It is no big secret that I have been pro-incarna, and I am a bit disappointed that there will not be any meaningful incarna content in the future. With that said I am glad that the winter changes will be important and will make my PVP experience far more enjoyable. [Perhaps I will train into Gallente next :D]

I do have an issue with the current timeline though. In one of the recent dev-blogs it was mentioned that the current CQ will be the initial starting point for newer players. As much as this will provide a small bit of immersion, I believe that this is a pretty bad idea. Every new player will now be introduced to the door, then will search for information on the door, and dig up the inevitable rage threads and other products of this summer. Following that, they will be waiting in these quarters for the door to open to some actual incarna features for how long? For over a year. This will be a rather silly and constant reminder of  a largely incomplete feature that is sadly presented as much more than it is.

This goes into NeX, it has zero purpose right now and it will have no purpose for the next 12 months. There will be a nagging station icon, loading screen adverts, and inevitable clothing updates for the next year. All without any real reason behind them. People love to dress up, but only if others can see it. I guess they will just have to sell hats and facial mods for the time being.

If CCP is moving away from Incarna for the next 6 months then they need to put these two features out of sight until they are given a real purpose or value.

There is, however, one thing that I am not taking into consideration. DUST 514 is coming out into beta this winter and will be shipping out next summer. CCP now has deals, or at the very least agreements, with much larger entities, thus these deadlines are a tad more solid than any of their expansion deadlines have been. DUST would possibly add use to the captains quarters beyond their current state, that being visual communication with the mercs on planets. I am aware that they will of course provide simple chat and menu based interface for this, but none the less they did show those screens showing more than just the random videos in their future vision video. But even then, I didn’t even want to mention this because we have not had a meaningful dust update in months now.

It seems that the keyword of the post is ‘meaningful’. The past year has lacked meaning within the new content, there are greater arcs coming and content with much more impact, sure. But these have not surfaced within anything we have seen thus far. I hope this winter will provide a better experience for the player base, and that the next year will follow with this new momentum.

Alas it seems to be always ‘hope for  a better future’ rather then ‘the future today’ as of late.

Finished this website a few days ago, take a look here: Project Halibut. Working with Garheade [of EVE Commune fame] was an absolute pleasure.

Project Halibut is an initiative intended to help newer players by answering questions and providing them with valuable advice. Not only that, the website itself will provide helpful articles and opinions for older players looking for the best ways to bring their friends into the game.

There is no argument that EVE is a very tough ocean to live in, Project Halibut intends to help the new players swim with the big fish.

… and an unexpected issue.

Something rather unfortunate happened to a corp member recently, they were scammed of few billion ISK. Very unfortunate, and very unexpected. I decided to investigate and ended up finding the culprit alt, then the main and active ‘main alts’ as well. All was well, and I was actually excited to  do some of my own scamming for once, for the target truly warranted it. Then came the issue, they spoke a different language than me. Then to top it off they were currently part of an unrelated corp that spoke exclusively that language. My main strategy of infiltration became impossible, and although I had a few friends who would be able to translate, it wouldn’t be much fun anymore.

What is the point of me spilling this? Well a few posts ago I mentioned the issue with my old alliance, the fact that it had a great deal of english speakers but chose to speak primarily german on the fleet ops. This obviously caused quite a bit of boredom to some people on those ops. I also happened to mention that it is a damn ancient way of working, but now I stand somewhat corrected.

A language barrier can be one of the best security measures in eve right now, spies can’t exactly spy as efficiently if they can’t understand a thing you are saying. It is no wonder that such communities form quickly and flourish over time within EVE. This is definitely something to keep in mind, I am seriously considering joining a Russian corp right now as I am fluent in that language and can use this to my advantage as a player. That being said I am ok with where I am for now. :)

As for the culprit? Well this is eve, and there isn’t much to be done. The names are written down, and will most certainly be exploited when an opportunity presents itself.

My not so secret alt has finally ‘come of age’ when it comes to trying on pvp with decent fits. Got my first kill a week ago or so, sadly have not played much since though.

Killmail Link

Sadly the gate guns did all the work on this one, thus can’t feel too proud! That being said a kill is a pretty good start for a character.

More kills to come soon I hope!

A few weeks ago we have made the decision to leave our alliance. Too many negatives have accumulated over the past three months, and the positives have dwindled rapidly in the past few weeks.

We are now living in a class 5 wormhole. This will be a new experience for me, and I am definitely looking forward to it. It will take a week or so before we really get settled in and start on some kind of a routine, lots of training coming up. We have already had a number of engagements with some neutrals. Did a loot of industrial runs yesterday, while a fleet held off the enemies.

We have already moved some essential equipment to the PoS, and I have even had some time to set up a few PI colonies.

Sleepers will have to wait until we can get our fleets set up and ready.

-Sol