AnnonOMous

I know some people like a short blog, and this is very short, very quick, very blunt and very, very political.
 
FYI: CCP's DUST514 is going to be PS3 exclusive because:

“Apparently it’s because the PS3 is much better designed for online worlds and micro-payments”
 
Suffice to say, many hackers agree with this.
 
BTW, I have read as many news reports as I could before I made my mind up, so I do know CCP's reasons for doing this incredibly stupid act.
 
Also, I expect to get a lot of flame for posting this.
 
Disclaimer: I am an independent gamer.  The views expressed above are purely my own and not support by Sony, Microsoft or CCP.  Or anyone else for that matter.

As expressed in my previous blog, trust is a big issue in EVE.  So now I'm taking it up a level to the people who are running a corp, and want to get more members, or the opposite, a new player who's looking to join a corp.

First a disclaimer, I am not running a corp, however, my corp IS recruiting.  Unfortunately, I will not vouch for anyone claiming to know me through giantbomb, and will not support any EVE player who has been playing for less than 3 months.  Feel free to use my name in your application, and the link to this blog, but do not think it will guarantee you a way into the corp I'm in.

Disclaimer over.

Since I've started posting blogs on GB, I've gathered a lot of followers...  Well, 9 probably isn't alot, but I was only on 2 before I started my EVE blogs so 7 IS a lot in that respect...  so I thought I'd use my new found blogging capabilities to drum up some interest in Corps, specifically mine, but I think there is also a GB corp so I'll try and find and include the details for that too.  Ah!  What the fudge...  Just open a bottle of water without taking my eyes off the screen and found I'd picked up a bottle of 7UP...  Really just screwed with my mind...  Ahem.

Okay, no giant bomb corp that I could find any more, but  Cronus Miners has GB users, speak to Sacerdos87.

Right, so if your not interested in joining my corp or Cronus Miners, how do you go about it?

Ask in local, especially if you in a n00b system.  Or ask in the recruitment channel (more on joining channels later in my next blog on Friday 22nd (my next day off)).  Finally keep an eye out for corp's dropping cans in space.  They normally say something like "[Corp Name Here] looking for new pilots - [list of activites (i.e. Mining, Missioning, PvP, wormholes) here]".  E.g. "Knights Industrial is hiring - Missions Mining and Exploration".  With these cans, click on the one that caught your eye in the overview, then click on the show info icon.  You'll get a description of what the can is (normally a small secure can).  Ignore this and click on the image of the pilot who placed the can.  Go to his/her bio and have a read.  This tells you a bit about the recruiter's personality.  Then click on his/her corp Icon, which gives you info on the corp.  Many a time I've seen a can I liked the look of but when I get to the corp info, I see a little line like "Must have TeamSpeak" (more on TeamSpeak and Ventrilo in my next blog) or "US Timezones only".  These little lines are probably the ones you'll look at more than anything.  So the corp will give you a free Marauder (Very expensive and time consuming to fly Battleships) but you have to be an active pilot on AU Timezones.  Great if you want to fly battle ships and your Australian and play every night and at weekends.  Not so good if your in the UK, play a couple of hours every evening and only want to fly Cruisers...  (NB: This is a description of myself lol).  Take your time and find the corp that's right for you.  Unless your the type of player that causes everyone else to have trust issues, such as joining a random corp, working up for access to their expensive equipment then stealing everything you can to give to your friend who's been paying for your account since day one.  Which brings me on to my next topic.

Trust.  More precisely, how can you get a potential Corp recruiter to choose you.  Well, some corps (Such as EVE Uni) accept nearly anyone.  On the other end of the scale, some corps only invite select players who they've flown with for months.

Disclaimer.  Below is advise for new players looking to join a corp, or older players looking to find a new corp.  It is aimed at the sort of people who have a trustworthy history and don't rip off other player corps by stealing all their stuff in one night.  Disclaimer end.

Well, firstly, how old is you character?  The older your character, the longer you've been playing and the more experience you have.  Next, how many player run corps have you been part of?  If it works outs at more than 3 per year, you could be in trouble as recruiters might see you as a "corp hopper", someone who doesn't settle down for long.  If your in this boat, make sure you can explain why.  I've been part of 5 corps, the first 3 I joined twice, the 4th was my own corp and the 5th is my current corp.  My reasons for leaving the first corp was my account deactivated and I was booted for inactivity then allowed to rejoin.  The 2nd I moved to because of inactivty on my first corp.  I left this corp to allow my corp to place an POS in high-sec (there are various rules in placing POS, and various ways around them).  I left the 2nd corp to join a corp on my TZ, which I got booted out of due to account deactivation again and was allowed to rejoin.  The 4th corp, I made with some friends, who all went inactive, so I joined my 5th corp.  Like a real life job, being able to explain why you left your previous employers can boost your chance of getting the new job.

Finally, what's your goal?  Some people might go, "I wanna fly a Titan (biggest ships in the game)".  Coming from someone who's only a month old, will get you an instant reject.  That may be your goal, but don't say that, say instead your aiming to fly [EVE Race here] Battleships.  Your more likely to get support for BSs than a Titan, and you need to get your Battleship skills to max before you can fly a titan anyway.  My goal in EVE is to be a fleet commander.  Lot's of people take the piss about this, but then I go "check my certificates, I have already maxed out my leadership skills".  Then they look and soon stop laughing.  Make a claim, provide the proof.  Outside of combat, saying you wanna be a hulk pilot is a generic goal for Industrial pilots.  Freighter piloting is a good secondary goal for that too.

And if you can't find a corp, don't sweat it.  You could get a group of friends together and make your own corp.  Knowing people IRL is a lot easier than of the internet.  If they stab you in the back in EVE, you can stab them in the back in their home.  But I would advice against this unless you have a really good alibi.

Once again, you can find me in EVE as AnnonOMous, same as here, I'm a member of Knights Industrial.

Fly Safe

If you know what your doing, you can make ISK from planets in any part of EVE.  The only problem is that it takes longer to get back you initial investment in high sec.

I think, one of my high sec colonies cost me around 10mil ISK to set up (after fine tuning) and get's me a return of 600k ISK a day.  So it took me between 3 and 4 weeks to get my money back.  On the other hand, one of my w-space colonies cost 15mil ISK to set up, but gave me an income of 1.4mil a day and only took me 8 days to start making a profit.

If you look after your planets, they will look after you.

(BTW, in no way at all do I use planets as my main source of income.  I run the extractors once a week, and once a week I fly round picking up all the items made.  And once a month I go to Jita.  Every month, I put my PI stuff up for sale, and receive in the region of 30-40mil depending on prices.  This is only 1mil per day, but it's not much effort to run PI once a week.  Easy money.  The only money I make easier is selling data cores form my research agents.)

From someone who has 6 colonies going, following this video will balls up your efforts.

Speak to someone from EVE uni to get decent instructions.

Firstly, don't get storage buildings, get launch pads.  They have twice the storage, for a little extra CPU.  At higher levels, you run put of power before CPU.  Also, position factories as near to storage area's as possible.  Don't place them between ECU and storage, you will only waste valuable power.

@ hoodie.  I'm bad at blogs.  I dont' make them often.  I just assumed that if someone were reading an article about eve, (rather than say a review) they'd already have some knowledge of what was what.  Certainly, to eve players, all the hauling ships mentioned are easily recognized.

@ Joru.  Everyone is new to a new game once upon a time.  Let's say...  Halo Reach.  Maybe you've played it, maybe you haven't I could have said any game.  When you start (in particular multiplayer) you don't know the layout of maps, you don't know what weapons beat what armour and you don't know what tactics other players are likely to use.  If you get totallt pwned in your first match do you give up?  No.  Eventually, you start to take the quickest route a to b, you take the sniper instead of the shot gun for this map, and you camp yourself in that little hole to the left, rather than the big platform on the right.  You learn these things with experience.  EVE is the same, just on a much larger scale.

If you get lucky, you can find someone (like me) who's willing to help you.  If your unlucky, you run into someone who pretends to help you, but helps themselves more at your expense.

As for being inferior, don't worry.  EVERY PLAYER in EVE has something they like and the focus on that more than anything else.  Eventually, you stop being a n00b.  And then the next thing you know some random player is calling you a Vet and it makes you feel really old...  Seriously, someone pointed out that my character is nearly 4 years old.  EVE is 7 or 8 years old.  Go figure.


Finally, comparing EVE to other MMOs, let me show you a pic a mate linked me of facebook.

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=1870256151534&set=o.164194223636262&theater

If you can't view it, let me know and I'll upload it to GB separately.

AnnonOMous

Recently, playing EVE, I've had a lot of trust issues.

Not about the people I trust but about the people who trust me.  I like to help other people, and if there's something I can't profit from, I'll gladly pass it on to someone who's willing to give it ago.  Recently, I've been doing more and more exploration.  I've always done this as something to do that's different, but now I'm doing it almost everyday, it's nearly my main activity.

So when I find something that's really worth the time and effort, I call in my relevant contacts who are online, and well...  It goes something like this:

1: Meet up
2: ???
3: Profit.

No joke.  That's really how it works.

But now, lets say my girlfriend (who I might note, also plays EVE - Yup that's right, GIRLS PLAY EVE!!!) is coming over to mine one night.  Sometimes she's really pissed off with something and I've got to give her my full attention or else the something becomes me.  But I've just found the gold gem of a site in exploration.  What do I do?

Well, EVE is a game, so I give up on it, but even so, there's a chance I can profit from it.  How?  I just go to the local system channel and say "Hey, anyone want such-and-such.  Seriously, giving it away here."

The response?  "Scammer", "n00b", "think we're gonna fall for that?"

The thing is, I'm even willing to hand over location details in such a way that there's no danger (or as low as I can make it, there's always danger in eve) to either player.  But still no one wants to take a chance.  It really hurts me that nobody gives you a chance in EVE.  The few contacts I have are brilliant people, that took that chance on me and who made money thanks to me.  But now I've moved to new pastures, none of my contacts are around.  And everyone is sceptical of a guy offering stuff to good to be true.

So I'm gonna say it here and now.  If I make you an offer in EVE, you can bet your EVE life it's worth it.  I want to be a trusted person, like Chribba.  But someone need to take that first gamble.

Look me up in-game, AnnonOMous, member of Knights Industrial.

Yo I play EVE.

I'm always getting nuked a few hours after getting a new ship, thing about EVE is, if I speak to the right people, at the right time for the right favour, I get the ship back plus more.

The thing with EVE is, it's not what you know, it's who you know.  I can sell random stuff to some people for pennies, but later find a regular customer who'll pay pounds.

And EVE is constantly evolving too as are the players.

Look me up, AnnonOMous, if you start playing again.  If I can't help you, I'll know someone who can.

Right, first thing...  I'm not actually sure if today is my first day in my fourth year but it sounded right to put it...
 
I've just read a blog about some guy's first days in EVE, so as a veteran player (I've clocked up at least 3years, I know that much!) I thought I'd let people see what I do in my days.
 
First of, I did some orientation checks.  (Where am I, where are my ships, where are my friends, where are my enemies - these things will become natural to you by this stage of play).  My Harbinger (a Battle Cruiser size combat ship), my Runner (a small general purpose shuttle), my Magnate (a basic scout ship) and my Covetor (a mid-level mining ship) were all with me in my current station.  Good.  However neither my Orca (big-ass mining support and hauling ship) or my Sigil (small and relatively quick hauling ship (in general, all haulers are slow)) were one jump away in another station.   Bad.   If I needed these it would take 10 mins to go and get them.  In my EVE, time is money.   However this cruel PvP event called Hulkaggeddon is on at the moment so neither of these ships would be needed...
 
Next, hoped in my Magnate whilst scanning the channels for potential wingmen for the day.  No one :( .  Did a full scan of the system and located 6 combat sites and an anomaly.  Further analysis showed the anomaly to be a wormhole.  I didn't bother finding out where it went.  Time is money.
 
Docked up the Magnate and swapped to the battle cruiser.  Took out the combat sites (veterans will call this overkill, I call it easy) then docked up again.  Spoke to one of my agents and got a mission, saw that my girlfriends had just came online so I rang her up IRL and asked if she could run salvage for me.  (It's easier to speak on the phone then type constantly).  She said she was free and hoped in MY shiny new Noctis that I'd given her and she hadn't yet given back.  (One day, I will discover her password - note: this would be against the EVE EULA but it's not like my gf is actually paying for her account either!).
 
So, with my Harby I entered the mission site.  Empty at first then the rats showed up.  After ensuring all the rats were attacking me, I launched my drones and set them upon the smaller enemies (they guys that were too fast for my guns to hit).  Then I signalled my girlfriend to come on in.  As I poped the cruisers and my droens took out the frigates, the wrecks started to pile up, limiting my ability to use my overview effectively.  No big deal, as soon enough, the Noctis was eating wrecks nearly as fast as I was making them.  Just as the last enemy went boom.  An NPC battleship spawned.  Not a problem for most mission runners.  But a problem for me.  I recalled my drones as the BS tried to attack one of them, then launched them again when he was focusing on me.  My tank was holding up well, and with the combined force of my lasers and droens, the BS fell, signalling the end of the mission.  I left my girlfriend to clear up the last of the wrecks whilst I turned the mission in.
 
Already bored of killing NPCs, I had my girlfriend send me her Bestower (a larger slower version of the Sigil), fitted a basic tank setup that would last 30 seconds tops if I was suicide ganked (hopefully long enough for Concord to deal with the suicider(s) and flew out to several planets where my colonies were hard at work making me items to sell.  I moved one particular item from planet A to planet B, since planet B could turn it into a much more profitable item.  With my cargo hold near full with stuff to sell, I decided to head to Jita.  On my way, I study my skills and made a short plan of what to train for the next week or so.
 
With that done I looked through contracts to see if there was anything cheap I could buy to sell on.  I found a nifty little auction going.  Current bid was 41mil, and of the 20 or so items in the auction one of those was worth 40mil on its own.   Knew this since recently, I'd had to buy said item to upgrade one of my ships.  A bit of research showed me, that in total, the top 4 items were worth 80mil.  With less than a day to go, I figured I'd put in a bid.  Best case scenario, I get a load of items I can sell on individually for profit, worst case scenario, some other guy on EVE makes less profit from the plan.
 
By this time, I'd gotten to Jita.  EVE's biggest market hub.  I docked up and started looking at the market value of the stuff I was selling.  A few things, like very low amounts of faction ammo that I didn't use (most likely I'd stolen from a bait can) I sold straight to the highest buyer.  Lower profit, but I got the money straight away and other people wouldn't buy such a small amount on it's own if I had put it up to sell.  The big items in my hold I put on open market rather than selling directly.  On average, I sold for about 20% ISK (the currency in EVE) than if I'd just sold to those already looking to buy.  Easy money, though it can take a few mins for someone to buy.  Sometimes it may even take a few days.  After about 30 mins or so I'd sold so much, that if my empty hauler got blown up on my way "home", I'd be able to buy it back twenty times and still have change.  Haulers are cheap.  What they haul isn't.
 
So, back home I jumped back in the magnate didn't find anything interesting so I told my girlfriend that I was logging off to play Bulletstorm.  I asked her to keep an eye out for a guy I needed to speak to about a manufacturing job.  She said she'd ring me if he came on. 
 
==================================================================================================================================== 

If all that sounds mundane or boring, it's the way I've explained it.  You'll notice a lot of what I did today was solo.  Some like to play EVE that way.  I've had to play EVE that way because it's hard to find people you can trust that play UK time zones.  Not everyone in EVE is out to get you.  I'm definitely not, it's not in my nature.
 
On what I call a fun day, I'd probably store my harbinger in another players orca, use my magnate to find a wormhole, then guide my orca pilot about half a dozen miner and a handful of combat pilots into the wormhole.  On the other side, I'd find a asteroid field, send the combats in to clear it, then send in the miners.  I'd stay in the magnate for a while, finding more comabt sites to keep our killers happy (and to make more profit by selling the NPC loot).  When our time was up, or when the miners were done filling the orca with ore, I'd guide everyone back to the wormhole and we'd return to our normal homes whilst the group leader sold the ore and loot the divided up the cash.  With luck, the Harbinger wouldn't need to be used at all.
 
In EVE, you can do what you like, with whoever you like.  Some people do mining, some like to bust up NPCs and some like to bust up other players.  I'm the type of player who has no solid focus, I do what I like when I want.  If some guys are flying a mining op, I'd offer to bring in my orca to haul or provide support, or I'd fly the cov and help fill any hauling ships quicker.  If a group I trust are going into low sec, I'd fly an Arbitrator to support them rather than fit loads of guns and be one of the guys doing the shooting.
 
Right now I'm actually looking at upgrading my Magnate into an Anthema, but I don't have the skills for the Anthema, yet.  This only takes time, since I can easily make enough ISK to buy an Anthema in little over a day.
 
In game, I'm AnnonOMous.  If you want to hook up, just send me a message.  If you want ISK, sod off.  If you want help, let me know the details.  If you want to give me ISK, thanks, money for nothing is always a good thing.

UK Players can look up my corp current Knights Industrial and Rest of the World can apply to my old corp Anti-Macro Decimation.  Both corps are vPVE and Industry.  Anti-Macro Decimation have alot of PvP contacts.  If applying, say my name.  No promises either corp will hire you but you never know.
 
Also, in-game I'm AnnonOMous.  Same as here.

Somehow, I wound up preordering 2 copies of the game...  One in the Legendary bundle, one in the Reach Limited Edition 360 Consle bundle.  I'm gonna be spending £340 ($523) on Tuesday... I don't even know why I'm buying the game, I'm not exactly a big fan of the franchise...