Diary of a Pod Pilot

Angels on patrol

As the once so quiet corner of nullsec I was based in has recently become the home to a new group of renters, whom did not take kindly to me working out of their home, I returned to lowsec to finish up the last bit of security status work left before I can once again enter highsec. Marcus joined up forces with me, having just finished training for a Hawk, and we plotted a course towards Black Rise. It is in many ways fitting that the Guristas would pave the path to my ‘redemption’. And then I don’t just mean because I had a cargo hold full of kinetic torpedoes.

After explaining the plan to cycle the belts in search of Guristas battleships, we set off, and were soon joined by Ethan Blacknova, the most recent addition to our roster. And when some time later Mjalnar – aka Zagamesh, whom is very much not dead to the great surprise of many – entered the fleet we had a fully-fledged hunting force. Of course, when having a ship capable of keeping capsuleers from warping off once engaged, and able to survive under sentry fire for a little while, it is only normal that our combat records saw some additions along the way. Nothing spectacular, but ISK is ISK, and cyno generators happen to sell well. The real profit we made off of capsuleers however came for a Cormorant which foolishly fired upon Ethan at a stargate. Not sure what that pilot was thinking, but the sentry guns quickly vaporized the destroyer. Lucky us, it was fitted with Tech II modules and had faction ammo loaded. Much hilarity as well when one of the locals remarked about the fool that “Weren’t you in a Cormorant just moments ago?”.

Determined to have my highsec access restored that very day we continued till it was long past my usual sleep time, but as I’ve now again awoken and am chronicling this, I find myself able to enter 0.5 systems. The rest of the way will be done through mission work.

SiSi first draft of Myrhial

The character creation tool is open for testing on SiSi, and while there is a lot of WIP still to be seen, here’s a first tryout at what Myrhial might look like once the winter expansion Incursion hits.

What I like about the character creation tool is the sculpting. It could do with a bit more fine-tuning on sensitivity, but overall it gives a great deal of control and feels intuitive. Also proportions and physics are taken into account, so no massive size boobs or asses on the body of a character that looks like she has a bad case of anorexia.

I was also told that CCP hired fashion designers to help with the outfits, and I must say they are gorgeous. Would like to see more though … in fact a whole lot more! And let us change outfits in the captain quarters come Incarna. Being able to change details like makeup and hair style would be neat too, and to make it really perfect a plastic surgeon.

The poses are nifty as well. The way your character poses might give a first impression about their personality, after all. The crossed arms and serious look do befit Myrhial.

My dislikes are the radial sliders when there are many options. It’s just too easy too skip an option by accident. I think adding click sound for each movement would help a lot, together with making it more sticky. Or just give us a dropdown list for when there are many options.

The long hair styles could do with some work as well. The one that I picked now stays true to the original, but damn it looks like she’s been suffering some major hair loss. And her forehead just looks way too big. But that might be because the hair inset sits way more back than it ought to be. Again, looks like hair loss!

I really look forward to what the final version will be like and will be keeping a close eye on the SiSi progress. After all this is made so much easier with the new SiSi launcher tool, which would almost get forgotten about. No more fiddling about with copying, the tool does it all for you. Good work CCP, this is the kind of stuff we love.

Welcome to the twenty-first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost who a few month ago asked “Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?” Is it? I’d like us to explore this even further. Is Low Sec being treated differently by CCP Games than Null Sec (Zero-Zero) or Empire space is? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither Alliance nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What’s needed? Or is everything fine as it is?

Having lived in lowsec — that “transition” zone in the middle between highsec and nulsec — for almost two years, and only now moving on from it, I’d like to take a quick look at lowsec specifics,  how I feel about them and what I’d change.

• Global Criminal Cooldown: If your ship is either fast enough, can cloak, or can tank gate fire, this isn’t going to affect you. Why then should it last a whole of fifteen minutes? Sure, it gives the victim the time to gather up friends to try and probe you down, but with bouncing safes and making new ones along the way that is easily eliminated as well. The only good thing about it I’ve experienced is that in gangs which will be affected by gate fire the FC will often ask not to engage low-profit targets like frigates or such. Still, the timer could be brought down a little and still retain that affect, say to ten minutes or even five.
• Sentry guns: They should scale based on their target, but also take into account a ship’s resists and (e)hp. Basically if they fire upon a frigate they should act like frigate sized weapons, and when they fire on a battleship like battleship sized weapons. Or if that is not possible add a gun for each class to a station or gate. And let uber-tank setups be able to survive them longer, and gank setups die faster.
• Security status: While it is a tad inconvenient to have your highsec access taken away, I can see why it is there. To give innocents some kind of protection through discouraging pvp. And it gives pirates something to be proud of. I don’t think anything should be done about it.
• Risk versus reward: Lowsec stuff could do with some better payouts. The addition of BS rats to belts was a good one, but other fields could do with some better balancing.
• Resources: Some (more) lowsec specific stuff to get people to come to lowsec would be nice.
• Missions: Add low level pirate agents and high quality level 4 missions to lowsec. And make the locations of them not spawn in either highsec or nulsec.
• Boosters: This is what I meant with more lowsec specific stuff. Gas is only found in lowsec and I believe also nulsec, and unlike minerals cannot be obtained through safer methods like refining.
• Factional warfare: One of the better things to have happened to lowsec. More targets for the pirates, more support for the non-pirates. And great rewards to be had for those active in it. Could do with some extra CCP love once in a while though, if only advancing the story to give people a reason to keep fighting.
• POS: Don’t know much about these things, but don’t have any complaints about them. Being able to anchor without standings needed is great.

And that was my short and to the point blog banter for this month. Hoping I still make the deadline. Now back to ratting security status up.

Participants:

1. CrazyKinux’s Musing: The Lure of the Wild
2. Banter 21: Arr, Yer be talkin’ bout me lowsec | TheElitist
3. Banter 21: Low-sec- Chocolate Heaven
4. Subs’ suds: Forever a noob in Eve: Low-Sec – the forgotten part of EVE Online
5. Blog Banter XXI – Lo-sec = Low Priority? | I am Keith Neilson
6. In the Ghetto | A Mule in EvE
7. where the frack is my ship?: Blog Banter 21: What’s good for the goose…
8. Blog Banter #21: Change? | Sarnel Binora’s Blog
9. Low Sec = Wild West ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
10. a merry life and a short one: Low Sec: I Wanna Talk to You
11. Low Sec = No Sec | Diary of a Garbageman
12. EVEOGANDA: Blog Banter 21: Friggin’ Low Sec
13. Drifting through the Stars: Blog Banter #21: Low-Sec – The Forgotten part of EVE Online
14. Captain Serenity: Eve blog banter #21 – Low Sec, The Forgotten Part of Eve
15. Low Sec: the Best part of EVE Online | Nitpickin’s
16. Aeroxe’s Assault – “Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?”
17. Eve Blog Banter 21 | A Scientist’s Life in Eve
18. Latro’s Bunker: Eve Blog Banter 21 – Low-sec
19. A “CareBears” Journey » Blog Archive » EVE Blog Banter #21: The Low Sec Conundrum
20. EVE Blog Banter 21: Low Security Space « The Nomadic Gamer
21. EvE Blog Banter #21: Where Now?!? – EvE Blasphemy
22. Low-security space is for people who care « EVE’s parity bit
23. Blog Banter 21 – Fish Heads and Baby Ruths
24. EVE on Real Life: Obsession with Lowsec
25. Stand by to Repel Boarders (Blog Banter 21) | Interstellar Privateer
26. EVE Blog Banter #21: Location, Location, Location « The Lathspell of Mithrandir
27. Blog banter #21: Stuck in the middle with you « Diary of a Pod Pilot
28. Persephone Astrid’s YarrJournal » Blog Archive » Living la Vida Lowsec
29. Freebooted: BB21: Low-Sec – If it Ain’t Broke, Introduce a Law-man
30. Flashfresh – The Pirate.: EVE Blog Banter #21 ‘Low Sec Needs Fixing? Yes but not too much…’
31. Nashh Kadavr’s EVE Blog: EVE Blog Banter #21, low-sec love…
32. New Eden History Student » Blog Archive » Blog Banter #21
33. Blog Banter 21: No Man’s Land « Yarrbear Tales