Classic

Updated

In the trend of showing our updated characters, here is Freddy Facepalm in what once was, and what is now.

It took me quite awhile to go through and figure out the new character creator. Against my better judgement, and lots of good advice, I started off with Freddy instead of trying things out on an Alt. At first I was greatly disappointed (why wasn’t straight black hair an option?), but the new Freddy is starting to grow on me.

I keep imagining him driving a black trans-am to Seven-11 in 1978, mullet and all. Either way…I’m starting to like it.

I also did my two, never used, alts. They turned out okay, but not great. I was just super excited to get in game for a number of different reasons, so in the end I said everything’s “good enough” and moved on. Though I hear if you really get stuck CCP is being generous with character reset petition requests…which is nice of them.

Let’s hope Freddy Facepalm 2.0 is as much fun as Classic Freddy has been over the past year and a half!

The Opera isnt over Until the Fat lady sings

Well I’ve finally completed my grandiose plan for 2011 in EVEMon. Like I said earlier I’m going to try and refocus a little on Industry with a smidgen of EWar. My current plan takes me until December 5th, 2011…but I’ve snuck in a few EWar skills that will take around 10 days or so. Anyways, here is the master list…what are you planning for 2011?

Wall of Text FTW

So it’s been quite lately, what with settling into the new house routine and all. Yet I feel like things are picking up!

On the EVE front I’ve spent the past couple of months doing nothing but hi-sec exploration with a little missioning in the mix. The exploration has been a boon of riches as I’ve had a streak of good luck recently, which helps for sure.

I’m almost finished training up all the Core Elite Certificate skills, minus Advanced Weapon Upgrades V, so I’m glad to have that out of the way.

I’ve attempted to make a rough skill plan 2011, mainly focusing on Industry. When I started my EVE career this is where I focused my effort for a good 6-9 months. Since then I’ve diverted into some combat areas, but I feel it’s time to get back to my roots. I’ve also taken advantage of the free neural remap handed out by CCP recently with their removal of Learning Skills and pumped up my Intelligence and Memory to help with the Industry training focus.

I’ve been eying Null-Sec space as a possible next adventure. I’ve spent my whole time in Hi-Sec, rarely even venturing into Low-Sec, let alone 0.0, other than a few errant WH explorations gone wrong. We shall see…

Either way 2010 was a great year even though it went out with a whimper. I hope to make 2011 just as exciting! Wishing you all the best!

U-Hauling

Well my long absence is *hopefully* coming to an end. The Mrs. & I purchased our first house and just moved in this past weekend. It was quite the hassle. We have very few belongings and no family and it was still a huge pain in the arse. I have no idea how those with families handle such an endeavor. My hats off to you!

The interwebs are finally re-connected at the new abode and I’ll be doing my best to get back into things, new house work aside.

I’m trying to regain my bearings and formulate a plan for the future. Our Corporation/Alliance has some plans that I’m looking forward to. My training while I was away completed Battlecruisers V and a number of Core skills. Thus I might be in the market for a Command ship here soon. I also need to get my PI and POS setups back up and running.

So much to do, so little time!

However, Freddy passed the 20 Million SP mark a day or so ago. I’d like to fill out this post in a similar fashion to my 10 Million SP post from awhile back. We’ll see if I can find the time.

Cruising Along

Well it appears I’m the worst blogger ever, lack of posts is not good!

The vacation went well, though too short. Since I’ve been back it’s been pretty quiet. Living in Wormspace can do that some times.

I’ve run many Combat sites, and several Radar sites, thus padding my stockpile of Sleeper salvage and loot. I finally finished up Gas Harvesting V last night and thus sucked clean a Ladar site for some much needed Polymer Reactions.

I also finished up Heavy Assault Missiles V, but unfortunately my current ship setups are not conducive to increased DPS since you have to be within ~12km of your target. I mainly fly my Drake, which lumbers along and cannot keep up with most Sleepers, especially when webbed. Thus I’ve had to revert back to my standard Heavy Missiles setup. I am however looking to pick up a Cerberus Heavy Assault Ship perhaps that will help?

I managed to complete some Invention runs for some T2 Heavy Assault Missile ammo. 9/20 runs isn’t great, but it’s not horrible either. Now I simply need to produce some new Planetary Interaction materials to complete the materials list before I can manufacture the ammo.

Speaking of PI, it’s been going along smoothly. I’ve mainly focused on manufacturing POS fuel and I’ve been able to make just enough to keep the tower running with a months supply of fuel, and a month stockpile. There is just enough surplus for me to focus on 2 products which I can sell, thus I’ve picked Oxygen (quick, easy turn-around) and Enriched Uranium, which seems to have the biggest margin right now.

I’m hoping to make some POS modules with my PI, but that might be a lot farther in the future as I’ve kinda hit my happy medium in terms of how much it takes to manage my setup and what I get out of it.

The only interesting story to relate happened a few days ago in our WH. I was the only one logged in at the moment when I noticed several scanning probes out. Eventually I found a Drake hanging at our WH exit to hi-sec. Eventually another ship, a Force Recon Pilgrim (Cruiser-class Co-Opts) jumped in as well. The only site we had currently in the WH was a Radar site, which they had found and warped to.

I surmised both ships were controlled by the same person as I sat and watched them cloaked up in my Buzzard. I tried to snag a Hacking can while they dealt with the Sleepers, but it proved to risky, so I simply sat back and watched.

The Drake was being used as the “damage sponge” while the Pilgrim helped with Drones and DPS. I’m not sure how much experience this Pilot had with Wormholes, Sleepers and the Sites involved. Typically there are waves of Sleepers which each wave being triggered to spawn as soon as you kill a specific type of ship from the previous wave. Most of these “trigger” ships have been recorded in Wikis and Guides for some time and anyone who’s spent any amount of time in W-space will know right away where to find this information. This particular Pilot, however, learned the hard way, as most of us did back when we first entered W-space.

The Drake began killing all the trigger Sleepers and was soon overwhelmed with 3 full waves of Sleepers. For some reason they did not warp out, thus the Sleepers happily targeted the Pilgrim and chewed it up almost instantly. The Drake barely got out in time, but did manage to warp back to the WH exit and into hi-sec.

I quickly jumped into my own Drake and warped to the Pilgrim wreck. I grabbed everything that had survived (a few T2 modules & drones) and then began to systematically take out the Sleepers that I could, warping out and back when needing to. I finished the site in around 45 minutes (as I said, the Drake is sloooow) and just as I was finishing up the Pilot returned with another wingman.

He saw that I had finished up the site, cleaned out his wreck and salvaged everything. This Pilot had been around since 2006, so he knew the game, and thus said simply and professionally “Congrats “. He then warped out and was gone.

I felt bad and was thinking of sending him his drones and mods back, but at the same time it was probably a good lesson for him to learn, one that I’ve learned more times than I care to imagine.

So all things considered it’s been a quiet week, but plenty to do!

I’ve been getting ready for this trip the past few days, thus my nights in EVE have been fairly mundane. Managing my PI infrastructure and running a few combat & Ladar sites has taken most of my time. However last night we had a connection 4 jumps from Jita, thus I took the opportunity to make a much needed run.

I picked up a Polymer Reaction Array, a few Remote Armor/Hull Repairers and some POS fuel components. I also sold over 300M ISK in Sleeper loot/salvage. It’s amazing what a week in W-space can yeild.

So I’ll leave you with that. Fly dangerously this week my friends & I’ll catch you on the flip side!

How to start an Alt in EVE Online:

1) The Buddy Program

If you currently have a paid subscription you can get a pretty good deal by using the EVE Bring in a Buddy program. You do this by logging into your account on the EVE Onling website and then emailing yourself a link for a 21-day free trial (the standard free-trial is only 14 days long). If you eventually subscribe with this trial account, your original account gets 30 days of free play time. Using the 21 days is a great way to get your learning and core skillsets up to par.

2) Trial Account Restrictions

You cannot play a trial account and a paid account at the same time on the same computer. Trial accounts also cannot use contracts and cannot train a majority of skills. It thus becomes difficult to set up your Alt with all the necessary skillbooks and ISK from your main character without getting another player involved or having to use two separate computers.

3) New Character Planning Guide

Read this great guide for getting a new Alts’ Learning and Core skills up to par so that they have basic competency in a good number of areas. There is also this good article which offers the best Learning skill training schedule. It will take about 7 to 10 days to get everything in the acceptable range, but it’s time well spent.

4) API Key Restrictions

Any new EVE Online account must be active for 72 hours before you can request a Limited API key. You can, however, log in as your new Alt and export your character’s XML data. This can then be used and imported into various programs such as EVEMon and EVEHQ.

5) New Character Tutorials

Go through all the tutorials and initial career path missions. This is a great way to get some free skillsbooks, gear, ships, ISK and standing, plus it only takes a couple hours at most. This only applies if you need the help of free skills and gear, if your main character can bank roll your Alt, then don’t bother unless you want the small amount of standing the missions offer.

6) Alt Corporation

It is sometimes helpful to create a new corporation just for your Alt, however this requires 18,000 ISK for the Corporation Management skillbook and 1.6 Million ISK for the new corporation fees. The skillbook is trainable immediately however and typically available in all starting stations.

EVE is a unique game in which you truly cannot thrive flying solo. Sure you can make an existence (I’m proof of that anyways) but the gains of having a second character helping you out are massive.

My Alt didn’t quite make the cut, for various reasons, but the post lived. I wasn’t able to find an easy source at the time of all the meaningful info you should know about starting a new Alt, thus the post.

As it turns out, yesterday I noticed a referral link from EVE University for this entry on their Wiki. To my surprise it was a complete snippet of my original post, verbatim. I’m just glad people have found it useful enough that it now has a more visible home.

I wanted to do a quick update to my original posting with a more condensed set of information and answers to the questions I originally asked. I’ll post that as soon as I can.

Cheers!