Mystic Worlds

Mommy, what's a rig?

I’ve played EVE Online off and on for about 4 years.  In terms of skill points, I’m still a noob.  I have however, had my share of adventures where war decs, the bane of new corporations, provided most of the excitement.  Since then I’ve come and gone solo which is fine.  I like company in game well enough but EVE is definitely a game that caters to my frequent need for quiet isolation. I’ve found the PVE encounters diverse enough that when combined with salvaging and making money for bigger ships and better equipment, I’m entertained while I’m subscribed.

I often use BattleClinic as a source for finding good ship configurations, commonly referred to as loadouts. To date my focus had been on PVE frigate and destroyer configurations.  Given these are ships for newer players I’d never seen any with items in the rig slots.  I recall wondering what they were but since they were always empty I never dug any further – until now.

Fitting a Noctis

The first loadout I saw with items fitted into the rig slots was returned in my search on the Noctis, a ship recently introduced specifically for salvaging.  Like many players, I’d been doing salvage in a destroyer class ship.  In my case that was a Catalyst.  Even though I’m not planning to do as much PVE and hence less salvaging this time around, the range bonuses on the Noctis were good enough that it was worth buying since I could easily afford to have one.  

There are some obvious fitting choices for a Noctis and I had a good idea of what I wanted/needed to do in the other slots but I like to validate my ideas some because I’m still very new in the scope of things, playing EVE.  When the highest rated loadout showed rig fittings, it became time for me to figure out their purpose.

Drifting back into Space - Alysianah Noire FedEx

The music made me do it!

I was on iTunes purchasing a couple of soundtracks for my iPad when I noticed one for EVE Online.    Ah EO, one of my favorite “Cerebral, I want to be alone in darkness” gaming experiences.  I hadn’t played EVE since summer of 2009.  Wow, time flies.  I listened to a couple of tracks which immediately took me back to some of the more riotous adventures I had in the game. The memories and music were just enough to get me to re-sub.  If I hadn’t re-subscribed it would have been the first time that a year passed without me playing EVE for a little while at least.  I’m happy not to have set the precedent, I’m a fan of CCP.

I don’t have time for lengthy shenanigans in EVE.  I was trying to think of something extremely passive that’s NOT MINING.  I can’t do the mining thing, I really can’t.  I wanted to find an activity appropriate for doing in the background of other things – waiting for a queue to pop in WOW, boring conference call, editing a document, doing some research, etc..  Visiting the forums I saw posts about Courier Missions.  Hmm, I usually avoided those as much as possible while doing PVE because I like the combat but this time that might be what I’m looking for,  except I want to do it for real players.

WOW Kool-Aid – I get it.

Happy Holidays one and all.  I’m very happy to be home for at least the next couple of weeks.  We’re having nice weather here in Georgia.  It’s just cold enough to feel like Christmas without the bitterness that makes going outside unpleasant.  I haven’t clocked too many gaming hours yet but I’ve been in and out of a couple of games you know, World of Warcraft and EVE Online.

With WOW players hitting level 85 so fast, I realized it must not be a huge grind. Everywhere I turn, I see level 85s.  That said, I decided to take my time and grab the character I really wanted to play, which is my Paladin and take her to 80 and then into Cataclysm. I’ve heard that they increased the XP by 20% pre-Cata so hopefully I can hit 80 sometime in January.

I transferred servers and faction to hang out with a gaming buddy.  I don’t know about Alliance side but Orgrimmar is packed every minute of every day.  Regardless of when I log into the game, I see an ocean of players hanging out.  

I started my Paladin’s leveling adventure in Howling Fjord.  I WISH that I had done Wrath when it first released.  I love this zone so much.  It contains all the things that made me adore the Alliance run from Northshire to Southshore.  Each area is populated with NPC villages, encampments, small bases, etc. Sure, we still fight some mobs out in the woods per the normal MMO quest experience but there are WAY MORE encounters in settlements, something I’ve always favored!  The whole vibe reminded me of Allods because of the variety of encounter locations and all the structures we can run in and out of just ‘cuz.  I might be crazy but I really enjoy going into all of the buildings just to look around at the styling.  Being in these fantastical settings is why I play MMOs.  I wish they’d add interactive elements like books or Easter Eggs.

Flying mounts are better than PIE  
Flying everywhere is amazing and I hope they give up on the practice of blocking players from flying across new zones. OMG I explored more extensively than I ever would have on a ground mount.  For the first time in a long time, the explorer in me was awakened!  This place must have felt so alive when it was overflowing with other players.

During one session, I wanted to get a bite to eat and decided to park myself on an unmanned zeppelin that was flying around near the shore.  I landed and positioned myself at the front and just watched the scenery for a few minutes.  It was like taking the Circle Line Tour around Manhattan, NYC. Feeling safe from attack – NPC or opposing faction player, I went to make something to eat.

Drat - Real Life Hits for 500K Damage

I've traveled 60% of the time since I started my new job.  I’m not complaining though because it’s all been enjoyable.  I’m working for someone I respect highly and am meeting lots of really nice people.  Besides which, I’m never alone when I’m gone because we’re performing group oriented activities, so the evenings are spent in pleasant conversation over a good meal.

However, the result is that I’m not gaming much at all and the game that has to take the biggest hit is the one that required the most attention, EQ2 Extended.  I can’t run a furniture shop if I’m not around to craft items, much less advertise the shop and take on orders for the custom décor items I enjoy building.  I will be downgrading my account to Silver come the New Year, but I’m not abandoning my home in Halas permanently. No sir, I still have big crafting plans.

I’ve decided to combine my love of building custom décor items with publishing the DIY articles and guides.  Instead of showcasing items I can make and sell, I’m going to showcase the items with instruction booklets so players can make these creations themselves.  I’ll replace my price books with links to DIY articles on here or the full blown magazine as appropriate.

No new posts recently because I'm on the road. I'll be posting some DIY decorating articles and the December issue soon since I captured the information before leaving town. I've just been too busy to do anything with it.