OOC Entry 70 - Did I promise something?

Well, I did.

I promised I would continue my story in a more timely fashion. But the week after I said that, one of my co-workers turned seriously ill. That coupled with my boyfriend's birthday suddenly made real-life obligations escalate in an uncontrollable way.

It will take some time for things to calm down, and I had to seriously reduce my online time. Unfortunately that also prompted me to leave Noir Academy and Black Legion for the time being. There is too much going on there to follow with the activity level I can commit to at the moment.

I also still have to finish the next part of my article on being a wormhole pilot. I hope I can do so this weekend. It's two thirds done or so.

But this was about the story. So here's the fifth part.

Things are developing. Our protagonists prepare to undertake the experimental procedure which is supposed to finally make Sylera's capsuleer control systems "normal" again, but danger waits in the wings and old antagonists are closing in on them ...

Blog Banter 44 - Local, the Universe and The Rest

The echo chamber is reverberating loudly with the subject of Local Channel these days, and Seismic Stan decided to put the subject out there for a Blog Banter.

"The local chat channel provides EVE players with an instant source of intel of who is in the system. With a quick glance you can tell who is in system and what your standings are to them. War targets, hated enemies, friends and corp mates all stand out clearly. Is this right? Should we have access to this intel for free with no work or effort? Should the Local chat channel even exist? Should normal space be more like wormhole space where the Local channel appears empty until someone speaks?"

Many others have already responded and there are opinions a-plenty.

I will take an entirely in-universe approach here. You will read points and arguments others have made already, but I hope I can still add something.

To begin with...

It has been stated, that capsuleers are registered with their Pilot Licenses by CONCORD. Along with that license, CONCORD keeps a file of the capsuleer which is in the public domain (how else would you get info on another capsuleer at all). As others have pointed out, that information is sent across the system by the stargates as soon as a capsuleer jumps in.

That concept works perfectly in Highsec and Lowsec but it quickly falls apart everywhere else. I will address the in-universe aspects of the different regions.

Lowsec

Lowsec systems are generally held by Empire factions. Those are bound by the Yulai Convention which established CONCORD and a number of other general rules of conduct. CONCORD has limited authority there. They still register security status violations, for example. That would also extend to the provision of a local channel information network to keep the playing field level for the contesting parties.

NPC Nullsec

Here we still have gates and they can register capsuleers, but CONCORD holds no authority there. The only authority is held by the local faction, be that the Thukker Tribe, the Guristas Pirates or Sansha's nation. Would they have any reason to provide information to capsuleers about roaming brethren?

Well, for some they would.

Capsuleers who have sufficiently high standing with a local NPC faction could actually be granted access to the gate transponder network. The game mechanic that regulates this would be the corporation's standing. If your people ran enough missions for the Serpentis, well then the Serpentis will let you know whether potential enemies enter. For everyone else local would work just like in wormhole space: A pilot only appears there if they actually say something. As for the rest, happy dscanning.

Sovereign Nullsec

Sovereign Nullsec belongs to nobody until someone sets up sovereignty structures. CONCORD also has no authority there. Gate operators would not have any reason to provide jump records to others except if those third parties have established full control.

In terms of in-game mechanics, such a solar system would function just like wormhole space does, until some faction actually upgrades the system to provide a local channel for themselves. This would require a specific sovereignty structure or an upgrade to an existing one like an Infrastructure Hub. The local channel would work only for sov-holders and allies, others will see an empty chat window until someone actually speaks there.

As with other sovereignty structures, I would argue that the necessary upgrades should be open to hacking attacks. A ship with a hacking module should be able to basically deactivate local chat for everyone and revert the system to wormhole-space levels of obscurity.

On top of that, I would argue that black-ops ships' pilots should not appear in local no matter what. After all they are moving in covertly with a covert cyno field. That should be worth something.


But, but ...!

I know, all of this has a lot of pitfalls and problems. For example, it would benefit the defender of a Nullsec system a lot, especially in NPC Nullsec. It would also introduce even more cost to the maintenance of sovereignty. Neutral small-gang and solo PVPers will have a harder time roaming through Nullsec.

I just wanted to take a look at the issue from the in-universe perspective, but not everything can and must make sense in that context.

OOC Entry 69 - What makes a wormhole pilot Part 1

Wormhole Space is sort-of hip these days. There are several varied blogs dedicated to it (and I don't mean mine). There is a new wormhole-themed podcast. Both  themittani.com and EveNews24 try to outdo each other when it comes to reporting on wormhole related events.

Still, it remains a minority program. Only about 5% of EVE players make their home there. That is about a fourth of the amount of people playing in Nullsec while the total of systems in Wormhole Space is not much smaller than the amount in 0.0 space.

In this article I will try to shed some more light on that last frontier of EVE Online and provide an overview on what it really takes to be prepared for a life out there among the few who have taken permanent residence in Wormhole Space.

The state of things

Wormhole Space is at the moment mostly occupied and frequented by four general groups;

• 1 Alt corps and utility operations

Whether it's a Nullsec alliance placing accounts in Wormhole Space just to farm ISK. Whether it's an industrial Highsec corp mining there or whether it's an operation to strategically supply Tech3 ships and components; theirs is the sort of wormhole operation which exists for nothing but a materialistic reason. Those people do not care about a wormhole-specific playstyle. They either have their main characters doing something else, or they are so detached that they see EVE as a metagame where they use ten different alts to form a complete gaming experience.

• 2 The frontier settlers

There are groups of people who just like the isolated frontier environment. They enjoy the mixture of good, lucrative PVE content and the occasional high-level tactical PVP. They are usually eclectic groups comprising "industrialists with teeth", bittervets fed up with Nullsec and younger players with an explorer's mindset. That kind tends to be fully dedicated to the "wormhole life" playstyle.

• 3 The PVP specialists

They are the sort of players who specifically enjoy Wormhole Space for it's unique PVP-related features. They will still grind ISK in the lucrative PVE environment, but for them that's a means to an end: Fighting in small gangs with advanced tactics and shiny expensive ships, including (but not necessarily) capital ships. They tend to be very much into being wormhole players but frequently show up in Nullsec or Lowsec conflicts.

• 4 The daytrippers

Those are a varied lot who come in from all regions. They are either individuals or groups of explorers who have heard that Wormhole Space holds immense riches. They are not particularly into Wormhole Space as a playstyle and often have overlaps with the alt-corp operations. They are not established in Wormhole Space at all and just come there on an opportunistic basis.

So who am I writing this for?

In this article I will mainly focus on groups 2 and 3. I will try to offer a basis for the reader to decide whether they could be part of any of those two groups and therefore become full-time wormhole residents, embracing that particular playstyle.

The baseline

You may have heard that Wormhole Space is only for very experienced and high-skilled players who can at least fly Strategic Cruisers and preferably a lot of other advanced ships up to and including Carriers and Dreadnaughts. That is only partially true, but there are a number of basic qualities you as a person and player would need to have to find a place in a wormhole corporation and get the most out of your experience.

Patience

There is very little instant gratification in wormhole space. There are no beltrats you can just go and shoot or missions to run. You wont find PVP targets easily and quickly. Even finding your way out of your own little system takes work and therefore time. In the lower class wormholes you can still do the PVE content alone, and you will likely have a static exit to known space where you can find other things to do. The further you move up the hierarchy of wormhole classes, however, the more isolated you will be, and PVE content requires anything from squadrons of ships up to small fleets.

Team Spirit

I already mentioned that you will need to find your own way out of a wormhole system and that you will have to work together to clear the various PVE sites. You will have to set up and maintain a Player Owned Station (POS) and Player Owned Customs Offices (POCOS). You will also have to cooperate to defend those against enemies. You have to be a team player on some level for almost everything in EVE except flying solo, but hardly anywhere else - except maybe small gang PVP corps - this aspect is as important as in Wormhole Space.

Proactivity

Wormhole corporations tend to be smaller than comparable outfits in the rest of EVE - certainly much smaller than the average Nullsec corporation. Because of that, they depend on almost every member to develop initiatives of their own. Often there is no large leadership structure that hands down orders or makes sure you as an individual have something to do. This also means that you can develop your own initiatives without having to ask for permission for every little thing. The exact policies will vary from one corporation to the other, but in general the stated things apply.

Trust and Trustworthiness

You are going to be in this together. POS security is infamously lacking. You are to some extent at the mercy of your fellow players and they are at yours. Apart from finding a way out, it is pretty easy to steal from a wormhole corporation. Because of that, they tend to be very paranoid in their recruitment. You will rely on eachother for scouting, intelligence, and mutual protection. It is often said that trust is the most important thing in EVE. Nowhere else will you find that to be more true than out there.

Maturity

It is almost an implicit requirement when considering all of the above, but it doesn't hurt to state it explicitly. Especially in Highsec and Nullsec one will often encounter people who like to spam local with smacktalk and links to questionable content or engage in trolling and griefing. In wormhole space such behaviour is generally frowned upon, both for practical reasons and a vague form of mutual respect. First of all, talking in local or opening a conversation gives away information. Your opponents will know that you are there and can collect information about you and your corporation. The second reason is a bit more difficult to explain. Because there are very few people in Wormhole Space to begin with, there is little reason to try and alienate them with aggressive verbal abuse. Also because of the small playerbase, there is a sort of mutual bond and little actual competition for resources. Finally there is a certain self-image among many wormhole occupants that they are above such behaviour. As a matter of fact, major fights can start because of transgressions. (1)

Skills and Ships

In the second part of this article, I will address this subject in-depth. Right here where I am writing about the most basic requirements for wormhole life I can tell you that there are a few abilities you definitely need to have:

• Use scanner probes: Train the Atrometrics skill and it's support skills Astrometric Rangefinding, Astrometric Pinpointing and Astrometric Acquisition. The minimum is to have Astrometrics to 4 so you can use at least 5 probes at the same time. This is the beginning of all wormhole operations: Finding your way in and out of wormhole systems can only be done by scanning for exits.
• Fly a covert-ops ship: That is either the Cheetah, Buzzard, Helios or Anathema. Your main advantage in wormhole space is being able to operate completely unseen, and those ships (and all others that can use a Covert Ops Cloaking Device) allow you to do so. Personally I would recommend training for the Cheetah or the Buzzard but all four of them are equally suited for scanning and flying cloaked.
• A solid PVE ship: This will vary depending on the corporation you would like to join and the wormhole they live in. Also your personal playstyle will influence this. For some it's about (gas)mining, others might want to concentrate on combat sites. In the lower class wormholes a decently fit Battlecruiser with good support skills will be sufficient for combat oriented PVE, but the further you go, the more you will see the need to train for Strategic Cruisers and Battleships. More on that in the second part of the article.
• Anchoring and POS defence: You will make yourself a lot of friends among wormhole dwellers if you can help setting up a POS and even actively defend it by taking control of it's turrets. Many corporations actually require you to do so. Those who do not will certainly be happy if you can.
• Hauling: Logistics (not the ship type but the moving around of stuff) is very important for wormhole life. You need to bring in ice products to fuel your POS, and you will not ever make a single ISK if you don't bring out products and loot to the markets in New Eden. To begin with, it is nice to be able to have a racial Industrial Ship skill at 4. Eventually you will find that it is very helpful to be able to fly cloaky haulers (Transport Ships) or maybe even an Orca.

At this point, you might have decided that wormhole life is not your cup of tea. Too much hassle, too much unnecessary e-honour, too much commitment or any other reason why you can't or wont fulfil any of the above criteria.

If that is so, then I wish you all the best with your chosen career in EVE.

If you - however - feel that the above appeals to you and if you think you can fit in with any of the two principal groups of wormhole dwellers, then stay tuned for my second part where I will go more in-depth on the issue of ships, skills, strategies and the various playstyles wormhole space offers these days.

+++

(1) Just listen to this episode of Down the Pipe about how a major wormhole fight got started.

OOC Entry 68 - I missed a week

Because of a week-long work assignment I didn't manage to publish the next chapter of my latest story last weekend as was my intention, but here it is.

I said I was going to experiment a bit, and I did by having a large part of the story being told in the style of a first-person account, something I personally find very difficult to do.

Like the other time I did this, the narrator is Caldari, and I always figured that the Caldari would use many figures of speech that are business-related because corporations are the backbone of their society. So the way how the narrator expresses things might come across as weird, but that's absolutely intentional.

I am already on the fourth episode for that story and still the narrative is mostly about setting the stage. This time another support character from previous stories makes his appearance as the plot thickens.

By now I have the whole cast assembled, and in the next episode, things will really get into full swing.

I shall see to it, that the next episode will be published in a timely fashion, so you can expect it to be online next weekend.

Blog Banter 43 - The Offbeat Award

For Blog Banter 43 Seismic Stan gave us a great assignment:

For the past two years I have attempted to do the same for EVE by distributing imaginary Free Boot Awards to an eclectic assortment of community luminaries. This year I thought it might be nice to expand the concept.

For Blog Banter 43 I would like to invite every participant to nominate their peers for whatever awards you think they deserve. Let's start the year with some EVE-flavoured altruism and celebrate the best and the worst of us, the funniest or the most bizarre, the most heroic of the most tragic of the past year. They could be corpmates, adversaries, bloggers, podcasters, developers, journalists or inanimate objects. Go nuts.


What I personally value above almost everything else is an independent spirit. Therefore, my community awards will go out to those who go off the beaten track and - simply put - don't do things the mainstream does.

So here it goes:

Down the Pipe Podcast 

For their running start with a program about wormhole space. Not only is that a theme dedicated to the smallest unified community within EVE, there is also not a single podcast dealing with the issue now that Lost in EVE has turned to different subjects. They delivered high-quality informative content from the first episode on and got many interesting guests featured on the program.

Keep up the good work

The Pod and Planet Fiction Contest

Who cares about "dirty roleplayers" and "lore geeks". Well Telegram Sam does. CCP, EON and Somer Blink obviously also do, because they sponsored prizes. Not a lot of people playing EVE care about lore, backstory and fan fiction, but enough people do to create 101 wonderful stories.

There is more creativity in this game than just out-metagaming eachother and superiour theorycrafting. It wont win you flghts, but it might win you hearts. You sure won mine.

Everyone who didn't join CFC or HBC last year

Can't beat the blob, join it, right?

Not in my book.

My admiration goes out to all the corps and alliances who didn't flock to the banner of the grumpy cigar-smoking bee or the business suit wearing dinosaur. I don't care whether you are super elite PVPers or carebears or  whatever. You have decided to do things on your own and deal with the consequences for better or worse. This is what makes EVE Online a special game: The fact that resourceful and creative players can find ways to slip hrough the gaps of established structures and do their thing no matter how powerful "they" are.

BTW, if you happen to belong to a certain alliance that managed to alienate everyone who might have been their friend: You did it the wrong way, sorry.

The people in my alliance

This is a sort-of honorable-mention in the above category. There was a time when I was away for the game for a few days. During those days, the people who are now part of my most dearest alliance in game got pressured to become part of one of the current mega-coalitions. When I came back from away-time I found out that we had been separated from our previous alliance leadership on grounds of not wanting to make that move.

I am thankful to this day that the people in question stood behind remaining free and independent.

Verge of Collapse

Not only for winning the tenth alliance tournament, but for bringing the fight to the mainstream nullsec crowd with relentless abandon.

In a comment someone called them the "PL of subcap warfare" because they dared to come out of their wormhole with a numerically inferiour fleet of T3 cruisers with faction-fit logi support to cheerfully blow up some CFC people.

Well, PL have thousands of people as allies these days. The people of Verge of Collapse do it all on their own.

They also took apart a small nullsec taskforce I was part of with only two ships.

Good work, keep it up.



So those are my 2012 community awards.

Fly creatively

OOC Entry 67 - And the winners are ...

So, the Pod and Planet Fiction Contest has concluded and the winners are announced.

Of course I did not win anything :P

To be honest, after the first twenty stories or so I actually thought I have a realistic chance, but the more entries came, the more better ones appeared. There were quite a few I would have chosen above my own, hands down.

Considering the list of winners I have mixed feelings.

There were several among them that I also liked a lot. In the pure fictional category, almost all the winners were among the stories I would have chosen from. Especially the first-prize winner Attrition Initiative made quite an impression on me for being a gut-wrenching and dark story. I like those. Personally I would have placed For Absent Friends higher. It nicely showed what crews endure as a consequence of the reckless callousness of capsuleers. At the end I almost cried.

In the in-game-character related contest bracket I was a bit more surprised by the choices. I was happy to see that Sugar Kyle was among the winners. I liked her little vignettes a lot. I was a bit disappointed that one of my favorite bloggers, Penny Ibramovich did not make it with her entry.

Now if it comes to stories who didn't win and which I would really have chosen as contenders, I want to name them here to give them extra kudos and more exposure because I feel that they deserve it.

• Hek: A Pirate's Story by Voodoo Williams - For being a well written in-character monologue that had me smile and laugh a lot and for the great funny twist at the end.
• Corruption by Da'iel Zehn - For offering a chilling re-interpretation of the EVE Wormhole collapse and how it happened. In-game lore says it was a natural disaster, but that happened so long ago ... who knows whether it wasn't like he wrote it. Well, he got an honorary mention at least.
• For the Children by Rhavas - For using a daring style by constructing a narrative from a number of excerpts and short episodes spanning decades and fitting them together into a story about how even the best intentions can be twisted to fit evil purposes.
• Vandalism by Drackarn - For taking a cue from the submission regulations themselves to come up with a creative and funny story that takes a look at faction warfare from a street-level perspective, literally. It was gripping and I really laughed at the end.
• Clouded Judgement by Seismic Stan - For turning a boring clickfest into a gripping story that had me riveted from the beginning even though there is no action as such. Also - as usual for Stan - the writing quality is excellent.
• When Brothers go to War by John Frek - For taking a very human look at the same pivotal event in the Gallente - Caldari war that the second prize winner Immortality Beckons uses as basis. I liked this version better, especially how it really made Admiral Tovil-Toba a character who felt very real. It took a few liberties with the lore canon, maybe that's why it didn't win anything.

All that being said, there were many stories with many good ideas, nicely crafted atmospheres and narratives. Among those 101 stories there were only a handful that really didn't do much for me at all (weirdly enough two of those won a prize. I guess that shows how different people appreciate different things for their reading pleasure).

In the end, I can only thank Telegram Sam and the CCP jury for their work and all the sponsors for donating prizes.

Until next time!