Saturday, December 27, 2014

EVE: LMeve screenshots

As Raziel I do industry for the corporation/alliance, the tool we use to keep track of this is LMeve.

Lmeve tracks activity and allows you to reward players for performing industry jobs for the corporation.


Tracking of corporate inventory:


Buyback calculator:


Keep track of market orders:


The sheet I am mostly interested in, this task pane shows assigned jobs and what materials are required. Since my part only consists of performing invention and T2 manufacturing all I have to do is log in, check assigned tasks and create the relevant industry jobs in EVE.

If any materials are missing from the production input hangar I just send a mail to our industry director to remind him and within a few days the missing materials will be restocked.


In EVE itself I only have access to the production in put hangar, I can't even see the contents of the containers requiring blueprints but it's still possible to install jobs from the industry window and see a list of all corporate blueprints.


Download link: https://github.com/roxlukas/lmeve
LMeve was developed by Lukas Rox of Aideron Technologies

First snow.

We haven't had a white Christmas in a very long time, so of course it starts snowing the night after.

View from my bedroom window:


View from my bathroom window:


Garden, designed for minimal maintenance.


2013Christmas tree:

2014 Christmas tree:

Friday, December 26, 2014

EVE: ISIS progress



Ever since the introduction of ISIS I have focused on training up existing skills and masteries to level four instead of injecting new skills. While the ISIS sheet is finally starting to look better I am starting to regret ever injecting all those science and ore processing skills.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

EVE: How to lose a carrier.

Yesterday evening I was once again made aware of the fact that multiboxing and complacent behaviour will be punished sooner rather than later.

First the relevant killmails and 'battle report'.

Battle report: https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=26571232
My lossmail: https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=26571232
My killmail: https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=26571160



As this was my first day of vacation I had been online all day ratting with my Thanatos.

My initial setup was having a thanatos, rapier and vexor navy issue on grid but by the time the hotdrop occured I had changed from having all my ships on the same grid to three ships in three different locations, thus lowering my awareness and response time.

My shiny new thanatos was happily killing rats.
A noctis was cleaning up cleared sites.
A retriever was mining away in an anomaly.

My attention thus divided between three clients I was not paying enought attention to intel and local channels. At the same time I noticed Seterinthia was back in local I also managed to read the all-important line in chat which mention she had not left system earlier but logged off.

Moments later she appeared on grid.
Since I assumed I was not going to warp off in time I dropped a mobile depot (my custom had been to align to a safe at 75% speed except for today because I had changed tactics and been dropping MTU's)

But either the mobile depot was killed by the bombers before it even came online or it wasn't visible on the overview (imported earlier that week from corp chat but I hadn't verified what was showing and what was hidden).
In any case I was unable to refit to WCS or tank. Shields were already gone to rats so the bombers only had to melt through armor/hull of my completely untanked carrier. (Guess what, earlier that day I had replaced a trimark armor pump with a capacitor control circuit because everyone knows cap is the most important thing in Eve, not that it would have mattered much.)

Maybe if I had an alt ready next door that I could have cyno-ed out in time before getting pointed?
I had full fuel bays and also had a cyno fitted to bring in reinforcements but without tank there was no time to even think clearly about the options left to me.

So after all hostiles were on grid and shooting at me I offered a GF in local since I knew there was nothing I could do to prevent my demise. I had hoped my gecko's would kill at least some hostiles but they only managed to kill the single prospect that tackled me.
It didn't help that my drones were just killing off the last rat of the wave as the hostile appeared spawning three frigates that assisted the hostiles in tackling me. The rats did manage to kill two bombers so they were more effective as I had been in defending me.
  • Make sure hostiles are gone from your system and space before returning to your favorite ratting spot (add hostiles as contact so you can see them log on and off).
  • Pay attention to your screen(s).
  • Stay aligned if in a carrier.
  • Make sure your overview is correct.
  • Don't ignore local and intel.
  • Be in fleet
  • Be on teamspeak
  • Have your emergency response plan ready for execution.
  • If not aligned drop a mobile depot for immediate GTFO refit.
  • Have an alt next door ready to light a cyno.
Carrier has been replaced already, had this happened in the morning I would have been royally pissed off but by the time I was tackled I think the carrier just about paid for itself.
  • Basic insurance paid out about 500m isk.
  • Looting the MTU after battle returned about 250m in isk.
  • A GFSP had dropped Pith A-type Large Shield Booster, Pith A-type shield boost amplifier, 22nd tier overseer effects and yet another rattlesnake BPC
  • About 10 hours of ratting earning between 60-100 million isk per hour.
Although this will delay buying a second carrier...

For comparison, my previous loss to hostiles killing my ratting ship was in january were I lost a harbinger https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=21317874 (yes that was a pve ratting fit).

Edit:

Friday, December 19, 2014

EVE: Evesterdam 2014

Slightly behind original schedule because it took me months just to get over how I look when exposed to sunlight.

CCP Falcon and CCP Leelo.


Bobmon in the spotlights


CCP Guard


Corebloodbrothers


Prize handout at the end.


Had a great day (except for the part at the end where I got really sick and had to throw up after drinking an orange juice thus missing out on what promised to be the best presentation of all, the Hulkageddon talk by Helicity Boson.)

The venue was pretty basic but was just big enough to handle the crowd.
My camera showed its age once again by making pictures that would make my cellphone weep, maybe my own fault for not wanting to use a flash all the time because I find those distracting.

Many thanks to Deirdre Vaal and everyone else that organized, hosted and contributed to the event. Cya all next year.

Edit: missed uploading some pictures

Compagnietheater where the event took place


Bobmon and CCP Leeloo


Deirdre Vaal in the Gurista shirt.


CCP Guard and CCP Falcon watching the crowd enter for the first presentation.

Friday, October 3, 2014

EVE: Standings grind

Gevlon Goblin calculated he saved 55 billion in broker fees by having good standing with the Caldari State and Navy.

Just by doing the circle courier mission and datacenter tag deliveries MoxNix at Merchant Monarchy raised his standings with the Amarr and Caldari factions by quite a bit.

My interest is in having good standings with all factions so derived standings and diminishing returns mean that completing storyline missions is no longer a valid option to increase faction standings for me. To confirm I completed one storyline mission.

Corporate and faction standings before completion of the mission.


Corporate and faction standings after completing the mision.


Gain: Amarr Empire +0.05, Caldari State +0.03
Loss: Minmatar Repbulic -0.07, Gallente Federation -0.03

To repair the loss I completed The Blood-Stained Stars and chose gallente gaining +0.43 standing with the Gallente Federation. Completing the amarr epic arc increased standing with the Amarr Empire by +0.57.
To compare, SoE arc consists of level 1 missions. The empire faction arcs are level 4 equivalent. All epic mission arcs can be completed every three months.



As a side note, I'll be visiting the Evesterdam event.
http://evesterdam.com/ and https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=357173

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

EVE: Blood burner mission

With the Hyperion update came the new burner missions and I was curious enough to give them a try. After half a dozen random level 4 missions (in Amarr space) the Blood Raider burner mission came up.

The mission warned me that the enemy was a cruor that webbed, scrammed, neuted and liked to orbit at 5 km range while burning me to a crisp with his lasers.

So for my first attempt I went with a capless tank and weapon system in the form of a hawk. When you lack CPU for the fit you want you can try to come up with a new fit or you can just throw isk at the problem.

The abundance of faction mods below should tell you my approach.



It seemed as if I was capable of tanking his damage but since I also seemed unable to to break his tank I decided to bail out. I dropped a mobile depot, refitted with 2 WCS and warped off like a bear.

Since I have multiple accounts the easiest solution was to bring in reinforcements to add dps. Picking the Jaguar hull expended all my creative thought so it's rather similar to the hawk fitting since the tank seemed solid enough.

 

The Jaguar was tanking the Cruor the entire battle so I was going through cap boosters rather fast but with two ships on grid there was plenty of damage to burn through his armor fast enough.

Other players have completed these missions using single ships so obviously there are better ways as mine. Two youtube videos by other players featuring the same Blood Raider pirate :

Rail Daredevil that kites outside of neut range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnTftBzEyts

 Autocannon Wolf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RJYHQnA49o

Thursday, September 11, 2014

EVE: 5 years

Today marks my 5 year anniversary in EVE!



Just about to graduate from the normal subcap ships to capital and jump drive capable ones and by the end of the year I hope to have settled in a place where I can spend the next five years.

It's still a battle between Civilization V and EVE Online every night though.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

A night at the movies

Yesterday evening I went out to see Maleficent, a new take on the story of Sleeping Beauty. The first few minutes I was wondering if this was a real childrens movie and just as with Godzilla the introduction takes a while but both were very enjoyable movies that I could bear to see again to see if I can catch more references to the original canon material.

Two other movies I went out to see recently are Edge of Tomorrow and X-men: Days of Future Past. I missed the first two minutes of the X-men so might go see it again, that will also give a chance to make up my mind on whether I found it a good movie or not.

Rating these four movies for entertainment value:
1: Edge of Tomorrow
2: Godzilla
3: Maleficent
4: X-men: Days of Future Past

Angelina Jolie is the reason Maleficent takes the third spot. Time travel and memory loss are the reason the X-men are at fourth place but perhaps a new viewing would change my mind. (Pathé gold card so flat fee to see unlimited movies).
It's been a while longer since I saw Captain America and Spiderman but those would probably take 5th and 6th place respectively. No idea where I would place the Lego Movie but I remember that movie as a lot of fun as well, definately better as 'A million ways to die in the West'.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Status update

Back from a (diving) vacation in Estartit, Spain and almost ready to get back into EVE online. Every year around this time my interest in EVE drops and I change games for a short while.

This year I already blamed TAGN for getting me back into Civilization V. A friend has bought the full game and we have completed few multiplayer 1 vs 1 games these past few weeks.

I expect to get back into EVE in a few weeks at most (just need to win Civilization with on a large/huge map,  4 more races and at least one emperor difficulty victory.)

Several weeks of blogs to catch up with as well, so far I read about burn Jita, Gevlon & Noir, and the CSM voting results.

Good: Sugar Kyle and Mike Araziah both got in!
Bad: Uneven representation of players with the CFC/goon dominance.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

EVE: CSM9 voting

Voting for CSM9 is open!

1. Sugar Kyle
2. Mike Araziah

3. Ali Aras
4. James Arget
5. Jayne Fillon

6. Psychotic Monk
7. Steve Ronuken
8. Mangala Solaris
9. Matias Otero

10. Progodlegend
11. Mynna
12. DNSBlack
13. DJ FunkyBacon
14. *

1. Sugar Kyle
Sugar Kyle was number one on my list the second I read she was considering a run as candidate. I've been following her blog for a while and trust her to represent not just low sec but all players. She is willing to listen, visible, good at communication and isn't focused on promoting just one play style. I was disappointed when Ripard Teg only placed her 5th in his list. http://jestertrek.blogspot.nl/2014/04/my-endorsements-for-csm9.html

2. Mike Araziah
I had my doubts on whether or not to vote for Mike again because it's not always obvious which incumbent CSM members actually contributed but I think http://interstellarprivateer.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/grading-csm-8/ and http://interstellarprivateer.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/csm9-endorsements/ convinced me to put him second on my list.

3. Ali Aras
Nothing but positive recommendations by everyone.
The same post by Rhavas that convinced me to put Mike in second place made me put Ali in third. A recommendation by Mike doesn't hurt either. http://mikeazariah.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/who-to-vote-for-pt-2/

4. James Arget
As incumbent CSM member with several endorsements he is the most visible wormhole candidate and you know your vote won't be wasted on him as it would have been on Kesper North last year.

5. Jayne Fillon
Simply because his name rings of Firefly and Serenity.

6. Psychotic Monk
By now I am in solid filler territory.

7. Steve Ronuken
I don't really care about 3rd party tools, I want EVE tools. But his name pops up often enough that I'll put him on my list.

By now it's very unlikely my vote will havy any influence at all but I don't expect the candidates below to need to my vote anyway since they are all part of a block or have block support lined up behind them.

8. Mangala Solaris
9. Matias Otero
10. Progodlegend
11. Mynna
12. DNSBlack
13. DJ FunkyBacon
14. *

Spot 14 will go to Corebloodbrothers, Gorski Car and Xander Phoena, one vote each.

EVEOGANDA endorsements:
http://eveoganda.blogspot.nl/2014/04/eveogandas-csm9-official-endorsements.html

Trebor endorsements

http://treborofthecsm.blogspot.com/2014/04/who-i-like.html

Gevlon Goblin recommendations
http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2014/04/csm-election-recommendations.html

Kirith Kodachi endorsements
http://www.ninveah.com/2014/04/endorsements-for-csm9.html


Noizygamer
http://nosygamer.blogspot.nl/2014/04/the-nosy-gamers-csm-9-election.html

Thursday, March 27, 2014

EVE: Ganked 108

The theme was Amarr: BC and below, lasers and neuts, armour tanked.

When I started thinking about the available options my first thought was a nano battleship dualboxed with a logistics ship. While that might have been a lot of fun, my wallet and I decided to settle for a single cruiser hull instead as they have better mobility as the larger hulls and more DPS/EHP as smaller ships.

The Omen and Augoror hulls, both in normal and Navy Issue variation seemed like the best hull options to me when comparing ehp, speed and damage output. To increase the odds of my survival I went for a normal omen instead of a Navy Issue hull.



I was slightly late and arrived in Rens after RVB had already left but managed to catch up with the fleet as they left the low sec staging system.

Highlights:
Sensor boosters could have improved my performance even more but I still managed to score 50 killmails: http://eve-kill.net/?a=pilot_detail&view=kills&plt_id=593357&m=3&y=2014

As usual I was a bit annoyed with the TiDi effects of a 200 man fleet waltzing through space but by the time I left fleet I was determined again to participate in as many future ganked fleets as possible.

Monday, March 3, 2014

EVE: Ships permitted

Sometimes I wonder about the ships restrictions on missions...
No carrier, dreadnaught or titan allowed but supercarriers are just fine.

 
 

Friday, February 28, 2014

EVE: Ganked 103

A while ago I participated in RVB Ganked 103 and the theme was rifter hulls. With the choice between rifter, jaguar and wolf I would have liked to fly a wolf for the dps but instead went for a jaguar, e a shield jag flies 3 km/s vs 2 km/s for the armor wolf.
Artillery over autocannons was an easier choice. A relatively big fleet like this and a horde of small ships means everything turns into a race to get on killmails. So I’d need the ability to close range fast and large as possible damage application range.
My fit had an invulnerability field that I forgot to activate when targeted so perhaps next time I’ll replace it with a sensor booster (pod catching, km whoring, kb padding, one of the better pvp modules).

 
 
It took a while to get started but eventually we undocked and headed for null sec space. While in high sec the fleet brought its own tidi wave but this passed once we got close to null. Our basic plan was to go to renter space and kill some ratters engaging anything we could handle while on our way. Mostly we jumped back and forth among the pipeline between Doril and HLW-HP, managing to get some fights. Outside combat (voice) chat was something of a mess but when action came targets were called out loud and clear (and sometimes broadcasted as well).

The most important events of note were encounters with bombers camping a gate, a CFC cruiser gang and some exchanges with an N3 interceptor gang. Guest of note was Sugar Kyle, CSM9 candidate, bringing along some support from her chat channel 'Spoonful of Sugar'.

After I lost my second ship I decided against reshipping and left fleet heading back to high sec in my capsule. On the way back I had a small adventure in one system with half a dozen drag bubbles and a hostile brutix but I managed to deny him an unsatisfactory empty clone kill and made my escape.

In the end I managed to get on 21 kills, 18 ships and 3 pods.
http://eve-kill.net/?a=pilot_detail&plt_id=593357&view=kills&m=2&y=2014

I lost 2 jaguars and one pod during the roam.

My fit:

Ganked 106 will be ECM themed and I would have loved to join hat one but I’ll be spending that day playing board games: Twilight Imperium (plastic space ships!), Civilization, Smallworld.

In other news:
 
My main finished Mining Director V, one alt finished Sentry Drones V and the other alt is little over a week away. A wormhole PI alt trained to get into a decently tanked but shitty dps drake. 
 
*Hint: don't spend 2 bil on a drake or legion*

Friday, February 7, 2014

EVE: High sec corporation

Some people feel that a high sec corp has no added value and only puts you at the mercy of awoxers. While there is some truth in that statement I still  jumped at the chance to join a new high sec corp: Lucifer’s Hammer.



Lucifer's Hammer is the industrial sister corporation of Stay Frosty and will primarily be a high sec corporation. We are still trying to figure out our identity and what direction to take so I took a look at what other high sec corporations advertise with.
  • Mining ops with orca boosting.
  • Ore refining service
  • Ore buyback program
  • Manufacturing
  • Hauling and logistics
  • Mission running
  • POS research and invention
  • POCO access at reduced tax rates
  • Jump clone access
  • Helpful advice

Which of these can I provide or assist with?
  • Mining ops with orca boosting.
    I am currently training mining director V so I can use T2 mining links and the Mining Foreman Mindlink implant.

  • Ore refining service
    My main industry alt is running mission for standings with Caldari Business Tribunal, Creodon and Quafe so I can offer perfect refine in all Everyshore high sec ice mining systems. I'll probably get standings with Core Complexion and Federal Freight Storage as well to offer the same service in Hevrice and Raneilles.

  • Ore buyback program
    Since not everyone is interested in hauling ore and minerals around the universe the corporation could offer to buy these at a reasonable price. If my own manufacturing takes off I might want to do this myself because I don't think I can mine enough to

  • Manufacturing
    I can build items for sale to Stay Frosty (I assume they tend to lose more ships as high sec players) and I can offer to build items for players that supply minerals but don't have the skills or blueprints.

  • Hauling and logistics
    With an orca, freighter and multiple blockade runners I have no trouble moving items around for those with smaller cargo hulls or for our security challenged friends in Hevrice. While I am not yet considering a jump freighter, I am looking to get into a carrier.

  • Mission running
    I could allow newer players to assist in shooting red crosses or contract a site bookmark so they can salvage missions after completion. Recruitment policy is still undecided but it seems likely Lucifer’s Hammer will adopt the same open door recruitment policy Stay Frosty has in use. So perhaps it's best to shelve any faction fit mission ships, run my own background checks or request api keys from anyone that wants to fly with me. 

  • POS research and invention
    I could research or invent blueprints for corp members that don’t have the skills when not researching anything for myself.

  • Jump clone access
    Estel Arador corp probably has more to offer as any other corporation in this regard.

  • Helpful advice
    Yay! Advice I can do, how helpful this is can be open for discussion.

Which of the above am I looking for?
  • POCO access at reduced tax rates
    Currently I do PI in a wormhole but if Lucifer’s Hammer or Stay Frosty can offer support for local PI that would be great. This is certainly something I will look into.

  • POS research and invention
    I have a small collection of blueprints but he majority needs to be researched before I can compete with established manufacturers so access to a research POS is almost mandatory for me. This is also the first thing I made inquiries about but since the Stay Frosty Frigate Free For All was coming up  most of the leadership was otherwise occupied.


The main benefit of a high sec corp I see is perhaps the social environment and being part of a group. What I want from my corporation is a sense of purpose. Instead of manufacturing the most profitable items to sell in Jita I’d rather build ships and modules that my friends plan to fly and instead of being fleetbear 254 I want to feel useful and appreciated .

This will be my first real high sec corporation. Most directors are alts of Stay Frosty members and have no real experience with high sec corporations either so we will probably hit our head a few times trying to get everything up and running. This first became obvious when I started a discussion about anchoring a research POS because until I mentioned this nobody had considered the requirements of anchoring a POS.

As self-proclaimed carebear my first step was to push for anchoring a POS in high sec. Unfortunately anchoring a POS in high sec requires the corporation to have good  faction standings. With over 30 members in just a matter of days this was not going to happen without first purging a lot of players, including myself.

I didn’t even consider anchoring a POS in low sec because that is where the evil pirates live. But with almost 200 of those pirates on our side a low sec POS might not be as suicidal as it appears. Scientific networking allows you to research blueprints remotely as long as they are stored in a corporation hangar in the same system so there is no need to turn the POS into a loot pinata either.


The close relationship with Stay Frosty and the pirate/low sec background of our leadership and perhaps players is probably what will make Lucifer’s Hammer stand out and differentiate it from most other high sec corporations.


The future?
  

Thursday, January 30, 2014

EVE: PI setup guide

This will be a step by step guide on setting up a PI planet, in this case we will produce coolant on a single planet. I am using a wormhole system, high sec planets will have a substantially lower amount of resources available.

The most important thing to remember is the routing, always route your extractors and factories to a launchpad or silo instead of directly to the next production step. This will prevent you from losing production because of lack of storage space.

Coolant is produced by combining water (refined from aqueous liquids) and electrolytes (refined from ionic solutions).

The actual numbers are 6k P0 materials to 40 P1 materials (times 2) to produce 5 P2, my numbers are multiplied by 4 so it is a nice round figure for P3 or P4 production.


The first thing we have to do is locate a suitable planet. Coolant can be produced locally on gas and storm planets. In this case I chose a storm planet as these are generally smaller in size and have a better supply of aqueous liquids. We are looking for a place that offers both of these resources close together.

An image showing availability of aqueous liquids


The same area showing ionic solutions


Once we have located a suitable spot it is time to put down a command center and upgrade it.

Command center, upgraded to level 4, placed roughly between the two extraction materials.


Next I put down a launchpad and two extractor control units. One ECU to extract aqueous liquids and another one for ionic solutions. In our example we can place the extractors right next to the launchpad. To finish I create planetary links between the launchpad and the ECU's.

Image showing the CC, launchpad, ECU's and planetary links.


After this it is time to place some factories on the planet. I will start with the minimum, one basic factory to refine water from aqueous liquids, one basic factory to refine electrolytes from ionic solutions and one advanced industrial facility to produce coolant from the water and electrolytes. With planetary links connecting the factories to the launchpad.

Image showing the factories being added to the setup.


Next we will add some extractor heads to the extractor control units. Select the ECU and choose 'Survey for Deposits'

ECU selected for surveying


On the ECU I now select aqueous liquids as materials to extract, I set a program duration (3 days for now), I select how many ECU heads I want (I start with 4 in this example) and place them on the highest concentration of aqueous liquids.

Program output will average 14.000 aqueous liquids per hour, the initial rate will be higher and drop over time.


Repeat this step for the second ECU.

Ionic solutions ECU with 4 heads, 3 days run time.


We still have to route the extracted materials to a destination so I select the ECU and select the products button to create a route to the launchpad. Do this for both products.

Products tab on the ECU


Creating a route to the launchpad


After this it is time to select factory schematics. I select the first basic factory and scroll down to select water as the product to create and routing the output back to the launchpad.

Selecting water as product


Routing output to the launchpad


The other basic factory will build electrolytes and the output will be routed to the launchpad again.
The advanced factory will produce coolant and output will be directed to the launchpad.

Advanced industrial facility schematic selection.


Routing the coolant output to the launchpad


The final step before our planet is operational is routing aqeous liquids and electrolytes to the basic facilites and routing water and electrolytes to the advanced facility.

To create routes while there is no product in storage we can select the launchpad and view the existing routes. This will allow us to create a new route. Select the incoming product you wish to route, click the create route button and select a destination (the factories you need to supply with materials).

Aqueous liquids are selected to create a route from the launchpad to a factory.




Do this for aqueous liquids, ionic solutions, water and electrolytes. You cannot create a route to send materials to a factory until that factory has a schematic selected and you can only route materials used in the schematic.

After this step your launchpad routing will look something like this.


Finally you can add more factories and if storage space is an issue you can use silos or lauchpads for additional storage. Each P1 factory consumes 3000 P0 materials during its 30 minute cycle or 6000 per hour and produces 20 P1 per cycle, 40 per hour.
A P2 factory requires 40 P1 materials as input for its one hour cycle and produces 5 P2 output.

This means that for every 6000 P0 you extract per hour you can put down one set of factories. Our setup extracts about 14k P0 per hour so can feed 3 factory sets.

With CCU 4 my planet lacks the PG to add a third coolant factory


As stated right at the start the most important thing is setting up your routes correctly.
Extractor > launchpad/silo > basic factory > launchpad > advanced factory > launchpad

This is just one example on how to set up a planet, it might not even be the most effective and in fact probably isn't. It certainly is the lowest maintenance I can come up with.

If you have any suggestions for improvements or if I missed something I'd love to hear it. And despite the length of the post, setting up PI is easier as it seems. But the initial setup certainly does involve a lot of clicking.