*zooms by*

Been a busy bee planet side so not much to report at the moment. Just wanted to say that the Christmas Raffle oog-prizes should be posted out this week, possibly next.

I've been working very hard irl so Eelis is docked up with a bottle of vodka and a barman/maid or 2 in Nis station for now. She does have a shiny new forum signature now though hehe:




You like? Humourless but I've been back through the char creator taking various screenies. It was nice to sit down for half an hour and play about with the shots and that evolved into making a new sig.

Anyhoo. Fly safe. I shall bbs o/

New Character Creation - Reaction & Results

Unless you’ve been living under a rock in Ironforge for the past few days you will be aware that Incursion 1.1.0 was released yesterday and the new character creation is the first thing you are going to be confronted with.

I found it easier to use than when I last tried on sisi but sadly there are still very limited options on clothing and hair styles and a complete lack of any tattoos, piercings or weird futuristic accessories. Of course, right now we just need the portrait and the rest of the body has little meaning. Fingers crossed that more options for personalising ourselves will become part of the game when Incarna lands.

I noticed that there are less interesting options for “posing” on the final screen in comparison to what I saw on sisi, and the interface is still a little bit frustrating in places. In particular the final screen, where you create your in-game portrait, needs a bit more instruction that what it currently has.

You are presented with 4 slots to fill with a “photo” but only the one you actually have high-lighted when you proceed past this final screen will be seen in game. There are sometimes odd graphical differences between how the picture looks when it is smaller and also the characters blink so you have to time your photo accordingly.

Be warned, there is no “are you sure” pop-up and once you have finished there is no going back. Many players are complaining that they are stuck with a portrait they didn't want.

Bearing these points in mind, the new portrait creator is a lot of fun to play around with and there are some fantastic results. I was also surprised at how “different” everyone looks in-game and I spent most of last night just looking at peoples new portraits on the forums and in my various chat channels.

Here is the new Eelis Kiy:



And the old one to compare with:


Not quite what I drafted on sisi but I am very happy with the results. What you cannot see from this picture are her child-bearing hips and rather bootytastic derriere. I wonder if we will get hawtpants with Incarna so I can relive my SWG glory days… hmm.

Also, here is my alt, who looks nothing like her original picture but now bears a rather striking resemblance to yours truly. Complete with freckles and the odd wrinkle *cry*





Finally. If anyone would like to know how to access a larger picture of their new portrait. Use the steps shown in the last part of this dev blog to obtain the url path and your character ID. Once you have your unique url path just change the number “256” to the number “512”.

Here like this one…

Small - https://image.eveonline.com/Character/868327720_256.jpg
Large - https://image.eveonline.com/Character/868327720_512.jpg

Doesn't seem to work for larger sizes though (i.e. 1024). If anyone knows how to get an even larger version let me know!

Eve Offline - part 2

Things to do during patch-day downtime.

1. Give your PC some TLC

2. Upgrade your CPU

3. Get your Eve Fix with some player videos

4. Grab a copy of your "old" portrait for posterity/whining about later

5. Discover some new Eve-Blogs: >>CK's Blogroll<< >>Eve Bloggers latest additions<<



Or in my case, work on some questions for my next FW Interview :-)


o/

Oh what a night...

Well, it started with a scrap against SoT in Kedama. We bailed and re-shipped, just as EAK turned up to have a bite at SoT. So back we went to join in! Then a cyno pops and IT drop a few supercaps. A rather funny and confusing cluster-frack all round. A shame battle reports can only cope with "2 sides" heh.

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8535955

After this excitement we shipped down for a nice relaxing (drunk) roam around the pipes. A few catches here and there, including these guys: http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8538074

Few things to note on that one.

1. We are at war with BYDI however they are now also shooting Gallente militia pilots (and will probably be out of the militia by the time this is posted)

2. No you have not stepped back in time, Wolfy are back!

3. Rooks & Kings also had a fleet out, gaah...

Next stop was Notoras where a fleet of "neutrals" (which appeared to mostly consist of BC and below hulls) were trying to take down a POS. Rooks & Kings T3 fleet beat us in. We decided to go for it anyway and see what we could pick off. In the end we had quite a turkey shoot, chasing down the neutral gang's support ships as they scattered to beacons and celestials all over Notoras. People were calling points from all over the system, I think these folks might want a few safespots before they come back o_0

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8539262

So by now it’s gone midnight, it's been a crazy night already and now most of the fleet activity is just drunk chatter on vent. But we still had one more scrap to go before bedtime...

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8539801

Not our best fight by any means. But even so, the Archon just put the cherry on a rather insane evening.

In other news
I seem to have misplaced some of my sec status and a bottle of Shiraz. If found please return to Bunk 69, State Protectorate Logistic Support Station, Nisuwa, Blackrise :(

Blog Banter 24: Behind the keyboard

Welcome to the twenty-fourth instalment 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 or so 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 for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the "Where the frack is my ship" blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfil in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behaviour, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

--------------------------------------------------------------

I was fascinated by the idea of a real life Good Samaritan playing Eve as a complete b@stard when I came up with the idea for a banter question. I am looking forward to reading the other responses to see if there are any such players out there!

I'll break a few of the points down and share my own thoughts:


How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE?

For me personally, in-game Eelis is much the same as oog Karen. I do take on a “role” of sorts but it isn’t one that is that far removed from the person behind the keyboard.

I guess it is only natural to loosen a few boundaries when you are shrouded by the, mostly, consequence-free anonymity of the internet. Put that with a game like Eve and it is easy to see how some folks turn to the darker arts of scamming, misleading or blowing up hapless noobs and how others lose their temper and start raging against their antagonists.

But for me personally it is mostly a case of what you see is what you get and as for roleplaying or taking on an entirely new persona, I just don’t get it!

I am happy to respect a bit of role-play style chatter now and then, if I am with someone who is that way inclined, but I’ve never been able to embrace it completely and turn myself into someone else. Similarly, in Eve I have never been able to scam anyone. I sat there one afternoon, in Jita, with my carbon contract all ready to go but my conscience just wouldn’t let me do it. No matter how many times I listened to HTFU on youtube. Am I just failing at computer games or is my moral compass simply too strong?


Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfil in your corporation or alliance?

As I’ve gotten to know certain people in Eve a little better it becomes (not surprisingly) easy to see a strong connection between their apparent “real personality” and how well (or badly) they deal with certain situations or perform certain tasks within the game. My own CEO for example is someone who could walk into a room full of strangers and soon be in a room full of (probably drunk) friends. He’s good with people, pretty patient and also quite the wordsmith which makes him ideally suited to a life of never ending diplomatic incidents of one kind or another. But could someone without these natural talents reinvent themselves online and take on such a role successfully?

For me personally, my previous years of work in legal offices and dealing with office politics and processes have probably helped me quite a lot with my roles as a Director here in Eve although my time in other guilds/corps from previous mmos has no doubt come into play as well.


Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behaviour, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

This was a startling point for me to ponder.

Many moons ago I used Photoshop skills and web design/creation in my job. But when I left that job I had no real reason to carry on using these skills. However, having Eve Online as a muse has helped me to keep my knowledge of these things going. In addition, my experiences with blogging about Eve and reading other Eve blogs has been quite educational and taught me not just new things about Eve but also a lot about blogs and social media.

It wasn’t my intention to do anything meaningful with all the knowledge I accidently accumulated whilst making stupid pictures or writing about how I totally got drunk and died last night but meaningful results have inadvertantly come from it. In the last 3 months my job role has changed dramatically and now encompasses a lot of Photoshop work, web design and social media. So, cheers for that Eve Online!

As for attitudes, certainly my attitude to pvping in mmos has completely changed since I gave it a go in Eve. No more “mrs pve server” for me. I almost have the urge to resub to WoW and go around ganking people. Hmm, perhaps Eve made me a little bit evil after all.


Looking forward to reading other peoples responses to this, and thanks CK for running with my question.

Fellow banter responses:

1. EVE Blog Banter #24: Be, all that you can be, and so much more!
2. BB24:RL + EVE = | A Mule In EvE
3. Freebooted: BB 24: You Talking to Me?
4. where the frack is my ship?: Blog Banter 24: Behind the keyboard
5. (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #24: I Am Prano. « Prano's Journey
6. mikeazariah » Blog Archive » BB24 Who are you, who hoo woo hoo
7. Drifting: The 24th EVE Blog Banter (January 2011 Edition) - EVE and Real Life
8. Victoria Aut Mors » Blog Archive » Blog Banter #24 – Where Eve Meets Real Life
9. Who is more real?? « The Durzo Chronicles
10. Captain Serenity: blog banter #24 - Personalities
11. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: EVE and Real Life (EVE Blog Banter #24)
12. The 24th EVE Blog Banter - EVE and Real Life - The Phoenix Diaries
13. EvE Blog Banter #24: EVE and Real Life EvE Blasphemy
14. Blog Banter 24: In Real Life « Yarrbear Tales
15. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Alt « the hydrostatic capsule
16. Blog Banter #24 – Me « Roc's Ramblings
17. Blog Banter: Personalities in game and out of game
18. Fiddler's Edge: Game Face - Eve Blog Banter #24
19. Progression's Horizon: Blog Banter 24- Synonymous or Anonymous?
20. More to come....

Punch-ups and other bits

I do love a good punch up. Not a turkey shoot. Not a blob catch. But a nice big meaty, head to head slugging match.

I don’t see it as often as I would like, but when it does come around it makes you go "woah" and "ouch" and "gf" at the same time. Saturday night I had the pleasure of 2 such engagements.

http://www.gallente.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8485084

That's got to be the best fight I've personally seen with the Caldari for many many months, and it was bloody good fun to boot. I have to give big props to our own logistics too, having been primaried about 5 times and then promptly rescued back up to full armour. Although, as was pointed out to me afterwards, the Caldari fleet were likely using me to soak up reps before switching to other targets. Even so, I sat there astounded at totally not being dead yet.

As the fight ended we were all chased off the field by Rooks & Kings. Always a bigger fish eh? Could have been an interesting three way if they had shown up a few minutes earlier. We ran home to lick our wounds and then talk of reforming to take on the Rooks & Kings gang started.


Our hesitation was for good reason, R&K have quite a reputation. But we went for it anyway.

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8489482

A pretty intense engagement and I enjoyed it, in spite of the outcome. In the end we had no choice other than to bail.

I was the last non-logi on our side, still on the field, being valiantly held up by remote reps. I just needed to make it another 500m to the gate and I was out... but R&K very quickly bumped me 13k off… so I let the logis go home and took screenshots whilst kissing my arse goodbye.

We had some interesting feedback from R&K after that fight and I’d love to be up against them again sometime soon. They are quite a challenge.


Probalicious
In other news, my first attempt at getting back into probing actually paid off.

I had a spare hour to kill on Sunday so I grabbed my Helios and had a look to see if there was anything interesting in Nisuwa. Nis is usually a waste of time as other people quickly find anything of interest. So it was a nice surprise when I found an untouched Mag site, with over 40mil worth of salvage in it! If only all my probing sessions were that fruitful.


Blog Banter 24 incoming.
We’ve just had news of the new banter question for this month, it should be an interesting one, though I am biased on this as it is my question :P

If there are any bloggers reading this who have not taken part in a blog banter before, you don’t need to be in the blog pack to take part or get on the mailing list (for an early heads up on the banter question) – just drop Crazykinux a message and ask to go on the list.

o/

New Year’s (totally unofficial) Resolutions

As a child I always loved that first day back to school after the holidays. School uniforms all spotlessly clean, comprehensive matching sets of stationary all neatly packed into brand new pencil-cases (not yet blighted by the need to tip-ex out the etched on names of ex-love interests), shoes so shiny we could see our faces in them and, best of all, turning to the first page of your new work books, into which you pen your most neatest ever date and heading. Of course, none of this lasts past the first week and we soon drift towards our usual vices and bad habits, at least I certainly did anyway.

Old habits die hard and as such I have never been very successful when attempting to keep New Year’s Resolutions. When I made the decision to quit smoking 2 years ago I deliberately started on December 27th.

That said, I do often have a few things in mind for the year ahead and there are certainly a few Eve related goals that I hope to achieve in the next 12 months.

My total kill tally for 2010 was 502, so an improvement on that for 2011 would be my first goal.

Secondly, I am desperate to spend a bit more time flying in smaller pvp gangs, but this goes hand in hand with two things I am not particularly keen on. One is FCing my own fleets and the other Plexing. Perhaps a bit of Dutch courage will help…

Finally, and don’t frowny emoticon me for saying so but, I’d actually like to get back into some pve. YES PVE! Part of me misses the challenge of soloing the odd level 4 mission, something I have not done for probably over a year now. In addition, watching my other-half run some hacking sites over the holiday period made me remember how much fun I used to have probing out and running the odd site. It’s been many months since I did anything like that. So perhaps goal three is to take some time away from pewpew now and then to reconnect with my inner carebear.

Of course, all of this can only happen if I actually log in, and therin lies a problem. This year looks to be the busiest work related year I will have had since I gave up full time work to have my daughter, over 4 years ago. I am looking forward to it, but certainly wondering how this will affect my Eve time. Perhaps my overall New Years Resolution for Eve should be to actually make some time to play.

So, what about you?