuggling and will I go deal with it.

Well, the combat missions pay better, and I was feeling confident, so I said 'yes', and took off.

In the vent it was a bunch of Amarr slave traders, with frigate escorts. I remember when all I flew was a frigate. The baling wire was thin and the girders were fragile. Now I have my artillery .... Let's just say that a number popped with one shot. It took nearly an hour to get all of them and salvage the wrecks (memo to self: convert one of Mal's ships into another dedicted salvager and earn wnough to afford an Orca to take stuff round in) and at the end I found some viral DNA stuff which the Sisters had asked me to look out for, as well as several cans of Vitoc. Imagine my pleasure when, as well as paying me for the mission, the Sisters offered to buy the Vitoc from me for 6 figures.
I haven't added it all up, but I reckon that probably makes it a 7-figure mission even before I sort the salvage (which Dappled Barney may have strewn around the cargo hold last night -- he was a bit .... frisky yesterday).

All for now

Been Busy

2008-12-08T08:15:00.001Z

Mostly still grinding for the Sisters.

Went down to [LOCATION DELETED] to see over Mal's ships again, and settle which I want to move and when. Checked with the School and they say I'll need a third of a year and about a quarter of a billion ISK to learn all the skills I'm going to need.

Got some new poniez -- they were in a storage container that the Sansha had, which I sort of blew apart to discourage them (the Sancha, not the poniez) from trying to muscle in on Sisters' territory.

Saw my first Orca -- nifty looking ship. Would be nice to own one, but I think I'll wait till the price falls a little. I gather they're being used for suicide gank ops, but I'd really see mine more as a mobile base station to put a few ships in and some ammo and go and Have Fun.

Need to sleep.
J

Apologies for Harsh Language

2008-12-04T10:31:00.001Z

... but F* F* F*ity F*

Still grinding; still (therefore) getting periodical storyline missions. And they ask me to look into some Sansha activity, which I do, and then to find out what's going on, by attacking some transports, which my drones see to while I mop up crumpled wrecks. And then they want some stuff moved to another station. Which, of itself, I don't mind doing. But this was 600 m3 (so far too big for my BC), and 2 jumps into lo-sec space.

What the ****'s wrong with somewhere in Empire ? Somewhere calm and tranquil -- a Leisure Corp station, where I could get a facial and perhaps a pool boy. No -- it has to be 0.3 space.

I took the Hathi to truck the stuff (stripped down, just in case, so no poniez and no comfort gear -- not even my MP84 player), and then switched to a Reaper for the 0.3 jumps (which also wouldn't have had room for ponie). Which meant looking like a needle, ducking in and out of gates. So, my thanks go to the (about 6) guys who didn't gank me on my trips.

Did get some standings increases, but I don't know if that will translate into extra LPs for the missions I'm doing.

And I'm finding there are too many things that I want to be training, and buying, and not enough time or ISK.

'Nuff 's 'nuff

2008-12-01T08:40:00.002Z

If I see one more cattle ...

Mind you, I'll probably have to, so let's say another today.

All my agents want fresh beef -- and I have to transport it. Not to mention the t*rkeys. The cargo hold looks like a MidWestern farm. And the smell's beyond bad. Three poniez have had to go planetside to recover -- which isn't easy to manaeg when the planet your current main station orbits is a mineral extraction and refining centre. Have you ever tried (of course they haven't, jenni) finding fresh grass in the middle of slag-heaps, or places for poniez to gambol among rendering ovens. Gambling's different -- once you've loaded the ovens, there's not much to do till they've cooled and you can empty them :: Spotted Julian came back with 600 ISK he's won at Find the Oat Biscuit.

In other news, with things a little quiet at times, I got to play several rounds of Presidents and Interns and got my best character to Level 24. And LadyAngel got a new autopilot for her VoidAncer, which we test flew.

And now I'm going to check that the maintenace crew haave got all the cattle residue out of the hold, and then I'm going to do serious sleeping, before the poniez need feeding again.

2008-11-28T07:35:00.000Z

Hai! I greet you from temporary [quarters]. My last missions did not [go] very-well, [wherefor] I have taken up residence here for the moment.

My agent, who up until now had been calm and [rational] (and generous), asked me to seek out a research assistant of hers. Being [desiring] of advancing in scientific field I viewed this as an unequalled opportunity to make my [mark]. In the [event], however, this proved the beginning of a very precipitous descent. First the assistant ran away; then I had to test a data-gathering device, finally doing the gathering that the assistant should have done, both of data and of [samples], and then my agent suddenly announces that she wants a scientific conference blown up, using a tub of high explosives she had fortuitously happened to have anchored just off the space station at which they were meeting.

So I am taking [shelter] here, to watch the news for a few days and see if there are any [repercussions]. If anyone reading this, could kindly be sending me study texts suitable to my needs

... [TRANSMISSION LOST DUE TO STATIC INTERFERENCE]

The Grind continues

2008-11-27T08:50:00.000Z

But in an interesting way.

[Although for some reason, I'm getting *no* standings rises no matter how hard I mission]

It's agonising but I'm not getting the bonus missions, because I have to keep turning down missions into lo-sec (unless I have a throwaway Reaper available, and even then I'm risking all my implants). SO I'm rotating round a series of 60 LP courier missions, with the occasional combat -- but this time it was a 400 LP one, which got me well over target for the day, and (at last, and even though it was only L2) a seven-figure one once I'd added in the bounties. And I don't believe I ever went below 50% shield.

The "nerf" on missiles doesn't seem too bad yet -- I'm still using artillery first, and then the missiles, and they still seem to kill things. Finally choked off the 2nd chattergun, and switched in another arty, and I'm relying on one gun and the rocket launcher for close-up, along with drones, when they're not straying all over the back-field, attacking thigs 40K away when I could do with them Here And Now.

If only the drones were as good as my poniez at staying close -- mind you, I feed my poniez, so maybe that's where I'm going wrong. What do drones eat ? Does anybody know ?

J

Baling Wire and Girders

About halfway

Confused.dot.whatever

So -- been quiet

Dem Rocks, dem rocks, dem dry-y rocks

I *hate* days like these

Back in the thick of it

After an RL down-time

Poniez

In and Out and Back Again

Back and Still Frustrated

Razza-Frazzing Downtime !!!

With regret

Getting Some Back

And now

I don't Think ...

The Machine

And we're off

So, PI

Liking the Drones

Overdoing It

Apologies to

Sad Farewell (with shiny side)

Feels Odd

Maybe NotAScam

Mine, mine -- it's *all* mine (all right, ours)

Hulkageddon note

Didn't Mine but ...

More Mining

More Holiday

HoliDay

So I'm Richer and Poorer

Not the greatest of days

Been A While

Good News at a Distance

Not the Greatest

Not Good News

Back in the Sa-ddle

How to Get Blatted

Combined Ops

Fleeting Glances

So, yes, I've been quiet

Confluence -- Prologue

So, my drone training

So that's

The Question Now

I want to say

Can Flippers

O-o-C :: Browsing

More exploring

No Idea what I'm doing Wrong

A good Day's Work

More "More 'Stuff ~~' "

More 'Stuff for N00bs'

I may have found

Found the catch

Come to Jenni

Still Aintn't ....

Not Quite Dead in the Water

Take Care

Bird Flies Nest

Is it *really* a journal ...

Urgh!

OOC -- Maybe

OOC -- Apoc

Down Time

So It Goes

White Carnation

Aitn't Dead

Back -- Briefly

So ...

An Interesting Couple of Days

Metagaming

Movet #2.

Movet ... or something like that

So I'm back

[Replacement Post]

A Big Thank You

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

Bleagh !!

I hate days like these

Mine, mine -- it's all mine (all right, ours)

Is it really a journal ...