First impressions of null sec

Well, we've been in null sec for about 2 weeks and things are going pretty well. We've had a quite a bit of fun and excitement out here, including:

• An SBU being dropped into our main system we had set up two days. We managed to kill it before things got too ugly
• Getting hot dropped by a titan while we were jumping a jump freighter to our POS. The JF managed to jump back out before it could get destroyed (phew!)
• Mining like crazy with the alliance to get our our industry level up (I love mining...)
• Playing cat and mouse with a cloaky for a full evening. The cloaky got the better of us, unfortunately, but I didn't die...

We are getting a lot more participation from some of our corp mates who had drifted off as well, so on the whole, I'd say 0.0 has been a big success so far.

OMG! He's back (for another week or two...)

Yeah, I've been gone from blogging for awhile, I'll admit it. But that doesn't mean I can't come back, and that's exactly what I'm doing now. Things are starting to get interesting in my corporation, and this seems like a perfect time to start doing a bit of blogging again.

As far as what's been going on for me, I've recently celebrated the following milestones in my EVE career:

• Been to 0.0
• Been podded
• Learned to fly my first capital ship
• Learned to fly my first T2 combat ship
• Been promoted to a "leadership" role in my corporation

In my personal life, I've gotten a new job, sold my current house, found a new house in a new city, and made arrangements to move my family halfway across the country

I'll keep this posting brief, but look for more in the future.

EVE Online and the eternal noob

Something that amazes (and confounds me, quite honestly) is how EVE can regularly make you feel like a rank beginner. It happens to me all the time. I've been playing this game for over a year and a half, but I regularly run into things in the game that I simply have no idea how to do.

It happened most recently yesterday when a corp leader asked me to stop reacting one item and start reacting another in one of our POSs. I'd been tending the POSs for a while now, so this seemed like it should be pretty easy, but it actually turned out to be quite a bit more complicated than I expected. Now maybe this was more difficult than it needed to be, and perhaps CCP could have designed this feature to be easier, but on the other hand, the fact that you do have to put a bit of thought into things and that the game won't hold your hand is one of the things that make it fun.

Other areas where this has come into play for me include scanning, planetary interaction, and POS management. I'm sure there are many more that will pop up as I continue playing the game. And quite honestly, I look forward to it!

What I've learned about high sec mining...

Not too long ago, I got ganked in high sec while mining. In fact, I've got a draft post that I just haven't finished describing the whole sordid affair. Anyway, I've learned a few things about high sec mining from the experience:

1. If you can, use an Orca so you can avoid jet canning. The way that griefers can kill you without getting CONCORDed almost always involve cans, so generally speaking, no cans, no grief.
2. If you do jet can, pay attention to your overview. The bad guy can't can flip if he isn't close to one of your cans.
3. If you see someone approach your can and get within 2500m of it, it's best to just consider that can gone. I would not try to salvage anything from it and would just leave. Remember, he wants your ship, not your ore.
4. If you are going to ignore the 3rd thing I've learned, then always grab stuff out of your can all at once, and only after making sure the can is not yellow. He will be sitting there with the can contents open, and the second he sees something disappear, he can drop something in, flipping the can and making you the thief the next item you move.

I'm sure there are tons of other rules for high sec miners, but these are the ones I learned from my little adventure. If you have any others, I'd love to hear them.

Announcing the "What I've learned about..." series

Over the next few weeks or months, I plan on writing a series of posts covering things I've learned about Eve. Most of these will posts will be nothing new for many readers, and some things that I think I've learned may not even be true, but what the heck, I'm going to post them anyway. Maybe they will help a new player...

Toon update

I guess today I'll take a minute to just explain what's up with my toons.

Radd Trigon

My main toon is Radd Trigon. He's an Amarr capsuleer, and currently is sitting on 21m skill points. I have also about 800k+ of refunded learning skill points to spend, but haven't really decided where I want to put them at this point.

Radd is very much an indy focused pilot, but has a fair amount of skill points on being able to fly a few combat ships. My top 3 skill categories are:

• Industry: 8.3m skill points including the following Level 5 skills: Industry, Mass Production, Mining, Mining Upgrades, Production Efficiency, Refinery Efficiency, Refining, Ice Harvesting, and Advanced Mass Production (that last one is about 10% of my total skill points!). In addition, I have all ore processing skills trained up to level 4. Basically, if it has to do with mining or construction, Radd's got it covered pretty well.
• Spaceship Command: I have trained 3.3m skill points in this category, including Level 5 in the following: Amarr Frigate, Amarr Industrial, Mining Barge, and Spaceship Command. I am exclusively an Amarr pilot, and can't fly any other ships. I can currently fly Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battle Cruisers, Battleships, Covert Ops Frigates, Interceptors, and Exhumers. I am currently awaiting delivery of my first stealth bomber, and can't wait to be able to cruise around nearly invisible. I spend most of my time in a BS, BC, or Hulk.
• Electronics: I have trained 2.2m skill points in Electronics, with four skills trained to Level 5: Electronics, Electronics Upgrades, Propulsion Jamming, and Targeting. I have spent a fair amount of points to be a decent fleet tackler, but as I don't spend much time in fleets, my abilities here are mostly book learning without much practical application.

Radd is pretty much focused on mission running and mining these days, and spends half of his time in high sec and the other half in low sec. He's been in 0.0 only once, although when we was there, he dropped off jump clone in the station. Now that I have my new alt, he does not get involved in POS tending anymore.

Radd is currently focused on bumping up his combat skills, and is in the process of training up skills to improve his DPS at this point. After that, it's unknown, but I might get started on some capital ship skills. Who knows?

Tel Radic

Tel is new enough that he is still in his speed learning mode, with 1.5m skill points. He is a Caldari because I want to get him into a Drake eventually, but spends most of his time in a Merlin (a Caldari frigate) or an Iteron Mark V (Gallente industrial).

Tel is currently primarily focused on POS tending. He is fully trained up to Gallente Industrial V (his only Level 5 skill), and is able to fly a rigged Itty V which makes POS tending a lot better than it was for Radd in his unrigged Bestower. Unfortunately, by racing straight to Itty V, he has almost no other skills to speak of!

Tel is in the process of becoming a better Itty V pilot, and then will move on to become a Gallente freighter pilot. After that, I see Tel focusing on supporting other pilots, both in indy operations and in combat operations. I see him getting into an Orca and possibly a Rorqual, and then possibly moving on to train for flying logistics or command ships. I also expect Tel to train up leadership skills along the way. Obviously, this training is WAY in the future, so I fully expect this plan to change.

Anyway, that's a bit about where my toons are now, as well as where they might be going. Hopefully I haven't given you so much information that you will be able to waste me the second you see me, but if you do, I'd appreciate it if you'd at least let me know you read my blog after you've podded me...