EVE Blog Banter #14: New Tears, Same Great Taste

As many of you who keep up with the Eve-Blogsphere know, about once a month, Crazy Kinux puts out another installment of the Eve Blog Banter, in which he invites other bloggers to write about the same general subject or idea and share. I’ve read a few of the blog banters before, but I’ve never joined in an participated in the 4 months or so that Finders & Keepers has been up and running. For one, the topics haven’t always appealed to me (i.e “Design your own mission” – mine entails all large amarr wrecks, 2 almost already dead Overseers full of faction drops, and multiple trigger-happy fail-fit mission runners. The end.). Another reason is, I’ve always sort of assumed the Blog Banter was reserved for those in the official Eve Blog Pack. I’m still not totally sure about that second one, but here it goes anyways.

Welcome to the fourteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE blogging extravaganza created by Crazy Kinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can be short  or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com.

The first banter of 2010 comes to us from the EVE Blog Father, in which I ask the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves “What Now?” What will I attempt next? What haven’t I done so far in EVE? Was it out of fear, funds, or knowledge? Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so? Is there a fledging mercenary waiting to come out of its shell? Or maybe an Industrialist? What steps and objectives will I set out for myself to accomplish in order to read my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

Well, I’ve decided that in 2010 I’m going to give up ninja-salvaging entirely, train myself into a Dominix, and start afk-missioning.

…tee-hee! Kidding, of course :). On a much more serious note, in 2010, I plan on shooting a lot more people (in game!). I’ve tended to pussy-foot around PvP in my time in Eve; a lot of the time just assuming that the other guy is a better PvPer than me with way more skills and experience. But in looking at my skills and my growing time in Eve, I realize thats really not the case. After a year in Eve now, I’m sitting on just shy of 16 million skillpoints, and a LOT of those are PvP-oriented. I have every gunnery support skill trained to at least level 4, and a lot of them maxed to level 5. I also spent a lot of time in 2009 maxing out a lot of core skills (engineering, electronics, mechanic, etc all to level 5), with an over-all effect of making me a much better pilot. I’m still in mostly t1 hulls, but I can fly the shit out of those that I do. Over the past few months, I’ve cranked up all my missile support skills to levels 4 or 5, and with an unexplained new affinity for Caldari ships, I’ve worked on my shield tank as well. So these days, in addition to my beloved rifter and the hurricane I get into now and again for bigger pew, I’m also flying a manticore for sneaky cloaky ninja-stuff, and have just stepped into a Raven (my first battleship). So what I’ve realized I need now is confidence. Not to be confused with cockiness, but confidence that upon entering a fight, there’s a very good chance I’m actually going to come out on top. And not just because of SPs, but due also to a years-worth of experience in the ins and outs of flying effectively. Going hand-in-hand with the above, I’d also like to get better at leading during a fire-fight. I’ve been FCing for a while now on Salvage Ops, but I’d like to get more proficient at effectively FCing combat situations as well.

Iskies; I’m really not hurting for them, but I’m also not really raking them in right now either. The majority of my wealth is still thanks to my Orca-misplacing benefactor, Jackal Lord from a few months ago (see here for full story). At the moment, I’ve got about 3 billion isk between myself and spread around a few alts, with another 500 mil invested in the TEARS investment program. Salvaging and looting of course brings in decent money (and of course sweet sweet tears), although I’m the kind that tends to hoard salvage until I can sell of huge chunks of it at a time. I’ve also recently got into the joy of ninjaing bounties on high-paying BS rats in people’s missions. I really live a pretty simple existence in Eve. I don’t fly expensive ships (I still salvage in a Vigil worth all of about 350k isk), I don’t splurge on faction mods for my mission-ship (hehe…mission ship…heh), and I don’t really spend it on much else. But in the interest of greed, and the desire to have a gigantic pile of iskies to roll around on and light cigars with, I’ve decided to get on the money train in 2010 and start making a fortune. I’ve got an industrialist alt or two (or three, or four) that I use for infiltration purposes mostly, but with some of them, they actually have those indy skill trained up. I figured, its high time I learn how to use those skills to my benefit, and I’ll be putting my alt minions to work making me cash.

Besides that, everything else revolves around the Ninjas and a lot of plans and ideas I’ve got for the guys. I’ve had to back out of or cancel a couple weekly salvage ops recently due to the holidays and then RL work schedule-changes, but I really want to get those back up and running. With Cyberin deciding to take an indefinite break from Eve, we probably need to start looking for another Director of Personnel Recruitment, however our slightly tougher-than-most recruitment policy that he helped enact will likely stay the same (SN requires a full API check, real reasons why you want to be a ninja, some basic skill requirements, and the disclosure of all alts). Recruitment is a pretty full time job in and of itself with us, and VP, Llyan, and I are going to get cranky and bitter if we have to deal with all the recruitment stuff ourselves. As Director of Salvage Operations, I’m also currently working on guide to rat types as they relate to salvage and loot drops as best I can (any input would be appreciated). We’ve got a really awesome core group of guys in SN right now, with a lot of great vets and some really enthusiastic and hilarious new guys as well, and I predict great things for the Ninjas in 2010. As we enter this new decade, I will say to you, the furry mission running carebear (do any bears even read this?): We will find you. We will salvage your wrecks. We will take your stuff. And we will save your big salty tears in a jar to chuckle about later as they fuel our ships. We’re watching, and we’re everywhere.

o7,

-Aiden

List of Participants:

1. CrazyKinux’s Musing – A beginning is a very delicate time…
2. My God It’s Full of Stars – What Now?
3. The Elitist – Plans for 112yc
4. Into the unknown with gun and camera – Show me the money
5. Ecliptic Rift – Enabling the future
6. Inanity and Doom – New Year’s Resolutions, New Eden Style
7. Break Vol – Blog Banter #14
8. Guns Ablaze – What Now?
9. Adventures in Mission Running – The Way Forward
10. Diary of a Pod Pilot – Things I want to do
11. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah – The Year That Will Be
12. Roc’s Ramblings – WordPress ate my blog
13. Vive Virtual – Frontier Living
14. A Mule in EVE – Next on the chopping block
15. Prano’s Journey – I Peer Into My Crystal Pod…
16. Life in Low Sec – Expanding the Franchise
17. The Light of Stars – Testing the claims of CCP
18. A Memoir From Space – A New Direction
19. The Chronofile – Blog Banter 2010
20. FlashFresh – What now for Flash?
21. EVE Opportunist – Fyreite in 112
22. Mike Azariah – Jiorj
23. Yarrbear Tales – Year in Review
24. The Independant Analyst – The Year Ahead
25. The Travels of Black Claw – Where ma I going?
26. Warp Scrammed – What to do this year
27. Sered’s Lives – Searching for directions in 2010
28. Finders & Keepers – New Tears, Same Great Taste
29. More to come!

~ by Aiden Mourn on January 14, 2010.