Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, 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 tocrazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who’ve been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has your gaming style evolved through the years or months since you’ve started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance – say manufacturing. Let’s hear your story!

Getting near to my third year in EVE — I started in August 2007 — and I still haven’t seen it all, though I’ve certainly been around. Being a carrier pilot is something that will get ticked off this year, after which I need a new list. And while I never say never, 0.0 sov and all it entails is something I hold no real interest in, which is the only area I’ve not really poked my nose into.

A short summary of my carreer could be described as carebear gone pirate but remaining true to that carebear side. And then there is the constant of roleplaying all through the years. The specifics? Well, keep reading.

Alts

• Same account: Valnurana, my trader, newbie hauler and alliance executor resides on the same account as Myrhial, as for a long time I was very stubborn about getting a second account and did not have the income to pay one with PLEX. She’s mostly retired now. Also have the placeholder CEO for Ghost Festival sitting in the third slot.
• Different account: Faber Demaunier is my miner and has taken over the role of hauler from Valnurana. She will eventually take over the role of trader too. Will probably go down the path of research and manufacturing in the future, or mission running, or even both.

Carebear

• Exploration: A constant throughout my career, with which I share a love / hate relationship. Have gotten a rare few good catches, an overall steady income when focusing on radar plexes, but also a great many sites that just were a waste of ammo. Primarily focussed on these in lowsec.
• Research: I have personally researched all blueprints in my possession and aided PRELI with researching blueprints which were payment for the POS tower they received in exchange.
• Manufacturing: Mainly making my own ammo when running missions, or produce rigs for my own use to save some ISK on fitting ships. A few months back I finished Production Efficiency V and started buying up cheap salvage to create rigs and sell them at profit. Not a bad income for the slight effort it takes.
• Mission runner: My earliest source of income. Have done both combat missions and couriers in highsec, lowsec and nulsec, and have worked for the Caldari, Amarr, Thukker and Angel Cartel.
• R&D: I’ve got five agents working for me and once every few months I blitz through highsec to collect my earnings. A nice wallet booster but not as good as it used to be back in the days.
• Mining: I once mined in a Procuror — lol terrible ship — in lowsec just for the sheer lulz. I still get poked fun at for that. When I was a wee lil’ pirate I mined a few lowsec gneiss plexes in an Osprey, but other than that I leave this to Faber.
• Wormholes: Potato RR fleets make quick work of Sleepers, and getting near 100 mil a person for a few hours work is great. While quite dull in itself — point drones at broadcasted target and sit back — the vent chatter does get me through it.
• Trade: Mostly marging trading and probably where I’ve gotten most of my ISK. I’ve also invested in shares and IPO’s, all but one payed off, the one that didn’t was due to the player vanishing into thin air. Not sure if that was an intended scam or not. Have also done some resale for people, and selling goods on their behalf with getting a cut of the profits.
• Planetary interaction: Running a nanite repair paste chain spread over two accounts, with Myrhial working on five planets and Faber taking care of the sixth.

Pirate

• Ships of all sizes: I have flown T1 / T2 frigates (with the exception of ewar frigates), destroyers, T1 / T2 cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships into pvp combat, mostly fit for pvp but the few occasional encounters in pve setups have been there as well. I fly mostly in fleets but have also tried my hand at solo combat.
• Faction war: Busting plexes or simply clashing with a militia group, picking off stragglers from large fleets and even opening plexes to bait targets inside, faction war offers a variety of strategies and was where I really learned to pvp. Operation Bold Harvest will always hold a dear spot in my heart.
• Mission busting: This has got to be the most profitable kill till date. Delicious faction loot. Not all are like that though, and it is usually newer players you catch because they aren’t watching the scanner or even unaware of probes. The bulk of targets in Operation Longshot were of that kind.
• Ransoms: A rare occurrence, not because of a lack of trying but because a situation has to lend itself to it and then there is still the willingness of the target to pay up.

Roleplay

• RP corp / alliance: All corporations / alliances I have been part of have had roleplay as part of their activities. My character has undergone quite the transformation, from State loyalist to Cartel loyalist. While this has had a certain impact on her personality as well as her cultural thinking she’s still very Caldari in her ways.
• Channel RP: From bars to political discussions, I’ve been in a fair number of channels. Favorite hangouts are The Skyhook and The Last Gate. I’m one of those eternal lurkers in The Summit as well.
• In character blogging: Been slacking on this a little — and blogging as a whole — since I’ve stepped down as CEO, but for the two years I’ve been blogging I’m at around at least two posts a month.

Leadership

• Corporate: Have been a director and later on a CEO, now serving as shadow CEO while I take out some more time for myself. Don’t worry though, Naraka will be back, no matter what people are saying or assuming. I’ve already got so much ideas on where I want to take the corporation and being in Veto has been a very enlightening experience so far. Someday I hope to chronicle my experiences in a guide for beginning CEO’s and directors.
• Fleets: PVE and PVP, I’ve been FC, backup FC, backup backup FC and logistics coordinator. Having invested in learning leadership skills I’m also serving as fleet booster when needed.

Participants:

1. CrazyKinux’s Musing: The Heroes with a Thousand Faces
2. StarFleet Comms: Life. Evolved.
3. A Carebear’s Journeu: This Carebear Thinks He Is Developing Teeth
4. The Elitist: Our ventures in EVE
5. A Mule in EVE: From a guppy predator
6. Travels of the Ronin: Evolution and Adaptation
7. The Ralpha Dogs: The Past Through Tomorrow
8. Where the frack is my ship: A journey, not a destination
9. I am Keith Neilson: 7 Year Itch?
10. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah: Evolution Me
11. EVE Opportunist: A long history of a short time
12. Roc’s Ramblings: Things Change
13. Guns Ablaze: Onwards and Upwards
14. EVE On Real Life: Haven’t you grown up yet?
15. The Fang: The path of the ninja
16. EVEOGANDA: Whoops Apocalypse!
17. EVE SOB: Learning to swim
18. The Life of a Dead Jester: My Time with EVE
19. Personal Files, Ciarente Roth: Personal Diary 18.6.112
20. Learning to Fly: Change is Good
21. Depths Unknown: Falling With Style
22. Morphisat’s Blog: Jack of all trades
23. Sarnelbinora’s Blog: Thoughts of EVE
24. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: It’s the yellow box, stupid…
25. Adventures in Mission Running: My path amongst the stars
26. When 11 Ninjas isn’t enough: First days in the North (continued)
27. Lost in New Eden: My EVE Life So Far
28. Life in my Hole: How My EVE Experience Has Evolved
29. The Lathspell of Mithrandir: EVE-olution
30. Chocolate Heaven: Recurring Themes
31. More as they get published…

[Delicious Tag: eveblogbanter18]

Decided to remain in Goinard a little longer after Sunday’s interceptor operation. Earlier I had made my way to the cloning facilities to jump there and overheard a conversation between two Cartel raiders about a large shipment of Absinthe that had been intercepted. Couldn’t help but to think of Vincent, and how I had utterly failed to stay in contact. So yesterday, after meeting some of the Ghosts at The Skyhook I headed down to The Last Gate and surely there he was sitting at the bar, a glass of the green drink at his side, waving me over as soon as he saw me.

Two months since he left Ghost Festival, yet he hugged me as fondly as if it had been yesterday and offered me a drink. Decided a traditional glass of Absinthe was fitting for this reunion. I was glad to hear his soul-searching has been going well and his life is less of the chaos it used to be. He also told me — or well, I actually overheard it slightly before that — that the Guristas have invested in Veto Corp. Interesting. I’ll have to ask Ethan for some more details.

Kimochi walked in a little later and joined us. Had been a good while I had spoken to her outside of corporate channels. I am pretty sure that despite her affliction part of the fault lies with me there as well. Gods and spirits, I’m really a poor friend. She liked my compliment about her eye-patch though. After what happened to her she’s still one of the most graceful and charismatic women I know. Yes, there’s some envy there.

We spoke on the topic of the Scavenger Hunt that Jude is currently running. The concept is simple: If you have one of the modules or items from the list on your kill record you can claim it and receive a point. The prize of the contest is made up of what loot is recovered and additional donations, and the one with the most points wins it all. Everyone agreed it is an excellent motivator to go out and take a little more risk than usual to get into an engagement and learn from it. I’ve grown used to Jude’s “reckless” style of flying by now, but Kimochi still felt a little bad still about the loss of her Harbinger on Tuesday. Since I am actually doing rather well on the Scavenger Hunt I plan to stay in Goinard some more now I have the time and reason to roam through the void. Hope the Dominations won’t mind.

The feed starts with a birds-eye view of a docking bay and the adjacent hangars, recorded from an overlooking balcony. Crew are loading and unloading various containers and crates, and repairs are in progress. The ship hull is easily recognized as a Drake class battlecruiser.

Such a magnificent piece of Caldari technology …

While Myrhial narrates the camera drone descends and focuses on various activities being performed on and around the ship, lingering as long as it stays interesting. Most personnel doesn’t notice but those who do greet the viewer with a grin or nod.

… and such amazing performance.

By this time the drone has ascended again and settled in the air in front of the balcony. Myrhial is leaning forward, arms folded on the railing, gaze resting dreamily on the vessel below. Her unusually happy mood softens her overall cold appearance. If it weren’t for her PRETA uniform, dark makeup and the crisp clear white hallway behind her brandishing a large golden corporate logo in the marble floor she could be mistaken for that same young woman working so diligently for the State now almost a year and a half ago. The spell is broken the moment she changes her focus to the viewer and chuckles.

The Drake was the first ship I really felt connected with beyond the wires. I still remember exactly how I lost it. Duty declared war on us, something about dealing with Guristas, it all went above my head back then. Being so freshly graduated I was occupied with settling in and build up some funds running errands for the Navy. I suppose not seeing them in the neighborhood lulled me into a false sense of security that I took an actual ship hull out while picking up the modules I had purchased for it. And then there was Vanden to intercept me on a stargate. No surprise I lost the “fight”. Not much of a fight missing modules, having no microwarp drive to escape and lacking the damage capacity to overpower the attacker. I ended up forgiving him though, a while ago when he spent a brief period in our ranks.

She pauses briefly and smirks.

And just a while ago I effortlessly destroyed eight ships in two different systems with the very same kind of ship. It was a thrill to see how much damage the missiles did, and in the second engagement the shields also got throughly tested. A shame Whittenoom’s craft was worse off, and Rathnon escaped just in time. I decided to retreat as well as the remaining enemy forces were taking their range tempting me to pursue them. I really didn’t feel like staying and dying to reinforcements.

It is remarkable to witness how much training pays off since I last flew a Drake was back in Derelik. While this current setup is far more tuned for raw damage rather than survival she did so well the militia forces left me alone and went for the Myrmidons instead.

Another pause, and she adjusts her posture to standing upright.

But I start to repeat myself in all this excitement. I am off to the Last Gate for some drinks. I know just the way to celebrate my new found love for Caldari technology. Karlos better have some fine Hak’len in stock. This time I will make an exception and drink it alone.

The feed fades to black and displays the corporate logo before cutting out.

We’re getting better and better at this. Saturday we took out four targets in just one and a half hour during a scheduled tech I frigate operation. All targets also lost their pod, due to refusal to pay ransom or failure to respond, resulting in our security status suddenly looking a lot more fierce. This being the most succesful planned operation until now, as well as the jovial banter over voice comms, resulted in the mood soaring high.

For celebrations we headed to the Skyhook. While we ended up toasting to business and success things nearly turned sour when Milo fainted suffering side effects from unplugging the illegal implants he had been using back in Asteri Rising. He was quickly released from sickbay however and Vincent adviced him to seek out help from Serpentis Inquest. Despite Milo’s suspicions of a suicide circuit being coded into the implants of those that were on his side of the internal conflict making me fear he may be a walking timebomb, I dismissed the issue for the evening. We lack the expertise to adress this properly inhouse and if his former associates really wanted him dead they wouldn’t have let him become one of our most efficient pilots. I will follow up on this though and provide him with the means he needs to overcome this situation.

Saturday pales by Sunday however. First of all, Jude Kopenhagen is now part of our roster. Yes, I can imagine a few jaws dropping here and there. I know mine did when he asked me about employement opportunities. More so because it had been quite the while since I had last seen him. To be specific, Duty. declaring war on Apex for defecting from the State and getting involved with criminal elements meant we no longer shared drinks at the same bar. A strange turn of events though, offering his services to us at the Last Gate, considering that he apperantly owes his life to none other than Ethan Verone who pulled him out of a broken down capsule. But well, I am not complaining I get to order around a pilot who I look up to (both literally and figuratively). I’m sure there are some female pilots out there pretty jealous of that. Besides, I have enough old friends on the competition’s side already.

Feeling particularely lucky that evening I decided to lead an interceptor fleet. Following the destruction of the ship and pod of a familiar pilot we spotted a target too good to be true: A PIE pilot defending an Amarrian complex in a Navy Slicer. Being just a little too eager I activated the acceleration gate before the rest of the interceptors had reached it and landed right on top of her ship. Attempting to retreat to a safe range her scrambler shut off my microwarp drive melting the Crow with little effort from the pulse lasers. Willing my pod to safety I inquired my wingmen about the situation and heard the cheers as they overwhelmed her. Even bigger was our joy when we noticed we had just inflicted 100m ISK worth of damage.

But there she was again, in a Coercer now. Briefing Yishal on what had just happened I returned to Tzvi to board my trusted Griffin and provide the edge needed to take on this bane of frigates. Playing chase for a while we outsmarted her and pinned her down mercilessly. Unlike standard PIE protocol she now spoke out to us over the local Neocom channel, a short mix of weak jabs and delusional religious nonsence. Returning to base now the fleet carried on without me, and to my pleasant surprise when I connected to our GalNet statistics this morning I found out that for the third time her God had not been on her side either.

Veto. turned 3 years old on Friday and this was celebrated with a party at The Last Gate. While probably one of the last bars I’d visit on a normal day – excluding any empire bars which no longer form an option – I decided to make an exception for this special occasion. After all in all our differences there’s one thing we hold in common. We’re outlaws, and proudly so, because this lifestyle is really what freedom is about. Not that false government regulated corrupted kind.

I was only one minute inside when Lysette managed to spot me despite me wearing a pair of sunglasses that pretty much covered half my face. I sat down at the bar with her and we talked lightly over a glass of spiced wine. I took notice of a few other familiar faces, such as Vieve and one of our former members, Recusor. Most others I couldn’t put a name on aside of most of them being Veto. pilots. Just when I was about to wonder where the rest of the former Ghosts may be Demetri entered the bar and came over to me. I was very glad to see he still considered us friends and offered to introduce me to Verone. Very awkward to stand in front of the host table, shaking hands and having all eyes fixed on you. I wonder how many of them would have liked the bar to not have been neutral ground? Glad I had Demetri’s arm to cling to. Although I doubt he’d hold fire if it had been out in the void. Things grew only more awkward when Kyoko showed up, and I am glad at that time my datapad pager alerted me that I was needed back in Hasateem. A shame however I didn’t get to talk to more former Ghosts. Perhaps I should pay another visit in the future.