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Sir Titus Dimas's Log
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SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2012-12-27 11:33:08 UTC
Welcome to my captain's log. I am Sir Titus Dimas and a new player to the EVE universe.

I migrated over to this game about 3 weeks ago from Uncharted Waters Online (UWO, for short). I played UWO for around 18 months until finally the game had nothing left to offer me so I came here. Over in UWO, I've maintained a captain's log which I updated weekly and wrote about what I was doing in-game over the past week... including adding screenshots of this and that.

I found that maintaining a weekly log was a great way to be able to reflect on the progress of my character as it developed week after week, month after month. Over there, my log is currently at 18 pages long and almost 16,000 views. I had a lot of readers and got to know lots of people in the game solely from the log I kept going.

I would like to do a similar thing here. So, once a week, I will try to update this log and see how it goes.

So, upon growing really bored with UWO over the past few months and really being unhappy with how the admin have been running the game (into the ground, in my opinion), I asked around about a suitable game replacement. I got some suggestions like World of Tanks and some other games. A couple of people suggested EVE online and said it was a space version of UWO but many times more complex. I did some research and decided to download the game.

I didn't have a buddy invite so I started with a 2 week free trial under the same name as my character from UWO - Montador. It was a mistake to use that name starting out because I should have realized that I would probably not continue with that character. Within a day or so, I joined a mining / mission-running corp called Sector IX. I continued to play for another couple of days to try to get a handle on the game before starting over with a buddy invite from Sector IX's CEO.

Hence, Sir Titus Dimas was born... I think about 2 weeks ago. I want this character to be purely combat-oriented and spend most of my time doing security missions and, eventually, PVP (when I'm ready). I also made a second full account character solely for mining purposes. That secondary alt will be my ISK generator.

Even after 3 weeks playing, I still feel like quite the noob and I'm still learning lots of new stuff everyday. I went from Security 1 missions in a Rifter to Security 2 missions (most of them, anyway) in a Thrasher. Eventually upgrading to a Rupture, Cyclone and now Hurricane to continue doing level 2s. I've tried my hand at level 3s in my Hurricane and they are quite difficult so I'm back to doing some research on how to properly tank ships to survive harder missions.

Working up shield-related skills right now so I can shield tank. I've read up on passive and active shield tanking and I'll try them both out and see which is more viable to me for successfully completing level 3 missions. Hopefully, I can get a good tank fit on my Hurricane within a week.

In the meantime, I'll either assist my mining alt with the rocks or run level 2 missions (which are quite easy to solo in a battlecruiser). Also waiting on a couple other new players in my corp to get their cruisers/battlecruisers flying so we can attempt level 3s together.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year! I'll be back next week to update the log. If I can post screenshots, I will... just need to figure out if that's possible or not. What?
ViRUS Pottage
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#2 - 2012-12-27 12:08:21 UTC
SirTitus Dimas wrote:
or run level 2 missions (which are quite easy to solo in a battlecruiser).


hehe
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#3 - 2013-01-03 01:34:05 UTC
Captain's Log: January 3rd, 2013.

I'm not much for celebrating so didn't do a lot for New Year's... just spent a lot of time with my kids and got in quite a bit of time on EVE. I've located the folder where screenshots go but haven't gotten any decent ones to post up yet. I'll try that over the next week.

Well, I got my shield tank up good enough to cruise through most level 3 security missions. I spent a day or two doing them for a CBD agent. I really like the amount of LPs you get for them... some of them giving 1950. I'm sure that level 4s and 5s (if I'll ever be able to go that high) will be much more but 1950 is way way better than the 200 - 300 you get from level 2s.

Using two tech adaptive invulnerability fields II, along with some passive resistance amplifiers, I got my resistances up in the 70s and 80s. I eventually dropped one of the fields and took a microwarpdrive as the NPCs could out maneuver and out range me. The MWD drains a huge amount of cap but it really gets the job done in either getting to the enemy quickly or getting away from them. I'll need to get some levels with them to drop the cap usage.

Used, for the first time, TeamSpeak yesterday with corp members and alliance members. I don't have a headset so I couldn't talk but I could hear the guys over my computer's speakers. It really adds a new dimension to the game and a human face (well, human voice) to the guys in my corp / alliance that I play with and chat with. I learned a whole bunch of new things just idly listening to both my corp CEO and 2005 veteran talking while I was running missions. I will go look to buy a headset over the weekend so I can add my voice to TS. Definitely enhance the gaming experience.

It's one of those things... someone tells you to do something (or recommends it) and you are like "yeah, yeah. But.... I'm busy.. or I can't... or... or ...or" and you don't listen. The recommend again and again and finally you go ahead and do it. And it turns out to be great and you think "****, why didn't something tell me about this before?" Shocked Human nature.

So, I will endeavor to listen more closely to the guys who've been playing the game for years and years because, whatever recommendations they give, will be most likely correct. If they say "Get your drones to level 5 asap"... I should do that. Not really a big fan of drones and I prefer to shoot things myself but I do see how useful they can do.

My alt is mining away. It's nice to have a second character who has one singular purpose... to make me money in the background as I play (though my computer doesn't like two accounts running at the same time and I sometimes run into lag problems). He will have finished Mining level 5 by now and starting on Astrogeology 5 (which is something stupid like 10 days to complete). The alt averages around 70 million in profit per day with his current record being 81 million. That will improve over time as his mining yield improves and his refining gets better. I'm offline for 2 days now (hence setting up Astrogeology 5) but I'll get working on Veldspar, Scordite and Pyrorexes Processing 4 each (I think I have them all at level 3 now) so I can get the good mining crystals. Current mining yield on my strip miners is 1511 m3 per cycle and interested to see how much better that will be with modulated strip miners and the tech 2 crystals.

Since the mining alt is devoted only to mining, he should be able to max out all mining and refining skills in a relatively fast amount of time (as he doesn't level up any other skills). He's doing his job well and I shouldn't have any problems buying PLEXes for my main and alt toons from mining profits alone... plus the extra I get from running missions.

My main has relocated, for the time being, to Minmatar space and he's going to work up fleet standings there. Just looking at the CBD LP store and the Republic Fleet LP store, it's so obvious that the stuff I can get in the Republic Fleet LP store match my character and skills so well. Plus, there's a lot more (and better) missions to be done there. Back to level 2 missions now until I can get 3.00 standing with Republic Fleet and do the level 3s again.

Currently training Gunnery to level 5 (will be done around Sunday afternoon) and then I'll probably work up my Drones to level 5. I am keen, however, to get a couple levels in Large Projectile Turrets and see how they compare to the medium ones. I know the medium ones absolutely destroyed the small ones in power so I'm expecting the same. Can't use (and don't want to use) a battleship yet but I could equip large turrets on a Tornado battlecruiser. They look like glass cannons so I'd need to be very careful using them.

Well, back to work. Thanks for reading and I'll try to add some pictures for next week's log.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#4 - 2013-01-10 02:36:37 UTC
Captain's Log: January 10th, 2013.

Every Thursday and Friday I'm on site at an oil field and I don't have a laptop so I am unable to access any games until I return home on Friday evening (I sleep on site on Thursday night). So, being offline for this amount of time offers me the chance to reflect on the game and have the time to maintain a log.

Being Thursday morning, here I am for another update. I did actually bring a few screenshots with me but I can't seem to figure out how to actually upload them to my log here... maybe you can't. I see the option for creating a link but not for posting jpgs. Oh well, if it can be done, I'll figure it out eventually. if it can't be done, then this'll be a written log only.

So I've been spending time on TeamSpeak in the early morning or late night when others in the corp/alliance are online and on TS as well. I find it to be really cool and so much better than having to type to explain things. We did a few missions using TS as our medium of communication and it made things much smoother. I can see how big fleet battles or missions finds it a requirement for all players to be using a program like TS. Unfortunately, it seems that I bought an uncomfortable headset and they really hurt my ears after prolonged use.

About my character's activities, he got Gunnery 5 and a couple levels of Large Projectile Turret. I toyed with the idea of buying a Tornado so I could try out some large turrets but that ship isn't recommended for PVE as it's a glass cannon. I decided against it eventually. I continue to fly my shield tanked Cyclone and try to improve it's performance. For example, upon switching from passive resistance amplifiers to active hardeners and using a MWD, I discovered that I was having cap problems. So I swapped out the MWD for an AB and leveled up Afterburner to level 4 (for the tech 2) and a couple other related skills.

Ended up still not being fast enough as enemy ships could keep me at their chosen distance, not the other way around. So, in fights against cruisers, they kept me at 30km so my autocannons couldn't hit them... only missiles and drones and that could an awfully long time to kill them. So, change it up again and swap out some autocannons for artillery for longer ranged shooting. All part of the game... trying to maximize the effectiveness of your ships.

I got over 5.00 standing with Republic Fleet but I wanted to return to Amarr space to be closer to my corp mates. My standing with the corp HQ was higher than 6.00 (perfect refining for a character who doesn't refine) but I did figure that getting 8.0 and jump clone access would be a good idea. I could keep a couple good ships in corp HQ area and jump clone back in case I was needed. That would give me the freedom to travel around and not feel tied down to one region of space.

I started doing Mining level 4 missions for CBD for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they give huge amounts of LPs compared to even level 4 security missions. Secondly, while I can get the missions, I can't do them (no mining abilities) so I bring in my alt to do them. In that way, the alt gets half of the standings and I want to increase his standings with CBD because he is a miner and a refiner. His standings are increasing a lot faster buy sharing level 4s with me that if he did level 1s by himself.

Those level 4 mining missions are boring as hell but really really easy. Either normal mining, ice mining or gas harvesting. The alt needed to level up Ice Harvesting and Gas Harvesting to be able to do those. My LPs with CBD are about 50,000 now and I'm probably going to stop with CBD when I reach 65,000. By then I'll be higher than 8.00 standings and I can get a +5 implant for that 65,000. I was also looking at the Caldari army invulnerability field mod but that's like 150,000 LPs and I don't want to spend that much time.

The LP store in the Republic Fleet interests me a lot more so I'll get back over there and do missions there once I'm done with CBD. My alt finished with level 4 in Veldspar, Scordite and Pyroxeres Processing so he can now get the tech 2 mining crystals for those 3 ores (which are the 3 ores, along with Kernite, present in our corp area). He's working up Astrogeology 5 right now while I'm offline. I think, though, that I'll switch to Refining 5 so I can get Refining Efficiency and Kernite Processing. There will be a small yield boost to Astrogeology 5 plus it's a step towards Exhumers but I think Refining will serve me better at the moment.

During the long boring level 4 mining missions (alt mining while main was killing drones or hauling ore in my Hoarder), I did the math on a battleship.. to see if I could fit everything that I wanted with my skills. I am familiar with the fact that once I get a new ship and start fitting things, I sometimes end up lacking in CPU or Powergird and then having to change my plans. So I worked out a plan for a Maelstrom, checked the stats on the guns and mods I want and did the math. As far as I can tell, it will all work out. The extra mid and low slot of the Maelstrom means that I can shield tank it similarly to my Cyclone but add an extra couple of mods. I do passive shield recharge with my Cyclone (despite its bonus for Shield Boosters) because I can't find the spot to add a Shield Booster, but, on the Maelstrom, I can.

I'm working up Cruiser level 4 now so I can get Minmatar Battleship on the weekend. I think (hope) that I can fly it effectively in missions. I need to start looking for level 4 security missions in highsec. I'm not even sure if they exist. I guess it depends on the corp. Republic Fleet has tons of security agents so hopefully I can try my hand on a level 4 security mission in a new Maelstrom soon.

That's my log for this week. Same same going on. Missions with the main and mining with the alt. I am strongly considering a 2nd alt account....

Thanks for reading and see you next time. Smile
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#5 - 2013-01-17 02:14:49 UTC
Captain's Log: January 17th, 2013

Another Thursday morning so time for another update. I guess two big things happened in my EVE gaming experience over the past week: 1) getting, flying and learning the strengths and weaknesses of a battleship and 2) making a 3rd alt account and getting into salvaging and exploration.

So, around Sunday, I finished training Minmatar Cruiser 4 and then it took another full day and a bit to get Minmatar Battleship 3 so I could find a Maelstrom. I choose the Maelstrom over the other two Minmatar Battleships because of it's mid and low slots and its role bonuses. I was previously flying a active shield tanked Cyclone and I wanted to have a similar fit on a battleship. The extra module slots fitted my reasoning.

On midnight (my time) Monday, I could fly my Maelstrom. I had the ship, cannons, ammo, rigs and mods all bought previously so I happily fitted it all on and traveled the 30 so jumps from Amarr space to Minmatar space because I wanted to do level 4 missions with Republic Fleet. The first mission I got looked really really hard (according to EVE survival) so I declined it and the next mission was in lowsec (so I didn't even consider taking that). Probably for the best because I instead went a few jumps to a level 3 agent and, over the next couple of days, flew a lot of level 3 security missions in my Maelstrom. The main reason was to figure out what's good and bad about the ship.

I was up against cruisers in the first mission and, with my 1400mm Artillery cannons, was thinking "OMG, this damage is unreal". I was averaging over 500 damage per hit. Sometimes getting over 1000 and the most in one hit being 2150 damage. And that was from 80 km away (yeah for crazy projectile turret falloff ranges). The mission done with ridiculous ease, I took another one.

Here I got into problems. Up until this point in my EVE gaming experience, I didn't know much about the complexity of turrets. I got skills training up falloff range, tracking speed, optimal range, etc without really knowing what they meant. In the next mission, there was a mix of frigates, destroyers and cruisers. Once again, I blew up the cruisers from far away and I even knew enough to have 2 autocannons equipped for things that got close and they took care of the destroyers. But the frigates.... what a nightmare.

I think I instinctively knew that the big guns had no chance to hit a frigate when it was close and orbiting me so I didn't try. I turned the large autocannons on them. Couldn't hit the frigates either. This was new. Back in my Cyclone days, the medium autocannons made short work of frigates, even when they orbited me. I had to resort to using my weak drones to kill the frigates and that took a long time.

The next day, I started experimenting with different kinds of modules to help my autocannons kill frigates. I webbed them, I target painted them, I increased the tracking speed of my autocannons. Nothing was satisfactory and eventually, I'd get swarmed by frigates again.

I went to Google and started reading up on turrets and how they work. Now I understand what the difference between falloff and optimal ranges is and I understand that the bigger the gun and the smaller the target, the more unlikely it is to hit. You can boost up your large autocannons all you want, they are still at a very large penalty to tracking and hitting frigates. Once I read up on angular velocity and how if you can trick ships to chase you, tracking becomes irrelevant and the greatest advantage of frigates is lost, then I started killing frigates effectively.

Of course, missions where I'm auto aggroed from short distances means I won't be able to trick frigates into chasing me and I'll be swarmed and orbited... and probably scrambled and webbed and whatever else. So, I am finally taking several people's suggestion to get Drones 5 and Scout Drone 5 seriously. With tech 2 drones, orbiting frigates won't be a problem and I'll be able to deal with the scramblers quickly and able to warp away if things go wrong.

Too bad it wasn't spelled out for me. My nature works like this. If someone says "Do this" (for example, "train Drones to level 5 asap"), I'll be dubious and think something like "Just because drones work for him, doesn't mean they will work for me. Maybe he's Gallente and just likes the drone bonuses". And I'll reply "Ok" but set my training to another level of Large Projectile Turret. What? However, if the conversation had been more like this "Train Drones to level 5 and then get tech 2 drones because when you are flying your huge battleships your turrets will be completely useless against webbing and scrambling frigates orbiting you at close ranges and your only line of defense in that situation is to release the drones to kill them" thing I may have taken the advice seriously. Or maybe I gotten into that situation, lost a battleship and then got the point.

Experience is the best teacher, after all. Luckily, I got the point without needing to lose a battleship so that's all good. Guess what I'm training now? Yup... Drones to level 5. Then towards tech 2 drones. I like my battleship and I need to concentrate on overcoming its weaknesses, not improving its strengths (another level in Large Projectile Turret or Minmatar Battleship won't help me against close range frigates).

*cont*
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#6 - 2013-01-17 02:43:16 UTC
Captain's Log: January 17th, 2013 (continued)

Seems that I wrote too much and exceeded my character limit. Guess I need to practice more terseness Roll

I didn't get on to my 2nd point about a new alt account. Previously I didn't bother with salvaging... even level 3 missions. All I would do was go around after the battle (or sometimes in the middle of the battle) and loot the wrecks. I couldn't be bothered to return to the station, equip some salvagers and return. But, believing that I would be doing level 4 missions soon (and I will... once the drones are ready), I figured that devoting the time and energy to salvaging would be well worth it. I didn't want my main to be the salvager and I didn't want my mining alt to do it either. The mining alt is pretty much permanently stuck in our corp HQ area generating ISK for me.

So, a 3rd full account was my recourse. Yes, I think I've passed the benchmark into official EVE addictiveness. She's an Amarr girl and I made her to look as much like a witch as possible (which matches with her name). Her first priority was to fly a Noctis and work on salvaging-related skills. She's up to 56 km range on tractor beams now and level 3 Salvaging.

She follows me around and I bring her online after a mission is done, she comes in, clears it all up in no time, back to the station and she's log out. I don't keep her online because my mining alt is always busy in the background and having 3 characters online at the same time creates huge lag for my computer.

Her secondary purpose will be exploration. She's a basic explorer now... can use 6 probes, analyzer 1, codebreaker 1, etc. Once I get Salvaging, Science, and ORE Industrial to level 5 with her (thereby maxing her salvaging role), I'll concentrate on her science skills.

My break down of my characters is as follows:

Main character: PVE security mission runner. Working up strong turret skills. Future interest in PVP.

Mining alt: Background miner and refiner. Working towards everything related to mining. Future interest in production skills.

Salvaging alt: Salvager after mission completion. Future interest in exploration

I really hope that I don't see the use in creating a 4th character. I know that some people make an alt to optimize mining... like one toon to mine and another toon to haul. That's all well and good but I prefer to explore different aspects of the game using different characters... instead of an alt simply supporting the roles of the main.

Well, that's my log for this week. Thanks for reading and back to update again next week.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#7 - 2013-01-24 03:17:02 UTC
Captain's Log: January 24, 2013

Patience is the name of the game. I had a short chat with an old friend from my corp who got kicked out (long story) yesterday and I said that I was waiting on Scout Drone 5 so I can get tech 2 drones before moving up to doing level 4 security missions. He showed me a kill report of a level 4 mission he tried and died in (about 550 million isk lost). He said that he got frigate scrambled and his drones couldn't kill the scrambler before he took so much damage that he died.

That verified my patience in waiting to get tech 2 drones before I attempt a level 4 mission myself. I completed Drones 5 over the last week and got a few levels of Drone Interfacing before setting Scout Drones to 5 so I can get those necessary tech 2 drones to avoid the same problem my friend faced. That will be finished on Sunday and then I can attempt level 4 missions solo. I think I'm better served by caution in this regard.

I finished up 8.00 standings with Republic Fleet and installed a jump clone in Minmatar. Also got a long 10 mission storyline series that boosted my Minmatar standings from 2.90 to 3.35. We all know how hard it is to increase faction standings so that was really nice. Having done those, I traveled the 30 jumps back to Amarr space and nearer to my corp HQ.

I then started up standings with Amarr Navy with the same goal - to get 8.00 and install another jump clone close to my corp HQ and increase my Amarr faction standings. Unfortunately, I've had to start with level 2 missions (quite boring and easy as I'm still using my battleship for them) because my standings were only 1.50 or so with Amarr Navy. Luckily, I found a nice station with 2 level two agents and 1 level one agent so I take 3 missions at the same time (and don't bother to salvage) so it shouldn't take more than another day to reach 3.00 standings and then take level 3 missions. Then to 5.00 and level 4 missions. I probably won't get to 5.00 before Sunday so my tech 2 drones will be ready for level 4s with Amarr Navy by the time I get access to them.

I also hear that 6.00 standings with a faction is needed to create POSs and since I'm the only full time mission runner in a mostly mining corp, I volunteered myself to aim for the goal of getting 6.00 standings with Amarr faction so we can make a POS. I really have no idea what a POS involves at this point in time but I'll do my research when I get close to the 6.00 goal. I think I'm somewhere around 2.20 with Amarr empire right now so it'll probably take a month or more of constant missions to get where I want to be.

For my alts, my mining alt completed Astrogeology 5 and Mining Barge 4 and has set Mining Barge 5 to finish now (which is more than 17 days... the longest training time I've seen in the game so far). He had an excellent mining day on Tuesday. I had no work that day so I was online from about 8:00 a.m. in the morning till about 11:00 p.m. at night. Other than a couple of breaks (amounting to maybe 2 - 3 hours in total), he mined the whole time. Also had an orca boost most of the time as well. At the end of the day, after refining and selling the minerals, he was up 174 million isk. A new personal mining daily record for him. I was also doing missions with my main at the same time so I wasn't hauling or anything like that so I think I could do better than that if I devote two characters to mining.

My other alt, the salvager, has gotten her skills to where I want them to be with salvaging right now so instead of going with her planned exploration skills, I've changed focus with her and want her to play a support role when I do level 4 missions. So, I trained her up in Caldari Cruiser and got her an Osprey. She's working up Shield Emissions and Energy Emissions now . I plan on her trailing my main character at 50 km and spamming shield repair on him and some cap repair too. Not yet sure how safe it will be for her as well as the logistics of controlling two characters at the same time in a battle but I want to try it out.

Seems like a good idea to have my main character in battle while his shields are being constantly repaired from an outside source. If it works well, I can drop the shield booster I use and free up another mid slot for my Maelstrom or just get the double shield boosts... hopefully keep me alive and kicking for the big dps that will be coming in level 4 missions.

I was forced to reduce the graphics settings of the game to all low and turn off some things because having three characters online at the same time was creating huge lag for me... sometimes several minutes long. That is death in the wrong situation. But after reducing the settings, lag is rare now and only for a couple of seconds when it does happen. Even with that improvement, I think I'll still take my miner offline when I do level 4 missions... at least until I can confident in them.

Next week's log should have some reports of my success (or defeat.... I hope not) in level 4 security missions.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2013-01-31 01:56:42 UTC
Captain's Log: January 31, 2013

My work is going to get seriously busy starting this weekend and will continue probably into March so I won't have much time to play EVE in February (for sure) and March (probably). Since I won't be doing much in the game, I'll either write limited captain's logs here or just skip them entirely until I am back playing the game on a regular basis.

So I finally got my tech 2 drones over the weekend and was ready to jump into the level 4 security missions in Amarr space. However, we got the word that our corp needed to relocate from Amarr space to Minmatar space to be closer to our alliance and COA. So, quite a few hours were spent on day and transferring all my 3 toons' stuff and ships the 32 jump distance between old corp HQ and the new one.

And, since we moved, I needed to start over with standings (this time with Republic Justice) and grind up standings with them till 5.00. That took about a day so it wasn't until Monday that I finally got to try soloing my first level 4 security missions.

I was really cautious about it. Made sure that I read each mission carefully on EVE Survival to gauge whether I could do them in my 485 dps and 60,000 ehp Maelstrom. The first three were done successful (including tanking damage from 6 battleships at the same time in one of them) and the four one ("Vengeance") was going find until I got to the last battleship (the boss of the mission). He was a 2.5 million bounty ship. His tank was way too strong and each bit of damage I did to him was almost automatically repaired. It was like knocking your head against a brick wall... accomplish nothing but a headache.

I had to ask on alliance and COA chat for help and a nice guy with a 8000 damage alpha-strike ship came along and reduced that battleship to dust in about 1 minute. I was glad for the help and it was interesting to see how far I have to go.

Additionally, my alliance ran some level 4 missions the next day and I joined in. Only 4 players... me in my Maelstrom and 1 Machariel and 2 Tengus. Again, I saw how far I need to go. Those guys just laid havoc while I was nickel and diming battleships. We (well, mostly "they") cleared level 4 missions in about 5 minutes. A similar mission would take me 1 or 2 hours to do solo.

Occasionally, I would get a level 4 mission that I deemed too dangerous so I declined it and would later get another one that was too hard. Not wanting to decline again and take a standing's loss, I'd wait out the 4 hours and go do missions for Brutor corp. They got a nice station with two level 3 agents and 1 level 2 agent (and a level 4 agent which I don't have access to yet) so I did quite a lot with them. Not so far from 5.00 with them now as well but, as I originally said in this post, I won't be online much over the next month but I do look forward to have two options in the same system for level 4 agents.

I also got my first kill this past week as well. I usually watch local channel as I do missions to keep an eye out for ninja salvagers. If they see a Noctis following me around, they should know that I plan to salvage my own missions and stay clear. However, on Tuesday, I saw one blinking yellow suspect in my local area. Then he came into my mission area. He was in a frigate and calmly starting flying around collecting my wrecks. So I locked on to him.... I assumed he'd warp out at that point. Takes my Maelstrom about 24 seconds to lock on to a frigate so he had lots of time to leave. But he didn't. Even after I locked on, he stayed and continued salvaging.

I checked his info and he was one day old. That meant he was either a total noob and didn't know what he was doing or he was an alt of somebody. One day old and immediately going straight into stealing loot from people seemed a bit off to me (when I was one day old I was doing tutorial missions trying to learn how the game works) so I figured he was an alt and was basically daring me to shoot him. So I shot him and he exploded into little bits. His pod hung around for a couple of minutes before going back to a station. His color changed from yellow to green after I destroyed his ship and I have no idea what green means. I kinda assumed that I would get into trouble for podding him and I really didn't want to do that anyway.

I continued with my mission and, sure enough, he was back later in another frigate. He wasn't any color this time so I couldn't shoot without CONCORD blowing me up so I just locked on to him and waited for him to steal something. This time he did warp away. Then, about 5 minutes later, he started a conversation with me and said (to paraphase) "You are going to regret destroying my ship". Well, that's entirely possible but EVE is a game so I don't have much inclination to worry about regretting doing things in a game.

I told him that he shouldn't be stealing and go get an honest career or I wouldn't be the only person to destroy his ships. At my corp CEO's request, I invited him to our public chat room and my CEO talked to him for a bit. The guy proclaimed noob-ness and said that he didn't know what he was doing was illegal. Not sure if people bought his story but I'm dubious. Regardless, I have his corp contacted as red so I'll keep an eye out.

For my alts, my miner is still training up Mining Barge 5 (about 10 or 11 days to go) and he's been mining in our new system. Since I've been concentrating more on the security missions, he's often been left afk in the background so he isn't mining at an optimum rate. Still, he's a great isk earner for me and will be more so once he gets an exhumer. My other alt has gone the Trade way so I can place lots of stuff I salvage on the market with her.

Almost out of characters so ending this log here. Thanks for reading.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#9 - 2013-02-08 02:32:33 UTC
Captain's Log: February 8, 2013.

As predicted, lots of work in the real world last week so only minimal amounts of time online. So not much to write here except one story of how I lost my first battleship. My combat log has some losses of frigates and destroyers back when I just started playing but no other ship losses till last week.

I was doing Rogue Drone Harassment (level 4) mission in Pator. I've done that same mission a couple times before and I knew that the dps gets high... either from killing the mother drone (and triggering a bunch of spawns) or killing off the spawns one by one and leaving the mother drone alone (as she hits really hard herself). So, it's the kind of mission that I need to warp out at least once and replenish shield / cap at a station and return.

So, during the mission, dps starting to get high, I was getting ready to warp out. Shields down to about 20%...15%.... ok... time to warp out. Before I could, a scrambler got me. Couldn't warp out. No problem, I'll send my 5 Warrior II drones to kill the scrambler and warp out. I'll probably be into some armor damage at that point but no problem.

Here's where the real fun began.... before I could attack the scrambler with my drones, my computer started to lag. Got that ugly little blue circle twirling around..... 10 seconds.... 20 seconds.... uh oh... this is bad.... 30 seconds.... 40 seconds.... now I'm yelling at the screen... 50 seconds... 1 minute...... I knew was probably dead...

It was about 1 minute and a half that the lag stopped and I saw the result. I was down to around 20% hull left. I finally clicked on the drones to attack the scrambler and aligned to a station. The scrambler died when I was somewhere around 1% hull left. Click warp and I exploded. Maelstrom gone and a loss of 551 million isk.

Quite disappointed in the game at that point. I wouldn't mind dying if I deserved it or screwed up but lag? I spent a couple weeks of time getting Drone level 5, Scout Drone Operation level 5, and other skills specifically for the exact situation above - to kill the scrambling frigates and warp to safety. But all for naught due to lag.

Anyway, I had to travel over to Rens and buy a new Maelstrom and refit it quickly because I wanted to get back to salvage my destroyed ship before the wreck disappeared (or before some ninja salvager got to it). An alliance member offered to help clear out the mission so I could get that done (and much appreciated). I ended up reaching the destroyed ship's wreck and there was about 200 million isk value on it... so glad to get back some cannons and mods. That, with about 190 million returned in insurance money, lowered the loss of 551 million by quite a bit.

My mining alt will be flying a Hulk and/or Mack on Monday and I'm training up Mining Barge with my salvage alt so she can do some mining when I want to take a break from missions. Given as don't have a lot of time online, then 30 minutes here or an hour there is better put to getting some money via mining than doing missions. So the 2nd alt will assist in that. The main character is still working on Cybernetics 5. I've diverted a bit here and there so it's still 7 or 8 days till complete.

Well, that's my log for this week. Still working tons but I should have some time after the weekend for EVE... just in time for the Exhumer on my mining alt.

Thanks for reading.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#10 - 2013-02-14 01:54:12 UTC
Captain's Log: February 14th, 2013

Still working every day but I had a couple of 1/2 days off this week so got in some time for EVE, especially on Monday and Tuesday.

For my main, he finished off 65k LPs with Republic Justice so I picked up another +5 implant (can't use until I get Cybernetics 5 on Saturday) and then I moved to another system that has around 4 or 5 different level 3 agents so I can grind up more LPs to continue with my implant quests. Got maybe 20k LPs from two separate corps so once they both get to 65k LPs, I can get two more implants and complete the set. I figure that the time lost in training up Cybernetics 5 will be paid back in reduced training times once the +5 implants are in. Due to the summer ship skill changes coming up, I really want to get Battlecruiser 5 and Destroyer 5 so I can take full advantage of those skills being split into factions. They will be the next things I train up... even though I'd prefer to max out things related to my cap and shields (Energy and Shield Management, for example).

For my mining alt, he got into a Mackinaw on Monday and I really like it. 35,000 ore hold is huge and a slightly better mining yield than the Retriever to boot. He is currently training Drones 5 and then I'm going to get Drone Interfacing 5 and Mining Drone Operation 5 and add those drone mining rigs to the Mack. I'm hoping with all those mining drones at maxed mining potential, it'll be equivalent to at least another 1/2 a strip miner. I've put off buying a Hulk for the time being.

My other alt got into a Retriever on the weekend so both alts where happily mining away. I had a lot of time online on Tuesday (with an Orca boost running from my corp CEO) and managed to earn 201 million isk from minerals for that one day.... a new record. That was done with 2 characters, an Orca boost and a lot of time but, if I had a full day with the same conditions, I could do more... I could even bring in my main toon to haul ore and save time (if I'm really serious about making money). Generally, I run missions with my main as the alts mine so the mining isn't done optimally as they are kinda semi-afk and mining cycle complete sometimes without being re-started.

The last alt is working on Amarr Industrial 5 now (like 19 days to finish) so I can get either get a 41,000 cargo hold t2 hauler (Impel, I think is the name) or wait another week and get a freighter. Not really sure if I need to get a freighter at this point but she won't be far out from one, if I need it. For now, having a ship with 40k+ cargo, means she can haul 4 million minerals to a trade hub and sell and that's more than enough for now. Plus the cost of an Impel vs a Freighter is a key point as well... something like 150 million compared to 1.6 billion.

Next week will be full on work so only a bit of time in the evenings for EVE... an hour or two for mining and missions each day (at best).

That's my log. Thanks for reading.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#11 - 2013-02-21 03:12:26 UTC
Captain's Log: February 21st, 2013

Day 22 of working all day every day (and no end in sight yet). As such, not much time online for EVE last week. I got 30 minutes - 1 hour of mining in each morning before work and another hour or so after work. To bed early every day as exhaustion is commonplace when you work without a day off.

Training up Battlecruiser level 5 with my main now (21 days to complete) so I can get all faction battlecruisers at level 5 once the summer change comes. At this point in the game, I don't know which factions ships I'll develop a strong preference for so saving a ton of learning time and having level 5 in all battlecruisers sounds like a good idea. I'll do the same with Destroyers after BC is maxed out.

Mining alt + salvage alt (turned into a second miner) work well together and I make about 20 million per hour mining with them working together. Since they are always in a fleet, I'll work up Mining Foreman with the main mining (level 3 right now) but he's currently working on Mining Drone Operation 5 (6 - 7 days to complete) so I can get tech 2 mining drones. Then either Mining Foreman or Drone Interfacing. Either way, he's full on mining skills.

The 2nd alt is still 2 weeks away from completing Amarr Industrial 5 and getting the Impel I talked about last time. Still think that is a better option than getting a freighter. 4 million mex to a trade hub is a nice amount of money in one trip and it takes quite a while to get that much so I won't need to make the trip very often... no more than twice a week (well, depending on how much time I have online).

I bought PLEXes for all 3 characters last week so my wallet deflates quite a bit but at least they are all going to be operating into the beginning of April.

Not much of a long this week but not much is going on. Hoping that mid-March will see me online a lot more.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#12 - 2013-02-28 05:35:43 UTC
Captain's Log: February 28th, 2013

WAR!!!! No, not really. On Saturday, my alliance got war decced. I was so excited to experience a new aspect of EVE. I got in my jump clone, got several PVP jumps ready, assembled with my alliance's fleet staging area.... and... nothing happened.

The aggressing alliance seems to have had other reasons for sending a war declaration (which I won't write about here) as, to my knowledge, there has been no fighting or killing since the "war" started. Why spend 50 million on a war dec and then stay offline for a week? I had some ideas about that and I got some info from my CEO about it yesterday.

It remains to be seen if this will actually turn into a real war where people fight and die or not. I doubt it will... other people said they are just luring us into a false sense of security for the time being.

With a war going on (and the war targets hiding or offline), I had nothing to do all week. No mining or missions during wartime. I was vocal about my objection to that rule and wasn't shy about saying so.

One thing this week has shown me is that I don't follow rules well. If there is a sensible rule to follow, then I'll follow it but I'll determine for myself whether it is sensible or not. Others in the corp are of the opinion "It's a rule given by management so follow it, no matter what." I look at the context and situation and apply some common sense. If an active war is going on with war targets all over the place, then, yes, it is stupid to mine during a war. But, if the aggressing alliance war decs and then (apparently) went offline for a week, then following the 'no mining rule' means that their 50 million war dec cost equates to my corp / alliance losing billions from not mining.

Hence my "I don't follow rules" well. Maybe I'm in the wrong game. Following good advice from experienced gamers is one thing but being told what I can and cannot do (in a game that I pay money to play) is beyond ridiculous.

So we'll see what next week brings. Will the aggressing alliance war dec again? If so, will they hide again? Will mining continue to be restricted? If so, will I mine regardless of the rules and potentially get kicked out of my corp for being a "rules breaker"?

One thing is for sure, I won't pay $15 per account (or 500+ million per PLEX) only to not be allowed to play the game as I see fit. Lone Wolf Titus in my future?
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#13 - 2013-03-07 02:36:48 UTC
Captain's Log: March 7th.

So the war ended as it was fought - uneventfully. It wasn't renewed and everyone is happy to be back to business as usual.

Since I've been training for Battlecruiser 5, I figured I should spend some time in one. So I spent 70 odd million isk and got myself a Tornado. I heard (and continue to hear) a lot about how it is a glass cannon and one scrambling frigate and you are dead and whatnot. True as that may be, if I choose the right missions, it really shouldn't be an issue.

Since the Tornado is all offensive and no tank, a sniper build is the way to go. Don't recall the exact build but it's something like 8x 1200 mm artillery scout cannons (because I lack the powergird to have 8x 1400 mm ones... though I think I can manage it with some skills increases or 3x power gird rigs), 1 AB, 2 mods to increase targeting range (with targeting range script), 2 mods to increase falloff, optimal and tracking but falloff scripts so nothing on tracking) 2 Gyro and 2 Tracking Enhancers.

After it's all working, I can target at 168 km away, with a falloff of 126 km and optimal of 30 km. The general idea is to choose missions where there are no gates so I can warp in at 100km. With a healthy 630 m/s with AB velocity, I should have lots of time to burn in the opposite direction and pick off webbing/scrambling frigates and then keep the cruisers and battleships at 90 - 100 km... where they can't lock on to me but I can easily hit them.

1200mm cannons fire every 10.84 seconds at my current skills but I'm training another level of Rapid Fire plus BC 5 (about 10 - 11 days) will reduce another 5% for the Tornado. Unfortunately rigs to increase rate of fire increase powergird and I don't have enough as it is on the Tornado. I'll play around with powergird increasing rigs on the weekend and see if I can fit 8x 1400 artillery. Should be somewhere around 20 seconds rate of fire but much higher alpha strike and range.

So far I've been doing level 4 Blockade and Gone Berserk with ease in the Tornado. Only the last ship in Blockade can hit me. Had the idea to do all but one ship of Blockade before downtime and, since all the ships respawn, I can do it all again. Bounties for Blockade level 4 is around 20 m so that's 40 m isk in bounties for approximately 1 - 1 1/2 hours before and after downtime. With sniping battleships, it takes a while to kill them so I just "Keep at Range 90 km" (or whatever) and concentrate more on my mining alts.... kinda like semi-afk security missions.

Nothing new going on with my miners. The main miner is training up Refining Efficiency 5 now. He got his mining drones as good as I want them (it's way too long for Drone Interfacing 5) so working on maxing refining now. After Refining Efficiency 5, he'll get Cybernetics 5 for the +5% mining yield and +5% refining implants. Not sure what to do with him after he's at max mining and refining potential.

The other alt just finished Amarr Industrial 5 so she can use an Impel once I get back online tomorrow. Again, not sure what to do with her so I guess I'll make her into a good miner so I'll work on maxing Mining, Mining Barge and Astrogeology. Having two miners in Mackinaws should be pretty sweet.

My main will continue doing missions. With 3 toons to worry about, it'll be months and months of missions to supply them all with implants.

Well, that's my log for this week. Thanks for reading.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#14 - 2013-03-14 07:26:16 UTC
Captain's Log: March 14th, 2013

Not much went on last week... at least nothing so important that it stands out in my memory and worthy to write about in my log.

Still working every day so only a few hours here and there were possible. However, my current work project will end on Sunday so I'll have lots of free time Monday to Wednesday of next week so I'll put in a lot of time on EVE.

My main just continued to do missions for Republic Fleet... just building up LPs for implants. He eventually relocated to a different station as I started doing missions while fleeted to my refining miner. I want to get to perfect refining with him so the main will do missions and pass along 1/2 standings increases to the refiner. I could speed it up by doing distribution missions simultaneously with the refiner but I'd rather continue mining with him.

My two alts stayed in the HQ system mining except for a couple hours when I joined an alliance mining op. Generally, my time zone prevents me from attending alliance ops (they usually start at 11:00 pm, my time) but this one was scheduled earlier and I was able to join. It was interesting how quickly a couple hand fulls of miners with a maxed Orca boost can devour an entire asteroid belt.

Two long training time skills will be finished over the weekend. My main will complete Battlecruiser 5. Then (I believe) I'll need each racial frigate, destroyer and cruiser at level 3s to benefit from the BC skill change in the summer. I plan on getting Destroyer level 5 as well (even though I don't currently use one... but never know in the future). So probably another couple of weeks to get all that stuff done... long before summer.

My mining alt will complete Refining Efficiency 5 hence my desire to get 6.70 (or whatever it is) for no loss given to the station when refining. I will work on Cybernetics 5 with the alt next as I have two implants ready for him but he can't use them yet.

The last alt is on the long road to getting an exhumer. Probably a full month to get all the skills required. That alt, a former salvager for my main, makes more money mining than salvaging so she may end up being a permanent 2nd miner.

Just for fun, once she can fly an exhumer, I'll get her and my main miner Hulks and send in my main in an industrial and do a little mining op with me, myself and I. Quite interested to see how much I can earn per hour that way... especially if I happen to be benefiting from an Orca boost at the time.

As I said, nothing much going on so short log today. My old game, UWO, had a major update today but I feel exactly 0% interest in going back to that game and checking it out.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#15 - 2013-03-21 02:02:51 UTC
Captain's Log: March 21, 2013

Another week, another update. I got a fair amount of time online over the last week. My work schedule has died down and I actually enjoyed a full day off (first day off in 7 weeks) on Tuesday.

I've changed around my fighting style a bit with my main. Previously, it was more focused on dps and using shield hardeners to reduce incoming damage to a reasonable amount. But I found that, in some missions, I could get overwhelmed and not repair shields fast enough; warping out was sometimes required.

So I changed the mods in my Maelstrom around to be more focused on shield boosting and cap regen. Shield boost bonus is one of the roles of the Maelstrom after all so may as well take advantage of it. With an X-L Republic Shield Booster, a good shield boost amplifier, and Maelstrom bonus, I repair 808 shields per 4 seconds at a cost of 300 GJ of cap. I put in a good amount of cap regen mods so, while the shield booster eats up cap very quickly, cap regens fast as well. Working on another level of Minmatar Battleship now so hopefully get close to 900 shields restored. So far it has been much better than my previous build, despite a lower dps.

And there are all the skills to go along with shield and cap maximization but they will need to wait. I finished BC 5 and got all the Amarr secondary skills (so I can fly Amarr BCs at level 5 now). I just need to do the same for Gallente and Caldari ships but it isn't so long to get Frigates to 4 and Cruisers to 3. I am debating whether to get Destroyer to 5 or not. While it will be a nice amount of free skill points when the summer change comes, I never use Destroyers and can't picture myself ever flying them again. I guess I'll look to see how much time it will take before i decide.

Reading up on the summer ship change, I noticed that the Orca will drop in training time dramatically as the Mining Barge skill will be completely removed. That will save about a month of training time to fly an Orca. As my previous idea was to have my two mining alts flying Hulks and my main hauling, a better idea of having my main in an Orca boosting them both came into my mind. So that is what I will aim to do for the summer - alt 1 and 2 in Hulks and main in an Orca.

Kinda sad that that means my alt will probably semi-retire from combat but I can always go back and forth between mining and missions with him.

Alt 1 is working on Cybernetics 5 now. I got a mining and refining implant waiting for him plus I'll probably put in a couple attribute implants to reduce his training time for Exhumer. I haven't trained up Exhumer much because the bonus does very little for a Mack but it is 3x better for a Hulk so, with Hulks in the future, he'll want Exhumer 5. Also need Drone Interfacing 5 so I can maximize mining drones' yield as well. They are quite good and amount to something like 1/2 of a strip miner in yield so well worth the training times (for hardcore miners, anyway).

Alt 2 is still working on Mining Barge 5 but that will be done in 5 days or so. Then, instead of continuing straight away on the path to get an Exhumer, I'll get Amarr Freighter with her. It's only 4 days or something since she's already got Amarr Industrial 5.

I've discovered that it is much better to be self-sufficient in your transportation needs and mining needs as well. Alt 2 (who has the best trading skills of all my toons) holds on to all my minerals (Alt 1 does the refining) and she has a transport ship to haul the mins to a trade hub for sale. While the less than 40k cargo hold of an Impel is ok for Mex and even Pyr, you don't want to haul Trit around because it isn't worth the time in a transport ship. So the Trit is stockpiling up in her hangar (60 million... 70 million now?) and quite a bit of Pyr too (20 - 30 million) because I don't have access to a freighter. The two freighter guys in my corp haven't been online all week. So, better to be self-sufficient and get my own freighter.

To make all this possible, in light of 3 PLEXes needed at the end of the month plus more than 1 billion to buy a freighter (and 700+ million for an Orca down the road), I will probably buy 1 or 2 of my PLEXes for April with real money instead of in-game (and that will be the first time to do that since I created the characters).

Last thing, new mining record total on Tuesday. I put in about 4 hours in the morning, then took a 2 hour break, then another 3 hours or so before downtime. Then another 2 or 3 hours after downtime. Alt 1 and 2 constantly mining, one in a Mack and the other in a Retriever and, at the end of the day and after refining, total mineral value was at 216 million. And that was without an Orca boost (only using a +6% boost from Alt 1).

Summer time - two toons in a Hulk and my main boosting and hauling in an Orca - will blow that 216 million out of the water. But for now, it's my new mining record to be beaten.

Well, that's my log for the week. Thanks for reading and see you next time. o/
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#16 - 2013-03-28 01:25:42 UTC  |  Edited by: SirTitus Dimas
Captain's Log: March 28, 2013

This'll be a short one. My internet was down (Thailand's infrastructure really sucks sometimes) on the weekend and I had a planned trip to Bangkok from Sunday to Tuesday so I was desperately trying to log in for just a minute on Saturday and Sunday to change skills around till I got back on Tuesday.

I managed to do that and that was all I got done till I came back home on Tuesday night. My internet was working fine when I got home so I did get a full day of gameplay yesterday (mining and missions, again) but that's the extent of a whole week.

About skills: My main completed Minmatar Battleship 4 and working on Rapid Firing 5 now (should be finished on Saturday). I did Min BS 4 because the boost for my Maelstrom. Shoot a bit faster for more dps (at 696 right now with Republic Fleet ammo) and a bit more on my shield booster (didn't check that but should be somewhere around 850 per 4 second cycle). RF 5 on the weekend will put me around 730 - 740 dps and will max out the ROF on my Tornado (BC 5 and RF 5 so there's nothing left to improve that sniper ship for shooting times). Then I'll work on Caldari and Gallente Frigates and Cruisers to get ready for the Odyssey change on June 4th. He also needs to be able to fly an Orca (with the new skill change for it) by then.

The 1st mining alt is still working on Cybernetics 5 and that'll be done on Sunday (I think). Then I'll plug in some implants for him. Not sure what's next for him. He needs to max Drone Interfacing and Exhumer and also needs to improve CPU so I can add a 2nd mining drone rig to my Mack.

The 2nd mining alt completed Mining Barge 5 (so 27.5k ore hold on a Retriever) and now I'm working on Spaceship Command 5 (finish around Sunday) so she can train up Amarr Freighter. I sold all my Pyerite and Mexallon around my HQ system by hauling them around in my 36k cargo hold Impel and sold off all my Tritanium to an alliance member. Gave her a good deal as I needed the money and wanted to move the Trit. All toons' isk combined will allow me to buy a Providence (even at the 1.5 billion current cost) but I hope to get a cheaper one from my alliance. They got a market mailing list so I'll place a WTB message for a Providence over the weekend.

After a level or two of Amarr Freighter, my 2nd mining alt still needs a few weeks to fly an Exhumer so I guess she'll get working on maxing out Astrogeology.

My immediate plans is to have all 3 toons as ready as possible for the Odyssey update when I can do mining ops with myself. Main = Orca, 1st mining alt = Hulk (and maxed mining yield.. or as close as I can get it), 2nd mining alt = Hulk (decent mining yield as she will concentrate on hauling mins and selling them so need lots of trade skills).

But, on the other hand, I've been looking at a Loki and playing around with the different builds you can make. It's really cool being able to custom-build a ship. So it's likely that my main won't retire completely from missions.

Anyway, that's all I can write about today. Thanks for reading.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#17 - 2013-04-04 01:41:22 UTC  |  Edited by: SirTitus Dimas
Captain's Log: April 4th, 2013.

Hey there and welcome to another weekly update of my log. Thanks for coming and reading.

(not sure if anyone reads this, actually, but I just like to write and organize my thoughts thusly)

A few notable things happened last week. On Friday night (only hours back online), I lost another Maelstrom in a level 4 security mission. The reason? What else? LAG. Once again it was the kind of mission when the dps started to heat up and the scrambling frigates came. And once again, lag kicked in to prevent me from killing said scramblers and warping to safety. The difference this time was I took it in stride instead of yelling at the computer screen like last time. "Oh scrambled and lag again. Oh well... another destroyed battleship coming up". And so it came to be.

The kill report listed just over 1 billion isk lost but, luckily, my most expensive mods survived the explosion and were salvageable. After buying and insuring a new Maelstrom (named "Big Guns 3".. I think you can guess the names of my previous Maelstroms) and refitting the new ship, I was down a total of about 250 million... which was quite ok considering the kill report of 1 billion lost.

2nd notable thing was I set a new mining record on Monday. This was due to a lot of hours online with my two mining alts and capped off after downtime with an Orca boost from an alliance member. After refining, the mineral values clocked in at 262.2 million, which is quite higher than my previous record.

However, the next day, I sold all those minerals in nearby systems (hauling around in my 36k cargo hold Impel) at the best buy order prices I could find and ended up with only 198 million isk. From 262.2 m to 198 m is something like 25% loss from mineral value to actual isk upon selling. This made up my mind about getting a freighter as I can more happily stockpile minerals and keep an eye out for good buy orders and then just go and sell at one time. I figure after 20 or so full freighter loads of minerals (which is months of mining) and saving a lot of isk in price differences, the freighter will actually pay for itself.

So I got on alliance chat and asked who can sell or make me a Providence (as my last alt had just trained up Amarr Freighter 1) and I found someone to make me one for somewhere around 1.3 billion (exact price unknown at the moment) and it will be ready sometime around April 13 - 14 or so. I have the isk on hand and will continue mining and refining but not selling minerals until I get the Providence.

Last notable thing is that our CEO has, apparently, quit the game (for "personal reasons" - which probably means his wife pressured him to stop playing, but that's just a guess). He's been offline now for 3 or 4 weeks and we only recently got in contact with him. He will, hopefully, log in sometime and transfer ownership of the corp to another player. If not, then our corp will need to merge into another corp or someone in our corp will need to start a new corp which we'll all join. That person will not be me as I have no interest in leadership roles... makes the game more like work, than a game.

Our CEO was a great guy, very friendly and enthusiastic, and very positive and helpful towards noobs. I'm sorry to see him go, hope he can come back and, if not, wish him the best in his future gaming.

For my skills, my main finished Rapid Fire 5 (shooting every 3.37 seconds in my Maelstrom with 800mm repeating artillery at 797.7 dps now). I started on Large Projectile Turret 4 after that but didn't finish it as I switched to Leadership and Mining Foreman skills to get ready for when I'll fly an Orca after the Odyssey update. He'll finish Large Projectile Turret 4 and Mining Foreman 4 while I'm offline these two days and then I'll work on Mining Foreman and Leadership 5 (together should take around 10 days).

My mining alt completed his Cybernetics and got some implants plugged in. He's training straight for Exhumer 5 now as I will switch to Hulks after Odyssey. Something like 22 days till Exhumer 5 is finished. Then his mining yield should be maxed (shy of buying some super expensive implant) and he'll work on maxing mining drone yield so Drone Interfacing 5 will be next (another 20+ days for that one) then some CPU skills so he can add another mining drone rig.

The last alt finished Spaceship Command 5, got 1 level of Ammar Freighter and Astrogeology 4. She's working Astrogeology 5 now (12 days or so till complete) and then she'll be able to fly a Mack. While she'll be in the same ship as my main mining alt, her mining yield is way below his and she'll need lots more time in training up skills to improve that so she can reach his level.

When my main gets Mining Foreman 5, I may take a break from missions and go haul for my miners providing them with the 10% boost from that skill and saving them some time by hauling ore back to the station for them. I think I got a hauler in the same system as the miners waiting to go. Next week, while those skills are cooking, I really need to go back to CBD missions fleeted with my refiner and get his standings up to 6.67 for perfect refining. He's at 5.22 now and I lose something like 1.08% now... which isn't a big deal but I guess it adds up to a lot over time.

Well, that's my log. Cya next time.
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#18 - 2013-04-11 02:25:03 UTC
Captain's Log: April 11, 2013

If nothing really interesting happens in the past week, I need to search my hippocampus for something to write about in my weekly log. This is such a week. No war dec... no pvp... no lag causing battleship destruction. But, hopefully, as I get typing here the ol' memory will get jogging.

My refiner finally reached 6.67 with CBD on about Sunday or Monday. I got him to around 6.50 via sharing sec missions with my main and left CBD stations with my main and went back to my main LP producing area. I figured I could do a couple quick level 3 distribution missions with the refiner to get from 6.50 to 6.67. I was in for a surprise when I only got 0.01 or 0.02 standings increase per mission.... and 200 - 400 LPs. So, if you want to improve standings and LPs via distribution, DON'T. But he eventually got there and is now refining at 100% yield and 0% loss to CBD.

I also took the time to transfer a ton of salvaged / looted items over to the refiner for reprocessing and ended up with quite a bit of minerals. Sitting on something like 1.2 billion worth of minerals now and waiting for my Providence to be completed (should be any time now). I hear there's this "burn Jita" thing coming up so I'll make sure to sell my minerals and have enough money for this month's PLEXes before all that goes down. Then I can stockpile again for the next couple weeks.

My main is still working the LPs. He's gotten two +5 implants for my main miner this week (Willpower and Perception) as the miner is currently working on Exhumer 5. When those two implants were plugged in, the total time reduction was about 2 days so the mining alt should have Exhumer 5 in around 2 weeks from now. My main will continue with missions (going to try to do more level 4s and look for more money via bounties / loot) and supply my miner with the other 3 implants.

My main will finish Mining Foreman 5 over the weekend and then I'll work on Leadership 5. Then I really need to finish those Caldari and Gallente Frigate and Cruiser skills to get the most out of BC 5. Mining Director 5 is about a month of training so that will take me close to Odyssey and an Orca. If I can have the t2 mining foreman links in the Orca upon first using it, then it'll be quite a nice Orca boost from the get go. He finished Large Projectile Turret 4 which boosted my Maelstrom's dps up to 824.8 and that's as high as it's going to get for a long time because I won't be working combat skills for the next couple months.

My two mining alts just continued to do their thing in the background. I wasn't online a hell of a lot last week so only a few hours here and there. I've bought Hulks (and Mackinaws) for both of them but won't use the Hulks till I get the Orca thing going. About 2 weeks for Exhumer 5 for the main miner and 6 days for Astrogeology 5 for the 2nd miner. Then she'll jump into a Mack and I'll train up her mining yield. I'll eventually get her to Cybernetics 5 and implant her up as well.

Other notes: Corp CEOship has been passed along so we are a fully functioning corp now and got access back to our corp wallet. Myself and Fic do a lot of level 4 missions so there's a lot of corp wallet money in there from our bounty + rewards taxes to the corp. At least now we can use that money.

And the premier explorer in our corp got quite angry yesterday as he was doing a Angel 4/10 ded site. He was a couple ships away from completing it when a couple of Tengus came in behind him, killed the boss and got the loot. Lots of yelling about CCP should be locking down the gates until you leave ensued. I feel his pain. Ninja salvagers... ninja explorers.... miners arriving in your belt and immediately mining the same rock you are.... no respect.

This weekend will start the Thai New Year holiday of Songkran so (barring any accidents that knock out my internet connection... which is, unfortunately, a real possibility with all the drunken driving that's going to happen) I will have tons of time online over the next week. 5 days off and nothing to do but play EVE. Well, not entirely true but I do plan on spending a lot of time each day online. I'll be happy if I can earn (via mining and missions) 250 million per day. That will almost pay for the 3 PLEXes I need to get this month.

Well, nothing else to think of so I'll end the log here. Thanks for reading and Happy Songkran!
SirTitus Dimas
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#19 - 2013-04-18 02:03:28 UTC
Captain's Final Log: April 18th, 2013

This will be my final log. I've quit EVE, uninstalled the game from my computer and (I guess) will lose access to this My EVE blog once my PLEX runs out at the end of the month.

Basically, I am unable to play the game as I have built up my characters to play -namely, PVE. EVE is a PVP game... whether you like it (or want it) or not. It's inescapable, even in high sec. Our corp was war decced again which shut down my PVE characters (as I've spent 4 months building up PVE characters, not PVP characters) once again.

I came to the conclusion that if I want to play the game PVE, then my only option is to exist in an NPC corp without any of the social aspects of the game... and, of course, that is not desirable.

So, instead of sitting on my hands for weeks at a time, I just decided to call it quits on the game. How long would it take me to have a viable PVP character? 1/2 a year? Several years? I joined EVE when the game was nearly a decade old so coming into a PVP game when the vast majority of the tens of thousands of players are older and stronger than you isn't paramount to having a good time. The other thing I realized is that any viable PVP requires 3rd party communication software like TeamSpeak which, due to family, I am unable to employ. So, even if I wanted to go PVP, I'd be at several huge disadvantages. And, I'm sure, getting my ass handed to me over and over again would just make me quit the game anyway.

So, I'm saving some time and quitting now. But being an MMO addict as I freely admit I am, I'll be into some other game soon enough. Too bad that my EVE experience was only 4 months.... rather short but long enough to know that this game is not for me.

Titus out.
Victoria Thorne
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#20 - 2013-04-19 23:09:51 UTC
If you have a viable mission running character, you should be able to use them as a pvp character with extremely minimal extra training. (Hours at most- propulsion jamming is about the only skill you might not have trained up off-hand.)

What will be lacking probably not your character skill, but your personal experience in combat. The only character skill problem you might is that it's likely that you have focused your training in battleship weapons, not the frigate and cruiser weapons more common in pvp. If you wanted to have a perfectly skilled pvp pilot in the T1 frigate of your choice, you are likely less than 2 weeks away from that. There are only so many skills which effect any individual ship in EVE, so those players with 10 years of skills on you are not really that far ahead of you.

If your character is paid up till the end of the month, why not buy a handful of frigates/cruisers and go out with a bang, at least? Big smile

You'll likely lose a few ships, but you might enjoy the experience.