a p e x industries

It’s too bad I cannot play EVE right now, as I am staying at my girlfriend’s home at the moment, with nothing than my notebook as computing rig. The screen resolution is so low that I’m only able to switch skills now and then, to continue on my training path to my next ship. And I’m not always able to do even that, as work keeps me not wanting to fire up EVE in the evening for that, neither.

EVE uses a skill advancement system that is based on time, instead of experience. So you’re normally able to build up skills even when not online. There are quite a few people you see logging in just for the minute it takes to insert a new skill into the training slot, always advancing towards that new ship they want to fly, or that shiny piece of equipment they want to use.

There are many tools available to ease the planning process for skill advancement and for monitoring the training progress without having to start the client. EVEMon is a good example - it is available for at least the PC and iPhone. I do use that, too, so I keep a pretty good track of how I am not advancing at the moment.

Now she’s gone for good. I don’t want to lose her another time.

I have established a habit of losing my Battleships one after the other. At least it wasn’t in a scam this time, but in a fair fight against the odds. And I wasn’t alone either, so I had friends laughing at me. Well, they didn’t, but I don’t want another Apocalypse Navy Issue nevertheless.

Even if it is such a nice ship and a real Armour Tanker - it was so safe before it blew - , it’s time for a Machariel this time. Actually I’m not sure if it is any better than my Apoc, but it is bigger and has a neat camouflage painting, and that’ll suffice.

Well there, I finally managed to buy me a really big hugger of a vessel. She can’t shoot, but will bring our corporation forward nevertheless. And what a sight she is! And how roomy!

I do like her - and now we are flooding our wares all over the place

At last I know what people are trying to archieve, when they ask you to “Test their Tank”. I never gave in to such a request, suspecting some sort of scam. But I have always been curious to see why people are asking that - I couldn’t quite make out the character of the assumed scam.

Then there was this fateful evening where I was recovering from a strong flu, still being dizzy. I was dead tired, too, and just finished fitting my beloved Battleship you see on the other screens. Over an hour went into that, I just wanted to test the new setup in a last mission before going to sleep. Quite an amount of ISK (the currency in EVE) went into the vessel, I had to shuffle funds from the corp accounts and put expensive equipment on the markets to be able to afford all the Rigs and Equipment I planned to use. At last I was satisfied.

On my way to the mission point I met a seemingly nice enough guy, who requested my help in the aforementioned matter. Well, I thought, it couldn’t hurt.

But it did.

Omitting all the safety measures and common sense you have to use to survive in EVE, I ended up in a trap - with my vessel stuck in a warp disruption field and me being blackmailed. My Armour was already halfway down and an Übership was in the vicinity, on the verge of disintegrating me.

It was, of course, my fault. I was on my own that evening with no corporation members with me, being in a dizzy, sleepy mood and more or less driving around in EVE as if it was a solo game. But it isn’t, there is no safety and no Save button in this universe unless you decide thoroughly who you trust and where you fly to.

I used my insurance to buy a fast Support Cruiser, one that never supported anyone.

But that is another story for another week.

I like it.

Since I started the corp EVE has gotten different for me. It was some sort of Tactical Spacecombat Game before, spiced with 40,000 players online simultaneously. Along with all the scamming (’Hey! Give me any amount of cash and I will triple it. This offer expires in 9 minutes!’) and bullying - though it all seemed to occur on a somewhat elaborated level. Many players seem to know what they are doing and they do it in a more grown-up fashion than in other MMO’s I played.

So I started this little Corporation recently, just to see what possibilities it would open. Beforehand, I was flying around with my Battleship, doing some missions, then hop into my Mining Barge and do some asteroids. Fly to my makeshift homebase, refine the ore and manufacture some shuttles out of the materials. Sell them nearby, rinse, repeat. Placed some containers in nearby asteroid belts to be able to mine some more asteroids before returning. Emptied the containers with my small freighter, before returning with my barge. It was some sort of meditational process, for the good or the bad.

When the two British guys I started EVE with asked me if they could join my 1-man-corp, I was delighted. We share the same opinion about the tempo with wich we should let the corp grow, what we want to archieve with it and how we should go about it. Build up infrastructure and learn to know the mechanics of a corp with the different roles in it, the different departments and specializations.

Now its good to see that we actually work together, even if not always at the same time. It was a simple pleasure for me to see a plethora of newly anchored containers floating around our mining grounds, bearing our corp tag - most of them already filled with ore.

It is as the game starts playing itself.

I recently started a new adventure within this adventure - the founding of a first, small, corporation. EVE provides its players with an abundance of infrastructuring tools, which help with the interaction between capsuleers.

When I started in EVE, I used to work together with a mate who helped me in my first weeks. I was impressed with that you could set up contracts for other users and share containers in space to cooperate in mining.

Seeing the possibilities now that a corporation gives you impresses me even more.
I will share some of my impressions in the following posts.

Schnell auf ein ein Konzert? So dachten wir uns das zumindest

Da ist sie endlich - die Methel-Bühne

Bei uns laggte das man fürchterlich - Zeit den Hut abzunehmen

Oh, das war aufregend!

Wir haben vor ein paar Tagen von einem Konzert gehört, welches im Auenland passieren sollte. Toll, sagte mein Mädchen, da gehen wir hin. Eine halbe Stunde vor Beginn sind wir los gestartet und dachten uns, dass wir zum einen fürchterlich rechtzeitig und zum anderen gut vorbereitet wären. Unsere Info bestand aus einer Chatzeile, in der irgendjemand zu irgend jemand anderem irgendetwas über ein Konzert in ein paar Tagen an irgendeinem Ort erwähnt hatte. Wir fühlten uns also gut informiert.

Wir würden rechtzeitig eintreffen und Madame würde sich noch ein schickes Kleid und so Sachen kaufen, um sich für das Fest zu schmücken. Ich würde den Hut abnehmen.

Ein Freund ist auch noch mitgekommen und schon waren wir unterwegs. Es stellte sich nach einigem Fußweg dann allerdings heraus, das Michelbinge ziemlich unübersichtlich und vom Konzert keiner etwas gehört hatte. Machte uns aber nix, die anderen wissen wahrscheinlich sowieso gar nicht so genau, was um sie herum passiert. Dann trafen wir dann aber doch ein paar Leute mit einer neuen Information: Wasserau.

Inzwischen sind wir auch auf immer mehr Menschen (und Elben und Hobbits undwasnoch) getroffen, die wild und kreuz und quer herum gesucht haben, die Spannung stieg, die Zeit wurde knapp. Und meine Freundin hatte sich noch nicht umgezogen.

Wasserau stellte sich als noch unübersichtlicher heraus und liegt zudem an Hügeln, so dass unsere Suche so nah am Ziel nicht weniger kompliziert wurde - schließlich fanden wir die Bühne aber endlich, ich konnte meinen Hut abnehmen und mein Herz sich zwar nicht neu einkleiden - aber dafür wild tanzen und lustig auf den Händen stehen.

Nightswimming im Auenland

Joggen durchs Land der Riesenpilze

Ich habe vorgestern Cobrainli in Thorins Tor besucht. Hier ein paar Screens vom Weg durchs fluffige Auenland.