4/30/2010

Third day in Trossere VII

Coming from a Gallente activist background, my training space is located in Trossere VII. Most my time is spent within the station where my capsuleer is patiently training his skills, while I read articles on how to survive in EVE. The fourth agent I am dealing with is quite boring as he constantly asks me to scan the area for anomalies only to return with a flimsy paper that proves I’ve been there. Until I am sufficiently trained, it seems reading about others’ adventures is more appetizing. I do get around picking up items purchased on the market, although when 6 jumps are needed the prospect of buying higher than the regional average price is tempting.

The skills and Attributes article at EVEWiki details a ‘do-it-fast’ scheme which is exactly the type of thing I like. I’ve abandoned my questing to sit around and learn about learning. There was one critical issue I came across regarding the optimal training order – not enough credits to buy an advanced skill!

Oh wait, they said I can make legit ISK(Interstellar Kredits) trading PLEX by paying CCP and not some random ISK spammer – a small move that will give me the edge, or so I tell myself. After waiting out an hour the PLEX arrives and I go straight to the market, only to find out I don’t have enough credits to place a sell order. The servers were going down in fifteen minutes and I was pleased with my situation. There had to be way.


The answer came to me immediately. I duly knocked the door of a trading channel and closed my first ever contract to fatten my wallet with a friendly chap who guided me through the entire process. Now I'm one proud nouveau riche ready for a shopping spree. Time for some serious upgrades.


Knowing that my capsuleer won’t get pod-killed in the days to come, I buy five basic implants and rejoice at the reduced training time. The much adored application called EVEMon, which monitors characters’ growth, has a unique function that outputs a skills pie chart. This only shows what a good student I am.


My play time has suffered significantly due to fractured sleep cycles, but more importantly I seem to get disconnected from Tranquility on an hourly basis against my will. The friendly ISD(Interstellar Services Department: players who volunteer to serve as advisors in channels) CoffeeCup provided a link to a connection support page, suggesting I test my ping. The results are as below:


Now, CCP states;
“This tracert gives you the ping or connection latency at each point it uses to connect to the server, if any of these entries contain latency (shown in ms) above 250ms as well as high packet loss or packet errors, then you can expect that server connection can be lost occasionally. If this is the case, then there is nothing that we can do about it but we recommend that you contact your Internet Service Provider and inform them about the problem.”

Meaning I can’t do anything about it unless I either succeed in persuading my ISP in Korea to reroute my connection to Iceland, or find another one that fares below 250ms. Losing connection while engaged in combat will sure make my day. To prevent such an unfortunate fate, I guess I’ll have to train some more and get decent equipment that can tank while I reconnect.

First two days in EVE

If I remember correctly, it was through a Newsweek article dating back a few years that I first got a glimpse of EVE online. At the time my initial impression of EVE was a thoroughly nerdy world of space crafts and a rather cumbersome UI covering two thirds of the screen. Incidentally, I was playing a different game in another world wielding axes and basically hanging out in wooden huts, which seemed a whole lot more entertaining as a game. I mean why would 30,000 people gather in a single server to form corporations and cartels when what we really want from an MMO is an escape? So I figured this wasn’t my piece of cake. But what kept EVE in my memory was a simple rule CCP, the developer, had set up; it’s run entirely by the players.


2010 is an awkward year for the MMO scene because all the big contenders are at their maturity and major blockbusters aren’t due until next year. Dominion is the twelfth expansion which gives a sense of how long this game has been in service. Since I had run out of better options and no intention of going back to Azeroth, I visited the EVE website for the second time in a few months. On this particular occasion, I signed up for a trial period of 14 days. Couldn’t hurt, can it?


Honestly I was daunted at the thought of having to learn everything from scratch. EVE just seemed so much more complicated compared to any other game I’ve played. Despite my fears, I have found that CCP has gone to great lengths to court new players, or capsuleers, by providing detailed tutorials for key functions and yet manages to keep things interesting. The learning curve is steep and this is perhaps a factor in EVE’s success, as gamers find it more rewarding over time and willingly continue playing.

During the first hours I blew up a frigate in PvE and panicked when I wasn’t able to recover the ship. Luckily I had it insured, at the gentle behest of tutorial guides, and with the compensation I bought a slightly bigger frigate and moved forward. Two days into the game I am running all the level 1 missions, and given my disposition to mission grinding I seem to be settling in just fine. I’ve even got hold of enough petty ships for a rainy day.
As of today I have subscribed to a three month plan. If you happen to read this and you know me, please drop a line.