One opinion.: 2015

Saturday, July 18, 2015

New Books

In preparation for my summer vacation and as a nod to Scalzi who manages to post stacks like this every week.

Nemesis and Anvil of Stars are childhood books that I now purchased for myself.

Skin Game should have been in the stack of books but I already made my start on this one.

The books I just finished.

The exception is Severian of the Guild which I have owned for several years but I stopped reading halfway through in the past. Still waiting for a good time to pick it up again.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Sir Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett passed away on 12 March 2015, aged 66.

As with Iain M. Banks before we knew this was coming but the news still came unwanted and unexpected. My condolences to the family.

Terry's legacy and creations live on though and will keep us smiling through the dark times to come.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Roy Orbison

This morning when I woke to my radio alarm clock playing Roy Orbison's 'You've got it'.

This evening I wanted to come online and play EVE tonight but instead I looked up the song and spent two hours reading his wikipedia page and associated links plus youtube videos of his songs.

Roy Orbison - Running Scared
Roy Orbison - You Got It
Roy Orbison - Only The Lonely
Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman

ninja edit: title corrected...must have been in a hurry to get some sleep.

EVE: CSM 10 voting

Really late this year but still in time that I am allowed to vote at all.
http://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/eve-online-news/introducing-your-csm-x-candidates/
77 eligible candidates

Only 2 candidates that failed to pass the security check, one of which was Trinket’s Friend. http://localectomy.blogspot.nl/ (who I think would have made a decent candidate, shame he was refused candidacy because of unknown)

Vote Match if you have trouble matching candidates to their platform.
http://match.eve-csm.com/

CSM Wire
https://sites.google.com/site/csmwire/home

My candidate shortlist:

1.    Mike Azariah - Placed first on my ballot even though he would fit between Gorski and Psianh in how high I rate him. Because I want him on the CSM and think he needs first round votes to pass the threshold most of all.

2.    Sugar Kyle – Because Sugar.

3.    Gorski Car – Heard good things about him, I like his blog. Why do I stil think of him as PL? I included him, just to give him a chance to proof his place on a real CSM. Was going to place him 5th in my list but moved him to third place for the same reason Mike is nr 1, Afraid that 5th place will be too low to actually get my vote to count for him in any way.

4.    Steve Ronuken – Based on blogs and recommendations, not because I have any clue on his worth and value.

5.    Corbexx – Based on blogs, recommendations and mainly his wormhole income rebalancing efforts.

Then things start getting difficult because names are often associated with corps/alliances I don’t support or are unknown/new faces.

6.    Endie – CFC, recommended by lots. He won’t need my vote but I’ll give it just to give off the signal that I’d prefer him over Sion.

7.    Manfred Sidious – PL, as Endie he gets in just based on recommendation by blogs I read.

8.    Psianh Anyvander, tainted with the Noir name. Since Gevlon and Noir had a falling out that name no longer has a positive connotation for me. (Noir Academy is not Noir Mercenaries and Psianh is a person, not the organization but the taint remains, I am just too lazy to try an overcome my bias.)

Honorable mention

9.    Jayne Fillion – community stuff, wasn’t there some controversy he was involved in with bomber’s bar?

12. Chance Ravinne – unknown new. RL job in marketing.

13. Ashterothi – unknown new.

15. June Ting – Brave.

11. Bam Stroker – community stuff. Only thing I heard about was the Down Under meet. Either he gets elected by his real suporters or not.

14. Ariete – unknown wh.

Little things:
Last post I read before making my own:
http://eve-prosper.blogspot.nl/2015/03/hari-seldon-for-csm.html

Endie/Sion/Thoric: Does the CFC really think the best possible CSM includes 3 CFC members parroting each other?

Incumbent CSM members about other incumbent CSM candidates?
Here I noticed Mike did not get all that many endorsements.

What is wrong with your list?
You mean the shuffling at the end and no nr 10? Sion would have been nr 10 on my list but was removed so I was left with only voting list of 14. Decided to place Bam/Ariete further back on the list when doing the actual voting.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

EVE: 2014 goals review

So how did I do?

Get into a carrier.
Completed, even lost and replaced one already.
http://razielwalker.blogspot.nl/2014/12/eve-how-to-lose-carrier.html

Isis, certificates and skill training.
Completed, I have all the masteries I wanted (for Raziel everything subcap caldari at IV except for stealth bombers) and stuck with my goal of training existing skills over injecting new ones.
Last week I was less than a month away from training all existing skills to at least rank 4 and I finally caved and bought 40 new skillbooks to inject.
http://eveboard.com/pilot/Raziel%20Walker/

More research/manufacturing.
Completed, While involved in T2 manufacturing this is limited to inventing and building a couple of thousand T2 modules every month for my alliance.
I bought more blueprints, researched more blueprints, actually build almost as much as I could get materials for in nullsec where my two indy alts are located but profit was still limited compared to trading. More profit can be generated by using a freighter service and selling implants and faction modules on the local market.
The state of my blueprints two months ago.

Wealth and asset increase
Total failure, I actually have no idea of my current value but I'd estimate it around 25-30 billion isk equally split between assets, wallet and sell orders.
On the other hand, I have no real pressing need or desire for more weatlth or assets until I want to pay for my own station.

Ghost sites
Total failure, haven't run a single one.

SoE Ships
Total failure, the only missions I completed this year where the epic arcs. I do have an astero and stratios but those were bought on the market.

PVP
And not to annoy Drackarn but I might just try out this FW thingie. After all, he keeps writing about those plexers earning 100m isk an hour.
Incomplete, no actual progress has been made in getting more excited about or feeling a desire to engage in pvp.
I actually spent one or two months training up an alt to fly a cloaky venture for some button orbiting and ran about half a dozen small sites. Stealth bomber missions are probably a better option if you want to do FW for isk. And if you are into FW for the pvp then it's better to invest your training time in a pvp frigate instead of cloaky WCS button orbiters.

Bonus goals
While I did participate in two ganked roams and was the victim in a bombers bar run the number of social events I attended was less as intended. There was always an excuse not to participate. Not interested today, not enough time to prepare, wrong timezone, expensive training clone.

http://razielwalker.blogspot.nl/2014/03/eve-ganked-108.html
http://razielwalker.blogspot.nl/2014/02/eve-ganked-103.html
http://razielwalker.blogspot.nl/2014/01/eve-incursion-fleet.html

2015 lookout
No real goals yet.

Looking to go back to three accounts as soon as I feel I can live with only three training queues and without the option to log in that extra scout.

Going to sell of more unneeded assets so I am more flexible when relocating. Going to put my characters more together doing fun projects instead of spreading myself out with characters in high sec, null and wh space.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

EVE: How to lose a Tengu

This week marked my first PVE loss to rats in 1155 days.

The mission: step 2 of the minmatar epic arc, The Cost of Preservation.

As I warp into the mission area I spot my target, a single gallente cruiser. As soon as the target is locked missiles are on their way and I engage my afterburner to close range. Before my target goes down two waves of ships spawn, together they amount to about a dozen battleships and cruisers accompanied by half a dozen frigates.

Within a minute the first frigate and two battleships are down and then I turn my attention to the four NPC frigates that by now webbed me and in particular to the one that was pointing me as well. The webs took away my ability to speed tank so my shields were beginning to drop.

Because my fitting lacked webs and target painters my ship has trouble applying damage to elite frigates so they usually took just as long to take down as a battleship but I never had trouble killing them before.

Except this time after the frigate went below half shield it started repping itself and even after I overheated it repped to full between volleys. Not that much later I was in my pod looking at the wreck of my ship.

After getting through the 'WTF just happened' phase I jumped into my hawk to pick up the dropped items. The next step was picking up my Golem so I could complete the mission. Since NPC's only point but don't scram I could always use a MJD to get out or relocate if my tank was not up to the job.

For the rest of the mission chain that was exactly what I did.

Fitted with shield resistance modules supplemeted by MJD+MWD for mobility my golem would warp into the mission area. After getting into position I'd enter bastion mode and drop a mobile depot and tractor unit. Switch out the prop mods for two target painters and optionally a webifier to better apply damage. When shields dropped low a shield booster and amplifier were fitted and I'd rep back up to full.

Another 11 ( out of 15) small combat drones gave their life trying to kill small red crosses.

Friday, January 9, 2015

EVE: NCDOT alliance update

EveNews24 published an article about the NCDOT alliance update, the purpose of this SOTA appears to be an effort to show the rest of EVE what elitist douchebags make up NCDOT. The CFC rises in my estimate just for being on the other side.

This article is also a good example of why I am not a member of a 'pvp' alliance.

http://evenews24.com/2015/01/08/leak-ncdot-alliance-update/

Highlights:

Deployment OUT of Querious anyone found there after we leave im going to have you purged for being a blood sucking piece of shit.
Don’t be that guy I get made an example of for being a fucking jew.

How dare anyone live in your own space. During deployment your POS-es don't need maintenance and there is no longer any need for logistics or keeping the local market supplied?
Does this mean everyone is NC. is a bloodsucking pvp parasite that only exists by the grace of renters that perform all industry your alliance needs and pay for all your SRP programs?

Everyone in NC. is required to have both a Dreadnaught and a Carrier they should be located in Querious
Everyone in NC. should be working towards owning a SC or a Titan and current pilots who own them should NOT be selling them regardless of what you think to changes CCP make!

Capital pilots only, but leave your capitals at home and don't dare touch them.
If you own supercapitals just remember, it's a space coffin and final dead end in a pilot's career. Don't you dare treat your own personal assets as if they actually were your own.

Everyone should now be on IRC and should have the channel “northern_coalition” open at all times
Over the next five days you need to take this time to make yourself some ISK to cover some ships we are going to make you buy in another part of space.

Mandatory OOG tools because what is a slave driver without his whip.
Yes! 'Jew' some isk now, get purged for the same activity next week you blood sucking piece of shit.

What should an alliance be instead?

Mandatory defense ops to defend your own assets and interests are fine. Mandatory deployments to find goodfites for fun when players have no interest are not.
Hand out a free ship and you can tell me what to do with it, don't force me to pay for it myself and then retire the doctrine after I undocked that ship just once while only paying out 50% of the ship + fitting cost if it dies.

-note: CFC uses the same language and awoxes blues that rat when ops are going on just the same-

After reading this article I assume the CFC will deploy the 'Reavers' SIG to Querious since it should be empty. Then make sure NC. has to choose every day between clone jumping home for a defense op or stay on deployment.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

EVE: Background

Not my setup, not Rixx's setup but a obviously someone appreciates the works of Rixx. Might not be such a bad idea to show visitors to my house some of the art of EVE. I happen to have a very nice piece of empty wall just left of my computer.

Unfortunately I do not consider the drake to be his best wallpaper and it doesn't even have a WCS sticking out somewhere.