Maugrim McFiriba's Eve Online Journal

In previous entries I've noted how big and complicated Eve Online is as a game. I also noted that it's one of those games that attract people like me, who are less interested in the grind and more interested in being...well...interested. I hate playing any game where the fun times are few and far between. There's something suspicious about spending hour after hour grinding though repetitive scenarios without really sensing some form of accomplishment.

Eve has proven, so far, to evade that feeling. Even though running missions and mining is still technically grinding, it's somewhat displaced as being an artificial grind. It's more a realistic grind. It's hard to put my finger on it, but when you're mining in Eve Online there's a strong sense of connection to the rest of Eve. Since Eve has a real economy you know mining a bunch of Ore isn't just a pointless ISK generating activity where the ISK magically appears from the CCP compiled code on a server - it's coming out of another player's pocket instead.

Some of the best fun so far have been simple things. Missions are fun and engaging, but creeping up on a Corp mate after mastering the art of scanning and shooting a few Sabretooth light missiles at their Osprey in a belt is even more fun. As usual engaging real people is far more interesting (that word again) than a predictable NPC. Or there's warping into Uitra with a few mates and putting on a show for the locals (mostly lots of people just getting started) with missiles, nos, and flaring invuln fields as much entertainment as a fireworks display.

My own goals are twofold. The first is to go seek out more interesting encounters. I've gone off the idea a little of bringing a Cruiser down to lowsec when the aim is mischief and exploration. Instead I may start cross-training a few races' Frigate skills and play around with those. I keep hearing Rifter's are arguably the best PvP Tech 1 frigate so I'll be putting that assumption to the test by training Minmatar Frigate to lvl4 to start with.

The second goal is be a little bit more specific in what I train. Up until now I've been training anything that looks attractive and which has a training time of less than a day. Surprising how much that actually works for the first month and a half. Most of those are now tapped out and I am running into training periods of two or more days. So rather than extend my all-purpose skillset across weeks and months, I'm specialising now.

The three broad areas I'll be first addressing are:

1. Gunnery
2. Missiles
3. ECM

The first is up there since I want to play around with the frigates of a few races. Outside the Caldari, the weapons requirements for a standard fitting require Gunnery skills. I estimate this will take up a chunk of time - which goes to show my lacking skills in this area will make Eve less interesting until I train them up. Why frigates? Because they are cheap disposable ships and I can bulk purchase and haul them to specific resupply spots near any lowsec haunts I find attractive. Cruisers would be more expensive, and while they might live longer I'm willing to admit my total lack of experience is better served by learning in cheaper easy to replace ships that barely dent my wallet.

Missiles are almost not worth mentioning. I'm been training these skills ever since I started in Eve so my only real focus here is increasing my Heavy Missile skills for the new Drake Battlecruiser I'm in the process of purchasing. That and moving all Missile skills to at least Level 4 and 5 for the more general purpose skills. I may just settle on 4 until the Gunnery skills are gaining ground.

ECM is really the result of wanting something useful other than blowing stuff up. I'd put a few things in this category other than ECM only, e.g. sensor dampening, target painting, and their counter-skills. My initial take, without prompting from more experienced players to blow holes in it ;), is that Missiles/Railguns + ECM/Sensor Dampening isn't a bad mix of potential fun making chaos. Sure, it means mixing and matching but I'd be seeking mischief as a solo ship in the Frigate-Cruiser range anyway. And dying horribly is only a bad thing if I learn nothing from it . My ECM and related skills are continuing to mount up and I just finished Electonics 5 (one of the few 5's I've so far trained).

My only other real concern is efficient fitting of ships. I've played around with the Eve Ship Fitting Tool and my preferred passive shield tanked Drake fittings still don't fly. Apparently I run short of Capacitor for at least two modules (best fit requires dropping a Heavy Missile Launcher and a Large Shield Extender). Pretty sore about losing an LSE, but the resistance amps and invuln fields are the more valuable ones. I could mangle it a bit to use up all the available slots but I think I can solve the bottleneck by training Shield Upgrades 4 (might need at least 5). A short term solution is freeing up a slot for a Capacitor Battery or something similar to increase the Capacitor available for fittings. Still not perfect, esp. for a passive tank, but enough for Level 2 and 3 Missions with some care I bet.

Anyone care to comment a few pointers?