Back on the horse

It really has been to long. I have to admit, in the confusion of everything that has happened in EVE combined with a rather busy Real Life...and knowing that no one reads this anyway...I've been remiss on posting anything at all. Well, that stops now, I remembered I was doing this for my own benefit and I shouldn't depend on readers to keep me going.

Where to start? The alliance I was in failscaded, the area of space turned into a hot drop zone, Atlas and the NC look ready to start hostilities. HTA where my corp belonged completely dropped SOV, corps and has completely disbanded. I don't know all the details, but given the fact the alliance couldn't be arsed into defending its own territory. The constant small gang roams that were never found and killed, the single bombers that would attack at the gate...never a firm smackdown from the alliance.

Since we were forced rather abuptly from 0.0, we had to leave a lot of stuff in the stations...all of which I managed to sell except for the T1 stuff, which won't sell and I can't refine, so it sits there cluttering up my assets window. I suppose that I could trash it all, but somehow I hope against hope that I'll be able to go get that stuff one day. Not sure why, its not valuable, but the fact that I had to leave against my will probably explains that for me.

Needles the say the corporation has been in a state of flux while we assess the damages and attempt to figure out what to do. Although this is often the time when corporations find themselves in trouble and shedding members, Black Prophesy has not...which makes me very glad that I managed to land in a corp that has a good corp of internal strength.

We've managed to figure out what's next and started our own alliance and have just identified a new area of 0.0 space to head to. Obviously, as a new alliance we are going to NPC space first. Now I just need to get there to start some actual PvP.

EVE Blog Banter #19

Welcome to the nineteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. 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 either 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. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This months topic comes to us from @evepress, and he asks: The CSM: CCP's Meta Game? - The CSM, an eve players voice to CCP.Right? In the grand scheme of things yes, the players bring up issues and the CSM presents them to CCP. But in its current iteration the CSM was supposed to be given small authority to assign CCP assets toprojects that the CSM thought needed work on. As it has not come outthis was not the case. So fellow bloggers, is the CSM worth it, has the CSM improved the game in any way, or is it just a well thought out scamby CCP to give us players a false sense of input in the game? What's your take?

I have to admit I've only breezed over many of the posts written by the CSMs and the Devs about the latest rounds of talks between them. Frankly, I am of the opinion this is a tempest in a teacup.

The CSMs are frustrated as they feel they have a mandate from the people to "force" CCP to listen to their demands. After all, they represent the people that pay for CCP's existence and that has been the mantra of every player of every MMO since Everquest. You HAVE to listen to us, we pay your bills, without US you'd be nothing!!!

The fact of the matter is the CSMs are not a true representation of the EVE player community, and more importantly, CCP knows this. Mxynee was swept into the lead CSM position on the strength of her importance to low-sec inhabitants and her popular blog. I'm positive she will do a wonderful job in representing some of EVE's players, but in no way can she represent the majority of EVE players. Frankly, like any election, the silent majority who didn't bother to vote probably do not want any of the changes Mxynee and others have proposed solutions for. These folks don't live in lowsec or nullsec, they don't run into the game crippling lag, they abhor the random violance and e-peenery that many low-sec pirates exhibit. They "carebear" their way through missions and focus on the myriad of industrial opportunities available in our sandbox.

Its often the illusion of the rabid forum leader that they represent a major faction of the gaming community. You go to any MMO, (WoW, DAOC, EQ2, etc) there will be major forum names that the dwellers recognize and lend "internet" expertise to. However, game developers know that most players don't even read the forums (or blogs) at all. Take WOW for example, hard-core raiders spend hours online and have a heavy representation in the forum, but they are a small fraction of the 11 million players in WOW.

The bottom line is this, CSMs are not game developers and do not have access to the corporate plan CCP has. They cannot, nor SHOULD not, be able to direct CCP to "do" anything. That is not to say that the CSM program is not successful nor useless. CCP has been chasing down the reason for increased lag, in large part, because of the representation made by prior CSM groups. Yes, CCP is focused on its next two major projects. No, many forum dwellers do not feel these projects will be useful to you. CCP, does not and SHOULD not care to the point they crumble and move corporate assets to meet the mobs every whim...especially when the mob can't even agree in which direction to move. They do have a responsibility to shareholders (not stakeholders) to grow and return a profit on investment. The return can only be build by continuing to bring in new and more players. Frankly, in my opinion, they HAVE to do something completely different to renew EVE, especially to bring in a more diverse player base. YOU may not like the new advances, but its not like CCP has TAKEN anything away from your playing experience that you enjoy now.

Finally, the CSMs are important. They have argued for CCP to become more transparent to the player base on what their plan is. Much to my surprise, CCP has accepted the challenge and posted where almost EVERYONE OF THEIR DEVELOPERS are working. That is a huge change to openness. When has any company ever done anything like that? I encourage the CSMs to continue to work with CCP to press forward their agenda, it will not be quick, it will not be easy...but if CCP gets to the agenda press forward by CSM5 in 18 months, which is still a successful mission. Company's do not respond like a college student changing their mind on a major...they project for costs and goals a minimum of a year out and most like on a five year schedule...they can't and won't change those no matter what the CSMs propose...but the CSM can help CCP develop the next iteration of the company plan...and THAT is making a difference.

Revamping P4 Production...it can be painful

After two weeks of tweaking and playing around with the five planets I was working, I decided to rip out the command centers for three of the planets and refocus my efforts. Unfortunately, "ripping" out the command centers means realizing the loss of over 10million isk, plus the roughly 10million sunk into the initial building costs.

The reason for this was the realization that the next door system in our alliance was capable of producing all the basic P0 raw materials needed for every P4 item. This abundance of material, coupled with the deals I can get at Jita for Blueprint Copies should allow me to break even with the sale of even on POS module, as well as, build that Mobile Laboratory I've always wanted.

EvE being EvE, means that I broke out the Excel spreadsheet to develop the needed requirements for producing all the P4 items. This quickly proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that one character will not be able to produce all P4 items on their own. One account may not be enough to produce the P4 items at the fastest rate possible. After adding the Powergrid needed for all the extractors and basic processors was in the order of 18 elite command centers...and that doesn't count the link or the more advanced material processors.

What I was able to do on one character was set up a system on five planets that extract every type of raw material and change it into a P1 material. The material is sent to a launchpad and I will have to have a second character (or account) take the material to another set of planets to process it through P2 to P4. The key for me to do this was the verification that no link or processor must be tied to your command center. In fact, by placing two different launchpads on the planet surface I am able to extract materials from opposite sides of the planet and both extraction sites are no where near the actual command center.

Now the amount of P0 material I produce is far less than needed to try and build all P4 items at the same time. So, I will setup a P2 through P4 processing change and then build P4 items in cycles adding in the correct P1 materials from the five planets and getting a day's worth of material then switching my P4 production to something else.

My "production" planet will have nine P2 advanced factories, six P3 factories and one P4 factory and one launchpad for each P4 factory production chain, which allow for any P4 item to be made. Assuming my calculations are correct the P1 materials will occupy up to 6300m3 for one production chain, so I should be able to use only one launchpad to run both P4 production chains. The processors and launchpad have a total CPU and Powergrid requirement of 10,700tf and 9,500MW, without adding the link which should be fairly negligible as all the processors will be close together. The CPU and Powergrid requirements limit this kind of setup to a maximum of two P4 chains on a single planet as even an Elite Command Center only has a 19000MW capability. So, to run two production chains on a planet you need an elite CC, but you must have at least a standard CC to run one P4 production chain.

This setup will produce a maximum of 23 P4 items in one day, and more likely will be a 15-20 item daily average due to wasted time moving the P1 basic materials to the production chain and accepting a less than optimal login schedule.

So for each P4 item you will need 920 units of each P1 material, which will produce 100m3 (one unit) of the P4 item.

More to follow as my extractors finish the 24 hour work cycle.

First Loss

How many times have you read a blog or guide and the first thing they point out is; don't go AFK, you have to pay attention in nullsec or you'll get killed.

Well, they were right. I was dual screening and checking the PI setup of my industrial alt while I took care of the Angel Battleships guarding the TTP gate in LVL space right after the server was given new life by CCP. I can slowly handle BS with my Myrmidon, but with my lower skills it does take a while and I spend my day with zero shields and both armor reps working overtime.

So, I'm taking the last of the multi-BS spawn when, I look up and realize I'm further in red armor than I should be. I see a bunch of grey drones flying around and it takes me about 10 seconds to realize that I'm the one they neutral is hitting and not the rat...crap, I'm a victim of the alliance NRDS policy and my own inattention.

I quickly align and start to warp to a celestial and I think I'm going to get out with under 20% structure. I see the warp initiated and then my pod. I continue to hit the warp to 0 and save the pod. I call out the contact in intel and head to the station to reship and collect my gear and point the bastard if he's still there. I show up, Bab00che, isn't there and neither is my ship or Valkyrie II's. I half expected my wreck to be looted, but I couldn't even find my wreck. It wasn't on d-scan, nor even where I warped to. I have NO idea what happened to my stuff. Bab00che didn't have time to loot and salvage, unless the Angel BS took care of that for him? Very strange.

So, I did have insurance so I only took a 15million isk hit to the pocket book...which is still like 10% of my total value, but it was a learning experience. I cried and ran to high-sec.

Not really, I did get a bit pissed off that a neutral was unreported in intel and allowed to roam. Makes me wish I was in a NBSI alliance. I may just take the fight to neuts in the future, however, as I don't want this to happen again. I did jump to high-sec with a clone jump to do some shopping and little bit of mission running.

I need to get from 3.21 standing to 4.70 with my R&D NPC corp to start my T2 Drone invention. I think between that and building POS modules, I can at least bankroll some of my PvP intent.

Red is SUCH an angry color!

0.0 space, the final frontier...these are the voyages.

"These are the voyages of miners who sit in the bloody station all damn day, that's what it is", yelled Attia as she threw her drink against the wall.

The statement above describes my frustration right now. Right now Red Alliance and Goons have identified my alliance of HTA for either general harassment or outright attack. From what I've been able to gather the Goons are looking to return to the space they've held before and identified HTA as their first target. Unfortunately for the Goons, they attacked a POS and CSAA held by the GREEN alliance thinking it was HTA. That brought a rather sharp response from -A-, Atlas and all the member of the Southern Alliance.

It also pointed out the major flaw in both -A- and Atlas' setup of multiple Holder Alliances....Standings. When -A- reset all of Atlas Holders to -10 to promote their vision of "small gang, no sov" PvP, the unintended consequence of that was -A- flashing red to all the Atlas Holders that responded to Atlas' call-to-arms. The splitting of space into small packets held by holder alliances is a viable strategy, but it places the burden to respond to outside threats squarely with the major Southern Alliance players. For standard operations leaving all holder alliances at -10 is the way they desire their area...but when faced with an outside threat, they MUST reset the standings for fleet ops to allow the contribution of holder alliances and corps. Unless they fall prey to the same problem that CVA created, a feeling of entitlement and superiority that alienates the rest of the Southern space, a major reason cited as CVA's failure.

With all that said, my PvP characters are still infants and my playtime still fairly limited...I was stuck in highsec as a 30-40 Goon fleet in TTP-2B was killed and my jump clone still had 30 minutes until I could jump back into nullsec. *Damn you 24 hour timer*

50 Minutes of Boredom for 10 Minutes of Panic

Eve often seems like this, a lull in which you frantically train skills and attempt to earn isk to prepare for when things get crazy. After spending more time with EFT in an attempt to identify why I'm so slow at killing Angle Warlord Battleship spawns in my Mrymiddon, I discovered how my drone DPS was half of what it could and should be.

I guess when I look at the Tech 1 drones and drone interfacing at only 3, with Combat Drones at 0....it should be fairly obvious why I'm not killing anything very quickly. I read another blogger several months ago that described the difference between high-sec and null-sec...and it boiled down to the fact that a mediocre skill set was adequate in high-sec and total inadequate in null-sec.

So I've rapidly started down that drone path and quickly got the ability use Minmater Tech 2 drones and up'd my Combat Drone skill to IV. So hopefully I'll see a bit of difference in taking down the six cruiser spawn and the multiple battleship spawns I see.

Day 1 of Planetary Industry in the Books

After one full day of production on my five planets, I have discovered a more efficient way to produce recourses which will double my P2 item output each day. I had operated under the mistaken assumption that the more extractors I had the more materials I would end up making.
This is completely wrong. I discovered that the cycle times and outputs for all extractors and processors match completely, especially for the 23 hour extractor cycle.

What I discovered by having 7 extractors and only one basic processor, I had filled up my storage silo without increasing my actual usable output. The reason for this error was the input values, and more importantly, the cycle times of the extractors and processors.

Each extractor has a cycle time of 30 minutes, which corresponds to the 30 minute cycle time of the basic processor that processes the raw extractor material. To illustrate:

Basic Silicon processor requires 3000 units of Felsic raw material, and at the 1 day extractor time in a high yield zone is approximately 1500 units of material per cycle. These numbers quickly show that two extractors at 1500 units per cycle will produce the needed material to run one basic processor that produces 20 units of Silicon every 30 minutes.

This 30 minute cycle and output align with the advanced processor input for Miniature Electronic which requires 40 units of Silicon and 40 units of Chiral Structures (a P1 material) for a one hour cycle time to produce 5 units of Miniature Electronics. This synergy of output and cycle time shows that 2 extractors on each needed raw material with 1 basic processor to change that raw material to a P1 output will fill an Advance processor and produce 5 units of a P2 item per hour.



What this showed me was I could remove a total of 6 extractors on each of my planets, add two more basic processors and another advanced processor and double my production on each planet with reduced CPU and Powergrid requirements. I freed up almost 3000W on the power grid. Unfortunately you need 3900 empty room on a powergrid to support 4 extractors, 2 basic and 1 advanced processor...which would allow me to produce another P2 material on the same planet. The only way I way I see to fit this in is to have the Elite command center and the extra 2000 Powergrid room it allows.

That being said, by optimizing the cycle times and doubling my output of P2 materials, I can reduce my breakeven point we discussed in the last article from 27 days to 14 days, a significant improvement.