I’m an organization and planning freak. Before I can really get going with anything, I must have a plan. EVE Online (EO) is a playground for people with that kind of approach to things. I completed my move to Arnon Sisters of EVE (SOE) station. I started doing missions with the local NPCs and began my first Story Arc Mission. I like these arc missions. They provide a cohesive story that links the activity together more like the traditional quest chains found in fantasy MMOs.
When Tipa gets her mining operation under way, I’m going to be her security / wing-man. We’re not anticipating PVP. I will mostly be there to deal with the rats and do salvaging. Regardless, one of my personal concerns was that I don’t have a lot of combat experience. When I was flying frigates, I had to pay attention during missions. I jumped from frigate to cruiser while still doing level 1 missions. I could do nothing but launch my drones and complete a mission. It’s that’s simple in a Vexor.
I’ve tried doing them all in the Tristan but that gets tricky and sometimes impossible to do in a single encounter. The higher quality missions I’m receiving tend to have waves of NPCs. Warping in and out of the area to complete it with a Tristan consumes time. To do the missions in a ship that’s more level appropriate, which will give me more practice at active combat, I purchased a Destroyer (Catalyst).
Actually, I purchased multiples. I want to run missions in them and change over to doing my salvaging in them too. Because I’m organization crazy, I then spent most of my EO time refitting my ships for basic PVE, NPC ratting and protection, full salvage, PVE + salvage and eventual FW. The new fitting features added with the Apocrypha expansion really shine in this area.
I was able to fit the ships, take them out for a test drive and then save the configuration I liked best. If you want to start from scratch, you can completely strip all fittings with one click. You can also re-fit a ship with one click from configurations you’ve saved, if you have the equipment available. This is great for me. Once I like a particular fitting, I always keep two to four copies of the equipment in my hanger for quick replacement. To me, there’s nothing more annoying than losing a ship and then having to fly all over the place, buying equipment to refit it before you can get back to what you were doing. This is never truer than when engaged in PVP. For someone like me, who routinely keeps multiple copies of ships and fittings, these new features are wonderful.
I’m all set and ready to rock out of Arnon SOE. Running PVE missions continues. I’ve started ratting in the asteroid belts for better salvage than what a lot of the missions NPC wrecks drop. I’m looking into my options for small-scale (personal consumables) manufacturing. My ships are ready to fly with and defend Tipa’s mining operation once she gets started. And we have our Wednesday static PVE group. Not bad for a few evenings of effort, I’m locked-n-loaded in EVE Online.
You can do Lvl 1 missions in a Vexor? Neither my Vexor nor the Catalyst got through the lvl-1-mission warp gates... The nasty mission that got me quitting in december would have ben a cake walk with the Vexor I guess.
Well, atm I'm going for high sec mining; maybe while the 30 days of Mining Barge V I'll do some mission running to earn the Covetor and Strip Miners.
Posted by: Sören | May 25, 2009 at 07:38 AM
@Soren - No, you can't do all of them in a Vexor. 40% of the time the Vexor is not allowed through and I go back for the Tristan and deal with it when only a Frigate class ship can be used. Those are the times when I look up the mission guide and configure my ship explicitly for that mission - appropriate type of hardeners, drones and ammo. I'll have to warp in and out to kill them all, which takes time but sometimes a pilot's gotta do what a pilot's gotta do. :-)
Something they added to the mission text at some point is a warning at the bottom which says on certain class ships can get thru the accelerator gate. But it's not consitent.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | May 25, 2009 at 05:31 PM
I did plenty of lvl 1 missions in a Vex, and then in my Drake when I finally got into that. Those missions where I couldn't fit through a jump gate I would just go back and do on my little Tristan.
Posted by: Iggep | May 29, 2009 at 08:57 AM
Everytime I see a screen shot of Eve, I want to resub. I actually did last year and sat there in the hanger for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do. I drew a blank, logged off and unsubscribed again.
I have considered resubbing and taking a PvP class with Agony Unleashed. I'm guessing a properly kitted Rifter would make a good tackler.
Posted by: Blacknimbus | June 15, 2009 at 08:42 PM
@Black - I know how you feel. When you're gone for long stints it take time to regain your bearings and get outta the damn hanger.
EVE is like a light switch for me. I'll get a huge craving for deep space, I'll resub and I'm all over it for a few weeks. The craving gets satisfied and I'm ready for fantasy adventures again. This is no fault of EVE's. This is a game best experienced in a corporation and my jumps in and out that allow for much of that. Quite frankly, since PVE isn't the games' strong suit, my hats off that it is good enough that it's kept me coming back and forth for years.
I should see if there are corps that would let me join knowing that I come and go, so that at least when I'm sub'd I could see more of the excitment.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | June 16, 2009 at 10:44 AM
I've spent 4 days on the trial in EVE, mostly inspired by Saylah's insistence that EVE does not, in fact, need to devour your life. And she's right. =) I find that the certificate system and the new training agents have made this sojourn into EVE a much friendlier one.
@Soren - I found that completing the tutorial missions (the combat and advanced combat ones especially) will give you an abundance of ISK and free ships (even Saylah's favourite Fat Man!), more than enough to get started. I've been working to completing them all just for the easy starting ISK and freebies.
Maybe run into you about the universe, Saylah!
Posted by: Lovewillout | June 05, 2010 at 04:13 AM
@Soren - Go complete the starting quests. All five trainers will shower gear, ISK and ships upon you, so the newbie frigate should be an issue for all of an hour. =)
Saylah, your blog has recently inspired me to join EVE for good this time (I've trialled it a number of times before) since the recent user-friendly changes; certificates come to mind as a FANTASTIC change. Soren, use them. Love them. =) As a post-grad student and soon-to-be high school teacher, time is a factor; it's nice to see someone who also has limited gaming time able to make EVE work for them.
Hope to speak to you in-game Saylah (Jinwei To is my alias); in the mean time, I'm going to hunt down an Aussie corporation. Keep up the blogging, I'm quite enjoying the read.
Happy gaming all!
Posted by: Lovewillout | June 05, 2010 at 05:57 AM
@Love - Sorry your posts got caught in the spam filter. I'll be back to EVE again before the year is out. I need to check out some of the apps I've heard about being released. If any of them let me start training or cruise the market while not in game, I'll be back sooner.
Good luck!!
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | June 07, 2010 at 12:46 PM